Thursday March 6th – Day off.

We slept in today. I’d completely lost my voice... I knew it was coming, my voice had been crackly all week because of my cold, but I was at Disneyland, so I couldn’t really be bothered to do anything about it. Chris made me take the day off though. He told me that we could go to Disneyland on Monday instead of today. We weren’t originally planning on going to DL that day, because it’s the day we fly out, but our flight wasn’t until after 10pm...

When we eventually got up we caught a taxi to The Block to do some shopping. This is a nice shopping centre, but not as good as I was expecting. We bought lots of lollies – or candy, whatever you want to call it – from the lolly shop, and spent the day wandering around the shops.

We had a lovely lunch at the Alcatraz Brewery. I had some sort of hamburger with pineapple relish. Chris had something that was really spicy. I can’t have spicy stuff, because I’m a sook.

When we’d looked at just about everything there was to see at The Block, we caught another taxi back to the hotel.

We then spent the afternoon in DTD shopping and getting souvenirs for the people back home. We had a PS at the Rainforest Cafe that night so we just spent our time looking around and buying unhealthy food. We did a bit of people watching and waited for our dinner time.



I really enjoyed the rainforest cafe. It was difficult trying to order my dinner, mainly because it’s noisy in there, plus every time the waiter came to our table it just happened to be in the middle of a thunder storm...





I had the chicken Caesar salad, which was nice, but I didn’t even come close to finishing it because I still wasn’t feeling well. I also had several of these yummy drinks.



I can’t remember what they’re called though...



Once again we strolled back to the hotel through DTD, people watching, buying souvenirs and deserts. Mainly fairy floss.

My description of each day seems to be getting shorter as I go, and trust me it felt that way too. Sleeping in late and being forced to go back to the hotel early was starting to get annoying. But I was sick, and I suppose I needed it, but it was really annoying!!!

So, back to the hotel to watch the Disney chanel...

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Posted in: anaheim,disney,down town disney,rain forest cafe

Wednesday 5th March – We finally make it to L.A!

So, we were up and early and ready for our tour of L.A. We breathed a sigh of relief when the bus turned up too.

This tour was ok, but nothing special. I really expected that they’d let us off at Rodeo Drive so we could look around. I really wanted to buy 1 thing from there, that’s all I could afford of course. But they wouldn’t let us off the bus! We did go to garden grove, but it’s not the same. We also stopped at Santa Monica. This is nice, but it’s got nothing on the Aussie Beaches.
This photo was pretty anyway.

We also went and saw Grauman’s Theatre, and all of the stuff around it.







Hey! This looks familiar!



And we stopped at this place!



Best decision ever!



That night we had Yamabuki for dinner. It was nice, but a little over priced... We didn’t eat in though, so we didn’t get the full ambience that would have made the meal... Nice though...

On a side note, I'm really disapointed that this place has since shut down. Compared to Disney World there just isn't as much variety at Disneyland, and I felt this restaurant gave it some of that variety. Hopefully there are plans in the works to bring another similar eatery back.

Then we fell asleep watching the Disney channel. Notice a pattern here? I now love watching Hannah Montana, Cory in the House and Witches of Waverly Place.

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Posted in: disney's soda fountain,graumann's theatre,hollywood,los angeles,santa monica pier,yamabuki

March 4th, Part 2

Next we must have watched the Enchanted Tikis. This is cute. It has a very catchy song. Probably worth only one watch a trip for me...

Then we went on IJ. The line was pretty quick, it was great to see this ride in detail, as opposed to slightly fuzzy! I still missed the skeleton with the Mickey ears though!







Next we did a quick run up Tarzan’s Tree house. This was cool.

Notice how I say everything is either cool or cute? I don’t have much variety to I?

Nice views from up there!

We then rode POC again. Another thing that was good to actually see. I think we must have ridden Splash Mountain here, possibly even HM as well... Then I got my photo in this area. It’s such a pretty spot!



We headed over to Tomorrow land and rode Space Mountain again. Then we decided to have a look in Innoventions. I wasn’t too impressed with the computer stuff that was about, but I was delighted with the fact that you could test drive a Segway!! I’m really happy that I did this, because it was great fun! Chris didn’t do it, and I spent the rest of the day telling him how much he would have loved it. I had even forgotten about the fact that you could do a Segway tour of DCA! I wish I remembered that when it mattered!



Chris wasn’t feeling well so I said that we could go back to the hotel to rest for a bit. Secretly thinking “I’ll put him to bed, and then come back!” Unfortunately he can read me like a book, and told me no, I had to stay! The Nerve!! Despite the fact that I’d been sick for weeks, and hadn’t put a dampener on our trip at all, or stopped Chris from doing anything, Chris had a sniffle, so we both had to sit at the hotel and do nothing... Pfft!

