First Class California - Day 16 Anaheim

Day 16 - Anaheim (Friday 31st May 2013)

The alarm went off at 6:30 for our last day, as we had an extra magic hour in DCA to try and get ahead of the crowds. We quickly showered and dressed, but skipped breakfast and headed straight to the park, arriving just before 8 am, we immediately headed towards the entrance to Cars Land and the rope that stopped any more progress at the end of Buena Vista street. The CM at the gate stated that Cars Land would open at 8am, but the Fast Passes would not be distributed till 9am, but that no-one but the EMH would be able to get in the queue until 9am.

We then decided to get some more done, so headed first to Soarin'. This is the same ride as Epcot, but the pre-show is so much more in line with the film, the film is also much crisper than on the east coast. We were on the first ride of the day, but even so after the ride we headed straight to Radiator Springs to see if we could get a ride before needing to get in the Fast Pass line. Now by the time we got there 8:20 am the main queue was 40 mins, but the CM at the entrance said that the single rider was a walk on, so we took that option so that we would get 2 rides today.

It is almost 3 rides in one, first a gentle drive through the country.

Then a dark ride in and around radiator springs.

then finally the actual race and the speed increase. It is one of the best rides that Disney have produced in years and for me is better than the Harry potter ride over at Islands of Adventure (but as I am not a HP fan, this could be affecting the decision). This ride is worth the trip over to California, but I would be surprised if Cars land does not make its way into WDW at some point soon, so that may be a shorter trip.
After the ride we started to make our way back towards the Fast Pass queue, but did stop for a go on Luigi's Flying tyres.

This was the least impressive of the rides in cars land, and is just a less controlled version of Dodgem cars, that with the slow loading I would expect that it will close at some point.
We then made it to the FP queue, and what a queue, it went all the way from just outside Cars land, back to the hub area and then down  the road in Hollywood land, almost all the way to the Aladdin theatre. This was just before 9am and what the CM had said early was WRONG, no-one was stopping the non EMH guests getting in the queue which was just making it even longer, but as Radiator springs was such a good ride I still wanted to ride again, so I got in the queue.

Finally a few minutes after 9 the queue started to move and then moved constantly till we got to the FP machines to get a time of 2:45-3:45, ah much closer to the time we wanted to be leaving than expected but this was the only option so now we had to plan the rest of the day (and grab some breakfast) but first as we were so close to Mater's junkyard, it would be wrong not to try the jamboree again. and again it made us smile.

After this ride, we had decided to call it a day in DCA and head to Disneyland after breakfast so went via Toy Story Mania in the hope that the queue was not that long, OOOPS, after 45mins we had finally made it on and off, a great ride but it had been a long long queue. I had beaten Celia again, probably from my scores on the flying tossers section.

After Toy Story we headed quickly out via the Grand Californian and grabbed some breakfast at Jamba Juice, Celia had her oats and I had a breakfast wrap and we both had smoothies, which we ate whilst walking back to the hotel, we had got an 11am checkout, and after a quick brush of our teeth and whilst Celia finished the packing, I headed to the reception to checkout and confirm that they could store our luggage. Luggage was left with bell services and the room was vacated. A quick monorail ride and we were back in Disneyland at 11:30.

As it was a ride I had never done, and even with a long 20 mins wait in a classic switchback only queue, we rode Alice in Wonderland, a nice little dark ride. From there we headed into Tomorrowland and a short queue for Buzz Lightyear Astro blasters, one of our favourite rides be it this version or the WDW or Disneyland paris versions. I sneaked a win again, but only with a last minute jump in my score.

From there we headed over the hub to New Orlean's square and Pirates of the Caribbean, post pirates lunch was calling and I had a want for a Monte Cristo sandwich, getting into the Blue Bayou was unlikely but we had a look at French Market and Cafe Orleans and decided on the sit down, we had a short wait 10 mins or so, before we were seated and I had my order in for a Monte Cristo.

A great last meal before we leave California, afterwards with the clock ticking down before our Fast pass time we headed back out of the park, I had hoped to grab a Dole whip but the queue was most of the way to the Jungle cruise, so that seemed a waste. Back in DCA we decide to watch the Aladdin show, another attraction I had never been to before, and again wow, there are lots of talk about broadway quality shows but this is the best one we have seen. The genie is the star and seems to spend most of the time ad-lbing and telling jokes, again a must see.

