K and David's California Adventure! May 2015

[Guest]

Look what arrived!



I was SO excited when these came in the post on Saturday morning!

[JackyH]

Great trip report. Look forward to reading more about your plans. Yosemite looks breathtaking.

[Guest]

Hi everyone! First of all I'm so excited because we are going to DLP in 10 days! (Not sure if I should do a trip report for this or not...?) Yay! Then I can change the count down to California! We also have another trip before then tho as we are going to New York and Washington DC for David's 30th (it was ment to be a surprise but he knows now)... it's gonna be an expensive year... Hummmm oh well!



After we had booked our flights I realised something... THE 24 HOUR DISNEYLAND EVENT MIGHT BE ON THE LAST DAY WE ARE IN DISNEYLAND! I freaked out when I realised this. I don't know how I forgot, we had planned our whole trip so that we were coming home before the Memorial Day weekend and the Friday of that weekend is when they have had the 24 hour event. I freaked out because a) I WANT TO GO! and b) we are meant to be flying home that day! Imagine getting there at 6am with tons of people then having to leave at 4pm while everyone got to stay for another 14 hours, it would kill me. Anyway, I called virgin up straight away to find out if I could change the flights (well not straight away, because we couldn't change them for free) it will cost us £100 each plus whatever price difference there is. They normally announce it in February so we are going to wait till then and change our flights if it is on that Friday. Make sense? Ok. Moving on...



We have been planning and planning as much as we can! I really enjoy sitting in the evenings with a huge map of California and all our lonely planet books trying to figure out how to fit in everything we want to do. We really don't want to overlook anything and miss anything out. But at the same time we aren't the kind of people that like to be super structured and enjoy being spontaneous.

As you can see our planning isn't exactly spreadsheets and laminated itineraries!



So this is what we have so far. OH! Also we changed something from when I last updated this. We are now staying 2 nights along the pacific coast highway and sacrificing one of a nights in San Francisco to do this. But it makes more sense as we don't want to rush, it also works out cheaper!

30/04/15
Day 0 -

We will probably both be working this day but I was thinking of traveling up to Heathrow the night before if we can get a hotel room for super cheap. I'm hoping to find the £29 premier inn price at some point but if not I don't/can't spend any more than that as we only live about an hour or so from Heathrow so we can easily just drive up (or hopefully get a lift from a parent!) on the day.

01/05/15
Day 1 - Travel Day

Our Virgin flight leaves at 11:15am from Heathrow so will need to be at the airport at 9am, we'll probably leave our house at 7am if we don't get a hotel the night before.

We then arrive in LAX at 14:35pm will pick up the hire car and head to the Rest Heaven Motel in Santa Monica where we will be staying for 2 nights.

I've estimated this will be around 17:30ish and we'll go exploring Santa Monica and get some dinner.

*we will probably do another post about food at some point as we are both vegetarian so might do some researching into some good placed to eat, although I'm sure it won't be hard to find any. I didn't have any issues at all when I went last time.*



02/05/15
Day 2 - Santa Monica + Venice Beach

Today we will explore Santa Monica some more then walk to Venice beach explore there and go to the Venice canals.



We'll then hire bikes and cycle the South Bay bicycle trail in the afternoon.

03/05/15
Day 3 - Drive up Pacific Coast Highway to Morro Bay



Today has a bit more structure as there are specific places we want to stop and see and we've worked out driving times etc.

-Leave Santa Monica 8am
45 Minutes (21.8miles)
-Malibu for Breakfast
1.5 Hours (65.7miles)
-Stop at Santa Barbra
1 Hour 40mins (94.7 miles)
-Pismo Beach For Lunch
40 Minutes (25 miles)
-Arrive at Morro Bay

We will arrive at Morro bay around 4pm hopefully and check into the Pleasant Inn Motel. This is one of the hotels I'm actually really excited about as it looks really nice! As we are on a budget all the other ones are pretty basic but this one was cheap and looks really lovely, to be honest it seems a bit to good to be true. Here are some photos as this is one we booked after I posted up about accommodation.

We'll then do some exploring and get some dinner.

04/05/14
Day 4 - Drive from Morro Bay to Monterey

This morning we will have breakfast in Morro bay and head off around 10am

-Leave Morro Bay 10am
42 Minutes (30 miles)
-San Siemon
1.5 Hours (52 miles)
-Big Sur
43 Minutes (24 miles)
-Bixby Creek Bridge
36 Minutes (18 miles)
-Arrive Monterey/Carmel



We should arrive in Monterey at 4pm and will check into our motel then probably drive back to carmel to have a look around then drive round to Monterey generally exploring that whole bay there.

Have dinner etc... I'm gonna stop putting have dinner, obviously at some points in the day we are going to eat! I'll keep it to myself unless we are going to a specific place!

