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Old 30 Oct 19, 11:03 PM  
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Melanie R
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Glaciers & Glowtinis - Day 12 San Fransisco

I was awake early today as I needed to be out of the cabin by 8am and I also wanted to be ready to leave the ship at my allotted time of 10:15 as I had quite a lot planned for the day. My disembarkation waiting area was the Vista lounge and I headed there via the buffet to grab a quick croissant for breakfast. Once I had arrived at around 9am, I took a seat to wait for my timeslot and poured a coffee from the supplies provided while I waited.

At around 9:15, they made an announcement in the lounge that regardless of allocated time, we were free to disembark whenever we were ready – I quickly finished my coffee and headed out to disembark the ship.

I was quickly through the terminal – I had my luggage with me so didn’t need to collect it, and was through customs with no issues and within around 10 minutes was standing outside in the sunshine looking to find the taxi rank!

There was a queue of waiting taxis, so I hopped in the first one and gave directions to my hotel for the night – Hotel Zephyr. I had chosen this primarily due to the location - I wanted one close to the cruise terminal so that I could offload my luggage and then I would be luggage free to enjoy my day.

Everyone had warned me about the unpredictable weather in San Francisco, and the sudden fogs which can descend and obscure views, particularly of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge, but looking up at the skies, this was not going to be an issue today – the sky was a glorious shade of blue and there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky!

I sat back for the short taxi ride to the hotel, and within minutes I was there and the driver was offloading my case for me. I headed into the hotel to check in, and the only work I can use to describe it is quirky! It was nautically themed but with a very modern twist and had a great vibe in the lobby with lots of people coming and going. I joined the short queue at reception and was very quickly checked in and informed my room wouldn’t be available until around 4pm – not an issue as I had plans for the day and wouldn’t be back until well after 4. I handed my case in at the luggage store and asked about getting a taxi to my first stop for the day – I was told there would be some outside and as I headed out, there was indeed a taxi there waiting. I hopped in and asked to be taken to the Walt Disney Family Museum – well you didn’t think I was going to have a completely Disney free holiday did you! 😉

The taxi driver was very chatty – he introduced himself (Joe) and once he realised I was receptive, gave me a commentary of the city as we were driving through – he had previously been a tour guide and he was excellent, really interesting and the journey flew by – before too long we were pulling up outside the museum!

I had been so excited to visit this place – it’s somewhere I had always wanted to visit, but thought I would have to wait until I planned a West Coast trip, so to have an unexpected day in the city, it had always been top of my list of places to see. I had booked my ticket weeks ago from back home, and I had added in the extra tour to see the Mickey exhibition which was housed in a separate building – my timeslot for this was 1:30 so as it was now around 10:30, I had plenty of time to enjoy the rest of the museum before I needed to be there.

I took a few pics of the outside of the building and headed inside.









My ticket was on my iPhone and was quickly scanned and I was sin! I connected to the free Wi-Fi and sent some pics to friends and family that I was back in a Disney bubble and set off to explore the museum.

I was in my element walking around – to be surrounded by Disney paraphernalia and to see so many items personal to Walt was just amazing and I spent quite a lot of time just reading the info on the exhibits and meandering round the place.









































I was about half way round when I found the infamous bench Walt had sat on watching his own children at the amusement park and where the concept of Disneyland was born. It was also from here that I got some fantastic views of the Golden Gate Bridge with bright blue skies in the background.











After the obligatory rest stop on the bench, I carried on down to the model of Disneyland and was just in time to catch the talk from a cast member which was fascinating to listen to.











I loved spotting all the detail in the model, and walked back up the ramp to take more notice of the model train I had hurried past to catch the talk – it brought back memories of the Behind The Steam Train tour I had been on at WDW with my ex which I had found far more interesting than I had expected.









