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Visit Date: 7/08/16
Steps: 21,290
Parks Miles: 8.0
Time in Parks: 9

 
Trip Log:

Arrived at the Mickey and Friends parking structure and was directed to a spot on the Donald level. Spent some time walking the garage and watching the Star Wars Construction then boarded a tram to head to the parks. Security was a bit slow at bag check and then everyone was going through the metal detectors. First park today, Disney California Adventure. Strolled up Buena Vista Street to Carthay Circle. Stopped by Soarin' to pick up a FastPass and continued on to Paradise Pier. Took a look at the bay and then headed for the Wharf. Stopped by Ghirardelli on my way into Cars Land. Took a look around and continued on Cross Street to Fliks and into Hollywood Land. Caught the end of a performance at the Backlot Stage and then stopped by the Studio Store. Had 15 minutes until the next preview so stopped by the Animation Building and then circled back to the Sunset Theater to catch Pete's Dragon. After the preview returned to Buena Vista Street and made my way over to Disneyland. Strolled up Main Street USA to the hub and verred into Frontierland. Took a look at the Star Wars Construction from the Big Thunder Trail then returned to Main Street USA to have a look around. Caught the pre-parade then wandered into Adventureland and through New Orleans Square to Critter Country. Stopped by the Hungry Bear to eat and grab a couple more Star Wars pictures. Then returned to Town Square for the Flag Retreat. After the ceremony headed for DCA to see about using my Soarin' FastPass. The return line stretched almost to the main walkway so I skipped it and returned to Disneyland and wandered around Tomorrowland and Fantasyland. Stopped by the Castle forecourt at 6:15 for the All-American College Band set. After their performance walked out to Toontown and then back to Town Square for the 7:15pm College Band set. Next up the Rivers of America and the Jambalaya Jazz performance before the 8:15pm College Band pre-parade. Found a spot for Paint the Night and closed out my evening with Disneyland Forever. After the fireworks joined the masses leaving the park and headed for the tram, garage, car and home.

Other Interesting Stats:
* Moderate Walking Stats (meaning over 2.5mph): 16,202 steps, 135 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,

Friday was another great weather day at the parks. Highs were in the 80s and it cooled down into the 70s in the early evening. Crowds were moderate again. Wait times seemed light throughout the day with some peaks and valleys as normal. Walking around there seemed to be a fair number of guests though and it was slow going at times. A time note, Disneyland is back to midnight closings and DCA 10pm this week.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • Star Wars construction has gone vertical. Well in reality retaining walls and other barriers. I do not think anything for the land itself is moving yet. A lot of utility work and other preparation work is underway across the site. It looks like they are working to get the Big Thunder Trail and Rivers of America areas back in operation as the first phase, as you would expect. I would really like to see a recent overhead picture of the site to try and see what is going on. The combination of the distance and angles currently available make it hard to tell.

  • The security lines to get into the park were not that long but were moving very slowly. The hold up seemed to be with the bag check portion. All guests were going through the secondary screening and that seemed to be moving quickly with empty stations even. Wonder why they have not tested x-ray machines like they use in Paris in an attempt to speed up the process for most.

  • Stopped by the preview for Pete's Dragon that is happening at the Sunset Theater in Hollywood land. The cast members out front said it had a set schedule of every 20 minutes. I thought the blurb in the times guide should say this. Nothing has been done to the queue or outside. Just some signage changes. It is still very much the Frozen look inside. The preview itself is about 10 minutes and shown in 3D. It shows Pete's first encounter with Elliot then some other clips from the film. When you exit the theater be sure to look at the screens over the exit doors.. you may spot Elliot in the forest. Another interesting note is they had the theater open to sit in while waiting between shows vs making you stand in the pre-show area. It was nice to sit and relax for a few minutes. In terms of theater effects I did not feel any water, just wind being used this time.

  • Nick and Judy from Zootopia have been moved to the left side of Stage 17. This works to give them a queue and shade, but it is unmarked. No mention in the times guide either. So you have to ask a cast member or get into a random line. But I always see guests in line even with the location changing. Speaking of line the Marvel line on Sunset was long as has become the norm.

  • I was disappointed to see a half dozen hard metal benches in the Animation building now. Hopefully it is temporary. The larger/softer seating areas were substantially better.

  • Seems they area still having issues with Soarin. I picked up a FastPass and went back to use it and the return line was almost to the main walkway. So I am assuming at some point it was down again to cause a backup. Or maybe I just had bad luck.. but it seems more times than not since it has switched films the return line has been long.

  • It was nice to see some work on Tom Sawyer Island finally. Looked like general renovation projects. I was surprised to see scaffolding up around the tree house, the internet speculation was that it was going to be removed. Maybe they are just permanently removing access? Was hoping some of the rumors about changes to the Fort were going to happen but so far not visible indications of any changes going on there.

  • I ate dinner just before 5pm and the Hungry Bear was really quiet again. There were a couple more tables of guests than last visit but not many. There were two cast members working the registers and both registers had gone to a sleep mode because it had been a while since the last guest came through. I opted for a quick burger and it was not good. I am not a fan of the buns they have been using recently in the parks. Seems for the price you are paying you should have a bun that taste better and seems fresh. Not sure how to describe these, guess rubbery (you can see why I do not do food reviews).

  • The Dance the Magic summer event is this weekend. It brings hundreds (maybe thousands) of dancers and their families to the park. Friday they performed before Mickeys Soundsational parade. It is impressive to see them fill the parade route with performers.

  • Stopped by the Star Wars Launch Bay and it was really quiet. Some guests were watching the film, a couple in the store and short lines 5 minutes only for one to meet the characters. The upstairs was dark and from the vantage point at the bottom of the stairs showed no signs of work going on. I was hoping that a preview of the Star Wars project or something else would be moving in upstairs.

  • In the times guide there is now a section titles Rivers of America Entertainment and it lists the Jambalaya Jazz and Royal Street Bachelor performances for the day. The Bachelors perform on the Mark Twain and the Jambalaya Jazz on the River itself. These happen throughout the evening with a couple of performances after the fireworks even. I thought it was great to see some activity and guests milling around the riverfront enjoying the cool evening listening to live music. Hopefully the evening entertainment continues to expand.

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

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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