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09/21/12 - My thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort
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09/21/12 - My thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort

Hello all,

I headed back to the Disneyland Resort Friday with the goal of just relaxing and roaming the parks. There were only a couple of pictures on my list to take and the rest of the time was spent just wandering around and enjoying the parks. Crowds were slightly higher than I had expected, but some of that may have been due to the Shuttle Fly over earlier in the day? Wait times for attractions were about average with most well under an hour the entire time.

Jason

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • The Space Shuttle Endeavour flew by the Disneyland Resort earlier in the day Friday. I could not make it down to the park in time so I watched from USC and posted some pictures of the shuttle flying over the California Science Center (its permanent home), Downtown Los Angeles, Griffith Park Observatory and the Hollywood sign. Check out DGeeksTravels section if you are interested. I spoke with several people who were at the parks. Most were a little disappointed with the viewing angles and how it passed by, but they still all said it was great to see and be there. The park had signs and made some announcements so everyone would know what was going on.

    Here is the video Disneyland Released of the Fly By:



  • As I exited the I5 South on Friday I ran into a traffic jam heading to the parks. It took several lights just to exit the freeway and then we inched along Disneyland Drive to the Ball Road intersection. The overpass to the garage had already been converted to exit traffic so I was stuck. Once passing the Ball Road light it opened up and there was no line at all at the garage and was directed right into a spot up on the roof. It took almost 20 minutes from the freeway to tollbooth. I really wish they had built a larger overpass so they could always have entrance and exit traffic running. The Ball Road light is a major headache.

  • I walked through Downtown Disney to start my trip. Still no clue what is going on at the Disneyland Hotel. It appears to be work on the top floor of the Fantasy Tower.

  • The Earl of Sandwich work is inching along with what appears to be a patio/covered seating area under construction. Seems they missed their target of summer since we are now officially in Fall. Has anyone heard an updated target date?

  • First park of the day for me was Disney California Adventure. I decided to do a loop of the park and see what was going on. Overall not too much jumped out at me. I had what some would call a run of bad luck. Walked through Cars Land and Racers was down. Walked out to the Pier and saw Screamin was down. The Zephyr was closed due to wind I guess, and when I walked by Toy Story it was down too. The Frankenweenie exhibit was much more crowded this week. Not sure if it was timing, park crowd, or what.

  • After my circle of DCA I headed across the Esplanade to Disneyland. Made my way out to the Halloween Carnival. As you saw in the pictorial update more signage was up leading to and around the Halloween Carnival. There seemed to be quite a few more guests out at the Jamboree this week. Wonder if word is out? The Villains tent had a healthy line which seemed to be moving rather slowly. The Billies filled a majority of the seats for their sets. I caught the last two sets of the day. Kind of disappointed that they were both identical in terms of songs. Was hoping for at least one different one. Wonder if the Billies will be stuck outside through he Holidays too? I found it a little surprising when I returned for the 5pm set they had already removed the out door vending carts for the day. I would have thought they would stay through the Billies last set at least.

  • I received an email saying I had missed some of the changes in the Pizza Port, I have to admit I just wandered in and did a quick pass to see if the menus had changed or anything jumped out to me.. The floor had been redone and now has some texture and the center booth tables have been modified a bit. Thanks Daniel for the update.

  • Headed back across the Esplanade to wrap up my evening. Spent a little bit of time roaming the Mad T Party. There was an ok crowd there. The lines at the bars seemed less than on past trips, but the area around the stage seemed about normal during the bands set.

  • I spent some time roaming around Cars Land and just enjoying the scene and playing around with my camera a bit before heading over to World of Color to end the evening.

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

Stop by the Geek's Forum to discuss this and other Disney topics.. click here

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