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Visit Date: 10/01/21
Steps: 11,441
Parks Miles: 5.4
Time in Parks: 12

 
Trip Log:

Arrived at the Disneyland Resort area around 6:45am and stopped for breakfast on Harbor Bvld. Was successful this visit in getting a boarding group for Rise of the Resistance. Then drove around and entered the Mickey and Friends parking structure around 7:15am. Decided to walk over to the Disneyland Hotel and check out the Halloween decorations then through Downtown Disney. Stopped in the tram stop area to see the Muppets Haunted Mansion photo op. Arrived on Main Street USA about 2 minutes before park opening. As I approached the hub the rope drop announcement played and the crowd moved out of the way. We decided to visit Fantasyland. As usual almost everyone went to line up for Peter Pan. We walked onto Snow White's Enchanted Wish, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and Casey Jr. Alice was having some issues and not open when we walked by. Strolled through the hub and into Adventureland. Walked onto the Jungle Cruise then made my way out to Haunted Mansion Holiday which had a posted 13 min wait, turned out to be about 10 only. Strolled along the Rivers of America and boarded a waiting Mark Twain for a cruise around the Rivers of America. Once back ashore took the path out to Black Spire Outpost and spent some time on Batuu. My boarding group was called at 10:05am so made our way to Rise of the Resistance. Had about a 10 min wait to reach the briefing room and a total time of just over 30 minutes from enter queue until exiting. Walked through Fantasyland and out to Toontown stopping to see the Pearly Band along the way. Circled Toontown then walked back to Frontierland by way of the hub to join the rest of my group at the Stage Door Cafe for an early lunch. After lunch made our way to Main Street USA for the 11:45 Disneyland Band & Character march. At noon picked up a boarding pass for WEB Slingers. Visited Tomorrowland to see about checking into the Magic Key Lounge and no virtual queue was in use today returned to Main Street to tell the rest of my group and wait for the 12:15 Halloween Cavalcade. Then we all headed for Tomorrowland and the lounge. Took a quick break there then returned to Main Street USA. Saw the Dapper Dans pass by during their 12:45 set. At 1:00pm we made our way across the Esplanade to Disney California Adventure. Spent some time in Hollywood Land enjoying some shade and ice water before walking around Avengers Campus then Cars Land. There was no wait for the Little Mermaid so visited Ariel and friends (plus some A/C, it was over 90 this afternoon). Took a look at the World of Color renovation work in the mostly drained Paradise Bay. Stopped by Paradise Gardens to listen to some of the music and then continued on around through Pixar Pier. Stopped to watch Goofy fish for a bit and then my boarding group was called so made my way to Avengers Campus for WEB Slingers. After my ride found the rest of my group in Cars Land and they headed to the Wharf for some ice cream. After the snack break decided to return to Disneyland. Stopped by the Disney Gallery and then watched the nightly Flag Retreat. Mobile ordered a corn dog and picked it up when I reached the end of Main Street. Made our way to Downtown Disney and took a walk through World of Disney. Next we stopped by the Grand California to check out the Halloween display. Returned to Downtown Disney and headed out to the stage area where we found a seat to enjoy some of the live entertainment this evening including the Scareolers. A little after 7pm our group was starting to loose energy so walked back to the Pixar Pals parking structure and found the car to head for home.

Other Interesting Stats:
* Moderate Walking Stats (meaning over 2.5mph): 8,735 steps, 79 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!

