Jenni's going to California! Blog part 5

Hollywood Baby!

For someone that hates early mornings catching a bus at 6.20am in the morning is not going to fun. But it’s all going to be worth it! The bus (plus two changes) will take us to Burbank, a city 12 miles from Downtown LA, and the home of the Disney Studios.

Unlike the Disney Studios theme parks of Paris and Florida the studios in Burbank are real life working studios, which opened in 1940 after the success of Snow White. Being a working studio means that that they are not open to the public but four times a year the D23 club hold tours for it’s members. A bit of Disney magic was definitely in the air for us because one of the days that had a scheduled tour was the very day that I had earmarked for a trip to Hollywood!

D23 is the official Disney Club and membership is available through the US Disney Store website. I went for the Gold level membership, which included four glossy magazines throughout the year and the membership card. Silver level is cheaper as it doesn't include the magazines. There is also now a free membership level but it doesn't include the membership card, which you need to attend events and receive discounts (you do get access to the website though with Disney news and some great looking recipes!).

The tours cost $60 for each person and last 2 and half hours so by 1pm we will be free to travel into Hollywood itself and go star hunting. Despite the slightly scary stories of the tourist trap that is Hollywood Boulevard we can’t miss the walk of fame or the view of the famous Hollywood sign from the Hollywood and Highland Junction. Plus there is a bit of Disney magic to be found here too with the El Capitan Theatre, a Disney owned cinema. I had originally planned lunch at the Disney’s Soda Fountain, which is next door, but it is closed while they change it into a Ghiradelli’s. Very annoying as I had already chosen cheese on toast for my lunch and we're going too early to get our free Ghiradelli chocolate

Our next stop will be the glamorous Rodeo Drive! Supposedly this is where the celebrities really are so we might even spot someone famous. There won’t be much shopping going on except of the window kind but I am hoping to come away with one of the blue boxes from Tiffany & Co. Then to finish our very packed day we will be visiting the Cheesecake Factory on Beverly Hills Drive. This is partly because I love cheesecake and partly because it links to The Big Bang Theory (one of Matt’s favourite shows) as Penny works in the one in Pasadena.

Sadly we will then have to start the long journey home (two and a half hours, two buses) but after all the excitement I think the sit down on the bus will be needed!

We’re all going to the Zoo!

As a zoology graduate I absolutely adore animals and as my local zoo pretty much only has Monkeys I love going to bigger zoos and safari parks. We have one spare day and rather than relax around the hotel, which we should probably do, we are off to San Diego Zoo!

The zoo is over 90 miles away from Anaheim but luckily there are plenty of bus companies, which do joint travel and entry tickets so it is pretty simple to get there. I’m also hoping for some nice scenery along the way as the route is via the coast.

I am beyond excited about seeing pandas, koalas and wombats! Matt is excited mostly because his favourite film, Anchorman, had a big section set in the zoo. He even has an Anchorman t-shirt all ready to wear when we go!

Next time- The happiest place on earth

Jenni's Going To California - Food Glorious Food

I love food at the best of times but when planning for a Disney holiday there is nothing better than spending hours looking at menus, pictures and other people's trip reports to see what delectable delights will be available for us. 

Disneyland California does have a dining plan of sorts but it is available only for people staying on site and offers only convenience of prepaying rather than any actually saving you money. If you are familiar with the vouchers offered at Disneyland Paris it seems very similar to that rather than having dining credits like at Disneyworld. There are also no free dining promotions which are offered regularly to UK visitors to Florida, we had this last November and took full advantage.

Another difference between dining at the two American is the reservation windows. For Disneyland you have the chance to book restaurants only 60 days out which seems nothing compared the famous 180 days out at it's East coast equivalent. 

With this trip being on a bit of a budget we have decided to stick mostly to counter service and splurge on just one table service and one character buffet. Having a free breakfast available in our hotel should also help stretch the pennies a bit further. 

As always with food and Disney my first port of call was the amazing www.disneyfoodblog.com. The section for Disneyland isn't quite as comprehensive as the one for Florida but there are plenty of articles to whet your appetite and summaries of all the menus. Another great website for food that I have found is www.allears.net as it has full menus including up to date prices. Alternatively if you have subscribed to Touring Plans and have the Lines App for your phone, this has all the menus for the parks and a great option where you can search for particular food items.

