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Visit Date: 4/16/04
Steps: 25,606
Parks Miles: 12.58
Time in Parks: 8:45

 
Trip Log:

Started off the afternoon heading for Disneyland. Visited the Bank on Main Street to check out the Tower of Terror commemorative ticket. It looks fairly cool, could of had a great number too, 777, but had to pass becuase I did not want to carry it around all day. Headed down Main Street and out to Adventureland. Grabbed a fastpass for Indy. Then back down Main Street and took a peak at the new City Hall then exited the park and headed for DCA. Walked by Soarin' and grabbed a Fastpass and did the same for GRR. Then headed out to the Pier and through the Wharf. Grabbed some bread at the bread tour then out to Bugs for a loop. Then back through the entrance plaza and down the backlot to check out Tower. They were doing CM previous so most of the walls were down. Back to the entrace. Over to Disneyland. Down Main Street and through Tomorrowland, around Matterhorn, through Fantasyland, stopped at Big Thunder Ranch, then out to Frontierland and along the Rivers of America. Back through NOS and Adventureland. Down Main Street and over to DCA. Walked by Soarin' and then out to the Pier and the Wharf. Ended up at the Seasons of the Vine (they seemed to have edited the film, no Modavi references and the video seems shorter, less music). Walked down to the Backlot and then out of DCA and over to Disneyland, the lines seemed long so we hiked through Downtown Disney and hopped on the Monorail. After exiting, it was a quick trip down Main Street avoiding the parade and bought my Tower ticket at the Bank. Headed back to the cars for warmer clothing and then back to Downtown Disney. Ended up at the Grand Californian and White Water snacks for dinner and then into DCA. Stopped at the Wharf to listen to Porterhouse Bob (still not any better than last time). Took the bread tour again as a dessert and then headed over to Disneyland. Took the train from Main Street to Tomorrowland and got off to visit Innoventions. Not much happen, even more walled off than before. Exited and stopped by Club Buzz to see the 80's All Stars, not that impressed so it was back to DCA to catch Soarin'. The line Fastpass return line was all the way out and curved back toward Taste Pilots, so that was a bad idea. Walked by GRR and swung through the Wharf again. It was getting dark so back for some Tower shots. One last look at Soarin' then time to head to Disneyland. Of course the annoying Parade of the Stars was going on again, so had to out run it and get in front. Headed to Indy to use my Fastpass.. it was broke.. oh no.. so with time to kill decided to pull up a spot for Fantasmic. Watched the show then made the dash to Main Street to catch Beleive before heading home.


For Comparisons to other trips or more park miles click here to visit our park Miles Section.

Note: These totals may be skewed because the pedometer is zero'd when we start and then left alone and read when we leave. So attractions, and other things may cause extra "steps" to be counted. The pedometer that we use basically measures up/down motion as a step, so if your standing in line and moving up and down it may be counting steps, etc.. so the total distances traveled and steps may be off.. so use these as rough distance comparisons between trips and they may not be accurate in terms of actual distance traveled.
Pictures & Video From this Trip:


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My Thoughts & Observations:

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

General Thoughts:

Hello all,

This was a crowded trip to the Disneyland Resort. Spring Break was still in full swing and there were alot of people taking advantage of it. I was expecting a somewhat diminished crowd with the gray morning and early afternoon, but that did not keep the tourists or the locals away really. Both parks had healthy crowds for the entire afternoon/evening. Most E & D ticket lines were approaching or over an hour the entire time. Fastpasses for Indy, Soarin' etc.. were gone by late afternoon.

As you saw in the pictorial update the security lines and park entrance lines were both extremely long. This was simply a function of the small number of security tables and turn styles open. When we arrived the line was stretching back toward the tram stop. This was because they had two security people working only. They finally opened another two and the line shrank quickly. Why there were not more lines and turn styles open all evening was really a mystery to many in line around us. Its not like spring break snuck up on them. This was the last weekend of the crush, not the first.

 

Trip logs and mileage reports are in thePark Miles section.

Disneyland:

  • Stopped by Innoventions to see if there was anything new, or a short line for the Segway. Neither was true. Two minor tweaks. One is the Pioneer exhibit area is walled off. They also have added a couple displays by the Indy car in the Segway area. Can't believe how long the health area has been walled off.. seems to me having an empty area with maybe a couple static items would be better than the endless wall.
  • Ended up picking up one of the Tower of Terror Commemorative Tickets. When I first went to look at them I had a chance at a cool number (777) and talked with a friendly CM about the ticket while giving it a once over. Of course there is no package pickup or storage option except a locker so I decided to wait until later to pick one up my way back to the car for warmer clothes. This time around I was met with a not as friendly CM who was playing with an ink stamper. She pulled a ticket for me with a higher number (1400 something) and I asked if I could see another and maybe it would have a lower number (I thought that wasn't too big of a request, not like I asked for the lowest number they could find, only asked to try my luck with one other one). She looked at me completely baffled and proceeded to ring up the one she had out in her ink smudged fingers. I figured this was going no where so caved and took the ticket as was. I thought this was really poor.. just wanted to vent a little... sorry about that...
  • Checked out the Little Patch of Heaven at the Big Thunder Ranch to see how its evolving. Some changes, more activity tables and some more animals in the petting area (saw a pig and just more than last trip).
  • Crowd Control on Main Street seemed more aggressive than before and they really kept everyone moving. It was nice to see that many guests moved along the street during parade time and there being no bottle necks the two times we had the misfortune of "running the gauntlet".
  • We wanted to ride Indy again, but it was down from 8ish until we left..
  • As aggressive and good as crowd control was on Main Street it was as bad where I lined up for Fantasmic. Ended up in front of the screen by Haunted Mansion. People ended up in the bushes and on light stands and no CMs came to clear them out.
  • The Mark Twain was back in the show and looking great.
  • One note on Believe, there was still no Mickey effect, just dead sky.

DCA:

  • It was weird to see people in DCA.. kind of nice to see.
  • Tower of Terror was Tower having a Cast Member only preview. It was cycling all three shafts all afternoon and evening. It looked like a good showing for the preview and we overheard several talking about their experience on the attraction and most gave it a great review. One strange thing about the preview was they were allowing CMs to show up and ride in full costume and in groups from the same area. This wouldn't have been so bad since the attraction is still closed, but they were allowing the CMs to enter from the guest side of the park, not from backstage like they should have been. It seems to me that the concept of "show" was completely out the window.
  • Went to use our Fastpasses for Soarin' and the return line stretched all the way out and around to Taste Pilots. I have noticed this the past couple of times.. and for what seemed like a long time on Friday. Three things pop into my mind. Number one is why is this happening. Seems they should cut back on the distribution or something to handle the crowd. Secondly why did they build the attraction with such a tiny interior queue... and lastly why not set up a "formal" queue outside for fastpass returners since this seems to be happening quite frequently.
  • Saw Seasons of the Vine. Two notes. One is the temperature seemed much higher than it should have been... remember when they really tried to keep in in the 50s in there. Secondly the film seemed to be shorter. I thought the segment where they play theme song was shortened to almost non-existance.. this might just be that I don't remember it and am reading more into it than I should, but something seemed different.... anyone know?

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

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