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4/22/22 - Disneyland Resort - Main Street Electrical Parade Return
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4/22/22 - Disneyland Resort - Main Street Electrical Parade Return

Hello Everyone!

Friday was the official return for Nighttime spectaculars at the Disneyland Resort with the Main Street Electrical Parade, Disneyland Forever and World of Color. Fantasmic joins the line up the end of May. As you would expect the crowds were heavy with viewing spaces filling up hours before the parade. The weather was cooler than previous visits topping out short of 70 with a spotty breeze and dropping to the upper 50s. The parks felt very normal big crowds, characters roaming around and mask use a small percentage of the crowd.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • I arrived at the parks just before noon and had no delays at the toll booth and only a minor slowdown going through the garage. The cast member directing cars into their spots did not seem into their job and cars were a tad confused and slow. Security moved quickly, still not a fan of having to walk out to a single entry point as adds more steps from most locations. There were no waits at the bag screening, but they were only using one tram load area and it was backed up. There were waiting trams that kept rolling in, but they take a while to load and our driver missed the stop so had to stop boarding to realign the tram with the ramp taking even more time. We were able to board the third tram that arrived.
  • World of Color featured a virtual queue and it sold out nearly instantly. I arrived in the park about 10 minutes after distribution started and they were long gone by the time I had a chance. Someone told me they were gone in under a minute for both shows.
  • The Main Street Electrical Parade popcorn bucket and sipper were the popular items of the day. As we arrived we passed quite a few guests (assuming resellers) leaving with bags full of them as well as a large percentage of groups with at least one in their party. Inside the park, lines at the popcorn stands and sipper locations were long. For example the Town Square one snaked around the area a couple times. Several locations did have them available via mobile order but that was spotty from what I heard with availability coming and going throughout the day. The quest/wait/non wait to buy one seemed to be a topic of conversation everywhere we went.
  • Guests were already camping out or trying to camp out for the parade when we arrived, over 8 hours prior to it stepping off. Cast members were encouraging/telling them they had to move on at times. This was a challenge for the cast throughout the day. They try to clear areas and keep crowds moving only to lose the cleared ground quickly after moving on. Several times they played announcements letting you know it was too early and to go enjoy the park then come back but no one seemed to be listening to the announcements. By 5:00pm guests were several rows deep along most of the parade route.
  • Monorail Orange and Blue were in operation so there was a minimal wait today. I boarded the first train that arrived but was stuck at a window that did not open unfortunately. The Downtown Disney clearing is entering the final stage. The concrete foundations look to be dug up and broken up. Final sorting and hauling away was underway. Cruising over the Finding Nemo Submarine Lagoon more details have been added but still no signs of when the attraction may be returning.
  • Across the park in New Orleans Square the walkway reconfiguration project has moved onto the next section with the walls being shifted around and the new terrace free/leveled section unveiled. There are now planters around the trees and the light poles have brick bases. The rest of the ground has been leveled off. The work has moved on to the next section closer to the attraction entrance. This section had been cleared and regraded already. Getting through the area at times was a bit slow with the narrow pathways that are available.
  • In Adventureland the tree house project continues on with no visible hint of what is coming. Disneyland did confirm to the Orange County Register that when it reopens there will be a new theme, but no time frame or announcement on who is moving in has been announced. Internet speculation is pushing an Encanto theme. I am curious if they considered returning back to the original Swiss Family theme since there is a new Disney+ series in the works.
  • At Disney California Adventure the Food and Wine festival has entered its final weekend. The 2022 event ends on Tuesday the 26th. The marketplaces had guests in line but nothing like previous visits. The entertainment and offerings were status quo throughout the festival.
  • I kept an eye on the Soarin' Over California queue while eating at Smoke Jumpers. I have wanted to revisit the original film but posted waits have been well beyond my patience on previous trips. This was my last chance. The posted time dipped to 25 minutes and the queue looked relatively small. So when we finished eating we got in line. Of course a steady stream of Lightning Lane guests caused the line to move slowly. Turned out to take nearly double the posted time to reach the attraction and just about an hour total from entering the queue until I was exiting the building. It was a frustrating experience watching nearly a 10 to 1 ratio of Lightning Lane to Standby cruise by at times. I do enjoy the original film so it was worth it to finally go for for a flight but the queue experience was not pleasant. When we exited the posted time was 50 minutes and the number of guests was substantially more than when I entered.
  • Since my last visit the COVID-19 protocols for characters have been removed and traditional meet and greets, autographs, and free roaming characters have returned. It was great to walk through Avengers Campus and see them moving about and interacting with guests. Unfortunately I saw Antman but he did not have the shrunk Bugsland model with him. If you have not seen. Antman and the Wasp have been visiting in Avengers Campus carrying around a scale model/toy of A Bugsland that was formerly on that spot.
  • Around 5:00pm we were trying to decide what to do next. The number of guests up at the Train Station looked small so decided to head up there. There were less than two dozen people in front of me. While looking at the app it said 30 minutes for the train, this seemed off with so few people. Turns out the app was right. There appeared to be only two trains running and very few guests exited the first one that arrived. So we made the second one. It was about 30 minutes from entering the station until we were onboard and departing it.
  • As the crowds built for the 8:30pm parade I surveyed my group and the sentiment was they did not want to wait forever. We ended up deciding on looking for a spot 1 hour before it stepped off to see what was available. Turned out if you were willing to stand and patient you could get a decent spot still. Most of my group did not so they went and found a comfy spot to sit then at parade time watched from quite a ways back. I opted to stand in the 3rd row of guests along Main Street. With the first sitting that meant I would be in the second row and the others in front of me were on the shorter side so I would have a fairly clear view. It worked out well but a one hour wait before the parade and staying through fireworks meant over 2 hours standing virtually still which is a lot.
  • While waiting and watching the parade of guests and out door vending sales some characters did come back and the crowd responded loudly. Everyone was excited and it was great to see Mickey and the gang out on the street and directly interacting with guests again.
  • Hard to believe the parade that was glowing away forever just before its 25th anniversary is back again for its 50th. It was fun to talk to guests about their parade experiences over the years and how many remember that final season in 1996 and then one of the numerous returns. Each time the parade changes slightly. This time three noteworthy changes have occurred.

