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7/12/24 - Disneyland Resort
 The Geek Speaks:

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.

7/12/24 - Disneyland Resort

Hello Everyone!

Today was a quiet day at the parks for me. I had a very short agenda and just wandered through the parks taking advantage of opportunities that arose. In the end I ended up visiting more attractions than usual and watching a little less entertainment. The crowds were on the moderate to light side. It felt to be a high mix of tourists vs Magic Key holders which is expected this time of year. The weather was on the more humid and cooler side than typical for summer. It topped out about 80 and cooled to about 70. A couple times the breeze stopped and it felt humid for Southern California. After sunset it did feel cool but not cold.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • My parking experience was smooth today. No delays. I drew a crummy spot at the end of the first aisle in the Pixar Pals parking structure. It still seems odd to allocate so much of the structure to preferred parking which rarely seems filled. Getting to the parks was quick with it being about 15 minutes from parking to Main Street USA today.
  • At Disneyland the big change since my last visit is the closure of the rest of Critter Country. New Orleans Square dead ends at Harbour Galley and Galaxy's Edge at Rise of the Resistance. From the Mark Twain you can see demolition is well underway with most of the walkway removed and piles of rubble waiting to be hauled away. Due to the moderate crowd in the park on Friday there was not really a big impact from the closure. Hopefully the project moves quickly before the crowds pick up at the park. I did find it interesting in Galaxy's Edge there were three groups of Cast Members warning you of the closure. Out in New Orleans Square there were cast members in the area but it was not as organized as in Galaxy's Edge.
  • I continued on my quest to find more of the Pizza Planet trucks. Thanks to favorable wait times I managed to find three new ones this visit. I am closing in on my ceiling of trucks as Pixar Fest enters its final weeks. There are a couple more I have on my list to look for. I really would have liked to have seen Disney promote this a bit more and offer some sort of list/game board. I think that may have helped it to pick up some more traction. It will be interesting to see what is done with the trucks after Pixar Fest.
  • I found the posted wait times to not be very accurate this week, and in a couple cases substantially off. The biggest difference being with Rise of the Resistance that was posted at 40 and took under 10 to reach the briefing room. Pirates of the Caribbean was also off at 25 minutes but taking under 10. These worked out in my favor as did Runaway Railway and Toy Story. Indiana Jones was off slightly in the other direction.
  • I wanted to go for a ride on the Train and Monorail plus visit the Subs and failed on those three due to less than ideal wait times and the Monorail being down one of the times I looked at going for a ride. The subs were posted at 30-45 several of the times I checked and when I walked by it looked to be longer given they were only loading two at a time.
  • I noticed the Pixar Pals Playtime Party now lists show times in the app and on the website. Not sure when that started but it seemed to make a difference where the crowd swelled for the show. On the downside between shows it became a ghost town. Each visit there seems to be fewer characters out between shows. Not sure if it is just my timing or if the offerings have been trimmed back.
  • Speaking of entertainment in general things seemed quiet around the parks. The Golden Horseshoe stage is clear again but nothing was scheduled there Friday. At Disneyland everything wrapped up by 6pm except for one Dapper Dans set at 6:15pm. Over at DCA there were a couple choices in the 7pm hour. Downtown Disney had a band on the main stage and one at Splitsville so there were a couple choices out there. I really miss the All-American College Band and the offerings at Carnation/Fantasy Faire and Tomorrowland Terrace. Disneyland summer nights were always alive with choices and now there is nothing.
  • Today I grabbed a bite to eat at Flo's. A much better mobile order experience with the order coming up in about a minute, think it may have been near record time. I opted to eat outside which was a bit challenging as the wind was blowing leaves and other stuff out of the trees over the tables. It was peaceful to sit outside with Radiator Springs Racers being down the entire time I ate. I did see a couple of CMs walking the track but no signs of the attraction opening quickly. It did reopen later in the evening but I missed when so not sure how long it was down for.
  • I had a mixed experience at Toy Story Midway Mania! today. The posted wait time was 30 minutes, it took me 14 only. So that was great. I had a good game going into the final portion of the final game. As my tram moved through the games we paused/stopped several times. This is not uncommon. I did notice at one point very few other trams in sight as we moved from game to game. When I arrived at the mine shaft final the projection was not aligned and my gun stopped firing. I noticed the group next to me had the same experience. So I received 500 points only for the final stop. I tried to tell a cast member about the experience while exiting and they were more focused on directing me to the exit and the next group in than hearing what I was actually saying. I probably should have stopped to make the point known but decided to just keep going. I had in my mind that there was a pizza truck at the exit of the attraction. I looked around and found nothing.. so I cheated and consulted the Internet and found out there was not one. Seems odd not to have one at the film's attraction!
  • Stopped by the LEGO Store in Downtown Disney and saw the 3D Printed LEGO brick made out of meteorite dust. The concept is really interesting to me. The display was a bit under whelming and the store was a mad house when I stopped. It is there through September so I will have to visit again during a less busy time of day.
  • The Downtown Disney West Side projects continue. Since the last time I walked through Din Tai Fung has opened. Having all those construction walls gone really opens up the area. The interior of the restaurant looked on the small side from what I could see walking by. There was a good size line of guests waiting to get in at 8:30pm. Across the way the Parkside Market is inching along. There is scaffolding with a scrim up around most of it now so seeing progress is harder. The shops next door to it look to be nearing completion. Guessing that is the next section to open in the near future.
  • I closed out my evening watching the Doo-Wah Riders perform on the stage by the lawn. The venue feels a bit awkward to me. People sit around the perimeter and if you go stand in the middle you feel like you are blocking people's view. But there really is no other choice unless you sit on the lawn.


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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

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

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