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4/15/05 - Some thoughts and observations from Fridays visit to 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.

4/15/05 - Some thoughts and observations from Fridays visit to the Disneyland Resort.

* After you read this report you may want to check out the pictorial updates in our Disneyland Resort Pictorial Update section

Hello all,

Wow what a great day at the parks. The weather was perfect, the crowds were heavier than expected but still not a problem. The parks are in the final stretch before the big kickoff for the 50th, now a little under 3 weeks way. All and all a great way to spend a Friday afternoon/evening.

I do want to grip about the parking structure. As has become a curse for me lately. I somehow got stuck on the last row (furthest from the escalators) and what has become the norm the line moved really slow to park. It took just under 15 minutes from when I left the toll booth till I turned off my car. What a mess and considering gas prices what an annoyance. What ever happened to the clain of the garage being one of the most effecient parking structures in the world... oh yeah that's right that claim vanished with the mystery re-stripping a couple years ago. Still annoyed about this, but oh well. I just don't understand why it should take more than a couple minutes to park and be on my way to the trams. Enough gripping on with the rest of my thoughts and observations.

Jason

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

Disneyland:

  • The crowds felt heavy while walking around, but upon inspection most wait times were manageable. A couple notables in our travels: Buzz 40-45, Indy listed 30 but really 15 when we road, Pirates, HM 15, Dumbo 15, Monorail longest wait for us which was a two train wait coming back from Downtown Disney.

  • As you saw in the pictorial update, Main Street is receiving golden lamp posts, the jury is still out on this in my mind. At first glance it seemed tacky, but by the time I left they were starting to grow on me, and I bet once the street gets lined and the other decorations in place it may look really good leading the way to the castle.. time will tell.

  • Caught a set from the daytime band at Club Buzz, Brooke and the Boys on Friday, and have to say I saw more people enjoying the set than I had the Buzz Lightyear show. I think its great to see live bands returning to the stage during the day and the wide selection this group covered was great. You knew if you did not enjoy the current song you may the next or the one after that..

  • As you saw in the pictorial update (maybe you did not because it was in the background), but the Magic Kingdom Celebration was stopped in front of the Train Station, this was new to us. We had only seen it down by the Castle, we think it was a great addition and the crowd seemed engaged and having fun.

  • We waited around and kept an eye on the Matterhorn watching for Mickey, and we missed the show (assuming there was one in the afternoon). I wish this would make the schedule or be posted somewhere, guess I could have asked a CM, but that would have made sense..

  • We did not get a picture, but found it to be a possible bad omen of things to come.. or maybe just a fluke, but the torches on the new Tiki entrance sign were out around 9pm when we walked by, the juicebar ones were going strong, but not the entrance sign as they were earlier in the day.

DCA:

  • The new signs and lines to get into DCA seem like a great idea and we hope the test goes well. The concept is to divide out guests by ticket type to speed up the entry process into the park. There was one line for "ticketed guests", who were directed to put their ticket into the automated machine (there were signs up outside the gate and at the turnstiles themselves to help). There appeared to be one cast member per two turnstiles (meaning a 100% increase in the number of turnstiles open at the time with the same staffing, thus half the wait time too). Then there was a second area for Annual Passholders. Here there was still one CM per turnstile checking the ID.. wonder why they do not invest in a system similiar to that used in Walt Disney World. The biometric approach seems much more accurate and quicker than having a CM look at the really bad picture and making a judgement call if that is the same guest. Heck for years I have been saying that they should do the same thing in the garage, it would really speed up the line since most AP guests don't need to ask questions or even talk to a CM, they would just go right through. I would probably even carry it a step further and park them on their own floor to really streamline things.

  • Caught the new band out by GRR where the Miner 49ers used to perform, wonder if they are gone forever? Anyone know the name of the new band, we did not catch it. I did enjoy hearing some classics, the Red River Valley and the Tennessee Waltz.. to name a couple.

  • Not much else to report, beyound the obvious in the pictures, that Monsters Inc is moving along and that the Island from the ill-fated Luminaria show is gone once which once again means unobstructed photos of the Pier.

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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