So from now on when Chris complains that I don’t love him, I simply remind him about this day, when I sat with him... In a hotel... Across the road from Disneyland...

No idea what we had for dinner...

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Posted in: anaheim,Disneyland,enchanted tiki room,holidays,indiana jones,innoventions,segway

March 4th, Part 1

We got up this morning, and I was finally able to wear my contacts again, without the possibility of them getting infected again! A little too much info, but hey, I was excited!
Today was early entry day! So we got there before opening, but unfortunately, not early enough...



We decided that we’d try for Finding Nemo today... By now, I’d sort of explained many things Disney to Chris, so he understood about what the lines would be like, and that we needed to do a quick walk to get there. He didn’t quite get the long lines for everything in Fantasyland though, which would probably be a better way of spending our early entry time. But that’s ok. We lined up for Nemo.



When we got there the sign only said 15 minutes... But by the time where we were in the line had looped back to where that sign was, it had changed to 60 minutes... It took us the early entry hour to do the line and ride Nemo. That’s ok though, we can now say “I’ve ridden Finding Nemo at Disneyland” which is something a lot of people can’t say.



Yeah, it’s a cute ride, but like many people have said, not worth the wait...



After Nemo we rode Buzz Lightyear. I really enjoyed this ride! It’s become one of my favourites! I think it’s because I’m so competitive. Chris managed to beat me every time. Damn him!



This picture was from a later time in the trip, but it had my best score on it... For some reason though the score didn’t come up on the picture... Damn that too!!



Next we rode Space Mountain. This was another ride that Chris was a little scared of. He didn’t like the idea of not knowing what was coming next. So the nerves set in, and he was cursing me because he’s already told me that he didn’t trust me when it comes to rides anymore. But he wanted to ride it, so we were in line. This is a great ride too! I didn’t get to ride it last time I was here, because it was getting refurbished or something. So it was good to see what all the hype was about. I would have liked to have ridden it with the rock music. I think that would have been good. Anyway, Chris loved it too, his trust was restored.
When we headed outside the Jedi Training Academy had started. I wasn’t particularly interested in seeing this show, but it was on, so I ducked in to take some quick snaps.



I agree with all of the people who have commented on how massive this guy is! He’s so tall!
We headed back out to Fantasyland, I wanted to get a photo of Snow White’s fountain. We were heading in that direction when some fella, who was about 50m away from us started calling out to a group of people who were walking towards us about turning down the pathway that lead to the Arial fountain. We just figured that he was talking to that group of people, but we looked in the direction he was pointing anyway, and what do we see?!?! The Dream Squad!!! More Dream Fast passes!!!
Yay! We called out to a few more people who were just walking straight by, so they could get fast passes too. Then we headed over to get the photos that I wanted.





Then this little fella caught my eye, and I had to get a photo of him too.



By now it was about 11am, and I wanted to get a water side table for our meal at the Blue Bayou, which was at 11:40, so we headed over there anyway. We had a quick look around the glass shop that was across from it, and then checked in and hung around the lobby.
We got that waterside table that I wanted. And of course I ordered the Monte Christo, with the Gumbo side.



Now the gumbo was probably enough to fill me, but hey, I wanted a Monte Christo... Of course, I only ate 1 quarter, and a couple of bites of another one, and that was it, I was done. But it was sooo good!!! But confusing... It was a confusing meal. Savoury, yet sweet.

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Posted in: anaheim,darth vader,Disneyland,finding nemo,holiday,holidays,jedi training,pictures,snow white,snow white's fountain,travel journalism,weekends away,year of a million dreams

March 3rd, Part 3

Next we must have gotten on the Mark Twain. I seem to remember this being more eventful... We must have watched some sort of shoot-em-up show from the boat last time around, but there wasn’t any of that this time. Maybe I’m imagining things.




Next we must have wandered around Fantasyland...





We may have ridden something in Fantasyland... We rode snow white at some stage... I’m not sure if it was today...
Then we headed into Toon town again. Lots more photo ops.













We rode Roger Rabbit, and Gadgets Go Coaster, and wandered around the shop that’s there.
Then by the looks of our photos, we must have headed out... After first taking a photo of Main Street getting ready for the parade.



And then, because DCA was already shut – stupid early closings... We played around with the letters again. We started with our initials.





And then we played with the O and the A, because they’re more fun than our initials...







We headed back to the hotel, and then went out and got Chinese food to eat while watching the Disney channel.Then we must have fallen asleep...

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Posted in: anaheim,Disney's California Adventure,Disneyland,mickey mouse,pictures,toon town,travel,travel journalism