We're back!
 

Yes we're back home :( We arrived home last week and I still have the holiday blues.

We started planning the holiday this time last year and I can't believe it's been and gone already! Thanks to all the Dibbers who offered lots of help during the planning stages.

If I ever get round to typing up a trippie (I do like to so that it helps me remember my holiday...I have a terrible memory :blush:) it will include:-

San Francisco - we stayed 3 nights at the Grand Hyatt in Union Square

DS having to have a trip to the doctors because he had some spots on his arm and tummy... turns out he had impetigo...

Yosemite View Lodge - 3 nights here. Yosemite is absolutely beautiful and I would love to go for longer and see more. Unfortunately the room was very warm because we didn't use the air-con... well we tried it once but it smelt of bacon, bleurgh, to downside of a kitchenette in the room :(

Las Vegas - 3 nights at the Excalibur. We had a flight over the Grand Canyon's West Rim. We'd have loved to have done a proper flight and landing at the South Rim but tbh the cost of the holiday was just mounting up and we had to reign it in somewhere :blush: We went on a fantastic tour of the Hoover Dam and would really recommend the tour company we went with (Comedy on Deck booked through Viator). For a bit of evening entertainment we went to the Tournament of Kings dinner show at the Excalibur. Good fun.

Anaheim - 4 nights at the Sheraton Park Anaheim. Lovely, lovely rooms and about a 10 minute walk to Disney, although it's about another 10 minutes to the park entrances. Loved the parks but didn't manage to do everything.

Santa Monica - Loews Hotel. We drove to Hollywood on the way and did the hop-on-off bus tour. Santa Monica is really lovely. I came down with a cold and sore throat so spent until 2 o'clock of our only full day in bed. DH and the teenagers hit a wall with tiredness, I had dragged them round a lot by that point, and decided to stay in bed and watch Hercules on the Disney channel.

DH then flew home and DD, DS and I flew to New York for 3 nights at the Renaissance Times Square.

So that's sort of what we did!

One tip I must mention just in case it's of any use to anyone. We took our WDW unexpired hopper passes to Disneyland with us. When you hand them in at the turnstile a CM will deduct a day from them and give you a one day hopper. You have to use the hopper on the day you get it so you can't pick it up the night before. Now tbh I didn't look into whether or not we'd be best to hold onto our WDW passes and buy DL passes - it worked for us as it meant we didn't have to pay out for 3 day adult passes.

welcome home guys !

boy you packed a load in ...sounds amazing though x

Anaheim - 4 nights at the Sheraton Park Anaheim. Lovely, lovely rooms and about a 10 minute walk to Disney, although it's about another 10 minutes to the park entrances. Loved the parks but didn't manage to do everything.




The Sweet Sleeper beds at the hotel are just the comfiest beds ever!

Glad you enjoyed your holiday, hope your cold is much better now. As you didnt get the chance to do everything at the parks, you will just have to go back again! lol
Love Rio

Welcome back, glad to hear you had a great time! I'll be keeping my eye out for your trip report, we're off the vegas and Arizona in January and have a few Canyon activities planned! X.X

Wow what a trip, sounds like a fab holiday!

Welcome home, sounds like you'd had a great trip minus your cold & son's visit to the doc's. Looks like you did plenty, hope you do a TR im off for a simular trip in just over 3 weeks :)

Sounds like you had a great time and packed loads into it.

I'm looking forward to reading more in your trippie :D

WOW sounds like you had a busy, but enjoyable trip

Welcome Home Ang:wave:

Sounds like you've had a great trip.

Nice tip about the passes. Wonder if you could do that with a WDW AP;)

Thanks we really did have a great time and I'm sure I'll get my act together and do a trippie at some point. It's taken me over a week just to sort out all the photos. I haven't taken so many for years... I haven't printed them all out, just the favourites... 560 of them lol where am I going to keep them?

It's funny reading comments that say we packed lots in because I've really felt that we missed so much. I think that when I read what other Dibbers have done and make notes of where to go and what to see, I really pressurise myself and feel as if I've failed if we've not done everything.