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11/11/11 - My thoughts and observations from Fridays visit to the 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.

11/11/11 - My thoughts and observations from Fridays visit to the Disneyland Resort

Hello all,

Friday was Veterans day and also marked the start of more Holiday offerings at the Disneyland Resort. Due to threatening rain storms though the crowds in the parks were reasonable. I would say maybe about normal for a Friday, definitely much lighter than I had planned on. I had a long list of things I wanted to see so I did not spend that much time looking at attractions or waits but while walking around I thought most were mild. I saw Toy Story at 45 minutes in the mid afternoon. But then on the other hand when I showed up, around 2pm, they still had Fastpasses for the first World of Color show and as of 7ish they still were passing out Fastpasses to the second showing.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

  • I lucked out with the weather. When I first arrived it was sunny and fairly clear but as the afternoon went on it clouded up and threatened to rain. Had a little drizzle right before dinner, but then as the evening went on it became partially clear and I was able to see the moon and stars most of the time. The rain held till I was about a 30 miles from home then the skies opened and it made for a much longer trip home but at least it did not interfere with my park time!

  • First stop of the day was DCA because I wanted to get construction pictures while it was partially sunny. I was surprised to see some Christmas decorations up on the new entrance, figured with the construction they would not this year. Then an even bigger one was seeing some wreaths along the construction walls too. What a nice touch. Speaking of decorations the ones that were up on Little Mermaid and the couple strands by Paradise Gardens were nice touches, wonder if there is more to come or if that is it for this year?

  • Here is an interesting numerical coincidence... as you know Friday was 11/11/11. By dumb luck I ended up on car 11 for the Fun Wheel. And to top it off the family I went on with was there because they were celebrating their daughters 11th birthday at the park.

  • The walls the first building on Buena Vista Street are down. Many are referring to this building as the pump house because it houses the pumps for the new fountain. It currently has a small information area which includes a podium for a guest relations cast member and some attraction posters. Several other sites are saying eventually there will be a wait times board there, and the space looks perfect for it. Also this space will act as a stop for the Red Car once it starts making the rounds next year. I thought the section looked great and I cannot wait for the rest of Buena Vista Street. I think this will be a transformative experience for the park. It will really make a sense of time and place which I thought DCA was lacking. Little things like the curb, trees, and lighting really add to the area and make you realize how lacking the original was. The way they build the small planter up along the rock wall also works.

  • As many of you know I end up stopping by the Flag Retreat on quite a few visits. I think it is one of those Disney touches that really adds to the park, plus a perfect daily tribute to those who are serving and have served in the armed forces. The Veterans Day Flag retreat builds on this and is an extended ceremony. As you saw in the pictures it included a full color guard and a Marine Band. I thought the way they honored the cast members who are veterans was a perfect touch and all in attendance really seemed to appreciate it. I have embedded the video of the ceremony below for those who are interested and may have missed it in the update. (Note the video is taken from an awkward angle and sometimes I seem to drift because I was shooting stills with my other hand).




  • I made a quick pass through Disneyland to check out the Christmas decorations. The new ones in New Orleans Square look great. I cannot say the same for Toontown. After reading the press release I was looking forward to some great new trees. Unfortunately what I found out there were non impressive ones. I thought the old tree they had in front of Town Hall several years ago that bent over at the top was great and the ones in front of the character houses worked. These new ones, which I hear are from the new demolished Toontown Fair at Walt Disney Worlds Magic Kingdom, just do not look as good to me.

  • Small World Holiday is back. They were not doing the projection show, or at least I did not see it in my couple passes, yet. Guessing that starts Monday with the official kick off of the Holidays at Disneyland. The attraction itself looked great as usual. As you saw in the pictures the finale room now features a giant Snow Man. My first impression was, wow he is big. Second was this seemed a bit awkward. Third was it worked I guess...



  • The first performance of World of Color Friday evening marked the 1,000th showing and I was lucky enough to be there. Kind of a fun milestone to celebrate. No announcement was made in the park, but on the Parks Blog there was. I thought it was cool that I was able to make both the 1st public as well as 1,000th now.

  • Friday a Prep and Landing preshow was added to the World of Color. This segment comes in at around two and a half minutes and features some fun new laser effects and plenty of new animation on the screens. I thought the segment worked and was a fun addition to the show, especially for Prep and Landing fans like myself. I also enjoyed how they played off the audience. When word of warning. If you are not in the viewing area and do not have a good view of the projection screens I am assuming the section is pretty much a complete loss because of the heavy reliance on the screens for the laser and film and not the fountains for the primary effects.

    Here are two videos from Friday of it from the 8pm show in blue and the 9:15pm show in yellow:




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

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