TR May 2010-An Aussie's Journey - California Here we Come

[cdotla]

For a Hotel in LA, I would HIGHLY recommend the London West Hollywood Hotel. It is amazing! The rooms are Fabulous!!!

And the rooftop pool and bar are amazing!

Gordon Ramsay's restaurant is right on site, which is delish!

The location of the Hotel is prime. There is a double-decker tour bus that takes you all around the city picking up right outside your door.

The hotel is right beside the Viper Club (where River Phoenix died) and Whisky-A-Go-Go.

The rates are pretty good, especially if you look for their online specials. I booked one of their top suites for about $240 a night in September. And they have free long distance calling to the UK. (Unfortunately not to Australia though!)

[TokyoDina]

Ummmmmm it's sad I can't really recommend anything in LA. I only go to SD......

[PrincessInOz]

kangaand2roos: I can recommend a visit to the Long Beach Aquarium.

Thanks! I've added to the to-do list. Depending on how we feel, we may well hit the aquarium.

cdotla: London West Hollywood Hotel

I googled. WOW! Looks fantastic. Unfortunately, I have already booked in the Residence Inn at Long Beach - kinda figured that if I wanted to go to Catalina Island that I should stay over there and give myself a shot of making a ferry. Next time we're staying in LA, I'm definitely booking in...and making a ressie for the Ramsay restaurant.

TokyoDina: I only go to SD

I love SD. I have an aunt that stays in San Marcos and we visit her quite regularly.

[PrincessInOz]

Originally Posted by SoonerGirl

On your TH breakfast, I know it's already booked, but you mentioned that many in your party aren't early risers. Why don't you think about doing a late breakfast, say around 10 and just hit the park early and get the big rides in before you eat? Whichever you do, I think you'll enjoy TH, we ate there in December and thought it was great!

Ohhh...SoonerGirl. Thanks for the thought. Checked with extended family...They are happy to try make the 8:10 am ressie. Let you know how it went in my post trip report

[TokyoDina]

Originally Posted by PrincessInOz

Thanks! I've added to the to-do list. Depending on how we feel, we may well hit the aquarium.

I googled. WOW! Looks fantastic. Unfortunately, I have already booked in the Residence Inn at Long Beach - kinda figured that if I wanted to go to Catalina Island that I should stay over there and give myself a shot of making a ferry. Next time we're staying in LA, I'm definitely booking in...and making a ressie for the Ramsay restaurant.


I love SD. I have an aunt that stays in San Marcos and we visit her quite regularly.

You know the world is really small, when you see or hear things like this! My husband grew up in San Macros and then moved to Chula Vista! Wow that's crazy! I think that's where we want to retire when we are of age. :P

[PrincessInOz]

I've been working on what I want to do during the second week of our trip and have decided to keep the park thing free and easy. I figure we will want to visit each park at least twice and will refer to my "must do" list to see what I haven't hit and then go back to finish it off.

For this part of the trip, we're moving to BCV.
It will be nice to wake up and be able to walk to HS or Epcot if we feel like it. The down side is that we won't be on a dining plan; so all meals will be OOP after today.

Sun 9 May – Move into BCV. Hang out by the pool. Possibly visit MK as it has EMH.
Breakfast – POR foodcourt (S #8)
Lunch – ESPN ?? (CS #9)
Dinner – TBC (CS #10)
Snacks – Beaches and Cream (S #9); Epcot Boulangerie (S #10)

Mon 10 May Park TBC
Breakfast – Cape May Breakfast (ADR, YAY!!!)
Lunch – TBC
Dinner – TBC
I expect that Breakfast will be one of the highlights of the trip. We're doing this one "just us"; and not with the extended family.

Tue 11 May Park TBC
Breakfast – In our BCV
Lunch – TBC
Dinner – Les Chef (ADR, YAY!!).
I expect that dinner will be one of the highlights of today. We will be having dinner with DB and DGF. DP will be looking after the kids.
Post dinner entertainment SAB DisMeet. A bunch of us are planning a DisMeet. Hope to see you there....Info contained in this link:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2404795
And if we are still standing after the cocktails, we might kick on either at Jelly Rolls or the DanceHall.

On the subject of DisMeets, there's one planned for the 5 May. Info here:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2403199

I figure that the DisMeets are going to be one of the highlights of the trip!!

Wed 12 May Whatever I feel like day. Might do some shopping, might go to a park, might go see Fantasmic.

Thu 13 May MY BIRTHDAY

After much deliberation, I decided that I really wanted to do an Illuminations Cruise. My family wanted to go somewhere for dinner; but I thought that I could go out for dinner anytime in any city of the world. This would be something that we would all remember for a long time. I know - I left it rather late to make a booking. I thought I would give it a shot anyway and to my utter shock and surprise, two months out from the date, I managed to get a pontoon. Here's hoping for good weather and that the show goes on. Otherwise, we're having a nice cruise on the lake.

Fri 14 May Departure day.
All good things have to come to an end; else we would never be able to know a good thing from a bad.

