**Kylie & Carley's California Adventure- Travelling to LA & Downtown Disney**

[xxSmileyKyliexx]

>>>INDEX HERE<<<

Thursday 1st November 2019

We must have chatted for ages before falling asleep last night as my notes state that we were still awake at 11:30pm. This is usually the case when we stay together, especially when going on holiday. We just talk about what we are looking forward to and get excited about the plans ahead and don’t realise the time! So much for early night! This morning we woke at 4:05am and my god I felt so tired. Not because I didn’t sleep well, I actually had the best sleep and didn’t wake once, but I’m the sort of person that needs like 10 hours sleep to feel refreshed! 4 and a half was not going to cut it! Carley said she was awake for ages because there were people being loud and banging around so she had even less sleep, I wouldn’t have heard them as I sleep with ear plugs in, have done since I was 17 and now I can’t sleep without them! The hotel could have been on fire for all I knew, I was soundo I struggled to get my contact lenses in this morning, trying to prise my eye open was difficult and the lense was just bouncing straight off, once in I felt a bit more awake and it helped that I could actually see. Our flight today wasn’t until 9:35am so we were up probably much earlier than we needed to be. We hadn’t checked in yet and Virgin Atlantic at Heathrow don’t do twilight check in like at Gatwick so we still had to get rid of the luggage. We were worried that there would be a long queue at check in so had planned to get there for 5am when it opened. It was now around 4:20am so we needed to get a shimmy on. We had the quickest wash in history, I don’t even know if I had a shower or wether I did a femfresh wipe ‘wash’ We got dressed into our comfies for the long flight ahead and made sure everything was packed up. I always hate the pressure of ensuring liquids are in the main case and that there isn’t anything I shouldn’t have in my cabin case. We hadn’t even weighed our cases by this point so obviously we were worrying over that too, I think we just worry for the sake of worrying when it comes to travel days We were both kept passing wind and I had to have a nervous poo before leaving, nervous poos are the worst! I remember once I was actually sick on travel day too, god knows why I just always feel on edge like something will go wrong. After taking some selfies we were leaving the room at 5:20am (deffo not at check in for 5am then!) We stopped to weigh our luggage paying £2 for the privilege. We needn’t have worried about the weight as both cases were around 17.5kg! This was good news as we were planning on buying a few bits whilst away, my cabin case had hardly anything in either!

Carley had booked an Uber and we were informed that Prince would be with us shortly. Prince! What a name We stood outside waiting for him and discovered it was ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ down, always love when it’s raining on travel day and you’re flying to lush weather. We had discussed wether to Uber to our terminal or use the shuttle which stopped at our hotel. The shuttle took longer though and was like a fiver each so it was a no brainer really, the Uber only cost £7.15. We did have to endure Prince’s life story however which was painful, especially when we were half asleep. I wasn’t in the mood to engage with strangers I just wanted to sit in silence looking out the window. But no Prince continued to chat on and on about his personal life, asking us where we lived and then he kept suggesting when he would be in Southampton and that he drives there often almost like he was hinting for something, I’d sussed him out and this was proved when he asked if we had boyfriends and then proceeded to hand Carley his personal mobile number once we arrived at our terminal I couldn’t help but sit giggling to myself. We arrived at terminal 3 at around 5:45am, we were surprised to see that there was quite a lot of traffic at this time! We swiftly thanked Prince and then ran half a mile away before he could ask us anything else.

It was raining quite heavy now so we tried to hurry along over the zebra crossings me with my cardigan over my freshly washed hair and flip flops on and both of us dragging our cases and forcing them up and down the curbs, what a sight we must have been. It felt so strange being at Heathrow and felt so unfamiliar, we didn’t really have a clue where we were going and relied on signs. Neither of us had flown from Heathrow in years, I think Carley’s was when she went to New York in 2008 and mine was when I went to India in 2007, for the record I hated India and would never go again, what a hole. We soon spotted the Virgin Atlantic check in area and headed on in. One of the staff members directed us to the self check in kiosks where we could just check ourselves in and then drop the bags off to an actual human. The process was quick and easy, there were no big queues like we thought there would have been and we were soon relieved of our suitcases.

We followed the signs to security and then my usual security check nerves started. If you all remember from last year on my solo trip when I couldn’t scan my ticket properly and had to be taken through a different way at Gatwick, that was the worst ever especially being on my own! This year there were no such dramas with the ticket scanning but what I was worrying about was my birthday cards which I had packed in my cabin case. Only because I knew I had money in some of them and didn’t want to leave them in my main luggage. I was worrying if any of the cards had badges on with a pin and that they’d be taken off me… seriously like I said before I worry for the sake of it! Such a small thing which I was just overthinking, silly me! Anyway I needn’t have worried because there were no issues and we were through within 5 minutes, of course I was randomly selected for a frisking but that was fine and we were soon walking through the duty free shop.

