Well here I am only a few days back from DLP and already starting a new pre-trip report… oh the excitement! (Just to confirm the DLP trip report will still be coming through, I just couldn’t keep the excitement of this upcoming trip contained any longer! Especially now we have hit double digits!)
So without further ado let’s get cracking! As this is now my third trip report I will keep the introductions brief as hopefully some of you may already recognise our faces from my previous WDW report from last year (which can be found
here is you missed it and fancy having a little nosey!) or my more recent DLP pre-trip report (which can be found
here).
First up… me! The
planner, organiser and obsessor of each of our Disney trips! I live for planning our Disney adventures and am beyond excited that we have another one coming up so soon!
And joining me as always is my very lovely OH Paul, the driver, navigator and all-round laid-back-Larry of this duo!
How this trip came about
So on returning back from our third trip to WDW in three years back in May last year we made the decision that it was time to take a break for a couple of years (what a tough decision that was, it nearly broke my heart!). Within a month or so I was suffering from some serious post-Disney blues and as a result we booked in a DLP trip for January 2017 as a little stop-gap to get us through the cold and long winter months, with the added bonus that we would be there over my birthday… what a great way to celebrate! (I promise the full trip report will be coming soon should any of you want to read about our Parisian adventures! We had an absolute blast!)
Whilst this birthday trip was in the planning our thoughts and discussions turned to summer holiday ideas… because let’s face it, we all need a holiday countdown right?! A few ideas went back and forth but we always came back to the good ol’ US of A and in particular returning to the West Coast. I was lucky enough to experience the magic of Vegas back in 2010 due to Paul’s sister getting married out there and it’s fair to say I absolutely fell in love with the place! It had never been a destination high up on my list of places to visit what with me not having a clue about gambling, not being a huge drinker and certainly not being a party animal… but it sucked me in from the minute we arrived. Since that trip we have regularly discussed going back (Paul went out for a stag do back in 2015, fair to say I was green with envy!) and now looked like the perfect opportunity!
A few photos of us living the Vegas life back in 2010 (oh how young we look!)
Our original plan was to just hit Vegas but on further discussion we thought why not make the most of being out there and stop at a few more destinations along the way… and so our West Coast Adventure was born! This has always been a dream trip for us both and we had always said if we were even to get married we would have our honeymoon on the West Coast, well the wedding isn’t happening anytime soon so let’s just have the amazing holiday instead!
Visiting Disneyland was absolutely crucial for me (it’s been at the top of my bucket list for a couple of years now) so that immediately made the list and we were also very eager to plan a day at Universal Studios Hollywood too. Whilst in Vegas we had a day trip out to LA to visit Universal… this was my first ever experience of a US ‘theme park’ (oh how far I have come from then!). It seems a lot has changed since our time there and I can’t wait to check out their offering of Harry Potter!
Us in Universal Studios Hollywood back in 2010:
The Plan
The first stage of making this dream holiday a reality was getting our flights booked… and this exciting day came on the 23rd December, I think we got a little caught up in the Christmas spirit and decided to just go for it (plus the flights we had been watching dropped by £300 in the Virgin sale… hit that book button!)
We will be flying out on Wednesday 10th May from London Heathrow at 13:00 with Virgin in PE and arriving in Los Angeles at 16:10. Flying from Heathrow is a slightly daunting prospect as we generally always fly from Gatwick but as they don’t service LAX we had to break from tradition and give Heathrow a go! We have booked the Premier Inn (Bath Road) for the night before so we can avoid a battle with the M25 in rush hour on the Wednesday morning (at £49 for the room it seemed silly not to, plus it starts the holiday a day earlier… win win!)
So in fear of bogging you all down with too much detail, here is an overview of our itinerary for our 16 nights:
10th-14th – Anaheim
14th-21st – Vegas
21st – 22nd – Palm Springs
22nd-25th – Hollywood
25th-26th – Long Beach
At this stage we have booked 4 of our 6 hotels but rather than waffling on for too much longer now I think I will update on each stop as we go along (I find writing these pre-trip reports really tricky, it feels like I am just listing out dates and places!). All I will say is that we have some great things planned along the way and I am super excited to share this planning process with you all… fair to say it is quite a change from the Orlando holidays that I have become so comfortable with organising!
Lots more updates coming so stay tuned and as always… thanks for reading!
Update 1 - Anaheim hotel
Update 2 - Vegas hotels
Update 3 - Palm Springs hotel
Update 4 - LA hotel
Update 5 - Long Beach hotel
Update 6 - Disneyland tickets
Update 7 - A change of plans in LA!
Update 8 - A pretty big life update...