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7/17/15 - Thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort on Disneylands 60th Birthday
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7/17/15 - Thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort on Disneylands 60th Birthday

Hello everyone,

Friday marked 60 years since Disneyland held its press day and officially opened its gates. I decided to venture down to Anaheim for the full day to see the festivities and enjoy the park with friends and family. Given all the hype for the kick off and other Disney events the actual anniversary day was really low key. The weather was mild for July starting off in the mid 60s and foggy then reaching the mid 80s and thanks to no cloud cover it felt hot in the sun and cooling down to the low 70s by the time I headed back to my car.

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • I was prepared for a large crowd and long waits, just as I had experienced on the 50th. This time around though they never materialized. As I exited the freeway about 6:40am I was expecting to see traffic backed up and instead found everything flowing smoothly and no delays at all. The by pass for Ball Road was open and there were no cars in line at the toll plaza. I was directed up to the roof in the second row maybe a dozen cars from the escalators. I was on a tram heading for the park in less than 10 minutes from exiting the freeway. The crowd seemed to have a peak around the 10am event then it returned to a normal summer day maybe even on the light side. It did pick up again for Paint the Night but it seemed on par with what we experienced on the 3rd.. nothing extraordinary. It was great! I think a combination of events led to this pleasant experience. First and foremost the resort was ready for the crowds. They had plans in place starting with the earlier than announced opening and they executed them well from what I experienced. Having the merchandise release and line the day before helped to offset that large group of guests. A blockout day for all but the Premium and Premier passes. The May 24 hour event drew a large crowd and no major new openings since everything opened back in May. Some guests may have been a bit leery about visiting after the troubles of the 24 hour day in May. I think all this combined to ease the crowd.

  • I was then prepared to see a mass of guests in Downtown Disney as I had experienced on the 50th and instead was greeted by waving cast members and photo ops along the walkway near World of Disney toward security. It was a great way to start the day! Security had no wait at all and the lines to get into either park were nonexistent. It was really surprising and we were all afraid to say anything as we walked right in. Inside Disneyland we assumed they were holding everyone at the end of the street so we slowly made our way into the park then realized they had opened early and you could go anywhere you wanted and most attractions were open already.

  • The commemorative OC Register, I was There Buttons, and park maps were great! I really enjoyed reading through the OC Register. The commemorative park map with the original park map inside was great as always. I thought it was interesting the Disney California Adventure map contained the same Disneyland Map inside. I was really hoping for a parking lot map or property map instead. I thought that would have been really fun. But guess your average guest would have not liked that. The time schedules were not unique for the day and some of the 60th festivities did not make the list, for example the 10am ceremony did not for some odd reason. But the pre parade did.

  • I circled the park opting to skip the walk on waits so I could see what was going on. It is hard to beat walking around an uncrowded park on a comfortable morning. One of my favorite times and I really enjoyed having the time to roam.

  • The new Diamond Celebration Photo Spot by Haunted Mansion opened Friday. This is the last one in Disneyland. The placement was a bit awkward to me, right between the exit of Haunted Mansion and entrance to Splash Mountains queue. But I later learned this allowed for them to use the old Splash Mountain Fast Pass area as the queue so guests were not in the walkway. It seemed to work really well and traffic was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be when I first saw the location. Over at Disney California Adventure the last photo spot was supposed to open there Friday too in Bugs Land. We looked around and even spoke to a couple of cast members and no one had any info beyond what the papers said that it was supposed to be there and ope Friday. Guess it was delayed for some reason.

  • Throughout the park there were four 1950s photo ops. Critter Country featured the Mine Train, Big Thunder Trail a Stagecoach, Toontown the Skyway, and Tomorrowland a classic shot of the entrance. DCA featured two. The parking lot (my favorite!) and the original Disneyland Marquee another great one in my book. These were really fun to see and had a steady stream of guests all day. My understanding is they were just for the 60th. I did not see anyone post if they were still up on Saturday, anyone know?

  • To mark the birthday Disney distributed cup cakes at both parks and all three of their hotels to guests. There were several locations in each park and I checked in on them throughout the day and each time found a large number of cast members and cup cakes on hand. It seems Disney was ready for a very large crowd with over 100,000 cupcakes on hand. They were not all needed and by late afternoon cast members were really pushing them. In DCA I walked by a location and they were almost begging us to take one. We did since we had not had one in that park yet then they said you have two hands take one for each. We declined. Also found it great to see they had cast members walking around with trays of cupcakes passing them out to guests sitting on benches and at one point in the Toy Story queue even.

