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

Hello all,

The purpose of this Disneyland trip was to check out the new Tower of Terror attraction and to just enjoy the "summer" afternoon. The crowds at both parks were mild with most attractions being under an hour wait. Splash Mountain was the longest standby line I saw at 120 minutes most of the afternoon. In the evening TT's line grew to over 80 minutes. During the afternoon it was 30 or less. There were several projects going on around both parks in preparation for the summer crowds.

Two other notes... one is my endless complaint about why they re-striped the M&F garage and make you drive all the way around it... its annoying and seems ineffecient to me and I have never gotten a satisfactory answer from anyone.

Also noted that White Water Snacks was back to reduced hours (closing at 7pm)... bummer no ICEE... speaking of closed cool spots. The Dole place at the Tiki Room and several ODV ice cream/ICEE carts were closed by dusk, even though it was still warm out (mid to upper 70s).

Trip logs and mileage reports are in thePark Miles section.

Disneyland:

• Disneyland still had several areas under rehab(Tomorrowland Paving, Main Street Painting, Peter Pan annual rehab, NOS painting, ETC). As you saw in the pictorial update they placed the 50th logo up on some of the coverings, it looked good, much better than nothing.
• During the hot afternoon there seemed to be alot of people searching for cool areas around the park, many heading to Innoventions and just pulling up a spot against a wall to sit and cool down. Sad that was the big draw since nothing really new was going on inside. The Segways seemed to have a constant 30 minute or so wait with almost everything else not busy at all.
• Used a Fastpass for Indy around 6pm and the board said 30 minutes for Standby, but they were taking your FP tickets at the entrance and both lines merged right at the main entrance and the FP return too about 15 minutes doing this.. not sure why they did..
• Another Indy note: Two sections of the queue had the lights out, which was interesting to navigate after just coming in from the bright sunshine...
• Fantasmic seemed to have a full house as usual, great to see.
• As exiting the park fireworks started, but not Disney.. they were from Angeles stadium. It was interesting to hear people's comments coming down Main Street that they heard fireworks, but could not see them... and several searching the guidemaps looking for them on the schedule...
  
  

DCA:

• DCA had more guests in it than usual, or at least it felt more crowded, even though the line board had under 30 minutes for most attractions most of the time we were there.
• It was great to see people roaming the backlot again... and it not being show time for Aladdin or its exiting.
• Like many we played the online Tower game that is found at Disneyland.com and got our "fastpass" and printed it out. Our first stop was the kiosk to turn it in for our Fastpasses. First we found out that everyone in your group had to present their ticket (or I think one person could have taken all the tickets there). They then run your ticket through their fastpass machine and give your a regular old fastpass for Tower and a bonus fastpass(ours was good for Screamin'). The Tower FP was nothing special, no earlier time, no unique design, it was the same ticket you get when you go down to the attraction and put your ticket in. I was a little disappointed in this. By playing the online game, printing it, and taking it along all I did was save myself the couple hundred yard walk down to the attraction.
• Anyways we made the walk down and there was a 30 minute posted wait (which was really only 15 after we did it).
• The grounds of Tower are done well, but are tight due to the space constraints of DCA. You round the corner and cross the street and your there. Add in the guests milling around with small kids or waiting for their fastpass time and it can get crowded.
• I was really disappointed by the queue system. It was very small and I bet the inside queue for Standby is under 50 feet and the Fastpass return area is even smaller. That is going to mean a lot of people winding around in the exposed outdoor queue during the hot summer with not a lot to do.
• I thought the Lobby, Library, and Boiler room were really well done and you can see the Imagineers put some extra effort into it and its a "classic" Disney theming. The Lazygeek says the ride is good, much smoother to him than the Florida version.
• The exit and the gift shop were nothing too exciting, they work.
• The Bellhop band that performs several times a day out front were really entertaining, and its fun to watch people figure out the luggage gag..
• One comment that we have seen in the media from Eisner several times over the past week is that Tower is the answer to DCA's woes and will make it a complete park and bring the Disneyland Resort up to a Destination Resort status. After experiencing Tower and taking a walk around the Resort listening to other guests I don't see this. Tower is an excellent attraction that is well done and entertaining to a certain demographic of guests. I think it misses the mark on the problems with DCA. The problem isn't the lack of thrilling attractions. Its the lack of "Disney attractions". It needs to establish some sort of "classic" attraction that guests of all ages and tastes can experience. Much like Pirates, Huanted Mansion, etc.. have become at Disneyland. Tower does not do this in my book.
  
  

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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