Walt Disney World turned 50 years old on Friday. Since I could not make the trip to Orlando I decided to celebrate at Disneyland instead. I spent a full day exploring the parks, hotels and Downtown Disney taking in more of the Halloween Time festivities. The crowds in the parks were light in the morning and grew to moderate in the afternoon. I did not visit in the evening but based on what I saw heading toward the parks I would expect it to be crowded feeling inside. The weather started off cool in the 60s but quickly rose topping out just over 90 before cooling down again as the sun set.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • I started my morning off visiting the Disneyland Hotel. I was walking to the parks via Downtown Disney and decided to take a detour to check out the Halloween decorations since I had a few minutes until park opening. The main lobby in the Fantasy Tower features Haunted Mansion graphics for the season. There are some on the main doors, a large display when you first enter and then hitch hiking ghosts on the elevator doors. These were all fun additions to mark the season. Due to timing I did not get to walk to visit the other towers this visit.
  • The tram stop near Downtown Disney features a Muppets Haunted Mansion photo op to promote the upcoming DisneyPlus show. I thought this was a well done display and I look forward to seeing the show. The placement of the display in the high traffic area seemed to work with many guests commenting and some stopping the couple times I walked by the area.
  • This morning I had no real agenda. We were faced with the choice of driving to Anaheim before or after traffic and choose before. The first hour or so after park opening is always an exciting time in the park. The energy level is high and the wait times are low. We took advantage of this and visited a handful of attractions with no waits.
  • I succeeded in picking up a Rise of the Resistance boarding group this morning so spent some time in Black Spire Outpost (which was more crowded this visit than two weeks ago) and then went for a ride with a minimal wait. During my visit there was a bit of a backup to enter the interrogation cells and we got to spend a few minutes in the hanger. Its nice to spend time there but not optimal to wait in the small, crowded, hallway.
  • Guests never cease to amaze me with how rude they can be. I was standing on the corner waiting for the band to march up Main Street USA. There was a family to my right waiting too. As the band neared a fairly large guy (well over 6 feet tall) pushed his way between us and proceeded to stand directly in my line of sight and sort of pushed that family out of the way too. He left no space between us really and blocked my view and almost hit his head on my camera lens so he knew I was there. Luckily he got bored and moved on after a minute but it was extremely frustrating. No idea why he felt the need to push his way in there he could easily see over the family with small kids next to me. And what made him think putting his head in front of my fairly large and obvious camera lens was a friendly thing to do. He had no one else with him that I could tell either.
  • Stopped by Tomorrowland and visited the Magic Key Passholder lounge. This week no virtual queue was in use and you could walk up, have your pass scanned and enter. I noticed the charging stations had been removed from the tables. Other than that no changes. The lounge is slated to be open all of October. While I was there you could easily walk up to any of the photo spots. The only queue was for Minnie Mouse. At the exit two cast members were scanning passes and distributing Avengers Campus maps to anyone that wanted one. Interesting to note the announcement was these were only to be available Monday through Thursday. It was a nice surprise to see them on a Friday. They are small poster maps of the campus. I found it kind of odd they were passing them out at Disneyland and not somewhere in DCA. Seems the Blue Sky Cellar would make a lot more sense.
  • At 1:00pm we decided to head over to Disney California Adventure. Seems many others had the same idea as all the gates had lines that were a dozen or more guests long. Found it odd Disneyland had no wait at all to enter at the same time.
  • Paradise Bay is being drained as renovation work on World of Color gets underway. It seems like the show requires semi frequent draining of the lagoon unfortunately to keep it running. There was no indication of how far along the work is but there was still water so it looks to just be getting started. It would be great to see the show return sooner rather than later. DCA could really use an evening show. Also with the bay drained the area does not look good. It is interesting to note they do not put up any type of construction walls or visual barriers.
  • While walking through Knick's Knacks on Pixar Pier I noticed a couple of display racks with Ratatouille merchandise from EPCOT. It even had the EPCOT tags on it. It was kind of fun to see it, but also kind of odd. The attraction officially opened at EPCOT this morning and the merchandise lines in Orlando were long. Here you could find a subset of the items in a nearly empty store (I think cast members out numbered guests when I walked through).
  • I finally managed to catch Goofy fishing in the Wharf area at Disney California Adventure. My timing/luck had been bad on previous visits. Goofy was having a great time fishing with a rubber chicken. I really enjoy these character encounters vs the traditional meet and greet where they basically stand there stationary.
  • I succeeded in picking up a boarding group for WEB Slingers today. When it came time to ride the rest of my group passed so I hiked over to Avengers Campus and went by myself. I have now ridden several times and unfortunately my initial impression seems to be sticking. The video game feel is a little too much for me. Also I have not figured out how to not fog up the 3D glasses with my mask on so seeing is also a challenge for me.
  • As we walked around I continue to see long lines at many dining locations for the limited registers that are open. Seems mobile dining still has a good number of guests that do not want to deal with it for one reason or another. On Friday I used it for both lunch and dinner and had no problems and no real waits. For dinner I grabbed a corn dog on Main Street USA. The process to pick up was quick and efficient for me. Unfortunately my corn dog was warm but not hot/as fresh as it has been in the past. Also noteworthy since my last meal there (which was way before the closure) the drinks are bottles not fountain drinks so there was no option of a cup of ice.
  • Stopped by Disney's Grand Californian Hotel to check out the Halloween Lobby display. Oogie Boogie and his cauldron are back. This year there are 13 hidden Mickey's in the display (I managed to find 11 of them in my short time there). The team created another fun display and it was great to spent a couple minutes relaxing in the lobby listening to the piano player and checking out the display.
  • Wrapped up my evening spending some time in Downtown Disney enjoying the live entertainment. On the main stage they were alternating between the SCAREolers and a band so there was always a group performing this evening. The SCAREolers put on a great show and featuring an assortment of songs in all their sets. If you are there on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday and have some time in the evening they are worth walking out for. Interesting to note the performance schedules are not posted by the venue nor in the Disneyland App but are posted on the Disneyland official website. The use of the APP is very inconsistent to me and Disney is missing opportunities to make it a primary resource.

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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.

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