Hello all,

Friday was a busy day in the parks. Due to the Veterans day holiday falling on a Thursday many schools had a four day weekend and add in the kickoff of the Christmas season and temperatures peaking around 80 and it was the perfect storm for a jam packed day at the parks. Waits for the E-tickets were all hovering or north of the 60 minute mark every time I looked. Same can be said for Toy Story and Small World Holiday. As the evening went on the crowd picked up as it always does and Disneyland was its normal Holiday self with the walkways scooting along near capacity. I would say the crowds were slightly above summer but not quite as bad as Christmas.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

• Took a quick read through the park time guide as I always do and nothing really new to report. It was nice to see the Flag Retreat and ASIMO still listed. I wish the Wintertime Enchantment and Laserman would make the cut though. This holiday season the events at Disneyland are currently shifted earlier with the parade at 2:30 and 5:30 and Believe in Holiday Magic at 8:40. This moved the Wintertime Enchantment up to 6:30 and 7:30. Over at DCA I noticed ElecTRONica shifted to only a single show, the 6:00pm kickoff and the transition was right after it, since it gets dark earlier this works.
  
  
• First stop of the day was Disneyland. As I roamed around Main Street it was hard not to get into the Holiday mood a little with the Christmas loop playing, decorations everywhere, as well as characters out and about. As I roamed the park nothing really caught my eye as new or drastically changed this year. Did anyone else catch anything? I did not make it onto Small World this trip due to the 65 min posted wait.. so next trip I will hopefully.
  
  
• I tried to watch the Christmas Fantasy parade from out by Small World but due to the long line for Small World and the mass of humanity in the area the spot I was able to secure about 15 minutes before parade time turned out to not be that good. So after trying a couple shots I headed out. I was surprised that I was able to walk out to Toontown, make the loop, then make it down Main Street right as the lead float was rounding the corner into Town Square.
  
  
• Over at DCA nothing too interesting or new to report. The pictures speak for themselves that Buena Vista Street construction is well on its way with the removal of the trees and I am assuming concrete on the other side of the wall, in the Sunshine Plaza. Even with the walls up the area looks so much more open without the trees.
  
  
• I saw online that their was a new launch spiel for Screamin that went live last week. I hung around a bit and listened. It was nice to hear it have a couple variations. Overall it works and nothing too noticeable.
  
  
• I was able to attend the lighting ceremony/moment for Small World on Friday. It featured a family selected from Anaheim. Adela Jauregui, 8, a patient at CHOC Childrens flipped the switch with Mickey Mouse flipped. This was a great way to kick off the holidays and all involved were having a great time. In the pictorial update I have pictures and video from the event if you have not seen click here to jump to the section.
  
  
• After the parade we rushed to Main Street and found a spot in front of the Castle to catch the 6:30 Wintertime Enchantment event. It ended up going off a bit late, but was a nice touch as usual. I wish one of these years they would add more snow directly in front of the castle (not sure how due to the logistics, but it would be nice to see during the events and fireworks).
  
  
• Made a quick run over to DCA and ElecTRONica to see the Tron LightCycle that was on display. I had to make a loop of the area to find it, it is at the top of the exit ramp of the Muppets theater. This seemed like an awkward spot due to the fact that the ramp is used for both the entrance and exit for the Tron clip presentation. Seems to me it should have been closer to the old Millionaire building or maybe even inside it. There is a lot of foot traffic at the theater but it just seems awkward to me. I am assuming during the day it is covered up, but I did not make it out there to see, anyone know?
  
  
• I realized that I had not eaten at the Tomorrowland Terrace since it reopened from its rehab several months ago, so decided to head back to Disneyland for dinner and to listen to the Rumble Kings a bit. I got in line and there were maybe a handful of parties in front of me in line. The line inched along, it took me over 30 minutes from getting in line till I had my food. This was insanely long I thought and many around me were very frustrated with the pace of the lines. The food itself seemed a step up from what was there before. I just had a burger and it was on par with Taste Pilots. Also noticed it was cheaper. Final price after AP discount and tax was 47 cents cheaper than at DCA. I think the normal 5-10 min wait at Taste Pilots vs the 30 min wait was well worth 50 cents!
  
  
• Showed up about half an hour before Believe in Holiday Magic and found a spot in the Hub with a decent view of both the castle and where the fireworks should be. Things were great till show time then all of a sudden a dozen or so kids popped up on their parents shoulders all around and it made finding a clear shooting angle nearly impossible. I really wish there was a way to avoid this or at least let people know ahead of time what you are doing.. from what I could see the show appeared to be the same as years past with no major changes.
  
  
• After the show I decided to head for Frontierland and watch Fantasmic. Luckily due to some forward thinking I lined up near the entrance to Frontierland so after the snow fall ended it was a leisurely stroll over to find a spot along the Rivers of America and I succeeded with over 5 minutes to spare. I am guessing others who were further down Main Street did not have the same experience. Maybe next trip I will try it from the main part of the street to report if the anticipated gridlock happens or not.
  
  
• It was great to see Fantasmic restored to its fully functioning form with the return of the Dragon and the eels running regularly again. Everything looked great. I did make a mistake with where I watched from. I stood near the River Belle Terrace entrance (on the river side of the walkway) and had a great view of the show but when it came time to exit the crowd was halted from entering NOS due to everyone exiting. I had somehow gotten in with the entering traffic for the next show. So it was annoying to watch everyone else exiting and me stuck there. I ended up wading (or was it pushing) back through the crowd to exit. Not the most pleasant experience but it worked and saved me from sanding there waiting.
  

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.

• Disney Press Releases
  • 11/09/10 - D23’s Armchair Archivists Premiere Podcast
  • 11/02/10 - John J. Nicoletti Named Vice President of Communications for Disneyland Resort
    
    
• We post some announcements on:
  • Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/disneygeekcom
  • Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/disneygeek
  • Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/disneygeekcom
    
    

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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