I continued on with my tour















I then arrived at the part of the museum with all the tributes made to Walt when news of his passing had been announced – it may seem really strange to say, but I got a sudden jolt of reality that this man was actually dead, even though he had been gone for almost my entire life, it felt as if it had only just happened, and before I knew it I was sitting on the seat surrounded by all these obituaries and had tears streaming down my face. It is such a moving tribute to an extraordinary man

























Once I had composed myself, I headed on to the exit (which by some strange twist ended in a gift shop!) and had a happy half hour browsing the shop, buying a fridge magnet, some earrings and a couple of birthday cards as I knew Anna and Rachel (the other 2 Glowtini Girls) both had a birthday in the coming weeks and knew they would love them. I managed to resist buying a mug



I had very little room in my luggage and had been strong the whole holiday! I paid for my purchases and had around 40 minutes before I was due to head to the Mickey exhibition, so I headed into the café next to the shop for some lunch. I had a toasted cheese sandwich and a bottle of coke – just what I needed at this point.



I also messaged Anna and Rachel to tell them I had resisted buying the mug but had been very tempted. This pair are totally useless if you want encouragement to stay strong, but amazing if you need a nudge to buy! Before I knew it I was the proud owner of a Disney Museum mug!



I asked in reception for directions to the Mickey exhibit and was told it was downstairs, which didn’t seem right to me as I was sure I had read it was in a different building – I went down the stairs and could se straight away I was in the wrong place, so headed back up and asked a different lady who directed me out of the building and told me to follow the Mickey signs across the car park and the building would be just up ahead.

I walked around and found the building, taking in the views across the harbour and of the bridge along the way! I headed in and was asked to check in my rucksack as they had some expensive artwork on display and didn’t want bags to catch them – this was free of charge and I had no issues at all doing so. This was a smaller exhibit than the main museum but totally dedicated to the main mouse and was really interesting and there were some stunning pieces of art which I would have loved to be able to afford (not that they were for sale! )

































Once I was finished, I headed back round to the main building and headed back into the café for another coke as I was really thirsty by now – I took it outside in the sun and checked the time as I had a second excursion planned to Alcatraz this afternoon, but I still had time to kill, so enjoyed the sunshine with my drink for a little longer.



I pulled out my phone to call for an uber to take me back across the city to Pier 33 so I could collect my Alcatraz tour tickets and realised the Wi-Fi was no longer working – the museum only gives you 2 hours of wifi before cutting it off! I had to turn my data back on in order to call for a cab, but before too long was sitting in the back of the car being taken towards Alcatraz!



I collected my tickets, relieved I had booked them in advance as the next tour available to book was in 4 days time, and I would be back at work by then!

I still had some time so enjoyed sitting in the sun waiting for the ferry to take me across the bay to the prison.



Once onboard, it was a very quick hop across and I could see the Golden Princess berthed just in the background – it seemed like ages since I had been onboard and was hard to imagine it was only that morning that I had disembarked!







We were told it was a steep walk up to the prison from where we got off the ferry – and they weren’t kidding! It’s the equivalent of 13 stories high.







Once inside, I collected my audio pack and put the headphones on to be guided around – this place is so interesting to visit and so difficult to imagine people actually lived in these conditions. Nobody had warned me either about the smell! The audio tour guides you around the prison pointing out areas of interest, and former guards and inmates are the ones providing the commentary.







Is it wrong that the shower block reminded me of the showers in the PE block of my very posh private school I attended?



Around half way round the tour there is a part which takes you back outside, and I’ll be honest I was very glad to spend a little time here as I was starting to find it extremely claustrophobic inside, and I had been here less than 90 minutes – I couldn’t begin to imagine how I would feel to be locked in one of those cells for over 20 hours a day for years.









We also got to see the solitary confinement area and the part known as the hole – this is where there was a solid panel in front of the cell bars plunging the inmate into total blackness for days at a time. The tour allows you to go inside the cells to see what they are like, but my claustrophobia kicked in again and even though the doors were open, I couldn’t manage to take that step inside! Good job I’m a law abiding citizen!

