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07/23/11 - My thoughts and observations from Saturdays 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.

07/23/11 - My thoughts and observations from Saturdays visit to the Disneyland Resort

Hello all,

Saturday was a nice relaxing day in the parks for me. The weather was very mild topping out just shy of 80 with an ok breeze most of the day. I had a very short shot list and just wanted to roam the parks and enjoy some of the summer entertainment. We arrived at the resort early and spent all day. The wait times in mid afternoon were what you would expect on a warm summer afternoon with Grizzly, Splash, Star Tours well over an hour. The other E-tickets were at the hour or more mark too some of the time. DCA was especially hard hit with Screamin down all day, Tower seemed to have longer than usual waits when I strolled by. Overall the parks felt like a regular summer day to me.

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 incident on Screamin Friday evening where someone apparently lost a backpack and it fell onto the track and caused the ride to shut down. In this processone of the trains got stuck in the valley after the loop. It did not have enough momentum for some reason to make it out. There were shots on the local news of riders being evacuated by Disney and the fire department. Note I also heard Toy Story was shut down during this time too (since the evacuations were basically on its roof). On Saturday they were manually winching (appeared to be basically a chain block type set up) to get the train up and out of the valley. This slow and labor intensive process took most of the day as the train inched up the hill. There were two workers pulling levers and you could barely make out the trains movement. They were really working hard out in that hot sun up on the hill. By the evening the train was gone as was the other one that was stopped on the big lift hill so that means they were able to clear the track. On Sunday Disneyland reported the ride was running. I was surprised they had to manually winch it out. No power or even power assist to get it up the hill.

  • The other noteworthy news item of the day is the Golden Gate Bridge at DCAs entrance has had both towers removed. Over the course of the week the cables started to disappear then sections of the two towers. Saturday morning all that remained was the flat part of the bridge. It really gives you a decent idea of what the new sight lines will be. I thought it really opened up the area and things just felt a bit off to me. I did not make it on the Monorail but having those cables and towers gone will sure make it easier to get pictures (until they put up tarps or something to block the view). As I mentioned in the update the Engine-Ears Toy Store will close on Sunday. Greetings from California is slated to close later in August.

  • Speaking of the Monorail.. they only had one train in operation again. I only saw Blue which meant some long lines unfortunately. Wonder when they will have two trains in working order again?

  • Ate lunch out on the Wharf, well some headed for the Cafe and bread bowls. I ended up hiking back, grabbing a corn dog, then joining them. I was surprised I made it back to find a table before they had ordered. They said that ever register inside was open, it was just crowded. The rest of the counters looked to be empty for the most part. Wonder how the new candy store is doing? Every time I have walked by no one has been around.

  • We stopped by Aladdin since I had not been there in a while. Overall still a decent show but I think it is time for something new. I would really like to see a concert style like Blast! return but guessing with the popularity of the stage show still Aladdin is here to stay for a while and will eventually be swapped out with another one.

  • The afternoon was spent hanging out at Disneyland and watching the All American College Band. Since Fridays they do not play there regular sets, instead opting for swing dancing sets at Plaza Gardens, I needed to go on a Saturday to see them. If you have never seen the band I do recommend them, some great music and fun entertainment.



  • Hiked out to the Disneyland Hotel to check on the construction and all the demo work appears to be done and they are starting to piece things back together. The new dining building facade looks interesting... curious how it will all go together.

  • In case you missed it we are running a contest with the Disney Store for a Vinylmation figure from the new Robots line. Click here to check out the blog posting on the new line and the contest. Entries are due by midnight (PST) July 27, 2011.

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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