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Visit Date: 12/14/08
Steps: 9,512
Parks Miles: 4.35
Time in Parks: 11

 
Trip Log:

Started off this cool day arriving at the park just before lunch time. Waited in a long line to park, but luckily a short line for the tram, security, and into the park. Headed for DCA first. Strolled out to the Pier to check on the construction work and walked around past Screamin and to Toy Story. Saw no one in the single rider line so went for a ride and then finished my loop of the Pier. Walked by GRR and into Condor Flats. Decided to grab lunch at Taste Pilots and than headed down the Backlot. Made the circle past Monsters and then doubled back to the Animation Building. Walked through that and the gift shop on my way back to the Sunshine Plaza. Decided to head out to the Grand Californain to check out the DVC work and the holiday decorations then headed for Downtown Disney. Walked through the Department 56 store and then out to the monorail station. Hopped on Monorail Blue and rode to Disneyland. Disembarked in Tomorrowland and grabbed a Fastpass for Buzz. Circled by Pixie Hollow and then to the Caslte. Walked through the Grotto and around back of the Castle to get in line for the walk through. The line stretched all the way around the West side and out to the bridge. Waited about 30 minutes and walked through the castle. Then stopped by Tomorrowland again to grab some more Buzz Fastpasses before heading off to Frontierland and NOS to see what was going on. Not much except a long line for Haunted Mansion. Took the train over to Toontown and disembarked. Found a spot to watch some of the parade and wait for the Small World line to shrink a bit. It did and we went on Small World Holiday. Once off headed for Toontown for a while then off to Tomorrowland to use our Buzz Fastpasses. Decided it was a good time for a dinner break so walked through the Castle and Fantasyland to the Village Haus for dinner. After dinner strolled back through the Caslte to Main Street. Hung around the Caslte for a while taking some pictures then caught the Bolt Pre-parade as it came rolling down the street. I did not like my pictures so I walked quickly through the caslte and Fantasyland to the Small World mall to catch it again and get some better shots. Decided to head out to Toontown to check out the lights and then back to the train and rode around to Main Street. Got there about the time the parade was finishing up, so saw the final couple of floats. We let the crowd thin out a bit and looked through some of the shops on Main Street. We wandered down to the hub to watch the 7:30 snow event and then headed for Tomorrowland to catch the 7:45 Elvis show. After the show walked through Adventureland and stopped for a snack at the River Belle Terrace. After eating found a spot for Fantasmic. As the finale came we hurried along to Main Street to catch Believe, which was luckily delayed a bit. This allowed us to find a good spot before the show began. Watched Believe and the snow fall then headed for the tram, car, and home.

Other Interesting Stats:
* Actual Walking Time: 2:09:19
* 73 steps per minute average
* 2.01 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,

I was able to squeeze in a trip to the Disneyland Resort this past Sunday, between the rain storms... I really lucked out with mild weather, a bit on the cold side for Southern California, but no rain until I was on the freeway heading home. The parks were not too crowded. The wait times at DCA most of the early afternoon were around 30 minutes for the big attractions. Over at Disneyland they were fairly mild too most of the day. Even Nemo I saw a posted 30 minute wait at one point. The parking garage was one of the longest lines of the day, it took a good 20 minutes for me to park which was frustrating. I wish they had a more efficient way to get you into the garage and parked.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

  • As I walked by the ticket booths I noticed the new payment plan was being promoted. I am not sure if this is the best idea, but it should be interesting to see how it effects crowds at the parks and ultimately the bottom line. To my way of thinking if you have to finance the tickets are you really going to be spending much money in the parks? Maybe people will and the incentive will work, but seems odd to me.

  • Spend some of the early afternoon at DCA and the park seemed really flat to me. The few holiday decorations that were up just did not do the trick for me to engage the holiday spirit. I missed the live band and to some extent the beach party even.

  • Out at the Pier work is progressing slowly. The repainting of the Sun Wheel and the framing of the midway game facade are about the only visible changes I could see. The Bay itself looked the same with nothing sticking out to me.

  • It was great to see the two new Monorails running during the day, due to the cold weather. They were still limiting each car to 15 people so it led to some longer than usual lines but nice to see. We rode monorail blue, first time on that one for me. I have been on red a couple of times. As we were returning to the park I saw red stopped near Harbor Blvd.. then we stopped too. The driver came on and said we were holding until they figured out what was going on with red. They ended up rebooting and going to a safe mode or something and it was able to move after 5 minutes or so. I thought it was great how the CM kept coming on and telling us what was going on vs saying there was a delay he actually laid out what was going on in some detail.. it was much appreciated by all.

  • I ended up having to wait in a 30 minute or so line to get into the castle walk through. Most of the people around us seemed to be annual passholders or at least locals that have visited the park several times and all seemed excited about being let back in. As we exited I over heard several say it was worth it. I agree with them, the walk through is a nice little Disneyland plus and its great to see it back and restored . I also thought it was great how they were limiting the number of guests allowed in at a time and tried to make it feel as if you were not rushed. I think this worked out great for enjoying the show as well as taking some pictures. I know it contributed to the longer wait to get in, but I think its worth it. As for the restoration I think it looks incredible. I never saw the original show (I did see the one that ran in the 90s though) so my only comparison to that is the virtual tour on the Blu-ray disc and I think its a faithful recreation with some upgraded effects.

  • I made it a point to be on Main Street for one of the snow events and it was well worth it. The new lighting effect looks great, even though they were having some issues with the garlands that cross the street near the tree. It appears there are new snow machines or at least new locations for them. They were not on top of the light rigs, but instead were on the building roof hidden from sight.

  • This was the first time I have seen Fantasmic since the most recent rehab and the new digital projectors do make the film sequences look much clearer and more vivid. Also I saw a new light/strobe effect on the island that I did not remember, but everything else seemed about the same.

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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Send comments, questions, any other email to: disneygeek@disneygeek.com
Pictures & Video From this Trip:


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