home > Columns > Geekspeaks >
7/15/22 - 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.

7/15/22 - Disneyland Resort

Hello Everyone!

Friday was a relaxing day at the Disneyland Resort for me. The weather was picture perfect topping out in the low 80s with a comfortable breeze and cooling down to the upper 60s by the time I left. The parks felt moderately crowded and wait times for summer were on the reasonable side with most well under an hour most of the afternoon. As I walked around I noticed the number of guests wearing masks was considerably higher than the previous couple of visits. It was still a minority of guests but noticeably increasing.

A couple calendar items to mention this week. Sunday Disneyland turns 67. I will not be there so celebrated the opening on Friday. I do not see anything on the schedule to mark the day but am assuming they will do the dedication replay moment at some point. This past week Disneyland announced that Disneyland Forever and the Main Street Electrical Parade will end their summer season on September 1st, so plan accordingly if you want to see them or avoid them. Halloween starts Sept. 2nd at the resort.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • I took it as a good sign when I decided to skip the Ball Rd. overpass and I managed to make it through the light (with a car to spare behind me). Then no wait at the parking tollbooth lane I choose. Unfortunately I was directed into a spot near the end of an aisle again, slightly better than the last few times by a lettered column. One note on parking when I left in the evening almost all the preferred spots were empty again and the aisles around me were all single parked again. Also interesting the exit arrow was directing all cars through the Mickey and Friends garage. I prefer exiting this way but it has not been that way on recent visits.
  • The former Downtown Disney parking lot on the north side that you walk by from the parking structure that has been used as cast member parking is now fenced off. Most of the trees were cut down and the stumps and other landscaping were being removed by teams on Friday when I walked by. Disney has not announced any projects for the area yet. The fence circles the entire lot. So if you are walking to the Downtown Disney security you walk right along it. To reach the hotel you can do the loop by Downtown Disney security or you can go out to Magic Way and use the walkway by the parking lot entrance to save yourself some steps.
  • Stopped by the Disneyland Hotel to check out the Disney Vacation Club Tower construction. The tower is now up to the 7th floor in spots. Scaffolding is going up around the lower floors and inside you can see utility work is underway in most of the floors. The lower floors have steel studs starting to frame the spaces inside. There were also a couple smaller renovation projects underway at the Adventure tower and something on the upper floor of the Fantasy tower too. The one impact I saw was the walkway between the Adventure Tower and pool was blocked off with a security cast member asking you to go through the building or around.
  • I stopped by the Lightyear meet and greet in Tomorrowland for the first time. Captain Lightyear comes out in front of a backdrop in what used to be the FastPass distribution area for Space Mountain. The queue forms on the right side of the walkway. There are a couple small signs on poles and then some markers on the ground to indicate the queue. It seems this leads to a fair amount of guest confusion. The few minutes I was in the area the cast members asked every group that got in line if they were there for Captain Lightyear or Space Mountain. Most were confused by the question, some asking who Captain Lightyear was. Then most moved out of the queue and followed instructions on where to find the Space Mountain line.
  • We decided to grab a burger at Flo's V-8 Cafe in Cars Land today. I have not eaten there in quite a while. The burger is the same price as Galactic Grill and Hungry Bear and now less expensive than the double burger at Smokejumpers. I thought it was better than my recent orders from those other locations. I am not a huge fan of steak fries, I prefer shoe string, but they were hot and many were crispy which I prefer. We opted to eat on the back patio and there were only two other groups in the area, plenty of shade and a nice breeze so it worked out well.
  • I had some character spotting luck today in Avengers Campus. I had not seen the Scarlet Witch yet and managed to see Mighty Thor too. Both were meeting near the parade gate close to the Guardian's exit area. This seemed to be an awkward location to me. It is really out of the way from the main hub of Avengers Campus activity. Thor and Mighty Thor were together when I spotted them and they were interacting with guests in a free form nature, meaning no queue and just inviting people out of the crowd for pictures. I thought this was a good interaction for most. Those that wanted a picture seemed to be getting one and others were able to chat or take pictures of the two super heroes without waiting in a line.
  • While walking through Paradise Gardens Park I noticed some chalk art being created. A dimensional piece for World of Color was created near the Little Mermaid extended queue. My first pass by they were putting the finishing touches on it and a Disney camera crew was there. They had the area blocked off and you could not get a proper picture showing the effect. I circled back in the evening and was able to get a much better view. There were no signs or indications why the artwork was there. Also in the evening no extra lights were on it so it was a little odd.
  • My good character luck continued on my stroll through Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. I crossed paths with Boba Fett and saw him walk by Black Spire Outpost then through the Marketplace. He was out walking by himself and interacting with guests as he moved along.
  • I spent most of my afternoon/evening moving between performances of the 2022 Disneyland Resort All-American College Band. I always enjoy the band so when I can I try to take in as many sets as possible. Since my last visit they have added their concert set. It is at 9:00pm on the Hollywood Backlot Stage. This is less than ideal for the band and guests. Having to compete with the night time spectaculars that are going on at the same time makes it hard to draw a crowd. Then being in a fairly low traffic area does not help either. The good news is there was plenty of seating with many benches completely empty.
  • The Mickey and Friends tram stop had walls up on the main walkway from the stop to the Esplanade. In the evening when exiting this made it a little awkward. They were directing all guests into the queue that was set up, but it was only feeding a single zone on the north side. The 2nd zone on the north side was drop off only when I was there. After going through the queue I noticed they had the first zone open on the south/Downtown Disney side too, but there was no indication of this. The zone I was at was backed up two trams and growing quickly while that zone was dispatching trams with empty seats. Hopefully the project on the walkway wraps up quickly.
  • Disneyland Forever had not started as I walked through the Esplanade after 9:30pm. I thought about heading into the park to try and catch it but figured my luck I would enter and it would be canceled at that time so I opted to head for the trams. As I boarding the fireworks started of course. So I listened to the booms as we waited at the stop and drove to the structure. I saw the finale from the escalator heading up to my parking level, so I did managed to catch a few glimpses of the 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.

Send comments, questions, any other email to: disneygeek@disneygeek.com
Back to previous page

 

Quick Note

Check out the geek speaks archive for past updates.

 

Interested in Helping out?

If you are a fellow disneygeek and interested in sharing your insights, pictures, thoughts drop us an email here we are always looking for contributors.