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Visit Date: 11/25/09
Steps: 22,585
Parks Miles: 8.5
Time in Parks: 10

 
Trip Log:

Started off this great Southern California day (hard to beat upper 70s in late November) heading for DCA, after a brief stop a the ticket window due to some pass issues. Roamed down the parade route and into the Wharf area to reach the Pier. Spent some time working my way around the perimeter of the Bay looking at the World of Color work. Went for a spin on the Fun Wheel and then finished the loop. Strolled through the maze of walls and out to the Bay Area, by GRR, and into the Grand Californian. Walked through the lobby and then Downtown Disney on my way to the Monorail station. Rode monorail red into Disneyland and headed for Frontierland by way of the Hub. Walked along the Rivers of America and out to NOS to grab a Fastpass for Haunted Mansion then through NOS to look at the Christmas decorations. Watched a little of the Showboat Jubilee and then walked around the Big Thunder Trail, stopping at the Ranch for a while, to get to Fantasyland. Walked through Fantasyland and out to the Small World Mall. Stopped by the Princess Faire to check out the rebuilt snack shack and then headed out to Toontown to see what was going on. Made the loop of Toontown then doubled back to Small World. Went for a cruise, with maybe a 5 minute wait, then headed to Tomorrowland to grab a Fastpass for Buzz. I had a few minutes until the Flag Retreat so walked down by the Rivers of America again and caught the start of the Showboat Jubilee then headed down Main Street for the Flag Retreat. After the retreat it was back to DCA and dinner at Taste Pilots Grill. Walked down the parade route and stopped by the Blue Sky Cellar to see if there was anything new then continued on to the Pier again (by way of the Wharf). Made the loop again starting by Ariels and ending up by the Zephyr, actually decided to make it a complete loop and ended up back by Ariels. Then headed through the Wharf and into the Farm area before heading to the Backlot. Walked down and around the area by Monsters then stopped by the Animation building before returning to Disneyland. Once inside Disneyland ducked into the Gallery and Disneyland Story exhibit before heading down the Street. Had some time to kill so walked around the Castle then through the Sleeping Beauty walk through before finding a spot for the Christmas Fantasy parade. After the parade watched the masses disperse while waiting around for the 7:30 snow event. After the snowfall headed for Tomorrowland and used my Buzz Fastpass then hiked out to Small World to see the Christmas lights. After my fill wandered back through Fantasyland, around the Big Thunder Trail, along the Rivers of America arriving at the Haunted Mansion to use my Fastpass. Once my ride was over I headed out to Critter Country for a quick peak around then back to the Rivers to watch Fantasmic. Made the dash to Main Street after the show and found a spot for Believe in Holiday Magic. Watched the show then headed for the tram, car, and home.

Other Interesting Stats:
* Moderate Walking Stats (meaning over 2.5mph): 16,016 steps, 140 minutes.


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:

Hello all,

What better way to kick off a holiday weekend than with a trip to the Disneyland Resort. Thanks to some perfect Southern California weather (highs in the upper 70s and not a cloud in the sky) it was hard to remember it is the end of November. The crowds at the parks were healthy but not wall to wall people. It did pick up into the evening but with DCA open until 10pm that seemed to help.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

  • The day started off on an ominous note. As I was exiting the freeway things came to a stand still (which reminds me I really need to start traveling with the camera in the car so I can take pictures of the backups instead of having it in the trunk). It took two light cycles to make it off the freeway exit ramp and onto Disneyland Drive. It then took almost another 20 minutes to make it to Ball Road. The overpass was set to exit only already and all traffic was stuck on Disneyland Drive. I kept muttering to myself what a mess this was. I was expecting it to take forever to park (I had read about horror stories of up to 90 minutes during the Halloween crowds.. and I had experienced a 60 minute debacle one Friday). Once I was in sight of the light it appeared that the cycles were not correct and we were receiving a very short green light to cross Ball. Finally made it up to the light and through the intersection. Things opened up, and as luck would have it the garage was open. There were maybe 3 cars in front of me in line. Seems since very few cars made it through it green it did not create a bottleneck at the tollbooths. I ended up in the first row about 2/3 the way down from the escalators on the 5th floor, not too bad.

  • Another sign of trouble occurred as I gave the CM my annual pass for parking. My pass was invalidated. Seems now a days as soon as you renew online (or in the mail) your current pass is invalidated/disabled. I renewed my pass on Sunday and my new one had not arrived yet (it showed up Wednesday in the mail). My current one does not expire until the end of December so I did not think anything of it until they said my pass was not valid. They had to look my name up in the system then gave me my parking ticket. It did not take long, maybe a minute or so longer. She also said that I needed to stop by the ticket booth due to the problem before heading to the parks.

  • After arriving at the park I headed to the ticket booths, and as luck would have it there was no line!! The CM working the window was not overly friendly and kept asking why I was not using the new pass (which I explained a couple of times was because it had not shown up in the mail yet). She typed in what seemed like 100 keystrokes then issued me a Courtesy Visit Certificate which had my new annual pass number on it. I understand why Disney deactivates the old annual pass but it seems to me there should be some window in there maybe a week when both are active for situations like this(or say something in the flyers and I would have waited a few days to renew).. or at least when it happens seems like they could be a little more friendly about it... also kind of surprising was the temp ticket did not have a bar code so the CMs at the gates had to type in the number each time I went through. Also since there was no bar code I had to pick up a Fastpass Card too so I could receive Fastpasses. Overall it was a slight headache and I ended up having to use three cards (used my original AP as a photo ID) throughout the visit. Lastly an FYI if you are in this situation.. the temp ticket you are issued is the number the CMs need to use to give you your AP discount for dining, etc.. as your current pass does not work for that either.

  • Not much interesting to report from DCA. The lines were not too bad with Screamin at the 20 min point, Toy Story its normal 40 min, the Fun Wheel was about 20 minutes for swinging and 10 for non swinging in the afternoon. In the evening everything was slightly longer except the Fun Wheel which was substantially longer. Santa seemed to have a healthy wait every time I walked by.

  • I found it hard to keep reminding myself that it was a Wednesday. Since it was a Wednesday the entertainment offerings were more limited, even thought it was a holiday weekend. For example the Billys were off and the Disneyland Band. Also no band at the Tomorrowland Terrace.

  • As I mentioned in the pictorial update during the Showboat Jubilee shows they were really working to keep traffic moving in the area. If you wanted to watch the show you were directed to the area nearest the river. The other two tiers were supposed to be walkways and then the top tier was the extended queue for Pirates which was in sporadic use throughout the day. Things seemed to flow well and traffic seemed to be busy and delayed, but ok in the area. Actually it seemed the Pirates extended queue and stroller parking were causing more problems than the show possibly.

  • Once the sun set and the crowds descended upon the park moving around became a little harder, but still not as bad as expected or previous visits. For example there was a healthy crowd for Fantasmic but 10 minutes or so before the show the area where I headed to watch the show had plenty of room still. Main Street was fairly crowded for the fireworks but at show time I still managed to find myself a decent place to watch. Also it was helpful that the show was delayed 10 minutes or so for some reason.. best guess was the wind. I was actually surprised the show went on. There seemed to be a fairly strong wind blowing out of the East. Everything was drifting quite a ways to the left as you looked at the Castle.



  • Interesting Web Finds/Notes:
    In this section of the Geekspeaks column I will include links, notes, and rumors I find/stumble across/or have been informed of.

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

Stop by the Geek's Forum to discuss this and other Disney topics.. click here

Send comments, questions, any other email to: disneygeek@disneygeek.com
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