The W's go West, May 2015 TR COMPLETED

Day 16, bye bye Palm Springs, hello Aneheim.... again...

Our time in Palm Springs had come to an end, it felt like we had only just arrived!

I had yet another night of no sleep due to Sy's snoring gah! I swear I will not be held responsible he wakes up with a pillow in his face He did the decent thing and got up at 7:30am to let me get some sleep until 10:30 I will not confirm or deny whether he got up or was pushed out hehehe.

Check out wasn't until 12pm so we decided to have a swim and sunbathe that way we could make the most of the sunshine before heading back to gloomy LA.

We both had quick showers, got dressed and were checked out on time. We hadn't had any breakfast so we decided to get lunch at the sandwich stop where Sy had been the day before.

Sy decided to go for something that had BBQ sauce and pineapple in it, I said I didn't think it was gonna be a good idea as there was a high chance it would end up all over him.... But would he listen to me? Does he ever? I went for the same as yesterday only without the avocado this time It was every bit as good. Sy ended up with it literally ALL over himself, it poured like a river out of the bottom of the bag in which he was trying to catch all the juice. It was everywhere, all over his shirt and shorts. Oops! He had to get changed before we hit the road lol Guess he should listen to his wife more often...

Sy is heavily into architecture so we spent a little time looking at various buildings he wanted to see. I just loved the look of everything in PS so I was very happy

The library

Liberace's old house.

Elvis' honeymoon home.

A building by Richard Neutra called the Kaufmann house.

We saw a few others too but didn't get pictures.

I was very pleased to see this...

I know it doesn't look much but that's the golf course from Soarin'!

We then made our way back to Disney I didn't feel like I do when we are in Florida away from Disney, I usually cannot wait to get back there, but I didn't really feel the same magic from DL (I know, shocking right?!). Plus I was completely in love with Palm Springs... So I was sad to be leaving

Something we did see just as we drove out of PS was a big tumbleweed go across the road right in front of us! It was like something out of a movie hehe made us laugh!

I dozed a bit on the journey back, luckily it didn't take anywhere near as long to get back as it took to get there and before we knew it we were pulling into the Hyatt Regency.

Our room was on a really high floor so we could see for miles, sadly though we weren't facing Disney so no night time fireworks shots.

We dumped the bags off and I put Sy's clothes in the sink to wash the stains out cause I'm a good little wifey and then headed for the outlet mall that was down the road, we had seen it on the way in and it was calling my name plus we had hardly done any shopping since we'd been here.

I managed to get a few goodies in Hot Topic, some more bits in bath and bodyworks and some new crocs that were on sale

We then made our way over to the Grand California to pick up Sy's polo shirts. We decided to head into Downtown Disney first and have a quick look to see if they had any of the 60th Anniversary merchandise out yet which they did...

I had to get some of the Diamond Minnie ears I also got us and a friend a Christmas ornament and one of the special shopping bags

We then headed back into the GC and waited with concierge while they found us Sy's tops. Sadly the marks didn't come out boo so instead Disney offered to credit our room account with $200 (even though we had checked out we were still on the system). We of course took them up on their very kind offer and will buy him some new ones in Orlando in November (they are much more expensive in the UK).

Posing with my bag of goodies while we waited...

We then made our way back to the hotel. We were shattered and on the hunt for food but everywhere had massive queues, of course it was the night before the 60th Anniversary so all of the hotels were full to the brim nearby and with it being dinnertime, everyone was out trying to eat. So in the end after driving around for about half an hour we grabbed a take away from Del Taco. We didn't really know what to order and I think they misheard a few things so we ended up with 4 bags of food. FOUR! OMG! The food wasn't too bad actually, considering we didn't really want to get a take away but it was near the hotel and didn't have a wait. We took the food back to the room and ate it sat on the bed watching TV.

Just 1 or 2 sauces...

I took a couple of pics of my shopping.

