Crowd Levels:
Apparently my friends and I picked the right week to visit Disneyland because we didn't have any problems with crowds until out last night in the parks (Friday February 2nd). This applies to both Disney and Universal, Our 1 day at universal the longest line in the park was the Simpsons at 35 minutes, everything else (including Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey) was 15 minutes or less). At Disney it truly didn't feel crowded at all until Friday night about the time that locals would have been out of school/off work. For the most part at Disney between utilizing MaxPass and having lots of dumb luck we never waited more than 30 minutes for anything.
Character Interactions:
We saw tons of characters at Disney and a decent amount at Universal considering we were only there for 1 day. Almost every interaction was great, however 3 stand out as being a negative experience overall. My favorite character interactions this trip were :Thor & Loki, Spider-Man, Chewbacca, Mickey, Goofy, Donald (I was wearing a Ducktales shirt), The Evil Queen, Dr. Facillier, Cruella De Vil, Ariel, Aladdin & Jasmine, Stitch, and Tiana. AT Universal my favorite character interaction was Scooby & Shaggy, though an honorable mention goes to their performers in the Wizaarding World of Harry Potter because they let you take pictures with them after the performances, and it made me wish we could do the same at Disneyland and California Adventure with groups like the Red Car Newsboys, Guardians Dance-Off, the Disneyland Band, etc.
Finally we get to Nick and Judy, this is 100% on their attendants and not on them. When we were walking that direction after lunch at Paradise Gardens we saw they had a line for photos ad got in it. We were then told "heads up in about 10 minutes Nick and Judy will be leaving for a meeting with Chief Bogo. If at that time you haven't gotten your picture taken, they will be going down the line to shake hands. We decided to wait it out because there were only 4-5 groups in front of us so we should have been able get to the front, however right as it would have been our turn they ended the photo ops. My friends were more upset by this than I was, but what bugged me was that while they had 3 character attendants with them, they didn't just cap the line like they would for literally every other character we saw. I've even seen Mary Poppins do a headcount in her line, walk to the end of the line and tell the person there that they will be the last to see her before she has to go away. But they didn't do this here. We felt like we had wasted time doing this and felt like they chose to ed the photos at us because we were a group of adults with no kids in the group.
Dining: Of the meals we had the only one that stands out as bad was the McDonalds on Hollywood Blvd but I'm not going to count that. My top 3 dining experiences were: Blue Bayou (standard dinner reservation), The Three Broomsticks breakfast, and Minnie's Breakfast at the Plaza Inn. Minie's makes the list because I was genuinely shocked at how many characters we saw while there: Minnie, Chip, Dale, Hook, Pooh, Tigger, Eyeore, Rafiki, Fairy God Mother, Max (I expected about half that amount). Blue Bayou has changed the menu a little since the last time I was there (during DL's 59th Anniversary), but it was still delicious. And lastly The Three Broomsticks made the list because it was the most relaxing environment for eating I've ever been to, and the meal was possibly the best value as it was more food than I expected for roughly the same price as Disney.
Now the thing were were upset with this trip was that Ariel's Grotto has closed, and for me personally that was not only my favorite character dining location (due to being able to see a bunch of princesses then go find the rest after your meal at Fantasy Faire), but it was also my only Go-To restaurant in all of Disney California Adventure. It truly is a shame that it is closed. Disney has yet to announce what is taking its place when Pixar Pier reopens, though my personal hope is that it can be home to Pixar characters that wouldn't necessarily be walking around for photos in the Pier, perhaps any of the following: Merida (since she doesn't have a permanent meet ad greet location anymore), Joy & Sadness, Flik (since the rumor is that Bug's Land is the potential site for the Marvel expansion), Sulley, and Remy (as a puppetronic). Now that said I think it is imperative that Disney find a new location for a princess dining experience, I don't care whose restaurant it is, but it needs to happen right away. The princesses make Disney so much money I'd be shocked if they weren't already ironing out the details for a new location (perhaps Tiana's Place could be a thing in New Orleans?)
Entertainment: During my trip I saw Fantasmic 2.0 for the second time, and enjoyed it more this time than in September, however I still feel like the dialogue during the Pirates of the Caribbean segment is clunky and could be re-tooled. I also checked out the Disneyland Band, Red Car Newsboys, Mulan's Lunar New Year Processional, and over at Universal I saw the Frog Choir and the Tri Wizard Spirit Rally. (Videos of most of these are below). My 3 favorite small shows were of course the Red Car Newsboys (for being the only reference to Newsies in the parks), The Tri Wizard Spirit Rally, and Mulan's Lunar New Year Processional.
