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07/15/11 - 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.

07/15/11 - My thoughts and observations from Fridays visit to the Disneyland Resort

Hello all,

I decided to brave the Carmageddon weekend and make a visit to the Disneyland Resort on Friday. For those that do not know the reference, Carmageddon is what the media has been referring to this weekend as because of the closure of a key stretch of the 405. This stretch of Freeway is about 45 miles from the Disneyland Resort, but I have to drive right by it to reach home from the parks. Luckily it seemed a lot of people listened and stayed home. Traffic was actually better than usual for me Friday night.

The parks themselves are in full summer mode with plenty of entertainment and other offerings. The crowds were about normal with average wait times. The longest waits were for Star Tours and Splash Mountain with both peaking in the 80 minute range. Most attractions though were under 30 minutes. Over at DCA Soarin' was 45 and Toy Story its normal 40 minutes the couple times I walked by.

Disneyland Celebrated its 56th Anniversary/Birthday on Sunday afternoon with a brief ceremony in Townsquare at 2:30pm that featured quite a few characters, a replaying of the dedication speech and a Happy Birthday sing a long. We may have a guest update and some video to share later this week.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

  • The big news of the day was the opening of the new entrance to Disney California Adventure. I really like the new entrance. It gives the park more refined presence in the Esplanade and I think it will make a great entry into Buena Vista Street. This new entrance was inspired by the Pan Pacific Auditorium (and for you Disney Hollywood Studios fans you will recognize it and feel right at home). If you would like to learn a little more about the project click here for a Disney Parks Blog posting. The new entrance is much grander than the original structure and seems to be more open too. They also debuted new turnstiles within the entrance that are slightly tweaked in look and feel (and I am assuming functionality too). For those of you visiting the park over the next few days/weeks enjoy the easy entrance to the park, because come August a new round of walls are slated to go up as the heavy construction for Buena Vista Street kicks into gear. Once that happens the plan is for those entering the park to make a right and walk behind Soarin and enter from the runway between Soarin and the Grand Californian. Also note according to the Parks Blog posting the Golden Gate is going to start coming down on Sunday. Lastly note that the Monorail will have reduced operating hours during the construction so keep that in mind when planning your visits.

  • First stop for me after my construction shots was the Phineas and Ferb's Rockin' Rollin' Dance Party. This show started last weekend. It is approx 15 minutes (well the DJ makes a big point about 14 and a half minutes) and features a couple of dancers, the two characters, and a DJ. The show is exactly what the title says, a dance party. Kids are able to join the gang and dance to several songs and all those that participated really seemed to be having a great time. One note, I thought the show took place in kind of an awkward spot from a crowd control point of view right at the intersection of a couple major walkways next to a new attraction's entrance/exit.

  • I also stopped by the Redwood Creek area for the Wilderness Explorer Ceremony since I had not made it in there the last few visits. This show boiled down to a long character introduction to me. It looked like the kids in the audience liked it, but not nearly as much as the dance party kids did. I thought the exit strategy of trying to get everyone to walk by the character and photopass person was interesting. It made it a bit of a challenge for those that did not want to wait for a picture to get out.

  • With each passing week Cars Land is moving along and looking great. I am really looking forward to just hanging out in the area and soaking in the details. I am not sure if the photos I have been posting really do the scale and scope of this project justice.

  • Speaking of details as I mentioned in photos the lighting is still being installed and debugged in Paradise Gardens but even with the glitches the area looks great at night.

  • Not much to report from Disneyland this trip. The park turned 56 on Sunday and was in regular summer mode except with the oddity of a major attraction going down for some scheduled work, the Matterhorn, for the next several months and remodeling of the Emporium going on with several entrances/exits blocked off and a good portion of the store behind walls too.

  • Ate dinner at Taste Pilots and I picked the wrong line... all the people around me ended up ordering individually and paying with Disney Dollars (seems the entire group was give two $10 Disney Dollar bills to pay for their food) and the CM working the register was slow with the change. Then when I finally did order my pass did not scan (which is normal) but this time instead of allowing the CM to type it in they needed to get a manager to over ride it. I suggested they just use on of my friends passes since it was the same discount and was given a look like I was crazy. One of these days the passes will actually scan for the discounts. It has only been 18 months or so since they came out! Has anyone out there with a Premier Pass ever had it scan for the dining discount? The button showed up last year on the registers but mine, nor anybody I know, has successfully had their pass scanned at a dining location.

  • Noticed they were letting guests line up in the extended queue are for the Little Mermaid attraction for alternate World of Color viewing again, but not until close to show time. I walked by around 8pm and there was no one in the area and the CMs seemed to be keeping people moving, but when I walked back by about 8:45 the area had guests sitting and waiting for the show.

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.

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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