Hello all,

Friday was a busy day in the parks. Both parks were in full Spring break mode with extended wait times at most attractions throughout the day. I would characterize it as a busy summer day, not Christmas busy but busy. Since I was there to just relax and tour the parks the crowds really did not both me too much. I only waited in two waits over half an hour(the parking line and the Fun Wheel), mostly because I choose not to visit many attractions. All of the E-Tickets were well over an hour most of the day.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

• Parking was one of the longer lines of the day for us. Mostly because of the time of day we arrived. Due to some morning commitments and being in Orange County we showed up around 10:30 which meant we were in the midst the arriving traffic for the day. The parking garage line was backed up to Ball road. We made the left and stopped right there. It took about half an hour to get into a spot. One nice thing I saw is they were directing cars to two different floors, this really sped up the process so there was no backup once you headed up the ramp to your floor. The other three cars in our group arrived later in the day and all reported it being a breeze to get in and park, no delays at all. So it seems the Toy Story lot is helping with those arriving at lunch and later.
  
  
• I saw one of the retrofitted trams on the route with the doors. Since I walked and we kept moving I did not get to see what happens at the stop, but I did see some late comers and they manually had to open the door and then it closed behind them. Has anyone experienced them/seen them in action? Is that how it usually is? Do the doors slow things down a lot? I would think they would not but curious.
  
  
• The other long line of the day for me was the Fun Wheel. We went out there first and it was about half an hour and I assumed it would only get longer so I hopped in and waited, and waited... I do miss the Sun Wheel in the pre Toy Story days when you could just about always walk onto the non swinging cars or at most a 5-10 minute wait. As I mentioned in the pictorial update they were working on one of the exit doors so everything came to a halt for a good 5 minutes or so.
  
  
• We spent a good chunk of the day hanging around Paradise Bay checking out the World of Color/Paradise Park work. The walls came down for the park on Saturday morning (below I have a link to a video that was posted to YouTube). They had the new background music playing in the area around the park(A link below too). It had sort of a rag time/20s/30s feel to it depending on the song. It was definitely different, as the Lazygeek commented the Forest Gump sounding music is gone. The new music can be heard from the Bay area, down to Little Mermaid Construction walls, and then on the other side up to the Pier bridge. The Pier itself still has the same old background music. This just replaced the one area.
  
  
• There was also visible progress on the backlot with new street lights up. As you saw in the pictorial update these have quite a bit more detail on them and they look great.
  
  
• As we were eating lunch on Friday we started to talk about the crowds and long lines at DCA and I started to think of the number of dining locations that are no longer around or currently not open at DCA, now compared to the first few years. Gone are the Hollywood & Dine, the ABC Soap Opera Bistro, Malibu-Ritos, Strips, Dips 'n' Chips Closed for one reason or another right now are Award Wieners, Burger Invasion, the Corn Dog Castle, as well as the two options at the winery. Yes there is a new hot dog shack on the Pier and a cart selling hot dogs on the backlot but that is about it in terms of additions that came to mind. It seems DCA went from too many places to eat and no guests to quite a few guests and not that many places to eat anymore.
  
  
• I thought the pictures in the display case in the Blue Sky Cellar showing the work behind the walls and from angles we do not have access to is a great idea. Hopefully this is updated fairly regularly. I think it will help to add some more traffic to the cellar, or at least some repeat traffic from locals and disneygeeks like myself. I would still really like to see some sort of webcams of the construction.. I think they would be extremely popular. Or at least live cams in the cellar, as I mentioned before, sort of like those at Conservation Station at Animal Kingdom.
  
  
  
• Interesting Web Finds/Notes:
  Below are some interesting links, notes, and rumors I found/stumble across/or have been informed of since the last Geekspeaks column.
  
  
  • Videos
    • Our friends over at Laughingplace.com have a video taken by a guest at the Grand Californian that shows a run through of the World of Color show. The video is not the highest quality and the angle makes it nearly impossible to see the screens, etc.. but you can get a good sense of what is going on. Click here to view it
    • A video from 4/2 of the World of Color testing (Youtube)
    • Sampling of the new music in the Bay Area (Youtube)
    • A HD walk around of the new Paradise Park area at DCA (Youtube)
      
      
  • Other Website posts of interest
    • 2009 Disneyland Community Report
    • The AMC in Downtown Disney (both Anaheim & Orlando) now has sensory friendly movies. For more information click here
    • An interesting article on Bob Iger from the New York Times click here
      
      
  • We post some announcements on:
    • Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/disneygeekcom
    • Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/disneygeek
      
      

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

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