* After you read this report you may want to check out the pictorial updates in our Disneyland Resort Pictorial Update section

Hello everyone,

Friday I was pleasantly surprised by the crowds at the Disneyland Resort. I was expecting to arrive and find myself parking on the roof and facing jammed parks. Instead I found the parks to be about normal and parking to be about half a floor more full than usual (usually I end up near the end of the 4th floor this time I was about the middle of the 5th). I am not sure if this is the calm before the Holiday storm, the cold weather scared some people away, or something else that lead to this impression. The lines for most attractions were not bad with many at DCA being walkons or near walkons, such as Tower of Terror for most of the afternoon. Over at Disneyland most of the longer waits were still under an hour, except for Nemo of course.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

• While walking through the entrance plaza at DCA I caught a set from the Wave Riders and this time they were playing Christmas music (unlike the previous couple times I caught them).
  
  
• Not much else of interest to report from DCA, it was fairly uneventful, the only other comment I have is how with each passing visit Toy Story Manias queue building just keeps taking on more detail, which is great to see and I think this will definitely add to DCA.
  
  
• Over at Disneyland things were a little more hectic, but still nothing compared to what will be next week probably (and what it was last year). One new traffic wrinkle I ran into this trip was a major bottleneck going from Fantasyland to Tomorrowland by way of the Matterhorn (the narrow trail between the sub lagoon and the mountain). This area was really jammed up with people in the Matterhorn queue, the Nemo queue, others trying to get into one of the two lines, and then the rest of us trying to get through the area, add to that a trashcan positioned at the narrowest point and the two times I tried to get through this area it was a bottleneck with people stopped and some pushing their way through..
  
  
• I tried to get a glimpse of the new monorail train that was delivered to the park on Thursday, but no luck, the roundhouse bay it was in was blocked by the mule (the diesel tow). Click here for a YouTube Video of the new trains arrival (it says its from the Disneyland Podcast)
  
  
• Believe was postponed a couple of times then canceled due to the winds, so this was my first chance to see the replacement show, which is basically an extended version of the snow show then the snow finale from Believe. It was a nice touch to end the night, better than just being sent home without the fireworks. Speaking of the snow show, I still do not know its official name and its not listed in any guidemaps but on the past few trips the first act has been at 5:30 and the second at 7:30.
  
  
• On the way back to the garage had a great CM on the tram who was very entertaining, he even broke out in song (and he was not much of a singer but he tried), he made the cold tram ride a bit more enjoyable.
  

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