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11/17/06 - My thoughts and observations from Fridays trip to the Merriest Place on Earth
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11/17/06 - My thoughts and observations from Fridays trip to the Merriest Place on Earth

* After you read this report you may want to check out the pictorial updates in our Disneyland Resort Pictorial Update section

Hello all,

Friday was one of those days that reminds me why I want to live here in Southern California. The temperatures were peaking in the upper 70s in mid November, I was at Disneyland, and the crowds were manageable. After last week's capacity crowd I was expecting the parks to be busy again this week, but was pleasantly surprised to find a "normal" crowd, actually I think a tad on the light side even. The lines for most of the major attractions were under 30 minutes the entire day. We walked on the Haunted Mansion in the evening (and could have in the afternoon but opted for a Fastpass instead, which we did not need). Small World Holiday was about 10 minutes when we waited and looked to be about half an hour later in the day only.

Jason

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

Notes:

  • As I walked onto Main Street I was pleased to see the garlands that stretched the street are back and looking better than ever. They always make for some great pictures and Main Street just does not feel like Christmas without them.

  • I really did not pay much attention to the prices last week while walking around the resort, but this week I noticed several were higher (ranging from the fifty cent increase in ice cream sandwiches, now $4.00 (which no one should let Disney know, but the same sandwich sells for $5.00 at the coliseum (I noticed that during the USC game on Saturday) to what I think was an increase at the McFry place.. now its $3.00 for fries and $2.90 for drinks there.

  • The new photo location out by Monsters Inc is finally finished, I cannot believe how long it took to build that... but it does look good.

  • As you saw in the pictorial update the Grand Californian is now decorated and their new tree looks great (you may or may not remember it was the large tree in the lobby that caught fire last Christmas). Also the permanent, new, carpeting is in the lobby and it looks great. The rest of the decorations looked about the same from what I can remember.

  • I still am a little surprised they do not add more Christmas (or holiday) music to the Billy Hill show. The guitar solo was holiday music and it was great, but that was it. Other than the decorations in the Golden Horseshoe and the single strand of Christmas lights on each Billy you would not know its the Holidays.

  • At the Flag Retreat on Friday the Dapper Dans did not perform, just the Disneyland band.

  • I also wish they would post the show times for the performances at the Reindeer Roundup. Seems every time I am out there I am just missing the show.. last trip I saw the finale number and this week I saw the performers heading backstage as I arrived.. guess timing is everything and mine was bad.

  • We caught the Christmas Fantasy parade from Main Street and it was good as always. It still grinds on my nerves to hear the same song over and over and over again. I wish they would have more variety in the parade. I guess there are two or three different musical elements but they are all too long.. I would like to hear something different for each unit/float... The new finale float looks great. Also I am fairly certain the Christmas tree with the dwarfs is new (but I have not gone back to look at last years pictures so maybe not..)

  • We lined up to watch Fantasmic and were a little disappointed to find no band on the Rivers of America.. they are always great to listen to while you wait for the show. A couple minutes till show time the lights dimmed and the princess medley started (the lights show lights flickered on) then everything stopped as someone must have stopped the show knowing it was in the wrong spot. We waited for about 10 minutes then bailed out.. the show started shortly after we left. Due to this late start the fireworks were delayed a little more than 15 minutes for the evening.

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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