We never actually buy anything in duty free, we wander around smelling the perfumes, I always cover myself in the Victor & Rolf flowerbomb tester (my favourite!), we complain about the prices not actually being that much cheaper than the norm, I always say that ‘you can get that cheaper in Superdrug’ We debate about buying chocolate but then never do, nosy at the pandora jewellery and then leave empty handed. This is every duty free experience for us. Having the duty free shop as the walkway between security and the departure lounge is so silly as well, so many people just bashing into each other trying to manoeuvre cabin cases through whilst trying not to smash perfume or alcohol bottles. Actual nightmare! We soon got through and into departures where I quickly popped into WHSmith for some sweets and water which cost £9…robbing dogs! Our next port of call was the no.1 lounge which we had to find.

As I said before neither of us had been here for years, I’m not sure what terminal I even flew from so this area was completely unfamiliar to me. I consulted the itinerary for directions ‘follow signs to airport lounges & gates 13-22’. It was fairly easy to find to be honest, we laughed as we used the lift and then realised it must have been a service one as we were squished in with some big blue storage thing. We came out the lift and there in front of us was the no.1 lounge, hooray! Time to chill and scoff!

We’d booked this lounge ages ago using my nhs discount which saved us like £20 or something. We’d booked the champagne package which we were looking forward to, I’d been so tempted to book some spa treatments too but figured it would be better to save that money for holiday spends instead! The woman on reception took a while to check us in I’d given her the itinerary so she could type the reference number in, she kept saying that it wasn’t valid etc which got us a tad worried…turns out she had been typing in the flight number! We were given our menus and then were told we could sit wherever we liked. It was still quiet at this time so plenty of seats to choose from. The seating areas were all different some were cosy little sofas hidden away whilst others were like spinny ones or sofas fixed to the wall overlooking the runway. We chose the ones overlooking the runway as they were closest to the food We were disappointed to see that there wasn’t much selection for hot food and that we could only pick one item off of the menu which was then made to order. We went for bacon rolls and had to take our menus up to the bar to order them, then they took the menus off of us like they were our tickets so that we couldn’t order more than 1 thing, stingebags. We were given our glasses of champagne too, champagne at 6:30 in the morning… don’t mind if we do.

The menu options may have been limited but we were pleased to see that there were plenty of other choices for breakfast too, included with the lounge cost. There was porridge, cereals, cheese & crackers, muffins, yogurt, fruit, croissants and a good selection of hot and cold drinks including coke, Fanta etc. We soon buried off the bacon rolls and then tucked into the rest of it.

We liked the atmosphere in here, gave us that buzz of excitement that we were finally here and nearly ready to board the plane. We felt relaxed and content watching the planes from our seats, the seats could have been comfier mind. I ditched my flip flops for now and put my socks on and snuggled with eeyore, lovelies! Later on, the lounge became busier with more people cramming around the food, not half as bad as the v-room though at Gatwick, that’s always been crowded when we’ve been there. As the time was getting closer to our gate being announced I felt nervous, nervous about the flight, nervous about Carley driving when we got there, nervous that my luggage wouldn’t make it, nervous about going somewhere new where we didn’t know our surroundings. I’m terrible whilst waiting for a flight, start thinking and making up scenarios in my head of what could go wrong. I make it worse for myself! I mooched to the loo which were very posh by the way, nice hand wash and hand cream. I went to see what the spa looked like whilst there and it looked nice and relaxing, like a proper spa! My back was still hurting from the massage chair when we had gotten our pedis done so it was probably a good thing I had decided against a pre flight massage.

We decided to ditch our seats now, I put my flip flops back on and we went to explore the cinema room which we’d read about online. How cosy was it in here! Nice seats and beanbags, dimmed lights and only one bloke sat in there! We were well impressed. Avengers was on so we sat and watched it for a while, not that I had a clue what was happening. I’m terrible with films, me and Stanly recently went to watch Aquaman at the cinema and literally half hour into it I whispered to him that I was bored and was going to sit in the car He didn’t want to sit on his own watching the film so we both left, he was not pleased with me at all, oops! I couldn’t face sitting there for another 2 hours bored out of my skull watching a film I had no interest in. I did however enjoy my nachos with hot cheese sauce. Anyway so we sat in the cinema room for a bit just chilling, checking social media, updating insta stories, laughing etc. The poor bloke must have been fuming that we’d come in and ruined his peace and quiet. He looked quite content on his laptop until we showed up. He actually fell asleep at one point and was snoring which we took great pleasure in photographing

It was soon announced that our flight gate was open so off we went to find it, gate number 1 if you were interested. I wished the snoring bloke a safe flight and he just stared at me blankly giving me no acknowledgement what so ever I may or may have not called him a miserable sod. Excitement was kicking in big time now and the nervous farts continued, you know the type when you let one slip with each step, I feel sorry for those behind us. The walk to the gate wasn’t far at all and we were loving how different this airport was. The gate seating areas were bigger, brighter and just felt like a more comfortable place to relax before a flight compared to Gatwick where people sit in any nook and cranny or spread out on the floor. We went through passport and ticket checks and then sat for a while sorting through bags, people watching and looking out at the planes. We were making sure to get anything out of our cabin cases that we might need for the flight and putting them in a separate bag, things like our iPads, earphones, my glasses, earplanes, books, sweets, water etc. Nothing worse than getting all comfortable in your seat and then realising you’ve left something in the case. It was strange seeing that not everyone on our flight was going to LA for Disneyland. Usually on an Orlando flight there are families with children, couples, mates etc all geared up in their Disney clothes, toys etc so you know where they’re heading. The waiting area was filled with loads of types, older couples, lots of solo flyers, a group of lads, hench men with tattoos, young couples and apparently a ‘rude guitar guy’ according to my notes, I’ve failed to write down why he was rude though and can’t remember! We sat wondering where these people were travelling to, what there plans were etc just in general being nosy Parker’s. It was around half an hour until our seat numbers were called and then it was time to board, eeeak!