We then got into bed at about 10pm, we were trying to get an early night as it was gonna be a loooooong day tomorrow....

Day 17. 24 hours of DISNEY! AKA Disneyland's 60th Anniversary.

This the day I think most of you have been waiting for, the one and only 60th Anniversary! We changed our plans to make sure we could make this happen and it was oh so worth it! I had been reading up leaks, stories and rumours of what the day would hold, we couldn't wait. The day was finally here! And today is when I officially stopped taking notes of any kind, doh! Sorry! What an epic fail on my part eh? But in my defence, I was so tired by the time I got into bed that I fell asleep right away - Sy's snoring didn't even keep me awake! So this will be pieced together via memory (which isn't as great as it should be) and pictures (and there are a LOT of those )

We were rudely awoken at 7:30am by the alarm going off. We hopped right out of bed and got dressed in a rush, we had somewhere to go and we weren't going to be hanging about. We had special t-shirts for the occasion so of course we had to make time for a quick snap

We did NOT look this fresh faced by then end of the night hehehehehe

We went downstairs and grabbed the car from valet and started our journey to DISNEYLAND! The hotel offers a paid shuttle to the parks but we didn't know what the deal would be with the 24 hr event so we made the decision to take our own car... Oh boy do I wish we had taken the hotel bus! We spent ages getting to the Disneyland car park only to be taken back on ourselves to the overflow car park which was right by our hotel! In hindsight we should have gone back to the hotel really but it had taken so long already (about 45 minutes) we just went in and parked. It was chaos. Cars going all different directions, fighting to get parked. We managed to get parked eventually and hopped on a really old and smelly bus (WDW buses look amazing compared to it) and we were finally arriving in DL.

I grabbed a quick pic out front of the 60th anniversary sign.

We walked up Main Street, boy it was busy! It wasn't unmanageable though, I've been in busier at WDW. The queues to get into the shops however were C.R.A.Z.Y! Most of the people on Main Street were just there to queue to get into the shops. Now I'm a girl who loves to shop, but come on, queue just to get *IN* a shop? Nah. I'm obviously not that hardcore lol

We had arranged to meet Steve over near Matterhorn, we had planned it thinking we would have a load of free time before meeting but after all the car park stress we didn't have enough time to ride anything. But we did have time to go meet Mickey Mouse in his house in ToonTown (there was a 5 minute wait).

Minnie had a long queue which we didn't have time for so we made our way over to the Matterhorn and waited for Steve. He was a bit early too as it happens so we didn't have to wait for long

My tummy was starting to rumble, and turns out Steve hadn't had any breakfast either so we went to find some nearby in Tomorrowland. I grabbed a table while Sy and Steve queued to get food. OMG they were gone for half an hour. Half an hour!! That was the longest we waited for anything alllll day. The CM's didn't know what they were doing, at one point someone was yelling that they would stop serving breakfast at 10:30, only they didn't as people were still having breakfast when we left gone 11am. The guys said CM's were all just stood around doing nothing as no food was coming out. And then when we did finally get the food, it was all stone cold! Gah! But we were all so blooming hungry we ate it anyway, there was no way we were going back to queue for another half hour to get it put right.

I have to say though, this was the only part of the day that Disney didn't seem to have their stuff together, everything else was smooth as could be.

Once we finished eating we made our way over to Fantasyland, we hadn't really spent any time there yet. We decided to ride the storybookland boats (is that what they are called?). I have actually been on the Disneyland Paris version of this though you don't have someone on the boat narrating you round. I think its a super cute ride!

We then went to ride the Casey Jr Circus Train, also been on the DLP counterpart. I'm sure the DLP version is faster? It was another cute ride though, I'm not sure the boys enjoyed it quite as much as me though hehehe.

