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6/26/15 - Thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort - including Disneyland Forever Small World Projections
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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.

6/26/15 - Thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort - including Disneyland Forever Small World Projections

Hello everyone,

Friday was a relaxing summer day at the parks for me. I had a very small photo list, since not a lot is changing right now. So I just wandered around and enjoyed the entertainment and pleasant weather for the most part. The crowds were average Friday summer. There were some pockets that were very light and others that were heavy, for example walked through Tomorrowland just before 7pm and Star Tours was 30 min and Buzz 15. But earlier in the afternoon walked by Tower of Terror and it was 120 minutes.

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • Peter Pan's Flight is inching toward completion. They were conducting cast member previews on Friday. It is scheduled to return on July 1st. I am looking forward to seeing the updates. If they are on par with the Alice in Wonderland ones it should be great!

  • As I circled Disneyland this afternoon I paused to enjoy several of the live Entertainment groups around the park. This included the Bootstrappers in New Orleans Square, Strawhatters on Main Street USA with Mickey and Minnie, the Dapper Dans of Disneyland on Main Street, 80z All Stars in Tomorrowland, and several sets of the All-American College Band. The variety of entertainment around the parks is always great to see and I always recommend to people to be sure to stop and enjoy a performance and do not focus solely on running from attraction to attraction. Part of the Disney Difference are these very talented entertainers.

  • I walked through the Grand Californian on Friday. Found it interesting they have a digital sign for the Diamond Days word of the day there as well as at the Downtown Disney Monorail station. Wonder why they are all not that way.. or why those two are different. Digital seems better to me in that you do not have to make a sign each day. Also you can change them from a central spot assuming they are networked.

  • In the lobby of the Grand Californian is a Sleeping Beauty Castle cake that was created for the Diamond Celebration. It showcases the 60th Anniversary decorations. I thought this was a fun way to mark the event.

  • The lobby of the Grand Californian was really busy this afternoon. There seemed to be a lot of guests checking in/out. Guess for the weekend? Or maybe some convention was going on. Also found it interesting they felt there was a need for another DVC kiosk/stand between Downtown Disney and the Grand Californian lobby. It was at the main doors along the path.

  • Downtown Disney is hosting a mural created by Dallas Clayton in collaboration with Amy Poehler's Smart Girls inspired by Inside Out. It is a three sided display with the mural on two sides and the third information about it. It is in the middle of the walkway near Earl of Sandwich. It seemed awkward to me to have it out in the middle of the walkway, but people were taking a look at it. Seems it could have used some other signage around it vs the little ones.

  • A temporary/new Performing Arts Stage was set up between ESPN, Earl of Sandwich and the Disneyland Hotel. It makes sense to put a venue in this space. There is plenty of room and the hotel works as a nice backdrop. The downside to the temporary nature is there is little seating and no shade at all.. for the audience or performers. Wonder if they will use it for acts during the evening.. this would have been a great venue for the Hawaiian nights promotion they did.

  • I wanted to see how Disneyland Forever was from near it's a Small World. So after the 8:15pm pre parade stop by the All-American College Band I staked out a spot for Paint the Night and for Disneyland Forever. I was in the second standing row on the first terrace behind the reserved viewing areas for Paint the Night. The view of the parade from here was ok, but a lot of obstructions for clear pictures. The audio was great and well lined up compared to other locations I have been in so far. Cast Members warned us to stay put if we wanted to watch the fireworks. Everyone on the other side and anyone venturing into the parade route will be pushed down the Parade Route. They set up a rope line near that went straight across from the Fantasy Faire gift shop more or less. So right at the point the narrow part of the walkway starts to widen. The view of the projections on Small World from where I was seemed ok. The Small World sign was in the way but not too bad. Most of the fireworks though were off to the left so you had to choose what to look at.. projections or fireworks. The trees blocked my view of the Castle and Matterhorn so I could not see anything but light from those parts of the show. The projections themselves were fairly bright and clear. Not Once Upon a Time clarity but still decent.

  • After seeing Disneyland Forever from a couple of spots on Main Street, Fantasmic, and now Small World I have tried most of the viewing angle angles.. the only one left is from in front of the castle or hub to see the projections there up close and the Matterhorn. That is on my list for a future visit. Out of the places I have seen the show from Main Street from just short of Center Street is the most impressive to me. You have several buildings in front of you with projections, the Castle is sort of visible and the fireworks look good from there too. Small World was a nice projection show and if they ever run the show without fireworks its a great spot.


  • Do you visit our pictorial updates using a mobile device? If so we would like your feedback. I have created a beta of a more mobile version of our Disneyland Picture sets at https://disneygeek.com/mobile Please give it a try and share your thoughts.

Interesting Web Finds/Notes:

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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