My initial thought when walking onto the plane was that it looked small! Again comparing to the Virgin flight we usually get to Orlando, that plane usually has an upstairs and just feels a lot bigger, this was more compact. Carley had booked our seats in advance and had managed to book the back row ones so we didn’t have anyone behind us kicking the seat, honestly annoys me so much, if you’ve read my solo report then you’ll see how peed off I get with people around, behind and in front of me on the plane. If everyone just sat like normal and had common courtesy towards each other then we wouldn’t have a problem! Anyway we walked right to the back of the plane and were disappointed to see that a solo traveller was sat with us so there went our hopes of an extra seat for more room! There was no room in our overhead space for our cases so we had to just find space elsewhere and bung them in, what a palava, I couldn’t wait to just sit down and get settled. When sitting down I realised how big my ≈≈≈≈ must have gotten since last year. I could just about fit in! Carley was the same and the woman next to her, we did chuckle as we were packed in like sardines. They really should do bigger seats in general like a plus size section as the shops do We organised ourselves, struggled with the seatbelts as usual realising they just about fit round us too and sent last minute messages to everyone at home. I literally panic txt when I’m about to fly, I message my brothers, mum, dad, Stanly, pretty much everyone I think will miss me if I died in hope that I will make it safely to be able to talk to them again. It sounds so ridiculous I know but I’m always thinking the worst outcome of any incident and you just never know! The flight could disappear into thin air for all I knew. Anyway we were happy to see that It was still raining outside and looked all grey and overcast, cya England!

We departed on time at 9:35am. We introduced ourselves to the solo traveller next to Carley and to my absolute delight she responded and spoke to us and was so lovely! Not like ‘Caroline’ from my solo trip. Lisa was her name from Scotland. Lisa was on a long journey! LAX was just her layover as she was travelling to Australia to spend a month there with friends, how lovely! But my god what a long journey, I’m not sure how I’d cope with that! I wasn’t even sure how I was going to cope on this flight! We hadn’t even fully got into the air yet and then guess what… the very little space Carley had in front of her got even smaller because the guy in front decided to fully recline his chair the whole way back and do you know who the guy was…. the rude guitar guy I previously referred to. It was a good job we were in the back row so we could recline our seats without it affecting anyone behind, it just really annoyed me, always does. I know it’s a grey area and a debatable subject which I can see points on both sides but it still doesn’t stop me becoming annoyed, especially when the person doesn’t seem to realise or even consider those behind. It was like he’d sat down, reclined the seat back and thought ‘≈≈≈≈ you all I’m going to sleep’ and that’s where he stayed until I told him to put his seat back up so Carley had room to eat. Life would be so much easier if we were made of money and could just chill in business class…we can dream hey.

My earplanes worked as usual as I felt no pain in my ears or sinuses, thank god because I’ve said it before that there are times where I’ve literally felt like my head was going to blow off. I’m so dramatic sometimes Carley loves take off on the plane but me not so much, although I did manage to keep my eyes open and look out as you can see from the picture above and I didn’t crush Carley’s hand like I usually do. It wasn’t actually that bad at all! Despite the lack of room the 3 of us had, I was impressed with the nice tv and entertainment system, it looked new and different to any previous ones on other flights. Not that I’d be watching much, the only things that appealed to me were Toy Story, Frozen and Marcella. Lucky I had my iPad to keep me entertained! Also I was impressed with the windows! They didn’t have the white shutter things like I’m used to but instead were replaced with some new dimmer light thing where you could control how you wanted it with buttons and it would tint the window or completely black it out, very clever! I kept the flight map on the tv for now, I usually love to track and watch the flight to see where we are, this flight map looked new too, you could see the plane in 3d which again I thought was clever, easily impressed I think

It wasn’t long until the drinks and pretzels were being bought around to us along with the menu so we could choose what we’d like for lunch. We had a choice of chicken curry, sausages and mash and some pasta thing. To be honest, neither of us were hungry but we had the food anyway, always feel like I need to get my moneys worth from the flight even if the menu was less than appetising. Whilst waiting, I put my earphones in and watched some British Bake Off which I needed to catch up on. Carley had left her earphones in her case which she was annoyed about so had to make do with the ones provided. I’d bought one of those adapter things so we could both plug into the same device and watch things together. So there we sat eating our pretzels with a can of coke quite content catching up on bake off.