    The introduction now features a little history and some of Walt's dedication speech as a more inclusive welcome. This worked ok the way it was framed. It did not have the impact of the original but was a nice touch.

    The drum being pulled by the train at the opening now has a 50th logo that appears.

    The big change though is the finale. Gone is the patriotic salute. The flag float has been reworked to be an it's a small world finale. I thought the new finale worked for the most part. It has a slightly different feel to it compared to the other floats with the way the lights worked and the dolls/characters onboard. The music seemed a bit too much for me. I think sticking with it's a small world would have been sufficient. Mixing in so many different movie songs turned out a bit jumbled to me. Having the static dolls verses live performers with the float seemed to suck a little energy from the finale but adding projections and the lights themselves did work really well. Will be interesting to see if this is the first in a series of refreshes/updates to the parade or a one off. The last addition was the Tinker Bell float in 2009 I think. It would be nice to see them have an ongoing update cycle like Tokyo does with Dreamlights.
  • I closed out my time in the parks on Main Street USA with Disneyland Forever. It was great to see a full fireworks spectacular take tot he skies. Unfortunately the fireworks portions was stopped at the Nemo segment so the rest of the show was projections only. This made for an anti-climatic finale. Disneyland Forever is a solid show but I still enjoy the Remember Dreams Come True E-Ticket in the sky section the most.
  • The Mickey and Friends trams were ready for the exiting crowds. They had rope queues set up and were directing you to various stops. We were near the front of the big exodus but it worked smoothly with a minimal wait for us.

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

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

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