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06/02-03/11 - My thoughts and observations from the Soundsational Summer kickoff festivities at the Disneyland Resort
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06/02-03/11 - My thoughts and observations from the Soundsational Summer kickoff festivities at the Disneyland Resort

Hello all,

It was a busy two days at the Disneyland Resort for me. As you saw with the several pictorial updates I posted over the weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Soundsational Summer kickoff event that included the opening ceremonies for the Little Mermaid and Star Tours as well as access to the Disneyland Hotel suites. If you have not seen the pictures stop by and check them out in the park update section. Since I was busy snapping away pictures and moving from event to event I really did not spend that much time roaming the parks. All I can say for sure is Friday morning the parks were both crowded with guests lining up for the two new attractions. Thursday morning, which was my only free time to roam the parks were about what I would expect for a Thursday morning, not too bad.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

Thursday June 2nd:

  • I started Thursday morning off checking in for the Opening Day Star Tours pin. It has been quite a while since I took part in a pin release. Usually I am not in the park or that interested in the pin, but I knew I was going to be around Thursday so I put in for a wristband. The process was extremely smooth and well run, you could tell they have done this quite a bit. The process started off with signing up on the Disney website. I was one of the first 500 to register so I was awarded the opportunity to get a wristband good for two pins. I printed the email and had to check in at the park to get a wristband. Once they checked my name off the list and put the wristband on I headed for the store at the exit to Buzz. There a CM directed me around the Orbitron to a door near the hat store. This led to the old Rocket Rods queue. I kept expecting to run into a mob of people and never did... Walked through the queue/tunnel under Tomorrowland and was let up the staircase to the back entrance of the store. Once there got into a short queue of maybe 3 or 4 people. They had several registers open. After a couple minutes was at a register and buying the pins. The entire process sucked up maybe 15-20 minutes, including the time to get the wristbands. I was very impressed and pleased.

  • After that smooth sailing I spent some time roaming around Disneyland. If you have never experienced a Disney park in the first hour or so after opening it is truly one of the best times. You can find pockets of peace and quiet and yourself alone in areas where there are usually mobs of guests. Also in the crisp morning air everything looks bright and fresh and the energy of passing guests is contagious. If you do visit the park in the morning be sure to look up and enjoy the park a bit in between running from attraction to attraction and if you can afford the luxury of just taking a stroll around I would highly recommend it.

  • Headed over to DCA around 9:30 when the gates were opening to let guests in. I thought it was nice how they had turn styles on both sides open to get the crowds in more efficiently. I waited for the rope drop and headed out to Toy Story first and then took some construction shots for the site. Speaking of which does anyone have an opinion on posting pictures from the parks on Twitter? I have tried to remember and post some while roaming around, but not sure if the low resolution is worth it or not? Drop me an email or post to the blog or forum your thoughts if this is something I should do more of, less of, or is it a waste of time?

  • The events started in the afternoon. First up was the Little Mermaid opening ceremony at 3:30. As you saw in the pictures and video I posted this was a fun production celebrating the music from the film. I would have liked to have heard more from Alan Menken, but other than that a great ceremony and fitting way to officially open this long over due attraction.


  • Next up on the docket was Mickeys Soundsational Parade. They had a viewing area set up in Town Square and I was lucky enough to secure a spot near the top of the riser for myself and one of the retired geeks down along the parade route in the front row so we were able to bring two great perspectives of the introduction show and then the parade. It was really weird to watch it from that vantage point and I thought some of the pictures were quite interesting. The one note about the parade though is this was my third time and location seeing it and I still have yet to find a sweet spot to watch it from in terms of an audio zone. Here we seemed to be on the edge too plus had the noise bleed of it circling by to the right before heading backstage. Next time I will try the Small World Mall maybe.



  • The evening was capped off with a Poolside party at the Disneyland Hotel showcasing the newly re-themed suites on the 11th floor of the Dreams Tower as well as the new pool area. I spent a little over an hour going through the suites and trying to capture some photos that would do them justice. I regret forgetting about video, I should have shot more, the original plan was to make a second pass but the first round took so long I ran out of time. It would be hard to choose my favorite suite, they each had their pros and cons. I really enjoyed the environment of the Big Thunder one. I thought the tributes and artwork in the Mickey Mouse Penthouse were great. The artwork and movie props in the Pirates one were top notch. The overall atmosphere of the Adventureland and the grotto off of the shower in the master bathroom was impressive. So hard to choose...

