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7/25/14 - 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.

7/25/14 - My thoughts and observations from Fridays visit to the Disneyland Resort.

Hello everyone,

Friday was a warm afternoon at the Disneyland Resort. When I arrived it was pushing 90 and only cooled down into the 70s by the time I left (I know us Southern Californians are weather snobs and complain a lot). The crowds in the parks were not too bad. The usual suspects had lines over an hour (Racers, Splash, etc..) but most were manageable for summer. And with some timing/luck you could find substantially shorter waits around the parks.

Jason

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • I started off the afternoon with a walk through Disney California Adventure since last trip I did not get to the park until after dark. As you saw in the pictures not too much to report. Some minor projects/changes, but nothing too noteworthy.

  • I thought it was interesting the process they were using to bring the Radiator Springs Racers back online. The attraction had been down for an extended period of time. The cast member said over an hour. They led guests through the extended stand by queue but held them before heading down toward the main queue. They then let FastPass guests fill their queue. While this was happening they kept announcing to the standby guests that even though the line looks short it was going to be a 1-2 hour wait. The plan was to only allow a dozen or so guests through the standby line every 10 minutes. They also said they were not going to open the single rider line for at least 20 minutes. The first part of this makes sense. Clear the FastPass line and warn the stand by guests they were not going to move. But the second part of not using the single rider seems odd to me. Cars were passing by with one or two empty seats consistently. Seems that would have helped with the waits.

  • One last Racers note.. while near the entrance found it really interesting that a tour group (probably 20-30 guests) showed up and was trying to use the single rider line. Guess they read the strategy and built it into their plan for the day. They seemed frustrated when they found out it was closed.

  • Speaking of tour group, there seemed to be more than usual on Friday.. or maybe they just stood out to me more. Most were non-english speaking. They seemed split between South American countries and Asia.

  • I did find it poor that there was no notification of the cancelled (or maybe really delayed) All-American College Band set on the Backlot Stage. There were quite a few guests and no sign of the band, no announcement, and no sign in the 10 minutes or so I hung around. I may have missed an announcement but given that there was a fair number of guests seating I am guessing I did not.

  • I made my way over to Disneyland next. Thought it was interesting that as soon as I entered Town Square a loud noise filled the air and overpowered the audio. I am guessing it was related to the backstage construction of the new walkways. This made for a jarring and unusual walk down Main Street USA. Interesting how you throw one detail out of order it really changes the experience. Or at least it did for me.


  • I noted the Frozen Pre-Parade had made the times guide finally. I thought it was interesting they did not say which parade so I took this to mean it was now running before both. This turned out to be true, I saw it before the 6:30pm parade.

  • Looking at the times guide thought it was interesting to note they did not include the Golden Horseshoe show times this week. Instead it says to see the venue (they were posted in the traditional window spot).

  • I spent some time roaming the stores of Adventureland taking some pictures. A new game the Adventure Trading Company will be kicking off August 1st and I was curious if any of the components had been installed yet. I did not find much so instead used it as an opportunity to update my photo archive with pictures of the stores.

  • I did not participate in the Legends of Frontierland: Gold Rush this week, but walked through a couple of times to see what was going on and the crowd level seemed about the same as previous trips and those playing appeared to be having a great time. This week I did take note of quite a few Disney cast members documenting/counting/observing how the game play was going on. That is one thing Disney does do a lot of and that is data gathering. I came across a former Billy roaming around Frontierland and of course his western name was.. Billy! He had a guitar and was entertaining guests and he walked around. I caught most of a Miss Lilly show in the Golden Horseshoe and it had quite a few of the elements from last years revue show. She sang a couple songs, interacted with the audience, etc.. just as they did last year.

  • Walked by the Royal Hall in the Fantasy Faire and there was no line.. it said 5 minutes but guests were just walking in. There was a healthy line, about 10 groups, outside for Merida when I walked by and the Frozen sisters in Fantasyland had a posted 2 hour wait. Thought it was interesting for the third slot on the list at the Royal Hall it said Royal Friend. Anyone know who this translates to? I did not have time to go inside and see on Friday.

  • After eating dinner I had some time to kill till the next activity on my schedule and was debating about hiking out to see what was going on in Toontown when I noticed no one in line for Casey Jr. So I walked over and had a choice of a private animal car or the caboose. I choose the caboose figuring it would be better for pictures. Here is a video I took (sorry for the shaking but between the train moving and me taking stills with the other hand this is the best I could to).


  • I stopped by the Big Thunder Ranch Jamboree for the last set of the day at 5:00pm. I thought maybe a later set may have a larger crowd than last week. Unfortunately it was even lighter than last week. Has anyone gone on the weekend days? Curious if they saw better numbers? I would like to see more in the area in addition to just the three sets a day. Unfortunately guests just do not seem to find their way out there or know how to find the area. This week there was a different band and one of the singers was different (there are two bands and four lead vocalists in total filling the dates of the run). The set consisted of almost all the same songs. Here are a couple clips from the show:


  • Happened to be on Route 66 as the neon came on, still one of those nice Disney moments. Tip if you are in the park and wanted to find out what time the lights go on that day you can use Twitter and ask @DisneylandToday and they usually respond with an approx time. On Friday it was 8:00pm.


  • Last week we launched two new test features here at disneygeek.com check them out and then 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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