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8/26/22 - 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.

8/26/22 - Disneyland Resort

Hello Everyone!

Friday was a relaxing visit to the Disneyland Resort for me. I had nothing on my agenda except to check in on some of the projects and watch the Main Street Electrical Parade. The temperatures were on the warm side topping out in the mid 80s. The parks felt about the same as recent visits walking around but wait times seemed to be on the lower side compared to recent visits.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • Magic Key Pass renewal details were released since my last visit, if you have not seen the details here they are. In general prices are up and the passes are more restrictive. The Dream Key has been retired and the new Inspire Key cost $200 more and features block out dates for the Christmas Holidays now. You do get Photo Pass downloads again and discounts on Genie+. This was my last visit on my Dream pass. I managed to visit 31 times in the year on my Dream Key. I do miss having a physical ticket as a souvenir.
  • I started off my visit walking to the Disneyland Hotel. The former Downtown Disney parking lot project appears to be nearly complete. Teams were painting arrows on the ground when I walked by. The project was mostly re-landscaping. They have removed many of the planters and shrunk the rest. Also smaller trees have replaced the older/larger ones. The pavement has been fixed in some areas too. At the Disneyland Hotel the repainting project is still moving along. I thought maybe it would have wrapped up in the couple weeks since my last visit but it had not. The DVC tower is up to the 10th story now so it will be topped out in the next few weeks. The lower floors are starting to be framed in and receive windows.
  • The Disneyland Hotel was busier than normal due to a Tiki Mug release today. There were a good number of people waiting for Trader Sams to open and a good size line of guests waiting to pick up their mug. They were distributing the mugs on the lawn which gave plenty of room and the process looked organized when I walked by.
  • At the parks the summer season is quickly coming to an end and preparations for Halloween are nearly complete. Halloween officially kicks off Friday Sept. 2nd this year. The offerings and decorations look on par with recent years from what we have seen.
  • Another big story since my last visit is the increase in dining prices around the resort with a large number of items going up, many beverages were up around 50 cents. Some meals jumped a dollar too. For example the club sandwich at Flo's went up a dollar since we ate there two weeks ago.
  • Speaking of Flo's we ate there again and found it less crowded this week than last. We ate a couple hours earlier during the noon hour vs 2pm hour. They had ice this week so that was a plus..
  • Stopped by Pym's to grab a snack and get a picture of the menu and noticed there is now a series of switchbacks filling the main area. Still only a single register.. so instead of adding more registers they have added more queue space. Mobile order was a fairly smooth experience but getting to the pick up area with the queue forming as soon as you enter the door is a bit of a bottleneck. It could really use an entrance hallway or something to help with crowd flow.
  • There is a She-Hulk bench across from Guardians of the Galaxy in Avengers Campus. Nice to see them updating the land as new shows continue to be released.
  • Decided to go for a grand circle tour of the park aboard the Disneyland Railroad after the Flag Retreat. There was no wait and we were able to get a seat on the first train that pulled in with no problem. The train was able to accommodate all guests waiting at each station when we pulled in this time around, that has not happened for a while.
  • As the sun began to set and temperatures dropped the Disneyland Monorail reopened after 6pm. There was no wait with two trains running so I went for a round trip ride to check out the Downtown Disney construction.
  • On the parade route near the small world gate there is a Magic Shot for Magic Key Holders featuring the Main Street Electrical Parade. They digitally add a couple floats from the parade to your picture. The line seemed to come in waves as we watched.
  • I choose a spot in the small world mall area across from it's a small world where we had a view of the Encanto Projections and then an ok view of the parade. For about half the parade we were able to sit and still see ok (not great but ok). To get a good view you had to stand but I liked the space and sitting. Unfortunately during the parade a number of guests were trying to pass through the area and they bottled it up so the view disappeared. As a reminder the Main Street Electrical Parade ends its summer run on Sept. 1st.
  • After the parade decided to head to Main Street and depending on the time would watch Disneyland Forever or just leave. We managed to walk through the park and down to a crossing on Main Street with no real delays, had to wait a minute to cross in front of Elliot that was about it. I was on a tram and heading back to the garage by 9pm.

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

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.

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