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Visit Date: 11/21/12
Steps: 25,851
Parks Miles: 9.7
Time in Parks: 9.5

 
Trip Log:

Was directed to the roof of the Mickey and Friends Structure to park, which since it was just after noon meant a busy day ahead. Made my way to the tram and then to the parks. First park today, Disneyland. Roamed around Main Street and made my way into Frontierland. Walked along the Rivers of America and out to Haunted Mansion Holiday to grab a Fastpass then on to Critter Country. Doubled back through New Orleans Square and Adventureland. Crossed the hub and walked through Tomorrowland, around the Matterhorn and then through Fantasyland on my way to the Jingle Jangle Jamboree. Hung around for a while and watched the Holiday Hillbillies then walked back through Fantasyland and out to Toontown. Circled around there before heading to Small World Holiday for a cruise while the Christmas Fantasy Parade passed by. After my cruise walked down the Parade Route and caught up with Santa as he was passing through the hub. Walked by the parade using the stores and headed for Disney California Adventure. I spent some time on Buena Vista Street enjoying the decorations and the Community Bell Ringers. Then it was off to Hollywood Land. Saw the new Prep and Landing signage then walked by Tower of Terror and through Bugs Land to get to Cars Land. Walked through the newly expanded Ramones then hung out waiting for the lighting event. After the event made my way to the parade route then back to Buena Vista Street for the tree lighting. Then stopped by Condor Flats for some dinner at Taste Pilots. After dinner embarked on a tour of the hotel lobbies. Started off with the Grand Californian then crossed the street to the Paradise Pier Hotel and then over to the Disneyland Hotel where I started with the Frontier Tower followed by Fantasy and then Adventure. Stopped by the Holiday Village at Downtown Disney and made my way back to the parks. Headed for the Mad T Party in Hollywood Land for a while then caught a showing of Prep and Landing. After the movie headed back to Buena Vista Street then Cars Land for a walk through. Took some pictures and circled the area before returning to Disneyland. Hopped on the train to Frontierland and arrived just as Fantasmic was starting. Strolled out to Critter Country where it was nice and quiet (Splash was 5 min and Pooh was 3) so walked onto Pooh then made my way back through the Fantasmic crowd and Adventureland on my way to Main Street USA to watch Believe in Holiday Magic. After the snow finished falling strolled through Downtown Disney and walked back to the garage, car, and headed for home.

Other Interesting Stats:
* Moderate Walking Stats (meaning over 2.5mph): 17,625 steps, 160 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:

Happy Thanksgiving,

I headed to the Disneyland Resort to kick off my holiday weekend as did quite a few other guests. I arrived around lunch time to find myself directed to the roof of the parking structure. Wait times inside Disneyland were close to double Fridays. I would say the crowd felt summerish, not quite holiday madness but definitely heavy.

Jason

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • Stopped by the Jingle Jangle Jamboree and was really surprised by the crowd. The tables/benches were full and quite a few guests roaming around but the line for Santa was short most of the time, only a couple people at a time and the Reindeer Games were fairly empty too. Guess most were there for the Billies or the arts/crafts (cookie decorating and coloring). Speaking of the Billies caught a different group today and they played a couple different songs, always fun to hear. Also great to see four Country Bears in the finale vs two!!

  • Over at DCA the crowds were just as heavy and the park was alive with activity as is the new norm since the summer.

  • The new expansion area of Ramones is now open. The garage formerly occupied by the Racers Fastpass machines is now used for merchandise. I thought this was a nice addition and glad to see more space for Cars Land specific merchandise. From the few minutes I spent in the area it did not seem to have any effect on the congestion in the area or traffic flow.

  • I made a point to be on Route 66 to see the lights come on for Cars Land this evening. Things started off promising then went bad quickly with them not coming on, tripping on/off, then going dark for several minutes before all popping on after the music had stopped. This is my second time being in the area and both times there were problems. Maybe the third time will be a charm? From what I did see it was fun. Here is a video of what I saw:


  • I spent some time visiting all three Disney Hotels to check out their Holiday decorations this year. The Grand Californian and Paradise Pier Hotels both seemed to be decorated the same as last year. Nothing jumped out at me as different. Over at the Disneyland Hotel the only noticeable changes were with the Fantasy Tower now being decorated, last year they were still finishing it up. All the small lights on sticks around the plants out front were a fun effect. I was a little surprised that there was nothing up around the Trader Sams area. It was very peaceful out there and if you are looking for a place to go and escape the masses in the parks you may want to check out the hotels.

  • Downtown Disney now has a Holiday Village area set up between the Ice Rink and the Stage (boxed in by ESPN and Earl of Sandwich). This village is a collection of merchandise/food kiosks. The crowd seemed fairly light in the area with only a few guests browsing, most just seemed to be walking through. Curious to see how it goes and if they do more of these type of events.

  • Prep and Landing Naughty vs Nice is now playing in the Muppet Theater for the holidays. I thought it was great to see this film on the big screen in 3D (well 4D since they have a couple of in theater effects). It was well worth checking out if you are looking for an entertaining film and a few minutes to sit on your next visit. The piece runs just over 20min and they appeared to be on a top/bottom of the hour schedule Wednesday.

  • Interesting note.. I did not get a picture because of the crowd and I did not want to hold up traffic, but before Believe in Holiday Magic for the North end of the street on the west side they had ropes set up and the walkway extended down into the street, it was slightly more narrow than the sidewalk but gave some extra relief. Found it interesting this extension ended at center street so there was a slight bottleneck there.

  • One other Believe note. Still no real advertisement for the Glow with the Show Ears that I noticed. Looking around the large crowd gathered this evening I did not even spot any ears.


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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