For the two more expensive meals I have decided on Carthay Circle and Goofy's Kitchen. Cathay Circle is a beautiful looking restaurant in California Adventure which offers World of Colour dining packages.  This involves a 3 course prix fixe lunch ($39) or dinner ($59) including a soft drink.  Then at Goofy's Kitchen we have gone for the breakfast buffet, not least because of Mark Petar's recommendation of the Peanut Butter and Jelly pizza at the Minnie Minx meet up in Nottingham. This restaurant is within the Disneyland Hotel and costs $32.99 each. 

Counter service options are pretty varied although of course include favourites such as chips (remember to call them fries!), chicken nuggets, burgers and pizzas.  I have been really impressed at the veggi options available and also the wide variety of healthy options. I'm pretty excited about the large number of fruit carts that are spread over the two parks. But  it is actually the snacks I am most looking forward to! I greatly regret not getting a Jalapeno Cheese Pretzel in WDW so that is definitely on the list along with melted plastic cheese (which I have tried and failed to find in this country!). My plan for eating, other than the Carthay Circle and Goofy's, is to not really have a plan. I have made a spreadsheet (of course) which summarises the general options available at each restaurant, counter and food court with the average prices so that I know what to expect. But I like the idea of being in a park, feeling a bit hungry and deciding there and then where to go. This may all change a week before when I decide that I can't cope with not having it all planned out but we will see. A 'too eat'  list is definitely required though! One of the items on my list was the amazing Dole Whip Float but there is bad news about the only location that serves it in the park. The Tiki Juice bar is closed for refurbishment while we are there so I won't be able to have one, gutted!

I also want to visit at least one of the lounges in the Disneyland Hotels and Trader Sam's sounds amazing. This is a lounge based at the Disneyland Hotel and themed as an enchanted tiki bar. The cocktails sound amazing and I have read that ordering certain drinks causes magic things to happen! Hopefully this will make up for the lack of Dole Whips.

Out of the parks there are also many restaurants along Harbour Boulevard, in Garden Grove a short distance away and within the hotels in the surrounding areas. I do have a couple on my list but I don't know how likely it is we will get to them as I'd rather be in the parks! But with both Dennys and Ihop being open 24 hours and a hop skip and a jump from our hotel, if we get hungry at 2am we have nothing to worry about. Even if we don't eat at Denny's I need to get a photo of the sign as I mum's name is Denny (yep, we're Jenni and Denny!). 

Something  that I often forget about when dining in America is the tax that is added to the bill so I have tried to work this into my budget calculations as well. In Anaheim it is currently 8% but if your calculating it in your head it's probably easier to round up to 10% and then be pleasantly surprised when you get the bill!            

                      

Next time- Hollywood baby!

The hotel conundrum

The second of a series of blogs by guest blogger Jenni Weightman.

I am a massive fan of staying onsite when going to Disney. In Paris I have stayed in the Cheyenne (cozy and usually a great price), Sequoia (gorgeous in winter with the fire in the bar and rustic decor), Newport (pretty but far too big) and the Disneyland hotel (just amazing). In Florida we went for Port Orleans Riverside and were given an Alligator Bayou room. I was initially a bit disappointed (I know I could have given a preference on booking but I couldn't decide at the time!). But in the end the room and its proximity to the main building and also a relatively quiet bus stop was perfect and the decor was very much like the Sequoia in Paris. One of the best things about staying at Port Orleans was the boat trip to Downtown Disney. Lovely and relaxing and on one trip the Captain even did a trivia quiz!

Anyway, when I first starting planning California I assumed that we would stay in one of the Disney Hotels and I immediately fell in love with pictures of the Grand Californian. That was until I saw the price! At a grand total of $3980 (£2580) it was definitely out unless we re-mortgaged the house (not a good idea) or win the lottery (why does this never happen?).