  • At 10am there was a ceremony to commemorate the 60th Anniversary held in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle. It was broadcast throughout the resort on LCD screens to help distribute crowd. I found a spot in the hub almost directly across from Frontierland. So I was back a long way from the stage. The view was not optimal for pictures or video but you could see ok. If the stage would have been a couple feet higher it would have been better though. The ceremony itself was typical with acknowledgements, a new outreach program announced, and then Richard Sherman performing. I thought it was a nice tribute to the park. I would have liked to have had an additional song and thought opening with the dedication speech with no real intro was awkward. All in all I enjoyed it. I also wish they would have replayed it on the screens and/or webcast it. Disney has clips from it available but not the entire event. I think they missed an opportunity to webcast it. It seems there would have been interest from those that could not attend.

  • I was a little surprised they did not hold a rededication moment in Town Square this year. I always found those ceremonies to be a nice commemoration of the event in the afternoon.

  • A new version of the Disneyland Band debuted on Friday to kick off a new chapter. The original band format ended its run on Thursday. The new band is more in the style of the All-American College Band and the international Disneyland Bands I saw in Hong Kong and Tokyo earlier this year. They march more, have quicker paced drills, and a more modern play list in their sets. If you have followed the All-American College Band in recent years you will see several familiar faces in the new band. Several alumns of the program have come back to Disneyland to start the new band. They had four sets listed for Friday, 11:30, 12:30, 1:45 and 3:05. No location info was given and the cast members at the info kiosk had very little to go on too. The 11:30am set was at the Train Station in Town Square. The 12:30 started off at the Castle then moved down Main Street. I missed this set since I was at lunch. The 1:45 and 3:05 sets start off at the Frontierland entrance then proceed to the area in front of the Golden Horseshoe. The play list for these last two sets were the same on Friday. I really enjoyed the band. They are different than the original. I will miss the original but this is an entertaining new version. Unlike other groups that disappeared with no replacements or sub par alternatives this time Disneyland came up with a good solution from my perspective. It will be interesting to see how this group evolves and the general reaction to them. If you are in the park try to catch one of their sets. Out of the three I saw I would recommend the 11:30 one. Wonder if after the College Band ends its summer run if their schedule will shift and set list expand?

  • Prior to the Soundsational Parade there was a Disneyland Cast Member Cavalcade featuring several opening day cast members and representatives from the current cast plus some characters that made its way up the parade route. This procession included a handful of vehicles and a number of cheerful cast members that were well received by those lining the parade route. I was not sure exactly what to expect and I was figuring a couple cars rolling by. This was a nice tribute and great to see some of these Disney Legends and other cast members. They all looked to really be enjoying themselves as they passed by.

  • A new Mickey Quest kicked off this week in both parks. For a fee you purchase a map with clues on it. You get a lanyard and prize as part of the package. I did not do a quest but briefly saw one from a friend and snapped a few pictures. Maybe next trip I will get some more details and pictures.

  • Two new sippers made their debut on Friday. Chernabog from Fantasia/Fantasmic at Disneyland and World of Color one at Disney California Adventure. They both feature Made with Magic technology which means they light up and the lights can sync with the shows and other devices. The price point is $28 with a beverage of your choice, $3 or so less if you just want the sipper. I saw a couple during Paint the Night, almost on par with the number of Glow with the Show Ears. I did see quite a few more of the Made with Magic Paint Brushes and guests really into the interaction on both sides of the street. Cast Members also really seemed to enjoy interacting with the brushes. From what I have observed the biggest barrier to these really seems to be the price point. All the Made with the Show devices are pricey for most guests.

  • Both parks were hosting 50s themed dance parties in the evening. Disneyland had Scot Bruce playing Elvis music at the Tomorrowland Terrace and Carthay Circle had a stage set up for a band. I never made it over to DCA after dark to check them out. I did watch part of a Elvis set and it seemed to be his normal set. Not much extra going on while I was there. This is not a bad thing I always enjoy his sets but I was expecting more.

  • I closed out my evening with Paint the Night and Disneyland Forever. Before Disneyland Before they played a brief announcement to mark the 60th which I thought was a nice touch. Was curious if that meant something else would happen, nothing did. Leaving the park was the usual shuffle. Nothing out of the ordinary and traffic coming in actually seemed lighter than regular Friday nights.

  • Do you visit our pictorial updates using a mobile device? If so we would like your feedback. I have created a beta of a more mobile version of our Disneyland Picture sets at https://disneygeek.com/mobile Please give it a try and share your thoughts.

Interesting Web Finds/Notes:

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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