Go West young lady - Disneyland and the Gateway hotel June 24th 2011

[Claire L]

Friday June 24th 2011

Today I was transferring to the Hacienda Hotel at LAX, this is the Gateway hotel for Trek America and as the tour departs at 7.30am tomorrow morning going there the night before sounds like a good plan. As it is though I do not have to check out of the Candy Cane Inn until 11am and Super Shuttle are not collecting me until 11.40am. As I still have my Disneyland pass after breakfast I decide to spend a few hours in Disneyland. I get my breakfast at the hotel of cereal and bagel then walk to Disneyland getting there about 8.20am.

First stop is the shops to get a few last minute presents, including one for myself Then I go and get a few pics and also go on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

I then leave just before 10am and walk back to the hotel

I then check out and sit by the pool to wait for the Super Shuttle

The Super Shuttle arrives on time and we do one other pick up before heading to LAX. Although I am not flying anywhere as the Hacienda has a courtesy shuttle from LAX it was cheaper to get the Super Shuttle then the hotel shuttle than it was to get a taxi. As we go along the freeway traffic is flowing quite freely, until we come across slow moving traffic, which one driver clearly misses as we hear the squeal of tyres and the smoke, luckily they avoid a rear end shunt!! I arrive at LAX and then go to arrivals and within 30 minutes I am at the Hacienda and checking in at about 1pm. The room is ready so I dump my stuff there and go to get lunch in the adjoining restaurant. I order the club sandwich with fries which is huge!!! As it is still only mid afternoon I go back to my room and surf the internet and load a few pics onto Facebook. At about 5pm the girl I am sharing the room with arrives and she has just finished her Trek and although tired appears to have enjoyed herself. Soon after she goes out to spend the last night with her fellow trekkers. As I surf the internet I get a message from Ben and we meet to have a chat. Soon it is time for bed and up at 6am to get breakfast!!

 

[wickesy]

I get my breakfast at the hotel of cereal and bagel

How stupid am I - when I first read that I thought it was the name of a restaurant The Hotel of Cereal and Bagel

 

[Claire L]

How stupid am I - when I first read that I thought it was the name of a restaurant The Hotel of Cereal and Bagel

Lol

 

[mandymouse]

And now the adventure begins, I'm looking forward to hearing all about the trek

 

[cannp123165]

Looking forward to hearing about the trek.

 

[irongirlof12]

how exciting can't wait for the next bit

 

[strawberry blonde]

The Candy Cane Inn looks really nice especially as it's walking distance to the park.

 

[Chilly]

so how did Disneyland compare to MK on this trip?

 

[SusanEllen]

Claire,
We missed being in the Disneyland parks at the same time by only a couple of days. I was there June 12-20th but, of course, you had no way of knowing that as I have not been as dutiful as you and have not yet written a report! I appreciate you taking the time to write such a thorough report of your trip and so glad to read that you had a good time. Wasn't the Star Tours re-do just about too much fun?! As much as I loved the original very familiar version, I have to say this update is a real improvement. We rode 5 times (thanks to a handful of Disney hotel guest fast passes-we couldn't have ridden that many times without them as the stand-by lines were more than an hour and half almost all day long the entire week we were there.) We managed to see 4 of the possible 54 different combinations with only one scenario element repeated. Did you spot Rex, the original pilot, in his special place in the queue?
Off to read the rest of your California adventure.