Hello all,

Wednesday turned out to be a damp and soggy day at the Disneyland Resort. The silver lining was the weather kept the crowds down and come evening the weather cleared a bit and the crowds disappeared even more. Wait times for some attractions climbed to mild crowd levels, but nothing like it would have been if the weather was favorable.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

• Since the Lazygeek had out of town company we were locked into the day and decided to go no matter the weather. As bad luck would have it out of the last two weeks I managed to be at the park the two worst weather days (last Tuesday it was windy and cold and then this trip it was raining and cool). Weather.com got the forecast wrong. It said few showers in the afternoon, instead I was greeted by a light midst upon arrival around 8:30am. The midst turned to light rain to a steady rain several times throughout the morning and afternoon but as the day wore on it let up. We were actually able to see a glimpse of the moon a couple times in the evening. The temps were mild but with the dampness it felt good to have a heavy jacket.
  
  
• Every time it rains and I am at the park it reminds me of how the parks out here are not designed for weather, compared to the WDW parks. Most attractions, dining locations, and queues are outside and not that well protected/covered. Adding to the challenge for us this trip was two 2 year olds in the group..
  
  
• There were quite a few out of town tourists as to be expected. Their was a fair number of Oregon and Ohio State fans roaming the park, seemed to be more Oregon ones, guess they are used to the rain. You could easily spot the midwestern folks as several had shorts on!!
  
  
• I was surprised that there was not more entertainment scheduled for the parks, given that if the weather was good it would have been a capacity crowd probably. Things seemed to stay on their normal schedule this week. For example Aladdin was dark Monday and Tuesday. HSM and the Billys had no performances on Tues or Wed. Also kind of interesting they moved both of the Christmas Fantasy parades up an hour on every day but Saturday last week.
  
  
• The construction projects at DCA were in full swing even with the weather and the holiday week. I was expecting the sites to be fairly quiet and instead they were alive with activity. Guess they are trying to keep things on schedule.
  
  
• Speaking of construction.. if anyone is heading to the parks in the next few weeks be prepared for quite a few walls. Several attractions/areas will be going down for rehab starting Monday. Here is a partial list that I have read about:
  • Disneyland: Rivers of America (including all boats, canoes, the Island, Fantasmic), Haunted Mansion to be switched back to the regular show, Golden Horseshoe for some stage work, Honey I Shrunk the Audience for the installation of Captain E-O, the Main Street Cinema, I also read that the Corn Dog Wagon and Tomorrowland Terrace will be closed (neither is listed on the Disneyland.com site though)
  • Over at DCA Grizzle River Run goes down. Also I read that walls will go up on the backlot as they start to work on the red car line.
    
    
• We ended up at White Water Snacks for lunch since it was a dry/calm place to grab a bite to eat. As I have mentioned several times the quality here seems to just keep slipping. It used to be one of my favorite places with great food and service for a decent price. Prices have risen, options have narrowed (this time we noticed the French Dip sandwich is gone), and the CMs have not been that friendly. For example take a look at their burgers. They used to be fairly decent, fresh tasting burgers with fries and some strawberries. Now you get a small burger (smaller than Taste Pilots) and some fries. My fries were actually cool this time too. Prices are still slightly less than the parks. For example it cost me $7.38 (after tax and AP discount) vs Taste Pilot which costs $7.85 after tax and discount. Also not sure why they cannot figure out the drinks with the kids meals. For the two kids in our group we ordered a milk and juice box. At the register we were told it would come with the food. The food came and no drinks (this is the 2nd or 3rd time this has happened). Asked the CM and they then brought the milk and it took a third trip to get the juice box. Also I was disappointed with the CMs. There was one working the register and the line was a good 5 or 6 groups deep. She was slow and not very helpful or friendly. For example I had a mastercard gift card that I wanted to use. She ran it and it was denied. I said I know it has money on it and asked to run it again. She turned the screen to me and said look it says denied. I asked her to just give it a try again, she refused so I had to use a credit card instead since she was not about to swipe it a second time. I ended up using the gift card, with no problems, for dinner at Disneyland.
  
  
• We ended up eating dinner inside the Golden Horseshoe to avoid the weather. By dumb luck we were in there during the last Laughingstock Co show of the day. I think this show plays well outside but to be the featured show in the Horseshoe just does not work for me, it is just not that engaging and entertaining to me, compared to the Billys or the old revue show. They came out, did their skit and left and you could tell many in the audience were looking around to see if that was it.
  
  
• The snow machines were all having problems on Wednesday. We were by Small World for the 7:30 snow event and the snow was just barely falling out of a couple machines. It was not blowing at all and most machines had nothing coming out. Kind of a funny story.. the Lazygeeks son, who is two, looked at me and said Snow broke? Does this mean we take him to Disneyland too much that he knows what is supposed to be happening and when its broke? At the finale to Believe we could hear the blowers running but no snow made it to Main Street. It was kind of odd to hear White Christmas, see the lights, and have no snow at all..
  
  
• As I was driving home and reflecting on the trip it dawned on me that this season I did not see the Dickens Carolers out.. were they and I just missed them?
  
  
• I was cleaning up my files for the end of the year and took a glance at my stack of Disneyland receipts. Looking at my January vs December dining bills I noticed there was a double digit percentage increase in food prices this year. Also this year marked the end to the waffle fries at Taste Pilots and the Corn Dogs at Disneyland are a couple inches smaller now. Here are some price examples (also wanted to note it still bugs me you get nothing off the price for getting a burger without cheese.. where as at WDW it is slightly cheaper, you actually pay for what you order and not for what you do not want..):
  
  • Taste Pilots Grill - Burger and Fries
    • 1/4 - $7.59 ($6.95 after discount and tax)
    • 12/22 - $8.49 ($7.85 after discount and tax)
  • Little Red Wagon - Corn Dog and Chips
    • 1/17 - $6.00 including tax ($5.10 after discount)
    • 12/30 - $5.79 ($5.35 after discount and tax) -- noticed they do not include the tax in the posted price anymore
  • White Water Snacks - Burger and Fries
    • 1/17 - $7.59 ($6.95 after discount and tax)
    • 12/30 - $7.99 ($7.38 after discount and tax)
      
      
      
• Press Release: 12/29/09 - Disneyland Hotel Cast Member Receives Prestigious Statewide Honor
  
  
• We post some announcements on:
  • Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/disneygeekcom
  • Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/disneygeek
    
    

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

Stop by the Geek's Forum to discuss this and other Disney topics.. click here

Send comments, questions, any other email to: disneygeek@disneygeek.com