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

Hello all,

We had a great two day visit to the Disneyland Resort. Its been eons since I have stayed a few nights at the Disneyland Hotel and having an out of town guest is a great reason to do it. I wanted to first comment on the hotel. The recently completed rehab has brought the rooms up to true Disney standards. Overall its a good room. The artwork and other Disney touches are nice to explore and discover as you go through the room.

We went to DCA on Friday and Disneyland on Saturday. No park hopping included on their tickets so we stayed at the parks the full day for the most part. The crowds were average and felt heaver than they actually were. For example on Saturday Disneyland seemed to have a lot of people milling around, but using fastpass, the morning, and good timing meant the longest wait we had we about 10 minutes for an attraction.

A pleasant surprise upon arrival at the theme parks was the new security. They have moved to a common checkpoint instead of one at each turnstile. This reminded me much more of how Disney World does theirs. I think its a great addition and hopefully it will become permanent. They can redo the landscaping and such and really bring back some of that "awe" at your first site of the park. On the effeciency side the new system really seemed to break up the wait and keep the lines moving compared to the old way of doing things. Someday an express line would be nice too...

We ate a couple times at White Water (quick lunch and breakfast), the food was fresh and service on both occasions. Went to Rain Forest the one evening... it always amazes me how they can goof up an order of a plain well done burger.. doesn't seem complicated but they seem to mess it up one out of three times or so...

Trip logs and mileage reports are in thePark Miles section.

Disneyland:

• Upon entering Disneyland we saw a waiting horseless carriage and decided to ride instead of walk down Main Street USA. We had a great driver named Gerry and his spiel and jokes were extremely entertaining and the trip started the day off on a great note.
• Out at Small World we noticed the dolls were continuously going around even though it was not a quarter hour. The CMs said it had been doing that for a while. Later in the day we went by and a CM was up working on it..
• Finally we saw the segways in Innoventions.. unfortunately we did not have time to ride. It was either food or wait and hour and ride. We opted for food... I wish they would make the area a little more effecient. The way it works now is you wait in line. A CM gets you to sign the waiver then in groups of two you learn how to use the segway. Then you go on the short trip with a CM in front of you. It looked like a 5 minute or so experience. And with only two segways available you can only image the wait. I think it would be good to add some more segways and maybe use the encircled area as the "get aquainted" area. I mean at under $5K a pop adding a few wouldn't be a big expense and expanding the area with all that is closed in Innoventions seems like it would not disturb too much. I think this would really give guests a unique experience that can be talked about...
• Speaking of Innoventions... a rare sight to see. There was actually a wait due to the number of people. When we went by you had to wait approx. 1 extra pod to get in.. funny thing is inside it really seemed empty as usual.
• If you saw the pictorial update you saw the construction paint still on the top left of the main drop on Splash Mountain.. we were curious if anyone knew if this was an oversite from the last rehab or is something coming down the pipe?
• We managed to get into the 2nd Snow White show of the day. We arrived approx. an hour before show time and found ourselves in the extended queue that led up to Toontown. They said everyone in front of the last lightpost up in Toontown would get in. So we got in with room to spare and had an OK seat.
• First off like any new show at Disneyland there will be some growing pains and a learning curve. The first issue we encountered was a the traffic snarl in the area. Between the last show getting out and us waiting to get in add in a Train offloading at the depot and it was near gridlock for quite a while.
• Also we were really surprised by the lack of CMs. They all seemed to congregate in between the two parts of the queue but they did not really make the rounds that much.
• A real surprise by Disney standards we were let into the show about the time the show was supposed to begin.. so we started off over ten minutes late, remember the days things started on time.
• The show itself was OK. I thought the sets were nicely done and the actors did a great job. I do have some concerns with the show. First off is I think the theater is not set up for this type of show. Broadway type shows seem to work better in a controled environment and this semi-outdoor stage just did not do it justice.
• My second concern is there seemed to be a big build up then all of a sudden Snow White is in her sleep the prince arrives and the show is over. When you watch the film the scene of Snow White on the bed in her deep sleep with the dwarfs around is an emotional part of the film. In this production I didn't get that at all. It just sort of happened and was over.
• One other note: In the middle of our show it stopped. No one seemed concerned (tech booth, actors, CMs).. almost seemed like they just had to reboot the show computer or something.
• We grabbed a late snack out in New Orleans Square. Some of our group wanted funnel cakes and that is one of the few places that sells them. After being to WDW and enjoying theirs so much everyone was up for it. We first had to wait for what seemed like forever. The counter where the Mint Julip(sp?) is sold moves sooo slow. There were only a few groups in front of us, yet it took almost half an hour to order and get our food. Then once we got the funnel cakes the outsides were luke warm at best and already hard. Everyone was expecting freshly made ones, but obviously they are not in this location.. it was a big let down. I ran over to an ice cream cart for my snacks and had one of the Tollhouse Ice Cream Sandwhiches.. very good and no line in the chilly evening..
• We sat through a set out at Carnation (well plaza pavillon) and listened to the band and watched the swing dancers.. always a fun time and some great music.
• One other interesting note. We road pirates around 8pm, the line was about 15 minutes, we used our fastpasses. We had four adults and the CM decided it would be fun to put us all in the same row.. we did not think too much of it, but it really was an uncomfortable journey. With that short of a line they really should have let us go 2 and 2.

DCA:

• We arrived at DCA about 30 minutes before its opening time (so 9:30am). The park opens up Soarin around this time.
• They held a brief opening ceremony where a family was selected and entered the park. They then turned and waved to the assembled crowd and yelled something (I think it was "Welcome to California"). Several members of our group had never been to DCA and they all commented on how that was a weak opening. Disneyland brings out characters, the Florida parks have almost mini shows, or at least an announcer and characters... not at DCA though.
• Our plan was to ride Soarin' then head over to GRR.. well that plan was dashed when it GRR was not open (it didn't open until after 11. There were almost a dozen maintance CMs roaming the attraction when we walked by.
• A little later in the morning when we were going to visit the Bread Tour we walked in and were notified that the video was down. So we grabbed some bread and walked right through... it was weird with no sound or video.
• Out at the Animation Building during Drawn to Animation they now play a clip from Home on the Range. I thought it was better than the other clips we have seen because it appeared to be made for the attraction with a couple interview clips and movie clips instead of the regular trailer that has played for other movies at this show.
  

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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