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Visit Date: 4/21/06
Steps: 21,964
Parks Miles: 16.81
Time in Parks: 8

 
Trip Log:

I was greeted at the Disneyland Resort by a minor traffic jam on Disneyland Drive.. the light at Ball was backed up almost to the freeway off ramp. I thought this was a sign of bad things to come. As you rounded the bend to the parking structure a large sign read Theme Parks Very Busy, I thought well that was better than Full as it read during the holidays. I was directed up to the 5th floor and somehow lucked out and got the first spot in a row. Headed down to the tram stop and saw it was at least a 1 tram wait, probably 2 so I decided to hike over to Downtown Disney and take the Monorail into the park. Headed up to the monorail station and walked right up to gate number 1. I asked to sit in the front and the CM allowed it. So with no wait at security, the turnstyle, or to get on the Monorail I was off to Disneyland. Took some pictures as I exited the platform and decided since there was no line to hop back in line and go up to get the rest of my construction progress shots of the lagoon. After taking way too many pictures I headed down the ramp and over to Innoventions. Walked up the stairs and out to the second floor balcony to get shots of the Tomorrowland work. Headed down the ramp and over to Buzz to grab a Fastpass. Wandered through the Hub, Castle, Fantasyland and around Big Thunder Trail. The Columbia was boarding so jumped on board for a trip around the Rivers of America. Once back on the main land walked by Pirates and into Adventureland. Headed down Main Street and over to DCA. Headed for Condor Flats to grab a Soarin' Fastpass.. they were already gone for the day, wow. So I continued on through GRR and the Bay Area and out the Cove to see what was going on. Not much. So returned a couple phone calls and then lined up to catch Golden Dreams since it has been quite a while since I saw the film. Afterwards walked out on the Pier a bit and then over to the Wharf area. It was nearing 5pm at this time so headed back to Disneyland to watch the Flag Retreat. While waiting for it to start decided to start taking pictures of the Main Street upper story windows since I had a request for a comprehensive look at them. Managed to get through the East side of the street before 5pm. Watched the Retreat then headed down Main Street and to Tomorrowland to grab another Buzz Fastpass. Then back to Main Street to finish up the window shots, walking down the West side. After finishing the windows headed out to Downtown Disney to meet up with the Lazyhgeek and we went to the World of Disney to see the new Pirates merchandise. Then over to McDs for dinner. Walked back and went to Disneyland. Headed down Main Street and into Tomorrowland. Went up on the Monorail platform for some more pictures and then headed around the Matterhorn, through Fantasyland, the Big Thunder Trail and around the Rivers of America on our way to the Haunted Mansion. Only a 13 minute wait so we went for a ride. Afterwards wandered through NOS and Adventureland. Headed over to Tomorrowland to use our Buzz Fastpasses and then over to DCA. Walked down the Backlot to check out Monsters, 45 minute wait so too long. Took some pictures and then headed for Condor Flats and walked around GRR and out to the Pier. We had time to kill still so started a loop of the Pier starting by Avalon Cove/Ariels. We made it around to MM just about the time the MSEP (I still hate to call it DEP) started. Watched the parade and then followed it back to Golden Dreams before we verred off and headed through the Bay Area, around GRR, through Condor Flats and out of the park. Made it to the Esplanade about 5 minutes before the Fireworks were to start. Decided we were tired so stayed out there to watch them instead of heading into Disneyland. We waited till about 10 minutes after the expected start time and then headed out assuming they were canceled due to the winds. Took the tram back to the garage and headed home. No sign of the fireworks so I guess they were canceled.


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 everyone,

It felt like forever since our last trip to the Disneyland Resort, it was almost a full month due to the Easter Holiday and the weather delays.. the Resort was still in Spring Break mode as you saw in the pictorial update, there were quite a few guests roaming the parks. The wait times still seemed reasonable considering the crowd, but it was definitely busy.

Jason

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

DCA & Disneyland Notes:

  • Road the Haunted Mansion to see if anything new had surfaced yet. We believe the attic scene has quite a few new props (or at least re-arranged so they seemed new to us). Also the ghosts that popped up are no longer there and there were several things covered up, not sure if those are new props, old props, or just the way its supposed to look. I tried to snap a few pictures but was not prepared so nothing came out. Maybe next trip.

  • Later this week we will be adding a section taking a look at the Main Street windows. usually you take a look at a window or two every now and then, actually walking the street and reading them all was quite fun. There were several I had not read or do not remember.

  • The work in Tomorrowland is really coming along. I thought it was great to see a cover going over the extended seating area for Club Buzz. also good to see the subs back and something different in the lagoon to look at. Its amazing at how many people we overheard commenting on how they thought it was cool to see the subs coming back. We ran into several out of town guests and infrequent visitors who were commenting on the positive sign of bringing back a true Disneyland classic. Looks like we will be spending quite a bit of time in 2007 in line for this updated attraction since I am betting the crowds will be heavy for it.

  • Speaking of crowds.. we noticed several new crowd control measures being using around the park. Some working really well others not so well. The first one I noticed was the division of Adventureland with the North side being NOS bound traffic and the South side being Main Street bound traffic. There was a rope line up through the middle of the land and stroller parking was moved to complete the barricade (there were some pictures of this in the pictorial update). This seemed to work really well. You were able to walk through the area with no real problem, unlike how it usually is when the crowds are like Friday. The other thing I noticed was quite a few Cast Members helping to direct the traffic. There must have been a handful in Adventureland. Later in the day this had gone back to normal and so had the traffic congestion. Seems like this is an expensive solution with the man power they were using to accomplish it, but the result was definitely nice.

  • Another new crowd control measure we ran into was on Main Street. It was about 10 minutes to parade time and we were walking up the East side of the street and at center street, near the fruit cart, there was a CM forcing traffic to go around the cart to the right instead of traveling straight up the sidewalk. My best guess is the plan was to keep the crosswalk area flowing but all this did was bottle people up on Main Street heading into the park.

  • One more crowd control story.. we had not watched the Electrical Parade in probably a year and have not seen it out in the Pier area for quite a while. We stood in front of MM and after the parade joined in the mass of people following the final float since there was no where else to go so we figured we would follow to Golden Dreams then cut through the Bay Area, GRR, and Condor Flats and beat the parade rush out of the park. As we walked along we noticed the crowd control and other CMs joining in the procession as we passed them. By the time we neared Golden Dreams there was a fairly solid line of CMs following the parade. As soon as they cleared the walkway by Golden Dreams they stopped and started to direct traffic to the left toward GRR or right toward the Pier. They were not allowing guests to keep following the parade. I thought this made a alot of sense and once people figured out what was going on it was not too bad.

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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