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07/02/10 - My thoughts and observations from Fridays Disneyland Resort trip
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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.

07/02/10 - My thoughts and observations from Fridays Disneyland Resort trip

Hello all,

What a great summer day to kick off the holiday weekend. The weather was mild and the crowds were too. Throughout most of the afternoon and evening the lines were well under an hour. The parks got more crowded as the evening went on and the masses showed up for the fireworks and World of Color but I was pleasantly surprised at how mild the crowd was.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

  • One of the fun aspects of spending a lot of time in the parks is watching projects move along. This past week the Little Mermaid made some big (well at least visible) steps forward with the steel being installed for the entrance area. I tried to capture the scale of the work but the pictures really do not do it justice.

  • I stopped by the Haunted Mansion since there was no real line and a posted wait time of 7 minutes. Unfortunately there was a problem and for a good 5-10 minutes no one was let in.. then things started to move and there was no real wait (nor indication of the problem). While onboard the projections for Madam Leota, the singing busts in the graveyard, and little Leota on the way out all looked a little crisper to me. I read on another site they believed all three were upgraded to new digital projectors recently. I have not seen any other details.

  • After the LA Times article a few weeks ago on the Disney Archives and the mention of them adding some elements from Disneyland, namely the Country Bears I was curious if the heads they were talking about were the three you can see from the Winnie the Pooh attraction. So Friday I bit the bullet and walked onto Pooh... there was no line and I was trying to get my own vehicle, but I failed... they put a family in with me. So that meant no picture (since I was not going to turn around and shoot a flash over there heads to get the shot). But I did look and Melvin, Max, and Buff are still there as they have always been.

  • As I roamed the parks today it seemed like there were quite a few tourists and less locals (or at least that I ran into), it almost felt like I was at Disney World. What I mean by that is a lot of other guests just randomly talking with you or asking opinions. At WDW this seems to happen to me a lot more than at Disneyland. I always attributed to the large number of locals here.. seems when people are on vacation they tend to be more talkative.

  • I thought it was great that after several years of promotions the floral Mickey in front of the Main Street train station as well as the lamp posts along Main Street have returned to their traditional looks. Thinking back I was trying to remember when both were like this and I think it may be back in 2005 before the kick off the 50th celebration.

  • I learned that this year the All American College Band has tweaked their schedule. On Fridays they are now performing at Plaza Gardens as part of the Jump, Jive, Boogie Swing Party. This this means they have a modified schedule of 4:20 in front of the castle, 5:10 Flat Retreat, then three sets at Plaza Gardens 7:00, 8:00 and 9:00. Tues through Thursday and Saturdays they still have their regular schedule.

  • I was walking by the Fantasyland Theater and saw that the Royal Coronation Ceremony was about to start so I stopped to check it out. The show seems about the same as the one that ran when it was first introduced, I have to confess I only saw the original once and it did not leave a big impression. The show itself seems perfectly geared towards its target group and the kids in the audience all seemed to be having a great time. I thought it moved a little too quickly and some kids seemed to have a hard time keeping up but I guess that has to be done otherwise you loose the attention of the others.

  • It being 4th of July weekend I had to stop by and see Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. The showing I went to had a very light crowd unfortunately. I would guess under 50 guests.. I was really hoping for more..

  • I stopped by the Tomorrowland Terrace (the TLT Dance Club) to check out this years festivities there. This week I saw no LCD screens out. There were a couple signs and two of the streamer (have no idea what to call those machines that blow air within a tube) machines. I do not recall if the pre-show announcement said anything about the Dance Club. I did not stick around beyond the first song so not sure if anything happened after.

  • I decided to give the Glow Fest kick off another run. Since I had some extra time and my pictures last time were from a bad location. I think the show in the Sun Plaza looks better after dark but I still think the Bollywood portion is way too long and the people in the giant balls is too short.. There seemed to be a good size group of people that followed the party to the Backlot and everyone seemed to be having a great time. As I mentioned in my first thoughts I think the Glow Fest set up on the Backlot is great after dark (not impressed with what it does to the area in the day time but I understand the temporary nature and how setting it up each evening would be too hard).

  • Disneys Celebrate America! A Fourth of July Concert in the Sky was delayed for nearly 20 minutes on Friday. At first I thought it may have been wind related, but it seems that it was because of Fantasmic.


  • 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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