Hello all,

Friday was a great day at the Disneyland Resort. The weather was on the warmer side, topping out in the mid to upper 80s and cooling down to the low 70s with a light breeze. The crowds were very mild at both parks and the Grad Nite season is over so no more mobs of teenagers. Most of the afternoon/evening the wait times were well under an hour, many around half an hour. The exceptions being the Racers and Splash Mountain.

Jason

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

Thoughts and Observations:

• For me the start of summer at Disneyland is when the All-American College Band begins its season. The band started Thursday, so Friday was their second day in the park. I made it to all their performances and this years band is as entertaining as always. This year they changed up the routine a bit. The band still performs Tuesday through Saturday and has set performances of 1:50pm at the Backlot Stage, 3:25pm at the Castle, 5:10pm Flag Retreat, 6:00 Parade Route, 7:15pm Train Station. This year the Castle Set was shortened to two songs only and the band then marches all the way down Main Street stopping to perform a couple of times. They cut the introductions from the performance. For the preparade they changed things up and the band comes out and turns onto Main Street from Town Square and they perform as they move up the street. Instead of completely stopping for the full performance the drill has been altered and they keep moving up the block throughout more. And instead of turning backstage near the hub they now go the entire parade route and have added stops in the Small World Mall. For the 7:15pm set they changed up the band introductions. Instead of each member doing their own little thing they now do it by section then do a roll call in each. Also Stevie Wonder is out and Frozen is in.
  
  
• The new changes to the way they do the parade route and after the Castle set make a lot of sense if the goal is to engage as many guests as possible. This puts them in front of quite a few more. For those of us who enjoy the sets it makes it a lot more challenging to follow along. There were several, including myself, working our way through the parade crowd and up the route as the band kept moving, if you did not catch my really poor video you may want to and laugh along as the camera keeps bouncing along as I was trying to keep up.
  
  
  
• My first stop of the afternoon was Disney California Adventure. Buena Vista Street was alive with activity but it did not feel overly crowded. Even with the light feeling crowd World of Color FastPasses were gone when I arrived just after 1pm.
  
  
• Grizzly River Run has returned. The rafts appeared to have a little spin to them as they came down the final drop. Nothing like the original mechanism but it seemed to be spinning a bit. Anyone ride and can you confirm if its more spin than the last few years?
  
  
• Tomorrowland at Disneyland features most of the currently closed attractions. They include Space Mountain which is still down for scheduled work. Captain EO which is closed as the Magic Eye Theater is being switched over to a Guardians of the Galaxy Preview that will open for 4th of July. Plus the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage that is closed through September 27th for renovations. The only other listed closure was Alice in Wonderland which is rapidly moving towards its opening date of 4th of July too.
  
  
• This week the Big Thunder Ranch Jamboree is dark with no scheduled events. Assuming they are switching from the Springtime Roundup to a summer overlay but I have not seen any announcements. The dining area switched the All-American BBQ this week.
  
  
• During the week I confirmed with Disney that the Frozen pre-parade is currently only scheduled to run before the 4:00pm Mickeys Soundsational Parade. It is not listed anywhere at the park. The Monorail driver when they announced the parade did announce the pre-parade at 3:50pm only though.
  
  
• I closed out my evening with Magical from Main Street USA. Neither Tinkerbell nor Dumbo flew Friday. I overhead some guests near me and they said they had not seen Dumbo all week.
  
  

---

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

Stop by the Geek's Forum to discuss this and other Disney topics.. click here

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