It's a long way to Paradise...

[AusAnnie]

Paint the Night is my favourite Disney parade - loved it

Oh mine too - I'm so glad that we got to enjoy it a few times. I'm very sad that it finished with the end of the 60th Anniversary.

 

[AusAnnie]

So the next day was Thursday and we headed to McDonald’s for brunch and to use the wifi. We had a couple of things that we needed the internet for, for home so it seemed like a good time. Once we were sorted we headed for California Adventure. We wandered through Bugsland and took photos at the photo op there (no photopass photographer around though).



Our rides began at Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree which is such fun!


Then we wandered down through Radiator Springs stopping to take photos along the way. It was a bit damp and dreary weatherwise – not proper rain but just annoying drizzle.

We stopped at the Curios store and looked at the Route 66 books that they had in there, trying to pick out one that would be suitable if we did choose to drive that way to Vegas. The Single Rider line on RSR didn’t look very busy so we jumped in that for our first ride on RSR!! The wait time was only about 15 minutes and we ended up in separate vehicles and raced each other. So Cool!!!


Next Tone did single rider line on Screamin’ and I took photos while I waited.



Then the next must do was a ride on TSMM and as usual he beat me on that.

 

[AusAnnie]

We walked towards the Fun Wheel and decided to go on that – non swinging gondolas only thanks!! The line was quite busy so they were putting groups of two together with others so we ended up with another couple and their cute little girl. We all took photos of each other and then settled in to enjoy the scenery. I might add that I am extremely scared of heights but I can handle the view from up here (just don’t look down).










After we had finished there we started making our way out of the park via Grizzly Peak.

We had decided to take a walk to Target to see if they had a map book and have a look around. I knew that we had passed the Target on our shuttle to the hotel when we arrived, but we weren’t sure how far it was. It was quite a good long walk – I think that it took us 30 minutes to get there. We found a map book which showed Route 66 going either side of I40, so we grabbed that, some socks as Tone hadn’t packed enough and also some snacks and drinks and a couple of other things. It was a long walk back to the hotel and we also stopped at the CVS to grab some more beer and cereal. We decided to have Pizza Press again for dinner as Tone had bought a nice bottle of Australian wine in Target for way less than we can even get it at home. So we joined the usual line up and chose what we wanted – we decided to have a pizza each which we took to our room to eat. There were leftovers from both pizzas, but we both got to choose what we liked instead of having to compromise. Did I mention – awesome pizzas!!

 

[darrenf67]

Love the rides around Paradise Pier - especially Toy Story. Great photos too!

 

[AusAnnie]

Love the rides around Paradise Pier - especially Toy Story. Great photos too!

We do too - TSMM is definitely a favourite. Thanks - some of them were just with our phones so I was surprised when they turned out so well!

 

[AliB67]

Great blog so far. Looking forward to reading more....

 

[AusAnnie]

Great blog so far. Looking forward to reading more....

there is plenty more to come!!

 

[AusAnnie]

The next day – Friday was our tour: The Best of LA - Los Angeles, Hollywood & Beaches Tour. We had cereal in our room for breakfast and then made our way down to the bus stop where we were getting picked up. We were picked up in a mini bus and taken to the depot to pick up another few groups. There were two ladies in the front seats – I think that they were mother & daughter and they were lovely to chat to while we waited for our departure. Once everyone was aboard we took off. Our bus driver was the same one that we had had on our trip to Universal Studios, so we did hear some of the same stories on the way towards Los Angeles. He was pretty cool though and really knowledgeable about everything so we gained heaps of information during the day. We were given a choice for our first stop – it was to be either Santa Monica or Venice Beach and the whole bus was happy with Santa Monica. We did a drive by of Venice Beach first and he pointed out some important sights - the original Gold’s Gym, Hotel California etc and then we were at Santa Monica.







Our stop here was for 1 ½ hours so we headed to the pier first to have a look. The weather was horrible again today – drizzle all day.

After we had checked out the pier we headed to T hird Street Promenade which is a shopping mall (similar to the Rundle Mall at home in Adelaide).


We found a couple of things to buy and then headed back towards the bus which was parked near the end of Santa Monica Boulevard (aka the end of Route 66).


We hopped back on the bus and off we went!!