As the show went on I was starting to worry that we would not make our FP time as Disneyland had just started to enforce the window. But the show did finish with 15 mins to spare and we headed through the Bugs land area and discovered a third entrance to cars land, this one bringing us into Radiator Springs between Luigi's and Mater's rides. so we were quickly into the fast Pass queue and onto the ride once again.

It is just a good the second time round and I so wish we had more time to ride it again, and this time we didn't win the race, but we still left smiling.

After the ride we had been given a voucher for a free photopass on this ride (above) so we had a quick look in the stores here to find a nice relevant frame to display it when we got home. leaving Cars Land we headed back to Buena Vista street and whilst Celia had a look in Elias and Company, I headed over to Clarabelles Hand Scooped Ice, for some ice cream to make up for the lack of a dole whip. So with my Double scoop Mint chocolate chip we met back up and headed towards the Disneyland hotel.

So this was it, we got back to the hotel and whilst we waited for the bags we discovered a model of the Disney Fantasy, which we have booked on for next year (Nov 2014), which felt like a nice end to the trip seeing the next holiday in model form. Our room will be on the 9th Deck (first one with a balcony) at the rear of the boat.

Note; Since arriving back we booked another holiday in October 2013 and there is a feeling that the cruise will not remain the next holiday when we return from that one.

We loaded up the car and drove back to LAX, with no great dramas. Arriving at the Avis lot, we removed our bags and swapped shoes for the flight (i always fly in slip ons, having worn trainers all day). Back at the terminal we were swiftly checked in and through security and it too the first class lounge. Time for a shower and change of clothes after a sweaty day in the park, followed by some food and drink before we were called for our flight. On board, it was an older first class than the way out but all we really needed was a bed as this was the 9pm flight. There was a Russian who was just being a pain, and seemed to be incapable of waiting to get to sleep and seemed to think that lying down was the right way to take off.

With the flat bed, ear plugs and eye mask I am able to get some sleep and some hours later awoke to a wonderful breakfast of pastries and a cooked breakfast as we landed back at Heathrow. The cab was waiting and we were soon back home.

First Class California - Day 15 Los Angeles

Day 15 - Los Angeles (Thursday 30th May 2013)

And so we reach the point of moving to the last hotel of the trip, after a getting up and being board of the breakfast on offer at the hotel, we headed down to the Mercedes Bar and Grill that we had visited when we arrived at Marina Del Ray 4 days ago. The breakfast was tasty and different, but the service was a bit slow so we were slightly behind schedule by the time we checked out of the Jamaica bay, but we were soon on the freeways heading south to Anaheim. We had always planned to delay heading off to try and avoid the traffic and for the most part we had a good drive, there was a slight interesting phase as we switched from the I-105 to the I-5 where we were driving through a residential neighbourhood, and just after 10am we were driving into the Car park of the Disneyland hotel.

We left most of our bags in the boot of the car, and just took in the ones we didn't have space for (having planned this so all that we needed for the night was in these bags). The queues are checkin were long, but reasonably efficient, so we were soon given our keys to the land cards and pointed at our room  in the Adventure tower, 2nd floor (well first in our language) and a nice view over the pool.

Although the room was much smaller than any of the other hotels we had been in, it was gorgeous. but time was not on our side, we only had 29 hours before we had to head to the airport and had the whole of Disneyland resort to explore.

So after a quick bag drop we were walking through Downtown disney hoping to get to the fast pass machines for Radiator springs racers before they ran out of tickets, Almost ignoring Buena vista street we got to the machines to find that we were too late and they had run out for the day (it was just after 11am). So with a couple of hours till our lunch (1:30) at Cathay Circle, we started to explore, heading towards condor flats, but the queue for Soarin' was huge and we started to get the feeling that today (and probably tomorrow) were going to be busy days in the parks. Continuing to wander around, Grizzly river run was closed so we reached Ariel, now this was a walk on, so on we walked.

It is a lovely dark ride and a nice telling of the story, we had a bit of a pause when we saw Ariel so got a good photo of her new hair doo. but I actually liked the ice cream swirl as it looked more like hair would look under water.

