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

Hello all,

Friday was a great day at the Resort for me, the weather was nearly perfect (a bit warm for an hour or two), the crowds were average, and it was nice to be back in Anaheim after spending 8 days down in Orlando. There is just something about the Disneyland Resort that feels like home to me, maybe its because of the amount of time I spent down there (but then again since December I have spent 15 days at Walt Disney World and only 9 at Disneyland), or maybe its the closeness of things, not sure, but its just a different feeling for me. The wait times on Friday were a tad on the light side, over at DCA Soarin was under 45 minutes the couple times I walked by and GRR was under an hour too. Over at Disneyland the lines were a little longer, but still not too bad, Nemo was even hovering around an hour most of the afternoon.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

• I actually lucked out in parking for once too (I usually whine about my bad luck parking in the Mickey and Friends garage but this time around I was in the first handful or so of cars on a floor and had a great spot... maybe things will finally start to even out....
  
  
• As I was coming down the escalator at the Mickey and Friends garage I spotted a couple trucks and a handful of CMs (TDA/manager looking types) near the Pixar Play billboard. I thought it looked odd, but no signs of what was going on. Later I learned a parking lot tram had clipped the billboard. It appears the lights for the billboard were damaged and some of the sign itself (all was cleaned up by the time I arrived). I have not seen any details posted anywhere except saying that the last car of a tram clipped the sign. Seems all the other news stories focused on the other sad news at the resort of an apparent suicide at the Disneyland hotel.
  
  
• As I roamed the parks it was great to see the characters out and interacting with each other and guests, not just standing around taking pictures and signing autographs. Goofy, Woody, and Jessie out at the Big Thunder ranch had the crowd well entertained as they played tag with each other and a few guests (and Goofy even tagged a trash can!). On Main Street Pluto was dancing with the Band and Tigger was running (I mean hopping) around too.
  
  
• Over at Innoventions some things have started to change. The last piece of Project Tomorrow has come online, and its a copy of the system on Spaceship Earths ride vehicles. Stitch is also long gone and now their is a another display there with a small show coming this summer. The CMs either did not know or were not willing to share any details of when the rest of the building was going to open. I would assume all will be open for the Press Event scheduled in mid June for the opening of Toy Story Mania.
  
  
• I had heard some rumblings that the new Monorail red may be making an appearance soon. I saw no signs of this and you could not see anything in the round house either where both Red and Blue are now hiding out.
  
  
• I caught the Prince Caspian Pre-Parade and was not too impressed by it. As you saw in the pictures it consisted several CMs carrying banners and then the Prince on a horse. I guess its on par with the Enchanted Pre parade, but I enjoyed the Ever After song more than the one played during this one. I do not think either of them were as good as the Ratatouille one, at least he had a float, not just a horse or carriage. Remember when Disney used to build entire parades and shows around their big film for the summer.. such as the Lion King, Pocahontas, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan... oh well, maybe Wall-E will get something in the Pixar Play Parade??
  
  
• Speaking of the Pixar Play Parade, as you saw in the Pictorial update some of the Bugs Life unit is back in the parade. They changed up the order from the opening day parade I saw, with Ratatouille and Bugs swapped and the Bugs unit is just the first half of the float, but its good to see them back in the parade.
  
  
• I decided to give a couple more of the demonstrations at the Food and Wine Festival a try and again I found them ok, but not that interesting to me. Others were have a great time there though. Too bad they do not bring in a concert series like they do at EPCOT (the Eat to the Beat concert series goes on during their Food and Wine Festival). The events I walked by seemed to be fairly full (not jammed but all seats were filled).
  
  
  
• I have not seen or heard anything from Disneyland's Toy Story Mania recently, but the WDW version started Cast Member testing this week and there is a video ride through up on Youtube. Click Here

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