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05/21/10 - 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.

05/21/10 - My thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort

Hello all,

Friday was a relaxing day at the Disneyland Resort. I did not have much on my agenda and I was able to relax and roam the parks. The crowds were mild to light at both parks for most of the afternoon. Even Toy Story had a posted wait time of only 30 minutes.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

  • This was my first visit to Disneyland with my new Premiere Pass. For those who do not know the Premiere Pass is Disney's new annual pass that is good at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resorts. I upgraded my Disneyland Pass to this new pass on my recent WDW trip. One change with this pass is your picture is not printed on it. So at the parking tollbooth you have to show a picture ID in addition to the pass. The pass worked with no problems at the gates (my picture did pop up on the computer screen since it is in the system from my Disneyland passes), and no problems with Fastpass. For the dining discount there is a button on the registers for the discount, but for some reason the pass did not scan correctly. The CM had to type in the number. Once she did it worked. She said that happens with all of them, not just mine.

  • The trams in the afternoon seemed to be out of cycle. While riding down the escalator I saw quite a few guests around and no trams. It looked to be at least a two tram wait, so I walked to the crosswalk and still no trams so I decided to hike to the parks. I made it all the way to the security gate before the first tram arrived from the garage.

  • First stop of the Day was Disneyland to check out the recently reopened Rivers of America. As you saw in the pictorial update all the docks and river banks look great. The new scenes are nice little additions too. I was a little disappointed with the narration, it seemed a little choppy to me and not that engaging.. but maybe it was because I was so focused on trying to get some pictures. Also I was surprised that there was no mention of the new sections of the river really, I was hoping to hear more about that in the narration.

  • It was nice to be able to take a dusk/night time cruise on the Mark Twain.. that is fairly rare since the River is off limits when Fantasmic is going on. It is easy to forget that most of the scenes are not lit, and the new ones follow that model. This makes sense since it does not happen that much and there is a spotlight on the Twain.

  • Over at DCA the Food and Wine Festival was still in full swing. The attendance at the presentations seemed a little heavier than last trip, maybe it was a bigger celebrity chef? He was much more entertaining for those of us non food enthusiasts than the last couple I have seen.

  • The construction around DCA is moving along too. The new swings structure is looking great. Kind of surprised that there is not more of a boardwalk feel to it and the teal color is kind of interesting, but its a great addition to the waterfront and I cannot wait to see it fully lit and running. I spent some time hanging out in Paradise Park after sunset and watching them tweak/test some of the World of Color fountains. The testing during park hours (or at least when I have been around) seems to have been scaled back and not as extensive as before. It seems to be more targeted. I got the sense that they were just waiting for the park to be cleared so they can really start to test things.

  • A friend of the site, Fred reported on Saturday:
    I was at DCA today, and the new game "Rex and Trixie's Dino Darts" is now in Toy Story Midway Mania. Buttercup (a toy unicorn) now hosts the Egg toss game with Hamm, and Buttercup and Trixie (as well as other new characters from Toy Story 3) are also in the prize booth scene. There is also something different about Buzz in the prize booth. I don't want to spoil it, but if you've seen the trailers for TS3, then that will give you a clue. ;)

    Also, the layout of the leader boards at the end of the ride have been changed. It now displays the best score in the vehicles (the best score of all eight players, I believe) and displays the best scores of the hour, day, and (I think) month.

    In the pie toss booth at the start, the backgrounds now have targets with the faces of Lotso, and some of the other daycare toys. These new "targets" don't seem to do anything though. I guess they are just for information's sake. He also said there is a hidden Mickey in the new game as well as new game posters to go with it up along the queue.


  • 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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