  • Being able to spend some time up close and roaming around the pool area at night was a blast. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to figure out how to photograph it, hopefully all the variations I posted were not too repetitive and were somewhat interesting. The party itself was a great reception with plenty of food and beverages to enjoy, even though I did not have that much time to sit and enjoy since I was trying to get pictures.

  • The new geyser area was open to the left of the Wonder/Frontierland Tower. It is a relatively small area and was really hard to get a good photograph of at night, or at least the way the party was set up Thursday night. I will try to make it out there next trip during the day to see it and comment on it.

  • Around 10pm we decided to call it quits and head back toward the hotel since I wanted to get a couple pictures posted and I knew Friday would be another busy day. On the way back we were stopped at the security checkpoint because of Grad Nite. The seniors had not entered the park yet and were clogging up the esplanade. The CMs at the security tents were not very helpful. They were telling everyone that they would open up the walkway after the area cleared but no one had a time estimate and they were directing people who wanted to get to Harbor Blvd to walk through the Grand CA, out to Disneyland Drive, down Katella, and then onto Harbor. That is one really long walk! I do not understand why they did not have a pathway or some alternative way to get regular guests to Harbor. There were quite a few people around us who after the parks closed went to Downtown Disney and now were just trying to make it back to their hotels on Harbor. This I thought was rather poor. Eventually a group of CMs had mercy on us and started to escort groups over to the other side. So in the end it was only a 15 minute delay for us, but it was rather frustrating and very poor. I am assuming this happens every grad nite now a days?? I cannot believe there is not a plan in place for guests cut off, or at least signs telling you what was going on and how to get around it. Also there were only a handful of CMs in the area to deal with the growing crowd that was increasingly frustrated and tired.

Friday, June 3:

  • I arrived at the parks a little before 8am and checked in before heading to Disneyland. At this hour there were already several hundred guests in line for Star Tours. When I walked down Main Street there were CMs everywhere preparing for the day and anticipated crowd. It was a sight to see the hub being turned into a giant series of switchbacks for the queue.

  • The Star Tours opening started just after 9:30am and as many of you saw via the live webcast, the webcast replay, my pictures and video it was a very brief ceremony that basically consisted of a small skit, a fight sequence, then a short speech by Tom Staggs before the ribbon cutting. I was really expecting more after seeing the opening event they put on for the Hollywood Studios opening a few weeks ago and after this show felt a let down.


  • On my way from Star Tours over to DCA for the Whats Next Presentation I was really surprised to see the massive lines at both parks. As you saw in the couple pictures I snapped as I tried to make my way through the masses the extended queue that was set up on Main Street for Star Tours was filled up already. This was partially due to the fact that there was no room in Tomorrowland till they cleared the opening ceremony stage and seating but it was impressive to see all the guests lined up. Even more impressive to me though was the Little Mermaid line. When I entered DCA I saw a line coming out from Condor Flats. I assumed they had not opened the walkway or this was the World of Color and Mermaid lines merged into one or something. When I got over to it and talked to the CMs working the line I was amazed to find out it was just for the Little Mermaid. The line stretched all the way to the attraction, through its queue and out to the extended area in Paradise Park.

    Did anyone wait in those lines? Curious how long they were, time wise? I heard estimates of up to 3 hours but no one seemed to know for sure.

  • The next and final event of the morning was the Whats Next Presentation. This was held in an interesting venue. They had a stage set up under the archway that leads from the Pacific Wharf area into Cars Land. Seating and risers were located in what will be the intersection of the walkway and the backstage gates. The view from here was a new experience and the closer you get to Cars Land the more impressive the already large and impressive rockwork looks! The highlights of the presentation were a virtual fly through of Buena Vista Street, a live camera tour of the Cars Land construction site, and a tour of Aulani concept art by Joe Rohde. After listening to all the presentations I did not hear anything new announced. Most of it already had been announced in one form or another, but they did provide some additional detail to Cars Land and Aulani and some of the visuals for all the presentations were new.


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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