We continued around paradise pier, getting some water and just taking in the area. Celia does not do roller coasters or spinning rides so our options were limited, especially as I had been to DCA and DL before so had decided to not do any ride on my own, and only do rides and attractions that we could ride together. We did do the Sun wheel, but the non swinging version. It was only a 20 mins wait and gave some great views over the park and resort, but I do wish they could work out a way to protect the people below but not have a grid of wires across all the windows.

After the ride we had a wander around the shops on the boardwalk and with a very long wait for Toy story, we headed towards Cars Land. Now this was my main reason for visiting, and wow what a land, The area is spot on for Radiator Springs.

We had entered Cars land from the entrance by Fisherman's wharf and wandered away from Radiator racers so as we got almost to the end of Cars land we got to Mater's junkyard jamboree, and with some time before our restaurant reservation and a short queue, we decided to try it... WOW WOW WOW, now I had heard reviews stating that this is a little gem, but not a single riders seemed to come off the ride without a huge SMILE on their face. It is silly and simple, a slow loading ride but a wonderful wonderful ride, Mater sings little ditties and the "cow" trailers just go round in figure 8's but you are thrown about in the ride and it just makes you smile and laugh.

After this ride and with at least a small question on if we could ride again straight away, we decided that hunger was winning and we headed to Carthay Circle theatre for our lunch and fast passes for World of Color that night.

The meal was OK, although we had mentioned Celia's food issues on the reservation they didn't seem to have taken this is to account, and just expected us to work around the standard menu. Even the actual food was OK, nothing special and not sure I would eat here again.

After Lunch we wandered slowly through Buena vista street and I did get my photo with the man and mouse that started it all.

From there we switched over to Disneyland, turning right and taking in the Haunted Mansion and Winnie the Pooh, we did look at Splash mountain as it was a warm day and with tomorrow being our last day we were not looking at getting wet that day, but the queue was over an hour which is too long to wait for any ride. We then headed into fantasyland and a quick lap of the rail road, we then took in the new show "Mickey and the magical map", a great little show and the map is the real star.

After the show we headed to find a spot to watch the afternoon parade, which at Disneyland is much later than 3pm, only starting at 6:45 and it was 7pm by the time it had passed us by.

After the parade, we headed back via the Monorail to the Disneyland hotel for a quick break and to grab the tripod to try and get some late night photos.

But just over an hour later we were walking through the grand Californian and its back entrance to DCA, we had a slight diversion into the Redwood creek challenge trail, which in the dark of night was a lovely walk and would be a great place to take a little one, from there we found our spot for World of Color. Probably my personal favourite evening show in any Disney park, just ensure you have some water proof clothing as they do spray the crowd and it is not that warm at 9pm at night. We also were a little bit late and couldn't get a tripod space.

World of color does not photograph well without a tripod but afterwards we headed back to Radiator springs, this time via the main entrance to take in the neon lights. We didn't ride anything but just absorbed the atmosphere.

The hunger was starting to reappear well it had been 7 hours since lunch, and with DCA being handed over to Grad Nights, we switched back to Disneyland for food. We found some nice salads at River Belle Terrace, and after some chats with the Cast member over what we could have (well what Celia could have) they did gift us a Cinnamon roll (which was a bit strange as that is totally the kind of thing that Celia can't eat).

We had hoped to catch Fantasmic after the food, but it was chaotic and way too many people so we decided to get out of the way before it started and thought about trying to ride Alice in Wonderland but even at 10:30 at night it had a 30 min wait, so we decided that enough was enough and we had an early start tomorrow for Extra magic hours so we headed back to the hotel for the last nights sleep in the USA.

First Class California - Day 13 & 14 Los Angeles

Day 13 - Los Angeles (Tuesday 28th May 2013)

After almost two weeks of touring and 2 full on days in the heat of LA, we were in need of a more relaxing kind of day, so had planned to spend the next two days around Marina Del Ray and Santa Monica.

After the normal morning routine, Celia headed off to the Ritz-Carlton hotel just around the marina for a Pedicure and I head off for a run. I was slow but did manage almost 3 miles in just over 32 mins before heading back to the room, for a shower and to wait for Celia to get back.

After a hour of relaxing by the pool, we decided to head off for a walk to see Venice and Santa Monica. We first went through Venice itself with the Canals. This was beautiful and would be somewhere where I could live in LA.

