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04/07/17 - Thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort.
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Welcome to the disneygeek.com Geek Speaks section. In this section I will post my comments on trips to the parks or other Disney related events.

04/07/17 - Thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort.

Hello everyone,

Friday was a near perfect weather day at the Disneyland Resort. Highs touched the mid 70s and cooled to the 60s. The crowds in the parks were on the heavier side with Spring Break Season well underway. Wait times hit highs in the mid afternoon then as the sun set and weather cooled many became quite reasonable.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • As I exited the freeway I noticed the Ball Road overpass was closed already. Usually it is still open when I arrive. It took me two cycles to get through the intersection. Their was an Anaheim PD car but the officer was not blocking the entrance so I headed for the structure. There were no waits at the toll booths. Cars were stopped on the ramp up to the parking level. It seems they were filling the last spots on Donald. A half dozen cars in front of me they cut it off and sent us all to the roof. Was directed into a spot about 3/4th the way down in the first row.

  • The Star Wars construction keeps on rolling along with more foundation work and steel going into place on the outward facing side of the berm. On the other side the rock work and Rivers of America are racing toward their summer opening. No date has been announced yet that I know of. The big news since my last visit is part of the new walkway has opened by the Hungry Bear to reach the lower level and bring some light into half the dining area. The new walkway is a nice grade now vs the ramps or stairs that used to be there. Out in the Rivers of America a keel boat has returned and is awaiting placement. Work on the Columbia is ongoing with welding below the water line well into the evening on Friday (you could see sparks flying into view from the dry dock area).

  • At Disney California Adventure the big news of the week is Thursday Toy Story Midway Mania FastPass was turned on. As you may have predicted stand by wait times have jumped. The app and line board times were in the 80-100 minute range much of my visit. The sign out at the attraction varied more, dipping to as low as 45 minutes. It was hard to really tell though since I did not wait in it. I did try FastPass and it took just under 20 minutes from entering the queue to exiting the attraction. It looked almost 10 to 1 in terms of FastPass guests to Standby. Interesting the merge point is just beyond where you get glasses so they had to add a stand for FastPass distribution. This seems a bit awkward from an operational perspective. Also a bit odd is there is no return time sign near the distribution point. You have to walk down to the attraction to see. As of Friday the line board and maps had not been updated to reflect FastPass but the App had been.

  • The other big FastPass change that went into effect this week is Disneyland and Disney California are now integrated into one computer system. So think of it as one big theme park.. meaning you can no longer grab a FastPass in one park then go over and get one in the other park. You have to wait now. Also noteworthy is my ticket said I could get another FastPass at 4:00pm so I tried at around 4:30 and it said I had to wait till 5:40pm. I also confirmed the linking by trying to grab one at Big Thunder and it came out saying I had a Toy Story one.

  • I passed through the Food and Wine Festival area a couple of times. My timing was off and I caught the last minute of Jammin Chefs twice. I was disappointed to see Tomasina on the schedule again so that is every Friday I have been there they have been. I would really have liked to see someone different. The marketplaces had a steady stream of people every time I walked by. I have not stopped by any of the demonstrations since the first week, not sure why, but I never find myself out in that area long.

  • The annual Egg-stravaganza is underway. This event features 12 eggs hidden in each park and Downtown Disney. Maps are $5.99 each and you get a prize for each one you complete. The eggs were about the same difficulty this year as past years. The Downtown Disney ones were a little harder with more seeming to be in the stores. There seemed to be a fair number of guests of all ages participating again but not as many as years past. This year the event is shorter spanning just over 2 weeks to include 3 weekends. It runs through Easter.

  • The Main Street Opera House Lobby was hosting the finalists for the Disneyland Environmentality Challenge this year. These are cast member creations using recycled materials from around the resort. Last year they were on display outside in the Redwood Creek area. I thought they drew more foot traffic outside but were easier to see inside. I would have liked to have seen a sign or something more alerting guests that they were on display. I saw one blog post and a tweet or two on it only.

  • The new rest rooms are both now open in Adventureland. I took a quick look into the mens and it is larger by a several stalls and features a new style of sink. It still is fairly small/cramped but the additional capacity is needed. I am assuming the womens side was expanded by more, the lines there always seemed worse.

  • I opted to stick around for the Main Street Electrical Parade since there was no other entertainment going on really. Even at DCA there was only one World of Color at 9:45pm which seemed odd for a busy time of year. The parade start seemed a little off this evening with ropes going up later than usual and even the lights in Town Square seemed to go off later with the start of the parade almost there. The crowd felt slightly less than previous nights and I did not hear the viewing area is full announcement (I could have missed it though).

  • After the parade and before Remember Dreams Come True Main Street was busy but not jammed and a lot of guests moving about. It is a much different feel than after Paint the Night before Disneyland Forever would start last year. Speaking of parades Disney confirmed the Main Street Electrical Parade will run through August now.

Here are some recent posts to the Geek's Blog:

Geek's Blog Postings Recap – March 21- April 2, 2017

Disney Related Press Releases

Be sure to check out the picture update that goes with this Geekspeak column, it can be found in our Disneyland Resort Pictorial Update section

Trip logs and mileage reports are in the Park Miles section.

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