For lunch we both chose the sausage and mash which actually wasn’t bad! I’ve had this meal before on flights so knew it was edible and not bad for plane food. It came with some pasta salad thing, cheese & crackers and one of those GU dessert pots, I remember saying in my last report that I could eat about 20 of them, it was the same this time. I wouldn’t say that eating our lunch was a pleasurable experience either, not that you can get much pleasure from a meal in the sky (unless you’re in business class!) Me, Carley and Lisa struggled for space when eating, elbows were touching each other, my tray kept slipping down off the table, matey in front was still reclined it was just a nightmare. I did tap him though and asked/told him to move his seat forward so Carley could eat. He begrudgingly agreed to and then reclined again once she had finished her food.

Once lunch and teas/coffees were over we could sit back and try and relax. Carley chose to watch a film, she loves her films and gets well into them unlike me who doesn’t even give them a chance. I continued to watch bake off but after about 20 mins I came over all tired so turned it off instead listening to my acoustic playlist on Spotify. I must have been tired because I fell asleep whilst listening to it, usually because I wear earplugs I find it really difficult to fall asleep even with the slightest noise so to fall asleep with music on must have meant I was super tired! Carley had fallen asleep too and we stayed asleep for nearly 2 hours which is good for us! We woke to see that we were currently flying over Greenland. It felt strange because usually the flight to Orlando mostly consisted of the ocean and not much else. I looked out to see mountains covered in snow and clear blue skies, it looked beautiful.

My eyes felt so dry after my sleep so I changed my contacts to glasses which helped a lot. I was feeling restless now and wishing I hadn’t worn a jumpsuit because it was a right mission trying to prise my wedgie out. I was grateful that the guy in front of me was fast asleep and that he hadn’t reclined his chair. Rude guitar guy (I’m assuming he had a guitar with him to acquire this nickname) had gotten up to use the loo so I reached his chair button through the gap and snuck his chair forward a bit and luckily when he came back he didn’t even notice, imagine if my arm had got stuck, that would be terrible The thing is with me is when I get restless and bored I become mischievous and start being silly, Stanly gets so annoyed with me especially when he’s playing xbox and I’m prodding him or knocking the controller out his hands because I want attention, such a child sometimes…well most of the time actually. I kept myself occupied by listening to music whilst watching outside and then we both settled down to watch the bake off final. We were so pleased to see that Rahul had won! Such a geeky sweet guy

The dreaded time came when we had to get up to use the loo. I always hate having to get up, especially when I’m comfortable. Lisa was happy to stand for us and off we toddled down the smallest aisle going to find the loo. The aisle was so small that my jeer kept knocking into people with every step I took, brilliant. It was nice to stretch our legs though and even better that I could finally get my wedgie out! Once back we clambered back into our seats where we remained for the next 4 and a half hours, my god this flight felt like forever. A pasty was bought round for us later where we had the choice out of peppered steak or cheese and tomato, I went for cheese and tomato and wish I hadn’t bothered. It tasted so bland, much like the canteen food at work (good old NHS) that I didn’t eat it. To be fair I wasn’t hungry at all, the cabin crew had been looking after us with fizzy drinks and ice lollies too so it didn’t matter too much. Luckily for me, Carley doesn’t like twister lollies so I had 2. Nom!

For the next 4 hours we watched the inbetweeners on my iPad which still cracks us up now, played some Disney card game, looked out of the window, watched the group of lads sat in the middle aisle wondering what they were up to. They had laptops each and looked like they worked for Adidas or something designing logos and stuff, no idea seems like they were important though. We contemplated paying for WiFi so that we could chat online check social media etc but couldn’t justify the £15 it would cost for 150mb On my flight last year it cost that much for unlimited WiFi for the whole duration of the flight so it must vary with each journey. I read some of my book which is the first book I’ve picked up and read in years! It was a Jane Fallon one which I found difficult to put down, love when you find a book like that. Carley watched another film and I slept some more. I woke up and the flight map said there was only 1hr 55mins left to go! Thank god! We had flown over some of Canada, Salt Lake City and the Rocky Mountains (I think), I was trying to remember what Salt Lake City was famous for but I couldn’t and Carley thought it was just a derelict place where nobody lived. Just googled it and apparently it’s where the first kfc opened, has been named as the ‘gayest city in the USA’, something to do with Mormons and other random facts. Ted bundy lived there for a bit and also didn’t that kidnapper sicko ‘B’ from abducted in plain sight live in a motor home park in Salt Lake City too? It doesn’t sound like the most appealing place to visit! Anyway let’s move on We were at the stage of the flight where we just wanted to get there now, probably how you’re all feeling about this trip report The remaining time seemed to take forever and watching it on the sky map was just painful.

I freshened myself up put my contact lenses back in and we waited for the ‘afternoon tea’. This consisted of a cheese and tomato sarnie, a chocolate thing, some crisps and a mint. We also had a cup of tea which wasn’t up to my usual Yorkshire tea standards but it would have to do.

