Chazy & Ben Go West Sept/Oct 2012 - Highs & Lows

Guest · 14 Oct 12, 07:36 PM

Highs
My beautiful Dooney bag which Ben brought me as a present!
Coming home - Proper food!
No weight gain really - I weighed on 25th September 10stone6 (66.3kgs) & today scales say 10stone6.7 (67.8kg) so very lucky!
Everywhere took travellers cheques!
My biggest high is the whole holiday! It goes to show if you do enough planning and research you can do the west coast without a car!
I loved San Francisco but I would recommend staying at fishermans wharf.
Cheesecake factory for dinner was lovely despite my poorliness that night.
Walt disney museum was so fascinating, the model scale of disneyland was mesmerising! Alcatraz was interesting, solitary confinement was scary!
The internal flight with virgin to LA, loved using wifi & the inflight systems.
Hollywood Roosevelt Upgrade at the hotel to a 10th floor suite overlooking Madame Tussauds & Hollywood boulevard.
Watching finding Nemo at the el capitan - the organist was cute!
Food & service at mels drive in.
Six flags magic mountain flashpass - helped hugely!
Universal studios - hardly waited for anything. Loved transformers!
Santa Monica was beautiful, the Starline tour to Malibu was cool, nice to walk on the beach outside Matthew Perrys house!
Warner bros tour - easy to get to, saw Mike from Mike & Molly. Also batmans costume from dark knight rises.
Sheraton Anaheim - clean, spacious, good location & shuttles. Great staff.
Not much to do in knotts berry - all big rides done in a couple of hours, very smooth rides. Great food in the restaurant.
Disneyland/Cali Adventure - So interesting, loved carsland, loved parades & fireworks!
Mickeys Halloween party - great fun, lots of chocolate!
Lovely national express coach driver allowing us on the earlier bus than booked!

Lows
Getting lost in San francisco & all the homeless people. The shuttle driver did explain they are taken care of with soup kitchens, also it doesn't get cold enough to freeze to death.
Hollywood McDonald's having loads of homeless people in and out scavaging in bins - they even picked scraps off the floor. Mcd did free refills so they would even pick dirty cups out the bins. :-(
Coming home to Christmas stuff everywhere! I'm so not prepared, getting back from holiday mid october has really thrown me!
I have an ear infection - it started the day we left and was worse after the internal flight.
Back to work tomorrow but it'll get pennies for the next joliday! ;-)
Hotels needing a shadow payment, I completely understand why, we were lucky Ben applied for a card before we left for emergencies!
Rides at six flags being quite rough - hurt both me and Ben.
2.5 hour bus journey back from Santa Monica!
Gun & knife shop in knotts berry! Crazy!
Flight home - broken inflight entertainment the whole way!

I think that's everything! Time to get planning the next!
We have had an amazing holiday, we've made some great memories and feel very privileged to have done this trip! Thank you all for reading and thanks to those who did trip reports and answered all my questions to enable a great holiday! I hope there's enough information to help anyone else, I can't recommend west coast enough!

If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to try to help!

Pussycat Doll · 14 Oct 12, 08:53 PM

Enjoyed the whole thing, thanks for taking the time to write it all! Pussycat

The Hulk · 14 Oct 12, 10:10 PM

Pleased you had a gr8 time. Thanks for keeping us informed throughout your trip, I have loved reading all your adventures every day. We getting so excited to go next year now so thanks for all the info and photos, they were fab. I will no doubt be asking ALOT of questions as we start planning our intinary

Guest · 14 Oct 12, 10:13 PM

Originally Posted by Pussycat Doll

Enjoyed the whole thing, thanks for taking the time to write it all! Pussycat

Thank you for reading :-)

Guest · 14 Oct 12, 10:16 PM

Originally Posted by The Hulk

Pleased you had a gr8 time. Thanks for keeping us informed throughout your trip, I have loved reading all your adventures every day. We getting so excited to go next year now so thanks for all the info and photos, they were fab. I will no doubt be asking ALOT of questions as we start planning our intinary

I'm glad I could help, everyone on here helped me loads. I'll be pleased to answer any questions :-)

Merligan · 12 Oct 13, 07:25 AM

Just started planning a West Coast trip myself so yours was great for tips, sounds like you had an amzing time.

Will look out for you in Nottingham,

xx

Guest · 15 Oct 13, 03:36 PM

Hey thanks for reading and posting! I'm pleased it helped! What's your plans? Where abouts do you live?

14 Oct 12, 07:36 PM	#1
	14 Oct 12, 07:36 PM Guest Guest
Guest Guest	Chazy & Ben Go West Sept/Oct 2012 - Highs & Lows Highs My beautiful Dooney bag which Ben brought me as a present! Coming home - Proper food! No weight gain really - I weighed on 25th September 10stone6 (66.3kgs) & today scales say 10stone6.7 (67.8kg) so very lucky! Everywhere took travellers cheques! My biggest high is the whole holiday! It goes to show if you do enough planning and research you can do the west coast without a car! I loved San Francisco but I would recommend staying at fishermans wharf. Cheesecake factory for dinner was lovely despite my poorliness that night. Walt disney museum was so fascinating, the model scale of disneyland was mesmerising! Alcatraz was interesting, solitary confinement was scary! The internal flight with virgin to LA, loved using wifi & the inflight systems. Hollywood Roosevelt Upgrade at the hotel to a 10th floor suite overlooking Madame Tussauds & Hollywood boulevard. Watching finding Nemo at the el capitan - the organist was cute! Food & service at mels drive in. Six flags magic mountain flashpass - helped hugely! Universal studios - hardly waited for anything. Loved transformers! Santa Monica was beautiful, the Starline tour to Malibu was cool, nice to walk on the beach outside Matthew Perrys house! Warner bros tour - easy to get to, saw Mike from Mike & Molly. Also batmans costume from dark knight rises. Sheraton Anaheim - clean, spacious, good location & shuttles. Great staff. Not much to do in knotts berry - all big rides done in a couple of hours, very smooth rides. Great food in the restaurant. Disneyland/Cali Adventure - So interesting, loved carsland, loved parades & fireworks! Mickeys Halloween party - great fun, lots of chocolate! Lovely national express coach driver allowing us on the earlier bus than booked! Lows Getting lost in San francisco & all the homeless people. The shuttle driver did explain they are taken care of with soup kitchens, also it doesn't get cold enough to freeze to death. Hollywood McDonald's having loads of homeless people in and out scavaging in bins - they even picked scraps off the floor. Mcd did free refills so they would even pick dirty cups out the bins. :-( Coming home to Christmas stuff everywhere! I'm so not prepared, getting back from holiday mid october has really thrown me! I have an ear infection - it started the day we left and was worse after the internal flight. Back to work tomorrow but it'll get pennies for the next joliday! ;-) Hotels needing a shadow payment, I completely understand why, we were lucky Ben applied for a card before we left for emergencies! Rides at six flags being quite rough - hurt both me and Ben. 2.5 hour bus journey back from Santa Monica! Gun & knife shop in knotts berry! Crazy! Flight home - broken inflight entertainment the whole way! I think that's everything! Time to get planning the next! We have had an amazing holiday, we've made some great memories and feel very privileged to have done this trip! Thank you all for reading and thanks to those who did trip reports and answered all my questions to enable a great holiday! I hope there's enough information to help anyone else, I can't recommend west coast enough! If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to try to help! Edited at 05:49 PM.

15 Oct 13, 03:36 PM	#7
	15 Oct 13, 03:36 PM Guest Guest
Guest Guest	Hey thanks for reading and posting! I'm pleased it helped! What's your plans? Where abouts do you live?