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Visit Date: 1/21/11
Steps: 20,536
Parks Miles: 7.7
Time in Parks: 9

 
Trip Log:

Started off this mild January day at DCA. Walked through the entrance and over to Condor Flats. Grabbed a Fastpass for Soarin and continued on around GRR to grab one for World of Color (9:00pm show at 1pm wow!). Kept walking out toward the Pier passing the Mermaid construction site and made my way around toward the Fun Wheel. Toy Story was about 30 minutes so passed and waited about 5 for the Fun Wheel. After my spin walked back around the Pier and to the Swings area for some shots of the dining area work. Then walked onto the Zephyr for some Mermaid shots before strolling down by the Wharf and the Blue Sky Cellar area for Cars Land pictures. Cut through Fliks on my way to the Backlot. Watched a couple minutes of the Pixar Pals before roaming down the backlot and over to Disneyland. Took some shots of all the walls on Main Street as I made my way to Frontierland and out to the Ranch for the Family Fun Weekend. This weekend was Kickin Country. Hung out listening to the Fort Worth West band, caught the Street Party a couple of times and the Bon Family Cloggers too. After the shows walked through Frontierland and around the Rivers of America to get out to Critter Country. Took some pictures then backtracked to the Disneyland Railroad. Rode around to Toontown and disembarked to check out Small World before walking by the Matterhorn and into Tomorrowland. Decided to grab a bite to eat at Tomorrowland Terrace (the rest of the group went to Plaza Inn). After dinner headed over to Frontierland to catch the 5:30 Billys show then back to Main Street to wander around a bit. Ended up heading to DCA and found myself waiting 45 minutes for Toy Story. After Toy Story wandered around the park a bit strolling through Fliks and the Backlot (watched the last couple minutes of Laser Man) the Animation Building, and through over to Condor Flats. Remembered I had Soarin Fastpasses so used those then headed out to Paradise Park to find a spot for World of Color. Ended up down on the Boardwalk. After the show joined the masses heading for the exit. Found my way to the tram, garage, car, and headed home.

Other Interesting Stats:
* Moderate Walking Stats (meaning over 2.5mph): 15,027 steps, 133 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 another perfect day at the Disneyland Resort. Slightly cooler than last week but still reaching into the mid 70s. The crowds were equally light with most attractions were well under 30 minutes throughout the afternoon. The only exception at DCA of course was the one I wanted to go for a ride on, Toy Story which was pushing 40-45 minutes. As the evening went on the crowds grew but not too dramatically. I am sure the CMs at both parks are enjoying the less hectic pace for a few weeks before the Presidents Day weekend and spring break crowds arrive.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

  • As I walked through the turnstiles I grabbed some time schedules as usual and thought it was great the detailed schedule they had for the Family Fun Weekend at Disneyland and that the Pixar Pals made the listing on the DCA side. Speaking of the DCA side it is kind of interesting to skim down it. You have Pixar Pals, World of Color, ElecTRONica, Disney Channel Rocks!, Disney Dance Crew as the top 2/3rds of the listing and all are new compared to a year ago. Below that are the regulars.. Aladdin, Miner 49ers, etc..

  • Also interesting to note the new projection show, The Magic, The Memories, and You! starts this Thursday @ 7:30. The early reviews from the WDW version have all been very positive. I think Disneyland will have a tougher time though since they are using Small World where as Disney World used Cinderella Castle. Hard to compete with the location and scale as well as the novelty. Where as Small World has had projections for years, so nothing too new there. I am looking forward to seeing what they do though.. hopefully some new effects.

  • I was pleasantly surprised to get a Fastpass for the 9:00pm World of Color show after 1pm, and even more surprised they still had passes for the 10:15 show after 8:00pm when I walked by. Guess the crowds were really light.

  • As you head into Disneyland now you are greeted by quite a few construction walls as the paving project on Main Street is continuing. Also note Splash Mountain is down for the next several months too so Disneyland has its share of walls, nothing like DCA but still a fair number.

  • This weekend marked the second of the Family Fun Weekends. This week was the Kickin Country Weekend. The stage featured Fort Worth West, the old house band from the Neon Cactus, the Bon Family Cloggers, and the Kickin Country Street Party. The upcoming schedule:
    • Character Fan Days (1/28-30)
    • Happy Lunar New Year (2/4-6 and 11-13)
    • Mardi Gras (2/18-20, 25-27, and 3/4-6) - Located in New Orleans Square

  • Overall I really enjoyed the festivities again. I thought Fort Worth West was great to listen to again (I listen to country music so I am biased here). The cloggers were interesting to see also and they tried to educate the audience a bit on clogging. I was a little disappointed with the Street Party, it was more of a line dance class but they really seemed to rush it and did the same thing at each show, it was nice to see different characters at the different sets though. Also the Kickin Country dance number seemed off to me. Maybe too much of a stereotype or something.

  • I thought it was positive to see a sign you entered Disneyland as well on the Big Thunder Trail and the schedule for the day was posted on some of them and listed on the entertainment guide. It was great to know what was going on and when. Hopefully this continues for the upcoming weekends.

  • This week there were more characters out and available for pictures than I saw last week. Luckily though the crowds still were not too bad and you had plenty of opportunities to interact with the characters and get pictures without waiting in long lines. The longest was for Mickey and Minnie and it was probably around 10 minutes or so most of the time.

  • The crowd this weekend seemed to be a little heavier too, the did not feel as empty as last week. Maybe the advertising helped, or the country theme, or maybe it was just me. Has anyone gone on Saturday or Sunday? Curious how the crowds are on the weekend days.

  • As the evening went on I headed back to DCA and had some free time so decided to go on Toy Story and bite the bullet and wait. It was about a 40 min wait everything else seemed relatively short with Screamin, Soarin, and Tower all under 30 minutes still.

  • I caught the 9:00pm World of Color show from a new vantage point for me(as you saw in the pictures/video). I watched from the Red section down on the boardwalk along the waters edge. I was just to the right (when facing the Fun Wheel) of where the boardwalk curves out for the stage. So that would be between the second and third light towers. The view from this close was great, your entire field of vision is filled with the show and it was a different experience than what I had seen before. Getting pictures from this close was a challenge, I shot with a 10mm wide angle lens for most of the show and it did not stretch from end to end (also threw a wide angle lens on the video camera). I had a light to moderate midst hit me a couple of times throughout the show, but luckily stayed fairly dry thanks to there being no real wind to speak of.

  • People always ask where is the best spot to see World of Color from. I have now tried most of the viewing options over the several months the show has been running. This is a tricky question to answer and due to the Fastpass/dining reservation system even harder accomplish. Overall though it really depends on what you want to see. A must would be to get into the Paradise Park for a first time visitor. Outside the park you miss out on some key elements of the show. The projection screens as well as the laser effects do not work well (or not at all) from outside the park. But for repeat guests it is interesting to see from around the perimeter. Also I would recommend finding a location where you can see the tops of the fountain heads in the water, it helps. As for distance that is more of a personal preference. I have now watched the show from all the terraces and each has its pros and cons. Being up close along the water you can really feel the scale of the water and get immersed into the show, but you loose something not being able to tell what is going on since you are sometimes too close to the action. Being further back removes you a bit from the show but it allows you to see the full breath of the show. For the best views of the projections I would recommend the the right Blue/Preferred/ or left Yellow sections. Once you start getting into the Red you are moving off center quite a ways and it is becoming harder to see everything clearly.

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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