After Venice, we headed down to the Pacific and Venice Beach, which after the tranquility of venice was a lot more busy and tacky. The whole place had that slightly seedy feel, helped by the "medical" marijuana shops, where you were asked to pop in for an evaluation to see if you needed some, from the smell it would seem that most people who enter do need it.

We soon also walked past Muscle beach with the bodybuilders working out.

And then the tacky shops started to become less frequent and the whole place become less crowded as we made our way from Venice into Santa Monica. Now you could just take the wonderful sandy beaches from the boardwalk with pedestrians having one "road" and the cyclists having there own "road" just to the side. It took us about an hour 20 mins to walk the 3.5 miles to the Santa Monica pier, and this was a great relaxing day, with nowhere to be. Once at the pier we had a look around and I had a ride on the rollercoaster, before grabbing some lunch at Rusty's Surf Ranch and then heading back to the hotel.

That evening we headed back to Santa Monica, this time by car to have dinner at Chinios on Main, this was Chinese food, done big and well. This was also the only time we saw anyone famous during the entire trip and that was Julie Hagerty (Elaine from Airplane). After Dinner we headed back to the hotel.

The following day was even less busy spending almost the whole day sitting by the pool, bar a quick walk to the cheesecake factory for some post lunch cheesecake (well actually two walks as the first one had Coconut on it so was binned after 1 bite). Dinner was taken at a lovely local restaurant, Le Cellier which had some lovely beer and an interesting combo of French and Asian cuisine.

After these relaxing days it was time to repack and head off to the last hotel of the trip and 2 part days in Disneyland.

First Class California - Day 12 Los Angeles

Day 12 - Los Angeles (Monday 27th May 2013)

By this time in the Holiday, the Time difference and long days were starting to catch up with us so it was a bit harder to get up this morning when the alarm sounded, but as we were off to Warner Brothers Studio there was a good motivation, so after the normal morning routine and breakfast in the hotel, where service was a little bit faster but still laid back, we were into the car and headed for the freeways.

We had decided that the next couple of days we would rather just spend around the hotel rather than continuing to explore LA, as after just the one day exploring yesterday and knowing that we will also do some more today that that would be enough. So whilst Celia drove to the Studios, I was online (got to love a working US 3G Sim) cancelling our reservation at Spago and instead booking a table for two at Chinois in Santa Monica. Both of these are Wolfgang Puck restaurants.

We had taken the 405 (Santa Monica Freeway) and then the 101, both of which were quiet and we were very glad that today was a public holiday which must have limited the amount of traffic on the roads, so we were early getting to the Warner Brothers Parking lot. After a quick chat with the Security guard and a photo with the Bronze statues of Bugs and Daffy we headed pass security checks and into the Store/Waiting area.

Most of the store was based arround just a couple of franchises "Friends", "Harry Potter", "Game of Thrones" and "Big Bang Theory", but it still looked like some nice stuff, we were soon up for our tour and lined up to enter through a door into a small cinema where we had a short film on the history of Warner Brothers, and then we were divided up into 2 groups for the tram tour.

The tour was fascinating and it was so interesting to see that even the carpark and offices were fare game for production use.

The carpark doubled as the Helicopter pad for years on ER.

and these offices also were used as the production office in Argo.

The rest of the backlot part of the tour spent time in streets that look mostly like big cities or more open suburbia areas but all are generic enough that they can be changed to look like anywhere USA. We were told that the only rules on using these backlot areas was that the place had to be returned to exactly as it was handed over, so we did see a house that they had driven a car into and was now being returned to working order.

After the backlot we were taken past the manufacturing shops to a store area where they had multiple vehicles from various movies.

After this we were taken into a spare lot, now most stages are disposed off once the show has come to an end, but at WB one show was so popular and loved that they kept the set after the show has been long gone.

Welcome to Central Perk.

The main view is how small and crowded the set was, but we were assured that it was always this small and the actors never walked directly from the door to the couch as that would have made it seem small, so they always zigzagged to make the walk longer.

From the set we headed to the props store, wow it was like the worlds largest home store, with everything you could ever want all with price tags attached to hire by the day, week or month. Some of the stuff was real, others fake

The bowls were rubber/plastic rather than the wood that they look like.