I spent the rest of the flight looking out at what I could see from the air. I was buzzing when I spotted Hoover Dam and lake mead, it was clear as day and I managed to get a decent enough photo too. It felt so strange as me and Carley had visited hoover dam back in 2009 so to see it from the air was just crazy!

So young and thin back then!

As we flew further on I managed to make out the Stratosphere Hotel on the Las Vegas strip in the distance, eeak we got so excited, to think that we had been at the top of that hotel and in a helicopter down the strip years ago was just madness. And here we were flying over it en route to LA. Things like that always excite me. It’s the the clearest of photos so I’ve circled the stratosphere for anyone who can’t make it out!

The captain came over the tannoy and said that people on the right side of the plane could see Vegas and that people on the left side had a view of the Grand Canyon, how cool! And lucky that it was clear skies or we wouldn’t have seen anything. He said we would be shortly descending and that the weather was currently 27 degrees, lovely jubbly! During our excitement at seeing the places we had previously visited we hadn’t noticed that poor old Lisa was feeling really sick. Bless her, she said she often feels sick on flights but that she doesn’t actually vomit. Well literally 2 mins after saying that she grabbed the sick bag and proceeded to hurl her guts up. Poor love, she was so embarrassed and continuously apologised to us. We comforted her and offered water etc making sure she was ok. Bless her she had another flight to get through yet! I remembered to put my earplanes in whilst descending and it wasn’t long before we had our first glimpses of LA from the sky. We spotted another plane next to us also coming in to land, it looked like it was going so slow, really weird seeing another plane in the sky when you are! We became overly excited at one point squealing because we had spotted the Hollywood sign in the distance too, ≈≈≈≈ was getting real! We landed at 1:05pm which was LA local time. We were 7 hours behind (usually 8 but their clocks hadn’t gone back yet) so it was 8:05pm back home so nearly an 11 hour flight, thank god we had finally made it!

As we were at the back of the plane we didn’t have to rush off and into immigration like we usually do. It was actually quite nice to just take our time gather our things and stand up, sort our wedgies, reposition boobs etc. We checked Lisa was ok which she was. She had a few hours to kill before her next flight so said she was going to get some tablets and stretch her legs. Lisa had been chatting to some guy in the middle aisle throughout the flight, he had just said goodbye and walked off and then we found out that this guy was in LA to meet Pink! I mean he couldn’t have been loaded because he was slumming it in economy with us but he was covered in tattoos and had that rockstar cool look about him so I could actually imagine him and Pink being mates or something. Carley was freaking out as she is seeing Pink this year and wanted to ask matey all about it. We said goodbye to Lisa wished her a safe journey and lovely time in Australia and she told us to have fun, then we made our way off the plane and into the immigration hall. I know I keep referring to Orlando in this report and let’s face it I still will, but it felt strange and quite scary at LAX because we had no clue what we were doing, where we had to go, the airport layout etc. In Orlando the airport is so familiar to us that we just carry on like we are at home. The immigration hall was actually very similar to Orlando I thought, the queue was quite long but moved quickly. Whilst in the queue we kept passing by the Adidas lads and the ‘pink guy’. I had to ask the lads if they were here for work because otherwise I would have been thinking forever who they were, they confirmed that they were in LA for work and that they were going back to London on Monday! Stuff that, imagine flying all that way only to be flying back in like 3-4 days time! They must really love their job!
Carley built up the courage to ask the Pink guy if he was actually going to see her and he confirmed that he was. We are such a nosy pair honestly He said he had a meeting with her and then said to Carley to meet him after immigration by the luggage carousels. She was giddy with excitement bless her.

For some reason me and Carley were split into different queues! We went to our own individual kiosks to do the usual photo, finger print, passport checks etc and then my printout thing came out with a cross on it and I was instructed to go to a different queue to be checked by an officer. Carley waltzed off a different way and I was freaking out that I’d never see her again I kept my eye on her and she was chattering away to some woman. I started talking to some young lad behind me who had been separated from his dad and also had a cross on his printout. Callum his name was, lovely guy in LA to travel around with his dad and then drive to Vegas, how amazing! I love hearing about people’s plans! I could see that Carley was now in the luggage area chatting to matey and I wondered what they were talking about. I had to speak to an immigration officer, redo my fingerprints and answer they’re questions seriously without me making any sarcastic answers, it’s really hard honestly. Do you have any sharps or dangerous items in your luggage… oh yeah mate here’s my machete. How much money do you have with you… millions mate all in cash too. Luckily for me they stamped my passport and let me through. Phew! I went to find Carley and she had already found our cases so we were good to go. She said that the pink guy had taken her number and that he would try and ‘sort something out’ for when she went to see Pink, vip passes or something I don’t know? She is still yet to hear from him We both laughed as well because when we were in our separate queues one of the immigration officers was shouting at some dopey woman to move away, she was stood in an out of bounds part of the hall and we could both hear this officer shouting in her accent ‘you have no place being here’. I did think at the time if Carley was laughing too. Anyway, we dragged our cases through the airport (which was packed by the way) and followed directions to the rental car shuttles. It didn’t take too long to find them and we were soon outside on LA ground breathing in LA air. My god it was warm too!

