Hello all,

I decided to head to the parks on black Friday vs doing some holiday shopping. The weather was picture perfect with incredible blue skies and mild temperatures. The crowds were heavy but not unbearable. I was really expecting it to be worse. Most of the big attractions hovered over the hour mark with Pirates creeping up to that neighborhood too. The crowds really did not effect my plans for the day since visiting attractions was not high on my priority list.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

• I arrived at the Mickey and Friends garage just before 10am and was pleasantly surprised not to find a big traffic back-up as I had experienced the last Thanksgiving weekend I stopped by the parks. The tram stop was alive with activity with trams everywhere waiting to load and pull out as quickly as possible. There was about a two tram wait only and they were loading from two stops.
  
  
• First stop of the day for me was DCA to check out the construction. It had only been a week since my last visit but visible changes are occurring daily at both Cars Land and Buena Vista Street, so for geeks like me it is always great to see what has changed. Also wanted to get a spin in on the Fun Wheel before the crowds got out of hand.
  
  
• While out on the Pier the Disney Channel Rocks show was going on. It had a small audience as usual. My guess is it will not be around too long after the holidays. I am surprised it never really caught on. Seems with the staging, fountains, and music mix it would draw some guests, but it just has not seemed to have panned out, especially compared to the crowds I have seen at the WDW version of the show. To me the audio always seems off at DCA, not sure if it is sound system or the performers. I do not think that is the reason for the lack of crowds though.
  
  
• The Phineas and Ferb show continues to pull in healthy crowds. Wonder how that would play on the bigger stage? I noticed they had four fireside girls now to help with the larger crowds.
  
  
• After lunch I made the rounds to all three Disney Hotels to check out their Christmas decorations. This year looked to be about the same at the Grand Californian and Paradise Pier Hotels with no major changes jumping out at me. The Disneyland Hotel had some nice touches with each Tower having a tree to fit its namesake.
  
  
• The Disneyland Hotel continues to wrap up renovation project with the finishing touches being applied to the Fantasy Tower with new lobby carpet, the redone entrance, etc.. the overall look still seems really bare to me but then again maybe there is more to come still.
  
  
• Spent some time roaming Disneyland during the afternoon taking in the Christmas happenings in the daylight (my previous visits have all been after dark it seemed). I was still really disappointed with the new trees out in Toontown. I would have thought for them to make the press release/promotional material for the season they would have been much more impressive. I guess if no fuss was made over them I would have thought they were still not as good, but ok. I had a much higher expectation though. It was odd for me to watch the Christmas Fantasy parade in the day time. I do think it looks better at night. It works during the day, but something about all the lights just feels better to me. Speaking of the parade thought I would add another complaint.. they turned the area in the hub that faces right down Main Street into a handicap area. I really enjoyed photographing from this area but now for most performances they will not let you stay in the back even.
  
  
• I watched the Billy Hill show from the balcony. First time with the new railings. Once I moved beyond how poor the add on looked they really did not get in the way that badly and I was able to ignore them with no real problems. If you have not experienced the Billies, here is a clip from the show:
  
  
  
• I was in the Hub during the tree lighting moment. Still not sure why they do not make a bigger show of it like they used to. It is basically a brief recording then the lights come on. They do not even play the audio in the hub, down near the tree.
  
  
• I circled by Pirates of the Caribbean a couple of times because I wanted to go for a ride to see if anything jumped out at me after the long rehab. The attraction just reopened on Thursday (Thanksgiving Day). The only two noticeable changes to me was the additional space at the off load area as well as the alternating Blackbeard and Davy Jones clips on the midst screen. Nothing else jumped out to me on my ride through. I had read online that they rebuilt most of the caves at the beginning, but they were build the same so nothing should have looked different.
  
  
• I concluded my evening with World of Color. Watched from the back terrace of Red, luckily managed to find a spot closer to Yellow so the view was not that bad, but making out the front projection screen was still nearly impossible. The back ones were nice and clear thanks to the lack of a breeze.
  
  

Interesting Web Finds/Notes:
Below are some interesting links, notes, and rumors I found/stumble across/or have been informed of since the last Geekspeaks column.

• Interesting Web Finds:
  • I have been posting my web finds to the Geek's Blog as I find them/have time to post them.
    
    
• Disney Related Press Releases
  • 11/17/11 - Mattel Exhibit Featuring Disney·Pixar Cars Die-cast Vehicles Speeds Into Petersen Automotive Museum in L.A.
  • 11/16/11 - D23 Sprinkles Disney Magic Across the Country With A Year of Spectacular Events
    
    
    
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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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