 

[AusAnnie]

We drove through Beverly Hills and a bit of West Hollywood.



Our next stop was Hollywood Boulevard, some of the group opted to get off here and spend 3 hours. Or the other choice was to stay on the bus and head to Farmer’s Market and the Grove shopping centre which is what Tone & I chose to do. We headed into the food court for lunch and I chose Chinese food and Tone picked an Asian Soup. The food was okay – nothing to write home about!! We wandered through the shops and then over to the Grove and had a look through some of the shops there. We only had about an hour before we had to get back to the bus.


Tone asked the driver (I think his name was Dean) about Route 66 as he had mentioned a few things about it earlier and he was happy to answer our questions while we waited for the rest of the group. Once we were all back to the bus we headed back to Hollywood Boulevard and finished the rest of our tour there.



We had about 90 minutes to spend so we had a good look at the Walk of Fame and the Chinese Theatre

 

[AusAnnie]

We then decided to go to Madam Tussaud’s as we had been given free tickets when we booked the tour. We found it to be really enjoyable and some of the wax sculptures were really, really good likenesses!! I took heaps of photos including some interactive ones!!









We ran into Tiger Woods and Tone gave him some pointers!

 

[kaitmaree]

Enjoying a TR from an Aussie perspective – thanks for including your Universal and LA details, too!

 

[AusAnnie]

After we had finished there we wandered down the street again for a bit longer and also visited the Ghiradelli Soda Fountain.





Soon enough it was time to get back on the bus for the trip back to Anaheim. We had lots of traffic driving back and the weather was so bad that we couldn’t even see the Hollywood sign. Dean had plenty more information for us on the drive back too.

 

[AusAnnie]

Enjoying a TR from an Aussie perspective – thanks for including your Universal and LA details, too!

Thanks for reading!! I bet that you are looking forward to your trip too!

 

[AusAnnie]

It was quite late when we got back so we went for dinner at Denny’s where I had a great salad and Tone had a Jalapeno burger. Then that was another day done!

 

[darrenf67]

Love driving around LA - always so many "I Know That!!" moments from movies/TV etc.

 

[Jaina]

What an awesome trip! I am enjoying reading about your experience!

 

[AusAnnie]

Love driving around LA - always so many "I Know That!!" moments from movies/TV etc.

I know - Dean was really good at pointing out sights that were used in the movies but I was usually too slow to get a photo. It was a great experience though.

What an awesome trip! I am enjoying reading about your experience!

Thank you for reading!! It was a great trip and there is still heaps more to come!!

 

[lffam]

Great report, thanks for sharing. When we went to Santa Monica Pier, we had the same weather also! I'd like to go there with some nice weather next time. I've never driver around LA but we did drive from San Diego to Vegas back in 2010.

Agree seeing all the familiar movie locations is a spin-out, love it .

 

[AusAnnie]

Great report, thanks for sharing. When we went to Santa Monica Pier, we had the same weather also! I'd like to go there with some nice weather next time. I've never driver around LA but we did drive from San Diego to Vegas back in 2010.

Agree seeing all the familiar movie locations is a spin-out, love it .

Thank you for reading & commenting! I'm sure that Santa Monica is very pretty with the sun shining. We only had two bad days weatherwise over the whole month that we were away - it was a shame that one of them was the day of the tour. San Diego to Vegas is a big drive. Coming up soon is our drive Anaheim to Vegas via Route 66. There are a few more Disney days to come first though!!

 

[AusAnnie]

The next day was our Magic Morning at Disneyland. We arrived at 7am ready to make the most of the extra time. We headed to Tomorrowland and had a ride straight away on Star Tours.

Then we went over to Hyperspace Mountain and Tone rode that while I waited and took some photos (I’m a wuss remember!).



When he came off the ride it was still only a 15 minute line so he went back on it again. By the time he came off the second time the wait was up to 30 minutes and not long after that we saw it at 50 minutes.

After that we went back to Star tours and rode again – love that ride so much.

We had a couple of goes on Astro blasters and then headed across the hub towards Indiana Jones – where we grabbed a Fast Pass. Because by this time the park was open to everyone so rides were starting to get busy.
Rope drop:



We went for a quick ride on Pirates and then HM and then Tone noticed that Splash was open so he went in the Single rider line (did I mention there is a wuss in the family).