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Visit Date: 4/15/05
Steps: 23,700
Parks Miles: 11.87
Time in Parks: 8:11

 
Trip Log:

Started off this perfect Friday afternoon heading for Disneyland. Wandered down Main Street taking pictures of the golden light posts as I made my way out to Tomorrowland to grab a fastpass for Buzz. Continued on through Tomorrowland making a complete loop including a trip out to Autopia to get a view of the Train Station progress. Then back by the Monorail station and around Matterhorn (on the castle side) as I headed toward Small World to see what going on, not much and continued on to Toontown. Back through Fantasyland and the Big Thunder trail, along the Rivers of America and out to Critter Country. Continued my excursion heading through the streets of New Orleans Sqaure and then Adeventureland, heard a band playing at Carnation, so stopped to listen and take some Castle shots. Took a brief detour back to Pirates for some pictures I forgot then walked to Tomorrowland and took the Monorail for a round trip elevated view of the work going on behind the lagoon walls, not much except for the drained motorboat area. Upon departing the monorail in Tomorrowland headed to the stage to watch Brooke and the Boys perform an interesting mix of songs. After their set wandered around Tomorrowland taking some pictures, including Space Mountains exit. On the way out of the park grabbed another Fastpass for Buzz before walking down Main Street and across the Esplande on my way to DCA. Headed down the Backlot and out to the work on Super Star Limo/Monsters Inc. Back to the Sunshine Plaza, stopped to listen to some of the Waveriders set before continuing on to the Wharf to get some bread. Next up out to the Pier for some pictures. Walked to GRR and caught the new band, missed their name, that was where the Miner 49ers used to be. After their set headed back to the Esplanade by way of Condor Flats. Walked through Downtown Disney and off to ESPN Zone to pick up a couple items. Walked over to the garage to drop them off in my car. Took the tram back to Disneyland and entered the park. We strolled down Main Street and through Tomorrowland. Grabbed the last set of Fastpasses for Buzz and headed over to the Monorail. Got in line, no sooner had we gotten in line did the phone ring and it was the rest of our group saying they were there and ready to meet for dinner, so we hiked out to ESPN instead of waiting a couple monorails. Ate dinner and then took the monorail back to Disneyland. We still had a good half hour till our Buzz Fastpasses would be ready, so wandered over to Indy and went for a spin. After our adventure it was back to Tomorrowland and time for Buzz. Next up we headed through Frontierland and the Big Thunder Trail on our way to Fantasyland. We were heading to the Mattterhorn but got sidetracked and took a spin on Dumbo. Finally made it over to Matterhorn and the line scared us away. We decided to call it a night so headed with the masses back toward the tram stop. Had to wait for the 4th tram to arrive. Finally got on our tram and back to the cars to head 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

Hello all,

Wow what a great day at the parks. The weather was perfect, the crowds were heavier than expected but still not a problem. The parks are in the final stretch before the big kickoff for the 50th, now a little under 3 weeks way. All and all a great way to spend a Friday afternoon/evening.

I do want to grip about the parking structure. As has become a curse for me lately. I somehow got stuck on the last row (furthest from the escalators) and what has become the norm the line moved really slow to park. It took just under 15 minutes from when I left the toll booth till I turned off my car. What a mess and considering gas prices what an annoyance. What ever happened to the clain of the garage being one of the most effecient parking structures in the world... oh yeah that's right that claim vanished with the mystery re-stripping a couple years ago. Still annoyed about this, but oh well. I just don't understand why it should take more than a couple minutes to park and be on my way to the trams. Enough gripping on with the rest of my thoughts and observations.

Jason

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

Disneyland:

  • The crowds felt heavy while walking around, but upon inspection most wait times were manageable. A couple notables in our travels: Buzz 40-45, Indy listed 30 but really 15 when we road, Pirates, HM 15, Dumbo 15, Monorail longest wait for us which was a two train wait coming back from Downtown Disney.

  • As you saw in the pictorial update, Main Street is receiving golden lamp posts, the jury is still out on this in my mind. At first glance it seemed tacky, but by the time I left they were starting to grow on me, and I bet once the street gets lined and the other decorations in place it may look really good leading the way to the castle.. time will tell.

  • Caught a set from the daytime band at Club Buzz, Brooke and the Boys on Friday, and have to say I saw more people enjoying the set than I had the Buzz Lightyear show. I think its great to see live bands returning to the stage during the day and the wide selection this group covered was great. You knew if you did not enjoy the current song you may the next or the one after that..

  • As you saw in the pictorial update (maybe you did not because it was in the background), but the Magic Kingdom Celebration was stopped in front of the Train Station, this was new to us. We had only seen it down by the Castle, we think it was a great addition and the crowd seemed engaged and having fun.

  • We waited around and kept an eye on the Matterhorn watching for Mickey, and we missed the show (assuming there was one in the afternoon). I wish this would make the schedule or be posted somewhere, guess I could have asked a CM, but that would have made sense..

  • We did not get a picture, but found it to be a possible bad omen of things to come.. or maybe just a fluke, but the torches on the new Tiki entrance sign were out around 9pm when we walked by, the juicebar ones were going strong, but not the entrance sign as they were earlier in the day.

DCA:

  • The new signs and lines to get into DCA seem like a great idea and we hope the test goes well. The concept is to divide out guests by ticket type to speed up the entry process into the park. There was one line for "ticketed guests", who were directed to put their ticket into the automated machine (there were signs up outside the gate and at the turnstiles themselves to help). There appeared to be one cast member per two turnstiles (meaning a 100% increase in the number of turnstiles open at the time with the same staffing, thus half the wait time too). Then there was a second area for Annual Passholders. Here there was still one CM per turnstile checking the ID.. wonder why they do not invest in a system similiar to that used in Walt Disney World. The biometric approach seems much more accurate and quicker than having a CM look at the really bad picture and making a judgement call if that is the same guest. Heck for years I have been saying that they should do the same thing in the garage, it would really speed up the line since most AP guests don't need to ask questions or even talk to a CM, they would just go right through. I would probably even carry it a step further and park them on their own floor to really streamline things.

  • Caught the new band out by GRR where the Miner 49ers used to perform, wonder if they are gone forever? Anyone know the name of the new band, we did not catch it. I did enjoy hearing some classics, the Red River Valley and the Tennessee Waltz.. to name a couple.

  • Not much else to report, beyound the obvious in the pictures, that Monsters Inc is moving along and that the Island from the ill-fated Luminaria show is gone once which once again means unobstructed photos of the Pier.

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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