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5/08/15 - 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.

5/08/15 - Thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort

Hello everyone,

My streak of not the best park weather continued Friday. There was a chance of rain forecast but I wanted to go and see what was going on so I ventured south to Disneyland. I encountered cool, cloudy skies and a couple drizzles for most of the afternoon but the sun broke through right before sunset. It drizzled again later in the evening. It was a busy weekend at the parks with the Tinker Bell half marathon weekend and Tomorrowland movie premiere. The crowds felt heavier than usual in the early part of the afternoon but as the sun set they thinned a bit. I think all the runners needed to go to sleep because of the early race time.


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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • Disneyland 60th preparations are in the home stretch and decorations are going all around the resort. As you saw in the pictorial update Main Street has a lot of blue and white plus diamonds as does the Mark Twain. Sleeping Beauty Castle is just about done, the main logo is yet to come. Buena Vista Street windows are receiving diamonds as is the Carthay. The Disneyland Hotel and Paradise Pier Hotel have received banners too. Overall I am neutral on the new look. I always think these are over the top and I am not a fan of light blue so I am biased against it from that perspective but I understand the need/desire to do something big and most of the banners/signs are clean looking to me. I am curious how much more is coming. Also some of the banners on Main Street appeared to be the wrong size.. they seemed to droop on the Train Station noticeably and looked a bit awkward. The diamonds being added to the Buena Vista Street windows are interesting. They are sort of understated.. no real indication they are there for the 60th but it is a noticeable change for window watchers.

  • Grizzly Peak Airfield is nearing completion with it opening next Friday. I am looking forward to walking around this new area. From the Monorail it looks great! And I anticipate that Soarin will look better than ever with the new projectors..

  • This weekend the resort is hosting the premiere for the New Tomorrowland Movie on Saturday night at the AMC in Downtown Disney and then the after party in Tomorrowland at Disneyland. The Monorails have received a wrap/ad for the occasion and props were being installed in Downtown Disney for the event. I thought the Downtown Disney set up was well done and curious to see the final look. Compared to past Monorail wraps/ads I thought these worked really well. The understated look works better in my opinion.

  • This weekend are several RunDisney events centered around the Tinker Bell Half Marathon. As usual the Disneyland Hotel is race central with packet pickup and the Expo. I walked through the Expo and thought there were more booths than the last race. The crowds Friday afternoon seemed a little on the light side so it was pleasant to walk through the merchandise shop and expo. The finish line for these races is in the Lion King lot and not between ESPN/Disneyland Hotel like the other races. I thought the finish as well as start lines looked smaller than previous races and a little under whelming. But it may just be the location that gave that feeling.

  • Frozen fun is still going on but in a reduced state. The Snow Fest closed up since my last visit. You can still meet Olaf, but he is outside Stage 17. The sing along, trading post, and meet/greets are still in operation.

  • I had my fingers crossed there would be a soft opening for the Haunted Mansion and I would get to see the newest ghost to materialize or rematerialize.. the Hatbox Ghost. Unfortunately that did not happen so I will have to wait until next week to see him. I did see on Saturday the attraction opened as planned and they even added FastPass because of the anticipated crowds. Not sure how long that will last but interesting to see them turn it on..

  • While walking through the hub noticed markings on the ground where they will be drilling new holes for additional crowd control ropes. Wonder if this is to formalize walkways and help with traffic flow for the upcoming fireworks and paint the night parade or if they are going setting up the area for more reserved viewing options.

  • The last Royal Theatre presentation of Frozen was cancelled. No indication why, Anna & Elsa did come out for pictures for all those who had a FastPass for the show. Also note all FastPasses for the day were gone by 2pm.

  • Stopped by the Pizza Port and saw the Avengers Offerings. An interesting selection and it really was not advertised/hyped that much. Those that tried the snacks said they were good.

  • Watched World of Color from the Standby area. There was no Fun Wheel challenge going on and I thought I saw some different light patters on the Fun Wheel before the show started. If you want to see the original World of Color you only have another dozen days or so. The new show kicked off May 22nd.


  • Do you visit our pictorial updates using a mobile device? If so we would like your feedback. I have created a beta of a more mobile version of our Disneyland Picture sets at https://disneygeek.com/mobile Please give it a try and share your thoughts.

Interesting Web Finds/Notes:

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

Send comments, questions, any other email to: disneygeek@disneygeek.com
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