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11/22/24 - Second Holiday Season Visit to the Disneyland Resort
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11/22/24 - Second Holiday Season Visit to the Disneyland Resort

Hello Everyone!

I spent another full day at the Disneyland Resort Friday. We arrived as the sun came up and stayed past sunset. The weather started off in the 50s reach 70ish and cooled back down toward the 50s as I was leaving. The crowds were what you would expect this time of year. Starting of mild and building as the day went on.

Before going through my Disneyland notes wanted to comment on the Walt Disney World news that broke Friday. The Muppet Courtyard will be replaced with a Monsters Inc. area. The new Door Coaster will be build at the end of the avenue extending the park. All the shops, restaurants and Muppet theater will be redone to be Monsters Inc. The Muppets will be taking over Rock N Roller Coaster on Sunset Blvd. I am not a huge fan of this swap. I see what they are doing but I would have liked to have seen the Muppet area updated instead of repurposed and a new Monsters Inc area added to the park to continue to expand the park. The park needs more family friendly attractions and adding the Muppets to a coaster with a height restriction does not do that. I enjoy the Muppets preshow and film. Yes both are dated and in need of some TLC. Hopefully the film finds a new home in some format somewhere. Maybe on Disney+ or a collectors home video release??

Thoughts and Observations:

  • On my way to the parking structure this morning I was stopped at a light with a truck load of Paint the Night elements. Disney has yet to announce a return date but all indications are it will be in early 2025. There was video of some floats heading to the park in recent weeks too.
  • I had mixed luck with my parking. No delays but drew an awful spot, the very last spot in a row on the Cars Level of the Pixar Pals parking structure.
  • Started my day off at Disney California Adventure where I arrived a few minutes before rope drop. I listened to the announcement near Carthay Circle and luckily was well out of the crowd entering the park. I took a quiet stroll through Grizzly Recreation area and had the area to myself on this chilly morning.
  • First attraction for me today was Toy Story Midway Mania. It was almost a walk on. Had to pause for a tram or two to cycle but other than that no delays. Most of the attraction was a better experience than last time but the final game was terrible. The calibration was way off and it was not a pleasant way to end the experience. The attraction could use a renovation to try and resolve these ongoing issues. On the positive side since I was so early in the day my score managed to be best of the day, which I am sure did not last long.
  • Paid a visit to Mike & Sulley to the Rescue this morning since there was a minimal wait. I am still unsure why after all these years some of the characters/scenes still take me back the short lived Super Star Limo attraction. I am sure I have ridden the Monsters Inc attraction many times more over its 18 years of existence. Anyone else suffer this odd disneygeek issue?
  • Caught a performance of the Amazing Spider-Man show. The show now runs without a human stunt performer. It appears to be the same version that I had seen before when the stunt performer was out for some reason. Instead of Spider-Man doing any wire work or tumbling passes he just waves and runs by now. The key element of the flying robot is still there but the show does lack a little. Maybe the script will be updated to try and address this.
  • Chip and Dale's Ornament Trail started today in Downtown Disney. For $9.99 you get a game board, stickers and an ornament keepsake. This is not really a quest or hunt. All the ornaments are on the trees throughout the district and you match the color to the character. It was interesting to see the ornaments but we prefer the hunts over this from a play perspective. We did notice a few families playing but not nearly as many as the Egg or Pumpkin games draw. It was only the first day and mid day so maybe it will grow in popularity.
  • it's a small world was posted at 15 minutes and took just over that. The Standby queue looked long utilizing a number of switchbacks but it moved smoothly most of the time. Only twice did we stop for a noticeable period of time for Lightning Lane returns.
  • Stopped by the Fantasyland Theatre and thought it felt a little less lively than opening day last week. Santa had a healthy wait, the character queue nearby was on par with last week too. But in the time I was there nothing was happening on stage. I did spot Pinocchio and Geppetto hanging out and just watching the crowd because no one was visiting them.
  • The Dickens Yuletide Band performs about half their sets outside the theater. This seemed less than ideal to me. First it left a programming hole on the main stage. I thought maybe they were moved to accommodate something else but that was not the case I saw. They were out performing along the walkway at the exit to the train station. The area was jammed with strollers making for a narrow walkway for those using the train. It was really hard to find a spot out of the way to stop and watch the band. This was even more awkward than some of their past spots on Main Street.
  • I spent a few minutes making a loop of Bayou Country. I do not understand the point of a virtual queue if you are going to load up the queue and extended queue. Why not stop calling groups or slow down to give the attraction time to clear make some headway. Even with a full queue and the attraction running Louis' Critter Shop was nearly empty and I noticed boxes of the limited pins still available.
  • Grabbed a bite to eat at Smoke Jumpers Grill which I have not eaten at in quiet a while. My last meal there was less than ideal. I gave it a go because the rest of the group wanted to and I was too lazy to walk to Flo's by myself. The price point is one factor. To get a burger you have to pay $2 more than Flo's. You get a double burger vs a single but they are smaller patties and to me do not taste as good. I do prefer the crisp crinkle fries at Smoke Jumpers but they tend to over salt them so that is a wash with Flo's in my book. The background music being in the background and classic country is a plus at Smoke Jumpers still. All in all it was slightly better than my last experience but given the choice I think I will continue to end up at Flo's.
  • Festival of Holidays has a larger rotation of groups this year compared to previous years. This evening I stopped by the Hollywood Lounge Stage to see Kealiʻi O Nālani & Daniel Ho. We really enjoyed their performance. I am not a huge fan of the lounge stage though because I always feel I am standing in someone's way. If you do not get one of the few seats there are not a lot of places to stand and be out of the way.
  • The Buena Vista Street Christmas Tree lighting was even worse tonight than usual. The audio did not play so there was just a short pause in the background loop then the lights came on. I still miss the small productions and think the Coco show cast should do the lighting.
  • Speaking of A Musical Christmas with Mariachi Alegria de Disneyland & Miguel, today they let everyone line up before the procession. This meant to scramble during the show for a view. I was able to secure a much better view this time around. I still think the staging is too confined and there is not enough viewing space for guests though.
  • I watched the last Mirabel's Gifts of the Season of the day at 5:45pm to see it under the lights. I was a slightly different experience than with the mid afternoon sun. The lights added a little to the experience. I still think the show could use some more Holidays in it, but the energetic and entertaining cast makes it a solid offering.
  • The evening concert today featured the Holiday Island Reggae Band. They played a mix of Christmas and Disney music and put on an entertaining set. The way the stage is set up though is less than ideal and for the second show the World of Color dessert party set up seems intrusive still. Can they really not wait until 6pm to start? Does than extra 30 minutes make that drastic of a difference?
  • I made a quick visit to the Disney Holiday Dance Party in Tomorrowland. It runs daily from 5:30 to 9:30pm. It follows the format of previous parties with the characters joining a DJ on stage where they teach some dance moves and then play a song. I find the dance lesson sections to take up way too much of the show and I would prefer to see more music and less talking.
  • I left the park just before 8pm and the trams arriving were just as full as the ones leaving at that hour. Also noticed there were noticeably more guests heading into Downtown Disney than to the trams.

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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