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10/20/17 - 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.

10/20/17 - Thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort.
I spent a relaxing afternoon/evening at a crowded Disneyland Resort Friday. This marked my 30th trip of the year to Anaheim. As is the norm this Halloween season the parks felt on the busy side in the early afternoon and come sundown as the party guests arrived both became busy. Then once Disneyland closed at 7pm the lines inside DCA were very long. This extended to food and rest rooms too, not just attractions. For example the women's rest room line on Paradise Pier extended out the door by about 20 people. The ice cream line was to the second billboard. The Pacific Wharf Cafe queue wrapped several times and then out into the walkway.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • I started off my visit walking through Downtown Disney. Two new stores have opened since my last visit. A temporary location called the Disney Dress Shop has moved into the former hat store space between Build-A-Bear and Ride Makerz and will be open until all three close to make way for a new dining location next year. A store called the Dream Boutique has replaced Anna and Elsa's Boutique. Neither store really interested me that much and when I walked by in the early afternoon neither was busy, only a couple of guests in each. The Dream Boutique is an assortment of princess related items, so the same type of merchandise as before but more than just Frozen. The Dress Shop has a selection of dresses and accessories some of the items were previously found in Vault 28. Others you may have seen online or at the Dress Shop in Disney Springs at WDW.

  • Also new throughout Downtown Disney are Annual Passholder logos on many of the windows and menus indicating Annual Passholder discounts available at that location. I thought this was an interesting idea.

  • With the turn over of stores and other changes it seems as if Downtown Disney should switch to a digital directory vs the static ones they have to keep up to date. That flexibility seems needed as the current ones are always off and not kept up to date.

  • My first park this afternoon was Disneyland. As I walked through Tomorrowland I noticed the Train Station was empty except for one couple so I headed that way and was able to board the next train. All the other stations had queues that extended out of the station, so I had some very good/lucky timing for once.

  • Continuing my transportation theme I took a cruise on the Mark Twain. Always a relaxing trip. Today Tiana was onboard my cruise meeting and greeting guests. She set up on the second deck but then ended up walking around the ship visiting with guests.

  • The Disneyland Band marched out in front of me as I approached the hub and they headed for Sleeping Beauty Castle and performed a set there. Interesting this set was not listed in the times guide. It included a Pirates of the Caribbean and Lion King medley.

  • I walked through Tomorrowland a couple of times and did not encounter Jake the Droid this trip. Signs were still up throughout so I am guessing the play test is still going on. I did notice the sign at Tomorrow Landing had been changed to say Droids are welcome.

  • As I walked both parks signs of Christmas are slowly creeping in with snow machines, lights and some early decorations visible in both. The season kicks off November 10th this year, so just three weeks.

  • I picked up a World of Color FastPass because I was curious if it would show up in the App. It still does not. Speaking of FastPass the return queues were better the few times I looked today. Soarin was only to the doorway vs out near Smoke Jumpers and Toy Story was a smooth walk to the merge point.

  • I spent some time wandering around Cars Land after dark with a friend who had not seen the Haul-O-Ween decorations. The crowds were heavy as expected and the background music was very loud, you had to talk fairly loud to communicate with someone standing right next to you.

  • I arrived back at the Mickey and Friends parking structure just after 9:30pm to leave. I did not see/hear the fireworks at Disneyland. It did not seem too windy on Friday, but it appeared they were cancelled.

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

Geek’s Blog Postings Recap – October 3-14, 2017

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.

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