home > Disneyland Resort > Pictures >Trip Summary For 12/30/16
Disneyland ResortPicture Set

Visit Date: 12/30/16
Steps: 22,421
Parks Miles: 8.4
Time in Parks: 10

 
Trip Log:

Arrived at Disneyland Resort at 12:30 under clearing skies. Drove directly into the structure, to a toll booth with no waiting, and was directed into a spot in the first aisle of the Donald Level of the Mickey and Friends Parking Structure. Walked up to the roof and took some pictures of the Star Wars construction site then headed down to security, which had no line, and waited for the next tram to pull up. First stop today Disneyland. Wandered around Main Street USA and the hub before making my way into Frontierland. Walked to the end of the Big Thunder Trail (hoping it would be open to get a better look at the Star Wars work, but no such luck because the park was not crowded). The clouds had rolled back in and it looked like it was going to rain again. I walked back to the hub and through the Castle to Fantasyland. Made my way out to near small world just as the 1:30 Christmas Fantasy Parade was stepping off. So I found a spot and watched the parade then hopped on its a small world holiday with no wait. After my cruise walked back through Fantasyland and around the Castle. Took a look at the waits in Adventureland and decided I should head to Town Square to find a spot for the USC Pep Rally. After the rally followed the band up the parade route. They continued on to the small world gate and I turned by the Tea Cups. Decided to grab an early dinner at the Village Haus. When I came out everything was wet and it was misting a bit. I walked by the castle and into Frontierland. Strolled along the Rivers of America and out to Critter Country to check out the construction from there. Then back through New Orleans Square. Caught a band from Mexico walking the pre-parade. Then took a peek to see if the trail was going to open during the 4:15 parade, it was not so decided to start toward DCA. It had started to drizzle. Stopped by the Emporium to get out of the rain a bit then they made the announcement the parade was about to begin. Town Square had no crowd at all so I found a spot under a tree to watch an abreviated Christmas Fantasy Parade. Then made my way over to DCA. Roamed Buena Vista Street and Carthay Circle before passing through the Airfield. Picked up a World of Color FastPass (Yellow for the second show) then continued on to Paradise Pier. Viva Navidad Street Party was cancelled, as expected with the weather. So I doubled back and walked through Cars Land and then Hollywoodland. Found a dry spot to sit and work on some posts by the Backlot Stage. Took a second pass by Paradise Gardens to see if the 6:15 show was going to run, it had stopped raining, but the ground was too wet still so it was cancelled. Made my way back to Disneyland and as I entered Town Square they were making the announcement that Paint the Night would start in a few minutes. So I hung around and found a spot for the parade. After the parade made my way up Main Street and into Adventureland. Walked onto the Jingle Cruise, just had to wait for the boat to pull up to board. After my cruise returned to the hub to see if there was going to be a Wintertime Enchantment moment, there was not at 7:30pm. Made my way out to small world Holiday to catch the 7:45pm projection show then roamed around Toontown before heading to Fantasyland. Walked around the Castle and then into Frontierland. Made my way out to Haunted Mansion which was a literal walk on, I did not break stride till the foyer. Then decided to pay a visit to Pirates, had to wait one boat. After Pirates returned to Main Street and it was nearing 9pm so thought I would find a spot for Believe in Holiday Magic. Ended up on Main Street just shy of the hub. The show started about 9:25. After Believe walked through the crowd and then over to Disney California Adventure. Opted for Standby vs the using my Yellow FastPass for World of Color Season of Light. After the show walked in the rain back to the trams, found my car and set out for home in a steady rain.

