Disneyland and California Adventures - Day One

Catching up from where we left off.

Having had a long journey we were now at our final stop over and looking forwards to three days in Disneyland and the Disney California Adventure parks.

Victoria and I awoke quite early and we had an hankering for a McDonalds Egg McMuffin, it's strange how you sometimes get these crap food cravings, so I popped over to the nearby McDonalds and returned with the goods. Bugger! the US version of an Egg McMuffin comes with a slice of ham! These went in the bin and we grabbed an egg & cheese 'biscuit' from the place in our hotel.

The park does not open until 1000 so we had a leisurely stroll over there and picked up our 'Celebrating 25 Years' badges from the Town Hall and were at the store ready to pick up our Photo Pass as soon as it opened. Disneyland is also having a celebration of its' own, the park opened in 1955 and is celebrating 60 years!

We are great fans of the Ridemax application and use this to most efficiently plan our days at the park so that we can try to get on our favourite rides, our first stop being Big Thunder Mountain where we walked to the front of the queue and were soon speeding along on the abandoned mine train yee-haa!. We then went straight to Pirates of the Caribbean and again after at most a couple of minutes in the queue were on the ride, catching glimpse of Captain Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones.

After picking up a fast-pass for the Indiana Jones Adventure we had a lovely brunch of a Mickey Pancakes (everything tastes better Mickey shaped) and a Fruit Salad at the River Belle Terrace before having a Photopass shoot in front of the castle. We then find that the queue for Pixie Hollow was only five minutes, the park was really quiet so queueing for five minutes here is a very rare event. So with a sprinkling of pixie dust we were shrunk down to size to meet first Rosetta then Tinkerbell.

Straight out of Pixie Hollow we bumped into Peter Pan so Victoria stopped for a chat and a photo. Our fast-passes for the Indiana Jones Adventure were now active so we boarded our jeep and had an exhilarating ride through the temple, avoiding looking into the Eye of the Idol and thankful that Indie was there to help us through.

Emerging safely from the temple we made our way to Tomorrow Land and picked up fast-passes for Star Tours and then had a meet and greet with Captain Hook, we were certainly bumping into the Neverland characters today!

After sharing a frozen lemonade and strawberry lolly on the Tomorrowland Terrace we had our photos done at the Captain America meet and greet by which time our fast-passes were active again and it was off to Hoth on the first leg of our Star Tour before making light speed and arriving at Naboo to a heroes welcome. We then made our way back to Frontierland for a gentle cruise on the Mark Twain riverboat followed by a ride on the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh,

This was quite cool as the ride broke down as we were nearing the end so we had to be evacuated by the cast-members, there is one for the record!

We picked up a couple of fast-passes for Splash Mountain and as it had been a good few hours since we shared pancakes and fruit for brunch, so we had a lovely lunch at Hungry Bear, one of Victoria and my Disneyland favourites, fried green tomato sandwich, sweet potato fries and a mango coleslaw.

After lunch, our Splash Mountain fast passes were now active so we boarded our 'boat' and were soon careering through the story of Br'er Rabbit including a 50ft drop on the log flume, all great fun and we did not get nearly as we as the previous visit.

Ridemax now had us on 'free time' so we visited the animals at the Jamboree Petting Zoo before entering Toon Town for photos in the town square and then with Donald Duck. We also rode the Who Framed Roger Rabbit ride after a ten minute queue, when we first came here with Jasmin in 1995 we had to queue for an hour to get onto this! We must have picked a really good time to come, it was the run up to the Labor Day weekend and I think the parks would have gotten a lot busier at the weekend but they were very quiet while we were there,

The food options for vegetarians at Disneyland is great and it was time to indulge again with a Dole Whip at the Enchanted Tiki Room, as we were stood in the queue a lovely couple saw our 'Celebrating 25 Years' badges and insisted on buying our Dole Whips, thanks guys! We then ate them enjoying the great Enchanted Tiki Room show.

Ridemax now suggested we head over to Tomorrowland and pick up fast-passes for Space Mountain and after that we rode the saccharine sweet It's a Small World ride before having a drink at the Starbucks and more photos done on our Photopass. I then had my greatest disappointment of the day when I found out that Pretzel Rods are no longer on the menu, how shall I cope! Victoria and I shared a cake-pop instead.

It was now time for our space mission, we boarded Space Mountain and were blasted into outer-space, doing a loop of the galaxy and returning to earth. Back on terrafirma we noticed that the queue for Buzz Lightyear was only a few minutes so we were soon boarded and blasting away at Emperor Zurg, I don't recall the scores but I did get the high score this time.

Food time again, this time it was sharing a very tasty vegetarian gumbo from Royal Street Veranda, this is served in a delicious sourdough bread bowl and is highly recommended.

Approaching 1900 and starting to get dark Ridemax suggested that we made our way along to Peter Pans Flight, oh no! they had closed the queue in time for the later fireworks, one of Victorias favourite rides and we would have to give it a miss!

I had another ride on my to do list and was determined to get on the Matterhorn Bobsleds, we joined the single riders queue and were soon boarded in our sled and on our way up the Matterhorn to come hurtling down avoiding yetis and avalanches on the way. I had a bonus run as our car was given a go-around, great stuff!

It was getting quite late now so we made our way to the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage which we had first ridden in 1995 when it was just called the Submarine Voyage. The queue was much shorter than it had been earlier in the day and we were soon enjoying our undersea adventure before it was time to leave the park after a twelve hour marathon and catch up with our sleep for the next days adventure.

Viva Las Vegas!

Renewing our vows with Elvis!

