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9/18/15 - 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.

9/18/15 - Thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort

Hello everyone,

Friday was slightly cooler than the last couple of visits to the Disneyland Resort, it topped out just shy of 90 degrees, much better than than 100. The crowds were substantially heavier than previous weeks. The combination of cooler weather, Halloween Time, and Dapper Day meant the parks felt summer busy on many of the walkways. It became obvious as soon as I pulled into the garage and saw lines of cars waiting to pay. Then was directed up to the middle of the 5th floor with cars on most of the other floors. I saw on Twitter reports that the parking lot signs were indicating the park was full after sunset. I think it meant parking lots were full. The parks were busy but did not feel over crowded and I had no problems park hopping or moving around beyond the normal congestion on Main Street before Paint the Night.

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • Overall this week was a relaxing trip to the Disneyland Resort. I had a very small agenda and basically just roamed around which is always fun.

  • Week Two of Halloween Time was about the same as week one. Nothing too new or different jumped out to me. The park times guides still have no mention of Halloween. they were orange and purple but beyond that no indication of the season again. I am still really disappointed there is no pumpkin carving this year. That always brought a dynamic element to the season. I thought maybe they would return to the ranch area where they originally started.

  • It is nice to have a FastPass option for the Haunted Mansion Holiday this year so far. It meant even with the hour wait I could find my way on for a ride with no real wait. But it also means longer waits for all of those stuck in Standby and even more traffic congestion in the area. Getting to the gate to use my FastPass was an adventure with a mob of confused guests jamming the walkway.

  • One of the nice pluses at Disneyland is still the ability to run into characters out and about the park. On Friday I saw Peter Pan and Captain Hook and then Alice, the Queen of Hearts and Mad Hatter strolled by and were visiting with guests.

  • Ate dinner at the Smoke Jumpers Grill in Grizzly Peak Airfield area. I think this may have been my first time eating inside since it opened. The other times I was outside. This meant I could listen to the background sound track for a longer period of time and I really enjoyed it. I am a fan of classic country and many of the tracks are that, for example some Hank Williams.

  • With only a few months left in its run I decided to stop by and see Aladdin. If you had not heard a few weeks ago Disney announced Aladdin will close in January and will be replaced with Frozen. I went to the last showing of the day and it was nearly full. When I showed up about 10 minutes before show time the only option was the balcony. I managed to find a spot in the first row of the balcony so it was a clear view of the stage but an odd angle for pictures from that high. It had been a while since my last viewing. The genie was ok, not quite as good as past performances. It will be interesting to see if they will add any dynamic elements to Frozen to aid in repeatability.

  • Stopped by Tomorrowland to see the projections on Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy. Everything appeared to be the same as years past. The sound seemed to come and go and not be as overpowering as some past years.

  • Caught a little of the Tomasina set at the Tomorrowland Terrace. The bands will be ending their runs soon and with Halloween parties on most of the upcoming Fridays this may be last time seeing a band there. I was disappointed the last several visits have been the same group and they do not play a style of music I enjoy that much. I was really hoping to catch a Hard Days Night or Scot Bruce again but it appears that will not happen.

  • Closed out my evening on Main Street with Paint the Night and Disneyland Forever. Both were crowded as usual but I still managed to find a decent spot for them.


  • Do you visit our pictorial updates using a mobile device? If so we would like your feedback. I have created a beta of a more mobile version of our Disneyland Picture sets at https://disneygeek.com/mobile Please give it a try and share your thoughts.

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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