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Hello all,

Friday was a relaxing day at the Disneyland Resort. The weather was overcast most of the trip and then there was a drizzle/light rain in the evening. The crowds were mild too, most of the big attractions were under 30 minutes most of the day. The walkways seemed fairly crowded though with quite a few guests roaming around, even at DCA.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

• Getting into the parking garage was a breeze on Friday, drove up, showed my, pass and was on my way to a floor within a couple minutes, just as designed. Then things slowed to a standstill. It took a good 15 minutes from when I pulled onto the ramp till I was parked on Goofy. The reason was they were parking the last row of cars and it was taking forever. I am not sure if there is a way to speed this up but seems to me there has to be.
  
  
• I had a game card for the Games of the Boardwalk left from last week so we stopped by to try out the new games. We played three of the four games, skipped the Casey and the Bat game since none of us are that good at throwing a baseball and this is the traditional throw a baseball through a hole game. Each game costs $2.50 to play and you have to purchase a game card at one of the kiosks. The card is then swiped at each game. There is a point system in place where each point is a penny. So I had a 1,000 point card and each game cost 250 points to play.
  • First we tried Goofy About Fishin. We had the Lazygeeks almost 2 year old with us. At first he seemed interested in the fish but then grew tired of the game quickly. I think an older child would really enjoy it. The best part of this game is everyone is a winner. On the bottom of the fish is a color sticker and that tells you what size prize you have won. The act of fishing is a little harder than it looks as you have to use the magnet on the pole to hook the fish with the metal on its nose
  • Next up we had two entries in Bullseye Stallion Stampede. In this game you roll a ball up into a hole and depending on which hole you hit (the higher/harder ones make you go further) your horse moves down the track. Unfortunately some other person came on strong at the end and beat our groups two horses. If we would have been a little smarter we would have waited and played with just our two people then they would have won a prize no matter what... depending on how many people race the prices can be larger.
  • Last up we tried the Dumbo Bucket Brigade. In this game you aim a water canon at a target and your guy climbs up a ladder. We did manage to win this game..
  • In the end we came away with two small prize and blew through the $10 game card in about 5 minutes.
  • Overall I think these games are a step up from the original ones. the detail of the booths and the games themselves are much more Disney.. I do not think that many people really understood or got the original games California references. They seem a bit overpriced to me, but people seemed to be playing with no hesitation so Disney must know what they are up to. Also I would have liked to have seen the prizes to be more Disney related.. they are related to the game you play but are not Disney... Does anyone know how these rates compare to regular carnivals/boardwalks? I have not been to either in years.
  • Here is a Youtube video Disney Released:
    
    
    
• I stopped by the Blue Sky Cellar to show it to someone who had not been in there and we spoke to one of the CMs working and they said that come July there should be a new exhibit in the space. They said it will focus on the World of Color show.
  
  
• I made a point to stop by the Lasseter family wine seminar. John and his wife Nancy were there to give the talk. It was a full seminar, with guests standing outside watching too. Also Disney had a camera crew and photographer on hand. In his opening remarks he talked briefly about the expansion plans for DCA. Pointing to where Carsland will be he expressed his excitement and made a pitch to visit the Blue Sky Cellar. Also to get people to fill out their contact/survey cards they were going to give away a free shirt, the shirt is the special 50th birthday shirt someone at Pixar designed for John and its matched the one he was wearing to the event. They went on to talk about the new winery they want to build so they could expand production then the program turned to talking about their current wines and I headed off at this point since I am not a wine person and I did not have a seat.
  
  
• We stopped by Innoventions so I could get some pictures of Tomorrowland and the others who had not seen the Dreamhouse could. This week the full show was running. You loaded onto a pod, watch the Tom Morrow video, then listened to Tom inside followed by a talk at one of the outer ring stations, ours was the kitchen set, then the front lawn intro before you were let into the house. This entire process seemed to take forever and I did not pay attention to the clock but I think it was a good 10-15 minutes from when you loaded onto the pod until you were free to roam around the house. This seemed like an extremely long time to me. The CMs spiel at the kitchen scene was not that impressive. It was a pitch for the home builder and showcased video clips of several homes. I thought the old technology spiels were more engaging and interesting.
  
  
• In the evening as we headed back to the garage the tram service was even slower than usual. I am not sure why but it seems the waits are long, the load times are even longer. It seemed like the trams took a long time to get rolling once loaded. The driver and the CM on the back both seemed to walk the entire tram... this was in addition to the CMs who were assisting in loading. The wait even seemed longer as we were standing in the rain/drizzle/shower.
  
  
• Last week they unveiled two new windows on Main Street. I had a note to remind myself to take pictures of them but somehow I managed to forget to read my reminder note so I will get pictures on my next visit.
  

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