The tour was coming to an end now, but we did have a quick drive through the sound stages, all had signs showing the major productions that had been shot in them. We were taken into 1 set, which is where they now shoot "Big Bang Theory" but the sets were in clean down mode as the show was on a break for the start of summer. we were also banned from taking cameras (or even phones) into the set.

And with that we were done the 3 hours had shot by, we would so recommend this tour to anyone with any interest in TV or movie in LA, and a lot better than the homes tour we had been on the day before. After a quick few bits picked up in the store, couple of T-Shirts and some pins, and we were done. As we were in Burbank we did not head straight back to LA as there was somewhere I needed to see, so after a short drive we found ourselves on Alameda Avenue and the entrance to Walt Disney Studios.

Sadly Walt Disney do not do public tours so I was left to just look on from the gates, but at least I had been there, then we got back in the car and headed back to LA. We parked up at the Beverly Centre and decided to walk to Rodeo drive, as on a map it did not seem that far, but in the heat of LA, it was a good hour or so, so it was gone 4 by the time we got there and there was a distinct lack of anywhere to eat, so we walked half way back to the beverly centre, before seeing a bus that gut feel said was heading in the right direction we hopped on, to be told that the cash fare machine was broken BUT we could ride for free.

We finally had lunch just after 5 pm at Souplantion (which is the other name for Sweet Tomatoes) a great cheap place for food, as the all you can eat Salad bar, plus breads, soups, drinks and desserts is a great concept. Filled up and with the day heading to an end, we were going to leave LA and spend the next two days in and around the hotel, but on the epic walk earlier we had noticed that LA now has a Georgetown Cupcake shop, so we had to see if they were still open on the drive back to grab some for me, as Celia still had hers from Babycakes NYC that we got yesterday.

We got back to the hotel and had some of the cupcakes and had an early night.

First Class California - Day 11 Los Angeles

Day 11 - Los Angeles (Sunday 26th May 2013)

Our penultimate hotel and we had unpacked full for the first time since we had arrived in the States. After a lie in and the normal morning routine we headed down to breakfast in the hotel, which took ages. This was partly due to it being a holiday weekend, as it did get better, but it was never fast.

We finally left the hotel for Hollywood around 11:20 and after a short drive in little traffic, we parked up at the Hollywood and Highland car park. The plan was to do a Starline tour of Hollywood stars homes , so there office was the first stop and we were booked on the 1pm tour, meaning we had an hour to kill.

The Hollywood and Highland shopping mall, had been filled out since 2008 the last time we had visited and we popped into Sweet (deciding to come back after the tour) and Hard Rock (where I got a few pins), before heading out onto Hollywood Boulevard.

I have to admit that you have to do Hollywood Boulevard on a tourist trip to LA, but the crowds were heavy and it is not the greatest neighbourhood in the world. But we saw the Chinese theatre, some of the walk of fame, popped into the Soda fountain and a tourist shop to get some presents for our nephew and niece.

After the wander, we headed back to the Starline location and found our ride for the 2 hour tour.

The tour was entertaining and our driver was fun, till near the end when it became a slight begging plead for a tip. Most of the actual tour in the hills all you really see are gates but it does give an idea on how small some of the these properties are, and how much they must all cost.

For example this is Bruno Mars' house.

and this is Katy Perry's which is on the market for $10M.

After the tour we were in need of lunch, but there was nothing in the area that grabbed our hunger, so we decided to find an old favourite "Rosa Mexicano", now we had been introduced in DC a few years ago by a good friend, and had also visited there location in New York 2 years ago, So we drove off via BabyCakesNYC to grab some cakes for Celia, and headed back round to Beverly Hills and Sunset Boulevard for Rosa. The parking was a bit interesting as we missed the entrance to the Car Park as we drove past the first time and had to turn around and try again, but we did make it and they treated us royally. After we mentioned Celia's food intollences they made special version of the Crab Empanadas (behind my Nacho stack)

The rest of the food was just a good and they even made a special desert for Celia with no Gluten or Dairy.

After we had finished we had to hunt around to pay for the parking, as most of the machines seemed to be faulty, but we did drive back to the hotel, shattered from the heat of the day and questioning our plans for the week.

The late lunch was supplemented by a cheesecake from the Cheesecake factory just around the marina from the hotel and we had an early night, as tomorrow we were off to Warner Brothers to see a studio.