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Visit Date: 11/11/11
Steps: 18,662
Parks Miles: 7.0
Time in Parks: 8.5

 
Trip Log:

Started off the afternoon a bit later than usual but with clear skies and sunshine. First stop of the day was DCA to check out the construction progress. Walked by GRR and grabbed a Fastpass for World of Color. Made my way out to the Fun Wheel. After a ride continued on around the Pier and through Paradise Gardens. Walked by the Little Mermaid and into the wharf area followed by the Blue Sky Cellar. Took my fill of Cars Land construction pictures and then strolled down the parade route to check out the Buena Vista Street work. Walked through Condor Flats and over to the Grand Californian and out to Disneyland Hotel. Spent some time roaming around the lobby and pool areas before heading back through Downtown Disney over to Disneyland. Stepped onto Main Street as the Soundsational Parade was coming to an end. Made a quick walk through Adventureland and circled through New Orleans Square before doubling back to Frontierland. Made my way to Town Square for the Veterans Day Flag Retreat. After the ceremeony walked down Main Street and through the Castle. It started to drizzle a bit so I headed into the Village Haus for dinner. When I returned to the great outdoors you could see some stars. I strolled out to Small World to get some pictures of the lights then circled Toontown to see the Christmas decorations. Went for a ride on Small World Holiday then headed down the parade route and back to DCA. Walked through Buena Vista Street and down the parade route to Paradise Park. Found a good spot in the Blue Section for World of Color. After the show hung out in Paradise Gardens until the second World of Color show, watched it from the Yellow section. Little Mermaid was a walk on so went for a quick ride before exiting the park. Hiked back to the parking garage and headed for home.

Other Interesting Stats:
* Moderate Walking Stats (meaning over 2.5mph): 14,048 steps, 120 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 Veterans day and also marked the start of more Holiday offerings at the Disneyland Resort. Due to threatening rain storms though the crowds in the parks were reasonable. I would say maybe about normal for a Friday, definitely much lighter than I had planned on. I had a long list of things I wanted to see so I did not spend that much time looking at attractions or waits but while walking around I thought most were mild. I saw Toy Story at 45 minutes in the mid afternoon. But then on the other hand when I showed up, around 2pm, they still had Fastpasses for the first World of Color show and as of 7ish they still were passing out Fastpasses to the second showing.

Jason

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

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations:

  • I lucked out with the weather. When I first arrived it was sunny and fairly clear but as the afternoon went on it clouded up and threatened to rain. Had a little drizzle right before dinner, but then as the evening went on it became partially clear and I was able to see the moon and stars most of the time. The rain held till I was about a 30 miles from home then the skies opened and it made for a much longer trip home but at least it did not interfere with my park time!

  • First stop of the day was DCA because I wanted to get construction pictures while it was partially sunny. I was surprised to see some Christmas decorations up on the new entrance, figured with the construction they would not this year. Then an even bigger one was seeing some wreaths along the construction walls too. What a nice touch. Speaking of decorations the ones that were up on Little Mermaid and the couple strands by Paradise Gardens were nice touches, wonder if there is more to come or if that is it for this year?

  • Here is an interesting numerical coincidence... as you know Friday was 11/11/11. By dumb luck I ended up on car 11 for the Fun Wheel. And to top it off the family I went on with was there because they were celebrating their daughters 11th birthday at the park.

  • The walls the first building on Buena Vista Street are down. Many are referring to this building as the pump house because it houses the pumps for the new fountain. It currently has a small information area which includes a podium for a guest relations cast member and some attraction posters. Several other sites are saying eventually there will be a wait times board there, and the space looks perfect for it. Also this space will act as a stop for the Red Car once it starts making the rounds next year. I thought the section looked great and I cannot wait for the rest of Buena Vista Street. I think this will be a transformative experience for the park. It will really make a sense of time and place which I thought DCA was lacking. Little things like the curb, trees, and lighting really add to the area and make you realize how lacking the original was. The way they build the small planter up along the rock wall also works.

  • As many of you know I end up stopping by the Flag Retreat on quite a few visits. I think it is one of those Disney touches that really adds to the park, plus a perfect daily tribute to those who are serving and have served in the armed forces. The Veterans Day Flag retreat builds on this and is an extended ceremony. As you saw in the pictures it included a full color guard and a Marine Band. I thought the way they honored the cast members who are veterans was a perfect touch and all in attendance really seemed to appreciate it. I have embedded the video of the ceremony below for those who are interested and may have missed it in the update. (Note the video is taken from an awkward angle and sometimes I seem to drift because I was shooting stills with my other hand).




  • I made a quick pass through Disneyland to check out the Christmas decorations. The new ones in New Orleans Square look great. I cannot say the same for Toontown. After reading the press release I was looking forward to some great new trees. Unfortunately what I found out there were non impressive ones. I thought the old tree they had in front of Town Hall several years ago that bent over at the top was great and the ones in front of the character houses worked. These new ones, which I hear are from the new demolished Toontown Fair at Walt Disney Worlds Magic Kingdom, just do not look as good to me.

  • Small World Holiday is back. They were not doing the projection show, or at least I did not see it in my couple passes, yet. Guessing that starts Monday with the official kick off of the Holidays at Disneyland. The attraction itself looked great as usual. As you saw in the pictures the finale room now features a giant Snow Man. My first impression was, wow he is big. Second was this seemed a bit awkward. Third was it worked I guess...



  • The first performance of World of Color Friday evening marked the 1,000th showing and I was lucky enough to be there. Kind of a fun milestone to celebrate. No announcement was made in the park, but on the Parks Blog there was. I thought it was cool that I was able to make both the 1st public as well as 1,000th now.

  • Friday a Prep and Landing preshow was added to the World of Color. This segment comes in at around two and a half minutes and features some fun new laser effects and plenty of new animation on the screens. I thought the segment worked and was a fun addition to the show, especially for Prep and Landing fans like myself. I also enjoyed how they played off the audience. When word of warning. If you are not in the viewing area and do not have a good view of the projection screens I am assuming the section is pretty much a complete loss because of the heavy reliance on the screens for the laser and film and not the fountains for the primary effects.

    Here are two videos from Friday of it from the 8pm show in blue and the 9:15pm show in yellow:




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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