Hello all,

Saturday turned out to be a great day at the parks. I was a little unsure what to expect in terms of the holiday weekend crowd, but it seems the combination of hot weather and it being Annual Pass block out day for the lower three levels of passes, led to a very light crowd day in the parks. I was planning on an average crowd and instead ended up with what would at best be called an off season like day. Most attractions had minimal waits with only a couple consistently long, such as Splash Mountain and Star Tours. Most of the others you could get on with under a 15 minute wait, even the Fantasyland lines seemed to be less than 30 minutes most of the time we walked by. This pattern held all day long at both parks.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

• It was great to see two monorails running again. They had blue and orange running Saturday morning, I noticed they seemed down in the afternoon for a while but both were back later in the day. Hopefully the fleet is back to normal service now.
  
  
• We headed over to DCA at 9:30 to get our World of Color Fastpasses and then visited Toy Story before the lines got long. I was really shocked that we could walk right up to the World of Color Fastpass area and get our passes. Also interesting to note they had the Little Mermaid open for all when we walked up there about 10 minutes to 10. Guess if there are not a lot of hotel guests taking advantage of the early entry they let anyone who wants to ride on? We skipped it and instead waited for the Toy Story march. This ended up being our longest wait of the day the 10 minutes waiting for it to open then the walk and about a 15 minute wait to get on.
  
  
• As you saw in the pictorial update I went a little overboard with the number of shots taken in the newly opened Paradise Garden area. I was trying to figure out how to capture the area and ended up posting a wide variety of shots, about 1/3 of what I took, hopefully they helped to give you a flavor of the area. I was really impressed by the complete change in atmosphere the Imagineers have pulled off. This new dining area is vastly different from anything else the Disneyland Resort has to offer. We really enjoyed hanging out, eating, and listening to the band. There was plenty of shade with fans even circulating the air. We did note there were no heaters and curious if there will be some by the winter?
  
  
• Most of my group ended up at the Boardwalk Pasta and Pizza so we had a wide selection of their offerings at the table and everyone really enjoyed it. I asked where they would put it on the price/quality scale and everyone agreed it was expensive but so is everything else so from that stand point they felt the pricing was about the same as every where else and quality was a step up. I think they gave the quality higher marks due to the freshness and variety of the menu. We were disappointed with the Grill choices, we were hoping for some traditional grill items, and the current menu did not entice any of us to give it a try. We also thought the lack of a traditional children's plate at either such as nuggets or burgers was a bit of an issue. They had children's dishes but they were complementary to the main dishes.
  
  
• While eating listened to the tail end of a set on the Band Stand by a group called Odyssey. They played a good mix of music that definitely helped to create a festive and lively environment in the garden for lunch (also assuming they play during dinner but we did not make it back out that way).
  
  
• Lastly wanted to comment on the sound. We were surprised that you did not hear the Swings or other Pier attractions. We sat in the main covered area nearest the parade route and could not think of a time when the swings volume intruded in our conversations. Speaking of this area if you had visions of sitting in there and watching a parade some day I do not think that would work. The way the tables and walls are you would not be able to see much if anything once the crowds line the street (even without the crowds you cannot see that much).
  
  
• I opted to skip Goofy's Sky School, mostly due to the Lazygeek volunteering and my lack of interest in it. I went on the old Mulholland Madness once during the AP preview in 2001 and that was enough for me. I just did not enjoy the ride and Goofy's is basically the same ride. He said the ride itself was the same and he would probably not be going on again any time soon unless his son really wanted to, but he thought the Goofy overlay was very well done and fun to explore. I will be posting pictures from his ride once he sends them my way, he went a little crazy too and took over 200 pictures on his journey.
  
  
• I do like how they keep adding new details to the park. The attraction posters under the Silly Symphony Swings were a nice find. And the couple new pictures in the Blue Sky Cellar were interesting. I thought the cars land overview from the Tower of Terror was one of the best shots I have seen. I wish they had a screen that had that time lapse camera running or even better yet the live camera... geeks like me would sit in there and watch that and if it were big and HD we probably would waste hours in there!
  
  
• The new candy store in the Wharf area is an interesting addition. Curious how it will do. Walked by a couple times and there was no one around, but because of the low crowd in the park this was not a surprise. Even the line for bread bowls was reasonable during the lunch hour. Has anyone tried anything from there yet?
  