Next up we went on Alice in Wonderland, I thought it was really good

Then it was time for Mr Toad's Wild Ride (having ridden it once, its no great loss at WDW if you ask me lol)

It was then getting on time for more food (I know it sounds like we just ate but honest, it was ages ago by now). I had a list of special foods for the 24hr event and somewhere we fancied trying was Pinocchio village haus. Right by there was the Fantasmic fastpass point so we went to grab one for the second showing tonight (we had tried earlier before meeting Mickey but it was still giving out for the first show and we specifically wanted to see the second show).

Again the boys went to get food while I grabbed a table. As I waited for the boys to come back I noticed 2 CM's who spent their time going from table to table, making sure everyone was having a great time, spending ages playing with children and just being awesome in general. Very sadly some people just ignored them that upset me cause they were just trying to be friendly! But then they went over to a family with a little boy in a wheelchair and oh my! He was just so pleased to see them, and they made such a fuss of him, it brought a tear to my eye! In fact it was so sweet and touching I went to find a manager after eating to tell him their names and what nice people they were. I hope they got some good karma from their boss for it

Sy and Steve came back shortly after (no half hour wait for food this time, yay!). Sy and I both got the special spicy chicken flatbread, omg it was sooooooo good! Chicken, chillies and spicy aioli. Yummmmmm!

Feeling very full and satisfied we made our way to the next ride of the day, Big Thunder Mountain. There was only a 20 min queue which was a huge shock for me considering it was the 24 hour event! I thought the parks were supposed to get full to capacity?!

We then went to ride Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. On our way we overheard some senior management talking about the parks and how they had been full to capacity from 10:30am! I couldn't believe how empty everything still seemed! Maybe it was everyone hiding out in the shops on Main Street?! Hehehe. Apart from the Matterhorn (which had only re-opened today) nothing had a wait longer than 45 minutes! That would never happen in WDW! When the parks are full, rides get wait times of 3-4 hours!

Next up was Splash mountain.

We then went to watch a show, Mickey's magical map. Steve had already seen it but said it was really good and he would watch it again. I must admit I didn't have the highest of hopes, I wasn't wowed by the set or the first song but wow, I was then blown away! I thought it was AMAZING!! One of the best Disney shows I've seen.

Time was then getting on for dinner, we had an ADR at the same time as Steve but in different places so we separated to eat. I was a bit upset that we were eating somewhere that was outside, it was pretty chilly! But it was a seat somewhere with no wait and I only had myself to blame for not checking (though it didn't really occur to me to check it was inside!).

Least Sy was looking forward to it

Hehehehe!

The food was okay, I would say I don't know if I'd go back but seeing as its closing down there's not much chance of that anyway lol. I pretty much only ate chicken and Sy ate a bit of everything else. It was edible. One thing I did not care though was the cheesey banjo player He wasn't so bad when the girl was out singing with him but on his own he was a little bit cringey! And he kept coming round the tables! I was hoping and praying that he didn't come to pick on us and thankfully someone was listening to me LOL

One thing I thought was super cool were the cowboy boot and horse shoe prints in the cement leading to the bathrooms, and then the horse shoe prints stopped at the point where the horse would have been tied up outside! Such level of detail! That's the Disney magic

Steve came along just as we were paying which was perfect timing We decided to ride Jungle Cruise as a nice rest to let dinner go down. We then went on Indiana Jones (fast becoming a favourite!). We were starting to flag by this point so we decided to get a dole whip and head inside the Enchanted Tiki Room.

People were lying down inside sleeping hehehe I had no idea how they slept through the noise at first but then the warmth of being inside took over and I could feel my eyelids get droopy... before I knew it I wasn't so much watching the show as just listening to it.... Oops hehehe

Time was getting on for Fantasmic so we made our way over to wait. We got a spot there to see the fireworks too as a note on the map said its a good place to see them... well they lied, it was rubbish! We missed half of the stuff over the castle! It was quite cool that they did have a few lower level fireworks out on the water though. Its a good way to get people off Main Street that's for sure but as we only had 1 shot to see them, it was a disappointing view point

We then got in place for Fantasmic. We had quite some time to wait, and it was cold! But there was a great atmosphere Time passed fairly quickly as we chatted

Fantasmic was great, much better from this view point than the side view we had last time with Jane and I think its better than the HS version too.

