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9/06/19 - Thoughts and observations from Friday - 1st Day of Halloween Time 2019
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9/06/19 - Thoughts and observations from Friday - 1st Day of Halloween Time 2019

Hello everyone!

Friday was the first day of Halloween at the Disneyland Resort. The crowds were very mild to start the day but picked up substantially as the sun set. The weather was on the hot side topping out in the 90s and staying in the 80s until I left.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • Parking was a smooth experience for me in the early afternoon. The overpass was set up with one lane each direction. No cars at the toll booths and I choose the correct lane to find a spot with no delays. Interesting the toll booth was printing the parking receipt on regular paper not the heavy card stock. As the day went on the arrival experience changed and by sunset traffic was backed up toward the freeway and moving slow. At 8:20pm a tweet went out that both parking structures were filled. It was after fireworks when the tweet about there being space again went out.

  • The new tram plaza is nearing completion. Most of the pavers are in and finishing elements were being added on Friday. No opening date has been announced but it seems like it will be very soon. The walkway to Downtown Disney also looks nearly complete. Landscaping is in and the parking lot has been resurfaced and striped in the area. Originally they said early September and it looks on track to open any day now.

  • Started my visit in Disney California Adventure. Wait times were really mild with most well under an hour. I made my way out to Pixar Pier and was able to walk right onto a waiting gondola for the Pixar Pal-A-Round. I had to break stride slightly for them to open the gate for me that was it. I had my own car too which was great for early afternoon. Many of the other attractions were near walk ons too. The Emotional Whirlwind was posted at 10 min but looked slightly longer.

  • Throughout the day some of the longest lines I saw were for the Halloween Popcorn buckets. There are three choices this year. Mickey Pumpkin Balloon, Oogie Boogie Head and the Annual Passholder Cauldron with refill option. The further you got from the front of the park in DCA the shorter the line. Pixar Pier had no wait at all when I walked by where as there were probably 20 guests in line on Buena Vista Street. As the evening went on the lines grew. At Disneyland around 8pm there were over 50 guests in an extended queue in New Orleans Square for popcorn. It reminded me of Tokyo parks.

  • A Musical Celebration of Coco has returned to Plaza de la Familia in Paradise Gardens. The show is the same as last year, no major changes jumped out at me. They did add some extra shows, this year it runs 10 times a day right now on the top of almost every hour. Also new this year is the opportunity to meet Miguel (in puppet form) in Paradise Gardens. During the afternoon shows cast members were passing out small mats to sit on because the pavement was extremely hot and there is zero shade in the primary viewing area. The World of Coco and other festivities to celebrate Dia d los Muertos were in Paradise Gardens. The offerings looked to be on par with last year.

  • Note - Next weekend the Pixarmonic Orchestra on Pixar Pier and Laughingstock Co in the Golden Horseshoe will have their final performances. No replacement entertainment has been announced but they drop off the calendar after the 14th.

  • Cars Land is celebrating Haul-O-Ween again this year. The decorations all seemed about the same and nothing jumped out at me as being substantially different. I had poor timing and there were characters out the 15-20 minutes I was in the land.

  • In Hollywood Land the Sunset Showcase Theater new entrance and marquee project has wrapped up and looks good. You now enter on a red carpet (well red pavement) next to Award Wieners. The new marquee has a classic Hollywood look to it and is a nice addition to the street. This should be much easier for guests to find their way in and help with attendance at the theater.

  • Spent some time in the mid afternoon roaming around Disneyland checking out the Halloween decorations there. Nothing new really jumped out at me. The big change this year is the addition of Halloween Screams (projections every night and fireworks on weekends) for all. There is also a Villain's Dance Party in Tomorrowland (that I did not have time to visit this trip). Ghost Galaxy did not return this year though.

  • Haunted Mansion Holiday did and the gingerbread house celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Haunted Mansion. As you would expect for opening day the wait time was among the longest in the parks and FastPass return times were hours later. Also there were several down times throughout the day which always seems to happen around the transition. It was down when my FastPass time came due so I had to circle back later which threw off my schedule a bit. On my one ride through I did not notice anything different this year. I did not spot the Monkey bride. I also managed to have terrible timing. The ride paused for a couple of minutes but I was just short of the ballroom scene looking at a black wall! Another 10 seconds or 20 feet or so and I could of had a great view of the new gingerbread house.

  • Disney's Grand Californian Hotel has a large display in the lobby from the pastry team featuring the Nightmare Before Christmas. It was hard to tell if it was complete or if there was more to come. I did not see a sign with a picture nor stats.. but there was one for a meet and greet opportunity with some of the team. The creativity and detail in there displays is always great to see.

  • Downtown Disney has new Halloween decorations this year. The planter decorations now feature treats and more from the season. The decorations compliment the character photo ops. I enjoyed the new look and saw quite a few people looking at them and taking pictures, more than the traditional fall harvest look of the past couple of years.

  • Pop-up Disney has closed and looks to have moved out of the former ESPN Zone building. No signs or activity of what will be moving in next.

  • The Main Street Electrical Parade will wrap up its run later this month. The crowds still fill Main Street and the rest of the parade route in the evening. I was not planning to watch the parade but ended up finding a great spot only a few minutes before it arrived so watched again.

  • I had not seen Halloween Screams in several years from inside the park due to it being a party exclusive. The projections were all new to me. I always thought it was a good fit for Halloween and worked well. It seems a little loud and sometimes scary for little kids but works for most.

  • As I walked out of the park after the fireworks the music was extremely loud. So loud you could not talk to the people next to you at a couple of points. Not sure what was going on but it was way above normal levels for exit music.

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

D23 Expo 2019 Summary Page - Links to all the announcements so far and will eventually contain links to all of our coverage

Geek's Blog Postings Recap August 1-20, 2019

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.

Send comments, questions, any other email to: disneygeek@disneygeek.com
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