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Visit Date: 7/20/12
Steps: 20,408
Parks Miles: 7.7
Time in Parks: 9

 

Trip Log:

I arrived at the Disneyland Resort just after lunch and was directed up to the roof of the Mickey and Friends garage to park. Made my way down to the tram area and decided to walk over to Downtown Disney. Took some pictures of the Earl of Sandwich progress and then hopped on the Monorail to Disneyland. Walked through Tomorrowland and around the Matterhorn out to Small World Mall. The Calling All Drummers guys came out so stopped and watched the show before continuing on to the Fantasy Faire and then Toontown. Circled around and strolled back through Fantasyland. Made a quick stop at the Big Thunder Ranch Jamboree and then continued down the trail to Frontierland and along the Rivers of America to New Orleans Square. Made my way back to Main Street via Adventureland (stopping briefly at the Oasis) and caught the College Band in front of the Castle. Wandered around the area as they played then headed over to DCA. Strolled down Buena Vista Street and out to Cars Land. Walked down Route 66 and then took a left on Cross St and walked through the Bugs and over to the Backlot Stage to catch the College Band set there. After their headed back to Carthay Cricle and then through Condor Flats, around GRR and did a loop of the Pier walking by Mermaid, Paradise Gardens, Fun Wheel, Toy Story, and Screamin. Walked through the Wharf next and stopped at Ghirardeli for some chocolate then made my way over to Disneyland for the Flag Retreat. After the Ceremony walked up Main Street and into Frontierland to meet some friends who were on Big Thunder. They headed for Pirates and I decided to go watch the College Band pre-parade. Watched all three stops then went for dinner at the Village Haus. After dinner walked around the Big Thunder trail and Rivers of America to reach the Haunted Mansion. There was no line, so went for a trip through the Mansion. Then made our way around to the Golden Horseshoe where the others grabbed some food. Circled back through Adventure and headed to Main Street and over to DCA again. Walked through Buena Vista Street and out to Cars Land to check out the waits. Wandered around the area a while and caught one of the DJ dance shows before making our way through Bugs and out to the Backlot. Made our way back to Carthay Circle and hung out there a while waiting for the Magical over at Disneyland, which was delayed. Of course once I decided to give up and head for the garage the show started. Watched a little from the Esplanade and decided to head for the tram, car, and home.

Other Interesting Stats:
* Moderate Walking Stats (meaning over 2.5mph): 14,515 steps, 126 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 all,

Friday was a nice summer day at the Disneyland Resort. For us weather snobs in Southern California it was hot, temps in the upper 80s as I arrived at the Disneyland Resort but there was a slight breeze from time to time and our normal low humidity so it was not miserable. It cooled down to the 70s by the time I left and was in the 60 when I reached home...

The crowds at the parks were average for summer. With the coasters hovering near an hour and the two water attractions (Splash and GRR) both substantially higher, especially in the afternoon where I saw GRR at 100 minutes and Splash at 80 minutes. Over at DCA Cars Land was busy with Maters near an hour a couple of times and the Flying Tires hovering just over an hour. The Racers were down the couple times I walked by.

This trip my only real objective was to walk both parks to see if anything new or interesting popped out since it has been a while since I did that.

Jason

Trip logs and mileage reports are in the Park Miles section.

Thoughts and Observations:

  • I was directed up to the roof for parking, it meant a warm/hot car to return to in the evening. But I guess it was better than being directed to an alternate lot and I lucked out and had a spot close to the escalators for once.

  • The Earl of Sandwich shop seems to be moving along rather slowly. Maybe it is just because we cannot see too much of the progress, but seems at its current pace it will not be open for quite a while. I would have thought the target would have been now for the summer crowds.

  • In looking back at my trips this summer it seems I have not spent that much time at Disneyland. So this trip I made sure to walk the park and see what was going on. Also took in some of the entertainment as I roamed including Calling All Drummers and the Dapper Dans. I have noticed with all the entertainment choices at DCA as well as Cars Land I find myself staying over there longer than before.

  • I was disappointed to see that guests have not really discovered the Big Thunder Ranch Jamboree. It was a ghost town again this trip. A great experience for those that do stumble upon it but I would assume that the low numbers do not bode well for its future. If you are in the park looking for characters you should stop by and see what is going on. For example I noticed in Toontown the line to visit with Minnie was long, probably close to 45 minutes with no shade and you were in the sun. Out at the Ranch I spotted Donald, Chip/Dale roaming around and there were no guests near them at all.

  • I headed over to Disney California Adventure next. My objective again was to do a full of the park too just to see what was going on. I did half (Cars Land, Hollywoodland), caught the College Band, then did the other part, GRR and Pier.

  • The All American College Band had a guest performer Friday. Jiggs Whigham who is a jazz trombonist and used to be in the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Here is a clip from one of their songs:


  • I managed to catch part of an Instant Concert from the back side. Glad hear the sound was being played on the far side of the Bay and quite a few guests were lined up at the rail to watch. I thought it offered a great view of Goofy since he looks at the water most of the show, but he is quite far away and if you do not know where to look you would miss him and not really get what is going on.


  • I was pleased to see the caramel milk chocolate was being given out at Ghirardelli today. Last trip was hazelnut crisp which I did not care for.

  • Caught DJs Dance Party. I do enjoy this show better after sunset with the lights and I think the idea of characters from the film roaming into town is good but something with the execution of this show still does not sit right with me. Maybe it is the hip factor... the music selection or something. I think it would be great to see more characters from the film find their way into town in the coming years. A lot of great possibilities, should be fun to see what happens.

  • Magical was delayed for a while Friday, no indication why but seems like it should not have been weather since there was little to no breeze. The show did eventually go off.

  • Disneyland has a new park guide map cover featuring the Matterhorn with climbers. Also the two park time guides now have blurbs about Otto. Otto is a voice activated park info service. I was given a card a couple months ago by a guest relations cast member and now seems they are making a bigger push to get the information out.

  • Speaking of information out... I really wish they would make a lighter footprint version of the mobile phone app. I like the idea of being able to get up to date information but the app takes forever to load and navigate and half the time the GPS does not seem to find me properly. I would like to see a simple app that would give you official wait time and complete show schedule information. With the number of local visitors to Disneyland seems something like that would go over well since most toy around with unofficial ones or twitter for the information now.


Interesting Web Finds/Notes:
Below are some interesting links, notes, and rumors I found/stumble across/or have been informed of since the last Geekspeaks column.

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

Stop by the Geek's Forum to discuss this and other Disney topics.. click here

Send comments, questions, any other email to: disneygeek@disneygeek.com

Pictures & Video From this Trip:


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