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4/26/13 - My 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.

4/26/13 - My thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort

Hello all,

Friday was a great spring afternoon/evening at the Disneyland Resort. Crowds were on the mild side and the weather was perfect. I really did not pay that much attention to the wait times but the few times I glanced at them there were about average. On the attraction front the big news is Space Mountain is still closed because of the OSHA report and the Subs were closed too.

Jason

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • It was great to be back at my regular stomping grounds of the Disneyland Resort. Walt Disney World is a fun vacation and I always enjoy my time there but there is just something extra when I step onto Main Street or Buena Vista Street that make me feel home. People always ask me which resort I like better and I give a non answer along the lines of I enjoy both for different reasons. It is the truth but not helpful to people. Over the years I have really come to appreciate and enjoy the history and little touches of Disneyland that make the park special. Being the original and being the only park Walt walked in and created give it something extra. Walt Disney World and its grand and all encompassing scale is impressive but I have found myself tilting more toward Disneyland in recent years.

  • An ongoing joke has been every time I go between Walt Disney World and Disneyland my Premiere Pass seems to develop a problem. This time was no exception. I pulled into the Mickey and Friends garage and of course my pass would not scan. The cast member made me pay the $15 to park and then I had to go to the ticket booths to get my parking money back and my pass fixed. The problem turned out to be they did not link the bar code on the pass to my Disneyland profile. It was a 5 minute fix but still a headache each time to have some problem occur. You would think after several years the bugs would be worked out. Wonder if they will ever move the ticket systems to be one unified system, seems it would save money in the long run vs running two different systems. I did find the RFID entrances at WDW to be a breeze to use and the lines moved very quickly.

  • I spent the first portion of my day at Disneyland. It was kind of sad to see half of a block closed off on Main Street where the Starbucks is taking over for the Market House and Disneyana. On a positive note though the Mark Twain has returned to service since my last trip and looks amazing. I overheard quite a few people commenting on how it looks new again!

  • As I strolled around the park checking out the ongoing projects nothing too newsworthy jumped out to me. It was a fairly calm afternoon. The same can be said for DCA. I did a loop around the park and as you saw in the pictorial update nothing too interesting or drastically different jumped out.

  • I did find it interesting that the Mad T Party gift cart was converted to Monsters Inc and moved down the street to where the Meet and Greet will eventually be already. I was surprised they did not bring in a second cart for that and leave the Mad T Party one. Guess the Mad T Party merchandise and Glow with the Show Ears are not selling that well anymore.

  • In Cars Land I thought the blooming plants looked great and appreciated the reddish and gold colors (USC colors..). I spent a good chunk of time hanging out there trying to get a couple interesting pictures to share.

  • The Iron Man Exhibit in Innoventions still seems to be drawing some guests in. I had to laugh that they have a cast member forcing guests to walk around through the other exhibits to reach the new one. Also guess the rotation on the lower level is not coming back, it seems like it has been quite a while since the building was in motion. I thought the tweak to the guest flow inside the Iron Man area made sense. To queue up for the Suit Up experience you did so in the hallway with the pictures and then it extended if needed across and back toward the rest of Innoventions. This clears all those waiting guests out of the Iron Man area making it seem less congested.

  • I was in the right place at the right time and a very generous cast member allowed several groups to ride aboard the Lilly Belle in the evening. I had decided to take the train from Toontown around to New Orleans to watch Fantasmic. One pulled in and emptied out and as they were taking it out of service, no problem, plenty of time still. The next one showed up and maybe a handful of guests disembarked. The cast member working the gate saw this and realized there was a decent line at the station who had been waiting. He made a quick decision and asked the next ten or so guests (which included me) to meet him at the back of the train. We walked down and at first I figured it was the regular caboose then I realize it was the Lilly Belle sitting back there on this train. He came down, opened her up, and turned the lights on for us. What a rare treat to be able to go on an after dark ride. A couple of the guests disembarked at Tomorrowland, most of the rest on Main Street and that left just two others and myself in there for the next leg to NOS. It was a nice peaceful ride and I almost stayed on for the round trip but decided to stick with my plan since the show was about to begin and I did not want to walk back. I did not get the cast members name, I wish I would have now since he went above and beyond for those of us waiting. Most of the time they would have closed the gate and we would have waited for the next train and not thought anything of it, just the luck of the draw. If you are interested in seeing better pictures of the Lilly Belle check out my visit to the Fullerton Raildays last year where the car was on display.

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.

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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