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7/19/13 - My thoughts and observations from Friday at 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.

7/19/13 - My thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort

Hello all,

I was on the fence as to whether or not to go to the parks on Friday. The only item on my picture list was the Dapper Dan Limited Time Magic event since I missed it the first time around, but other than that nothing. Some friends were going and the week at work was long so I decided to go and happy I did. Enjoyed a leisurely afternoon roaming the parks and taking in the entertainment. I counted 15 different shows/performances I saw. And only one attractions, the Golden Zephyr this trip. The crowds were on the mild side and the weather was pleasant too, temps started out in the low 80s and dropped to the low 70s. I really did not watch the wait times this week so cannot comment on them. Also you could tell it was a slow day in the parks when my photo total was under 400 for the day.. seems like it has been a long time since I took so few pictures on a trip. Kind of nice to see the park outside the viewfinder.

Jason

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • My trip started off on the wrong foot.. I was directed up to the roof of the Mickey and Friends garage and they started filling the 5th floor two or three cars behind me. So I crawled up to a spot. They then directed me into the first spot at the top of the ramp and the car on the other side was over the line so the back portion of my car was in the traffic lane. I got out, looked around, and figured the odds of getting my car run into as people made the turn leaving were too high for my comfort. So had to hang around till the CMs all moved on then I moved the car down a couple rows to a vacated spot.

  • First stop of the day was Disneyland to take in the Dapper Dans of Disneyland who were performing their Original Boy Band medley this week as part of the Limited Time Magic promotion. The event consists of a medley of Boy Band songs to close out their set (see video below). I thought they Dans did a good job and the crowd was entertained. I was not/am not a big boy band fan so I was not overly impressed/interested. Thought it was interesting this was the first Limited Time Magic event to repeat itself at Disneyland. I would have thought the Long Lost Friends, like they did at WDW would have been.



  • I think the team managing this promotion are really doing a crummy job of execution of the events. Most guests have no concept of what is going on and even little things like in park promotion has been poor. At least this week the Dapper Dans made the time guide (last week Happy Hans did not) but they did not bother to put show times or locations.. it just said Main Street USA. Inside the guide it lists the set times but again no location so you had no idea if they were by the Fire House, Market House, or Coke Corner. Seems locations and times would really help if the goal is to get guests to experience the events.

  • Caught a showing of Mickey and the Magical Map. Showed up a couple minutes before show time and was able to find a really good spot. I would say the theater was only 2/3 the way full. So if you are thinking of seeing the show and worried about showing up late and not finding a seat, so far that has not been an issue, outside the opening weekend. I am guessing once all the summer block outs are lifted there may be more of a crowd for a while.
  • While ordering dinner at the Village Haus the Cast Members working the registers were playing a game. They had a checklist and were asking guests where they were from with the objective to be the first to get all 50 states marked off. Not sure how long they had been at it but mine only needed three states.. North & South Dakota and Vermont. Interesting side note.. I was explaining this to some others in our group while watching the Jambalaya Jazz in New Orleans Square and a guest next to me overheard and she was from North Dakota and lived in South Dakota now.. she was going to stop by and see if they were still going.

  • Did a circle of California Adventure and thought there were a fair number of guests roaming around but the lines were short. There was no wait for the Little Mermaid, we literally walked right onto the Golden Zephyr.. up the steps and into a waiting rocket without breaking stride. Toy Story was only 35 min, Screamin 15, and the Fun Wheel 20 as we walked by.

  • Was walking down Sunset Blvd. and noticed they were setting up for the aerialist act at the Mad T Party so hung around to see it in the daylight. The pictures still did not come out that well and the others who had not seen it agreed it was different and had a hard time saying if that was good or bad. We all agreed that it just feels odd to walk through the Mad T Party during the day. I made a second pass through after dark and it makes a big difference in the feel of the party to me. But with sunset being around 8pm and park closing at 10pm I understand starting at 6:00pm.

  • I hung out along Route 66 as the neon came on this evening. There seemed to be a problem as the audio in the area stopped for several minutes before the show audio started and the lights came on. Still a great moment if you have time I would recommend it.

  • I attempted to watch the World of Color from the standby area. I showed up about 5 minutes before the start of the show and had a decent spot.. until a group in front of me had a dozen or so family members show up late and try to squeeze in. Not too bad.. but then they lifted several of their kids up on the shoulders.. again not bad I could align myself and see.. then they held up cameras and iPads.. it was frustrating but since I had seen the show so many times it bugged me but if this was my one and only chance to see the show I would have had no idea what was going on. Also can anyone tell me why you would take the time and effort (not to mention being rude and blocking the view) to hold an iPad up to record the show but then not pay attention and end up recording blackness for over half your video.. plus I it meant I could not even watch the show on the screen!

  • Since the crowds were so light I stayed through the Pirates segment then walked over to Disneyland for Magical. I made it to the Cinema as the lights were going down.

  • Two tram stop notes.. first the crowd heading to the trams was heavy as usual after Magical. The lines for the first tram area were long.. probably a 2-3 tram wait. But if you kept walking to the second load area you could walk right on, which is what I did. Second note is as we pulled away in the area between the stops there were a handful of Cast Members with Mickey Gloves on waving to the trams. This reminded me of WDW.. thought it was a nice touch and engaged them a bit vs how they usually just stood around talking to each other.

  • Note: Earlier this week, on Wednesday, Disneyland Celebrated its 58th Anniversary. Unfortunately I was unable to attend. If anyone did and would like to do a guest update featuring pictures/videos/thoughts from the day drop me an email.

  • I finally went to see the Lone Ranger this weekend. It was a bit of challenge to find it playing somewhere.. the closest couple of theaters did not have it anymore. The showing I went to was early afternoon and there were only 6 people in the theater.. 4 of which were my group. I thought the movie was ok, not the best but not as bad as everyone said it would be. I thought they could have cut a good 30-45 minutes out and it would have been a stronger film. It seemed to wander from time to time. There were some fun one liners and action sequences and the filming locations were impressive. I was surprised by the violence in the film. The number of people that were killed and how was much more than any PG-13 film I can remember. I am curious if they would have found a way to make the film for say $150 million or so if it would have fared better. With the big budget and hype came big expectations that it just did not deliver on.

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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