Carley had started to feel nervous about driving the car and I was too for her but I never let it show. I try and reassure her as much as possible that it will all be ok once we get going. We had to wait for the correct shuttle which would take us to the Alamo car rental location. It didn’t take too long for it to arrive. We were soon onboard with our cases loaded on and ready to go. It felt amazing to finally be here! Seeing all the American road signs, the sun, the palm trees, the traffic etc our sunnies were on, cardies off, we were deffo in LA! We had read about the LA traffic beforehand so knew we would most likely be sat in it a while on the way to Anaheim. Carley was feeling sick with nerves at this point and I just carried on reassuring her that she would be fine. It wasn’t so much the car as Carley has driven a few times in Florida. It was the fact that we were in unfamiliar territory and that the roads here seemed much more busier and bigger! It even took forever for the shuttle bus to get out of the airport onto normal roads!

We arrived at the Alamo hire place at 2:30pm so all in it only took us 1hr 25mins from the plane to get here which we were pleased with especially considering it was our first time here! Once at Alamo we were pointed to the car aisle we had paid for well Carley had paid for and told to pick a car in that row and then to just get in and go. We had already checked in online to skip the counter and had our paperwork ready. They made it sound so easy! It was not. There weren’t many cars to choose from for starters, one of the Alamo workers was just parking a freshly cleaned one which we liked the look of. I confirmed with him that it was an Economy car and if it was ok for us to pick it and he said yes. Perfect we thought, lovely car, lovely style, doesn’t look like it’s going to blow up, nice colour, immaculate inside and out and not too big for Carley. I check it for any damage take photos etc and we chuck in our suitcases then get in. Carley is familiarising herself with the car whilst I’m reassuring her that she will be fine and to take her time etc. We didn’t want any mishaps happening like on one our previous trips

Carley’s window was down and I’m not kidding you we did not know how to put it up! The button wasn’t working we were looking everywhere! There were no staff to talk to either which wasn’t helpful. In the end we called over one of the guys that was washing the cars to help and he showed us some other button which we needed to press first. Fml we thought, not even on the road yet. Then we were trying to figure out if the sat Nav was a built in one or not to discover that it wasn’t and that we needed to pick it up on the way out. This was not good and is the same as what happened last time! They don’t give you enough time to set the sat Nav up and input the destination! Last time we had to pull over in a place which we weren’t supposed to and then couldn’t figure it out, it was lucky I’d printed out directions too as a back up. This time I thank the lord that my phone worked as normal like at home and that we could use google maps to get us back! Me and Carley are not the brightest when it comes to these sorts of things, it’s like the blind leading the blind I’m picturing us now and it’s cracking me up. Carley manages to reverse the car safely and then off we go heading for the exit. So far so good. We stop at the barrier and speak to a human finally, who scans relevant documents, checks Carley’s license, gives us the satnav etc and then we are good to go. He barely even said a word to us! Google maps is saying that we need to turn left out of here but there’s a big ≈≈≈≈ off van right on the corner and we can’t see if anything is coming or not. Carley is saying she can’t turn left here as there’s a possibility we may die so she decides to go right instead. She’s asking me if anything’s coming and I’m trying to look and think it’s ok to go so she edges out and then there’s a beeeeep, some car was speeding along and I hadn’t even seen it. Jesus Christ we were nearly ploughed into coming out of the hire gaff Once the coast was finally clear and about 10 mins later we safely turned and was on the road. This next bit has taken me ages to try and type because I’ve been sat here crying with laughter for ages at the thought of it, I May have even dribbled in my cacks slightly. So we are on the road, Carley puts the stick thing into drive and as we are going along it’s making this god awful noise, loud noise! Like people staring at us thinking ≈≈≈ are them morons doing. It literally sounded like the engine was going to blow up, like we were driving along in first gear back home trying to get faster. We knew something was wrong but didn’t know what, Carley swore she was in the correct gear and I’m saying it doesn’t sound right, I’m trying to look down and figure out what’s wrong whilst Carley is concentrating on the road and trying not to get us killed. Then I just sort of shove the stick and it falls into the correct place and the car isn’t screeching at us anymore. Thank god we thought! I had visions of us driving all the way to Anaheim like that and being pulled over. We later figured out that the stick had to be moved slightly right for it to actually go in, oops

We continued on listening to the google maps lady and were soon safely on the main highway to Anaheim. The rules there are so different, neither of us had a clue we kept coming across these ‘one car per green’ lights and seeing carpool signs, none of us knew what a carpool lane was so we just stayed clear of it! Not that Carley would have used it anyway (it was the furthest lane on the left) and at one point there were like 7 lanes so there’s no way she would have braved getting across all of them when it came towards getting of at the correct exit, I wouldn’t have either! The traffic was actually ridiculous too, well we thought so at the time but judging on other traffic we came across this holiday it wasn’t so bad! The drivers out there are crazy and just whiz in and out of the different lanes, cutting people up nearly causing accidents!

