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Hello all,

It felt like quite a while since I had been to the parks, with it being football season and all scheduling is sometimes a challenge... Friday I thought there were quite a few people roaming the parks but throughout the early afternoon the lines were mild, but as evening came the lines grew and as soon as DCA closed (6:00pm) for the Halloween party Disneyland felt very crowded.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

• Upon entering the garage and heading up the ramp to park I was worried if it was a sign of things to come... first I was sent to the roof, then secondly it was backup up down the ramp. For some reason they parked the roof before a couple of the other floors in the garage.. so not only did I get a spot far from the escalator I also had to park outside...
  
  
• While riding the tram to the park I noticed the new Christmas tree was up backstage as they prepare it for its debut in November. I have read this year will be the first year Disneyland has used an artificial tree. My one attempt at a photo did not come out since I was on the wrong side of the tram.. and then it was dark when I went back to the garage.
  
  
• I saw on a couple websites people saying Disney was more strictly enforcing their ban on professional cameras at the parks. Several reports I read said they were not allowing people to bring in cameras with lenses over six inches long. This seemed arbitrary to me, but that is what two or three sites said. I was worried as most of my lenses are longer than that (even my wide angle lens is six inches) and I do not have professional equipment, most is a step up from regular consumer but its not the thousands of dollar professional gear... anyways I breezed through security several times without them even saying anything so not sure if these posts were exaggerations or if Disney changed back to their old policy or if I was just lucky...
  
  
• One of my main objectives for the day was to visit the Imagineering Blue Sky Cellar at California Adventure and learn about what is coming to the park. Overall I really enjoyed the experience and found the mix of concept art, models, and video interesting. Friday was an Annual Passholder preview day, so the rest of the guests were annual passholders or cast members, so not sure how regular guests will respond, but those I overheard seemed to pleased by what they saw. Considering how small the space is they managed to get quite a bit into the space and with the current set up they probably cannot cycle too many guests per hour through though.
  
  
• Out on the Pier the renovation work is starting with the Sun Wheel closed down. They are also doing some other general rehab work, such as resealing/staining the boardwalk. I did not see any indication of when the midway games will close down, but they new versions are supposed to be open Spring 2009, so I would guess right after the holidays? That is something that would have been useful/interesting to see at Blue Sky Cellar a large timeline of when things will close/re-open/open...
  
  
• Over at Disneyland the old watch store has re-opened as the Fortuosity Store. It features an interesting mix of merchandise. I thought it was great to see a store with unique merchandise again (well maybe not unique but definitely not the same thing you find in every store around the parks). I hope the concept works and more stores start to carry merchandise that go with the land they are in and not the same items as every other shop has.
  
  
• I guess for every good thing there is an equal and opposite. The Angel Courtyard in New Orleans Square, which used to be a quiet spot to grab a picture or two, catch your breath, or just pass through and avoid the crowded streets has been had merchandise moved in and is an outdoor gift shop. Luckily no real changes have occurred to the area, except it is now decorated for Christmas and a couple racks of merchandise and a cash register have been brought in. The area was still fairly quiet, but too bad they feel every square foot needs something.
  
  
• Toy Story Midway Mania was having some problems Friday afternoon and was down for most of the afternoon. I was there when it re-opened, I guess it was around 5:30ish... I was surprised at how poorly this was handled. Since the park closed at 6:00pm and the ride had been down for quite a while there were a good number of guests milling around and waiting to see if it reopened. The CMs kept clearing the walkway and saying they had no idea when it would re-open. Then all of a sudden they said it was going to open and a mob pushed there way to the entrance and tried to merge into the queue. I do not understand why they would not let a queue start, maybe out in the extended portion where they can tell people they may not get on... anything seemed like it would have been better than having all those guests push their way into a single line at the spur of a moment. I ended up riding and having to wait a total of about 20 minutes and even better I set a personal best of just over 200,000 points.
  
  

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