I was starting to flag by now and decided to head back down to take the ferry – I managed to hitch a lift on the tram which runs up and down – it is there for people with mobility issues, but the tram was mostly empty and the driver called out to see if anyone wanted to hop on as he was ready to go, so I was quickly down and joined the waiting queue for the ferry. It was just docking so didn’t take long before I was heading back towards the pier and reflecting on my day.

I was soon back at the pier and called for an uber to take me back to the hotel to check in – it was almost 7pm by now so I was confident my room would be ready

I was quickly back at the hotel, went back to reception to be given my room key and complementary water bottle, collected my luggage and headed up to find my room. The quirky nature of the hotel continued in the room – I’ve never had a hotel room with a dartboard before!







I knew that if I sat down or took my shoes off I wouldn’t get back up again, so dropped off my luggage and went straight down to find somewhere to eat. I was flagging by now, so when I noticed a IHOP next door to the hotel, I headed straight in and was quickly seated at a table where I ordered fish and chips and a coke – I still had a few things to sort for my travel day home the next day, and knew it would be a long and tiring day, so just wanted to eat and get back as quickly as I could. The food was serviced quickly, and while it’s not the best fish and chips I’ve ever had, was perfectly fine for what I was paying – I knew IHOP wasn’t going to be a fine dining experience!



I headed back to my room to sort my luggage into 1 bag for the flight home, and logged onto the hotel Wi-Fi to check in for my flight to Vancouver. I was a little nervous about the trip home as after I had booked my San Francisco to Vancouver flight, my return flight to Manchester had been brought forward, so my transfer time was a lot tighter than I was comfortable with. I had looked to move to the earlier flight to Vancouver weeks before I left, but it was lamost more than the cost of the flight to change. When I went to check in for the flight, there was an option popped up to switch to the earlier flight for $30 – this was a no brianer and really set my mind at rest as I now had over 4 hours between flights.

The flip side, was I now had a 5:30 am start if I wanted to get to the airport in time, so at this point headed to bed to get as much sleep as I could before I started my long journey back home in the morning.
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Old 30 Oct 19, 11:17 PM  
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Disney_time
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So sad. Your last day :-(

I'd never heard of the Disney Family Museum so I think that will go on our list for Aug/Sept 2020. I think the scale model would keep me occupied for hours.

Edited to add that I've just looked at my countdown and realised I'm in my DDD for our flight to Vancouver to start our ski holiday

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Old 30 Oct 19, 11:20 PM  
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margyloveswdw
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Wow, a busy day and the museum looked really interesting.

Despite not really thinking I would, I loved Alcatraz.

Nice hotel too...
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Old 31 Oct 19, 09:31 AM  
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kateh134
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A very busy day! Some beautiful art work which I’m sure had beautiful prices to match!
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Old 31 Oct 19, 09:50 AM  
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A busy but fascinating day. Would love to visit Walt's museum one day.
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Old 31 Oct 19, 10:50 AM  
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Vinniecat
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Sounds like you had a fantastic time. I really enjoyed visiting Alcatraz. I love San Francisco and your hotel looked great. We used uber a lot when we were there and only one driver spoke to us so it was nice to hear that you had a chatty taxi driver. Thanks for the report.
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Old 31 Oct 19, 12:50 PM  
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Some great pictures of the museum - thanks for posting.
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Old 31 Oct 19, 02:08 PM  
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danisleigh
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We are staying At the Zephyr for 2 nights next year so nice to see it in a trip report! Have loved reading about your trip.
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Old 31 Oct 19, 08:20 PM  
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Fab day - the museum is on my bucket list too!
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Old 31 Oct 19, 10:40 PM  
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What a way to end a holiday - Disney family museum and the photos you took look amazing - certainly a place to add to the list.
As is Alcatraz - strangely intriguing!
Have love reading about your trip and this is certainly a great way to bring it to a crescendo
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