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10/21/11 - My thoughts and observations from Fridays visit to 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.

10/21/11 - My thoughts and observations from Fridays visit to the Disneyland Resort

Hello all,

Friday was a somewhat busy day at the parks. I had read that many Utah schools had a four day weekend and that may lead to a larger than usual crowd, plus the Halloween Party and both were correct. Wait times were on the higher than normal time all afternoon and with the early Disneyland closing seemed everyone stayed till the end.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

  • I thought I was going to be in for a really long day when I was directed to park on the roof of the Mickey and Friends garage. Luckily for some reason they skipped two floors so the parking was not as it first appeared.

  • First stop of the day was DCA to check out the Construction and hope for a short line on the Fun Wheel. As luck would have it only had to wait about 10 minutes. As you saw in the pictures more details are starting to emerge in Cars Land as it marches toward completion, the new rock face is going to add a great backdrop to the Pier. The framing for Buena Vista street reveals that there is going to be a lot of variation to the street. Compare the different heights, angles, etc.. to Main Street for example which is all about the same height. Should be fun to watch it take shape over the next several months.

  • Headed over to Disneyland next. Two Monorails were running and due to the parade going on the line was non-existent so I went for a back to back ride to get pictures both directions. Still not sure if the wall up is to limit the view or protect the monorails from the construction.

  • As I made my grand circle tour of the park it was interesting to see the Christmas preparations well underway as well as the early set up for the Halloween party that was to start at 7pm. The Nightmare Before Christmas jumped to mind with two holidays colliding... I think it will be more obvious once the snow falls on the castle before Halloween.

  • After dinner I hiked out to the Disneyland Hotel to check in on the progress and things are really moving along. The new elements all seem to add quite a bit to the hotel and I really look forward to seeing the completed project. Most of the work is slated to wrap up in early November in time for the Holiday rush, assuming everything stays on track.

  • Went back to Disneyland to catch a glimpse of some of the Halloween Party preparations. I was a little surprised at how it takes over the park, the preparations, not the event. There were carts, cast members, props, etc.. in several locations and if I were a regular day guest who happened to be in the park I think I would be a little disappointed about loosing the last couple of hours of my day to the party preparations. On the other hand it may work as a great advertisement or special extra too.. but still it seems to really ruin the concept of show to walk into Frontierland and have a half dozen supply carts roped off in front of the Golden Horseshoe.

  • The flow of guests out of the park prior to the party starting and party guests entering seemed to work fairly smoothly. There was some minor gridlock as the parade was ending, but it worked itself out in a reasonable time period. I walked by the park entrance several times and never really saw a long line for the party entrance, to help things along there was a separate set of gates open for the party guests vs regular admission.

  • As for the party itself, I cannot comment on it since I have never been to one. I am not a huge Halloween Fan and I was slightly annoyed when they moved the Halloween fireworks to the party only and then started offering parties on Fridays when I normal go to the park so it meant earlier Disneyland closings. I have hung around for the kickoff a couple of times, as I did on Friday taking pictures right up till 7:00pm when they announced the park was closed and right before Cast members started checking wristbands. I found it interesting that they said Main Street was open its regular extra hour for regular guests. So I guess as they herded the non party guests to Main Street they would let you experience that and shop for an hour.

  • From what I have seen the party seems to be expanding each year with more offerings. It still does not seem as big as the Orlando version but light years ahead of the original DCA event years ago. On the other hand the pricing has increased too. I want to say that first year it was under $15 a ticket and this year its more than three times that. If anyone has attended and wants to do a guest column or update on the experience drop me an email. I thought some of the lighting effects such as those along the big thunder trail were a nice touch, was not a big fan of others like the spider in Tomorrowland, it seemed odd.

  • I made one more pass through DCA to visit ElecTRONica since I had not since it returned. I did not notice any substantial changes and the crowd seemed on the heavier side, my guess was because Disneyland was closed.

  • I spent some time in Downtown Disney listening to the Rumble Kings as well as Scot Bruce (Elvis). Both put on enjoyable shows and had decent crowds. As I was listening to Elvis I wandered when they were going to upgrade the main TV screen on ESPN. They had the Ducks hockey game on and you could barely make out the score and seeing the puck was impossible. Seems a nice HD screen is needed.

  • One last note. Disneyland.com has confirmed that a holiday introduction to World of Color featuring the Prep and Landing crew will be starting on November 11th. Speaking of World of Color I noticed this weekend it shifts back to earlier timeslots too with an 8:00pm and 9:15pm on nights the park is open late.

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

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