* After you read this report you may want to check out the pictorial updates in our Disneyland Resort Pictorial Update section

It was a very moist arrivial at the Disneyland Resort. The rains were supposed to clear in mid afternoon, and we put our trust in weather.com's forecast. I was immediately surprised by the size of the crowd. I was expecting it to be crowded, but I thought the rain would have put a damper on things, or at least until it let up. But no, the trams heading into Disneyland were full and the rain was coming down the hardest I had seen all day.

I spent some time drying out in the Lobby of the Grand Californian, they seemed to have a steady stream of guests checking in and checking out. I am guessing the hotel was close to full capacity.

The rain did clear as promised and by 5ish it was a cool, but pleasant compared to a few hours earlier and the crowd did pick up a bit, but still not as crowded as the previous days had been. For example I managed to find a spot for Believe with no problem 5 minutes before showtime.

On this trip we experimented with a new digital camera. Most day shots came out great, the night shots we took need some help, as you saw in the pictorial update. The issue is the shutter speed. Trying to manual set everything to override the automatic settings will take us a few trips.

It seems like a while since I went on a Rant about the M&F parking garage layout. For those of you newer visitors of the site. When the garage first opened you would drive in, be directed to an aisle, drive down it till your directed to a parking space (filling from the far side[furthest from Disneyland] to the near side[closest to Disneyland]), then when you left you continued to the far side then to the exit ramp, basically going in one big circle. Then several months after opening the entire garage was re-stripped and the old lines blasted off. Now you enter the garage, circle to the far side and park facing the near side. Then when it is time to leave you have to drive all the way to the near side, out to near where the entrance ramp is then around to the exit ramp. To me this seems like a heck of a lot of extra driving. Add in the fact that as you leave you must circle to the end of the aisle where all guests are coming from (the elevator/escalator end of the garage).

Trip logs and mileage reports are in thePark Miles section.

Disneyland:

• Most lines were 45-60 minutes throughout the afternoon and evening, with some strange traffice patterns. For example around 5:30ish Pirates had a 40 minute wait and a line snaking outside. By 6:30 the line was more like 5 minutes and later in the evening it was back up to 20. Haunted Mansion Holiday had no wait at all around 8pm, we just walked on. Small World was around half an hour most of the evening.

• The Snow Effect did not work for the Believe finale. I was by the Castle and only the West blowers turned on and the snow really never fell. The East blowers fired up then shut down. I walked down Main Street (dodging the crowd) looking for a picture, but none of the Main Street blowers were on either. Everyone was looking up, and there was nothing to see. Very strange and a disappointing way to end the day.

• We read some rumors that the GM area in Innoventions was going to become a Segway area, where you could actually ride one. We went in and found no real evidence of this, except a CM taking a Segway out of that area. We did notice some lines on the ground. Maybe its true, it would be interesting to give one a try.

• Speaking of Innoventions, it was the most crowded I have seen it, since it first opened. I think it felt that way for two reasons. The first is it was raining. The second is many of the areas were closed so it seemed more crowded than it really was.

• While on the train I saw the work lights and some of the sets inside the Fantasyland Theater for the Snow White show, they looked rather detailed. Hopefully its a great production.

• Nothing else too new to report from Disneyland

DCA / Rose Bowl Event - Items:

• One of the reasons for going was to see the Tower of Terror Rose Parade float. It went down Colorado Blvd on morning of the 1st and then was moved to Disneyland and set up in DCA by the morning of the 2nd. There have been ads in the paper, on TV, and I even spotted a billboard along the I5 on the way down for the float. It will be there through the weekend of the 17th. One disappointment was no mention of the float on the guidemap or even an extra piece of paper. I did not even know where it was until I stumbled upon it.

• While inside drying off I noticed on the guidemap they now have labels for the stage area outside of Golden Dreams along the bay. It is called Golden State Park. Also I forgot to mention this a while ago, they also have the bay name listed, Paradise Bay for those who don't know. I still get a kick that after being closed for a couple years now SuperStar Limo still remains on the map and in the attraction listing.

• At Disneyland.com I saw an event listed for the float, it seemed to be about once an hour. I stopped by two times and never saw anything, they did play a brief announcement including Twilight Zone music and saying the attraction is opening soon.

• The float itself was impressive, as all Rose Floats are. For those of you who have not I would recommend either taking in the parade or visiting the floats on display sometime, the scale of them does not come across on TV that well.

• They had several CM's and float workers around the float to answer any questions you may have.

• As you saw from the pictures they do light it up at night with Spotlights, which ads an interesting dimension to the float, wonder if they took that into account?

• As you saw in the pictures they had several tents set up down along the bay. They included pictures of the float construction, the attraction construction, as well as concept art. I was really pleased to see a quickly produced video that had information on the creation of the float, the parade itself, and even footage of the float entering the Disneyland Resort and being set up at DCA earlier that morning. It was a great addition and someone who did a quick and effective editing job. Only shot I would have liked to have seen is it going down the freeway.

• I was extremely surprised to see the Golden Zephyr running through some of the drizzle. Usually the slightest weather and its closed.

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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