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11/23/22 - Disneyland Resort - 2nd Holiday Season Visit of 2022
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11/23/22 - Disneyland Resort - 2nd Holiday Season Visit of 2022

Hello Everyone!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I started my long holiday weekend with a full day at the Disneyland Resort. Wednesday was a relaxing visit to the Disneyland Resort for me. My goal was to take a second look at the Christmas decorations and enjoy the holiday entertainment. The weather was slightly warmer than Friday, topping out in the low 70s and cooling to the low 60s. The parks felt slightly less crowded and the couple times we glanced at wait times they were about average. As the sun set the crowds did seem to thin, or at least not feel as busy, the opposite of a Friday.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • We arrived in the Anaheim area earlier than planned thanks to favorable traffic for once. Traveling early before a holiday weekend has an advantage. As always when early and no definite plans everything flowed quickly. I even hit all green lights on Harbor Blvd on my way to breakfast and then same on my way to the parking structure after breakfast.
  • Started off the day walking around the Disneyland Hotel and Downtown Disney checking out the Christmas decorations at both as well as the DVC Construction. The holiday decorations seemed on par with recent years in both locations with nothing dramatically different jumping out to me as I walked around. The DVC Tower has been topped off and the tower crane has been removed.
  • Started my day at Disney California Adventure arriving about 15 minutes after park opening. The big crowds were in Cars Land and Avengers Campus. We decided to head to Pixar Pier. Unfortunately Toy Story Midway Mania had not opened yet for the morning. There were a number of cast members all working through checklists on clipboards when we arrived in the area. The attraction was running so we hung around in hopes of a minimal wait. We were able to walk on once they opened but it was about a 20 minute wait and by that time nearly an hour after the park had opened. I saw a number of Genie+ guests on their phones clicking away re-adjusting their plans.
  • I stopped, along with a large crowd, to watch the Amazing Spider-Man show. After the show Spidey walked the crowd line waving and high fiving guests. This was different than I had seen on previous visits with a meet and greet opportunity. The stunt-tronic is still impressive to see. The show does create quite a bit of traffic flow issues though and requires a good number of cast members to keep things moving.
  • I caught the Hawkeye Holiday Avengers Assemble show finally. Last year I missed it due to scheduling, namely it was not being performed most of the days I happened to visit. It was fun to see a variation on the show and a holiday theme to it. The show itself is not the best, but for what it is, it works.
  • The 1:00pm park hopping rule still bothers me. Being "trapped" and unable to move between parks until 1pm creates some scheduling headaches, for example the Cavalcade only runs once per day right now at 12:45 so you miss it if you start at DCA. It also creates unnecessary crowds and backups at the park entrances at 1:00pm with a good number of guests wanting to shift to the opposite park so healthy crowds gather at both gates waiting to be let in.
  • We picked up lunch at the Stage Door Cafe and decided to eat inside the Golden Horseshoe. The sound level inside was rather loud today. It seems the guests all decided they wanted to talk over top of each other and just kept getting louder. Even when the piano player started they did not quiet down most of the show. At a couple points it seemed the crowd noise was louder than the performer. And as he sung/played louder they just seemed to talk louder.
  • I was happy to be able to catch the Dickens Yuletide Band a couple of times today. They were not performing Friday (they typically seem to get Fridays off every year so I rarely get to see them). As always they are a bit of challenge to find. We asked a cast member who looked it up and gave us a location, of course the band ended up playing elsewhere. I did find it fun that as they were playing the Main Street vehicles were heading in. so without missing a beat the band just moved to the side and let them exit then then moved back.
  • As the band played I spotted several characters roaming around Town Square. It was nice to see them moving around and interacting with guests vs just stationary doing meet and greets.
  • When I arrived at it's a small world it was down, but I noticed they were letting those in line board so it looked like they were about to reopen. We hung around and in less than ten minutes we saw the cast members give each other a thumbs up and remove the rope to open so we headed in and were able to walk right on. The issue appeared to be with the north load side. That did not reopen and as we were riding they were pulling some boats offline to keep the attraction flowing with the reduced capacity. This meant longer waits throughout the evening (walked by again after dark and it was a 75 min wait).
  • As we walked by Pirates we saw it posted at 15 minutes and looked to be flowing well so hopped in line. Turned out to be a couple minutes faster than posted but fairly accurate.
  • The Christmas Tree lighting moment this year is the same as other recent years.. with a very brief recording then the lights come on. I keep hoping that some year this will return to a more elaborate moment.
  • The Holiday Handbell Carolers have returned to the Grand Californian Lobby, as well as the large gingerbread house. Both were great to see. The gingerbread house looked about the same as always and did not really have any elements that stood out to me. The carolers drew a good crowd and it was nice to see a sign with their schedule posted so people knew.
  • The La Brea Bakery has a gingerbread house village on display, so take a look inside if you pass by. It is a well done display.

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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