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10/01/21 - Halloween Time & Entertainment
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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.

10/01/21 - Halloween Time & Entertainment

Hello Everyone!

Walt Disney World turned 50 years old on Friday. Since I could not make the trip to Orlando I decided to celebrate at Disneyland instead. I spent a full day exploring the parks, hotels and Downtown Disney taking in more of the Halloween Time festivities. The crowds in the parks were light in the morning and grew to moderate in the afternoon. I did not visit in the evening but based on what I saw heading toward the parks I would expect it to be crowded feeling inside. The weather started off cool in the 60s but quickly rose topping out just over 90 before cooling down again as the sun set.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • I started my morning off visiting the Disneyland Hotel. I was walking to the parks via Downtown Disney and decided to take a detour to check out the Halloween decorations since I had a few minutes until park opening. The main lobby in the Fantasy Tower features Haunted Mansion graphics for the season. There are some on the main doors, a large display when you first enter and then hitch hiking ghosts on the elevator doors. These were all fun additions to mark the season. Due to timing I did not get to walk to visit the other towers this visit.
  • The tram stop near Downtown Disney features a Muppets Haunted Mansion photo op to promote the upcoming DisneyPlus show. I thought this was a well done display and I look forward to seeing the show. The placement of the display in the high traffic area seemed to work with many guests commenting and some stopping the couple times I walked by the area.
  • This morning I had no real agenda. We were faced with the choice of driving to Anaheim before or after traffic and choose before. The first hour or so after park opening is always an exciting time in the park. The energy level is high and the wait times are low. We took advantage of this and visited a handful of attractions with no waits.
  • I succeeded in picking up a Rise of the Resistance boarding group this morning so spent some time in Black Spire Outpost (which was more crowded this visit than two weeks ago) and then went for a ride with a minimal wait. During my visit there was a bit of a backup to enter the interrogation cells and we got to spend a few minutes in the hanger. Its nice to spend time there but not optimal to wait in the small, crowded, hallway.
  • Guests never cease to amaze me with how rude they can be. I was standing on the corner waiting for the band to march up Main Street USA. There was a family to my right waiting too. As the band neared a fairly large guy (well over 6 feet tall) pushed his way between us and proceeded to stand directly in my line of sight and sort of pushed that family out of the way too. He left no space between us really and blocked my view and almost hit his head on my camera lens so he knew I was there. Luckily he got bored and moved on after a minute but it was extremely frustrating. No idea why he felt the need to push his way in there he could easily see over the family with small kids next to me. And what made him think putting his head in front of my fairly large and obvious camera lens was a friendly thing to do. He had no one else with him that I could tell either.
  • Stopped by Tomorrowland and visited the Magic Key Passholder lounge. This week no virtual queue was in use and you could walk up, have your pass scanned and enter. I noticed the charging stations had been removed from the tables. Other than that no changes. The lounge is slated to be open all of October. While I was there you could easily walk up to any of the photo spots. The only queue was for Minnie Mouse. At the exit two cast members were scanning passes and distributing Avengers Campus maps to anyone that wanted one. Interesting to note the announcement was these were only to be available Monday through Thursday. It was a nice surprise to see them on a Friday. They are small poster maps of the campus. I found it kind of odd they were passing them out at Disneyland and not somewhere in DCA. Seems the Blue Sky Cellar would make a lot more sense.
  • At 1:00pm we decided to head over to Disney California Adventure. Seems many others had the same idea as all the gates had lines that were a dozen or more guests long. Found it odd Disneyland had no wait at all to enter at the same time.
  • Paradise Bay is being drained as renovation work on World of Color gets underway. It seems like the show requires semi frequent draining of the lagoon unfortunately to keep it running. There was no indication of how far along the work is but there was still water so it looks to just be getting started. It would be great to see the show return sooner rather than later. DCA could really use an evening show. Also with the bay drained the area does not look good. It is interesting to note they do not put up any type of construction walls or visual barriers.
  • While walking through Knick's Knacks on Pixar Pier I noticed a couple of display racks with Ratatouille merchandise from EPCOT. It even had the EPCOT tags on it. It was kind of fun to see it, but also kind of odd. The attraction officially opened at EPCOT this morning and the merchandise lines in Orlando were long. Here you could find a subset of the items in a nearly empty store (I think cast members out numbered guests when I walked through).
  • I finally managed to catch Goofy fishing in the Wharf area at Disney California Adventure. My timing/luck had been bad on previous visits. Goofy was having a great time fishing with a rubber chicken. I really enjoy these character encounters vs the traditional meet and greet where they basically stand there stationary.
  • I succeeded in picking up a boarding group for WEB Slingers today. When it came time to ride the rest of my group passed so I hiked over to Avengers Campus and went by myself. I have now ridden several times and unfortunately my initial impression seems to be sticking. The video game feel is a little too much for me. Also I have not figured out how to not fog up the 3D glasses with my mask on so seeing is also a challenge for me.
  • As we walked around I continue to see long lines at many dining locations for the limited registers that are open. Seems mobile dining still has a good number of guests that do not want to deal with it for one reason or another. On Friday I used it for both lunch and dinner and had no problems and no real waits. For dinner I grabbed a corn dog on Main Street USA. The process to pick up was quick and efficient for me. Unfortunately my corn dog was warm but not hot/as fresh as it has been in the past. Also noteworthy since my last meal there (which was way before the closure) the drinks are bottles not fountain drinks so there was no option of a cup of ice.
  • Stopped by Disney's Grand Californian Hotel to check out the Halloween Lobby display. Oogie Boogie and his cauldron are back. This year there are 13 hidden Mickey's in the display (I managed to find 11 of them in my short time there). The team created another fun display and it was great to spent a couple minutes relaxing in the lobby listening to the piano player and checking out the display.
  • Wrapped up my evening spending some time in Downtown Disney enjoying the live entertainment. On the main stage they were alternating between the SCAREolers and a band so there was always a group performing this evening. The SCAREolers put on a great show and featuring an assortment of songs in all their sets. If you are there on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday and have some time in the evening they are worth walking out for. Interesting to note the performance schedules are not posted by the venue nor in the Disneyland App but are posted on the Disneyland official website. The use of the APP is very inconsistent to me and Disney is missing opportunities to make it a primary resource.

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