So it was time to find another option! I found a official website for the Orange County area (http://anaheimoc.org/plan-your-trip/maps-and-transportation) in which Disneyland is located and they have some great maps including one that contains a list of all the hotels in the area. This became my starting point and the hotel spreadsheet was born.

My initial list contained a staggering 79 hotels but I quickly filtered out those that were further than a 20 minute walk and more than $80 dollars per night. Many of the Hotels that are further out either have their own shuttle or are on the Anaheim Resort Transit Route. The buses at WDW really started to annoy me after a while though so I wanted to be close enough to be able walk to the parks. The cost restriction unfortunately meant that I had to say goodbye to staying on site as even the cheapest (Paradise Pier) was over budget. I then had the fun task of checking each of the remaining hotels on Tripadvisor and their own websites for whether they had a free breakfast (good), wi fi (good) and bed bugs (bad). 

The problem with using Tripadvisor is however many good reviews there are for a place there are always the few negative ones that really scare me but I tried to ignore any that were just being petty or expecting 5* service in a 2* place and eventually ended up with a shortlist of 9. At this point I became really geeky and gave each hotel a score out of 3 for Location, Reviews and Price and then sorted them so that the high scorers came to the top. I had my joint winners; The Desert Inn and Suites and Quality Inn and Suites Anaheim at the park. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I spent hours going back and forth between the two! But eventually the location of Desert Inn tipped the scales in its favour. As it is on Harbour Boulevard, pretty much opposite the gates, we can fall out of bed and be at the turnstiles in 5 minutes. I'm not going to lie though, I haven't stopped reading reviews or holding my breath every time I see the hotel being mentioned on one of the many Disney forums but for what we need (basically a room with a bed near to the parks) it seems a great bargain at only £420 for the 8 nights. It also has a indoor pool and a viewing deck where you can see the fireworks from. So as long as we don’t end up with noisy neighbours everything should be good.

To get my Grand Californian fix though I fully intend to visit to admire the gorgeous lobby and dream about one day staying there!

Next month- blog part 3 Getting to the Magic!

Jenni's Going To Disneyland!

A Disney free year? Never! 2013 was supposed to be a Disney free year and in fact it was one of my New Years resolutions! Matt and I had been to Disneyland Paris four times and Disneyworld once last year so it seemed a good idea to have twelve months off and go on a beach holiday instead. The problem is I don’t like lying around on beaches or by the pool or being hot so I wasn’t overly enthusiastic. But I did try; I collected brochures, did lots of googling and went on all the discount holiday sites. But nothing felt right. Which was why I couldn't resist running some figures for a trip to Anahiem. Who was I kidding thinking I could have a Disney free year? So following a quick text to Matt with my workings out the decision was made, we were going to Disneyland California!!

We set a budget of £3500 to include flights, eight nights in a hotel, five days in the park, a day in Hollywood and a day at the beach. I'm not great at sticking to budgets so I'm hoping to win the lottery very soon!

The first thing to decide was when to go. We had visited Disneyworld during the Christmas season and loved the decorations and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party but I wanted to experience something a bit different. Halloween season seemed to be a good choice as the parks would be decorated and we would be able to spend an evening filling a bag with sweets at the Halloween party! That gave us a date range of 13th September to 31st October but how would I decide on the final dates? This turned out to be much easier than expected as after checking the refurb list on www.touringplans.com I found that Big Thunder Mountain was down until 30th October!! I love BTM and there was no way I was flying for 12 hours to not be able to ride it. So it was decided; we would fly out on the 29th October, go to the Halloween Party on the 31st October and return home on 6th November.

With the dates sorted it was time to make a major dint in the budget and book flights. I was hoping to find a bargain but decided after checking reviews of several cut-price flight sites that I didn't trust them! It's not worth saving £200 if the flights don't exist so I focused on Virgin Atlantic and British Airways. Both came out as £600 return price each but as Virgin had slightly cheaper extra leg-room seats and better flight times it was another easy decision.

So with the flights booked there's no turning back, I now have eight glorious months of planning ahead of me so I hope the lovely readers of the Minnie Minxes Blog will enjoy reading all about it.

Next month - blog part 2 The Hotel Conundrum