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Visit Date: 04/09/10
Steps: 26,574
Parks Miles: 10.0
Time in Parks: 11.5

 
Trip Log:

Started off this great spring day with a long line of cars to get into the garage. It seemed too many people showed up around the same time and caused the entrance line to back up to Ball Road. After parking (took about 30 minutes) we walked over to the parks since the tram line looked to be about a 2 tram wait at 2 load stations. We first headed for DCA and strolled along the parade route and out to the Bay Area. Took a look at the new steel that is up for the Little Mermaid and listened to the new background music a bit then wandered around the Bay taking pictures of the World of Color progress before ending up at the Fun Wheel. Waited about 30 minutes to go on the non swinging cars so I could get pictures of Cars Land and the other projects from the air. Continued on around the Bay stopping at the SS Rustworthy to get some shots of the swings and then near the Zephyr which has reopened. Due to winds it was closed, so carried on. Walked around GRR and into Condor Flats. Grabbed lunch at Taste Pilots and then walked down the Backlot circled around to the stage to catch a little of the Drawn to the Magic show then went back up the street and headed for Disneyland. Entered the park and hopped on the train. Took it around to Tomorrowland and grabbed some Fastpasses for the Autopia. Walked through Tomorrowland and the hub on my way to Frontierland (stopped by Plaza Gardens to see who was performing there too). Walked along the Rivers of America work and out to Critter Country. Cut through the Hungry Bear and then doubled back to Adventureland. Walked through the Tree House and then we headed back to Main Street. Decided to go back to DCA and visited the Blue Sky Cellar and then out to the Pier again to see if the Zephyr was running, it was not. Spent some time hanging out and watch the work then circled back through Bugsland and then through the Backlot as we headed back to Disneyland. The Street Party was coming down the street so vs fighting the crowd we watched that then hung around Town Square for the Flag Retreat. Afterwards made our way down the street and into Tomorrowland to grab Fastpasses for Buzz then use our Autopia ones. We headed back to DCA at this point and some of the group headed to the Redwood Creek area and I waited for the Lazygeek to arrive and we headed down the backlot so he could take a picture for us of the Red Car Work, then we walked through Bugsland and the Wharf and did a quite stop at the Bay before joining everyone in the play area. We headed back to the Farm/Wharf area for dinner then made one last stop at the Bay to check out some of the World of Color testing before returning to Disneyland to use our Fastpasses for Buzz. Afterwards we caught some of an Elvis set at the Tomorrowland Terrace before heading back to Main Street and making our way through the masses that had gathered for Remember. We made it out of the park and onto a tram right as the fireworks were starting. Headed back to the garage and home.

Other Interesting Stats:
* Moderate Walking Stats (meaning over 2.5mph): 18,716 steps, 167 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,

Friday was a busy day in the parks. Both parks were in full Spring break mode with extended wait times at most attractions throughout the day. I would characterize it as a busy summer day, not Christmas busy but busy. Since I was there to just relax and tour the parks the crowds really did not both me too much. I only waited in two waits over half an hour(the parking line and the Fun Wheel), mostly because I choose not to visit many attractions. All of the E-Tickets were well over an hour most of the day.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

  • Parking was one of the longer lines of the day for us. Mostly because of the time of day we arrived. Due to some morning commitments and being in Orange County we showed up around 10:30 which meant we were in the midst the arriving traffic for the day. The parking garage line was backed up to Ball road. We made the left and stopped right there. It took about half an hour to get into a spot. One nice thing I saw is they were directing cars to two different floors, this really sped up the process so there was no backup once you headed up the ramp to your floor. The other three cars in our group arrived later in the day and all reported it being a breeze to get in and park, no delays at all. So it seems the Toy Story lot is helping with those arriving at lunch and later.

  • I saw one of the retrofitted trams on the route with the doors. Since I walked and we kept moving I did not get to see what happens at the stop, but I did see some late comers and they manually had to open the door and then it closed behind them. Has anyone experienced them/seen them in action? Is that how it usually is? Do the doors slow things down a lot? I would think they would not but curious.

  • The other long line of the day for me was the Fun Wheel. We went out there first and it was about half an hour and I assumed it would only get longer so I hopped in and waited, and waited... I do miss the Sun Wheel in the pre Toy Story days when you could just about always walk onto the non swinging cars or at most a 5-10 minute wait. As I mentioned in the pictorial update they were working on one of the exit doors so everything came to a halt for a good 5 minutes or so.

  • We spent a good chunk of the day hanging around Paradise Bay checking out the World of Color/Paradise Park work. The walls came down for the park on Saturday morning (below I have a link to a video that was posted to YouTube). They had the new background music playing in the area around the park(A link below too). It had sort of a rag time/20s/30s feel to it depending on the song. It was definitely different, as the Lazygeek commented the Forest Gump sounding music is gone. The new music can be heard from the Bay area, down to Little Mermaid Construction walls, and then on the other side up to the Pier bridge. The Pier itself still has the same old background music. This just replaced the one area.

  • There was also visible progress on the backlot with new street lights up. As you saw in the pictorial update these have quite a bit more detail on them and they look great.

  • As we were eating lunch on Friday we started to talk about the crowds and long lines at DCA and I started to think of the number of dining locations that are no longer around or currently not open at DCA, now compared to the first few years. Gone are the Hollywood & Dine, the ABC Soap Opera Bistro, Malibu-Ritos, Strips, Dips 'n' Chips Closed for one reason or another right now are Award Wieners, Burger Invasion, the Corn Dog Castle, as well as the two options at the winery. Yes there is a new hot dog shack on the Pier and a cart selling hot dogs on the backlot but that is about it in terms of additions that came to mind. It seems DCA went from too many places to eat and no guests to quite a few guests and not that many places to eat anymore.

  • I thought the pictures in the display case in the Blue Sky Cellar showing the work behind the walls and from angles we do not have access to is a great idea. Hopefully this is updated fairly regularly. I think it will help to add some more traffic to the cellar, or at least some repeat traffic from locals and disneygeeks like myself. I would still really like to see some sort of webcams of the construction.. I think they would be extremely popular. Or at least live cams in the cellar, as I mentioned before, sort of like those at Conservation Station at Animal Kingdom.


  • Interesting Web Finds/Notes:
    Below are some interesting links, notes, and rumors I found/stumble across/or have been informed of since the last Geekspeaks column.

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
Pictures & Video From this Trip:


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