Afterwards we headed to find a spot for Paint the Night parade. It was on at 1am. We had ages to wait but we needed to make sure we could get a spot. People were already covering the edges/sidewalks, pretty much just laying down and trying to get a bit of sleep where they could.

We got a spot in the disabled area though it was behind a row of people lying on the floor at the front. A little while later a CM asked the people to move behind the wheelchair person they were with so that there was room for more wheelchairs and so they didn't block the people behind, and OMG the abuse he got! I felt so sad for him I did try to stick up for him and told them he was just doing his job but he pretty much told me not to worry about it (he's trained to deal with it I guess and didn't want it escalating as they then directing it towards me) but he did end up giving in to them which I don't think he should have, never give in to bullies! I think he was probably sick of getting yelled at by people.

The CM's all day were awesome, they were especially good keeping everyone occupied while waiting for the parade. Singing songs, playing games (though they all kept well away from our area after the abuse, not that I blame them!).

The parade was delayed and we were right at the end of the route so it was almost 2am I think by the time it arrived with us. Oh boy was it worth the wait though, it was amazing! OMG! Get rid of MSEP and bring in something like this WDW! Sy says its the best parade he's ever seen. I'm still a festival of fantasy girl but this was a very, very close 2nd.

Afterwards we headed over to Tomorrowland, the boys wanted to ride Star Tours. I cant do it anymore as I get sick but it does mean Sy hardly ever does it either as he doesn't want to ride alone so it was nice for him to be able to ride it for once. I had a mooch around the shop at the exit and met them as they came off.

We decided that we would call it a night afterwards, so we made our way to Main Street and towards the exit. Just as we headed down there was a huge influx of people running into the parks. It was gone 3am now! They had only just been let inside having waited for hours and hours outside - that's some serious commitment!

Picture stolen from Steve who grabbed a pic of everyone heading up Main Street.

I snapped a quick pic of what I'm gonna buy myself when I win the lotto, in the window of a shop on MS

And with that we said goodbye and hugged Steve (who was also calling it a day) and made our merry way to the bus, we didn't have too long to wait but the bus was no cleaner or nicer than this morning. From the bus we hopped in the car and headed back to the hotel, finally falling into bed at 4:30am.

We managed 21 hours in total awake for the event - I'm pretty proud of that! I'd have loved to make it till the end of the night but I just couldn't do it, don't have the stamina for it at all (surprised myself how long I made it as it was!). Would I do another 24 hour event? Hell yeah! It was awesome! The whole vibe all day was amazing, for the most part people were really friendly and happy to be there.

Tomorrow, CA, once we finally get up

Day 18, California Adventure

We woke up at about 10am, feeling quite refreshed considering our night before We got dressed and went downstairs, we decided that we would get the hotel shuttle today so we queued up and got tickets and then Sy went to wait outside while I grabbed us both drinks from Starbucks (inside the hotel!) and went out to join him and wait. The shuttle didn't take long at all and we were soon arriving, much better than the day before

Our main priority of the day was to see the new World of Color show with Neil Patrick Harris so we went first to get fastpasses for that evening.

Now I must be honest and say my memory is a little hazy. I can't remember the exact order in which we did things today but I'll try my best

We wanted to ride the big wheel, Sy wanted a swinging car and I was worried it might make me feel sick so I made him come in a stationary one... sorry Sy! The view was pretty spectacular up there.

We grabbed some lunch nearby, we decided to go for some chinese, only I HATED it, Sy and I went for different things and I hated them both! So I went and grabbed some mexican from the place we had dinner the first night with Jane. There was a bit of a mix up with the girl who took my order, she forgot to put the DVC discount on so instead she gave me a 60th anniversary mug! I'll take that, thank you very much!!

