May 2013 - trip report day 1

[melbarkwith]

Trip report time!

Travellers: me, dh, dd11, dd10 and dd6 (nearly 7)

The plan: to road trip around California, Nevada and Arizona. Finish up at Disneyland for dd#3's birthday.

Day 1: depart Melbourne for LA, via Auckland (flying AirNZ). Sky couch for AKL-LAX route.
Our verdict on sky couches is that they are awkward, no good for 3 passengers and ultimately not worth the extra cost. They are very fiddly to set up, we waited for an hour after dinner for dishes to be cleared so we could set the couches up. While the AirNZ staff were lovely, I really think the standards have slipped dramatically with the airline. I remember the food being quite nice for airline food on our last flight with them. Not at all impressed this time. Only 4 toilets for the entire economy cabin, not nearly enough judging by the consistently long lines to use them.

Arrived in LAX, passed through immigration/customs very quickly. Picked up our rental car from Hertz.
I think I've mastered driving on the wrong side of the road car parks are more than difficult than roads!

Accommodation: Residence Inn Oxnard River Ridge - bi-level penthouse suite (not nearly as impressive as it sounds! Lol!) room is very clean, but property is quite run-down.
Dinner: Toppers pizza delivered to hotel. Yum!!!

We fell asleep around 7.30pm, woke up around 7am.

Tomorrow - Magic Mountain!

 

[SnowWhite09]

Exciting! Have a great time!

 

[Caroline NZ]

Hi, I'm here reading with interest. We are doing a California/Arizona/Nevada road trip in Sep/Oct, also ending up in Disneyland, so I will be very interested to see where you go, and your experiences

 

[PrincessInOz]

Sign me up for a May TR. Looking forward to the backseat ride.

 

[hjd0411]

Great start!!! (Especially the hotel delivered pizza!!! )

 

[aussie shaz]

Yay. Can't wait to hear the rest.

 

[Travel Mum]

Yay subbing in

When I lived in LA as a child, Magic Mountain was our fav theme park!

 

[Miss Red]

Can't wait to hear more

 

[Minniemum]

Great start! With the amount of people subbing in I think we'll be travelling along in a bus.

 

[zanzibar138]

I'm here for the ride too! Love road trips, and looking forward to hearing about all your adventures

 

[melbarkwith]

Well, day 2 was certainly interesting. We set off around 8.45am for Magic Mountain. The drive from Oxnard was gorgeous, lots of orange groves, fruit stands and mountains. Several comments from dh and kids "are you sure we are going the right way?", it seemed such a rural area. All of a sudden, up popped a roller coaster to the right and everyone was relieved

We drove into the car park entrance and thought we'd stepped into Wally World quickly asked dh to snap a photo!

Despite reading many mixed reviews, we had a fabulous day. Dh has wanted to visit this park for years and he wasn't disappointed. Dh, dd11 and dd10 went on all of the big coasters, unsurprisingly our daredevil dd10 went on rides like Batman and Viper multiple times. Dd11 and Dh both thought Tatsu was the most 'challenging' ride

The food available was both expensive and horrid. Stay away from the fresh cut fries stand at all costs!

Following our less than stellar dining experience at the park, we decided to head to Chili's for dinner. Dh and I had missed eating there since our local restaurant closed years ago (in the same week Ikea Nunawading closed - very upsetting )
Unfortunately it was packed, with an hour wait for a table. We ordered takeout and hopped back in our rental car to head back to our hotel. Pressed the button (???) and the car would not start. {insert lots of naughty words here!}. I rang the emergency assistance number, and would you believe that your foot must be on the brake for the car to start...things you learn

Dinner was yummy! I had the buffalo chicken burger, dh had chili, kids had cheeseburgers.

We had an early night, ready for our next stop - Vegas

 

[aussietravellers]

Sounds like a great start to the trip! Thanks for sharing

Had a chuckle at Wally World. I loved that movie. Sounds like a great day at Magic Mountain (aside from the food)

Looking forward to hearing more.

 

[aussie shaz]

I had a chuckle at the foot needing to be on the brake. Will keep that in mind in case our rental won't start!
We locked our keys in the boot of our rental last time. All of the doors were open, but we couldn't for the life of us find out how to get into the boot. Finally we found the boot release latch. (I think it was somewhere near the backseat?)
Have a great time in Vegas!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Isn't is funny how just a little way out of LA you'll find orange groves, countryside and mountains?

Pity that the food wasn't good at Wally World.

 

[5ofus]

Sounds like a great start to your holiday!

I'm a bit disappointed with your review of SkyCouch. I'm still hopeful that it will be of some use to us with our little munchkins! Guess we'll find out in September

 

[Marlea98]

Great start! With the amount of people subbing in I think we'll be travelling along in a bus.

With Ms Shuttergirl monopolising the tour guide's time

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[Franrose]

Subbing!

 

[Franrose]

Sounds like a great start to your holiday!

I'm a bit disappointed with your review of SkyCouch. I'm still hopeful that it will be of some use to us with our little munchkins! Guess we'll find out in September

Knowing how I tried to sleep two kids last flight, I'm still happy to have booked it - will save me from trying to rig up airline-blanket slings for legs lol, as two kids try and sleep side by side on two seats. I don't expect it to be earth shattering, but to make things a little easier. Disappointed in what sounds like an overall decline by the airline though, that is sad! Four toilets for the entire economy cabin is just craziness.

 

[5ofus]

Knowing how I tried to sleep two kids last flight, I'm still happy to have booked it - will save me from trying to rig up airline-blanket slings for legs lol, as two kids try and sleep side by side on two seats. I don't expect it to be earth shattering, but to make things a little easier. Disappointed in what sounds like an overall decline by the airline though, that is sad! Four toilets for the entire economy cabin is just craziness.

You're right Franrose, it will still be better than just having the normally economy seats. I'm pretty sure my older two will be able to get some shut eye. It's going to be tricky keeping the little one from trying to join his brothers though!

 

[kylieh]

On board! We still haven't made our mind up for our trip in December. Looking forward to the roadtrip!

I think a lot of us have had car rental issues. I called up a few years back when I couldn't get the key out of the ignition. Turns out there was a button to press. I'm now officially glad I wasn't the only one!