The Happiest Place on Earth

We've made it! After a very very long flight and a prompt pick up by the car service we arrived at the Desert inn and Suites at 5am UK time and our Californian adventure had begun.

The hotel is only 5 minutes walk from the gates of the parks and although I miss the Disney theming of an onsite one it is clean and the beds are comfy.

An advantage of jet lag was that we were awake nice and early and got into Disneyland for 8am and it was lovely and quiet.

The park was built in 1955 and was the only one that Walt saw open before his death in 1966 so it's pretty special. I decided we should be proper Disney geeks on our first day and booked on the Walk in Walt’s footsteps tour ($109 each). Definitely worth the money, not least because it includes a trip up to Walt's apartment. This is where he and his family used to stay and it is gorgeous and being in there was magical.

Disneyland Park itself is lovely, the castle is minuscule but being 5 foot nothing I definitely think that good things come in small packages! To give you an idea of the size at 77ft it is a more than 100 smaller than WDW Magic Kingdom's castle!

As the second gate park, Disney California Adventure, is only 100 yards from the Disneyland Park it would have been rude not to pop across on our first day. This park opened in 2001 but it did not have much love until last year and the introduction of Cars Land. The big draw of this area is Radiator Springs Racers and I can happily report that it is absolutely amazing. Having queued for 50 mins I would have got straight back in the queue and waited all over again if I wasn't in need of dinner.

Speaking of dinner, it was time for a Jenni first! At this wonderous place called the Corn Dog Castle they do vegetarian corn dogs!! The queue was massive but it was worth it. Matt had a normal one and reported that it was very tasty too.

Our second day was Halloween so it was time to don costumes and go trick or treating. Disneyland has an extra ticket event for Halloween several nights a week from September and the cost is up to $79 each. We pretty much made this back in candy! Around the park there were treat trails where you walked round and collected chocolate in the bags they provided (too small- we had to go back to the room to empty them and start again!). The park was really atmospheric especially the rivers of America in frontier land which was covered in fog and lit up in spooky green hues. There were some amazing costumes, definitely put my cat outfit to shame! Two rides have a bit of a make over to celebrate the season with Haunted Mansion playing host to Jack Skellington as Halloween and Christmas collide (really fun) and Space Mountain is taken over by Ghost Galaxy (not very scary but a great twist on the classic).

The night ended with fireworks, which had Zero from a Night Before Christmas flying around the castle. I have to admit that I wasn't blown away by them but the music was great!

So we are now two days into our trip and we have four more park days, Hollywood and the zoo still to come. I may need new feet by the end of it but it's so worth it!

Next time - bye bye Disney

Jenni Weightman

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

Passporter Giveaway!

So we had a fabulous array of entries for our Passporter giveaway competition from podcast 29. After much deliberating we managed to narrow down the entries to the best four! If you recall on Podcast 29 we discussed our favourite attractions at WDW... 

Entry Number 1 - Rachael

1. Pirates of the Caribbean

2. Splash Mountain

3. Cross Country Creek (or if water parks not allowed -the jumping fountains in Epcot)

4. It's a Small World

5. Jungle Cruise

Entry Number 2 - Emily

5. Living with the land

4. Pirates

3. Splash Mountain

2. The thrilling Summit Plummet

1.  World of Colour

Entry Number 3 - Chris & Lorraine

5. Pirates of the Carribean

4. Lazy River Blizzard beach

3. It's a small world

2. Splash mountain

1. Summit Plummit

Entry Number 4 - Matt

5. Jungle Cruise

4. Splash Mountain

3. Big Thunder Mountain

2. Pirates of the Carribbean

1. Tower of Terror (one "Stormy" night long ago)

So congratulations to all four of you, I think you are all winners but alas I have only two Passporter prizes to give away. 

So the overall winner, for a physical copy of a Passporter guide is Matt and the downloadable copy goes to Chris and Lorraine. However I will send a Minxie goodie to the other two – so congratulations also to Rachael and Emily. Could all of you please get in touch with me and I will forward your information on to the Passporter team! Michelle xxx