home > Columns > Geekspeaks >
11/14/15 - Thoughts and observations from Saturday at the Disneyland Resort and my first look at Christmas 2015
 The Geek Speaks:

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.

11/14/15 - Thoughts and observations from Saturday at the Disneyland Resort and my first look at Christmas 2015

Hello everyone,

Due to the poor/annoying PAC-12 scheduling USC played a football game on Friday night so I missed the first day of Christmas at the Disneyland Resort but instead opted to spend a full day with family and friends in the park on Saturday. I was unsure what to expect with crowds. It being the first weekend of the Christmas Season, good weather, the Avengers Half Marathon weekend, only a few Annual Passes blocked out, and rumors of Season of the Force soft openings all seemed to point to a heavy crowd. In the end I would say it was a moderate crowd for the holiday season. Wait times for most attractions were not that bad. In the early evening I saw a posted 40 min wait for the Radiator Springs Racers. Some of the holiday attractions and the usual suspects crept up to and passed the hour mark in some cases.

Jason

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • I arrived at the Disneyland Resort about an hour before park opening and found no delays parking in the Mickey and Friends structure. Unfortunately they directed me to the roof. I would much rather of had my car sit inside the garage all day vs outside.

  • Walked through Downtown Disney to reach the parks since I was ahead of schedule thanks to there being no real traffic delays. This meant a quick look at the Ice Rink and Winter Village. The rink looked the same as last year. The Village was arranged slightly differently but nothing jumped out as being too different this year. It was closed since it was early in the morning though. I will have to stop by in the evening on one a later trip. Also saw the new Ghirardelli store which is located next to the DVC store across from Rain Forest Cafe. Took a look in the window and seemed to be a straight forward merchandise location.

  • Picked up a FastPass for World of Color - Winter Dreams in the morning since I wanted to get a spot in the blue section. They had machines set up for both World of Colors so you could pick your show / time. With the early show being Winter Dreams and the late show being Celebrate. It seemed to be fairly even when I went through. I did not check back later in the day to see how the mix was going. I still do not understand why they do not run more shows earlier to allow more guests to enjoy it from a good viewing area instead of crammed into poor standby areas or even most of the Yellow viewing section is not ideal to see the screens. I would also like to see them stick with dual distributions so during the regular time of year you can pick the early or late showing.

  • This year Disney California Adventure received some new Christmas decorations in Grizzly Peak along the walkway and in the airfield area as well as in the Pacific Wharf. I thought both were great additions. The Wharf ones seemed closer to over the top Cars Land than traditional but they worked and were interesting to look at. The Grizzly Peak fit in nicely and felt like they belonged.

  • The rest of the DCA festivities were the same as previous years with just a few minor tweaks around the edges. Recent favorites all returned including the Buena Vista Street Community Bell Ringers, Tree Lighting Ceremony(only Mickey and Minnie participating this year), Disney Viva Navidad in Paradise Gardens and decorations throughout the park.

  • In Hollywood Land Olaf returns to Stage 17 with his Snow Fest. This year no merchandise location inside which allowed for more queue space so you do not have to wait outside. I visited on Saturday mid afternoon and encountered no wait to get in the building and the Olaf line was short. The snow wait looked to be around half an hour. The stage has moved to the middle and the food/beverage area has returned. Hopefully this year I can catch some of the live entertainment in there..

  • World of Color - Winter Dreams has returned and appeared to be the same show as last year. I did not notice any substantial changes. A minor change during Let it Go, it uses the special effects that were installed for Celebrate. I was disappointed by the show this year. I was really hoping for some tweaks and more a holiday emphasis and less of a Frozen one. Instead it is can still accurately be called World of Color - Frozen Edition still.

  • Over at Disneyland some tweaks to the decorations and line up. Main Street has received more blue to tie in with the Diamond Celebration. Because of the 60th overlay on the castle no Snowfall this year. Due to Paint the Night no garland over Main Street. And with the popularity of the new Disneyland Forever show no Believe in Holiday Magic or White Christmas this year. Also the Big Thunder Jamboree is not used and Santa is out in Critter Country. Some new props in the Jingle Cruise too as it continues to grow. During a Christmas Fantasy Parade more of the classic characters are out, the Pinocchio cast this time, and in their place the Green Army Men as Toy Story has now taken over the entire Toy Shop section.

  • Started off our morning stopping by the Jingle Cruise. We lucked out and had only a 20 minute wait and a good skipper. There were some new jokes and we had a great time.

  • Santa Claus has taken over Winnie the Poohs spot in Critter Country. This seems like a really awkward fit and he is really out of the way. It looks ok and will probably help to drive some traffic to the area but nothing else besides the Meet and Greet is there. No signs of Mrs. Claus this year.. hopefully she is around somewhere.

  • I was within earshot of a couple sets of the Disneyland Band and was hoping they had some holiday music but as of Saturday the sets I heard were the standard fair.

  • Tomorrowland is being taken over by Star Wars to promote the new film. It is called Season of the Force (do not confuse this with the large Star Wars Land project that is coming in several years). Season of the Force is the Launch Bay to promote the film a couple of overlays plus some food and beverage options. It officially kicks off Monday the 16th. During my visit on Saturday they had a soft opening of some of the components.
    • The new food and beverage options were available at the Galactic Grill (formerly Tomorrowland Terrace) and the Pizza Port. As anyone who follows this site knows I am not a food person by any stretch of the imagination. I read the menus, looked at the pictures, and none of it interested me. I was surprised they did not go with the designs on the buns like we saw at Disneyland Paris. I talked to some who have tasted the food and their reviews were mixed at best.
    • Hyperspace Mountain was open most of the day in a soft opening mode with no FastPass. I talked to several who experienced it and all gave it really high marks and based on their comments expect some long lines if you plan to ride in the near future.
    • Star Wars Path of the Jedi has taken over the Tomorrowland Theatre. It features a series of clips from all 7 of the Star Wars films edited together to give you a very abbreviated cliff notes version of where the saga has been and where it is going. It ran about 10 minutes. The clips worked but the quality differences were very obvious. Also the choice of hard black fade outs and pauses really bothered me. I was surprised to find no pre-show. Just a logo on the LCD screens. Curious if there will be one when it officially opens or not.
    • Around Tomorrowland there was a lot of signs, new speakers, and lights set up. So looking forward to seeing this area at night once it launches.
    • Nothing else was open. Was hoping for the Launch Bay or new Star Tours film but no such luck. One last note I saw the Jedi Training Academy will not return until December.

  • Do you visit our pictorial updates using a mobile device? If so we would like your feedback. I have created a more mobile version of our Disneyland Picture sets at https://disneygeek.com/mobile Please give it a try and share your thoughts.

Interesting Web Finds/Notes:

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

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

 

Quick Note

Check out the geek speaks archive for past updates.

 

Interested in Helping out?

If you are a fellow disneygeek and interested in sharing your insights, pictures, thoughts drop us an email here we are always looking for contributors.