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8/29/14 - My thoughts and observations from Fridays visit to the Disneyland Resort.
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8/29/14 - My thoughts and observations from Fridays visit to the Disneyland Resort.

Hello everyone,

I kicked off my holiday weekend with a trip to the Disneyland Resort to close out the summer season. This summer I somehow ended up visiting the parks more than I usually do. I had a streak going of once a week since Memorial day. I plan to return to my normal 2-3 times a month schedule for the Fall. Between the holiday it being race weekend I was not sure what to expect crowd wise. Overall it felt about average. The after was slower and the evening picked up slightly but not nearly as bad as last Friday. The weather was warmer today with highs around 90 and it only cooled off to the upper 70s by the time I left. So that may be a factor. Wait times were still under an hour for most attractions, even the Racers only had a 60 minute posted wait when I walked by. The single rider line was substantially longer than last week, probably a good half hour when I checked.

Jason

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • This weekend was the ninth annual Disneyland Half Marathon. This year there were three days of races starting on Friday morning with a 5K then Saturday a 10K and kids races and concluding Sunday with the Half Marathon. The race had a Hawaiian theme with Lilo and Stitch and Aulani. I stopped by the runDisney Health & Fitness Expo at the Disneyland Hotel on Friday afternoon. The crowd inside was mild. The merchandise shop seemed more open than years past, it was not wall to wall guests. The format was much the same as previous years. As you entered the hotel convention center on the far left was merchandise. The center/pit area was for guest speakers then the right side was the expo. They moved the t-shirt distribution to the long wall/the opposite from where you enter, vs the far wall. This made the expo longer than wider.. if that makes any sense. It looked like more stations available, guessing to decrease wait times during the busy periods. The Expo itself seemed about the same, nothing too different or interesting jumped out to me. I only did a single pass through stopping to see some medals and take a couple pictures.

  • My plan was to take the Monorail to Disneyland but the wait was quite long when I stopped by. They were limiting the number of guests per car due to the heat and it looked like it was going to be a several train wait at the pace it was loading. So I walked through Downtown Disney instead.

  • After walking around Main Street I ended up in Tomorrowland and hopped on the Monorail there, which was only a one train wait. They were counting guests and directing you to a gate/car number and were not allowing guests in the front/cab because of the heat.

  • The big news in Tomorrowland is the sub lagoon has been filled since last Friday. No signs of activity beyond bubbles cycling this afternoon though. It seems odd that they had the attraction closed for several months and the subs themselves appear to have received no attention to the exterior.. they look faded/dirty. Guess that is a challenge of choosing a bright yellow paint scheme.

  • Over in Frontierland the Legends of Frontierland has been extended. Originally the game was set to end September 1st. Disney announced on the Parks Blog last week that it has been extended but I have not seen a date of extended to when. It is really hard to tell how many guests are engaged in it since it is spread out over space and time all day. When I walked through it seemed there were less than in trips past but it was the heat of the day too.

  • Friday marked the last day for the Adventure Trading Company. To celebrate they were holding special events throughout the day and hosting story telling sessions in Aladdins Oasis to earn a special skull juju. There seemed to be quite a few guests participating in the story sessions. It will be interesting to see what comes next.

  • Over at Disney California Adventure they are testing a new on ride photo option. You can purchase a digital picture by text for 99 cents. I think this is an interesting idea. It seems with the lower price point the odds of a sale would go up and not having to wait in any lines and being able to do it right from your phone makes it easier. I heard the quality was decent too, curious the resolution. Anyone purchase one one? I also hear Splash Mountain is running the same test.

  • Walked through Cars Land and there was some new merchandise available. Great to see them continuing to change up the offerings and keep them specific to the area.

  • Magical is wrapping up its summer run with Monday being the last performance. Remember Dreams Come True starts next Friday. Unfortunately neither Tinkerbell nor Dumbo flew on Friday.
     

  • The past half dozen trips I have tried created videos featuring pictures from the trips. What do you all think is it worth continuing?



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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