While we were in Las Vegas we renewed our vows, after 25 years of marriage, at the Elvis Chapel. We posted a few of the pictures we had taken on an earlier post, but these are the ones that the photographer at the chapel took.

After some initial photographs Elvis was in the building and led Victoria up the aisle to 'Love Me Tender'.

Elvis then conducted the ceremony and Victoria promised that I would never buy any 'Blue Suede Shoes'.

After the ceremony we then had a dance to 'Viva Las Vegas' (I was constantly out of step) before another session with photographer outside the chapel.

We then took the limousine back to the Venetian to continue our celebrations.

Three states in a day!

Exhausted from our big adventure the previous day we awoke fairly late for us and had a leisurely breakfast at the Cañonita restaurant where we had dined the previous day and then had a walk around the hotel.

Following breakfast we bought a couple of pots of fruit for the journey and then went into the Palazzo casino for a last spin on the roulette table, High roller that I am I got a $20.00 from my wallet and Victoria and I placed our respective bets, Victoria won but I lost, so overall for the weekend we were down about $9.00 on the gambling, I am noot sure we can sustain these losses :-)

We decided that Las Vegas is actually quite lovely in morning when all the usual denziens are still in bed and it is not too crowded, also despite being a bit gaudy of all the hotels we saw the Venetian is actually the nicest.

Not inclined to come back though.

We packed the cases, checked out and picked up the car from the parking garage and were on the road, driving through Boulder we eventually got to the Hoover Dam.

Wow, this is seriously impressive! Well to me anyway, Victoria is not so with engineering. We drove over to the Arizona side and parked up at one of the view points and walked back to the dam.

Getting back in the car we drove to the end of the road to purchase some postcards and trinkets from the gift shop before crossing back over the dam and driving back towards Las Vegas and picking up the road to Los Angeles.

This journey took a good six hours due to traffic but the scenery was beautiful as we drove past mountains ranges and the Mojave Desert. We saw probably the longest train I have ever seen, this is just the head of it and it was at least three times longer!

Stopping for gas just after Barstow we continued to Orange County and got checked in at the Marriott Fairfield Inn and Suites.

After a shower to get rid of the dust we headed to Downtown Disney and had a cocktail at the Tiki Bar in the Disneyland Hotel, the service was pretty terrible here though.

So we headed over to the House of Blues where I had a pint of beer in a Mason Jar and we dined on salad, portabello sliders and fries while listening to live music, a great night out.

Walking back to the hotel we caught the fireworks in Disneyland before crashing out for another big adventure tomorrow.

Twenty-five years six months and five days

On the 24th February 1990 Victoria and I got married at Chesterfield Registry Office and we decided that after 25 years we should renew our vows with Elvis in Las Vegas.

We had a breakfast of coffee and pastries and I started the day with a gym session in the hotels Canyon Ranch Spa while Victoria started her preparation and as you can see, she does look lovely.

The ceremony was due to start at 1300, we would be picked up from the lobby at 1230, the Venetian is very opulently decorated and this is taken in the entrance hall.

Victoria had her 'Alice in Wonderland' bouquet from Etsy, they also did my matching buttonhole.

At about 1230 Mike picked us up in the Limo and we were on our way to Elvis Chapel.

While we sat in the waiting area a proper trampy wandered in and asked if there was a water fountain, obviously not, but I wonder if he does it regularly to see if he can earn a few dollars by being a witness? Maybe it is part of the package.

Anyhow, after a few minutes with the photographer, Elvis entered the building and we had a great, funny service during which we renewed our vows, had a dance and I promised to never, ever, step on her blue suede shoes.

We have ordered the photo package, but it is on CD, so I will have to post those at a later date.

After the service we had a few more photos then it was back into the limo and off to the Venetian.

We decided that we would have a lunch in the hotel, but first took a few pictures, believe it or not, this is in the Venetians shopping mall!

At the Cañonita restaurant which overlooks the canal and gondolas we had lovely a wedding breakfast with cocktails. Then after a long time in the most inefficient bakery in the world picked up some cakes from Carlos (who is apparently a Cake Boss) and took them back to our room to enjoy with a bottle of champagne that our dear daughter Jasmin had bought for us and I had put on ice that morning.

The champagne and cupcake were lovely, the cannoli not so good. We then touched up our make up and made our way into the casino.

Victoria made a start on the roulette table with $30.00 on black and we were soon $30.00 up on the night, although I did lose $25.00 of that with my ill informed gambling, still $5.00 up and on to a winner. Victoria then played the slots and we were another $6.00 up. Hardly high rollers, but $11.00 profit on the evening (for a $15.00 outlay) works for us.

We then made our way onto the Strip, this is us outside the Venetian with the gondolas. There are all the posters for the shows behind us, I had to laugh at the one for 'The Motown Story' featuring four white guys!

We made our way along the strip going into Harrahs, Linq, Bellagio and Best Western and were not impressed by any of them. The Venetian may seem a bit gaudy but out of the five others we visited (including the Mirage the day before) it was streets ahead of any of the others.

The atrium of the Bellagio did have a rather good display of 'under the sea'

We walked back from the Bellagio along the strip and it was an unpleasant half hour journey, far too crowded and way too tacky although there was some very good street performance they made the crowding even worse.

We did stop at Fat Tuesday's for a huge beaker of frozen Bellini at just $11 and Victoria had a Marilyn Monroe moment as she walked over one of the vents.

Back at the Venetian we were rather peckish so shared a veggie burger and fries at Johnny Rockets before wrapping up the evening with a pint at the Sin City Brewery again.

Here is a shot from the original day all those years ago, we have not changed a bit - we finished off that evening with pints too.....