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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.

10/18/24 - Final Halloween Time Visit to the Disneyland Resort

Hello Everyone!

Friday was a relaxing day at the Disneyland Resort for me. I had almost nothing on my agenda and just roamed the parks. The crowds were higher than I expected going in, especially early. This week many Colorado and Utah schools had a Fall break and there were a noticeable number of guests from both states visiting.. The weather was great topping out in the upper 70s with a mild breeze with lows in the 60s when I arrived and left.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • I drew an ok parking spot, only a few cars in but since they block the first half of every aisle in the morning for preferred it was still a healthy hike to the stairs. Security was slow going as they seemed to be going through everything slowly. I really wish they would move to a system with more advanced scanners like Walt Disney World or x-ray machines like Tokyo or Paris. Having to have cast members manually go through every bag is very time consuming and inconsistent.
  • At the entrance of Disneyland the walls have shifted a bit and the new pavement and trees are done. I found it interesting they opted to put nothing around the trees except trash cans. Wonder if there is more coming? The far west gates (closest to the tram stop) are walled off and the new turn stiles are being installed. Over at DCA the one set of new turnstiles were powered up but not in use the couple times I passed through.
  • The Disneyland Railroad is preparing to reopen. The Disneyland website shows it opening next Friday. The Main Street Station project looks like it is going to take longer than that unless they really push forward faster this week. As of Friday there were a number of teams working on various aspects of the new roof and other elements. On a more positive note we saw several engines making the rounds throughout the day so the track work looks completed and testing underway. The Toontown station looked ready to open. With the limited views it is hard to tell the status of the New Orleans Square station.
  • I was in the park well before rope drop and had no real must see attraction on my list so we decided to let the rush go and then head to the west side of the park. It is always fun to watch the large crowd gather then disperse quickly throughout the park. We opted to walk onto a few attractions (Jungle Cruise, Pirates and Winnie the Pooh).
  • On the Jungle Cruise the rebuilding of the ruins continues, or at least we assume continues behind the scaffolding and scrims. Our boat had a handful of skippers onboard observing out skipper as some sort of training exercise. It was interesting to be on a boat with the front half being cast members.
  • The Haunted Mansion area work continues. No signs of how close to finished it is. With the walls you get no clear view of the queue work. The elevator building has a ways to go, but the glimpses of the walls look to be nearly complete and a shade structure is being installed in the old queue area closest to the mansion. On the other side the gift shop looks to be enclosed and ready for its exterior.
  • Previews for Tiana's Bayou Adventure start this weekend and a large number of cast members were on the job when I walked by. There were teams painting throughout the queue and others looked to be preparing for some testing of the attraction. The walls from the gift shop through the exit have been removed so you can see the new look. There is a lot going on with the a new queue set up to accommodate more guests it appears. There are a series of murals on the queue building. The area looked ok, but did nothing to evoke the Bayou to me or others I spoke with. Calling the area Bayou Country seems awkward at best given the randomness of everything in the area and lack of integration. For example the critter benches are still there, the central space is still a Winnie the Pooh Meet and Greet and even Tiana's attraction queue does not really scream bayou.
  • Christmas is starting to show up around the parks with decorations being installed and merchandise starting to show up. The season officially kicks off November 15th and the bit changes will happen after Halloween Time ends on the 31st.
  • In front of Sleeping Beauty Castle a stage area with lights was set up. In the morning there were no signs of activity so the assumption was it was for after hours taping, but in the afternoon the set was brought to life and a segment featuring John Legend was taped for the upcoming Disney Parks Holiday special. After sunset another song was taped. These productions do have an impact on operations but they also give an opportunity to see a little Hollywood Magic in action. The process is slow and redundant. The views offered to regular park guests were quite a ways out and obstructed. If you had patience you could wait for a standby spot to get closer. The closest section of guests were invited for the taping. He performed near ground level so views of him were extremely limited in the afternoon and non-existent for the evening segment.
  • By late morning the crowds felt on the heavy side and signs of this were throughout Fantasyland. For example the Storybook Land Canal Boats filled the regular queue, and extended queue, and stretched up the walkway toward it's a small world. Alice in Wonderland filled its queue then wrapped around the attraction toward the rest rooms.
  • Over at Disney California Adventure the projects for the Cozy Cone dining areas continue with no signs of how close they are to being finished. This seems to be taking quite a while. It is going to be interesting what the final product is.
  • Spent some time in Downtown Disney as the sun was setting to check out the projects and enjoy the entertainment. The crowd seemed on the lower side of average for a Friday night given the weather and how crowded the parks felt. I had some great luck with my choice to take the Monorail back to the parks. Walked up the steps and was assuming I would have to wait for the next train or more. The platform was empty and a cast member opened the gate and we were able to walk right into a car with no waiting at all.

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.

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