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8/03/18 - 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.

8/03/18 - Thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort
I spent a relaxing afternoon/evening at the Disneyland Resort. I had very few items on my to do list so I just roamed the parks and enjoyed the College Band. The weather was on the warm side when I arrived it was about 90, but as the sun set it became more pleasant to roam the parks. Crowds and wait times seemed slightly heavier than last week with more attractions posting around and over an hour this week.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • Parking started off on a slow foot. The overpass was switched already so I had to sit through a light at Ball but luckily it was not too bad. No line at the toll booth but then on the ramp up to the level traffic stopped. They were parking the last row which is always slow. I do not understand why they do not split the cars up more to keep them rolling. The new floor almost always has cast members on it so if they reduced the number of cars at a time it would keep both flowing smoothly.

  • The new parking structure is moving along with a lot of visible progress. More of the ground level is poured and forms for the second floor are spreading across the site. The ramp is extended beyond the third floor already. On the far side the second floor escalator area appears poured and the third floor is starting to take shape. It is interesting to watch the progress each visit and even with a single week a lot of visible progress is being made.

  • In the parks summer is quickly coming to an end. Once the calendar turns to August the park starts Fall preparations with Halloween starting in just over a month. The 2018 Disneyland Resort All-American College band wraps up their summer performances next Friday. You have a month left before the end of Pixar Fest and the closing of A Bugs Land in DCA. Routine/scheduled renovation work is underway for the Matterhorn.

  • As I walked through Frontierland noticed the Columbia was not letting guests board and river traffic had stopped. It appeared the Columbia had an issue and was being taken to the harbor to be checked. Most likely the issue is something with one of the props. The boat was back in working order and out for Fantasmic in the evening. But it meant in the afternoon things paused to allow it to reach port.

  • I thought it was interesting that the Pixar Shorts Film Festival sign had been expanded on to showcase the three shorts. These most likely are only running for the rest of the month and the theater will change to something else when Pixar Fest ends.

  • I noticed the old (copyright on it is 2008) Fantasmic CD was for sale still. Seems time to update to a new one since the new show is now a year old and the music is different. I also found an Aulani CD for sale which I thought interesting. I do not recall seeing them before.

  • Walked through Flik's Fun Fair and was surprised the lines were slightly longer than usual.. maybe around 15 min. Given the heat I was expecting walk ons and was thinking of visiting a few..


  • On the other side of the coin I stopped by the Golden Horseshoe around 5:30 and again around 7:30 and both times it was not crowded at all. At 5:30 there were more registers open than guests to order. At 7:30 there were short lines at each but plenty of tables. I would have thought with the park crowd, great air conditioning, and ice cream on the menu it would be more crowded. It would be nice if they added wi-fi to the building.

  • Took a quick walk through Downtown Disney and the painting on the south side is inching along. I was expecting to see it further along, but I guess the work window is extremely short because of the hotel and then Downtown Disney itself. The three food trucks were back on the west end and on the stage Tupua was performing on Friday. The area had a decent crowd given the heat and so much closed. Demolition still appears on hold and no changes to security of the buildings yet.

  • As I walked the parks it seemed the FastPass return lines were backed up at many attractions.. both at the merge point and at the scan point. Not sure if it was just by chance or if the mix of standby to FastPass guests was off. Also not sure why the scan point gives so many guests issues. Are a large number still trying to use just the paper? Or lining up with the scanner really that hard? I have not really had any scanning issue.. my issue usually is waiting for the app to load because of network issues. So I use my park ticket to take this out of the equation.

  • Closed out my evening with Together Forever on Main Street USA and true to form a couple minutes before show time a tall group showed up and somehow managed to stop in front of me. Friday as I walked to the 8:40pm College Band set I noticed most of the sidewalk space had been filled up. Seems guests decided to sit on the curb and wait for the fireworks vs standing in the street. I overheard a handful of guests asking about a parade and why everyone was lined up. When it came close to show time and cast members asked everyone to stand these guests did not really want to get up.. they were content to sit.. and it took two or three rounds to get several of the grounds on their feet.

  • Remember Dreams Come True returns to the skies on September 7th and appears to run on non Halloween party weekend nights. Also looking at the schedule it is showing both Fantasmic and Paint the Night on weekends only too as of now. So if you are planning a trip be sure to check the entertainment schedule closer to your visit to confirm.

Here are some recent posts to the Geek's Blog:

Geek’s Blog Postings Recap July 16 - August 2, 2018

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
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