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08/24/12 - My thoughts and observations from a full day at the Disneyland Resort.
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08/24/12 - My thoughts and observations from a full day at the Disneyland Resort.

Hello all,

Today I headed to the Disneyland Resort well before sunrise. Thanks to Los Angeles Traffic and where I live in relation to the park we were on the road by 5:30am to make it to the parks for opening at 8am. This trip a member of my group had not been to the Disneyland Resort since 1969 so we wanted to ensure a full day to visit everything on their list and then some. They lasted all the way through World of Color then we headed home, arriving just after 11:30pm making for a very long day. The weather was overcast most of the day and for us Southern Californians it was humid. Crowds were on the mild side compared to what I had planned for which was great to see. We managed to visit all the attractions on their list and then some plus take in several shows and even some time to relax a bit.

Jason

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • I walked through Downtown Disney to reach the parks since we were slightly ahead of schedule due to favorable traffic. Earl of Sandwich is showing some progress, but still looks to have a substantial amount of work left. Anyone know what is going on at the Disneyland hotel? As you saw in the pictures the temporary lift is back on the side of the Fantasy Tower.

  • We decided to head to DCA first since the must sees on their list at Disneyland were all doable later in the day with minimal waits (or at least that was the plan and it did work out that way). We stepped onto Buena Vista Street about 20 minutes before park opening. This was my first time at park opening since June and it was interesting to see how they handled it. Buena Vista Street was open for business. They had ropes up in Carthay Circle so you could not go toward Soarin or toward Cars Land. The line for the Radiator Springs Racers Fastpasses started at the rope line then made its way around the Carthay, through the Disney Jr. queue and down Hollywood Land. There were a couple of signs as well as Cast Members to guide you. You were able to roam around Hollywood Land, but nothing was open. I am guessing there was a rope up at Bugs Land too, I did not walk down that way. They had both Red Cars out so you could take pictures in front of them, but neither were running till park opening.

  • A note as we entered DCA there were no time schedules available. Seems there was a problem and they would not show up until later in the day (they were not there yet when we left for Disneyland after 11am but were there when I stopped by around 4:30.

  • I played tour guide and roamed Buena Vista Street with our out of town guest while the others waited in the Racers Fastpass queue. At 8am when the ropes dropped we followed the crowd to Cars Land but instead of joining the rush to the Racers we walked right onto the Flying Tires. Then we strolled around Radiator Springs a bit before joining up with the rest of the group near the Pier. They had Fastpasses for the Racers and World of Color and we were ready to head to Toy Story before 8:30am.

  • This was the first time I had actually gotten a Fastpass for the Racers. They are usually gone within the first hour or so of the park opening. We walked by just before 10am and the distribution area was closed up and looked like it had been for a while now. Interesting that with the Fastpasses you received a surprise Fastpass for Screamin. With our four tickets we got two surprise ones good for 6 guests each. This made sense to me as a way to try and draw guests out of Cars Land in the morning.

  • The Flying Tires no longer have beach balls. I enjoyed the ride just as much without them, but then again I was never a fan of them. I thought the beach balls did give it some more color and energy when you were taking pictures from the side lines but once onboard I thought they were a little distracting.

  • The Pier area was really quite. Screamin was a walk on and Toy Story was only a 10 minute wait or so. By the time we left Toy Story was pushing 20 minutes but still reasonable. The rest of the attractions were walk ons and we made our way around stopping at those people wanted to experience.

  • We ran into a minor snag on Soarin. Walked right in and down toward the load gates. Since it was not crowded asked for front row seat and decided to wait till the next cycle. We were waiting for the safety video to begin and it never did. The Cast Members eventually reversed the queue and sent everyone to the other side. Seems our theater developed a problem. I thought at this point they were going to walk those of us already lined up over to the other side and the same gates. Instead they just had us follow in line. I found this a little annoying since we then had to wait an extra cycle. Everyone by the gates should have been taken over first and then those in line. To keep the same ordering and minimize the wait.

  • It was great to use a Fastpass for Radiator Springs Racers... first time I had ever done that. We had under 10 minute. The Racers themselves seemed in better shape today than the last time I went for a spin. Most of the effects we saw were working properly again including the spring in the queue, tractors were tipping, etc.. we did experience a timing issue when it came time to race and no car pulled up next to us, so we went it alone. Several times during the race the car hesitated like it was trying to re sync and at the end we drove right by Mater and Lightening and no audio, we did hear them talk to the car behind us though.

  • We were rolling through the park ahead of schedule and by 11:20 we were over at Disneyland already done with a circle through DCA that included the Flying Tires, Toy Story, Fun Wheel, Goofy Sky School, Little Mermaid, Soarin, and the Radiator Springs Racers.. as well the Red Car News Boys.

  • Speaking of the Red Car News Boys. At the end of the performance I caught the Red Car continued on to Buena Vista Street, then at the main station reversed course and headed back down the line. In the previous ones I had seen the Red Car just heads down Hollywood Blvd. I thought this was a nice touch and brought some extra energy to the street. The large number of CMs walking around the car gave it an odd feel though. Here is a clip from the end (I thought the Monorail passing overhead was great timing):

     

  • Disneyland was as calm as DCA when we first arrived which was great. After an early lunch (just before noon) we were able to visit Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, the Billies, Big Thunder, and Indiana Jones before heading to see Voices of Liberty at 3:00pm.

  • Those of you who were following my on Twitter/the Geeks Blog/Facebook know I had an interesting experience out by the new Princess area. I was taking pictures of the area as I normally do and a cast member came up to me and said I would need to get in line or stop taking pictures. I had never had this happen before and was not sure if it was a new policy or just a cast member acting on their own. Usually if you are clear of all the lines and walkways and not taking pictures of other guests all is good and quite often the cast members help you out a bit by pointing out things, more than once they have encouraged me to move closer, or the characters spot you and wave or do a quick pose between groups even. I found it a bit odd but decided not to question it and just moved on since the backdrops really were not that interesting anyways and there was no way I was going to wait 75 minutes to grab a picture (sorry for those that really wanted one.. there are several other sites that have posted pics so if you look around the web a bit you can find one).

  • Went for a ride on Indiana Jones and the upcoming work cannot happen soon enough. There were quite a few effects not working properly throughout the attraction and queue. It is still a little annoying to me how the queue is being used. I want to take my time and walk through the elaborate spaces the Imagineers have created but most guests want to walk as fast as possible. I try to explain to those pushing through that in the end we are just going to run into the groups ahead of us eventually so take your time and enjoy but that does not seem to work. Wish there was some way to convince others of this.

  • Actually caught the Flag Retreat on Buena Vista Street. It was a nice little ceremony. Wonder if it will expand, they have Five and Dime rolling around, seems they could provide some music for it. Here is a clip from the retreat:


     
  • We grabbed a bite to eat at the Village Haus and noticed it looks like they are next to get LCD menus. Guess this is better for guests, but I think they seem a bit out of place. Guess if the graphics look right they could work well in Fantasyland. Wonder if the Hungry Bear or any of the Frontierland places will get them.. I think LCDs would really seem out of place there.

  • Spent the evening enjoying some of the entertainment at both parks including a set by Elvis (Scot Bruce), a walk through the Mad T Party, then we finished off the night with World of Color. There were very few Glow with the Shows visible during World of Color from our vantage point. Kind of disappointing to see they are not catching on. I am guessing it is the price point.. $25 seems like a lot of money to spend.

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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