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12/01/12 - My thoughts and observations from Saturday at the 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.

12/01/12 - My thoughts and observations from Saturday at the Disneyland Resort

Hello all,

Saturday was a full day at the Disneyland Resort for me. I had some guests with me that have not been to the parks since Cars Land and Buena Vista Street have opened so I played tourist for part of the day with them. The weather held for us, with only a light mist turning to rain right before 9pm and mild temperatures. The crowds were heavy but not miserable. Wait times seemed about summerish at DCA and Disneyland seemed mild for most of the afternoon.

Jason

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • We arrived at the Disneyland Resort just after 7am and ended up pulling out of the Mickey and Friends structure just after 9pm so it was a long day at the parks, if you add in drive time I left home at 5:30am and returned home about 10:30pm.

  • Cars Land was the popular destination with all those entering the park at opening. We made a wise decision and instead of rushing to the Racers as many tried we joined the mass in line for the Fastpasses. I say this was wise because the Racers did not open at park opening. So all those that ran there were milling around waiting to queue up or moved on to other attractions, which of course meant longer waits everywhere else. Even with the Racers down we still had an under 30 minute wait for the Flying Tires and 15 minute wait for Maters and within the first hour had our Racers Fastpass and experienced the other two attractions and were on our way to Toy Story.

  • I spotted the gingerbread Mater in Flos and stopped for a couple pictures. I thought it was in a really awkward location. Later in the evening I went back to show someone and it had been removed. Hopefully nothing happened to it. Also heard on Sunday it was not out. I stopped by the Cafe on Buena Vista Street to look for their gingerbread creation and did not find it anywhere.

  • On Buena Vista Street I was walking by Trolley Treats as they started a fresh batch of Candy Canes. I was only able to see the first half of the process up until they started working with the hook. I had to run before they got to the actual formation of the canes though. Hopefully next time I can catch that part.

  • This was the first night of the Candlelight Ceremony and they have expanded to twenty nights, forty shows. This is still well short of the show total EPCOT puts on each year but compared to the 2 nights four shows Disneyland traditionally has its a huge increase. It should be interesting to see how this plays out. I hope it goes over well since I enjoy the Candlelight and think the traditional location on Main Street really adds to the show.

  • I was delayed in arriving but still managed to find a decent spot to catch the 5:30pm Candlelight on Saturday. The show has not had any major changes which I thought was great! When I heard the Voices of Liberty were joining the show I had visions of the WDW version coming this way and I favor the Disneyland song lineup and presentation. It felt like such a long time since I had seen the Disneyland version, in reality only two years, I missed the ceremony last year due to being at WDW then on a Disney Cruise. But I probably saw the WDW version a ten times between the two because of two trips to Orlando.

    Here are a couple clips from the show, I included several others on the YouTube Channel and in the update:



  • I made a lucky call to go to the 5:30pm Candlelight Saturday. The 7:30pm show was stopped in the middle due to weather and both shows on Sunday were cancelled due to weather. So looks like its good news they added so many extra dates this year or else most of the shows would have been cancelled this year. Also keep this in mind if you are visiting and want to see the show that it is weather permitting.

  • In my very limited time moving around the Candlelight the traffic flow seemed fairly organized and it was moving. Everyone seemed patient. Hopefully this small sampling I experienced is what everyone else found too.

  • One negative side effect of the Candlelight running is the impact on the rest of the park schedule. The Christmas Fantasy Parade has to be over in time to set up so it runs at 1:00 and 3:30 (on days with a single run it is scheduled at 4:00pm). Also it pushes Believe back to its 9:30pm time slot and most of the Wintertime Enchantment (snow moments) are cancelled. This has a ripple effect and over at DCA World of Color is pushed to 9:00 and 10:15 and the Mad T Party to 7pm starts.

  • Radiator Springs Racers Fastpass Return was really backed-up as the day went on. Due to the size of our group we pooled Fastpasses to allow for two visits for those who had not ridden before. We used a first set of Fastpasses right before lunch time and it was about a 10 minute wait, but in the evening we returned to use a second set of Fastpasses and the first time by the line was about half way to the first bridge and the Cast Member said it was probably a 30 minute wait. We bailed out and said we would come back later. Unfortunately this was worse and the line stretched out to Stanley and they were saying 45-60 minutes. We returned a third time and it was about the entrance and we bit the bullet and hopped in line. It took close to 45 minutes to board. My hunch was because of several down times throughout the day this led to the backup. So the Fastpass was faster than Standby but not really fast tonight.

  • As I mentioned I had a couple in the group that had not visited since the spring so they had not experienced the new Disney California Adventure. One was my brother and he shared some of his first impressions with me:
    • Overall thought the attention to detail in Cars Land and Buena Vista Street was what Disney used to be all about... Very impressive except for mass of people, he did not think they did the best of jobs managing crowd and lines.

    • Flying Tires:
      Thumbs Up - Fun to float on air and move about
      Thumbs Down - Did not think it they did a good job explaining what you were waiting for until you got outside and could see what was going on... (Note: This was our first stop in Cars Land and we walked down the street and I pushed them straight into line)

    • Mater's Junkyard Jamboree:
      Thumbs Up - The two sets of vehicles made line go faster than he expected
      Thumbs Down - Ride is showing visible wear already

    • Radiator Springs Racers:
      Thumbs Up- Attention to detail on everything from scenery to cars to town
      Thumbs Down - The line and the fact it breaks down so much causing backups in the Fastpass Return

    • Cozy Cone - The line was incredibly slow considering how short it was and there were four cast members inside the cone working. The food was ok.

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.

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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