  
• In the afternoon we headed to Disneyland expecting to find the park much more crowded than it had been in the morning, we were pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be just as quiet as DCA.
  
  
• As you know we are big fans of the All American College Band and Saturday was my first day in the park with their regular schedule, so we went to all their sets to take in the sights and sounds. The sets had a decent attendance, especially considering how dead the park felt. It was fun to see the guest performer, Rick Baptist, with them too.
  
  
• For dinner most ate at Plaza Inn, I hiked over to Tomorrowland Terrace. Not quite sure why I keep going there. I cannot remember the last time I had a decent experience. This time was no better. The burger was charred and dry, but on a positive side the wait was minimal and the order was correct the first try. I should have walked to the Village Haus, same burger but the preparation has been much better the last several times.
  
  
• I was really impressed with the World of Color Pre-show. I thought this was a great use of the show platform and definitely worth seeing. It also made a lot of sense that they are running it every night this weekend, so you do not have to crowd in on the 4th of July to experience it. The fireworks added some extra punch to the show, but unfortunately the amount of smoke generated looked to be an issue for some viewing areas. Surprised that after all these years there still is not a better solution for low level fireworks in a space like DCA. Everyone I spoke to after the show thought the 4th of July addition was great and most wanted to see it again. I thought doing it as a pre-show that runs separate from the regular World of Color show worked better than the encore idea. I always found the TRONCORE to be a bit odd and the transition to it awkward. I think these pre-show or even trailer ideas could work better. It did catch us off guard that it started early so the regular show could start at 9:00pm. For those that may have missed it, here is our video of the show:
  
  
  
• One consistent comment that came up from our group and those around us were they wanted to see it again and wished it had been running more than just the four nights/eight shows. Curious to see if they do an expanded version on the 4th or the same one we saw, did anyone go on the 4th?
  
  
• Exiting after World of Color is an adventure now with the main parade route blocked off due to the Buena Vista Street work. They were funneling guests by GRR but eventually that backed up and they started directing others through Bugs Land, and around through the Backlot and ElecTRONica, which would have been a hike to get out of the park. Also noticed the Yellow section was not in Redwood Creek as we were leaving. Looked like Red was over by GRR, but no sign of Yellow, anyone know where they were or did I just miss them?
  
  
• A couple notes in the time schedule from this week. Thought it was good that the College Band has a logo now, nice to see them get some recognition. But I was disappointed that there was no mention of the special World of Color addition, so many did not know about it, even some cast members we spoke to knew nothing about it. Seems they dropped the ball on communicating this new experience.
  
  
  
  

Interesting Web Finds/Notes:
Below are some interesting links, notes, and rumors I found/stumble across/or have been informed of since the last Geekspeaks column.

• Interesting Web Finds:
  I have been posting my web finds to the Geek's Blog as I find them/have time to post them.
  
• Upcoming Merchandise Events:
  • Until the end of July Disney has a selection of Star Tours merchandise online at the Disney Store - click here for a direct link
  • Disneyland - World of Disney Sale - July 23, 2011, from 6:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. PST, Disneyland ® Resort Passholders, Disney Vacation Club Members, D23 Members and Club 33 Members can enjoy an early shopping opportunity with incredible discounts of up to 50% off select merchandise items, special doorbusters, surprise markdowns and more.
  • WDW - World of Disney Sale - July 23, 2011, from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. EST, Walt Disney World® Resort Passholders and Disney Vacation
    Club Members can enjoy an early shopping opportunity with incredible discounts of up to 50% off select merchandise items, special doorbusters, surprise markdowns and more.
    
    
  • Upcoming Vinylmation Releases
    • 7/8 - Annual Passholder (Little Mermaid & Goofy's Sky School - Open Edition) - Embarcadero Gifts
    • 7/8 - Steam Park - Limited Edition 1,000 for $99.95 - DStreet
  • The Florida Project September 9 – 11, 2011 World Showcase, Epcot
    
    
• Disney Related Press Releases
  • 7/01/11 - ‘Tis the Season to be Spooky! Disneyland Resort Celebrates Halloween Time 2011 Sept. 16 Through Oct. 31
    
    
• To stay up to date with site updates and other announcements:
  • Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/disneygeekcom
  • Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/disneygeek
  • Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/disneygeekcom
  • Or you can join our mailing list (see below to submit your address)
    

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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