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5/30/15 - Thoughts and observations from Saturday - day two with the first times, today DCA & back to Disneyland
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5/30/15 - Thoughts and observations from Saturday - day two with the first times, today DCA & back to Disneyland

Hello everyone,

This was day two of a weekend trip with some out of town Family Members, four of whom had never been to a Disney theme park. Today the game plan was to visit California Adventure and if time allowed return to Disneyland for a couple of missed attractions/favorites in the afternoon, then back to DCA for the evening.

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • We arrived just before 8:30am and as usual they opened the gates at 8:30 and allowed you on Buena Vista Street. Soarin was not open early though. Also they did not form a line for Radiator Springs FastPasses as they had in the past. So it meant a half hour wait and some tweaks to our plan for the day.

  • The rope dropped and my group headed off for Paradise Pier and I worked through the crowd for Radiator Springs Racer FastPasses and then World of Color ones. The Racers were a bit crazy right at rope drop with no well formed line. Cast Members corralled everyone and it became organized quickly but was still not as well done as past visits. World of Color had a short line that moved efficiently.

  • The Pier was really quiet this morning. The group decided to do Screamin since it was a walk on then the Carrousel for those that could not ride Screamin. I joined them by this time and we all went on Toy Story, which had a 5 minute wait only. Then we walked (well the kids ran) onto the Fun Wheel and we continued around and some went on the Sky School and others the Zephyr before we all joined up for the Little Mermaid. And by 10:15am (75 minutes after opening) we were in Cars Land to use our FastPasses. It was great how quickly we made it through the area and they were able to get on everything on their list. Same held true after Cars Land when we went to Hollywood Land. The girls wanted to see Frozen.. so we did Standby for the sing along and walked right in 10 minutes before the show. Also did stand by to meet Anna and Else and waited about 10 minutes for them too. By 2pm we had gone on most of the attractions in DCA and were ready to return to Disneyland, well ahead of schedule. This really surprised me.

  • Disneyland felt crowded but wait times were on the moderate side this afternoon. We picked up FastPasses for them and then visited a couple attractions while waiting. Our longest wait of the day turned out to be for the Disneyland Railroad. We had to wait three trains which took 20 minutes.

  • Since we had visited all the attractions on their list and then some the evening we relaxed a bit and then took in some entertainment including the Diamond Mad T Party and the Cars Land lighting before heading to Paradise Pier for World of Color.

  • Speaking of the Diamond Mad T Party currently the 2nd and 4th sets feature the When You Wish Upon a Star number. I did not catch it Friday because the group wanted to see the Cars Land neon which meant we left early.

  • Speaking of Cars Land the lighting moment was slated for 7:54pm on Saturday. DisneylandToday replied to my question it is usually 5 minutes after sunset.

  • Arrived about 8pm for World of Color Celebrate and used our FastPass for the Blue Section. The wait was long and most of the group was very tired but they managed through it.

  • I was able to enjoy the show this evening more than my first run last week. The problem with Premieres is you want pictures, video, and live posts all of which mean you cannot enjoy the show! So I sat back and took it in more this time catching more of the details I missed the first time through. The most interesting reaction came when the Frozen segment started.. as soon as the first bars of Let it Go played there was a buzz in the audience. It sounded almost 50/50 between those who were excited.. like the 3 & 5 year old girls in our group and those that groaned, many of the adults, and those who screamed loudly no more frozen and covered their ears. Seems some Frozen fatigue is setting in for many after seeing it everywhere all the time.

  • After the show I surveyed the group. They all really enjoyed the show.. even the kids who I was concerned about. Having never seen anything like it there was enough going on that the slower parts did not phase them. They did not really pick up on the history and instead focussed on their favorite attractions, movies, and of course the giant fireball! During the show one of the kids asked who the old guy was.. and when it was explained Walt Disney they asked Who and was he a real person.

  • 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

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