Disneygeek - Geek Speaks - 11/26/19 - Thoughts and observations from Tuesday

The Geek Speaks:

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.

11/26/19 - Thoughts and observations from Tuesday

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I decided to pay a visit to the Disneyland Resort today because the weather forecast showed a fair chance of rain the upcoming days so I ventured to Anaheim. The crowds were on the heavy side all day, but unlike a Friday they really did not swell into the evening. The waits seemed to go down as the temperature dropped. Picking up a FastPass for most attractions proved a challenge by early afternoon with most attractions gone by sunset. The weather started off great, around 70 and sunny but by the 3:30pm parade clouds had taken over and it was getting cool. Temps dropped to around 60 by the time I headed home.

Thoughts and Observations:

Parking looked promising but I choose unwisely.. the line I choose the front car had a problem so I had to sit while he talked to the cast member and the cast member relayed that to someone on the phone. There were only two cars in front of me too but it still took several minutes to get through the line. Another odd occurrence. The lane next to mine a car paused and then drove through. The cast member was commenting to the other while they were scanning my pass that they had never had that happen. I was on my way while they were still discussing it. Only a slight delay to reach the third level today and then a string a slow moving line of cars through the garage. There were no cast members and no cones so cars were going down aisle to grab a spot. Others were continuing on into the Pixar Pals Parking Structure where I am assuming cast members were directing cars into spots.
The new Mickey and Friends Parking Structure icon/statue has been installed and they are finishing up the planter around it. It acts as a mirror to the Pixar Ball down the other side of the plaza for the other garage.
It has been quite a while since I took a voyage on the Disneyland Omnibus. It was pulling in while I was in Town Square taking pictures and there was no one waiting so I boarded and took the front/center seat on the upper level to get some pictures of Main Street USA with the Christmas decorations up. I always enjoy the elevated look to give a different perspective on entering the park. In addition to the bus there were two cars and a horse drawn street car in operation this afternoon.
One of my primary objectives of the day was to enjoy the holiday entertainment and this included the Dickens Yuletide Band. This band usually has Fridays off so I rarely see them. I managed to catch most of three of their six sets. The band plays traditional Christmas music and can be found on Main Street throughout the afternoon/evening. I always find it odd that they do not have microphones and most sets they do not have lights for. Its always kind of odd when they are performing in front of the Opera House and the post parade lights are on then the lights get turned off in the middle of their set.
Spent some time on Batuu walking through Black Spire Outpost and then the forest to reach Critter Country. They do not seem to celebrate the holidays on Batuu. The land had a fair amount of guests moving about and every time I noticed the wait time for Smugglers Run was over an hour.
Circled Critter Country to see this years decorations. Everything looked on par with previous years and nothing jumped out at me as being drastically different. Santa has taken over Winnie the Pooh's area as he has the past several years.
Visited Cars Land to be there for when the lights came on for the evening. This evening a couple of the neon lights, like Flo's, were on early. They still played Walking In a Winter Wonderland and the Christmas lights and other neon came on. Red was parked by the Wharf entrance to Ornament valley this evening. I do not recall seeing him all the way out there before. This made for a great picture with the valley behind him.
Today Disney announced on the Parks Blog that Snow White's Scary Adventure will be closing January 6th for a major renovation and updating. Based on the description it sounds to be similar to what they did with Alice in Wonderland several years ago. Hopefully the update comes out as good as that one.
The Holiday Concert on the Palisades Stage this evening featured the Suffragettes. I did not care for their show. They opened with Christmas then for the next 25 minutes played non Christmas music. I left at that point, so maybe they closed with more Christmas songs. I was expecting a Holiday concert to have more holiday music.
Stopped by it's a small world holiday, missed my FastPass return by over 30 minutes so no ride today, but saw the projection show. It appears to be running at the top and bottom of most hours after sunset. The projections are the same as previous years and no changes jumped out to me. Also noteworthy is the clock did not display the time. The sequence ran but the doors did not open.
I closed out my time at Disney California Adventure with World of Color: Season of Light. I was able to find a decent stand by spot for the show and not that many kids on shoulders blocking my view. I still think 9:00pm is rather late for winter and kids and an earlier showing would be much better attended than the later one. The show started several minutes late so I was not able to make it across the way to Disneyland in time for Believe in Holiday Magic this evening.