I'm really excited about these two days as we are going to see so much amazing scenery and see so many places. I'm a bit bummed out as everyone says that it's better to drive down the coast as you are closer to the shore line but I didn't figure this out till after we had planned all this so oh well. I'm pretty sure it's still going to be incredible!

05/05/15
Day 5 - Monterey to San Francisco

Today we are traveling to San Francisco, first thing we will be doing tho is going on a whale watching tour in Monterey. Well excited about this! Dolphins are my favourite! This will take 3 hours I think so we'll leaving Monterey at 12ish I guess.

We will then be going to Santa Cruz to do check out some Lost Boys stuff! One of my favourite movies.



Then we'll go to Cupertino so I can go to infinite loop and do a few other pretty geeky things here. We wanted to go to the computer museum here but it's not open today.

After that we'll head to half moon bay which will be around 6pm.

Arriving in San Francisco to check in at the Wharf Inn around 730 hopefully and go exploring the Wharf.


06/05/15
Day 6 - San Francisco

9am Alcatraz tour

Lunch at Boudins

Then go exploring! These are the places we want to see while we are here (not necessarily all in the same day)

-Colt Tower
-Cable Cars
-Lombard Street
-Alamo Square
-Town Hall
-Moma
-Golden Gate Park




07/05/15
Day 7 - San Francisco

Today we are going to hire bikes and do the thing that everyone else does, bike the bridge!

We'll also be stopping off at the Walt Disney Family Museum (for a few hours I would imagine!)

We'll get the ferry back from Sausalito and work out what we'll do in the evening a bit closer to the time.



08/05/15
Day 8 - San Francisco last day

Today we have left open to basically do everything we haven't had time to do yet and maybe other things we have found we want to do since getting there. Oh and after reading other people's reports it seems lots of people go somewhere for breakfast that is meant to be super dooper so we might go there. I think it's called Mamas?



09/05/15
Day 9 - San Francisco to Yosemite

Today we get back in the car and drive to Yosemite!

We are going to leave San Fran around 8am and go to Oakland to look at the Pixar studios then we will go on to Mariposa grove to see the giant sequoia trees.

We will carry on to Curry Village stopping at tunnel view so we can take in the incredible landscape that we will be staying in.

No plans once we are at Curry Village, we will probably arrive around 4pm check in and then go explore the immediate surroundings and working out what hikes we are going to do the next day. We are staying in a permeant tent thing in Curry Villiage. I'm not too concerned about this or the fact we have to go use a shower/toilet block, the only thing I'm concerned about is how angry Ranny is going to get with me when I wake him up in the middle of the night and make him escort me to the toilets when I need a wee!



10/05/15 - 12/05/15
Day 10 - 12

We will have 3 full days in Yosemite to explore and go on lots of hikes around the park. We aren't going to have a proper itinerary for this we just have a list of hikes we want to do and a few places we would like to eat at (like the Ahwahnee and Wowana hotels)

If anyone is interested these are the hikes on our list:

- Mirror Lake
-Yosemite Falls
-Vernal + Nevada Falls
-Sentinel Dome
-Dog lake
-Four mile trail
-Merced River



13/05/15
Day 13 - Yosemite to LA

Today we head back to LA, we will leave Yosemite in the morning aiming to get to LA by 6pm. The drive is over 6 hours which will be the longest one of the trip as we don't plan on stopping anywhere on the way.

We are staying in an air bnb place in Eagle rock which is quite near to most things and only about a 10 minute drive from Griffiths park. The place looks amazing and it will be nice to have our own little space to come back to each night.

We have dinner plans for this evening, we'll be going to Tam O'shanter's which was one of Walt's favourite places to eat. It's only about a 10 minute drive from where we are staying which is good or we might get the metro or taxi so we can have some drinks!



14/05/15
Day 14 - Exploring hollywood and Universal Studios

Today we will get up early and head to Hollywood, go to the walk of fame etc. This is basically the only thing I did last time I went and it was pretty rubbish but obviously we have to at least go have a look. We'll see the Chinese theatre and go to Disney's Soda Fountain and Studio just because this is a DISNEY holiday!

There is a small chance we may be able to go to Jim Henson's studio... which would be incredible as the only way the public can go there is with Adventures by Disney! Which we looked into but could not afford... it looks so good though! I seriously considered it. But we are doing our own cheap (er) version!



Then on to Universal Studios! We'll be heading here around midday as I've been there and I know the park isn't massive I'm sure we will be able to fit most things in. If we don't go to the Jim Henson studio we'll probably end up getting there 10/11ish anyway because I'm not keen on spending more than an hour on the walk of fame.

We'll probably stay in the park till closing then maybe stay in city walk for dinner.

15/05/15
Day 15 - Sony Tour and Disneyland Bandstand/Huntington Beach

Today we will be going on our first (proper) studios tour; Sony.

After this we are driving to Corona Del Mar as the original Disneyland Bandstand which was meant to be in town square, but was moved due to it blocking the view of the castle is in a garden centre there!

