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Visit Date: 6/20/08
Steps: 12,944
Parks Miles: 5.92
Time in Parks: 8

 
Trip Log:

Started off this hot summer day heading for DCA. Walked through Condor Flats, grabbed a Fastpass for Soarin along the way, and around GRR on my way to the Pier. Hiked out to Toy Story to see the line, it was about an hour twenty, so I kept walking. The Sun Wheel was a walk on so I headed that way, but then noticed the time and skipped it and headed toward Disneyland. I finished the loop of the Pier, cut through the Wharf, made a quick pit stop in Fliks Fun Fair to get some water, then hiked over to Disneyland. Walked down Main Street to Plaza Gardens and arrived just as the College Band was taking the stage for their 2:20 show. Watched the show then wandered through Adventureland and NOS on my way to Critter Country, turned around and walked along the Rivers of America and down the Big Thunder Trail. Noticed there was no line for Casey Jr. so went for a ride and then continued on to the Small World Mall and out to Toontown. Circled the area and headed to Tomorrowland by way of the Big Thunder Trail. Walked up the ramp to Innoventions to take a peak down on the House of Tomorrow (which still is not open). I decided to take the train to Main Street to by pass the parade. I headed over to DCA and wandered down the Backlot to grab some pictures of the newly opened seating area. Circled through that area and decided to get an early dinner at Taste Pilots Grill. After eating it was back to Disneyland and the Flag Retreat. After the ceremony walked down Main Street and into Tomorrowland. Grabbed a Fastpass for Buzz and then wandered over toward the Castle to find a spot in the shade to watch the 5pm College Band set there. After their set walked back to Tomorrowland and used my Fastpass for Buzz before the 6pm College Band set started at the Tomorrowland Terrace. After their set I walked through Frontierland and to NOS. There was no line for Pirates so I walked on. After Pirates walked through Adventureland and out to Main Street to catch the 7:05 College Band set in front of the Train Station. After the set headed for DCA. Walked through the Farm area stopping at Fliks for some more water before heaeding to the Pier. Toy Story Mania was down, and had been for 45 minutes according to the CM, so I hopped in the line and waited. It opened about 20 minutes later. After Toy Story head for the trams, catching the finale of the Electrical Parade, and then for home.

Other Interesting Stats:
* Actual Walking Time: 2:31:54
* 85 steps per minute average
* 2.34 mph average


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,

Summer has announced itself with a decent heat wave here in Southern California. Hoping this may have lightened the crowds a bit (plus wanted to see if the Dream Home was open yet) I headed down to the parks. Temps peaked in the mid 90s and cooled down to the 80s by the time I left. The crowds were what I would call a solid summer crowd. Lines were not too bad, if you had good timing or some luck, even Nemo seemed reasonable. During the heat of the afternoon Toy Story was over an hour.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

  • Upon paying for parking in the garage you receive an Adventure Roadmap sponsored by Honda announcing the new Toy Story Midway Mania attraction. I thought this was going to be a fun new adventure, sort of along the lines of past quests, the VMK ones came to mind. I was extremely disappointed. The map contains 8 questions you can find the answers to. You then go to the website (which I did) and enter your responses, which happen to be multiple choice on the website, and then you can download... wait for it... a printable version of the map, which is what I had to find my way there in the first place. There is also a sweepstakes to enter to win a new Honda Pilot. I just do not get the promotion. There is no real value in it for anyone except Honda in my mind. They get to push there new SUV... the questions are not even that interesting, or give you a reason to move around the park to the 8 locations. I thought at least something might be present in those spots, I was wrong. This really seems like more of Honda sponsoring a bunch of Toy Story signs around the resort. I just do not get it. Also I found it humorous that the map they give out has the Toy Story Midway Mania! logo but you go to the website and its the Toy Story Mania! logo (no Midway)..

  • The three Green Army Men out front of the security tents directing guests to DCA for Toy Story Midway Mania was a great touch, wonder how long they will be around for? They were entertaining to watch and a great photo op for people. I had read on another site the reason (rumor explaining) why they are present is because of the advertising campaign going on locally where people do not realize the new attraction is at DCA. The ads are really misleading. On the billboards it says Disneyland in a large font, the resort in a small font and DCA is not even on there. On the TV spots they have the characters on Main Street (which I think is re-used or at least similar in concept to a previous campaign). Anyways if you are not paying attention it does look like this new attraction is at Disneyland.

  • As you saw in the photo update they had a large portion of the extended queue set up for Toy Story, and I talked with some other guests who said earlier in the day, before the heat, it was full, but by early afternoon, the mid 90 degree weather wilted the line down to only 80 minutes or so. I still cannot believe that a good portion of the last segment of the queue has no shade and the partially covered area has such bad airflow, what were they thinking. While talking to a CM they said the plan is to eventually have a single rider line, probably later this summer once the operation of the attraction smooths out. Lastly wanted to note that Mr. Potato Head was behind his curtain the entire afternoon/evening.

  • Speaking of heat related problems, or at least I hope that was it, there was a stretcher brought on stage through Adventureland to a guest needing help, they were being worked on to the left of Pirates between there and Tarzans Treehouse. There were a bunch of CMs and I did not think it appropriate to take any pictures, plus I was already behind schedule for the next show I wanted to catch. Hopefully it was just a heat issue.

  • One of my other goals for the day was to visit the new Dream Home in Innoventions, there was originally supposed to be an AP preview this week. That did not happen though, but I was able to see some of the house from the 2nd floor of Innoventions (all the walls are down). It looks rather impressive from above, I cannot wait to see some of the toys. This was the first time the name caught my attention though... how come everything over the past several years has to have Dream in it.... if not dream then wish... what is wrong with the House of the Future or something along those lines... I talked to a couple CMs and they said the rumor was it would not fully open until at least the first week of July, but some thought it would be open by the holiday weekend.

  • The 2008 edition of the All American College Band is performing at the park. Once again their schedule made the entertainment guide, which was nice to see. They have four scheduled sets. 2:20pm at Plaza Gardens, 5:00pm in front of the castle, 6:00pm at Tomorrowland Terrace, and 7:05pm in front of the train station. Not sure if they are doing the pre-parade for the 3:30 parade again or not. The medleys have most of the old favorites back with only a couple tweaks. In the castle set the Incredibles suite has been replaced with a song from Enchanted, Thats How You Know. The Dream Girls medley is gone from the Tomorrowland set, in its place was a Tower of Power medley. A Stevie Wonder medley is performed on Main Street in the last set. Lastly want to mention this year there are two Trojans in the group (plus Ron, the director), FIGHT ON!!!

  • I headed over to DCA and around 8ish, both Screamin and Toy Story were down. As you saw in the pictorial update there was a line waiting for Toy Story to re-open, which actually turned into four lines waiting. There was one off to the left near the gift shop for wheel chairs and those returning with passes. Then there were three lines, one from each direction left/right, and even straight that merged for the main queue. I really thought they could have and should have handled this better. Luckily everyone seemed to be good sports and merged peacefully, but the CMs really should have corralled everyone into one line if they wanted to wait or should not have allowed any lines.. having so many seems unfair and inviting trouble down the road.

  • A guest of the site dropped me an email saying he tried the Downtown Disney text message coupon system. He said you choose the restaurant, he choose Naples, and then you receive a coupon. Naples was 15% off for lunch. -- Thanks for the info.

  • For those who enjoy the seeing the work at the Grand Californian I apologize, this trip I did not make it over there, I started heading that way a couple of times then got sidetracked and never quite made it there... next trip I will try to get some shots...



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

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