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6/27/14 - My thoughts and observations from Fridays visit to the Disneyland Resort.
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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.

6/27/14 - My thoughts and observations from Fridays visit to the Disneyland Resort.

Hello all,

Friday was a relatively calm day in the parks. The crowd felt average to mild and the weather was too. Highs were in the upper 70s and lows around 70 with only a few small white clouds from time to time.

Jason

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • Planes Fire & Rescue has taken up residence on the Grizzly Peak billboard in Condor Flats. Wonder if any other Planes promotion will be taking place. Last time they had the cast join the pre-flight Soarin video too. Surprised they do not have a photo op in either the small area by the gift shop or down near the billboard.

  • I did a quick walk through of DCA and nothing really caught my eye. This is not uncommon for summer.

  • The All-American College Band is now listed on the DCA Time Guide as a Do Not Miss. It include the show location and time. Not sure if it is coincidence or not but the show seemed very well attended Friday with all the seats filled in. Here is a summary page I created for information and videos for the 2014 All-American College Band.

  • The Alice in Wonderland attraction at Disneyland is moving quickly toward re-opening on the 4th of July. Today they were cycling caterpillars through, some with Imagineers and other construction workers onboard. The new railings still have not been installed on the parade route side. But there were some visible on the down ramp/back side from the Monorail. Should be interesting how they look... its going to be a difference experience that is for sure. I think it will be better than the temporary solution but still looks like it may take something away from the experience.


  • I ran into the Frozen pre-parade as I was making my way to Tomorrowland and still view it as a missed opportunity and a bit awkward. This past week Walt Disney World announced their Frozen plans for the Hollywood Studios and they are more ambitious and creative sounding, they do not start until July 5th and run through the rest of summer. I think the idea of Olaf and summer is great and would have worked on a float for Disneyland and made a lot more sense than what they have running through the park now. With that being said though each time I have seen/overheard families commenting on how they enjoyed seeing the characters so it seems to be OK with the target audience or at least my very small sampling.

  • Speaking of sampling.. it seems the survey cast members are getting more aggressive and numerous. I think I was asked three or four times on Friday about a survey. I understand the need to collect data but it seems like Disney can come up with a less obtrusive way to do this.. having to run a gauntlet of cast members is not the best impression in my book. Wonder if they have done a survey on how guests would like to be surveyed?

  • Decided to eat dinner at the Tomorrowland Terrace. Last week I spotted they had shoe string fries and I wanted to give them a try. I tend to avoid the Tomorrowland Terrace because over the years they seem to mess up my order the most, it seems slower than most locations and the food just does not seem on par with the other locations. Friday things went very smoothly though. I walked up and there was no line. They managed to get my order right on the first try and both the burger and fries were hot when served. I thought the new fries were a huge improvement over the old ones and I am glad to see the return of some variety around the parks. I would like to see the Stage Door Cafe serve these shoe string fries I think they would go good with a corn dog.

  • I ran into some friends who attended the Disney Parks Blog Summer BBQ Meet-Up event. For those unfamiliar the official Disney Parks blog holds meet-ups and other events usually on a first come, first serve RSVP process. They usually fill up in a matter of minutes. This BBQ filled in under 5 minutes and there were a couple hundred slots. The prize/event consisted of a Disneyland ticket for you and a guest for the afternoon/evening. It started off with a BBQ in the Big Thunder Ranch Jamboree featuring the same menu as the regular BBQ, character meet and greets, games, and entertainment. There was also face painting and artists on hand. Each guest was given a Disneyland mug as well as a FastPass to Big Thunder, a reserved time to meet Captain America and reserved space for Magical. The guests I spoke with had a good time and thought it was a great event. Their only critisism was they thought the closing of the event was not handled well. They did not cut off the lines for the artists early enough and it led to some disgruntled/disappointed guests who had waited a long time in line and were being told they were not going to get the sketch/artwork they were waiting for. It has been quite a while since I have was quick enough/lucky enough to win entrance to a blog event. It is great to see them continuing.

  • Ended up watching World of Color from under the Silly Symphony Swings again since the others I was with did not have FastPasses. The background audio from the swings was on again, so I guess that is a regular occurrence now. It was extremely distracting and it would be really great if it was off or better yet had the show audio playing there. Unless the idea is to discourage guests from watching from there.

  • Disneyland announced their 4th of July schedule on Friday, click here for the press release. It seems on par with years past. The only change I noted is the World of Color pre-show is only running on the 4th. The last couple of years it had been on the 1-4 just like the fireworks at Disneyland. If that holds true that is a disappointment. I really enjoy that addition but cannot make it on the 4th. Here is a video I took last year:


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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