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Hello all,

We headed down to the Disneyland Resort Thursday afternoon without knowing what to expect in terms of the crowd. It was the day before the long holiday weekend, Deluxe passes were not blacked out but the two Southern Californian ones were, Disneyland had 4th of July fireworks scheduled, and it was mild weather. We were pleasantly surprised by how calm the parks were all afternoon. Lines and crowds picked up in the evening but still less than most Fridays. The lines at DCA were mild with Soarin, GRR, Screamin, and Toy Story all under 30 minutes for the early part of the afternoon with GRR creeping up to 40 minutes by the time the heat of the day arrived. I was happy to see the non-swinging Fun Wheel gondolas back to their normal near walk on state. Even the lines at most dining locations were mild. We stopped by Taste Pilots a little after noon and only one person was in front of me. The line at the Riverbelle Terrace later in the afternoon was about the same. Even the corn dog line at the Little Red Wagon was only a couple people deep when I stopped by at 5pm.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

• While reading the time guide I noticed a couple proof reading items that were missed, for example on the DCA hours it said: Thu, Fri, Sun: 10:00am to 9:00pm then Sun: 10:00am to 10:00pm (the second one should have been Sat). Then further down the page for Aladdin it says Thu to Sun instead of Daily (since this guide was for the 2nd -> 5th). I read online yesterday that there were some problems with the guide and these were rushed and did not arrive until after park opening, so those arriving early did not receive schedules even.
  
  
• Stopped by the Tomorrowland Terrace Dance Club in the early evening to see how it was without a live band.. since it was a Thursday they had a radio station there, it was billed as DJ Latino & La Raza. In addition to the DJ there were four dancers, same ones we saw at the kickoff event. It was kind of interesting to see that a crowd had gathered but only young kids (I want to say all elementary school or younger) were out on the dance floor.. wonder if this changed later in the evening? The MC was trying to convince others to come out and dance but no one was accepting the invitations... the dancers seemed to enjoy interacting with the kids. The kids all seemed to be having a good time though, but I do not think this was the intended plan for the dance club.
  
  
• The main reason for my visit Thursday was to watch the 4th of July fireworks. This year they were running the show from the 2nd -> 5th in place of Magical. I have not seen the Disneyland show, somehow I always manage to miss the 4th. On the time guide it was billed as: Disneys Celebrate America! A Fourth of July Concert in the Sky - Breathtaking fireworks and patriotic music unite us to Celebrate America! as we salute the pioneering spirit and enduring beauty of this great nation. The show started off on an interesting note with just a narrators voice and the lights down.. then the shells started and a medley of patriotic songs with a couple voiceover segments took us through the show which lasted just under 10 minutes.
  
  
• At the conclusion we all kind of paused and looked at each other, as if to say, was that it? The show seemed to be lacking something to us... for starters it was short.. shorter than Magical and Remember. There seemed to be a fair number of shells used and I would guess more than the normal shows but they were closer together. The sound track also left me hanging a bit with some awkward transitions and the flow seemed a bit choppy. As we walked toward the trams we were a bit disappointed by what we had just seen and still unsure of the show. Since Thursday, several sites are reporting that they really had two shows planned for the weekend. The one we saw was to play on the 2,3, & 5th and then a longer show with the custom shells on the 4th. When I saw this it finally put things into perspective and explained what we had seen.. they shortened the show and went with what amounted to left over shells. I guess this is why they did not advertise or push the show. It was on the website and guidemaps but I saw no other real mentions of the 4th show running all weekend. In general I like the idea of offering the show more than one night to help spread the crowds out and maybe encourage more locals to visit the parks on the holiday weekend.
  
  
• As we left the tram stops had long lines as usual after the fireworks so we decided to walk back to the garage. We headed for the walkway, near Naples, we noticed people hopping on the tram at the first stop (where you usually disembark for the parks and they load wheelchairs). The CMs did not seem to mind, so we found a seat too. When we drove by the main stops it appeared to be at least a 2 or 3 tram wait. Seems we had some good luck for once to be in the right place at the right time.
  
  
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