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Old 7 Aug 16, 09:40 PM  
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Disneymaddaddy
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Our Californian Adventure - Pre-Trippie

Hi all, here is our pre-trippie to our Californian adventure! Hope you enjoy reading, and I will get the trip report up as soon as I can when we return

Background
As you may know, I had a shoulder arthroscopy in May 2014, so that prohibited me from flying anywhere. The following year, I was undergoing a lot of physio so we went on a P&O Mediterranean cruise to Spain, Portugal and Guernsey which was amazing, and a Royal Caribbean mini-cruise to Paris and Brussels which was on Anthem of the Seas, a state-of-the-art ship! Now, 2 years later, I am fully recovered and ready to fly! Me and my OH have been to Disney World 12 times and Disneyland Paris 12 times - 24 Disney trips in total! It is also my OH's 50th birth-year so for our 25th Disney trip, we wanted to try something different and go to Disneyland California. My OH has been there once when he was our daughters age (a VERY,VERY long time ago...). Our DD is 15 and has wanted to go to California for a long time, and this will be her 9th Disney trip!

The Cast
Jayne - 45 - Chief Planner, a big kid, loves my garden.

Darren - 50 - Financial Officer, Chief Chauffeur, NEARLY as big a kid as Jayne.

Ellie - 15 - Junior Planner in the making, bunny mummy to Jasper and Frankie, brilliant daughter.

^Our beautiful baby boys^

Our Itinerary

Day 1 - Travel Day
A friend is going to be dropping us off at London Heathrow early Thursday morning, luckily we live less than 5 miles from Heathrow so no overnight hotel stay required. We will be flying from Heathrow to San Francisco via United Airlines at 10:25 local (a very early start that DD is not happy about!) and arriving at SFO airport at 13:15 local. We then have a transfer from SFO airport to Parc 55 hotel. If anyone has stayed here before, do let me know your thoughts on the hotel. As we are only in SFO for 2 days, we have booked the San Francisco Hop On Hop Off bus tour so we can see as much of the place as possible. To make it fair, we were all allowed to pick one site to see, and anything else will be a bonus. I picked the Disney Family Museum as I like the history behind the Disney family and parks. Ellie wanted to bike across the Golden Gate Bridge, but that idea was quickly shut down once I told her there was no way me and Dad could do that, now we are going to bus it across the bridge, not bike it! Darren wants to see Alcatraz - his favourite film of all time is 'The Rock' and to see Alcatraz in real life has been a lifelong ambition of his. We have booked a tour of the island and are looking forward to it.

No restaurants booked yet, if you have any recommendations please let me know

Day 2

Day 2 of San Fran! This is the day of the Alcatraz tour. The tour is booked for 15:50 local.

Restaurants to be decided/booked.

Day 3

We have a transfer booked from Parc 55 hotel to San Francisco airport, followed by a flight to LAX through United airlines once again. We leave for LAX at 12:30 local and arrive at LAX at 14:00 local. Then, we have a transfer from LAX to Fairfield Inn.
My DD has taken on the responsibility of researching and writing down every restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day in Anaheim.

Breakfast - To be decided
Lunch - SFO Airport
Dinner - Tony Roma's Steakhouse, Reserved.

Day 4

Day 1 of Disneyland California.

Breakfast - Denny's (this is a 5 minute walk away, so will definitely be visiting this more than once!)
Lunch - Galactic Grill, DL Park (this is a Star Wars themed burger bar which Darren is really looking forward to!)
Dinner - Bubba Gump (I have never had this before and again is a short walk away)

Day 5

Day 2 of Disneyland.

Breakfast - The Cove on Harbor Market and Cafe (this is outside the Tropicana Inn hotel and is a small convenience store with all the necessities and some extra tourist-y items such as Disney merchandise. It also has a coffee bar inside that serves pastries and other breakfast items. This too is a short walk from our hotel.)
Lunch - Carnation Cafe, DL Park.
Dinner - PCH Grill Buffet, DL Park. Reserved.

Day 6

Day 3 of Disneyland.

Breakfast - IHOP.
Lunch - Redd Rockett's Pizza Port, DL Park (Tomorrowland).
Dinner - Tortilla Jo's, Downtown Disney.

Day 7

On this day, we are going on the Hollywood/Warner Bros. Studio Tour. We will be picked up at 8:40am and it will last until about 6pm that evening. During this tour, you will see the celeb homes in Hollywood, the Chinese Theatre, Rodeo Drive, the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, the Hollywood sign and many more things. In the WB part of the tour you will see the sets of many TV shows such as Friends, The Ellen Show, The Big Bang Theory and the one my DD is most excited for - Pretty Little Liars. Lunch is also provided.

Breakfast - Grab & go from the hotel.
Lunch - Will eat on the tour.
Dinner - Captain Kidd's Buffet, short walk from the hotel.

Day 8

Day 4 of Disney. On this day, we are doing the 'Walk in Walt's Disneyland Footsteps Tour'. This tour takes you around Disneyland and you get to see and learn more about the park through Walt's eyes. A tour guide takes you around the park, and you get to ride the Peter Pan attraction through the FastPass lane. You also get to see the Dream Suite which is like Cinderella's Suite in WDW. Lunch is also provided by the Jolly Holiday Bakery. The tour is booked for 10:30am. Also on this day, we are doing the Paint the Night Blue Bayou dinner package. You have a meal in the Blue Bayou restaurant - this is the restaurant where you can see the Pirates of the Caribbean boat sail past. After the meal, we will be seated in preferred viewing for the Paint the Night parade which is only here for Disneyland's 60th anniversary, so will be going next month (September 2016).