Other Interesting Stats:
* Moderate Walking Stats (meaning over 2.5mph): 17,162 steps, 152 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,

I was on the fence about heading to the Disneyland Resort today. With the high crowds this time of year and a wet forecast I was not sure. The skies cleared in the late morning and I headed down. Arrived around 12:30 to clearing skies that quickly clouded up. Seems a 5-20% chance on weather.com translates to me getting rained on for my 33rd and final visit of the year to the Anaheim parks. It started to rain around 4pm and kept raining/drizzling on/off most of the remainder of the night. The cloud cover did keep the temps stable. It was in the mid to upper 60s when I arrived and about 60 when I left.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • I was expecting to find a moderate to maybe summer busy crowd at the Disneyland Resort on Friday. I was pleasantly surprised to find a very light crowd, especially into the evening. Most attractions were well under an hour with only a couple topping out over an hour at various points throughout the afternoon/evening. By early evening quite a few were near walk on status. I had not planned to visit many but with no waits at all for Jingle Cruise, Haunted Mansion Holiday and Pirates I took advantage of that. Walking around the parks in the afternoon it felt like a healthy crowd but as the rains came and night fell they disappeared.

  • Parking, security, and the trams were all very easy too. Parking was aided by the fact that the entrance from Disneyland Drive was closed so only the by pass was open for the structure. Security had a lot of cast members as well as a platoon of CSC people on hand and there was no wait at all. So far I am a really big fan of the new security set up in terms of ease to get to the parks and distributing the waits more evenly.

  • The Star Wars project keeps chugging along as you would expect with more rock work and foundation taking shape each week. This week the new backstage perimeter road is laid and final touches being made on that. So looks like it will open soon and the construction site will no longer be bisected by the old road. I was really hoping to get to walk through the Big Thunder Trail and see some of the work up close, but due to the rain and no crowd they never opened it, guess I will not get to see that area till they finish. From in the park you can see more rock work and not much else.

  • One of the reasons I wanted to go Friday, vs other days this week, was to see the USC Pep Rally in Town Square. As part of their Rose Bowl festivities the USC Trojan Marching Band, Song Girls and Spirit Leaders were on hand in Town Square for a 3pm Pep Rally. A good crowd of Trojan Fans were on hand to cheer along and several other guests stopped to watch the event. It was a fun event and always great to see two of my favorite things collide.

  • Because of the rain entertainment and activities throughout the park were altered or cancelled throughout the day. A Christmas Fantasy Parade was stuck behind Main Street due to the weather so the decision was made to run the parade without performers on the street. So the floats cruised by with characters on board but no one walking. I was surprised they did not provide any sort of cover for the characters. Assuming this is because they just do not have it here.. where as parks that have weather, such as Tokyo, have rain gear. It was a different experience to see the floats with no one on the street and so close together. It was a nice alternate experience for guests though. They did a similar run in the evening for Paint the Night. The rain had subsided so they rain the parade even though the parade route was wet. This time they just cut the dancers.. but performers who walked, such as the Jellyfish were present. I was really surprised to see Paint the Night run given the weather. Not sure if they made it back before the rains came or if they ran the second parade earlier than scheduled. It was raining pretty good when I left DCA around 10:45pm, it was scheduled to start at 10:30.

  • Same was true at Disney California Adventure with Viva Navidad! Street Party cancelled and other festivities curtailed too. I found it interesting they only had three performances of Frozen scheduled each day this week. The busiest week of the year and the signature show only runs three times a day. Festival of Holidays had to run alternate schedules too because of the weather.

  • It was disappointing to walk around Disneyland after Paint the Night and before Believe (so 7ish till 9:30), there was very little on the schedule this evening with all the shows scheduled to end before and no live bands scheduled anywhere this evening. Guess they were assuming everyone would be stuck in the long lines or gridlock so no need for entertainment? Turns out there were no lines and the park felt very quiet with nothing going on.

  • I was really surprised to see Believe in Holiday Magic go on without any problems. The winds winds were calm and a slight drizzle started right before the show but then let up. It was great to see the show, my plan was to try and get some pictures of the castle projections but the close spots were taken and I had only an ok spot just outside the hub. They did start the show at 9:25 vs 9:30 as published.

  • Closed out my evening at World of Color - Season of Light. I showed up as the FastPass guests were just being let in. I had a Yellow FastPass but decided to wait and stay in the Stand By area. After everyone was in, there was a lot of room and no crowds so they opened all viewing to everyone. I opted to stay in stand by since I had a straight on view with no one round me (had a good 5-10 feet in all directions at the start of the show).

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

Geek's Blog Postings Recap – November 29- December 18, 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
Pictures & Video From this Trip:


Regular View 3 pictures per page

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