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5/10/13 - 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.

5/10/13 - My thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort

Hello all,

Friday was a relaxing afternoon/evening at the parks. I finished my walk of the parks early and spent the evening with some friends roaming the parks. The crowd were typical Friday, fairly mild in the afternoon and picking up as the evening went on. There was a grad nite going on so there were also groups of grads mixed into the crowd. Interesting though I seemed to come across more groups from the visiting performing arts than grad nite. I did not pay that close of attention to the lines but when I did glance the park felt more crowded than the wait times were showing. For example Cars Land looked busy but the Racers were 50 minutes, Tires 10, and Mater under 10 in the evening then the Racers jumped up to a posted 90 and the other two to 15 and 10 only. Guessing if I would have gone back after dark it was longer.

Jason

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • I started my visit off with a trip to the Ticket Booth to renew my Premiere pass since it expires on 5/11 and you cannot renew online. Last year I upgraded mid year so I did not pay the full price at once, this year decided to do it all at once guessing another price increase is coming soon. The current price is $850 which came out to $876.60 after taxes. I had to laugh a bit at the line. There were four groups in front of me and a handful of windows open. It took a good 10 minutes for it to be my turn and 3 of the 5 groups in front of me were all helped by the same cast member. They are still issuing the old cards here, so that means next time I go to WDW later this year I am going to have to swap/upgrade my card again! I did explain the RFID to the cast members in the ticket booth and they thought it sounded like an interesting idea and did not quite get how you cannot have turn stiles.

  • Refreshment Corner/Coke Corner/Corner Cafe (not quite sure the current proper name) now offers a Chicago Style hot dog. Too bad they did not go to the larger buns like they have down in Florida. Thought that would take the hot dogs up a step. And bring back the shoe string fries at Award Wieners! And while on fries the waffle fries at Taste Pilots too!

  • It was nice to the skyline of Frontierland back to normal with the large tower crane gone. Assuming on one of these trips the mountains will be covered with scaffolding.

  • Walked through the Big Thunder Ranch Jamboree and there was a healthy crowd out there, many more guests than the last few regular trips (when no special events were going on), but it still felt uncrowded.

  • As I mentioned in the pictorial update they were working with the sound in the Fantasyland Theater (or maybe they were actually rehearsing on the stage but I saw no lights, just heard the audio which was playing short snippets 30-60 seconds when I was there). There was a Cast Member stationed out front to answer questions. Surprised the signage is not up, not even something saying the opening date.

  • Speaking of signage the Kodak signs are starting to disappear. The two camera stores and at least the photo op in the Wharf have been cleaned. I did not check any others.

  • I spent some time walking through the stores in both parks first looking to see if there were any books or items that could be signed in Cars Land that someone requested from me.. kind of surprised they have not released a picture book of sorts. Seems it would sell. Secondly wanted to see if any of the Limited Time Magic merchandise was still available. There had been several hats and some pins over the last couple of weeks that I wanted to get a picture, in my quick scan I did not see any, except for the Cone Hats in Cars Land that are still plentiful.

  • This trip I spent the afternoon with the Lazygeek and his family, which includes a 10 month old. It was my first experience with the baby swap since she was too small to experience the Flying Tires or Maters. The process worked smoothly for us and his older son loved getting to experience both attractions twice in a row. If you have a child too short for the height requirements talk to the Cast Member by the attraction entrance for information on the process for that attraction and a card for the swap.

  • Ate dinner at Taste Pilots and the Cast Member hit the wrong button for my discount, she pressed the deluxe annual pass which only has a 10% discount. Interesting the card scanned and the money came off.. where as the regular 15% button for the Premiere Pass does not work and they have to type in the entire code every time. At Taste Pilots noticed the kids meals were coming in a plain dish, no more Mickey plate, and they also came with both Apples and Fries. Are those permanent changes? I did not take note of the menu on the way out and was busy talking and visiting with the kids to grab a picture when the food arrived.

  • Went under the sea with the Little Mermaid and confirmed my memory that the Anaheim version does not rotate in the scene where Ursula is visible off to the right hand side at the end. At WDW it turns to make her more visible, front and center, to you.

  • I watched Magical from Main Street, the plan was to try and find a spot where I could see the Glow with the Show reserved section but I instead decided to watch Fantasmic and arrived way too late to do that so I just went for a good spot to see the show. As luck would have it a couple pairs of ears were in my sight line. Tonight the audio in the area I was standing seemed to be way too loud and at the loud parts seemed blaring and it sounded terrible. The show itself looked about the same as last year. Nothing jumped out to me as drastically altered.

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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