Hello all,

Friday the 13th and a full moon tonight... glad I am not that superstitious or are they both just signs that a Disneyland trip is in order? Friday was another picture perfect afternoon/evening at the parks. The highs were in the mid 70s and it cooled down to the upper 60s with not even a hint of a cloud in the sky. The crowds felt on the mild side as I roamed around, but wait times were average. There was another Grad Nite so large groups of high school kids roaming the parks again.

Jason

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

Thoughts and Observations:

• As I exited the freeway they were blocking off the Ball Road overpass so I was stuck having to go through the light and something that never happens for me did.. the light changed and I did not have to stop.. I barely slowed down. I cannot remember that ever happening for me. No line at the toll booth either. Cars were backed-up in the aisle to park. I ended up parking at the end of a row. This meant easy to leave, no need to drive around the garage, but a good hike to the escalators.
  
  
• First stop today was Disney California Adventure. This weekend marks two years since the re-dedication and opening of Cars Land and Buena Vista Street (In the Flashback section I have my updates from that weekend featuring the opening of Cars Land and re-dedication of the park). Also four years since World of Color premiered. I wanted to do a quick walk through of the park and to see about a World of Color FastPass. The FastPasses were all gone for the day. I still find it odd they are only running one World of Color showing a night. With the limited good viewing angles and FastPass space being taken with dining package guests there just are not that many clear/unobstructed/excellent views of the show. I am guessing surveys must indicate guests are ok with the standby and other options. I guess if you have not seen it from a prime location you do not know what you are missing??
  
  
• As I entered Disneyland I took a look at the time schedule to see if anything new/different was listed as I laid out my afternoon in my mind. I spotted the All-American College Band received top billing inside. Great to see them listed. This year they will be at the Castle at 3:25pm, Flag Retreat at 5:10pm, Pre-parade at 6:00pm, and Town Square at 7:15pm. There is also a 1:50pm Hollywood Backlot set at DCA. They start Thursday afternoon and will be performing until August. I have not seen the daily schedule but if it is like years past they will perform 5 days a week in the parks (Tuesday through Saturday).
  
  Here is my playlist featuring clips of the band from years past:
  
  
  
• This weekend (the 14th to be exact) the Matterhorn, Monorail, and Sub Marine Voyage all celebrate 55 years since their opening. There has been a lot of talk about the DCA expansion with Cars Land and Buena Vista Street and how it transformed the park. Turn back the clock to 1959 when just 4 years after opening Disneyland added these three iconic attractions and opened them all on the same day to kick off that summer and how that transformed the park. Note the Subs are slated to reopen September 27th.
  
  
• Speaking of reopenings Alice in Wonderland is scheduled to reopen for 4th of July.
  
  
• As I circled Disneyland I stopped by the Jamboree to see if they switched anything for summer. As of Friday it was still the Springtime Roundup. No indications of what is coming for summer. I did see the All-American College band will not be at the Ranch this summer like they were last year. When I stopped by the area was very empty again. Mickey had a handful of guests around him. The other characters even less.
  
  
• Frozen Pre-parade, here is a video of its first run down Main Street USA:
  
  
  • The big premiere/debut this week was a new Frozen pre-parade for Soundsational. As you saw in the pictures and video above it consists of a single float, the redone ice skating float from the Christmas Fantasy Parade. It travels down the parade route with the instrumental karaoke version of Let it Go. The pre-parade only ran before the 4:00pm Soundsational. It stepped off about 10 minutes before the parade. There was an announcement about 5 minutes before saying it was coming. It was exactly what it was billed as. A float featuring some of the characters from Frozen.
    
    
  • I was under whelmed by the pre-parade. It seemed very awkward to me. The float traveling the route by itself with nothing else looked a little odd to me. The timing of putting it out for summer almost 7 months since the movie premiered and several months since the home video release even seems off too. After announcing it on the Parks Blog, Twitter, etc.. it also seemed strange to only run it before the first parade and not the second. I thought something may have been wrong, but a guest relations CM said it was only scheduled for the first parade. I was surprised it was not listed/promoted in the Entertainment times guide letting guests know. Before teh 6:30pm parade I overheard a handful of families disappointed to miss the float. If you are looking to get a picture of the sisters from Frozen and do not want to wait a couple hours in line this is a great alternative.
    
    
  • It has been interesting to see how flat footed the parks seemed to be with Frozen. It took quite a while for the Meet and Greets and now this. My mind keeps bouncing back to the 90s when you had either a show or parade to promote the newest Disney Animated film. Remember Aladdin’s Royal Caravan, Festival of the Lion King, Hercules Victory Parade or the Mulan parade. Or the Beauty and the Bast, Spirit of Pocahontas, or the Hunchback of Notre Dame shows. Even more recently the Princess and the Frog had Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee. But for Frozen which has set box office records you get a single float some seven months after its November release. This seems like it should have been a pre-parade for the Christmas Fantasy Parade back in November/December and then kept it going into the spring.
    
    
  • Last comment on the pre-parade. It runs about 10 minutes before Mickey’s Soundsational Parade which makes for a very long pause between the two. I saw quite a few guests get up and leave/move on after it passed by. Now maybe they were Annual Passholders just trying to see the new addition since it was the premiere. Also interesting to note the crowd control cast members rolled up some of the ropes on Main Street between the two (guessing to ease traffic flow but still seemed weird because it was not too crowded).
    
    
• Downtown Disney entered week two of its summer celebration with another Hawaiian Night on Friday. This week there were a couple signs in the area listing dates of the festivities but no other real details. There was also an Aulani photo backdrop that seemed really out of place. The entertainment was provided by the same group but they had some different sets of dancers the performance I went to.
  
  

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Interesting Web Finds/Notes:

• Disney Related Press Releases
  • 06/10/14 - First Disneyland Mountain
    
  • 06/10/14 - Inaugural Star Wars™ Half Marathon Weekend Registration Opens Today
    
  • 06/09/14 - Disney Season Fall 2014
    
  • 06/09/14 - Get Your Bad On! First Ever "Villains Unleashed" Event Scheduled for Aug. 23 at Disney's Hollywood Studios
    
    Note: I post home video releases and some other releases to the Geek's Blog
    
    
• Interesting Web Finds:
  • I have been posting my web finds to the Geek's Blog as I find them/have time to post them.
    
    

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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