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11/14/11 - My thoughts and observations from Mondays 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.

11/14/11 - My thoughts and observations from Mondays visit to the Disneyland Resort

Hello all,

I ventured down to the Disneyland Resort on a Monday evening to catch the official opening of the Christmas Season at Disneyland. I arrived later than usual and was tied up at some of the events so I really did not have that much time to roam the parks. In the brief time I did though I thought the crowds were on the light side, which makes sense given it was a regular Monday. For example Toy Story was posted at 30 minutes. The Fun Wheel was about 5 minutes.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

  • As you saw in the pictorial update I made a quick pass through DCA to check out the construction while it was daylight and since I had to meet up with a group at the Grand Californian. It is fun to see how in just a work day or so (from Friday till Monday afternoon) things have changed at the Cars Land site. The new Holiday version of the park guide maps are out. Nothing too different jumped out at me in either. Same with the time schedule. I did see the Reindeer Round-up made the top offerings (I plan to visit in my next trip to the parks).

  • The main event of the day was the official lighting of Small World Holiday to kick off the season. The Poteat family was chosen to do the honors this year. Gunnery Sgt. Derrick Poteat is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1996 and has completed three tours and recently returned from a seven-month deployment. There was a brief ceremony hosted by one of the 2011 Disneyland Ambassadors. Below is a video of it in case you missed it in my pictorial update. I always enjoy these ceremonies/shows that Disney puts on. They always add a little extra to the experience and honor interesting people.


  • I was able to stay and watch the first Christmas Fantasy Parade of the season as it wrapped up its run by Its a Small World. As noted in the pictorial update, nothing too drastic jumped out as me as new this year. Did anyone else catch the parade yet? Did I miss something?

  • The Disney Gallery is hosting a great new exhibit featuring the Trains of Disney. It has artwork looking at the trains found throughout the Disney parks world wide. I thought it was great to look around the room and see the different engines from the parks. The extra touches for the exhibit like the train the circles the back space and the sign outside that lights up and has smoke come out the train are great!!

  • I caught Believe in Holiday Magic from the middle of Main Street and the show was great as always. Again no changes jumped out at me. I heard there may be some scents during the finale and I caught a couple whiffs of something but nothing registered, not sure if it was my location, the wind, or my lack of smell identification (or that I read/heard something that is not true).

  • Since Believe was at 7:30 and World of Color not till 8:15 I had plenty of time to make my way over and watch the show. I had a Fastpass for red so decided to brave the boardwalk to get some closer pictures. This worked out good until the Pirates segment. During this segment quite a bit of water came from my left and really got us wet. Not soaked but if I did not already have my jacket on I would have been wet. I thought it was interesting they started using the projector on the Screamin Loop more during the show. They had many of the clips that play on the pop up projection domes playing up. Wonder if that is in place of the domes or will be in addition to.


    A couple other notes:

  • This evening I received an interesting survey from Disneyland. Whenever asked I always give me email to the survey cast members, most are not that interesting. This one asked about attraction preferences then picked three from the list, Alice in Wonderland, Innoventions, and Its a Small World and asked quite a few questions about them. Ranging from how I would describe them, to would I recommend them to someone, favorite, least favorite, how them made me feel before, during, and after. It was very interesting and kind of a fun exercise to go through. Has anyone else gotten an interesting survey either via email or in person in the parks?

  • Monday evening was another Annual Passholder Event to kick off the holiday season. Email invites were sent to specially chosen passholders and they were given a deadline to RSVP by for the free event that ran from 8pm till midnight. I was originally going to attend as a guest of a friend, but unfortunately they were sick and unable to come, so I was unable to attend. I did talk with some people who went and they said there were several special food items, some merchandise, as well as Character photo opportunities. I also read that there were some screenings of old Disneyland TV shows in the theater.

  • This year the Candlelight Ceremony at Disneyland will be December 3rd and 4th and the guest narrator is slated to be Gary Sinise. Select annual passholders were mailed invitations to a high end package for this years weekend (I was not one of the selected ones but a friend emailed me their invite). I thought it was an interesting package and goes way beyond the dinner package offerings they have had the past few years. This really sounded like a D23 event. Surprised it is not offered in conjunction with them. Guess they are going for a truly premium experience this time around. Here is an excerpt from the email:

    This Candlelight Experience is available December 4–5, 2011, for $2,500* (two guests) and includes:
    • One-night stay at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel® & Spa on Sunday, December 4, 2011; valet parking for one vehicle included.
    • An evening of holiday elegance beginning with a private reception and dinner at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel® & Spa.
    • Reserved seating for the 8:00 p.m. performance of Candlelight on December 4.
    • Exclusive 2011 Candlelight mementos.
    • Reserved viewing of “A Christmas Fantasy” Parade.
    • A sunrise breakfast at The Plaza Inn, one of Walt Disney’s favorite dining locations, on his 110th birthday, December 5. Breakfast will be followed by a pre-opening walk through Disneyland® Park.
    • A visit to several locations in the Park with some Disney Legends and Creative Staff as they share their stories about Walt Disney, Disneyland® Park, and the magic of the holiday season. Guest speakers currently scheduled include Dave Smith, Bob Gurr, Marty Sklar, Tony Baxter, and David Caranci. Speakers are subject to change.
    • A visit to Walt Disney’s private apartment above the firehouse on Main Street, U.S.A.
    • Theme Park entrance for both days.

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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