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7/01/22 - Disneyland Resort
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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.

7/01/22 - Disneyland Resort

Hello Everyone!

I started my 4th of July holiday weekend off at the Disneyland Resort. The weather was on the mild side for July 1st with the high in the low 80s with a nice breeze and it cooled down to the lower 70s as the sun set. The crowds were on the moderate side too, with most passes blocked out there is plenty of availability event same day on a holiday weekend. Wait times seemed in line with the moderate crowd with most under an hour most of the day, with Rise of the Resistance being the one exception.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • Had a near optimal arrival experience today in terms of time. I choose to go through the light to park inside, using the overpass seems to lead me to the roof all the time. I had only a minute or so wait there. No wait at all at the toll booth and a smooth drive into a parking spot on the Cars level of the Pixar Pals parking structure. Unfortunately I was parked at the end of the row again. They block nearly the first 1/2 of the rows off for preferred so your chances of being at the end are pretty high. Also noteworthy when we returned to the car to leave our section of the garage they did not go back and fill cars in behind and most of the preferred was still empty. I had no wait at security and walked right onto a tram even. It was under 30 minutes from exiting the freeway to stepping onto Main Street USA. I chalk up the optimal experience to me having no where to be.
  • At security the signs were up saying no reservations available which contradicted the website (I checked while on the tram out of curiosity).
  • Noticed the ticket booth lines were backed up. This is the first time I can remember seeing this since I returned to the parks last year. It seemed about the same number of windows open, just more people in line. Guess there are more day guests for the holiday weekend needing help.
  • It was great to see the Finding Nemo Submarine Lagoon again. It looks great from the surface. Cast Members were training and subs were making the rounds during my visit. The Seagulls have returned and were making their Mine!Mine!Mine! squawks but no movement. Hank from Finding Dory has taken up a location on a rock on the far side of the lagoon closer to the Matterhorn entrance. He does not move or make any noise. He seemed an odd addition to the lagoon, wonder if he is part of a tweaked story line on the attraction? Disneyland has announced they will reopen on July 25th so we will find out soon.
  • We decided to stop for a late lunch at Smokejumpers. I opened the app to place our order and found they have tweaked the menu again there. The 1/3lb cheeseburger has been replaced with a double cheeseburger. All burgers (the Impossible and kids were also doubles now). The beef patties were smaller but no weight was given. The price was also increased $2 for the burger. Mobile order was having some issues too. You could not specify no cheese, it appeared to have a no sauce instead of no cheese option. And you still cannot order just a regular burger and save paying for the cheese. I thought about grabbing something at Disneyland but since we were already halfway there kept going and decided to try the register line. I lucked out and they had two registered open and it was a minimal wait to order. The backup was waiting for food (which mobile order was experiencing too). My meal was just ok, I prefer the old burger and the old price. The crinkle fries were better this time than last but I prefer the old waffle fries still. To see the menu comparison and food pictures check out our Disneyland Dining Section - Smokejumpers Grill page.
  • Nothing too noteworthy to report from my walk through DCA. Most of the walls are gone from around the park. Just a few small projects like around the ATM on Buena Vista Street remain. The work in Pym's seating area in Avengers Campus has wrapped up and the table are back. Still unsure why the it took them so long to do the work. They ended up with umbrellas on stands with the tables.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean reopened today after a lengthy renovation. I opted to go for a cruise in the mid afternoon. The posted time had dropped to 35 minutes and the lines were moving quickly. Earlier in the day the attraction went down several times where was causing longer than usual waits. About half the queue in the new leveled area of New Orleans Square looked to be in use and you switch back and snake around the area. I lucked out and the family in front of me had an umbrella and went to the right at the split, I went to the left, and the umbrella made it easy to track their progress. The left side is now set up with a merge point where guests with return passes join you before going up the ramp. Due to this you do not have to wrap around the queue area and instead just make a single loop around a tree to the merge point. Also once you reach the top you go straight in vs having to wrap down the walkway a bit like the other side. I boarded about two boats in front of the family I was watching so I choose wisely this afternoon. Even with the fairly large number of guests coming through the merge point the 35 minute posted wait was pretty accurate with it taking me about 33 minutes from entering the queue to boarding a boat. The attraction itself looked good and no substantial changes jumped out to me on a first cruise through.
  • The 2022 Disneyland Resort All-American College Band started their season since my last visit. They are currently performing 4 sets at Disneyland with a 5th coming to DCA's Backlot Stage soon. For more information on their set time, locations and music here is our 2022 Disneyland All-American College Band Information Page. The band is celebrating its 50th season/band this year. It was great to see them back in the park and their sets drew healthy crowds. The 8:00pm performance is a preparade on Main Street USA and it was a challenge to watch with the large number of guests waiting for the Main Street Electrical Parade.
  • After the 8:00pm College Band performance the rest of my group was running low on energy and ready to call it a day. Since there were no 4th of July shows and just standard shows scheduled this evening I gave in and left with them. Looking at the schedule only Monday (the 4th) are they having the World of Color Preshow and the 4th of July Fireworks at Disneyland.


Here are some recent posts to the Geek's Blog:

Disney Related Press Releases

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

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

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