theDIBB - Las Vegas, Anaheim, etc. - Day 7 – Fri 19th Sep

We were heading for Los Angeles today, so the first stop after breakfast was to get a taxi to the Alamo car rental place so we could pick up the car. Cost us around $30, but it was cheaper paying for the taxi from the airport to the Aladdin and then from the hotel to the car rental place than renting a car for the 5 nights in Vegas, only to have it sit in the parking lot while we were out touring (hope that makes sense!).

Anyway, got to the rental desk and, although I’d booked an intermediate, I decided to upgrade to a full size, mainly because I knew we would struggle fitting our luggage into an intermediate once we’d done the shopping part later in the trip – we’d be stopping en-route, etc. so didn’t want to leave stuff in the back seat of the car. Finally agreed on $10 a day for the upgrade and chose a Chevy Classic from those in the lot – made sure it had a decent boot size plus a CD player before we picked it. :D I’d booked the car through e-bookers (always find them cheapest for some reason) and there was no hassle at all about having pre-paid insurance, fuel, etc. and got myself registered as main driver with Kat as a backup, all included in the price.

We were then on our way to Los Angeles, after a wrong turning trying to get onto the Interstate from the rental place… oops. I’m blaming Kat entirely as I was driving and she was navigating :D We stopped at a couple of rest-stops along the way, but the drive wasn’t too eventful and I think it took us around 5 hours in total, with me driving all the time. I have a vague feeling that we might have stopped at an outlet mall en-route as well, but can’t remember for sure.

Finding the Anaheim hotel was a little more tricky than I’d expected – we could see it from the Interstate, but it was a huge intersection at the end of the off-ramp and, since the turning we needed was one-way, but right next to another on-ramp, we got confused and missed the turning – again, entirely Kat’s fault! :D

The hotel was the Holiday Inn Anaheim Resort Area and I had booked it direct with them – all other hotels for the trip I had booked through Expedia, but got a cheaper rate with the HI direct. It was right next to the Staybridge Suites hotel and they shared a pool, but it was a decent size.

Got checked in easily and our room was on the ninth floor, almost directly across from the laundry room (which was free to use by the way), but the sound-proofing was good and we didn’t get any noise from there. There was a small shop next to reception, which was moderately priced, so we used it a few times for sodas and to buy washing powder later in the week.

After unpacking and getting ourselves organised, we decided that Disney was calling us, so we jumped in the car and headed for Downtown Disney, after the nice people at reception told us how to get there. I also wanted to check my email (since the Aladdin wouldn’t let me access AOL) and was told that there wasn’t anywhere nearby – I was kicking myself for not taking my laptop by this point, as there was a free connection in the room – but I asked if there was a Kinko’s nearby and was told there was one at the Marriott hotel near the Convention Center. Got directions to this and we headed there first. I checked my email while Kat went for a drink at the bar – didn’t take too long and cost about $0.40 per minute (I’m glad I’m a fast reader and typist at that price <g>).

Arrived at Downtown Disney and parked the car, noting that we got two hours free parking and could then get the ticket validated for another hour by either a restaurant or the movie theatre. DD was pretty busy, with the ESPN bar being especially packed. There wasn’t anything on at the movies that we wanted to see, so we kept walking around until we found a nice Italian restaurant. We sat outside and upstairs, which was a little chilly, but gave us a good view of the events going on in DD – there were musicians, etc. playing. We were also right next to the kitchen and could see everything being made through the clear full-length window, which was really nice to watch – the kitchen wasn’t as hectic as I thought it would be.

After filling up on pasta (can’t remember the prices, but it was reasonable) and getting the parking ticket validated, we headed for the ‘World of Disney’ store as Kat wanted to get a Disney costume for a Halloween party. We were amazed at how cheap the costumes were in comparison to those back home, but nothing really jumped out at her and, after an hour or so of looking around the store (yes, it’s that big and fun) she decided to look at the malls, etc. and then come back on our last night if we needed to.

We headed to the Disney ticket booth and bought our 2-day park hopper passes for $99 each (at that point, I hadn’t thought about buying them cheaper at home, but I know now!) and then got a map from the info booth so that we could plan our ‘park attacks’ in advance.

The next day would be Disney and, since I was weary after the drive, we headed back to the hotel.

Still to come… Disney’s California Adventure (I won’t be posting that until I get back from WDW though… will be posted around the 14th April)