home > Disneyland Resort > Pictures >Trip Summary For 11/23/22
Disneyland ResortPicture Set

Visit Date: 11/23/22
Steps: 26,751
Parks Miles: 12.5
Time in Parks: 13.5

 
Trip Log:

Arrived in Anaheim just before 7am and decided to stop for breakfast at McDonald's. After eating circled around and headed for the parking structures. Was directed into a space on the Monsters Inc level of the Pixar Pals Parking Structure. I had over 30 minutes before park opening so decided to walk over to the Disneyland Hotel to take a look around. Walked through the Fantasy Tower, by the DVC project, then visited the Frontier and Adventure towers before making my way to Downtown Disney. Strolled toward the parks taking a look at the Christmas decorations. Arrived on Buena Vista Street about 8:15 am and headed for Pixar Pier. Toy Story had not opened but they looked close so I hung around and when they did open walked on. Next up a spin on the Pixar Pal-A-Round. Then visited Ariel and friends under the sea. Caught the 9:45am Holiday Toy Drummer performance then the 10am Spider-Man show followed by the 10:15am Avengers Assemble (Hawkeye Christmas version). Spent some time in Avengers Campus then Hollywood Land before enjoying a performance by Five and Dime at 11:15am in Carthay Circle. Strolled through Grizzly Recreation Area and stopped by Redwood Creek to see the Santa area this year. Returned to Paradise Gardens for the 12:05pm Viva Navidad Street Party then caught the 12:20pm Mickey's Happy Holidays. Spent some time in Cars Land and another pass-through Avengers Campus before hopping over to Disneyland at 1pm when we were allowed to. Stopped to enjoy the Disneyland Band in Town Square then picked up lunch at the Stage Door Cafe and ate inside the Golden Horseshoe where we listened to the 1:30pm performance. After lunch took a walk through Frontierland and Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge to reach Critter Country. Saw Santa greeting guests and then passed through New Orleans Square and Adventureland on my way back to Town Square for the 2:20pm Dickens Yuletide Band performance. While they were playing several characters strolled by so got to see Mickey, Minnie, Chip & Dale. Saw the Disneyland Band performing in front of the Castle then made my way into Tomorrowland and a round trip on the highway in the sky. Once the Monorail had returned walked around the Matterhorn and out to it's a small world holiday. The attraction was closed but looked close to opening so hung around a few minutes and walked right on as soon as they opened. After my cruise walked along and caught a glimpse of A Christmas Fantasy Parade as I made my way to Fantasyland. Walked around the Big Thunder trail to Frontierland and continued on to New Orleans Square. Waited just over 10 minutes for Pirates of the Caribbean then boarded the Disneyland Railroad for Main Street USA. Waited a few minutes for the 5:00pm Christmas tree lighting in Town Square then listened to a few songs from the Dickens Yuletide Band at 5:10 before making my way to the Grand Californian for the 5:30pm Holiday Handbell Carolers and to see the gingerbread house. Walked back through Downtown Disney and to Disney California Adventure. Spent some time in Cars Land, Avengers Campus and Hollywood Land before making my way to the Wharf and the 7:00pm performance by the Mistletoes. Then found a spot for the 7:15pm Phat Cat Swinger Holiday Concert. Returned to Disneyland after the concert and spent some time on Main Street then out by it's a small world. Passed by the Holiday Dance Party in Tomorrowland and returned to Main Street USA for the 8:30pm Wintertime enchantment. After the snowfall decided to call it a day and made our way back to the tram, parking structure, found the car and headed for home.