According to google maps we didn’t have any tolls to go through and we were soon seeing signs with Disney on them so we thanked google for getting us there without getting lost! I don’t think we even took a wrong turn which is amazing judging on our past car journeys (we’ve driven over those little road islands before without knowing until we hear it ) It wasn’t long and we were on the main road leading to our hotel, we both squealed with excitement when we saw the entrance to Disneyland, eeeak we were finally there! We were pulling into our hotel car park at 16:20 so the drive there was around 1hr 45mins once we were finally on the road. The usual amount of time without traffic would usually take around 45-50 mins so that’s a good indication of how much traffic builds up out there!

We both breathed a sigh of relief when Carley turnt the engine off. We couldn’t believe we had actually made it to our hotel safely and in one piece, I mean we knew we would but we did worry a lot about how we would and we were so grateful that it wasn’t dark out or it could have turned out so differently! But it didn’t matter now anyway, we were here and could relax! We both initially loved the look of the hotel, it looked so cute, quaint and well kept. There were plenty of car spaces to park in so this wasn’t an issue. We left the luggage in the car whilst going to check in. The lovely Andrea welcomed us, checked us in, told us general information about the hotel, about Disney etc. She was impressed when we told her we had an itinerary with everything in, the Disney opening times, local restaurants etc and she said it saved her having to go through everything. She also noted that it was my birthday tomorrow and wished me a wonderful day which was lovely of her In the lobby was a water dispenser with disposable cups which guests could help themselves too, we were so grateful for this as we hadn’t had a drink since the plane and were dying of thirst! There was hot drinks available too courtesy of the hotel which we thought was a nice touch. I had a quick mooch around the little hotel shop whilst Carley dealt with paperwork/payment etc, they had all the usual Disney merchandise and items you may have forgotten to pack. Back at the desk I made a comment about how cute the pens were and then Andrea gave us some, so kind! They were red and white candy cane ones. Come to think of it I have no idea where these pens are now! I didn’t take a photo of the whole lobby so here’s one I stole from google.

We thanked Andrea and mooched back to the car for our cases. Whilst walking to our room we noticed how clean this hotel was, the pool area looked immaculate, we didn’t see any litter anywhere, the flowers were lovely and added colour to the gaff, the staff we came across all seemed really friendly acknowledging us and smiling. We felt so happy to have chosen this hotel and we hadn’t even seen our room yet! Our room was on the first floor meaning we had to hoof our cases up the stairs. This hotel only had a ground floor and first floor so there were no lifts. We managed ok though, breaking a sweat whilst doing it. We reached our room and from the door we could see the back of cars land in California Adventure and the tower of terror (which is now guardians of the galaxy but I still call it TOT). Andrea had said that she had given us a room where we could see the fireworks at night which we were really pleased with. Not that we planned on watching them from here, but it was nice to have the choice! We entered the room and I was made up to see that on the bed was a birthday card and some cookies all wrapped up nicely wishing me a happy birthday, how amazing is that! It’s little things like this that make a hotel really great! We absolutely fell in love with our room, 2 double beds, nice big tv, vanity area, bath and shower etc. The décor was cute and country like in theme with all the flowers outside, we loved it. The layout was similar to the rooms onsite in Walt Disney world. I failed to take photos of the hotel so some of these pics I found online just so you get an overview of what it looked like.

We were both feeling shattered now and I darent lie on the bed or I wouldn’t get back off of it! Instead we kept ourselves busy unpacking everything and freshening up, changing clothes etc. As we all know I have to unpack everything when away so I make it feel like home, it didn’t take too long and there was plenty of space for everything. The plan for this evening was to head to Downtown Disney, check out how far the parks were and have some dinner. We had a reservation booked at Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen for 8:30pm. You guys must be thinking we are mad to go out after the long day we’d had! We had been awake for nearly 22 hours as well, it was nearly 2am back home! Here we were changed and heading out to Downtown Disney for some grub! Thinking back now I don’t know how we did it! We left our room at 6:45pm and made our way down to the park entrance. It was dark out now and we could see the pretty lights on our hotel trees.

The traffic on the main road was chockablock but it made no odds to us seems as we were walking. It was such an easy walk as well just one straight pavement and one little road to cross and we were there! We did stop near the Disneyland sign as I could see a Pokemon raid about to happen and I needed to get involved Fancy coming all this way only to stand pokemoning outside Disneyland! It didn’t take long and we were walking into Downtown Disney at 19:05. We were so happy to be here and it still felt so surreal! We had walked past both park entrances to get to Downtown Disney. We were happy to see that the Halloween decorations were still up and Disney had gone the whole hog with pumpkins everywhere, they really do go all out for Halloween, and we weren’t even inside the parks. Disneyland and California Adventure were literally in spitting distance from each other not like at Disney World where you have to travel via bus or monorail. You literally just walk across and then you’re in the other park within like a minute! Madness! A bit like Paris if you’ve been. It did feel weird that the Disney parks were in this area, like slap bang in the middle of a built up area where people lived!

