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Visit Date: 07/30/10
Steps: 22,295
Parks Miles: 8.4
Time in Parks: 9

 
Trip Log:

Started off this last minute trip to the parks with a fairly bad parking spot (I was about 5 cars from the far corner of the garage.. only a two-tenths of a mile walk to the escalators and that was cutting through on an angle!). Hopped on a tram and walked into DCA. Strolled past Soarin and around to GRR on my way to the Pier. Took some pictures of the Little Mermaid progress and then went for a spin on the Zephyr. Worked my way around past the swings and out to the Fun Wheel, the line was long but decided to wait anyways (about 25 minutes). Then finished my loop of the Pier and walked through the Wharf, farm and circled Bugsland. Next strolled down the backlot and took a look at the new rails/concrete in front of Tower before heading over to Disneyland. Once in Disneyland strolled down Main Street USA and verred into Tomorrowland. Grabbed a Fastpass for Buzz and then stopped by Captain EO. After the show walked by Nemo and the Matterhorn on my way to Fantasyland. Walked by Alice to see if anything was visible (not really) then continued on through Fantasyland, around the Big Thunder trail and into NOS. Walked around the Rivers of America and out to Critter Country. Then hiked back through NOS and Adventureland on my way to Main Street to catch the All American College Band in front of the Castle. After their set headed back to DCA and grabbed dinner out at the Farmers Market and ate on the Wharf. After dinner strolled around the Pier and watched some of the Pixar Play Parade from near the start. After the parade hopped on the Fun Wheel again since the line was only about 5 minutes or so. Made my way back to the Sunshine Plaza and watched a little of the Glow Fest kickoff before heading over to Disneyland. Arrived just as the Street Party was heading to its second stop. I cut through the stores on Main Street and into Tomorrowland. Used my Buzz Fastpass and then headed for Plaza Gardens to catch the College Band at the Swing Party. After their set walked through Frontierland and then Adventureland. Ended up cutting through the hub and over to Tomorrowland to watch a little of the 80z All Starz at the Tomorrowland Terrace before going back to DCA. Roamed down the Backlot to see if I could get some better shots of the new rail work then wandered back to the Sunshine Plaza to catch the transition of Glow Fest to the Backlot. Spent a little bit of time on the Backlot during Glow Fest then headed out to the Pier for World of Color. Hiked all the way around and made it over to near the Zephyr about 5 minutes before show time. Watched the opening sequence from there and then made my way around the Bay as the show was going on testing the view as I went along. After the show headed for the park exit, tram, car, and home.

Other Interesting Stats:
* Moderate Walking Stats (meaning over 2.5mph): 17,665 steps, 154 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 nice relaxing day at the parks for me. I had not planned on going but since some other plans fell through I decided to go. The crowds were normal summer crowds, not extremely jammed. The wait times for most of the big attractions hovered in the hour range most of the afternoon.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

  • My bad parking luck has returned and I was directed into a spot in the last row, only a handful of cars in, in the far corner of the garage. One good thing about parking out there is you do not have to drive around the garage in circles to park and to leave.. but the hike after several hours in the parks is long.

  • First stop of the day was DCA to check out the progress. Its been fun to watch the changes this summer with the steel work in full swing. Once things move a little further along I would guess visible progress will become harder to see. The big news this week is walls were pushed back a bit in front of Tower of Terror to reveal more of the rail for the Red Cars. The walkway to Bugs is not open yet, but it is nearing completion soon.

  • Over at Disneyland it was a fairly quiet afternoon as I circled the park to see what was going on. Nothing too interesting to report, as you probably noticed in the pictures. Decided to pay Captain EO a visit. It is still drawing fairly full theaters (maybe 2/3 to 3/4 the show I went to). The audience reaction is still fun to observe. It is no where as vocal as the first couple of months, but still enthusiastic.

  • I caught a couple sets of the College Band Friday, only a couple more weeks, so if you were planning on visiting to see them do so soon.

  • Buzz Lightyear was down for week or so for some work. The queue looked like it received some TLC but nothing else jumped out to me as being done. For example the orange robot in the first room still was not working. Also the photo/scoring system was tweaked. I had a great score going (due to a stoppage in front of a good target) and in the end the scores on my photo were not mine. I was the only one in my ship and had over 1,000,000 and instead it showed me as having 12K points and being beat by the ghost next to me which had 32K points. Think it could have used more time during the rehab.

  • I wanted to catch the start of Glow Fest since they were trying something different Friday. They had a DJ on the backlot and using Twitter they asked guests to where a yellow shirt and to show up to learn some dance moves. Each day this weekend had a different color shirt. Overall I was not that impressed with the DJ or the attempt at the dance moves. Having a dance floor/space made sense and seemed to work nicely, they pulled the VW more toward Muppets to create a space, but the DJ just did not work in my mind. Then again I was not the target demographic so not sure how it played with them... I did not notice that many people wearing yellow either. Did anyone else visit on Friday or any of the other days this weekend? Curious your impressions.

  • Friday I decided to spend some time during World of Color and walk around the Bay/Pier to see if there were any interesting angles to watch from. Overall my initial impression was correct, there are very few (well close to zero) good spots outside of Paradise Park to really experience the show. You can see the show and some of the effects but to really experience it you have to be in the park. There is a small area between the park and the Zephyr which offered an ok view of the show, but it is flat and if you are more than a couple people back it really is not that good. As I made my way around past the Zephyr, Jellyfish, and Swings you really could not see much, except for the two areas I watched the show from before near the Jellyfish and under the swings. It was kind of interesting to see the semi-obstructed view from near the Maliboomer, nice thing here is there are benches. There is a small area near the exit to the Fun Wheel that gives you an ok view of the backside, but the far side is obstructed by the Wheel. Working around to the popcorn stand on the other side of the wheel the view was about the same, semi obstructed, but you could see the projections fairly clear on the rear screens. Moving further along to the area by the hot dog stand, where I stood last week it was a good compromise between not being blocked by the Fun Wheel and being able to see. One interesting note, it was odd to walk around the Pier with most of the lights out. The audio was much better in the center of the walkways since both sets of speakers (the ones that line the walkway) were playing the soundtrack. Continuing my trek past the turkey leg stand and the small shaded areas I thought this was not that good as you were already quite a ways off to the side for the projections. Also if you were not right up against the rail the building and people got your way. Further along as you head up the hill by Screamins launch area I thought the view was very interesting and probably one of the best to see the fountains, but since you were looking directly at the side no projections and most effects were not visible. Making your way toward Ariels gave some obstructed views of the show, but nothing of interest. The next area to see anything was part of the reserved area so I doubled back and watched the conclusion from the hill near Screamin.

  • So conclusions after seeing World of Color a handful of times now and experiencing from around the bay. First is the obvious, you want to see it from Paradise Park. If the park is out of the question for one reason or another and you want to see the projections the area near the Zephyr is a viable option if you get there early. Next up would be the backside somewhere near the popcorn or hot dog stands seemed best. A great view of the fountains to get the scope/scale is from the hill by Screamin and if you want to really feel the power of the fountains and be up close the area under the Swings is a must.


  • Mailbag:
  • Fred visited Snow Whites Scary Adventure @ Disneyland over the weekend and saw my note about wanting to see the changes. He shared the following info::
    In the scene where the Queen "transforms" into the hag, there are new lighting effects, first the throne room looks bright and fresh and when she changes, the room turns darker (Think of it as similar to the Beast's Library in DCA) And in the final scene with the dwarfs and the hag on the cliff, there are now some cool rain effects (so the scene now matches the movie).



  • 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

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


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