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Visit Date: 6/17/16
Steps: 15,579
Parks Miles: 5.9
Time in Parks: 9

 
Trip Log:

Arrived at the Disneyland Resort just after lunch and spent the first part of my visit at the Mickey and Friends parking structure taking pictures and watching the Star Wars Construction. Then boarded a waiting tram to the parks. First stop Disney California Adventure. Strolled into Grizzly Peak Airfield and picked up a FastPass for Soarin. The posted wait was 75 minutes so I got in line. After 20 minutes or so they announced that one theater had gone down and the wait time would be double. I opted to wait it out hoping they would bring the second theater online quickly. I was wrong. It took me approx 2.5 hours from when I entered the queue until I exited the attraction. I continued walking up the path past Grizzly River Run and then out to Paradise Pier. Stopped by the Wharf to get some chocolate and then took Cross Street into Radiator Springs. Continued on Cross Street through Bugs and onto Sunset. Passed through the Backlot then followed Hollywood Blvd to Buena Vista Street. Made my way over to Disneyland wandered up Main Street USA to the hub. Entered Frontierland and walked to the end of the Big Thunder Trail then strolled along the Rivers of America and into Critter Country. Circled around then back through New Orleans Square and Adventureland on my way to Town Square to watch the 5:15pm Flag Retreat. After the ceremony walked up Main Street, through the Castle and into Fantasyland. Took a look at the former Skyway building location then grabbed a quick bite to eat at the Village Haus. Returned the Castle area for the 6:15 College Band set there following the band as they performed on Main Street. After their performance walked through Tomorrowland and then returned to Town Square for the 7:15 College Band performance. Ran into some friends there so visited for a while and made my way out to the Small World Mall for the 8:15 College Band pre-parade performance. Followed the band along the parade route then found a spot for Paint the Night and closed out my evening with Disneyland Forever. After the fireworks joined the mass of guests exiting the park and boarded a tram, found my car and headed for home.

Other Interesting Stats:
* Moderate Walking Stats (meaning over 2.5mph): 11,291 steps, 98 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 everyone,

Crowds at the park were moderate for summer. Wait times were long for only a couple of attractions. At Disney California Adventure wait times seemed extended due to the Racers being down for over 90 minutes in the early afternoon then one of the Soarin' theaters going down for over an hour too. The affected my day since my first objective was to experience Soarin' so it means an over two hour experience for me, which really pushed my patience but I wanted to see the film and later in the day my plan was to watch the College Band so I spent the heat of the day in line.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • Star Wars Construction demolition work appears to be wrapping up and they have started to build. It would be nice for Disney to release some updated artwork or a preview center to help put the pieces together a bit. Also the trend continues of loosing the views of the work. This week the primary hole in the fence at the Big Thunder Trail was obstructed. Seems odd they put a secondary fence up vs just filling the hole or something on the fence itself to cover the holes, so maybe something just got moved in the way. The other big news this week is the Skyway building is now gone, only a couple small piles of ruble remained.

  • Soarin Around the World premiered at Disneyland & Epcot on Friday (and a day earlier in Shanghai).

    • The new film takes you to 13 sights around the globe this time vs inside California. You visit the Matterhorn (in Switzerland), Greenland, Sydney, Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany, Kilimanjaro in Africa, the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids in Egypt, Taj Mahal in India, Monument Valley in Utah, Fiji, Iguazu Falls in South America, Eiffel Tower in Paris then end up at Disneyland (for Epcot & Shanghai you end up at that respective park/city).

    • I noticed no changes to the queue and exterior except for a swapping out of the hanging sing that said Over California to Around the World. Everything else looks the same and the background music is unchanged. In the final boarding area the video that plays before the safety spiel has been modified to be a map of the world and shows where you will be flying. The safety video was the same as WDW has, meaning no Over California mentioned, but everything else the same as it always has been.

    • The length of the attraction is about the same.

    • The music is similar to the original but the styles change for the new destinations. I did not find it as strong as the original or having the "grand" moments.

    • There are new smells in this version, in Africa you can smell the grass, in India the flowers and in Fiji the ocean.

    • My first impressions - The clarity of the new film is impressive and the scenic locations are amazing. I felt they went to the computer graphics well too many times and they were not needed. You do not need to add graphics to every scene and in many cases they seemed to dominate and distract from the amazing sights. The locations themselves are visually stunning and in almost all cases did not need the "enhancements". I found the transitions to be annoying.. the CG elements flying in your facce, abrupt motion and sound verses a peaceful transition bothered me. I would have liked to have seen them show a little more restraint and pick/choose where to use the effects more.

    • I thought it was an entertaining version of the attraction but I would really like to see them switch back to California at some point at Disney California Adventure. Ideally having two different destinations would be great but I think California fits better into the park here. Around the World works for Epcot. I am not sure on the Shanghai version since I have not been there... some day... it will be interesting to see what happens with Tokyo in the coming years.

    • One of the two Soarin' theaters went down while I was in line which doubled the wait time and caused a very large backup at the FastPass return. The ratio of FastPass Guests to standby Guests was about 8 to 1 which translated into less than 10 per cycle from the standby line getting in to each show so the line moved only a few feet every 7-10 minutes. This made for a very slow and long wait. Add to it the fact that as soon as I entered the building my cell reception went away. So I just starred at the pictures in the queue and talked to those around me.

    • Also note right now the single rider line has been discontinued. The cast members I talked to said they thought it would come back at some point but others are saying it is not slated to, so time will tell.

  • Summer at Disneyland really starts for me with the return of the All-American College Band. Friday was the second day in the park for the band, great as always to see them perform. It is always interesting to watch as the group finds their comfort zone and really enjoys their time. Friday being the second day they were still working on figuring it out. I caught all their Disneyland sets, I missed the DCA one due to the Soarin delays. They added two new medleys this year, Jungle Book and Star Wars. Watching their sets are a challenge, especially the last one on the parade route with the final stop right in front of the dining package reserved area.

  • A schedule note - Frozen - Live at the Hyperion is now up to 4 shows a day. I hear the goal is 5 eventually. FastPasses were still gone really early in the day.

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

Geek's Blog Postings Recap – May 31 - June 4, 2016

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

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

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