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08/31/12 - My 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.

08/31/12 - My thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort.

Hello all,

Friday was a relaxing day in the parks for me. I visited with some friends and just roamed around a bit. It was the first visit for the Lazygeeks daughter (just shy of two months old). The crowds seemed mild considering it was a holiday and the 1/2 Marathon weekend. Weather was in the mid 80s so it was warm but not unbearably hot.

Jason

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • I started off my trip taking a quick walk through the Health and Fitness Expo for the 1/2 Marathon. It was held in the Disneyland Hotel convention center. I made a pass through and nothing too different from previous expos popped out to me. It felt a little more crowded than the last one.

  • Headed for DCA first today since that is where the group I was meeting was. We decided to go for a spin on Maters, only a 15 minute or so wait. The seats seemed to offer a little more resistance than the last time. Overall still a fun ride.

  • Stopped by Dancing with Disney thinking the Lazygeeks 5 year old would want to participate... seems he had other plans and did not (he enjoys Monsters Inc). The crowd inside seemed slightly higher than usual, maybe people are finding it finally or did I just manage to catch it at a rare moment?

  • We spent some time out at the Big Thunder Ranch Jamboree catching the final set of the Billies and then some character time. As is the norm the area was very quiet when the show was not going on and you had plenty of opportunities to interact with the characters and get pictures. I thought it was great that two of the country bears pulled up a bench and watch most of the Billies set. Just want to say again if you are looking for some time with the characters you should check out the Jamboree. We have had great luck there.

  • For dinner we opted for the Village Haus, since it was inside and had some A/C. Surprisingly it was really quiet. No lines at all during what we would have thought were peak dinner time, around 6pm. The new LCD menus were operational this week. I thought the animations were well done and it works for the area. Here is a brief video clip of the animation:


     
  • After dinner made a pass through New Orleans Square and there was already a healthy crowd gathering for Fantasmic which was still almost 2 hours away. Did not see that many Glow with the Show Ears in the audience, but it was early... tonight marked the public debut of the show. There was an Annual Passholder event last Tuesday to kick off the addition. Wonder where the ears will go next? Seems Main Street for the fireworks seems logical to me.

  • Walked through Tomorrowland and caught some of the Suburban Legends set. They are one of the most entertaining groups that play the parks. If you have not caught them you may want to if they happen to be playing when you visit. Here is a clip of their finale from the second set.. Gummy Bears!!



  • Had a couple minutes so walked through the temporary Princess area, now that they were long gone for the day and you can take pictures without having to wait in line.... The back drops seem odd to me. Not sure what they were going for. They seem overly cheap looking to me.

  • The Magic, The Memories, and You! is coming to an end. The show never really caught on at Disneyland. I decided to give it one last go and watched the 8:45pm presentation. Should be interesting to see if they try to use the projectors in another fashion in the future. I hope they keep them for the brief Christmas show and during Remember (has anyone been out there recently, do they use them for Magical at all? I cannot remember).

  • To wrap up the night I walked back by the Rivers of American. The plan was to go to the land (guess that is what it is called, to the right of the Riverboat area behind the out door vending stand), but it was roped off this evening. That is too bad. So instead I was stuck near the boat dock. I found a small group of guests with Glow Ears on on the far bank so was able to see some of the interactions. Just like World of Color I think they are a fun addition but the effect really only works if a large number of guests have them. With only a couple dozen it is not that powerful or interesting. I saw some video of the Annual Passholder event where almost everyone had their ears on and it looked great!

    Here is a video clip from the Princess medley:

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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