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03/27/12 - My thoughts and observations from Tuesday at the Disneyland Resort including the Annual Passholder Merchandise Showcase.
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Welcome to the disneygeek.com Geek Speaks section. In this section I will post my comments on trips to the parks or other Disney related events.

03/27/12 - My thoughts and observations from Tuesday at the Disneyland Resort including the Annual Passholder Merchandise Showcase.

Hello all,

I did not spend that much time roaming the parks on this trip. The combination of the Merchandise Event, some construction shots, and the spring break crowds made for a relatively quick trip. The parks did feel less crowded than Friday but still on the heavy side (but then again I rarely visit on a Tuesday so no real comparison). Wait

Jason

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • Parking this trip was much easier so my day started off on a more positive note. There were no delays and only one car in front of me at the tollbooth to get into the structure. The tram did take some time to get to the parks, but nothing out of the ordinary.

  • The two Honda displays, one near each end of the tram stop seemed odd to me. They were pushing the new contest but still odd that there was nothing on the other side, where I had entered last week. I did not take the time to go to Innoventions to enter the contest this trip.

  • It had only been three days since my last visit but still there was plenty of visible progress on Buena Vista Street. The overhead cables for the Red Car system are being installed and ElecTRONica has been moved off Hollywood Blvd (except for the stage area). Also as you saw in the pictures new trashcans with the Hollywood Land logo are now out so guess the name change is starting.

  • My main reason for visiting the parks today was to stop by the special preview they were doing for Annual Passholders. The event started Tuesday and runs through Thursday. It is open to all current Annual Passholders and is free. It is taking place on Stage 17, the old Millionaire building in Hollywood Land. I had no real expectations going in. I was not sure what the crowds, selection, or event would be like. I was pleasantly surprised.
    • The crowds were light while I was there. I spoke with several cast members and they said there was a rush at opening then things slowed to the fairly constant stream I experienced. They were expecting it to pick up as the evening went on and people showed up after work.
    • The selection of merchandise was much larger than I had thought too. They had quite a bit of Cars Land and some general DCA merchandise for sale. I was surprised there were not more items with opening year or day on them. I only saw a couple. So I am guessing another round may appear at actual opening. The Cars Land merchandise with the classic attraction posters seems to be a hit with the AP crowd. Even the general DCA merchandise was well done.
    • I thought the couple displays with the cast member costumes and the Mad T Party area were a great idea. My only issue is of course I would have liked to have seen more!
    • As I walked around the space you could not help but notice the large number of cast members working. I think they may have over staffed a bit in anticipation of a large crowd that did not materialize. This worked out great because there were plenty of CMs to answer questions, help you out, or just chat. Plus the check out line was non existent because of the large number of registers that were open.
    • Overall I really enjoyed the event. I would like to see them do more of these type of events and would be curious how it would work if it were extended to a weekend when more guests could experience it. With work mid week is a challenge. I also think this is a win all the around. It helps Disney sell merchandise, helps Disney get the word out, gives the Annual Passholder crowd something special, and it should help lesson the lines once the land opens since this crowd will have already bought what they wanted.

  • After the showcase I headed out to the Pier and bit the bullet and waited about half an hour for the Fun Wheel. As we made our way around I took pictures of Cars Land as usual and was grumbling a bit to myself that there really was not much new to be taking pictures of and I had waited too long in line. Then as our gondola was just about to loose eye sight of the Radiator Springs Racers track we spotted two cars on the track. Took a couple blurry pictures and hoped that they would be sending more around by the time we made it around on the second rotation. As luck would have it we did and I was able to see a handful of cars go by. A couple side by side then a couple singles. It was really hard for me to tell how fast they were going given the distance and angle. They appeared to be moving at a fairly slow speed still. But it was great to see them cycling.

    Here is a quick video clip as well as some still images of what I saw: 

  • Something interesting we noted as we walked around. It appeared that the Fastpass machines in DCA were offline. I noticed this for Tower, Screamin, and Soarin. I cannot believe they were all gone for the day already at all three attractions.

  • Over at Disneyland nothing too interesting to report. They did have Monorail Red and Blue on the track so not too bad of a wait, even though Blue took a long time to return. They were experiencing some issues with the Downtown Disney stops elevator.


  • I continued to test and evaluate a new method of posting images as I roamed the park. I am now posting directly to the Geeks Blog So those of you who do not use twitter or follow us, you can see the images too. Any thoughts? Is this better/worse/the same as the way I was posting before? If you were not aware as I roam the parks I post some thoughts/pictures throughout the visit. So follow me @disneygeekcom

Interesting Web Finds/Notes:
Below are some interesting links, notes, and rumors I found/stumble across/or have been informed of since the last Geekspeaks column.

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

Stop by the Geek's Forum to discuss this and other Disney topics.. click here

Send comments, questions, any other email to: disneygeek@disneygeek.com
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