Downtown Disney was fairly busy at this time. We had ages until our reservation but had left early to get here in hope that they would let us in earlier on the off chance. We headed straight there to ask and were told that they didn’t have any tables yet but to check back periodically and hopefully one would become available. We were happy with this and in the meantime mooched around the shops and sat on a wall people watching. There were various different shops here including Disney home, Sephora, the Lego store and world of Disney. We had a look in a few admiring the different merchandise, checking out the ears etc. We didn’t want to buy anything just yet as we had only just got here so figured we’d be sensible. One thing we did both want though were the iridescent white pearly coloured Minnie ears, but they didn’t have them in stock here so we decided to check other stores when in the parks.

We took a slow walk back to the restaurant at around 8pm in hope that we could be seated and luckily we could, yay! We were seated upstairs on the outside balcony overlooking all the people passing by. This restaurant is described as ‘a savvy representation of New Orleans legacies- food and music- served up in a whimsical setting depicting the charm, ambience and hospitality of historic and contemporary New Orleans’. That pretty much sums it up. We felt so relaxed in here, candles were on, the theming was different in each area of the restaurant, the music was great and overall the atmosphere felt calming.

We started off with a pre-birthday cocktail each me going for the Raspberry rum runner which consisted of Cruzan coconut rum, myers dark rum, crepe de banana, fruit juices and raspberry purée. It was delicious and god knows how I wasn’t on the floor after it! Carley went for the Louisiana lemonade which was Cruzan citrus rum, raspberry liquor and sprite. Hers was lovely too we always try each other’s when we pick different cocktails. We asked for a jug of water for the table too otherwise we’d end up drunk after lack of sleep and the strong alcohol they serve in America! We didn’t order any starters as to be honest we didn’t want to spend too long here or we’d be asleep in the dinner! We both chose the blackened chicken ‘mac & cheese’ for our mains which was described as applewood smoked bacon, caramelised onions, oven roasted tomatoes, baby arugula, penne pasta, smoked goads cream sauce and rosemary garlic ciabatta. So basically poshed up New Orleans style mac n cheese with a bit of garlic bread on the side. Whilst waiting for it we spoke about how excited we were for Disneyland tomorrow that we couldn’t believe we were finally here and that I was 30 tomorrow I honestly felt tipsy from the one cocktail and so did Carley, what a pair of lightweights! We laughed, took photos, played around with the snapchat filters and at times stared blankly into space not talking at all because we felt exhausted. Soon our food was bought to us and I can’t remember but I think they might have bought us some bread to munch on too. Bread isn’t usually something I forget as I love it, especially warm bread! But being so tired I didn’t take photos or write it in my notes so maybe there wasn’t bread at all and I just made that up

My notes state that the Mac & cheese was spicy and that the garlic bread was hard. What a fantastic review of the food I do remember it being spicy though and I’ve said before how I don’t cope well with spice! We were glad to have water to wash it down. Carley is the same with spice, we are quite similar in our food tastes but Carley loves her meat whereas I prefer fish. I don’t think we even managed to finish the whole dinner because we struggled with the spiciness. I could feel my heartburn getting worse with every swallow! I still ate the garlic bread even though it was rock hard! Never mind, I think we were too tired to care in the end! We did contemplate getting the Beignets for dessert as we’ve never had them before and were desperate to try them after hearing great reviews! But we decided we were too tired and that we’d grab some another day, we still had a week yet so plenty of time! The meal cost $103 in total including a tip. We thought this was expensive considering it was just a bit of mac n cheese! Our cocktails were like $15 dollars each though! We enjoyed the restaurant, cocktails and the atmosphere however I wouldn’t go back purely based on the food. Nothing else on the menu took my fancy! We left just after 9pm and headed straight back to the hotel. We knew there was a free shuttle which could take us back but had no idea where to get it from so opted to walk back. I think most of the walk we remained silent and just longed for our beds! We changed into our matching (accidental) lady and the tramp nighties and collapsed into the bed at 9:30pm. The bed was so comfortable, we must have fallen asleep straight away! We’d been awake for just over 24 hours now and had walked nearly 12,000 steps which is a lot considering most of the time we were sat down on a flight! We were excited for Disneyland tomorrow

[StorybookCircus]

I’m so glad to learn I’m not the only one who has “nervous farts” all the way to Immigration

[Inky]

Wow what a start xx

[Buggles94]

So impressed you stayed up till 9.30pm - I'd have been asleep the minute I arrived at the hotel! Sounds like a fantastic hotel

[marypoppins38]

Giggled all the way through this. Especially the bit you called India a 'hole'! Cant wait to read the next installment.

[dreamofmagic]

I love your reports, we have decided on California in 2021 so really looking forward to reading the rest of this, the hotel looks lovely and can’t belive you both managed out to dinner and stay awake!

[Tinkermom]

Looking forward to hearing more ☺️

[Ryles]

Love the way you write! Very down to earth 😁 look forward to the next instalment!

[Floridafour]

Well done 👍 an epic travel day awake for 24 hours! I look forward to reading more 😀

[caitlinsmummy]

I love your reports, they're so funny, you say what most of us think but daren't say

What a fab travel day, I've no idea how you managed to go out and eat after that long journey, absolute troopers! Looking forward to the rest of the report xx