Attraction Availability/Construction: For the most part I wasn't bothered by any of the construction efforts at Disneyland however there was more that effected normal park operations than I expected when we first started planning our trip. Pixar Pier was perhaps the most obnoxious situation because Toy Stpry Maina and the Carousel are still open, but neither the Fun Wheel nor Screamin' (soon to be the Incredicoaster) were open so if you go to the South end of the pier there was barely anything to do, the next issue here is that there was only 1 route to access that section, unfortunately the western helix of the coaster was completely walled off so you can't go straight from the Silly Symphony Swings/Paradise Gardens to Toy Story Mania, you have to go all the way around almost the entire perimeter of Paradise Bay.
The second most obnoxious construction zone was the trolley track replacement on Main Street, it wasn't too bad the first couple days because only the Hub and Town Square were walled off (though it was a bummer no being able to see the Partners statue). But as the trip went on, the walls extended further ad further down Main Street to the point where on our last day to only section with no walls was directly parallel with the Emporium. The only reason I had any issue with this was that the amount of space left to walk was barely wide enough for a stroller or ECV to be going 1 way on the street level, you definitely couldn't have 2 heading opposite directions without a traffic jam and there weren't CMs guiding the crowds to go into the park on one side of the street and out of the park on the other side.
Then we have the Fantasyland construction that is underway. Dumbo is getting a queue update (hopefully with some tech upgrades for the ride like WDW got with the New Fantasyland expansion). This made it so that most days to get from Matterhorn to Casey Jr we would have to go the long way around the carousel, it wasn't until Friday that they had reopened the walkway between the carousel and the construction wall. The other construction zone is between Small World, the parade route, and Small World Mall. All of the current construction in Disneyland is for infrastructure updates and have been sorely needed for quite some time, I can't say the same about the construction in California Adventure which is mostly cosmetic and not necessary at this time.
Future of Universal. The one thing I felt was missing from Universal was Diagon Alley. There have been rumors since before Hogsmeade opened that there would be a Diagon Alley expansion to Universal Hollywood as well. I would very much like to see this happen but I was having trouble picturing where it could be placed within the park in order to still have the Hogwarts Express travel between both sections. Whether Diagon Alley is in the lower lot or replaces Water World, I don't see a feasible way to get guests form one section to the other without it either being a trein that goes literally nowhere, or having to cross paths with the studio tour trams.
Future of California Adventure: As I already mentioned Pixar Pier is on the way, and I personally think that the character artwork currently visible on the construction walls will end up being what we see on gondolas of the fun wheel. I also believe that the "Pixar Pier" logo visible in one of the pics below will be what replaces the sun on the loop of the coaster. We also can see from the Pixar Pier concept art that there will be some sort of new Inside Out attraction in the Western helix where the Maliboomer once stood. And the last main bit is that the carousel is getting rethemed to "Jessie's Roundup" and it is rumored that the critters that you see at the end of Toy Story Mania will be what you can ride on.
More Marvel is on the horizon. Details of what and exactly where are few and far between. The future was first teased when Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout opened last summer and the Avengers Logo was seen on a hatch outside of the ride. Then at D23 they teased that more is on the way, though they have yet to confirm a construction zone. My primary theory on this is that they had intended to build the Eastern Gateway (more on this below) and that it would give them a little extra space to work with in the North East corner of DCA for this expansion. As of now it seems that most people think that the most likely location for the Marvel expansion will be to replace Flik's Fun Fair/A Bug's Land.
Star Wars Galaxy's Edge & Tomorrowland: Ever since they announced the location for Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland would be the Northwest corner of the park behind the Rivers of America, many fans have speculated that once it opens we might see Star Tours and Star Wars Launch Bay go away from Tomorrowland. Well when I was visiting the Launch Bay during this trip I asked about this and they told me that both Star Tours and the Launch Bay will stay for at least 2 years after Galaxy's Edge opens. This could be for 2 reasons: 1) lines in Star Wars Galaxy;s edge will be insane and they already know this so they want Star Wars fans to have a few options that aren't as busy. 2) they might be giving WDI more time to come up with a Tomorrowland overhaul (which is sorely needed already).
New Hotel and Parking Structure: in late 2017 Disney announce the location of their newest hotel (yet another expensive one, I would have preferred a value resort) as well as details for a new parking structure adjacent to the Mickey and Friends parking structure (images below). From what I can tell it looks like the AMC, Rainforest Cafe, ESPN Zone, and Earl of Sandwich will all go away to make room for the new hotel (truly a shame). The Eastern Gateway seams to have been shelved for now which is unfortunate because it shows a few things: 1) The Anaheim city leadership must not care about pedestrian safety and ease of traffic flow in the resort area, and 2) Anaheim city leadership cares more about appeasing a few restaurants across the street from Disney, than they do about keeping their single largest tax payer happy. I genuinely believe that Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait ra o a empty promise of "bringing the values of freedom and kindness to the culture of the city, while upholding fiscal responsibility, public safety and civic upkeep."* If he actually cared about public safety and civic upkeep he would have seen how the Eastern Gateway would have been a huge safety improvement for the resort area.
*Tom Tait
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