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Visit Date: 9/20/24
Steps: 20,554
Parks Miles: 9.41
Time in Parks: 10

 
Trip Log:

Arrived at the Disneyland Resort just before 10am and was directed into a spot in the middle of the Goofy level of the parking structure. No wait at security or for a tram and I was strolling up Buena Vista Street just after 10am. Stopped by Kingswell and picked up the final Magic Key trading card then headed out to Pixar Pier by way of the Performance Corridor. Decided to go for a spin on the Pixar Pal-A-Round which was about a 15 min wait. Then decided to take a chance on Toy Story Midway Mania!. It was posted at 25 minutes and took about that because of all the LL Return guests. While in line set up an early lunch order at Flo's. After our game walked through San Fransokyo Square to Cars Land and picked up lunch. While eating grabbed a VQ spot for Haunted Mansion Holiday then made my way over to Disneyland and up to the Castle for the 12:15pm Disneyland Band march with the Characters. Followed them to Town Square and found the rest of my group. They opted to take the Omnibus and I walked to the hub. Made our way into Frontierland with the intention to go for a cruise on the Mark Twain but we just missed it (and the top deck was not open) so we opted to walk through New Orleans Square and Critter Country checking out the ongoing projects. Stopped for a bit in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge then returned to Frontierland. Just missed the Mark Twain so took a walk through Adventureland and then Frontierland returning to the dock for the next cruise. Once back ashore listened to the Disneyland Band then crossed through the hub to Tomorrowland. Went for a round trip on the Monorail. Walked by the Matterhorn and out to Toontown to take a look around then back through Fantasyland and the Fantasy Faire Walked through Rancho del Zocalo and found a spot to sit out in Critter Country until our Boarding Group for Haunted Mansion was called. After visiting the mansion crossed back to Disney California Adventure and strolled through Hollywood Land. Caught the end of the final Storytime with Deadpool of the day then continued on through Avengers Campus and circled back to Carthay Circle to find the rest of my group. Returned to Avengers Campus to see the Guardians of the Galaxy Awesome Dance Off! with Deadpool. Decided to spend some time in Downtown Disney including a stop at the LEGO store before catching a couple of performance on the Stage. Just before 8pm decided to call it a day and walk back to the parking structure and head for home. (Walking time 3:24 today)


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 a relaxing day at the Disneyland Resort for me. I had almost nothing on my to do list and hung out with family and visited some friends. The weather started off overcast but cleared quickly with some clouds. Temps topped out near 80 and cooled to about 70. There was a good breeze at times. The crowds felt heavy early in both parks and built even more as the sun set. Wait times were on the higher than normal side for most attractions most of the afternoon. Not super busy but more than past weeks.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • Crews are painting the Indiana Jones show building adjacent to the tram stop. You can see trees and other elements now. So guess the canvas/tarps are not coming back and instead it will be painted on this time around.
  • Stopped by Kingswell Camera and picked up the final Magic Key Trading card. I managed to get three of four, I missed week two. This exceeded my expectations since it was announced as a Monday through Thursday giveaway. So I lucked out there were plenty left and they were passing them out on Fridays.
  • Went for a spin on the Pal-A-Round (still not a fan of that name) which turned out to be a relaxing ride and we lucked out as they were grouping smaller parties but the ones right behind us were all 4 or more people so we got our own gondola. Noticed they still have not implemented the magnetic brake for the swinging gondolas. That project seems stalled. The test fins are still only on two gondolas. Or is that the plan to only have them on the first two for the stop right after the full rotation? I could not tell if they were engaged/made a difference.
  • Toy Story Midway Mania! had a posted wait of 25 minutes but did not look horrible so decided to give it a try. The Lightning Lane return mix was not favorable and several times we stopped as a large number of guests walked through in the return queue. In the end the wait time was pretty close to the posted time. The attraction is in need of some renovation. The screens were in bad shape with jittery projections, digital artifacts on screen and misalignments. It was not very good show and rather disappointing. Also observed several trams that had door issues and had to be opened and manually released. Lastly the queue space was extremely loud with guests voices building and echoing. It would be nice to see some other elements added in there to deaden the sound.
  • Watched the Disneyland Band accompanied by the characters in their Halloween costumes. This is always fun to see. Unfortunately with the Train Station renovation project they do not stop in Town Square. It would be nice if they stopped on Main Street or something. With no parade though this march and the two cavalcades are all you get this time of year.
  • The Mark Twain Riverboat had the top deck closed the first time I thought about cruising. I went on later in the day and it was open. No indicatin of why it was closed. Assuming a staffing choice.
  • Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge seemed quiet. I saw a couple characters move by but not a lot going on for a mid afternoon visit.
  • I did not receive a push notification when my Haunted Mansion virtual queue group was called. This is the second time this had happened to me. We noticed by checking so it was not a problem but it is a little annoying.
  • Finally caught the Guardians of the Galaxy Awesome Dance Off! with Deadpool. This was a fun alternative show. The integration of Deadpool into the show and the banter between him and Star-Lord was entertaining. It is a positive to see variations to the entertainment and some plusing still occuring.
  • Not to sound like a broken record.. but the selection of live entertainment at both parks continues to be on the thin side especially in the evening. After 5pm your choices are few and far between which is so disappointing to the way the parks used to operate. So now in the evening when the large crowds arrive the wait times balloon across the parks as there is very little to do besides wait for something. The lack of choices does not seem to be denting the evening rush though. The three HalloweenTime Fridays I have been in the park the backups as the sun set were just as bad as they were before COVID. Right now World Of Color is down for renovation, Hyperion and Fantasyland Theatre are both empty, nothing in Tomorrowland, no day time or night time parade at either park and many of the atmosphere groups and smaller shows have disappeared from the schedule or wrap up well before sunset.
  • I left just before 8pm and the crowds coming in were large again, security area lines stretched all the way to the barriers at the Mickey and Friends parking structure. It is predictable yet security had about 1/3 of the lanes closed which added to the delay. At Downtown Disney the line stretched back through the old valet space again. As we left many more guests walking to hopping for shorter security waits than were heading to the structure like us. I talked to some friends who were trying to get into Disneyland and they said the entrance waits were long (one opted to go to DCA instead since there was no wait there).

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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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