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11/20/15 - Thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort and my first impressions of the Tomorrowland Expo Center
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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.

11/20/15 - Thoughts and observations from Friday at the Disneyland Resort and my first impressions of the Tomorrowland Expo Center

Hello everyone,

Friday was a busy day at the parks for me. My to do list was fairly long with the Season of the Force now open and more Christmas decorations up. The crowds in the parks felt moderate, they were lighter than I was anticipating. Wait times were under an hour for just about everything most of the day and evening except for Hyperspace Mountain.

Jason

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • First stop today was the Tomorrowland Expo Center to see the new Star Wars Launch Bay and Super Hero HQ. The Launch Bay is on the first floor and consists of several rooms of props/models/costumes from the movies, three character meet and greet areas and a large merchandise location. I did not see anything the new name of the building. Plenty of signs for the Launch Bay and Headquarters but nothing for the Expo Center.
    • I arrived there mid afternoon Friday and was surprised to find no wait at all to get in. Once inside there were a fair number of guests but it did not feel crowded. The character waits were 60 minutes for Chewbacca and 20 minutes for Darth Vader. I walked around but skipped the characters since I did not want to wait. It took me about an hour to walk around both floors and take pictures. The Character Meet and Greets are the big draw and the core of the experience. The rooms the characters are in are reported to be well done and from the pictures I have seen look it. My issue is I am not a huge meet and greet person so for me it was not high on my list to devote my time to them.
    • There is a video that plays near the entrance that features interviews with several directors and others involved in the films and I thought this was well done and more interesting than the Path of the Jedi clips. The displays were interesting and featured a lot to absorb. If you are a big Star Wars fan you can probably spend substantially more time than I did to take it all in.
    • The Cantina area featured Boba Fet when I walked by. It really seemed like a small awkward space to me. I was expecting more after reading the description of this area. I wanted to take a wide picture showing the space and all the shots came out looking like a small queue for a character. With the queue taking up the center and the character in one corner there really was nothing else to see or do in the space.
    • The merchandise location (missed if it had a name) is a large space on between the entrance and exit. It featured assortment of merchandise from regular theme park items up to collectables plus toys. The pricing ran the full range too. There was not much in terms of a theme to the space. It was a basic retail location. The merchandise and collectibles made the space.. the space it itself was very basic. The one positive is it felt open, not very cramped, when I was there. I think they designed it for heavy crowds/traffic and it was not that when during my time there.
    • Overall I was expecting more from the Star Wars Launch Bay. I know I skipped the two key experiences, the Character Meet and Greets but it still felt lacking to me. The Cantina area was really disappointing. I think the issue is I read the releases/posts and had a much higher bar set. I did enjoy the exhibits and video.

  • Next I headed upstairs to the Super Hero HQ
    • The big change to the upstairs is ASIMO is gone and in its place is the gift shop. The rest of the area is set up as before. The Captain America space is now called the V.A.U.L.T. and featured Spider-Man on Friday. Thor, Iron Man, and the XBox area have all returned and looked about the same, just some updated signage/paint in some spaces. The interactive area between X-Box and the gift shop has new graphics and the removal of the old activities.
    • I was not impressed with the layout. The concept sounded good to me but it just did not seem cohesive to me and felt rather flat to walk around the space. The gift shop was your standard fair and did not fit with the space and when I visited had very few guests in it. The XBox area was nearly empty with several consoles available. Wonder how long that contract.. seems the space could be better used for something else.
    • As I walked around I kept trying to think what would make it better. I think the underlying problem is there is no kinetic energy. The characters are all walled off and out of sight. So all you saw were lines and a store. It really needs something out in the open and something fresh that you can see.

  • The Tomorrowland Terrace emerged from its scaffolding. I was pleasantly surprised to see it retained its classic look. I was expecting a change with all the scaffolding. On Friday they were running the original Jedi Training Academy and this will continue through the first week of December.

  • Over at Disney California Adventure I was surprised to still be able to get a blue FastPass after 5pm for Winter Dreams. I did not check the availability of Celebrate but there were still tickets for that too.

  • I made a quick walk through of the three Disney Hotels to check out their Christmas decorations. Everything seemed about the same this year with nothing new jumping out to me. It is nice to see the gingerbread house returning to the Grand Californian lobby, but I would have liked to have seen a new structure this year. Also was surprised they did not expand to new gingerbread in either of the other hotels.

  • In Downtown Disney the Winter Village and Olafs Ice Rink have both returned. They look about the same as last year. The Village is set up slightly differently but the same concept. When I walked by just before 6:00pm the ice rink hand only a handful of guests skating.

  • To promote the Good Dinosaur opening Thanksgiving weekend a photo spot was set up between ESPN and the Rain Forest Cafe. It was a bit hard to see from the main walkway of Downtown Disney but if you arrived through the parking lot it was very obvious.

  • The Season of the Force kicked off on Monday and I was expecting the crowds to be much higher in Tomorrowland. As evening fell it was crowded but it did not seem any worse than usual. Star Tours and Space Mountain both had longer than usual waits but the near gridlock that normally happens on a Friday felt the same to me.

  • I used a FastPass for Star Tours. The return line was backed up toward the rest rooms near the Plaza Inn. It took me nearly half an hour to make it through the queue and attraction with a FastPass that seemed really long to me. The ride has received some new scenes and updates to existing scenes to go along with the new Force Awakens. From now through the new year they are only playing the new scenes. Early in 2016 the expectation is it will go back to being random and the new scenes will be in the mix. The new ride profile seemed rougher to me. Not sure if it was my seat or what but it seemed to toss you around a bit more than the others. Be on the lookout for new characters in the backgrounds and other tweaks the old scenes if you ride. There are some updates/tweaks.

  • I had planned to take pictures of the new lighting effects but Friday evening Space Mountain as well as the Orbitron were dark. They did have some new star field projections and others on the murals as you enter/exit Tomorrowland. Also the signage lights up and looks better at night than during the day.

  • As I waited to see if the lights were going to come on watched Tomorrowland from the second floor a bit. The Hyperspace Mountain queue crossed into triple digits and the Pizza Port line backed up toward Space Mountain then toward the fountain..

  • I was walking down Hollywood Blvd at Disney California Adventure and Five and Dime cruised by singing a Christmas song. So I followed to see if they updated their set for the season. There were a couple tweaks just like last year but nothing else. I would like to see them expand and do a full Christmas set.

  • I closed out my time in the parks with World of Color - Winter Dreams since I had a FastPass for blue. Tonight the snow flakes for the finale were activated but they seemed smaller and were not consistent. Upon a second viewing I still wish they had updated the show this year to less frozen and more Christmas.

  • As I headed back for the car noticed Disneyland Forever was not going on. Guessing it was delayed due to wind? It did run about 15 minutes or so late so I watched from the Mickey and Friends garage. Speaking of Disneyland Forever this upcoming week they will be running two shows a 6:30 and 9:30 (weather permitting). Be warned with the new times that means more of the park will be impacted for a longer time with large portions of Fantasyland being closed from about an hour before the first show through after the second probably.. they may reopen some for a brief period in between.

  • At the Mickey and Friends Garage they had the up escalators off and behind barriers for both the 2nd floor and 3/4 floors. The down were running. This was causing problems and really shows a flaw to the parking garage set up with no easy access to stairs from the load/unload area. Also odd they did not give you the option to walk up the stairs. The one was closed when I arrived for the day so guessing it was that way all day. I ended up going up to 5 then back down the steps to 3 where I had parked. Assuming this became a much larger mess after me when the exit crowd arrived.

  • 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

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