We will fly back to LAX and spend a few days with my aunt in San Diego (shopping). And then back to Melbourne where I will probably spend some time dreaming about this holiday, writing my post trip report and lurking about the DisBoard, reading your reports....

[lovesdumbo]

Enjoying your PTR! I'll be at BWI with my DS(9) 5/5 to 5/12. Celebrating my birthday 5/6. I don't we will arrive early enough for the 5/5 Epcot meet and I'm not sure what we'll be doing our last night.

Your plans sound great. I'm sure you'll LOVE the Illuminations Cruise. I did it once and it was awesome!!!!


Just a little tip for either 5/5 or 5/12-I have found that Wednesdays tend to be very good days for low crowds at MK.



OH...and I too am on the great bag search! I just ordered a small backpack for me. I'm going to get my DS a waistpack with water bottle holder from www.disneyshopping.com but was hoping I could get some sort of discount or free shipping or something on it. I may just go ahead and order it. It is "only" $19.99 so even a 25% discount would "only" be $5 so maybe I should just order it and not worry about getting it in time. Then I would also have time to make any alterations if needed to fit my DS.

[PrincessInOz]

Originally Posted by TokyoDina

You know the world is really small, when you see or hear things like this! My husband grew up in San Macros and then moved to Chula Vista! Wow that's crazy! I think that's where we want to retire when we are of age. :P

Great part of the world to retire in. It seems like a great community. PM'd you as I think there is a chance your husband may know my cousins...

[PrincessInOz]

Enjoying your PTR!

Hey LovesDumbo. Welcome to my PTR and thanks!

Celebrating my birthday 5/6.

Happy Birthday!

I don't we will arrive early enough for the 5/5 Epcot meet

Bummer.

BWI with my DS(9) 5/5 to 5/12

There's a DisMeet at SAB on the 11th...TinkerbellInLouisianna has this posted up and I have the link in my #10 post. Maybe you could pitch up for this one.

Wednesdays tend to be very good days for low crowds at MK.

Excellent! Thanks for the tip.

OH...and I too am on the great bag search! I just ordered a small backpack for me.

I so need to hit the shops when I arrive in LA. I'm thinking of heading to the Farmer's Market/Grove after we clear customs and get our car hire.

[PrincessInOz]

My countdown in now under 8 weeks til I step on a jet plane and is under 2 months to getting to the World. Even DH (who is the sea of tranquility) is getting excited.

I've spent the last 3 months scheming and planning this World trip and I think I've managed to hit the right balance of schedule and "going with the flow" for my family. We've organised our:

• plane tickets - long haul and internal
• accommodation
• car hire
• ADRs
• Quick Service places we'd like to eat at
• tickets
• park plans for "must do" attractions
• rough schedule for which parks to do on which dates
• joined in with 2 DisMeets

I've gotten my "lime green" accessories (bag tag and a scarf) worked out.
I've even finished my internal debate about the perfect bag for the World.

I don't think I need to do very much more other than watch that countdown tick on down.

Now, I'm bored. B-O-R-E-D....

BORED.

That's always a dangerous feeling for me.

So - I'm starting to look at the other theme parks in Orlando. To date, I've refused to even think about Disney Cheating....but that B-O-R-E-D feeling just won't go away.
I don't need to go to SeaWorld or Dolly Parton world or WEt n Wild or Discovery Cove or Busch Gardens. I don't even need to go to Universal.

BUT....DH and I are huge Harry Potter fans. And the allure of Harry Potter World will be too much for us and I know I'm going to Disney Cheat.
If there is even a sniff of a chance that it will be opened in early May, we are planning to fight our way in with the crowds.

Is anyone else thinking the same as me?

[cdotla]

Whoo hoo! The final countdown is on!

Sounds like everything has come together really well! You are much more organized at this point than me!

Fortunately no one in my family has any familiarity with Harry Potter, so at least we won't be tempted to visit there as that is not in the budget this trip!

Don't worry - your trip will be here before you know it!

[SoonerGirl]

Sounds like you're pretty well organized!

As for HP, we are not fans in this house, so temptation for us. My kids love thrill rides though, so I know the day will come when we have to venture over to Universal/IOA, but so far I've been able to hold off.

[kcandbella]

We are HP fans, too, so I went through the same dilemma. We are not getting a car, though, so that pretty much means we are staying on Disney property the whole time. Plus, I don't think it's going to be open in May, which makes the decision easy! Even if it is, we won't go, but this gives me an excuse to plan another trip to Orlando sometime soon!!!

[TokyoDina]

If I had time I would cheat on Disney too! But we don't have the time.... I love HP so much so I've always done reading the entire series for the third. Maybe that's not as much as some but that speaks a lot for me.

[PrincessInOz]

Thanks for all your views. Well, for the moment, it's a moot point. I'll re-evaluate again when/if US decides on an "official" opening date.

kcandbella: this gives me an excuse to plan another trip to Orlando sometime soon!!!

You're so lucky to be able to do this. I'm not sure how I'm going to convince DH for another Orlando trip - not when there is still so much more of the rest of the world (pardon the pun) that we want to see.