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Visit Date: 1/23/15
Steps: 20,952
Parks Miles: 7.9
Time in Parks: 8.5

 
Trip Log:

I arrived at the Mickey and Friends parking structure after lunch and boarded a waiting tram to head to the parks. First stop today, Disneyland. I wandered down Main Street USA and to the Castle. Walked around the West side and into Fantasyland. The posted wait for Peter Pan was 30 minutes and looked shorter so I paid a visit to Neverland. It took about 20 minutes. Walked through Fantasyland, around the Matterhorn and into Tomorrowland. Took the Monorail round trip and then walked out to Small World for one last Holiday Cruise of the season. Passed back through Fantasyland and took the Big Thunder Trail to Frontierland. Continued on to New Orleans Square and waited about 5 minutes for the Haunted Mansion which re-opened today. After the ride strolled along the Rivers of America and boarded the Mark Twain for a voyage on the Rivers of America. Once back on land the plan was to take the Disneyland Railroad but that failed due to being closed. So walked through Frontierland and took a quick look into Adventureland before returning to Tomorrowland. Visit the Star Trader and Starcade then checked the train one more time, still closed. Returned to Main Street USA on foot and waded through the gathering crowd for the 4:00pm parade. Made a quick stop in the Market House to get a picture of the new mugs then continued on to the exit. Paused as the Frozen Pre-parade rolled by and took a couple pictures then walked across to Disney California Adventure and strolled up Buena Vista Street and into Carthay Circle. Continued up the Parade Route and stopped by the Pacific Wharf to see the new Boudin Truck. Also walked through Ghirardelli to get some chocolate. Made my way to check in on GRR and then walked out to Paradise Pier and circled around past Ariels, Screamin, the Fun Wheel and the Swings taking a look at the now mostly drained Paradise Bay. Grabbed some dinner at Paradise Gardens and was entertained by the Ellis Island Boys while I ate. Wrapped up my loop of the Pier and passed back through the Wharf and Cars Land. Went for a flight on the Flying Tires then walked by the Bakery one more time before returning to Disneyland. Walked up Main Street, through Adventureland and met some friends at the Haunted Mansion. Paid a second visit to the mansion then boarded the train for a trip to Main Street USA. Disembarked and caught the end of Soundsational before returning to DCA. Headed for Hollywood Land and to see what was going on at Freeze the Night. Wandered around a bit, stopped by the Snow Fest then met some other friends who were in line to meet the Frozen sisters. Waited about 10 minutes to meet Elsa then hopped in the standby line for the Sing Along. We did not make it in so wandered around Freeze the Night till a little after 8pm then made our way back to Disneyland. Walked out to Tomorrowland to catch the 8:35pm set by the Suburban Legends at the Tomorrowland Terrace. After their set returned to Main Street and watched Fanstasy in the Sky from the hub. After the show waded through the mass of guests and headed for the exit. The trams were backed up so hiked back to the parking structure, found my car, and headed for home.

Other Interesting Stats:
* Moderate Walking Stats (meaning over 2.5mph): 15,332 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.
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My Thoughts & Observations:

Hello everyone,

Friday was a rare off season day that felt like an off season day in the parks. The crowds felt light and wait times were mild throughout most of the day but as usual did creep up later in the day as DCA neared closing at 9pm and more locals arrived for the evening. Thanks to the light crowds I visited more attractions than usual. In the first 75 minutes or so after entering the park I had visited five attractions (Peter Pan, Monorail, Small World Holiday, Haunted Mansion, Mark Twain) and walked most of the park taking pictures.

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • As you saw in the pictures the number of projects around the parks just continues to grow each week. It is fun to see all the activity for geeks like me. Wonder what the average tourist is thinking with so much of the parks closed or being worked on. The work in Condor Flats looks to be extensive, it should be interesting what that area comes out looking like.

  • The Haunted Mansion returned to normal operation on Friday, a day early (so technically it was a soft opening). Only one change jumped out to me on my first two rides through. As you leave the attic to enter the graveyard to the right is a poster that looks to be a window with a bat in it. Is this a placeholder due to ongoing work? A problem? Something new? Or just a flimsy looking addition? I have seen a lot of speculation but nothing concrete yet.

  • I had not realized that the Big Hero 6 Meet and Greet had closed and been fully removed already. I assumed it was going to run through the Home Video release next week. Wonder if they will re-appear for the occasion.

  • The big news on Main Street and Buena Vista Street for coffee drinkers and collectors is the Starbucks locations now have collectable mugs in stock with the parks on them as well as a generic Disney Parks tumbler. I stopped by to try and get some pictures and they seemed to be selling quite well with guests as well as cast members (several were in front of me at the Market House). There is a design for each park available only there. The same is true for Florida. Downtown Disney has generic California mugs as of now.

  • The Boudin Bakery Tour in the Pacific Wharf area at DCA is preparing to reopen. It is scheduled to return this week. If the changes to the facade are any indication this should be a great update. The exterior signage, awning, and new vintage truck outside are all great additions to the area and really contrast with the original design of the area.

  • Interesting to note currently there are no films playing at the Disneyland theme parks. The closest would be Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln that has a film component to it. Tough to Be a Bug, Magic Eye, and Muppets are all either closed or re-purposed.

  • I was walking by Paradise Gardens and decided to give a burger a try from the Grill. Not sure if my meal was an indication of the new offering or bad luck due to low crowds and bad timing but the food was luke warm at best and the bun was not very fresh. The fries were plentiful which was nice and due to there being no one there the service was very quick and efficient.

  • I posted a picture and mentioned about the speakers on the Disneyland Railroad a few weeks ago. Friday I finally stayed on board to hear the dioramas sound and it is noticeably better now. I posted a video of the trip to the YouTube channel if you were curious and missed it.

  • Met some friends who wanted to see the Frozen sisters (they have a three year old who loves the film) and they stopped by the Animation Building and found out there was a standby line running Friday night. So we waited under 10 minutes to meet Elsa. Anna was not with her. This was my first time in the Character Close-up since the remodel and the rooms and area worked well. Elsa took a fair amount of time with us. Looking at the camera timestamps it was nearly 5 minutes. This was thanks to the low crowd I believe.

  • We tried to push their luck and use the standby for the 7:45pm sing along showing up about 15 minutes before the show. We were just past the first switchback.. we came up about a dozen people short. They did not let very many stand by guests in. Very similar in number to what I saw the first day when I made the cut.

  • Freeze the Night had a light crowd too. The schedule was tweaked slightly from the previous two weeks. The did not sing Let it Go at 8:00pm instead it was bumped to 8:55 to be the finale before the 9:00pm closure.

  • This was my third trip to Freeze the Night and I have seen 6 ice sculptures over those trips. 3 Olafs and 3 star type sculptures.. too bad they are not switching it up. Anyone catch the last two of the night? Anything different/interesting?

  • The Suburban Legends were in Tomorrowland this evening and drew a healthy crowd for their set. The Disney songs in their routine always seem to stop guests.

  • Watched Fantasy in the Sky from the hub. Was trying to see if I could get any interesting pictures with the Castle but thanks to no real light on it the pictures were not that good and it meant having to go through the large crowd to leave the park. Cast Members were working hard to keep things moving and considering the number of guests in the area it did inch along at a reasonable pace.

  • Do you visit our pictorial updates using a mobile device? If so we would like your feedback. I have created a beta of a more mobile version of our Disneyland Picture sets at https://disneygeek.com/mobile Please give it a try and share your thoughts.

  • Video featuring my pictures:

Interesting Web Finds/Notes:

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

Send comments, questions, any other email to: disneygeek@disneygeek.com
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