Day 17 - L.A. and a day of bats and mice but no goats...

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Short(ish) blog today as I guess a blow by blow guide to each Disney ride would bore your pants off. As it was Sunday and we were planning to stay late at the park with Mickey and Minnie, we had a lie in, in the first proper bed for two weeks. Felt very strange not waking up to the sound of other campers banging and crashing around the site or the sound of waves crashing on the beach or wind in the trees! Or birds on the roof! I did however open the curtains to find some new wildlife clinging to the outside of our 20th floor window...a little long eared bat staring back at me, trying to shelter from the baking hot sun.

After our first decent breakfast for two weeks we summoned the Mustang from the bowels of the hotel via the extortionate valet parking system and hit the road. I was showing signs of developing my usual holiday manflu, which was about 3 weeks later than usual, but it was definitely kicking off with a vengeance so we put the roof down in the hope of blowing away the germs at 70 mph.

Whilst I always thought Disneyland was in central L.A. we were about to find out it was actually about 30 miles south in a suburb called Anaheim. It's not quite like Orlando where everything is relatively close together and everything is fantastically signposted....luckily we picked the right weekend and the I5 freeway was clear all the way down, and we had Sat Nav!

Next weekend will be different as most of the main L.A. Freeways will be closed as they transport the last space shuttle (which flew in on the back of a 747 on Thursday) on a massive trailer from LAX to the museum it will be shown at. The journey will take 48 hours covering about 30 miles moving at a max speed of 2 mph...there are warnings everywhere that LA will be gridlocked (more than usual!), luckily we'll be on the beach in San Diego by then, although bit of a shame as I would have loved to see it travelling on its way.

As you enter the Disney compound and head for the parking, you join the first ride of the day. It's called 'pick the fastest car park queue' where you all line up at the pay booths, creeping slowly to the front of the line...as the money is exchanged with the cashier, you then launch your car into the multi-storey parking complex, up ramps, past waving students in dayglow vests, swerving round never ending parking cones, desperately trying to come to a stop in a parking place faster than the pickup truck that you first entered into the line behind!

With Merlin the Mustang settled into 'Goofy 4', we headed for ride 2... "Running to the car park tram before everyone else in your area of the parking". Here the name of the game is to travel across the massive car park floor, along moving walkways, down escalators, and along the Magical Disney pathway to the awaiting trams before others in your row. Stomping on small children, overturning wheelchairs and tripping the elderly are all valid in your bid to gain precious places in the entry queue.

Once deposited at the front gates by your tram, you have two Disney Parks to choose from on either side of the forecourt, Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Park. We had bought a Southern California City Pass from the UK before we left which allows 3 days of access to both, plus Universal and San Diego's Seaworld. Our plan was to do both Disney parks in one day! So we were going to get our money's worth, but it was a bloody hot day, around 100 degrees with no breeze at all which was going to make it even more fun.

We started in the adventure park, which had more rides and slightly more 'grown up stuff' they a also had the fast pass system in operation but our options were limited by the fact Shas is a complete 'scaredy cat' so we limited ourselves to simulators, kids rides, things that 'go round but not up and down', roundabouts and the big wheel. The big wheel however had a bit of a kick in it as the cars move on sliding rails as the wheel turns, sending the car hurtling towards the middle and then back out again....Shas hadn't spotted this and it came as a bit of a surprise to her as we accelerated to the centre of the wheel on its first rotation ;-) She was a bit green when we got off.

We spent about 4 hours in the park, walked it all and did a few rides, the new 'Cars land' looked fun with what looked like a full size scalectrix ride and bumper hovercrafts, sadly as we had arrived late in the day, a lot of the fast passes were for late evening by then and we wanted to switch parks.

We then headed over to Disneyland park and this was just like walking back into Orlando...same main street, same castle, same 'lands', same food , same annoying tunes....I'm sure Disney aficionados will tell me there are huge differences but I can't see them. Here again we walked the whole park, ducking and diving into various rides and simulators, mainly aimed at the under 10's or the extremely scared. We even managed to elbow quite a few small kids out of the way to ride the Autopia cars where Sharan ignored the no bumping rules and slammed into me on several occasions!

I couldn't tell if my whole body was aching from the manflu or from all the walking, my legs were killing me but so was the rest of my body. We sat down for some food and drink and waited for the evening shows to start. The first was a light and water show on the lake based on Fantasia. With Mickey conducting, it was very spectacular with music, fountains, small fireworks and all the disney characters riding pirate ships and steamboats, there were also big projections onto huge fountains of water which doubled as screens. After that came the massive Disney firework spectacular and they were worth all the walking, rides and pain....Disney just do fireworks so well, so spectacularly with great music and to top it all, Tinkerbell flying high above the castle.

Of course it was late by now and temperature, throat and body were suffering but we were in the location of the biggest Disney store in the world...so 'we' had to shop for more souvenirs, and I will need to buy another suitcase for the trip home!

We left the park about 11 for the drive home only to find that the LA roadworkers seem to come out on a Sunday night and with various lane closures and junction closures all the way home, it was a long hot, uncomfortable drive.

If I make it through the night without burning up, the plan is to hit Universal Studios tomorrow! Oh great, more walking in the heat!

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