* 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 Disneyland Resort. The weather was normal Southern California mild (mid to upper 70s cooling down to the 60s). The crowds were fairly light (Nemo was under each time I checked and I actually went on with only a 45 minute wait and 2 subs were offline even). The parks definitely seem to be making the final push of refurbishments before the summer season as several areas were behind walls.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

• Last week (on 5/22) Disneyland kicked off the Indiana Jones Summer of Hidden Mysteries promotion. This includes some mild overlays in Adventureland, a new show, and a couple mini student performances. Overall I thought this was a nice addition, but definitely not something to hype (which the park is not doing so it makes sense to me). For more information on the happenings visit http://www.disneyland.com/indy (you can also download a map/guide from the site).
  
  • Your first task is to decode the secret message, there are six clues "hiding" around adventureland. You look at the symbol and then decode the message. Once you decode it and go to the website you can download a set of Indiana Jones wallpapers for your computer. I thought this was a nice touch, I would have liked to see the symbols hidden a bit more but I understand that the target audience is all ages.
  • Next up there are four relics added to the Jungle cruise. This one was a little more challenging, especially since I have not seen the film yet so I did not know what I was looking for.
  • They also point out some things in the Indiana Jones queue
  • The Secret of the Tiger Stone show replaces the Aladdin Storytelling. The set is pretty much identical, just a couple minor tweaks. The story line is again targeted at all ages and has the normal interaction for kids. I thought this was a fairly well done show compared to some of the other recent offerings. Do not go into it expecting a stunt show but instead a kids show and it works. Some around me were anticipating a true Indy stunt show and walked out asking if that was it.
  • After the show the action continues throughout Adventureland. There are three "random acts of Indy" that take place above Adventureland. The first one takes place approximately 5 minutes after the show. As you saw in the pictorial update one is above the Jungle Cruise, one the shops, then the third on the Tarzan Treehouse bridge. Overall I thought these were a nice touch to bring some action into adventureland and they did not seem to interrupt traffic that much. People stopped to watch the couple minute show then continued on. There was enough time in between them that traffic returned to normal before the next one started. I did find it fun to watch people as Indy and the villain made their way through the crowd to get form scene to scene. Most did not even notice him. He did interact with them a bit, asking questions.
    
    
• Over at DCA more of the walls around the Toy Story Mania area have been removed. The new stand nearest the Sun Wheel (the Hot Dog Hut) and another ODV stand near the Turkey Leg place are up. Its amazing the detail on these new stands and how it really contrasts the rest of the park. I hope the average guest (and not just Disneygeeks) appreciate the extra work that is going into the area. I was surprised not to see any signs of life at the Toy Story attraction. With less than three weeks till opening you would think they would be cycling CMs or other soft openings, or at least some visible testing.
  
  
• Caught the Pixar Play Parade and its funny how every time its slightly different. This time the chefs for the Ratatouille unit were back on stilts, but still no second half of the bugs unit or acrobatics for the Toy Story unit. Also it seems as if the water is down slightly, or maybe its the lack of bubbles (soap suds) for the Ratatouille unit that make it seem less.
  
  
• Stopped by the Off the Page store on the backlot and noticed they had the new Official Album for both Disneyland Resort and the separate Walt Disney World Resort set for sale. Both had 2008 copyrights so they are relatively new, not sure when they went on sale. On the Disneyland disc I noticed a couple random tracks I had not seen before like the Finding Nemo Sub soundtrack and the pre parade song. Too bad they do not have an iTunes equivalent. I don't want to buy all the tracks since I already own all but a couple on several different sets. On the WDW version I noticed they had the Seas with Nemo from EPCOT, but nothing from Nemo at Animal Kingdom (probably since they sell a soundtrack to that), also saw they listed Spaceship Earth (but no note of what song, I would hope from the new version), lastly spotted version of the theme from Canada and Mexico. I was really disappointed to see the selection from Animal Kingdom, none of the Oasis or Discovery Island background music made the cut. I forgot to take a picture of the back so I am going off memory here, also I think each 2-disc set was $25.
  
  
• Toontown was receiving some TLC before the summer season, as you saw in the pictorial update. Looked like they may be expanding the ODV location at the gas station, or at least making it a bit more permanent. Also new was a build your own ears display in the Gag Factory. This is the same concept that WDW has on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom that premiered a few months ago. Wonder if there will be one added to the hat shop on Main Street too or in Fantasyland?
  
  
• Since Nemo was under an hour and it was a comfortable evening I decided to give it a go. It was nice to get on again, even though it would have been nicer if more than 6 subs were operating. It would have been only a 30 minute or so wait. Also the CMs working the queue could have done a better job counting. For example my row was two guests short, it was nice for me since I was able to put my camera bag on a seat and have plenty of room to spread out, but if they were doing that on each boat (I noticed the other row in our boat was one person short) that adds up quickly. Maybe a single riders line would be nice...
  
  
• As you saw in the pictorial update the new Monorail Red was cycling again for most of the afternoon and evening. No guests allowed on. Also noticed the windows were closed this time, does that mean the air conditioning was working? (Does anyone know do they have A/C? It sounds as if it does...). Unfortunately something broke and it had to be towed in later in the evening. The CMs said it was still day to day and no clue when guests will be allowed to ride.
  
  
• I caught parts of three of Scot Bruce's sets. He does the tribute to Elvis, the early years, at the Tomorrowland Terrace. Its too bad they cannot or do not put the full title in the time guide. Wonder if more people would show up if they knew Scot Bruce was really Elvis... he did draw decent size crowds of all ages once he started playing though.
  
  
  

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