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11/22/23 - 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.

11/22/23 - Disneyland Resort

Hello Everyone!

I kicked off my long Thanksgiving weekend a the Disneyland Resort. The crowds at the parks were on the moderate side. Maybe slightly less than Friday at points even. I saw Magic Key reservations available into the 5pm hour even. Only the top two passes were eligible for the day, others were blocked out so sure that was a factor. The weather was great topping out around 80 and dropping to the 60s.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • I had good timing to start my day with almost no traffic/delays reaching the park, at the tollbooth and up to a parking spot. I did draw a far spot.. one of the last spots right by the exit ramp. So the walk was further but it was a short drive to the spot and easy to exit without having to drive all the way around the garage.
  • The Disneyland Hotel received new holiday decorations this year. This includes banners, carpet, graphics on the glass doors and windows. Overall its a nice wintery feel and works for the hotel. The Santa meet and greet location fits the theme but is not as impressive as years past to me. I was disappointed that the new Discovery Tower did not have more or something more unique. The tree in the lobby area was generic. The Frontier and Adventure towers have their traditional trees which fit nicely.
  • Downtown Disney is decorated and the festivities kick off Friday the 24th with entertainment and snow fall nightly. The decorations were the same as last year with nothing new jumping out to me on my walk through. The Disney100 Medallions stay for another season too.
  • I walked through Candy Palace and did not see printed Candy Cane post cards with schedules this year. I saw online the schedule is released
    Disneyland Candy Palace – December 3, 5, 10, 12, 17, 19, 24
    Disney California Adventure Trolley Treats – December 4, 6, 11, 13, 18, 20, 25
  • I had some good attraction luck today too. I have not made it onto the Haunted Mansion Holiday that many times this season due to the constantly long waits. Today I was walking by and it was closed. I was taking pictures of the empty queue when the music started. A few moments later the cast members opened the gates and I was able to walk on. In the evening I was walking out to it's a small world and saw Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway with a 5 min posted wait (it had just reopened) so I went out to Toontown and was able to make it on with a 10 minute wait. I circled back to it's a small world during the parade and waited under 15 minutes. So managed to visit three attractions with a combined wait of about 30 minutes.
  • Walked through Toontown to see what was going on. No new decorations so it seems the new buildings are not going to be decorated this year. The only walls up Wednesday were at Donald's still.
  • It was fun to see the characters in their Holiday outfits for the march with the Disneyland Band down Main Street USA. It was a good opportunity to see them without having to wait in the queues.
  • Was thinking of going for a Monorail line but it was a couple train wait when I walked by, so once again no Monorail trip for me.
  • I was passing through the hub and the Omnibus was parked there and no one was boarding.. so I had to go up and go for a ride in the front. Always fun to get the elevated view of Main Street USA especially during the holidays.
  • Walt Disney Animation Studios newest film Wish is in theaters now and the film is being promoted around the parks. There are Valentino popcorn buckets, star sippers, a chance to meet Asha in Fantasy Faire and a preshow to World of Color featuring a song from the movie. As well as an assortment of merchandise at many stores. I saw a fair number of sippers, but very few of the popcorn buckets, the Mickey Toy Soldier one seemed much more popular. Asha had mild waits the two times I saw her out, the meet and greet lighting is rather dark, but there are some props in the trees which were nice.
  • For lunch I mobile ordered from Flo's. There was no problem getting the time I wanted and when I showed up the crowd felt average. I did not log the time, but it was almost 30 minutes for my order of a single hamburger to show up and when it did it was wrong and had to be corrected (it had cheese on it).
  • The Beast's Library will be closing in December. The space will be used for the Disney Imagination Campus programs, they are currently using the Blue Sky Cellar which will be used for DVC. I stopped by to take some photos of the area and found a queue of several dozen guests waiting to get into the library. I did not want to use a kiosk but they were making everyone wait in line to enter the space, so I ended up skipping it vs waiting. The Animation Building was very busy, and I had bad timing arriving as the shows let out, it looked like both Crush and the Animation Academy emptied at nearly the same time.
  • This year your opportunities to see the Viva Navidad Street Party under the lights is limited. There is one show at sunset and one show after dark, but the last show conflicts with the holiday concert. I went to the 4:45pm show which was mostly dark. It is too bad the last show is at 5:45pm.
  • The Dickens Yuletide Band was performing today. I caught a brief bit while they were doing a pre-parade stop and then circled back to see their finale set of the evening at 8:05pm. They were performing in front of the Opera House which was rather dark and awkward but great to listen to their classic Christmas music.
  • I closed out my evening with World of Color then Believe in Holiday Magic. My primary objective was to see the Wish pre-show since I had not seen it. I stuck around until after the Goofy decorating segment (no fire effects again) then left for Disneyland. This gave me a couple extra minutes so I was able to find an ok spot for the fireworks tonight.

Here are some recent posts to the Geek's Blog:

Disney Related Press Releases

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

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

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