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Visit Date: 12/25/05
Steps: 228,143
Parks Miles: 21.27
Time in Parks: 14:27

 
Trip Log:

Started off this cool and foggy Christmas morning at 6:00am heading for the Disneyland Resort. Arrived a little after 7 (the LA freeways were kind to us). Headed for breakfast at McDs, oops it was closed for Christmas, so headed for the M&F Garage. It was not open yet, did not open until 7:30am. Waited in line then parked. Jumped on one of the first trams of the day and road to the entrance. Decided to try La Brea bakery for breakfast. Strike two. They were closed too. So went and got into line at for the park. At 8am they opened the gates and we wandered down Main Street. Grabbed some breakfast, finally, at the Main Street Bakery. After filling our stomachs it was off to Tomorrowland and Buzz. Walked through Tomorrowland and out to Small World. Wandered through Fantasyland and around the Big Thunder Trail on our way to NOS. Road Haunted Mansion Holiday then headed back to the front of the park. Caught the re-dedication at 10am (still no clue why they do it at 10am instead of the afternoon when the real deadication was). Next up over to DCA. Grabbed a Fastpass for Soarin' then continued on to the Pier. Stopped by Ariels for a picture with Mickey & Goofy (with your Disney Visa you get a free 5x7 and I had not gotten mine yet). Continued on to the Sun Wheel, went for a spin, then fishined our loop of the Pier. Headed for the Backlot to see Monsters and the new area, looks great. Back to Condor Flats for our ride on Soarin'. Then lunchtime. Half went to the Wharf for soup bowls the others to Award Weirners for Hot Dogs. After lunch roamed through GRR then back to Disneyland for the rest of the day. Headed down Main Street, through Frontierland and out to the Ranch to see what was going on now that it was open, not much. Walked through Fantasyland with the goal of going to the monorail in mind. Got side tracked watching the Matterhorn climbing show. Grabbed Fastpasses for Buzz. Hopped the train over to NOS. Walked through the shops on our way to the Golden Horseshoe to catch the 3pm Billy Hill show. Afterwards came out and went on the last cruise of the Columbia for the day. Time to grab warm clothes (so a quick trip back to the car for me and the locker for the others). Ate dinner at Plaza Pavilion. Then back to Tomorrowland to use our Buzz Fastpasses. Wandered out to Small World to watch the projector show then out to Toontown to look at our picture in the mosiac there. Back through Fantasyland and around Big Thunder trail to the Reindeer Round-up. Then continued on to Fronteirland and NOS. Jumped on the train to Tomorrowland, was delayed as they fiddled with a new battery. Finally arrived in Tomorrowland in time to hear the last song and a half of the 80's All Stars set. Wandered out to Main Street, pushing through the parade crowd and into position for the fireworks. Stood there talking to some other guests until showtime. Watched the show then managed to get through the crowd to the backstage walkway and headed for the front of the park, then the trams, car, and home to end our great Christmas day!


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.
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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,

We got to do something this year we have never done before, spend Christmas Day at the Disneyland Resort. For some strange reason we have never been to the park on Christmas day, not sure why or why not. I have spent a couple of December 25th at Walt Disney World, but none at Disneyland. So this year spent it with the family at the park. There were several in our group who had not been to the park in over a year actually,so we spent all day (arrived just prior to opening and stayed until around 10pm. We had no real agenda for the day except to have fun. (What else would you want to do at Disneyland).

The park really did not feel too different than any other day during the holiday season. We did not notice anything special going on since it was Christmas day. The crowds seemed to build throughout the day but gridlock really never surfaced and from what I could tell they never had to close the gates, even DCA had a fair number of guests roaming around.

Jason

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

Notes:

  • Let's start off with the suprising mild crowd. Most attractions seemed to have a 45 min or so wait, with Space Mountain topping out at 85 minutes. Indy was around an hour. Small World Holiday was under an hour for most of the day. Haunted Mansion Holiday 30-45 minutes. Big Thunder around half an hour posted. Pirates was fairly constant at 15-30 minutes too. The Steam Train seemed to be about a 1-3 train wait throughout most of the day. Over at DCA lines were solid around 30 minutes for the biggies (Soarin' & GRR) with Tower slightly less.

  • As you saw in the pictorial update the backlot has fully re-opened and there is a soft opening going on for Mike and Sully to the Rescue. First let me comment on the area. I think its really well done and shows how the area should have been themed in the first place. Instead of a large concrete area there are now shrubs, trees, planters, and walkways. The signage and color scheme appear to have been lifted straight from the Studios in WDW. I am really looking forward to seeing what is next on the re-hab/re-theme list for DCA.

  • Took a spin on the new Monsters Inc Attraction - Mike & Sulley to the Rescue. I only had the chance to ride once, so just some initial thoughts. Overall I thought the overlay and changes all worked. The attraction seemed to be generating a positive word of mouth as I overheard guests talking about it. Most people viewed it for what it is. A good dark ride, and not something its not an E-ticket attraction. I think this really balances the area nicely with Muppets and Tower. The attraction queue seemed the same configuration as Super Star limo, just new signs/props/etc.. Same for the ride track (even though I think I read somewhere its shorter now). I thought the sets and characters looked great in person and even photographed well. The Taxicabs (which used to be Limos) even seemed to work nicely. The official opening date is supposed to be January 23rd, so until then its in a soft opening mode, so be warned if your making the trip for this new attraction that it may not always be open until after the 23rd. So to sum things up I think the new attraction works nicely and will keep the crowds entertained. Only time will tell if its enough to really bring this area of the backlot to life. I think a new show in the theater would help out too..

  • One other DCA note. For those of you with a Disney Visa, did you notice you can get a free 5x7 at DCA. If you visit Ariel's and show the certificate/your Visa, you get a free voucher. We used my Visa and did this (I think its only 10-11 in the morning so this was my first chance to do it really). Anyways got the picture (there was no one around, just Mickey and Goofy, and us... I was a little disappointed in the quality of the picture, not the best and if I paid $12 for that shot I would have been disappointed.

  • I think Tomorrowland is starting to look a bit cluttered. First the VMK kiosk was added in front of Innoventions. Now there is a Disney Vacation Club sales area near Star Traders. As if the location in Downtown Disney, plus the one on Main Street were not enough there is now this one to sell you time-shares.

  • Caught the entire climbing show on the Matterhorn. I wish they would put this on the program or listed somewhere. Its a really well done show and fun to watch.

  • Over at Disneyland we had another first... a problem on the Steam train. Seems the battery was not charging correctly so the P/A and light systems were not working properly. They decided to attempt to fix this at the Toontown Depot, that did not work so they pulled up so the engine was near the backstage crossing nearest the round-house. A round-house crew wheeled out a new battery (looked like a car battery) and made the swap. Still no luck. The crew tweaked a couple more things then gave up and we went on our way. This was probably a 10-15 minute delay.

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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