home > Disneyland Resort > Pictures >Trip Summary For 3/04/16
Disneyland ResortPicture Set

Visit Date: 3/04/16
Steps: 24,044
Parks Miles: 9.1
Time in Parks: 8

 
Trip Log:

Started off this cloudy afternoon being directed to a spot on the 5th Floor, Donald, of the Mickey and Friends Parking Structure. Took a look at the Star Wars Land preparations as I headed for the tram. First stop today Disney California Adventure. Strolled up Buena Vista Street spotting a couple eggs for the egg hunt and made my way to Cars Land for the Annual Pass Preview of Luigis Rollickin Roadsters. The posted wait was just over an hour so I bit the bullet and got in line. It took about 75 minutes to board my car. After my spin on the dance floor I walked through bugs land and into Hollywood Land. Did a quick pass through the area and returned to Buena Vista Street and made my way over to Disneyland. I was on a quest to get some construction pictures and complete the egg hunts before the sunset, which was under 3 hours. Strolled up Main Street USA stopping for some egg pictures and then veered into Adventureland. Worked my way through the crowd to the Rivers of America and walked out to Critter Country. Found the egg and took some pictures from the Hungry Bear and then doubled back through New Orleans Square stopping at the train station. Continued on through New Orleans and Frontierland to the end of the Big Thunder Trail. Took a couple of pictures of the construction then walked through Frontierland, Fantasy Faire and into Fantasyland. Found a couple more eggs along the way and worked my way out to Toontown to check out the renovation work. Doubled back through the Small World Mall and then around the Matterhorn to Tomorrowland. Passed through the Launch Bay and Super Hero HQ to get a picture of the Autopia. Walked down the ramp and through Tomorrowland to return to Main Street just as Soundsational was making its way through. Inched my way through the crowd to the park exit. Walked through Downtown Disney grabbing pictures of the eggs hidden around the area. Walked all the way out to ESPN and then doubled back stopping at the Grand Californian on the way. Was met with a long wait at security to get back into the parks. Returned to Disney California Adventure as the Pixar Play Parade was passing through Carthay Circle. Walked through Grizzly Peak Airfield and around the recreation area to find some more eggs then out to Paradise Pier. Walked around to Toy Story Midway Mania then back. The parade was just ending so cut through the Wharf area and has the great idea to pick up some bread. Waited in the slow moving line only to find they were not selling fresh loaves, guessing because the bakery was closed. They were just selling bread bowls and they would not sell one without the soup. So having struck out there decided to finish my egg hunt in Cars Land then Bugs Land. I missed my goal of completing before sunset so for the last couple I needed to use a flash and finding them in the dark was more difficult. Walked back to Buena Vista Street then returned to Disneyland. Made my way up Main Street and around Sleeping Beauty Castle to Fantasyland. Decided to grab dinner in the Village Haus and then walked around Fantasyland and the through Snow White Grotto to return to Main Street. Made my way back to DCA to meet up with a friend and see Luigis at night. Stopped by Flos to visit with some friends and then Ramones to see the new merchandise. Looked at the two hour wait for Luigis and instead decided to just take some pictures and video. It was down as I approached so watched them take a car offline and then bring the attraction back online. Watched a few cycles then decided to make my way back up Route 66 and down the parade route to Buena Vista Street. It was about 8:30 and instead of fighting the Disneyland crowd opted to take the tram back to the parking structure and watch Disneyland Forever from there before heading for home.

Other Interesting Stats:
* Moderate Walking Stats (meaning over 2.5mph): 17,969 steps, 153 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:


Regular View 3 pictures per page

Choose how you would like to view the pictures:
My Thoughts & Observations:

Hello everyone,

Friday the parks seemed on the busy side for the first week in March and not near Easter. The walkways especially seemed busy as I was trying to move around and do the egg hunts, etc. I only glanced at wait times and except for a few they seemed moderate.

I really missed the Big Thunder Ranch this year. For Spring they have had egg decorating, characters, and dancing there the past several years. Watching the egg artists work and looking at their creations has been a highlight of recent years.

  • Grizzly River Run- Annual Refurbishment through the 15th
  • The Bakery Tour - Refurbishment through Monday
  • It's Tough to be a Bug! - Starting Monday the Zootopia preview ends and it is closed through the 17th
  • Jungle Cruise - Reopening in Spring
  • Autopia - Reopening in Spring
  • Hyperion Theater - Closed until Summer, reopening with a new Frozen Musical
  • Mark Twain Riverboat - Star Wars Project - Closed until 2017
  • Sailing Ship Columbia - Star Wars Project - Closed until 2017
  • Davy Crockett's Explorer Canoes - Star Wars Project - Closed until 2017
  • Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island - Star Wars Project - Closed until 2017
  • Fantasmic! - Star Wars Project - Closed until 2017
  • Disneyland Railroad - Star Wars Project - Closed until 2017

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

Thoughts and Observations:

  • I started my trip off taking a look at the clearing for the Star Wars project. It was announced last week that the official ground breaking will be in April. Wonder if that means the name will be revealed then? Since last week more trees have been removed and the demolition work in the former Big Thunder Ranch area is moving along with heavy equipment visible and working away breaking up the concrete and hauling it away. Inside the park the coffer dams look to be in place and ready for the back portion of the Rivers of America to be drained. This seems like a great plan from a guest perspective vs having the entire river front boarded up for over a year. Wonder if they will do anything on the river. Seems they could still use the Fantasmic light towers, stage, and water screens to put something together.

  • Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters officially opens on Monday March 7, 2016 and replaces Luigi's Flying Tires in Cars Land. This is the first trackless ride system to be rolled out at the Disneyland Resort. The attraction features Luigi's cugini (cousins) who visiting from Carsoli, Italy for race day in Radiator Springs. You board a two person roadster, buckle your seat belt and wait for one of five songs to start and the cousins to dance.

    • On Friday the attraction was open for Disneyland Annual Passholders to experience. No reservations or fees. You just had to wait in line and have your pass scanned. The wait times were long all day long. Averaging well over an hour throughout the afternoon and over two hours in the evening. You were also given a commemorative key chain which I thought was a nice touch. Having an Annual Passholder soft opening is great and much appreciated. I would have liked to have seen them run it more than one day.. maybe all weekend. There was plenty of signage about the event and a fair number of cast members on hand to assist.

    • Thanks to the long wait time (I waited about 80 minutes) I got to experience the queue and really look around. Most of the queue is unchanged from the original. Inside there are a couple new posters highlighting dancing tires vs flying tires. Stepping outside the signage has changed but the garden and area around the dance floor looks the same.

    • I really enjoyed watching the cars. After watching a couple cycles you can really see some of the variation which is interesting. The ride system allows them to do quite a bit and it looks impressive. Two minor issues though. One is the cars mostly seem to face the queue and those next in line. So if you are waiting or watching you are looking at the back or side of the cars a long time. Also seems a Bruin picked the color palette.. there are quite a few more bluish cars than reddish ones... almost three times the number I counted. At night the cars head and tail lights add to the scene and it looks great. I would lave liked to have seen some other lighting effects since it is a dance but for a first version it looks good.

    • The ride experience is very passive. Many guests did get into the dance routine and throw their arms up on the spin, etc.. but more or less you just sit there and enjoy the ride. It is a bit awkward with no hand bar so you are just sort of sitting on a bench as the car moves. The movements are a little hard to see what is going on while you are onboard for most of the ride. The overall experience is ok but I enjoyed the original Flying Tires attraction more because you had some control.

    • I thought the Imagineers did well with the very small dance footprint of the attraction. Nothing changed so it is the original approx 125 ft by 70 ft surface. They did not add or change anything from that respect. I would have liked to have seen them move to a continuous load like the Aquatopia in Tokyo. That way the area does not have these large lulls. Having cars seemlessly join in and rotate out of the dance would have been interesting to see. Also it would have kept the line moving more consistently. The hourly capacity of this attraction is very low, I counted 16 or 17 cars out at once, two people per car and each cycle was taking 5 minutes or so. It was about a 90 second ride then load and unload time plus safety check.

  • The 2016 Egg-Stravaganza is underway at the Disneyland Resort. These now annual egg hunts have continued to grow each year. This year there are three. One in each park plus Downtown Disney. For $5.95 plus tax, no discounts, you can purchase a map and stickers. The objective is then to go out in the park/Downtown Disney and find the 12 eggs. Once you find an egg identify that character and place its sticker on your map in that location. Each map is entitled to one prize egg. This year they let you pick which of the six you want, no more random process. As in years past they will give you the prize at any point, you do not need to wait until the end.

    • I have always enjoyed the egg hunts. I do them differently than most.. I usually try to do it without looking at the map.. just roaming the park. Friday I was rushed for time because of Luigis and the addition of Downtown Disney so I only had a couple hours to find 36 eggs so I took a look at the map for some hints to help me out and even with that the last couple were found after dark.

    • The addition of Downtown Disney is a nice plus, especially for those who are not visiting the park or looking for something to do with the kids while shopping. I thought the locations in Downtown Disney were the easiest of the three. At one point I was able to see four or five eggs just rotating around a single spot. I would have liked to have seen one or two out at the Disneyland Hotel to draw it out further.

    • Disneyland was about on par with previous years. There were a couple eggs inside stores which I am not sure if I am a fan of or not. I like having them out so you can roam around and find them. Stores add to the complexity.

    • Disney California Adventure seemed the hardest for me. Some of the eggs were in bushes or high and were a little more challenging to find.

    • Missed opportunities - I thought they missed the opportunity to have some different character eggs or even more elaborate ones like you find in the overseas parks. Also they could have had different prizes for the different quests to make them unique.. maybe three common and one for each.

  • Speaking of missed opportunities I was really surprised there was not more of a Zootopia presence in the parks. No sign of the characters in Hollywood Land yet, the parks blog said they were coming but no date was given. Merchandise was sparse and not front and center either. Wonder if this will all change with the positive box office numbers?

  • Noticed LCD screens at the Tomorrowland Terrace featuring show times. I did not have a chance to see if they were used in the show or for anything else. Has anyone else seen them in action?

  • At the New Orleans Square Train Station they did open the one section of the original Frontierland station but no tables/chairs have been set up so it is just an area to walk around to see the signs as of Friday.

  • For dinner I had the bright idea to grab some bread from the Pacific Wharf Cafe. I got in the slow moving line that was out the door. Got up to the register and was informed there was no fresh bread for sale. No reason was given. They just had bread bowls and they would not sell one without the soup. I am assuming this was because the bakery was closed for renovation. This meant no bread cart or bread at Mortimers either. Seems there should have been a sign up somewhere. They still had the display loaves up.

  • I closed out my visit watching Disneyland Forever from the parking structure. Thanks to all the tree clearing for Star Wars you now have a pretty clear view into the park to see Nemo and the castle fireworks.

  • Do you visit our pictorial updates using a mobile device? Did you know we have a more friendly mobile version of our Disneyland Picture sets at https://disneygeek.com/mobile

Here are some recent posts to the Geek's Blog:

Disney Related Press Releases

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
Pictures & Video From this Trip:


Regular View 3 pictures per page

Choose how you would like to view the pictures:
Back to previous page