Sy's chinese chicken

We went for a wander round Paradise Pier and got a return time for California Screaming, we then went for a wander round the shops while we waited. The sun had finally come out so we got a seat and basked in the warmth for a bit (it was quite a long wait) and even had time for an ice cream each

We both LOVED the ride and said it was worth the wait

We picked up some Soarin' fastpasses and rode shortly after...

We also rode RSR though no pics of that.

It was soon time for the parade so we decided to find a spot to watch it from. We knew we wanted to see the Aladdin show which was right after so we headed near the entrance. We managed to find a spot by a bench which had 1 lady on it and a big rug, as is common with DL she was saving the spot for the parade for the rest of her family. We asked if we could sit down until her party returned and she said it was no problem When her party came back it was just her hubby and little daughter so there was enough room anyway so that was good (we did offer to get up still but she said there was plenty of room).

Afterwards we ran with the rest of the crowds to Aladdin. Wow. There were a LOT of people. A lot of people pushing and shoving too, I didn't like it I have to say. We were outside waiting for a good half hour before we were taken into the theatre and it was in the shade with a wind, so it was chilly!

I thought the show was really good, Sy doesn't remember much of it as he promptly fell asleep hehehe I guess we were more tired than we had originally thought hehehe

Once it had finished we made our way back over to Carsland to ride RSR again - one last time! Easily my favourite ride in all of DL & CA.

LOVED the picture of me that it took hehehe

It was then time to find out spot for WoC. We had a little while to wait before they let us in the area and then a while to wait before the show, but we got a spot nicely in the middle, not too close to the front as I didn't want to get wet again!

Afterwards we headed with the masses out of the park.

We had to wait for aaaaaaaaage for our shuttle back to the hotel, and in a massive queue, the first 2 buses came and filled up and left again. We were soooooo tired now and just wanted our bed! We waited for about an hour (certainly 45 minutes) and eventually a bus arrived to take us back.

We hadn't had any dinner so I did some packing while Sy went to get a take out burger from Carl's jr. It was rank. Lol neither of us enjoyed it. One to skip in the future

We both fell into bed at about 11:30pm.

Tomorrow, check out and home time

Day 19, home time BOOOOO!

Well I guess the day had to come eventually, our West Coast dream holiday had come to the end

We were up at 9am, we pottered about having showers and packing up the last of our things before heading down to check out

We loaded up the bags in the car and set off to do a bit of sight seeing, our flight wasn't until late tonight so we had the whole day to see and do some things we hadn't managed to make it to yet. First up we went to Long Beach and Seal Beach. Sadly there were no seals on seal beach (I guess it wasn't warm enough!) but we got out to have a look and wander down the pier.

I really liked the vibe of this place, it was relaxed and comfortable but still felt a bit posh - I felt right at home hehehe. We walked up the high street looking in all of the shops, we tried to get some food but everywhere was jam packed with huge queues outside and we had parked somewhere with an hour time limit so we couldn't hang about gutted!

Back in the car we headed up the coast a little more to Long beach and the gorgeous marina, I felt totally at home here. Sy was drooling over the boats in the marina, he did a lot of yachting growing up but I just get seasick so unless we are on a speedboat aquaplaning I'm not interested

We still couldn't find anywhere to stop for food so we ended up eating a disappointing Jack in the Box in the car. It did the job but we are in no rush to head back there that's for sure.

We carried on driving and headed towards Malibu. This was one place I really wanted to visit, I had wanted to stay here but the hotel I liked had shot up in price when we were looking to book so we ended up in Palm Springs (which was way better so it worked out in the end!).

When we started our journey we hadn't realised the traffic was going to be as awful as it was! There seemed to be some event going on and we got stuck in it. Boo! We passed the hotel I'd been coveting on the way and it didn't look quite as good as the pictures (but pretty close), I was still happy we made it to Palm Spring instead.