We are really into the history of Disneyland and Walt Disney and really want to do as many things relating to this on our trip as we can, after all our whole reason for going to California is to go to Disneyland!

We will then go to Huntington Beach and explore there.



16/05/15
Day 16 - Warner Brothers tour, Griffiths park and a whole bunch of Disney stuff!

This day is going to be incredible! We'll be starting with a 9am Warner brothers tour.

Then we will be driving past the Disney Studios to have a look at this -



*So l've actually joined D23 in the chances that they will be offering a studio tour to members while we are there, the chances of this happening while we are in California let alone LA and on this day are pretty slim! But we'll see.*

From this we will head over to Forest Lawn Memorial Park to visit Walt's Grave. We'll then do a bunch of things around Griffiths park including:

-Finding the tunnel from who framed Roger Rabbit.
-Walk up to the Hollywood sign.
-Go to the merry go round where Walt used to take his kids and got the idea for Disneyland.
-Visit the Griffiths Observatory
-Go to Flower Street to see Disney Imagineering.

This is going to be a pretty hectic day but one I am very excited about, no plans for the evening but I'm sure we will find something to do.

17/05/15
Day 17 - Paramount Tour and Downtown LA

Today we will go on a 930 tour of Paramount studios. After this we want to find the House from the first Season of American Horror story and then look round the Walt Disney Concert Hall.



After this we will explore downtown LA and maybe find centre studios where Mad Men is filmed. (they don't do tours though)

18/05/15
DAY 18!

WE ARE GOING TO DISNEYLAND!


[Photo Credit: Tom Bricker] disneytouristblog



The best part of our trip! The reason we are here! DISNEYLAND! (can you tell I'm excited?)

We are spending 5 whole days in Disneyland, maybe one very very long day if they have a 24 hour event and we manage to change our flights!

I do not have an literary for these 5 days.. shock horror! THe only thing on our list is FUN! haha.

We have a rough plan, basically that we will start in Disneyland (obviously) then the next day go to DCA then the next back to Disneyland etc resulting in 3 days in the original magic kingdom and 2 days in DCA. Oh and we are going to book the walking in Walt's foot steps tour for the Wednesday which will be in the middle of our 5 days. The parks are so close though so we can just go between the two it doesn't really matter but we'll want to spend more time in Disneyland to soak up all the history.

We do have a list of palaces we want to eat which are:

DL

Plaza inn (character breakfast)
Blue Bayou (lunch)
The Golden Horseshoe (where walt used to eat and had his own private box which is now open to the public)
Carnation Cafe (lunch)

Jolly Holiday, Hungry Bear and Tiki Juice bar for snacks!

DCA

Carthay Circle restaurant
Cover Bar
Bayside Brews
Mendocino Bar

I also want to go to Trader Sam's at the Disneyland hotel, we'll probably do this on the first night then maybe every night after...

So that's it! This has taken me an awful long time to write... I don't think I know what I'm getting myself in for writing a trip report!

I'm sure I will have more updates closer to the time mainly in regards to Disneyland, there is still a small chance we might be able to afford to stay in the Disneyland hotel so we'll see!

If you have read this far (which I'm kinda thinking not many people will) THANK YOU! I hope you liked it and see ya real soon!

[SuzyM]

It all looks amazing! I will be following your trip reports closely as we go in Aug - similar places to you - we are doing SF/Yosemite/LA/San Diego/Anaheim. So I look forward to hearing more

Suzy

[Guest]

That sounds amazing! Hopefully I will put it up before you go! Will you be doing a trip report?

[SuzyM]

Originally Posted by stuffandfluff

That sounds amazing! Hopefully I will put it up before you go! Will you be doing a trip report?

See more...

I'm not sure yet - I would really like to and I love reading other people's, but I am not sure I would be disciplined enough to make enough notes or remember everything to report back. I am tempted though as totally love reading other people's - so very much looking forward to yours

Suzy

[meandmyboy]

Sounds great! Some really interesting plans and I can't wait to read all about it.

[Guest]

If anyone is interested I have ended up doing a Trip Report for our DLP trip! Thought it would be good practise before doing this one!

The link is in my signature if you want to have a look.

[DapperDisNY]

Trip looks and sounds like its going to be great. Those canvas tent cabin things look awesome.

We will be there in may as well, a little bit before you. We opted to stay at the DL hotel due to the location, and its cheaper than the Grand Californian.

Didn't know anything about the 60th anniversary, hopefully there is some exclusive new merch to buy.

Looking forward to reading your updates and report.
Thanks for Sharing!

[iheartwdw]

Wow, what an amazing trip! I am very jealous!

We are hoping to do a similar trip in 2017 (that will be our 5 year anniversary and my DH really wants to add a stop at Vegas to have our vows renewed by Elvis ).

Lily looks a lot like our cat Franklin, especially the disapproving look you get when you take yet another photo!

Looking forward to reading more,

Laura Xx