Breakfast - Flo's V8 Cafe, Carsland.
Lunch - Lunch by the Jolly Holiday Bakery on the 'Walk in Walt's Disneyland Footsteps Tour'. Reserved.
Dinner - Paint the Night Blue Bayou Dinner Package. Reserved.

Day 9

On this day, we are going to break up Disney a bit and go to Knotts Berry Farm. (This is another place that Darren went when he was Ellie's age). We will get there through the ART service.

Breakfast - Denny's.
Lunch - Knotts Berry Farm.
Dinner - Rainforest Cafe, Downtown Disney.

Day 10

Day 5 of Disneyland.

Breakfast - Plaza Inn, DL Park (breakfast buffet).
Lunch - Cafe Orleans, DL Park.
Dinner - Rancho del Zocalo, DL Park.

Day 11

Transfer from Fairfield Inn to LAX, followed by a flight from LAX to Heathrow. The flight leaves at 17:45 local and arrives at Heathrow at 12:20 local (the next day).

Arrive home

That is the end of our pre-trippie. I do apologise if I rambled on slightly too much.

Look forward to the trip report

Thanks for reading
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Edited at 09:50 PM.
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Old 8 Aug 16, 10:17 AM  
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Alien
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Fairield Inn gets great reviews!
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Old 8 Aug 16, 06:17 PM  
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Eeyorefanuk
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Who are you doing your tour with? Looking myself. Found Anaheim tours

Quite interested in the Walt tour now lol

We are staying at best western just outside gates

Have fun
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Old 8 Aug 16, 06:39 PM  
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Originally Posted by Eeyorefanuk View Post
Who are you doing your tour with? Looking myself. Found Anaheim tours

Quite interested in the Walt tour now lol

We are staying at best western just outside gates

Have fun
Hi, we are doing the LA/Warner Bros with the Anaheim Tour Company as they had good reviews and they pick up from Anaheim hotels.

We booked the Walk in Walt's Disneyland Footsteps tour directly through Disneyland.

Thank you
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Old 8 Aug 16, 07:25 PM  
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Originally Posted by Disneymaddaddy View Post
Hi, we are doing the LA/Warner Bros with the Anaheim Tour Company as they had good reviews and they pick up from Anaheim hotels.

We booked the Walk in Walt's Disneyland Footsteps tour directly through Disneyland.

Thank you
Ah snap lol

Think will stick with them

Very interested in the Walt tour

Are you doing a trip report ?
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Old 8 Aug 16, 07:40 PM  
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Originally Posted by Eeyorefanuk View Post
Ah snap lol

Think will stick with them

Very interested in the Walt tour

Are you doing a trip report ?
Yep, will be doing a trip report with lots of piccies to go with!
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Old 8 Aug 16, 09:06 PM  
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Eeyorefanuk
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Thank you

Will you post on here when you start it

Have a wonderful time
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Old 8 Aug 16, 09:34 PM  
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Of course and thank you
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Old 8 Aug 16, 09:53 PM  
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Sounds fantastic...

We are in LAX airport on way home now...

Just a few points...


WB tour is fantastic and they ask at the start for guests to say their fav shows... Tour guides will tailor it. Big ones for our group were Big Bang Theory, Gilmore Girls and Pretty Little Liars. A lot about PLL... Your DD will enjoy it.

Walts tour is amazing and one of the highlights of our trip. We went at 0930 and on the tour for about 4 hours including lunch... Loved it.

Book rainforest if you can... Ok it was a Friday evening we enquired and it was a 1 hour 45 min wait to sit inside. 35 mins to sit outside... But why would we eat outside in RC. :s

Alcatraz tour... Amazing. Nice restaurants on Pier 39 just a short stroll from pier 33 where you get the Alcatraz cruises. We ate in Bubba Gumo (window view looking out onto the Bay and Alcatraz) and Wipe Out. Note that Bubba was an hour wait ( we were told) on Saturday evening, although more like 40-45 mins.

Blue Bayou... Lovely restaurant... Lovely food. Had a great meal there last night.
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Old 8 Aug 16, 10:06 PM  
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Originally Posted by miked1e View Post
Sounds fantastic...

We are in LAX airport on way home now...

Just a few points...


WB tour is fantastic and they ask at the start for guests to say their fav shows... Tour guides will tailor it. Big ones for our group were Big Bang Theory, Gilmore Girls and Pretty Little Liars. A lot about PLL... Your DD will enjoy it.

Walts tour is amazing and one of the highlights of our trip. We went at 0930 and on the tour for about 4 hours including lunch... Loved it.

Book rainforest if you can... Ok it was a Friday evening we enquired and it was a 1 hour 45 min wait to sit inside. 35 mins to sit outside... But why would we eat outside in RC. :s

Alcatraz tour... Amazing. Nice restaurants on Pier 39 just a short stroll from pier 33 where you get the Alcatraz cruises. We ate in Bubba Gumo (window view looking out onto the Bay and Alcatraz) and Wipe Out. Note that Bubba was an hour wait ( we were told) on Saturday evening, although more like 40-45 mins.

Blue Bayou... Lovely restaurant... Lovely food. Had a great meal there last night.
Thanks so much for the tips

In the WB tour, do they see what shows are most requested and only go to those ones?

Thank you
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