Woohoo....Welcome Dinner up! I agree with you about being a little nervous meeting everyone Pete, but it didn't seem to take long for the nerves to go away....again it may have had something to do with the free wine pouring.
You are spot on too about the Podcast team. I think we all discussed this at various times during the trip. I did not book the trip with the intention of getting to be best friends with them, but expected more interaction. I booked for the extra perks & in that part, the DIS exclusive experience did not disappoint!
Going to Madame Tussad's is not something we would ever have done on our own, but we were surprised how much fun we had! It was a fun surprise!
Great job so far!!!!!
Thanks. I agree with everything you said. The nerves did go away pretty quickly, but I knew that would be the case as well. The wax museum was much more fun than I expected as well.
Hi Pete, great TR so far! I'm thinking we have to return to CA so we can go to Warner bro studios. It looks amazing. We chose not to because we thought there'd be so much studio time with Henson and Disney but that wasn't the case. Excited to read the rest of your report. Great pictures too.
Very true, the WB tour was much better than what they showed us at Disney, which was really a shame.
Great update, Pete! Like you, I was a bit skeptical about the idea of a wax museum, but it really did turn out to be a lot of fun.
I felt the same way about the podcast team. I think they may have just been worn out after Hawaii and Alaska, and, on top of that, I know they were busy filming everything, but the lack of interaction was still a bit disappointing.
I still can't believe that you all talked me into getting onto that bike! (And I had no wine at dinner, so I can't even use that as an excuse.
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Right - it was disappointing, but did not detract from the trip.
And the bike suits you - I assumed you were going to go out and buy one!
Hello!
Thanks for sharing your trip report. I've been very much enjoying what you have posted so far.
I am doing the DIS ABD trip in December 2014 and I'm beyond excited. I appreciate you not posting spoilers for the big stuff. I did read your warning about staying away from the trip report in general, but but I'm the kind of person who will flip to the last page of the book every single time - I just can't help myself. It won't spoil it for me, if anything it will make me more excited.
We spent 10 days in Southern California in September 2012 so we did most of the things you mentioned in your pre-days. I really enjoyed your WB studio tour pictures as your experience looked to have quite a few differences than mine - it's interesting how they have changed it up a bit, or maybe it varies on a weekday vs weekend.
I have to say that I agree with you 100% about Hollywood Blvd. I have been there twice, and absolutely loathe it. Ghetto superheroes is a great description! Staying in this location is one of the only disappointments with the ABD itinerary - I'd be fine with never going back there again!
Looking forward to your next installment!
Well, don't say you haven't been warned. I will avoid much of the "backstage" portion of the information. So I will still definitely leave you with plenty of surprises. But I would still tell you that you really shouldn't read this!
Overall, I'd say the ghetto superheroes on Hollywood Boulevard don't affect the hotel stay much. The hotel itself is very nice.
Loving your TR. Thanks for the mention of Chuck, too. We were fortunate enough to visit the set about 3 years back. We stood in courtyard of the apartment complex, around the fountain, but you could look through the see the insides of a lot of other sets, including the Buy More. DH and I really miss Chuck, and you're probably the first other fan I've found!
And I'm enjoying everything else too!
That would've been SOOO cool to see the sets. Did the Buy-More look as big as it did on TV, or was that a trick of the camera? I think the show had a very small, very loyal fan base. I would always tell people that action-comedy is absolutely the hardest genre to get right - especially in a 1-hour TV show format, and they were pretty much able to stick the landing most of the time. (The show had me in the first episode with the introduction of Chuck's BIL "Captain Awesome".) I do think they wrapped it up pretty well, and it was on long enough to leave before it got too stale. (OK - I absolutely hated the plot of last few episodes where they had Sarah forget her years with Chuck, which in the end made me really glad the show was over.) I also loved their use of Genre guest stars (Sarah Connor & Sam Beckett as Chuck's mom and dad!)
Great update! I loved how you made fun with all the wax figures! Do they let anyone get that up close and personal or did you guys have a sort of private tour where they let you get up with the figures? I haven't been to the Hollywood Madame Tussouds. In fact I think the only one I have been to is in Victoria BC, so this one appears to be quite different!
I will admit this was a different presenation than the one I've been to in Niagara Falls. In that one the figures were all in Diorama's, and in general you couldn't approach them. Here they were just out and about and you could (and were encouraged to) interact with them. It made the experience much better! The tour was nothing special, there were other non-tour people around while we were there.
Fantastic pictures with the wax works!
Looks like a great way to spend the evening. Would you recommend your hotel? We will have DS with us.
Well, we have little in the area to compare it to. But, here is my feeling on it:
The location is very centrally located to Los Angeles/Hollywood attractions. The hotel itself is very nice and the room we stay in was very nice but only had a king bed. I would assume they also have rooms with two queens/fulls instead. The only negative was the room by the elevator but once we moved it was great. I would probably call it a 4-star hotel (Out of 5.)
The standard rate for this hotel is about $300-350 US per night. I saw it as low as $250 US, which was still more than I was willing to spend for the night before stay - Understand that is a lot of money for a hotel from my point of view. You certainly can stay cheaper than that in the Los Angeles area, but for location, if you can get it in the $250 price range I would say it is probably worth that. However, I would only use it as a based for seeing Hollywood/Burbank area. If you are more interested in other areas (the beach, Disney) and would be ranging all around LA, I wouldn't stay there. You are paying mostly for location.
We didn't gave to do anything but put the key back in the door since ours was just a day rental & they were closed at 4ish when we got back.
Very rarely when I use that smilie do I actually look like it, but I totally did this time!!!
