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7/14/23 - 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.

7/14/23 - Disneyland Resort

Hello Everyone!

I spent a relaxing Friday afternoon/evening roaming around the Disneyland Resort. The weather was on the warmer side topping out in the upper 80s with a slight breeze. In the shade it was comfortable but in the sun it felt hot. The crowds were average for summer with wait times being great at times, if your timing was good. For example Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway had a posted wait of 20 minutes so I stopped by and it turned out to be 10 minutes. Pirates had a posted wait of 15 and it turned out to be a walk on. Other times by both were in the 30-45 minute range.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • The drive to Anaheim today was terrible. Seemed every freeway I wanted to take had a problem. In the end it took nearly 2 hours to reach the parking structure, usually its 90 minutes or less. My driving luck was so bad that I choose a line for parking and 3 of the 4 cars in front of me had extended conversations with the cast member so my line moved substantially slower than all the others. My luck turned as I picked a good lane and was directed into a decent parking spot on the Mickey level of the parking structure.
  • Started my visit at the Disneyland Hotel. There was a lot of activity at the hotel with some sort of dance event going on so groups of dancers with medals coming and going. The new Discovery Tower for the Villas at the Disneyland Hotel has most of the exterior facade facing the central courtyard finished. It looks like the concept art and still seems odd to me. The colors and design do not match the other three towers in any way and it looks like a different hotel sharing the space.
  • There is a National Geographic Shark Fest photo op at the hotel. This seemed a little odd to me. Seems like it should have been in Downtown Disney not at the hotel to get more visibility.
  • Downtown Disney felt a little busy for a hot Friday afternoon. Maybe the construction makes it feel more crowded? You can see what looks to be the new stage area rising above the wall on the west side project. The other buildings look to be moving along too. The Monorail is closed for the next several weeks so we will not be able to get a good look at the work for a while. Today was my first time seeing the new lawn area (The Alley) at Splitsville. It looks like a nice summer location. In the mid afternoon with no shade it was not in use but I am guessing as the sun sets it is lively and a nice addition to the area.
  • I took a stroll around Disneyland to check out the various projects:
    • Adventureland still features walls and a closed men's room when you enter the land. Work continues on the water pipe repair project. There is no ETA on when it will be finished. The walls seemed to be pushed back slightly, the bottleneck to enter/exit the area was not as bad as last visit.
    • The Adventureland Treehouse showed no real signs of visible progress. The work is taking place behind scrims again and at ground level blocked by the wall. So no indication of how close this project is to completion. Disneyland has yet to share a date beyond saying in 2023.
    • Tiana's Palace looks to be on the final stretch with signage visible and more finishing details being applied.
    • At the New Orleans Square Train Station the work continues on the building damaged by the fire last December. It is behind scrims so no visible progress can be seen.
    • Further along Tiana's Bayou Adventure work was hard to tell any substantial visible progress. The scaffolding is obstructing the view for the most part and you can only see a small fraction of the project with most the work happening inside the show building.
    • Passing through Fantasyland the Red Rose Taverne and Mr. Toad look the same. This week Alice in Wonderland is closed and behind walls. You could smell paint from the project, but could not really see anything.
    • In Toontown the splash pad at Donald's is behind walls. Hopefully this fix will allow them to open the area soon.
  • While walking around the park today I cross paths a number of characters. It seemed every place I walked I encountered one. The cast members were great and would pause or wave to the camera. I did find it funny that the one place I did not see any characters was Avengers Campus which is usually where you are most likely to run into one.
  • Speaking of Avengers Campus the gift shop project at Avengers Headquarters shows no visible progress. The hole cut in the side of the building looked about the same (you can only see a sliver of the top portion so not much to go on though).
  • San Fransokyo Square continues to move toward completion. Disney has announced it will be fully open by the end of August. The drinking fountains have returned and include a water fill station now. Scaffolding is removed from the Bakery building and there are several temporary/placeholder signs up around the area. No real visible progress on the gift shop or meet and greet is visible with the walls. The new beer window looks to be nearing completion. You could see lights on inside the area today.
  • I stopped to eat at Flo's V-8 Cafe and was pleased to find they had ice today. Last summer it seemed every hot/warmer day they had limited ice and would not give you any with your order unless you bought a beverage. Hopefully this is a sign the issue from last year has been resolved and they will have normal operations as the weather heats up.
  • Rogers: The Musical has been dark most of this week and will be until Tuesday due to the Haunted Mansion movie premiere taking over the Hyperion. This seemed to be rather poor scheduling to have a week blocked off out of such a short run for a heavily promoted show.
  • I had some bad luck with the Mark Twain Riverboat today. I spotted guests on the upper deck as I was walking through New Orleans Square so I timed it to be in Frontierland to board the next time around. As I boarded I saw they put up ropes to block the top deck. So I disembarked. Later in the afternoon I stopped by again and the top deck was roped off. Then in the evening as I approached I saw guests on the top so I thought my luck had changed. Turned out you could walk around the Mark Twain but it was not departing for cruises. The cast member said it probably would not until the next day due to an issue.
  • As I walked around the park it was still a but disappointing the lack of summer entertainment in the evening at both parks. There was nothing going on as the sun set in either park. Downtown Disney did have a live performance but with the reduced viewing space due to the construction I decided not to go out there.
  • I closed out my day with Wondrous Journeys including fireworks. My luck has been horrible with this show. Seems every time I am able to stay late there is a wind or weather issue with the show and they switched to projections only or limited pyrotechnics. So this was one of the few times I have been able to see the full show.

Here are some recent posts to the Geek's Blog:

Disney Related Press Releases

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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