We couldn't find anywhere to park in Malibu that didn't cost $30 to park all day - we were only going to stop for an hour so we weren't about to pay that! So instead we drove around some of the little side roads and saw some interesting people smoking interesting pipes (shocked me cause the area was so posh, they were sat outside million dollar homes on the seafront!).

We decided to head back into LA and try to find somewhere at the side of the coast road to stop at, which we did at about half way. We couldn't quite get down to the sea but we sat for a bit on some rocks looking out over the ocean.

Back in the car we made our way to Beverly Hills, we drove round for a little bit but already time was getting on and we needed to think about making our way to the airport. We stopped at a gas station to put a bit in and let me use the facilities. It was the poshest gas station toilet I'd ever been in lol I could tell we were in Beverly Hills hehe.

When we had taken Jane to the airport the week before we had driven past a Beard Papa's. Beard Papa's is a Chinese chain which sell the most amazing cream puffs! We used to have one in London but it closed down, and then there was one in the Premium outlets in Orlando but that too has now closed so I went a little crazy when I saw it before, and we decided we would come back when we headed to the airport to try to find it. Typically we had trouble finding it again it got to the stage where we had to give up looking and drive to the airport when finally we drove past it on our way back to the main road! I raced inside and bought 6 mini puffs and gushed at the man serving me about how happy I was to find them, I think he may have thought I was a crazy person hahaha he was possibly right

Back in the car we had eaten the 6 mini puffs before we were out of the car park, dammit! Knew I should have got more! We raced to the airport and dropped off the car. We were a bit later than the 3 hours ahead now but there was no queue at check in so it was quick and easy and we were soon passing through security.

We still had enough time to grab something to eat before the flight thankfully cause I'm so fussy I always end up not eating the plane food lol We ate in one of the restaurants and both went for the same thing, chicken in breadcrumbs with a curry sauce. What actually came was chicken katsu curry, a personal fav of mine! So I was very happy. It was really good too.

We finished our food and made our way straight to the gate and were boarding about 10 minutes later.

This was our first flight with Delta, we had 2 seats at the window to ourselves which was nice - when its the 2 of us we usually sit in the middle of the plane in the bank of 4 as I'm an aisle girl and we don't like having to get up for the 1 person who sits in the window seat next to us (usually fly on a 747 with a 3, 4, 3 configuration). I really like being able to look out of the window, don't get me wrong I didn't like it enough to start sitting at the window and give up my aisle but it was a nice change

The flight passed smoothly, there weren't many films I wanted to watch so I ended up watching some tv and trying to sleep. Sy slept most of the flight without keeping everyone around us awake with the snoring so that was good hehe.

We landed mid afternoon in sunny London Heathrow where my parents were picking us up and bringing us home again, well home to their house where we would be picking up our car and Tink who pleased to see us. We stayed for about an hour before heading home to unpack and get Tink settled in.

And that my friends, brings us to the end of our first West Coast experience. Our first, but definitely not our last... In fact we are in the early stages of planning for 2017 - a visit to Hawaii and more exploring of the West Coast so watch this space

I was sad that the trip was over, but knowing I had a trip to Disneyland Paris in September for Dapper day and a 24 night trip to WDW for Thanksgiving and Christmas to look forward to, it really took the edge of the sadness.

Tbh although Aladdin was good, it wasn't quite as good as I thought it was gonna be... If they do a proper frozen show I'd be happy with that (not just stick the frozen singalong in there). TR all finished now.... Guess that means I can get on with the next one! Only 45 days to go...

Awww so pleased you enjoyed reading honey! Do Vegas first and Disney after I thought Vegas was just okay, I dunno if we will go back... Maybe one day. DL though, def go back there (2017...)

Chicken katsu curry is a Japanese curry, it's chicken in panko breadcrumbs and fried with rice and then the sauce poured over the top, it's sooooooo yummy! Jane makes the BEST katsu curry.

Thanks for the kudos to the report glad you enjoyed reading. And just think, you will feature in the next one!!! Ahhhhh!!! Not long now