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09/2/11 - My thoughts and observations from Fridays visit to the Disneyland Resort
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09/2/11 - My thoughts and observations from Fridays visit to the Disneyland Resort

Hello all,

To kick off the Labor Day Holiday weekend (and the start of College Football Season) I spent Friday evening at the Disneyland Resort. This weekend Disneyland was hosting a 5K run on Saturday and a half Marathon on Sunday. The crowds in the park were healthy but by no means packed. Wait times were about average for a Friday during the summer with the big attractions hovering around an hour and most others under half an hour.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

  • California Adventure is entering the final phase of its multi year makeover as Buena Vista Street and Cars Land race toward their openings next Summer. The most interesting, logistically speaking, part of the construction is underway as they have blocked off the old Sunshine Plaza entrance area as it is being transformed. This means as you enter the park you must make an immediate right hand turn and head down a temporary, formerly backstage, walkway and then turn to enter the park on the far side of Soarin (between it and the Grand Californian). On Friday the traffic seemed to flow well throughout the day. There were plenty of Cast Members around to answer questions and keep things flowing. Come night fall it became a little more congested and then the World of Color exit crowds caused some very slow moving traffic as everyone was trying to exit at the same time. Considering the amount of guests that were trying to squeeze through a very small area and most not having any idea where they needed to be (yes there were signs and cast members but you know tourists) things seemed to flow surprisingly well. Anyone else experience the exit crowd? What did you think?

  • To ease the traffic flow issues they have opened a corridor of walls through the center of the park. So you can go from Condor Flats to the Backlot or turn and go out toward the Pier down the parade route. This helps so there are no dead ends once you are in the park.

  • Over at Disneyland Halloween is starting to take over the park. The official Halloween-time starts in two weeks, but most of the Main Street windows and shops are already decorated and have the merchandise out. For those of you who have not looked ahead on the calendar and go on Fridays like me keep in mind they are running several Halloween parties on Friday so that means the park will be closing early unless you have a ticket to the event. Also note from now till then Haunted Mansion is closed for its annual transformation.

  • It is so nice to have two Monorails back in operation. I went for a back to back ride to get pictures of the Buena Vista Street work and it was smooth sailing. Only wish they would slow down through the construction zone, it would make getting pictures a whole lot easier!

  • Spent some time roaming around the Disneyland Hotel checking out the construction as well as the Health and Fitness Expo that was going on since it is the half marathon weekend. The Expo seemed to be on par with what I had seen at past ones. Nothing seemed extremely new or different. I really found it funny and a bit awkward the ABC and DVC booths at the Expo. Especially considering the ABC one was for their prime time line up, not even ESPN or sports programming. As for the construction is seems they are wrapping up work on the Fantasy Tower and going to start opening some walk ways soon (one CM I spoke with said the one was slated to open Friday). The lobby area work has not really begun yet, but guessing it will be starting soon. I saw in the AP newsletter that the work is slated to be done in November, by the Holidays, which makes sense, and I am assuming that meant all the work.

  • Ate dinner at the Village Haus. Still beyond me why the service is sooo slow. There were several minutes when no orders were coming out of the kitchen. I could not see what was going on from my vantage point, but in the past this happened because they were waiting for burgers. Seems the new system still has some kinks in it.

  • I caught a few minutes of the Soundsational Parade and it is starting to get dark near the end the of the 6:30 parade so the lighting effects are just barely visible. In a few weeks once, especially once we roll back the clocks it should be fun to see the parade after dark.

  • I headed over to Tomorrowland to watch the first set of Elvis (Scot Bruce) at the Tomorrowland Terrace. The CMs in the control area and the floor managers were roaming around but the show did not start. There was not even an announcement. At about quarter after one of the CMs walked by the stage and said something to the assembled crowd and they started to leave the area, so I assumed that meant it was cancelled so I left at that point. Really surprised they did not play the performance was delayed and/or cancelled announcement.

  • Spent the rest of the evening hanging out with some friends at Paradise Gardens and then ElecTRONica for a few minutes. Paradise Gardens is just such a nice relaxing spot to spend some time. Still a little disappointed that the band plays in the afternoon and there is no entertainment into the evening.

  • Nothing too interesting to report in the time guide this week. It was interesting that Disneyland had five different sets of operating hours for the seven days of the guide (DCA had two one for the weekend and one for weekdays). It was great to see the DCA park guide map has been updated with an outline for Buena Vista Street and the temporary walkway is on the map. Nice to see them keeping the maps up to date to match the construction routes. That seems like it should be helping guests.

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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