Other Interesting Stats:
* Moderate Walking Stats (meaning over 2.5mph): 19,885 steps, 180 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!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I started my long holiday weekend with a full day at the Disneyland Resort. Wednesday was a relaxing visit to the Disneyland Resort for me. My goal was to take a second look at the Christmas decorations and enjoy the holiday entertainment. The weather was slightly warmer than Friday, topping out in the low 70s and cooling to the low 60s. The parks felt slightly less crowded and the couple times we glanced at wait times they were about average. As the sun set the crowds did seem to thin, or at least not feel as busy, the opposite of a Friday.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • We arrived in the Anaheim area earlier than planned thanks to favorable traffic for once. Traveling early before a holiday weekend has an advantage. As always when early and no definite plans everything flowed quickly. I even hit all green lights on Harbor Blvd on my way to breakfast and then same on my way to the parking structure after breakfast.
  • Started off the day walking around the Disneyland Hotel and Downtown Disney checking out the Christmas decorations at both as well as the DVC Construction. The holiday decorations seemed on par with recent years in both locations with nothing dramatically different jumping out to me as I walked around. The DVC Tower has been topped off and the tower crane has been removed.
  • Started my day at Disney California Adventure arriving about 15 minutes after park opening. The big crowds were in Cars Land and Avengers Campus. We decided to head to Pixar Pier. Unfortunately Toy Story Midway Mania had not opened yet for the morning. There were a number of cast members all working through checklists on clipboards when we arrived in the area. The attraction was running so we hung around in hopes of a minimal wait. We were able to walk on once they opened but it was about a 20 minute wait and by that time nearly an hour after the park had opened. I saw a number of Genie+ guests on their phones clicking away re-adjusting their plans.
  • I stopped, along with a large crowd, to watch the Amazing Spider-Man show. After the show Spidey walked the crowd line waving and high fiving guests. This was different than I had seen on previous visits with a meet and greet opportunity. The stunt-tronic is still impressive to see. The show does create quite a bit of traffic flow issues though and requires a good number of cast members to keep things moving.
  • I caught the Hawkeye Holiday Avengers Assemble show finally. Last year I missed it due to scheduling, namely it was not being performed most of the days I happened to visit. It was fun to see a variation on the show and a holiday theme to it. The show itself is not the best, but for what it is, it works.
  • The 1:00pm park hopping rule still bothers me. Being "trapped" and unable to move between parks until 1pm creates some scheduling headaches, for example the Cavalcade only runs once per day right now at 12:45 so you miss it if you start at DCA. It also creates unnecessary crowds and backups at the park entrances at 1:00pm with a good number of guests wanting to shift to the opposite park so healthy crowds gather at both gates waiting to be let in.
  • We picked up lunch at the Stage Door Cafe and decided to eat inside the Golden Horseshoe. The sound level inside was rather loud today. It seems the guests all decided they wanted to talk over top of each other and just kept getting louder. Even when the piano player started they did not quiet down most of the show. At a couple points it seemed the crowd noise was louder than the performer. And as he sung/played louder they just seemed to talk louder.
  • I was happy to be able to catch the Dickens Yuletide Band a couple of times today. They were not performing Friday (they typically seem to get Fridays off every year so I rarely get to see them). As always they are a bit of challenge to find. We asked a cast member who looked it up and gave us a location, of course the band ended up playing elsewhere. I did find it fun that as they were playing the Main Street vehicles were heading in. so without missing a beat the band just moved to the side and let them exit then then moved back.
  • As the band played I spotted several characters roaming around Town Square. It was nice to see them moving around and interacting with guests vs just stationary doing meet and greets.
  • When I arrived at it's a small world it was down, but I noticed they were letting those in line board so it looked like they were about to reopen. We hung around and in less than ten minutes we saw the cast members give each other a thumbs up and remove the rope to open so we headed in and were able to walk right on. The issue appeared to be with the north load side. That did not reopen and as we were riding they were pulling some boats offline to keep the attraction flowing with the reduced capacity. This meant longer waits throughout the evening (walked by again after dark and it was a 75 min wait).
  • As we walked by Pirates we saw it posted at 15 minutes and looked to be flowing well so hopped in line. Turned out to be a couple minutes faster than posted but fairly accurate.
  • The Christmas Tree lighting moment this year is the same as other recent years.. with a very brief recording then the lights come on. I keep hoping that some year this will return to a more elaborate moment.
  • The Holiday Handbell Carolers have returned to the Grand Californian Lobby, as well as the large gingerbread house. Both were great to see. The gingerbread house looked about the same as always and did not really have any elements that stood out to me. The carolers drew a good crowd and it was nice to see a sign with their schedule posted so people knew.
  • The La Brea Bakery has a gingerbread house village on display, so take a look inside if you pass by. It is a well done display.

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
Pictures & Video From this Trip:


Regular View 3 pictures per page

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