Californivacation (Give it Away Now) OFF

[theCMG]

Originally Posted by GroovyYvee

Hi, we were in San Diego and Disneyland just before Christmas so can offer some insight into the places you have planned to visit!
A few random bits and bites: Coronado is really lovely - we stayed just opposite the Hotel Del Coronado. It's a gorgeous hotel but be aware that it's open to the public so loads of random people roam around it gawping at the place - justifiably because it's so pretty! It was like a fairytale at Christmas time, just beautiful. There's a room full of info and memorabilia from 'Some Like It Hot' which was filmed there.
We went to Peohe's restaurant on Christmas day and had a nice meal there, and would recommend adding Bluewater Boathouse and Grill (ask if you can go up to the top level for a great view of the area!) plus Henry's Bar to your list of eateries. Miguel's Cocina is also nice but usually packed - make a reservation if you can.
Once you're over the bridge and into San Diego be aware that you really should travel by car as there are a lot of areas of downtown that are not great for walking through. There's a lot of homelessness and poverty a short distance from all the touristy attractions. We were shocked by the scale of it, but apparently it's an ever-increasing problem all down the West Coast.
Balboa Park is good, lots to see and do - same as the waterfront area. Busy though!
DCA and Disneyland were great: DCA was so much fun! It was better than we had expected. Cars Land is amazing, and don't forget the dill pickle popcorn (yummy!). DH and DS now rate Grizzly River Run as one of their top Disney rides! Disneyland is gorgeous: the level of detail is just fantastic. We liked the fact that it was kind of familiar but at the same time it was different. Loved it!
Any questions don't hesitate to ask - it's all still fresh in the memory :-)

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Wow thank you, loads of great advice there and lots of things we'll be delighted to get some help on

Disney California Adventure while originally much maligned looks pretty good from afar, can't wait to see it as well as the original Disneyland of course. Dill pickle popcorn m not sure but I cant resist a crazy flavour so maybe... And I've never even heard of Grizzly River Run! 😳

Cheers for reading, more to come I'll try to put some Hollywood stuff in over the next week or so.

[theCMG]

Appreciate there's been a lack of update recently, I'm sure you can guess why.

FWIW I'm still reasonably optimistic about going on this trip in July, California is one of the most technologically advanced places in the world and they would love to use tech to be open to the rest of the world before anyone else (then flog it to the rest of us ).

Renewed our ESTAs on Friday morning, all approved within 10 minutes, think they've been having a quiet time in that office recently 😷

[Lily8]

Originally Posted by theCMG

Appreciate there's been a lack of update recently, I'm sure you can guess why.

FWIW I'm still reasonably optimistic about going on this trip in July, California is one of the most technologically advanced places in the world and they would love to use tech to be open to the rest of the world before anyone else (then flog it to the rest of us ).

Renewed our ESTAs on Friday morning, all approved within 10 minutes, think they've been having a quiet time in that office recently 😷

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It must have been a very slow day at the ESTA office on Friday - they must have very grateful for your business

I love your optimism, and probably shared it until earlier this week - but now, not so much. We were due to depart to Orlando on March 29th (obviously now cancelled) but I'm also starting to wonder whether our Europa park trip is going to happen in July We also have another trip booked for August, and I'm allowing myself a shred of optimism on that front. But then again it's the hope that kills you

I'll keep my fingers crossed for your California Adventure

[Pez01]

Just found your pre trippy - I do hope you can still take your trip. Stay safe CMG and fam - scary days xx

[theCMG]

Thanks Lily and Pez and stay safe/healthy too. California I reckon is 40/60 at the moment but I'm still hopeful, California generally has its act together even if it means ignoring the capital.

For once we prepaid some of the hotel stays this time (7 of 15 nights) to keep the prices down so I'm nervous about getting that back if we can't go.

[theCMG]

Have given up the ghost on this one and started to unpick our DIY bookings. Actually think we had half a chance of going but with DW losing her job at the start of the crisis and just now getting a new one (yay) she's on a day rate now so 2 weeks away is not realistic this summer pandemic or no pandemic.

To this point we've done okay getting our money back albeit promised but not yet refunded so far. Hire car there was a $20 admin charge added after the booking was made and United have refunded us in time limited vouchers which we'll have to work out how to use.

Kudos to Hilton, BA, Loews and Disneyland for being great with refunds and customer service. We have a £1k pre-paid hotel stay at a place in San Francisco that has gone completely dark (no phone pick ups, emails bouncing) - if we can solve that one it will be a great result but I'm not optimistic.

The new plan is 4 days in Suffolk WDW hopefully in February who knows

[Cutiepie]

Sorry you have had to cancel I was looking forward to reading your report. Hopefully you will get to go another time. We are planning the West Coast for next year. I hope you get your money back for the San Fran hotel.

[Dr.JumbaJookiba]

I've done the same thing, we were due in Vegas 21st June, working our way through Palm Springs, LA & Solvang and on up to San Fran for 4th July. Unpicked the whole trip and actually ended up £65 better off due to deposits returned at different exchange rates . Couldn't fault the service, The Hideaway Carmel refunded a non refundable booking as did the Kimpton Palm Springs who's General Manager called me to apologise that they couldn't fulfill my booking. I was glad they couldn't with no flights to get us there

[Pez01]

I’m sorry you’ve had to cancel - I do hope you get a your hard earned wonga back... just sorting out cancellations out now for summer ... hopefully we get one of your awesome trip reports again soon.

Sorry Mrs CMG has lost her job... I’ve had to mothball my business - being recruitment isn’t too great right now (with no government support on offer but that’s another story) Hoping we can all get back on top of things soon. I need my Disney fix in 21!

[theCMG]

Thanks everyone for nice comments, Dr JJ I can't believe you made a cancellation profit, lucky so and so 🙂 Financially we're hopefully okay after one or two scary weeks with mortgage renewals due and uncertain income but fingers crossed we're alright and might even be able to get some of the endless home improvement work done with a bit of holiday money.

Hope everyone else is keeping well, Pez the recruitment market looks to be picking up this last week or so so hopefully that will work its way through before too long

Still trying to work out the best tack to take with the San Francisco hotel now, I have a feeling the US will be letting UK tourists in by the start of July which may nix the travel insurance (this is DW department I gave no idea)

Take care all and hopefully a dining report pre trip starting at Christmas 😁