Blogs from Anaheim, Los Angeles, California, United States, North America
Disneyland - the Original
Published: April 7th 2012North America » United States » California » Los Angeles » Anaheim
April 7th 2012
At last, the dawn broke on a sunny Southern California morning of blue skies and 70 degrees. We joined the throng to the park by about 8.30am and it wasn't too busy for a Bank Holiday. Using the Fastpass ticket system we rode the main rides the kids wanted including Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Space Mountain, Autopia, Indiana Jones, Haunted Mansion. Many autographs of Characters were obtained and the parade was enjoyed. Altogether about 9 1/2 hours was spent in the park with a break in the middle back at the hotel pool for the kids. Loads of photos and video to select from and to upload shortly.... read more
Disneyland
Published: March 15th 2012North America » United States » California » Los Angeles » Anaheim
March 13th 2012
Disneyyyyyyyyyy Day! Disney day started very, very early. I had to catch a bus into LA at 5:55am... plus do check-out and walk to the stop, so I got up at 5am. Le sigh. I decided to change hostels for the rest of the trip so that I’m not destroying sleep time every morning. The drive into LA was interesting – I took a different bus since I was going to Union Station; it took the highway and traffic was heavier going west/south out of LA than it was going in... I found that odd, but then again I have no idea where people work and how those logistics work. It was also 6am, so that might change during real rush hour. Anywho, I took the Amtrak to Anaheim... totally fell asleep, but they announce the ... read more
Disneyland like a Pro
Published: January 20th 2012North America » United States » California » Los Angeles » Anaheim
January 16th 2012
Spending a Three-Day Weekend at Disneyland with my Friend, Kyla Saturday, January 14 through Monday, January 16, 2012 So Close, But Yet So Far By moving to Las Vegas, I was positioning myself closer than ever to Disneyland. But it is still an effort to get there. Interestingly, when you’re driving in the middle of the desert at night, it’s easy to pin point your location. To the west, that big glow on the horizon is LA. And to the east, it’s Las Vegas. There isn’t much in between. The trip took me four hours, just as Google predicted, and I finally rolled into Anaheim at 11pm. Kyla was already checked into the hotel, and after a bit of chatting, we both crashed. Saturday It was pre-agreed that this Disney trip would be casual. The three-day ... read more
Day 83: Disneyland
Published: April 3rd 2012North America » United States » California » Los Angeles » Anaheim
June 4th 2011
The day has dawned for Bree as we set off at 9.00 for Disneyland, just across the street, the crowds even at that time are huge but organised. Entering the park was like entering another world, to coin a cliché and deciding what to do was quite a challenge. During the day the crowds got even larger if that was possible and as we had to leave at 4.00 we had to rush somewhat. With the rides done we left the park to return to the hotel to shower and change for the evenings festivities, a trip to Medieval Times, a show and meal spectacular located at Buena Park some 10 minutes from our Hotel. The dinner and show were spectacular and comprised of a Medieval show with horses and knights and mock battles and a ... read more
Day 82: Long Beach to Anaheim
Published: April 3rd 2012North America » United States » California » Los Angeles » Anaheim
June 4th 2011
Arriving back at Long Beach around 7.00am we debarked at 10.00 and returned to the states via the gang plank and customs. Finding the luggage was a breeze but getting the shuttle was a little different. As we were going to Anaheim which is about an hours drive from Long Beach the drivers were not too keen and seemed to want the close trips to the airport etc. Finally securing a ride we arrived at the hotel outside Disneyland around 1pm. The Carousel Inn is a small motel type place, clean comfortable with great staff and above all quite cheap for Disneyland. With only a part day left we decided to visit Disneytown, a free entry shopping area adjacent to Disneyland itself. Worth visiting but only for shopping which is sooooo expensive ... read more
New Soundsational Parade
Published: July 5th 2011North America » United States » California » Los Angeles » Anaheim
June 1st 2011
The last parade that I took the time out to watch at Disneyland was the one that was created for the 50th anniversary. I loved that parade and the Celebration Parade that followed failed to catch my interest when I saw brief parts of it when I was in the vincinity of the parade route. When I heard about the new parade to be released this year the "Soundsational" parade, I still had no interest. But, Disney did an excellent job in keeping its fans informed about this new parade as it developed and with the release of the pictures of the floats, I was finally hooked. So when I heard that the parade was going to debut "unofficially" a couple of days before our May trip I was so excited I was almost bouncing in ... read more
A Fun Day at California Adventure with a Surprise (**Spoiler Alert for those that have not experienced Ariel's Undersea Adventure)
Published: July 5th 2011North America » United States » California » Los Angeles » Anaheim
May 31st 2011
After a disapointedly crowded Magic Morning (a special perk with some tickets that gets you into Disneyland an hour before gates open, but is limited to only certain sections of the park), we turned in our park hopper tickets for Annual Passes and headed from Disneyland to spend some time in California Adventure. As we walked to the back of the park to Paradise Pier, there was a long line of people at the recently finished Little Mermaid ride Ariel's Undersea Adventure that was not to officially open for another 4 days. What was going on? We just had to stop and ask. To our luck, they were having an Annual Passholder Sneak Preview for the ride. So before it officially opened, we got to join the very large crowd of annual passholders already in line ... read more
Pirates of the Caribbean 3D Preview
Published: July 5th 2011North America » United States » California » Los Angeles » Anaheim
May 30th 2011
My favorite ride at Disneyland is Pirates of the Caribbean and has been since I was a child. So when Disney started to make the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, I was in heaven. I have seen all of them in the theaters multiple times and always within the first week of opening night. For the fourth installment "On Stranger Tides" I had to wait......and wait....and wait....to finally see it. Okay so this is a bit of an exaggeration, I got to see it within 2 weeks of it being released, but it felt like forever. Who was terrible person that made me wait? Sigh.....me. But, I am happy to report that the wait was worth it. I made myself and my family wait to go and see it because Disney did something different with this ... read more
Universal Studios and decent into Hollywood
Published: May 18th 2011North America » United States » California » Los Angeles » Anaheim
May 17th 2011
Another action packed day! Must say that now I'm totally beat and am really over all the rides and attractions and can't wait for a full day off to sleep. We have front of the line passes for all the Universal Studio rides and shows. Which was good but que's weren't even that long today. We went on several rides two or three times. Probably the worst thing we brought was a "all you can eat" pass for $22 each. Essentially you can eat what you want from 4 different locations. The catch??? It's all the same food and it all tastes like reheated food from yesterday. The burger are ok, the cookies were 50% hard and the rest average - it was disappointing really. Universal Studios really has the most amazing views of San Fernando ... read more
The Good, The Bad, The Scary
Published: May 17th 2011North America » United States » California » Los Angeles » AnaheimMay 16th 2011
The Good: Shopping in LA @ the Citadel which is a factory outlet shopping centre. Calvin Klein was $160 for pair of work pants, work shirt, work belt, awesome new bag. Considering the price in Australia for a single one of these items would be close to that I'm stoked. I also got a leather jacket that actually fits me from Wilson's Leather which was having a huge clearance sales - plus we had coupons thanks to the nice man at the map we pointed us around and hinted if we asked reception for a coupon book we'd get one. We did. It saved us around 10-15% per place we shopped at. Another good thing, I drove in LA traffic, on the huge multi-lane highway system they have here and made it in one piece. Used ... read more
