home > Columns > Geekspeaks >
6/09/23 - Disneyland Resort
 The Geek Speaks:

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.

6/09/23 - Disneyland Resort

Hello Everyone!

Spent Friday at the Disneyland Resort exploring the parks to see the ongoing projects and just relaxing a bit. The parks felt crowded and wait times were all over the place thanks to a number of closed attractions and a number that kept going down throughout the afternoon. The weather was cool in the 60s most of the visit. The sun did show itself for a few moments around the Flag Retreat.

Thoughts and Observations:

    Spent Friday at the Disneyland Resort exploring the parks to see the ongoing projects and just relaxing a bit. The parks felt crowded and wait times were all over the place thanks to a number of closed attractions and a number that kept going down throughout the afternoon. The weather was cool in the 60s most of the visit. The sun did show itself for a few moments around the Flag Retreat. My visit started off with a string of decent luck. I hit a green light to cross Ball road with only a few second wait. No wait at the parking toll booth since I choose wisely. Only a mild slowdown to get into a spot and got one next to a column so a little extra space. Was down in further half of the aisle but still better than the last few visits. No wait at security, the tram or to enter the park. So all and all not a bad arrival experience.
  • Started my afternoon at Disney California Adventure. The park felt busy with a lot of guests walking around. It is GradNite season so there were large groups of high school graduates arriving throughout the day and roaming the park. Also this meant the park closed at 9pm with World Of Color - ONE.
  • I joined the virtual queue for World of Color - ONE with no problem and was set for the evening.
  • The San Fransokyo Square work is progressing. Since my last visit the Beer Truck has been removed and walls are up as that area is to become the Meet and Greet. I was surprised to see this. I figured the truck would remain open until the new window was open. That project seems quite a ways from completion though.
  • Another interesting observation was the GradNite stage in front of the Little Mermaid. During the day the stage had Disney100 graphics/photo op to hide the GradNite signage a bit. Seems to me something to promote the new Little Mermaid film would have been a good fit. But Disney100 is nice too. The stage was not used at all during the day from what I could tell but they were setting up for a band for GradNite.
  • I walked around the Pier since I had not done that the last few visits. Nothing really jumped out at me as I did. The only noteworthy item is the World of Color projectors were still up and projector housing doors left open. Seems neither is closed anymore? It has been like that my last several visits.
  • Over at Disneyland there are a number of renovation projects underway. The biggest impacts are in Fantasyland where a trio of attractions are unavailable for a project. Scaffolding is up and looks like exterior renovation for Peter Pan and Mr. Toad during the project. Hopefully some TLC inside too, not just the repairs. Alice has walls up but no scaffolding. Other facilities were open as usual in the building (the two gift shops and rest rooms).
  • Adventureland is in the midst of some emergency repairs. At the entrance there was a chilled water issue last weekend and wall are still up. This creates even more congestion in a pre-existing choke point, but Friday everything in the area was open and operating.
  • Throughout the afternoon there was a lot of attraction downtime with several down at any one time. Even the Mark Twain had an issue and was unavailable for a while. Speaking of the Mark Twain Riverboat the top deck was blocked off again and the spiel has been updated to reference Tiana's Bayou Adventure coming soon and all references to Splash Mountain are gone. It does say the new attraction is part of Critter Country so guess the name is staying around for a while still.
  • Splash Mountain closed the end of May and walls went up quickly. You can see some scaffolding and preparation work is underway including tagging items for removal. No major work is visible yet but should be soon if this follows the same time line as the WDW version. The construction walls feature the same graphics as WDW and they still do not seem great to me. I did overhear a number of guests talking about it and confusion over the restaurant and ride seems to be an issue. There is a photo op with Louis on the wall opposite the Hungry Bear which seemed a little odd given that is a major walkway vs on some other portion of the wall that is less crowded. But I guess it is in a high traffic area so more people see it.
  • Took a walk through Toontown to see the CenTOONial park area. The walls are gone and a section of the turf was replaced around the Tree. The main lawn in front of Car Toon Spin was walled off this visit. Also saw some signs of ware on the turf that is the main walkway. The land had a lot of activity as is the norm now a days. Runaway Railway was down so that added to the congestion.
  • I spent some time in Hollywood Land seeing if any play testing was going on for the Groot figure. Unfortunately I did not see anything. I am curious to see this figure in person. Hopefully the play test will expand to some outdoor testing soon to let more guests see it.
  • I spotted Donald Duck a few times. Friday was his 89th birthday. In 1934 he made his screen debut. I saw a great interaction of him and Daisy strolling around Carthay Circle and visiting the churro cart. Some guests were singing happy birthday too him too at a couple points which was fun to see. It would have been nice to see the parks do something to acknowledge the milestone.
  • June is Black Music Month and the Disneyland Resort has the Celebrate Soulfully event going on. There are performances in DCA and Downtown Disney, Magic Key Stickers in Disneyland and Downtown Disney. There was no group in Carthay Circle this year though. Midnight Hour was on the Backlot Stage and they put on an entertaining set. The one I caught included a medley of Disney songs to celebrate Disney100. I only wish they would take less time to introduce the band or add one more song to the set. It felt short.
  • As night fell live entertainment options dried up. After the 7pm set I don't believe there was anything else on the schedule at DCA the rest of the evening. Disneyland had the character dance party and that was it.
  • To promote the upcoming Disney/Pixar film Elemental there is a preshow to World of Color - ONE that started last week. Friday was my first viewing of it. It is basically a trailer for the film using the show platform. I thought the way they spelled out the elements with lights on the coaster was a fun touch. The rest was run of the mill and the image quality was not the greatest. Nice to see them using the fountains to promote films again though.
  • Closed out my time in the park with World of Color - ONE. I am still not a huge fan of this show. The pacing seems off and the show just meanders around without a strong finale.
  • GradNite was kicking into gear as we left the park after World of Color. The park officially closed at 9pm. I do not understand why they had Graduate Mater out along the main exit walkway and had to have cast members there to try and keep guests moving. Seems for his first appearance of the evening having him down Route 66 would have made more sense to keep him away from the exiting crowd then roll him up there once most are gone.

Here are some recent posts to the Geek's Blog:

Disney Related Press Releases

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

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

Send comments, questions, any other email to: disneygeek@disneygeek.com
Back to previous page

 

Quick Note

Check out the geek speaks archive for past updates.

 

Interested in Helping out?

If you are a fellow disneygeek and interested in sharing your insights, pictures, thoughts drop us an email here we are always looking for contributors.