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Visit Date: 10/12/11
Steps: 17,931
Parks Miles: 6.7
Time in Parks: 8.5

 
Trip Log:

he car said the outside temperature as I pulled into the Mickey and Friends garage on Wednesday afternooon for a rare midweek non holiday visit to the parks. I took the tram to the parks and headed for DCA first. Walked through Condor Flats and around the Carthay Circle area a bit then down the parade route the Blue Sky Cellar area for some Cars Land shots before continuing on to the Pier. Made my way around to the Fun Wheel for a spin then finished the loop walking by Goofys and Mermaid. Walked through the Wharf area and then back by the Blue Sky Cellar. Doubled back by the Little Mermaid to meet some friends and joined them in a walk to Toy Story. The line was 30 minutes so I opted to head over to Disneyland. Along the way so no wait at all for Little Mermaid so hopped on that (of course it stopped for several minutes right before I was to enter the door so my no wait turned out to be about 5 minutes). After Mermaid walked around GRR and over to Disneyland. Wandered down Main Street USA and around the hub area before heading into Tomorrowland. There was only one Monorail running (Orange) but I waited and went for a ride to Downtown Disney. Walked around the Disneyland Hotel for a while and then the Grand CA and hung out at Downtown Disney waiting for the Lazygeek to arrive. Checked in for the Annual Passholder event then we headed back to DCA for a quick dinner at Taste Pilots then some time in the Blue Sky Cellar since he had not been able to see everything yet. It was nearing 8pm and time for the event so back to Disneyland. Made our way down Main Street as most of the day guests were heading for the exit and we wandered into Tomorrowland. Star Tours had a posted 40 minute wait and Buzz was a walkon so went to Buzz. When we exited Star Tours said 30 minutes so we went for a ride, turned out to be a little under 20 so not bad. Stopped by the Tomorrowland Terrace to see what was going on and meet up with some friends then headed for Main Street and the parade. After the parade it was back to Tomorrowland for a fun panel discussion then back to Main Street to wander around some of the floats from the parade before calling it a night around 11:30. Headed for the garage and home.

Other Interesting Stats:
* Moderate Walking Stats (meaning over 2.5mph): 12,773 steps, 111 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,

I headed down to the Disneyland Resort on Wednesday for the Disneyland Annual Passholder Soundsational Parade event. I arrived a early and spent the afternoon roaming the parks, which seemed like a great idea except for the fact that the temperature was in the 90s. The crowds in the parks were about what I expected, on the light side but not not walk-ons. For example Toy Story was 25-30 minutes the couple times I walked by. The Fun Wheel a cycle or so for the non-swinging.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

  • I do not have much to report from the parks. As you saw in the pictures there was some visible progress in a couple areas around DCA and the Hotel, which was interesting to see as always. The only other park note that jumps out to me is they had only one Monorail running (Orange) so wait times were too long for my patience to ride twice and get construction shots facing both ways. I was happy to see you could still get a pictures/view of the work even with the new walls.

  • The main reason for going to the parks on Wednesday was the special Annual Passholder event featuring Mickeys Soundsational Parade. The event was announced on the Disney Parks Blog and open to all Annual Passholders. You had to send an RSVP e-mail to an address posted on the blog with your contact information. If you made the cut you were allowed to bring three additional Annual Passholders as guests. The event was free and lasted from 8:00pm till midnight at Disneyland. There is a second one next Monday, the 17th. The blog listed very little in terms of details. It did say there would be a running of parade, an up-close look at the parade floats, Meet-and-greet photo opportunities with some favorite Disney Characters, and the chance to enjoy select attractions, stores and restaurants in Tomorrowland, Fantasyland and Main Street, U.S.A.

  • It has been a long time since they held an Annual Passholder event at the parks. These used to be semi regular occurrences then seemed to fall out of favor after the infamous Light Magic Preview (which I was not able to attend for some reason.. I cannot remember why now.. ). I have great memories of some of the events in the mid 90s where you had a chance to tour the round house, see the new Team Disney Building, walk through a dark ride in Fantasyland, ride Space Mountain with the lights on, and other treats along those lines. Hopefully this event hit the right marks and this is the start of a trend. I was kind of surprised this was not done in conjunction with D23 at all, this seems like it would have been a perfect event to have both involved in.

  • The RSVP process was a breeze, still thought it was odd that it was not a webform through the Disneyland AP site or something. Seems a lot of extra overhead to have to process all those e-mail requests to me.. but it worked. I sent in my e-mail and then when the list was posted my name appeared and I received a confirmation e-mail The check in process was smooth with no real wait and plenty of CMs on hand. You were able to check in starting at noon so I think that helped too to space out the arrivals. Upon check in you received a handout with the schedule for the evening, a wristband, and a voucher for a PhotoPass discount. I thought the discount was odd.. it was for up to 5 photo downloads at $1.99 each. I guess that is a decent savings but still seemed odd to me.

  • The handout:
    • Listed the parade as being at 9:30pm and then at 10:30pm some of the floats and characters from the parade will be on Main Street USA.
    • There was a blurb about the special items at the dining locations, but no indication of what they were. The Blue Ribbon Bakery, Main Street Refreshment Corner, Tomorrowland Terrace, and Redd Rocketts Pizza Port were all participating. I found out that Coke Corner had a bacon mac and cheese hot dog, Tomorrowland Terrace was doing a free cupcake with meal purchase. The other two I did not make it to, if anyone has a picture/info feel free to send it along and I will include it. No one in our group wanted to try the hot dog, but several had a cupcake and said they were good. They did not really elaborate beyond that...
    • A couple merchandise deals. If you purchased a classic Mickey ear hat the embroidery was free. The PhotoPass coupon, and $20 off if you renewed your Deluxe or Premium Pass this evening.
    • At the bottom a listing of the attractions and shops open on Main Street, Tomorrowland, and Fantasyland.

  • We started the evening off with a stop in Tomorrowland. With no Fastpass the lines at the attractions were moving quickly and the small crowd meant there really was not a long wait. The first time by Star Tours said 40 min, after walking on Buzz it said 30, we ended up waiting about 20. As the evening went on the line shrunk to a posted 10 minute wait and I heard many saying it was near walk on later in the night. Based on what I saw in Tomorrowland I would assume Fantasyland was much the same, but I never quite made it out there.

  • A highlight of the evening was an unannounced and somewhat hidden gem. Three members of the creative team behind the Soundsational Parade took part in a panel discussion and then Q&A session at the Tomorrowland Terrace. Verses me trying to describe it I recorded the discussion, the video is below. I always enjoy these types of panels so this was no different. You always learn something new.


  • Seeing the parade with the lights on did bring a new dimension to it. I always tend to favor the parades after dark, I think the lighting adds to the show usually and this was no different. The on float lights were fairly minimal but they worked. Here is a video clip of the finale going by:


  • After the panel discussion I headed back to Main Street to see the floats up close. They had a handful of the units out along with some of the cast from the parade for pictures. I thought this was a great finale for the evening and gave you something you cannot normally do.

  • Overall I thought the event was extremely well run. There were plenty of cast members on hand and thanks to relatively low cap on the attendance there was plenty of space to enjoy the event. My one complaint of the evening was in communicating what was going on. For example I think they missed a great opportunity to draw people to the panel discussion. There were a couple of announcements in the Tomorrowland Terrace area (I do not think it went park wide) and nothing else. Also they did not post the time anywhere. For example I walked by when they were doing the sound check and even then the CMs played it close to the vest with the time and who was going to be there. Same goes for the special dining offerings. I thought having those posted somewhere or tweeted or something would have been helpful too.

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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