DISNEYLAND – THE ORIGINAL

We’re posting in flashback from England again. This is our last post about the USA. Our last day was spent at Disneyland and what a fantastic way to end the trip this was.

Disneyland was the brainchild of Walt Disney, wanting to create a place where children and adults could have fun together. The other reason for its existence is the fact that the general public wanted to meet Mickey and Minnie and all the other wonderful cartoon characters. After a lot of hard work by many people, the most by Walt himself, and for the cost of $17 million the park opened on July 18, 1954. Although, the first day was an absolute disaster, dubbed Black Friday forever. LA was going through a heat wave and the recently laid tarmac melted as people were walking on it. The plumber couldn’t complete the water fountain installation meaning there was no water for people to drink. Counterfeit tickets were created meaning 30,000 instead of 15,000 guests turned up and the catering was insufficient. To top off all that there was a gas leak causing the shutting of half the park. All in all a disaster but in the days to follow all was sorted and it has been a success story ever since.

It really is a place to have fun with children, even big ones like us. We thoroughly enjoyed a day and night of wonder looking around and riding as much as possible. It is always packed with people so a lot of time is spent in queues but you get there in the end. Half the fun we had in the day was watching little children light up in wonder as a favourite character would pass, especially during the daily parade, at this time of year Christmas themed. We loved Mickey’s Toon Town and Fantasyland, getting lost in these make believe worlds.

We went home to rug up for the evening and to eat dinner and then headed back in for the night. The lights were just gorgeous creating the magical atmosphere that Disney is famous for. We were treated to a spectacular show called Fantastica which is the dream world of Mickey Mouse projected onto a misty water screen and includes appearances of lots of wonderful characters. Between shows we fitted in a our last few rides and in our opinion the best rides in the park. The New Orleans style haunted house was just the right amount of spooky and we loved the Indiana Jones Adventure ride, although our absolutely favourite was the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. The fireworks were just spectacular and a very fitting end to our time in the USA. We all decided that as much as we had really enjoyed our Disney adventure we would not plan a holiday around it, it was just good to do as a part of our LA adventure. Universal Studios we felt was a much better adventure along the theme park line with much better rides for us adults, a win to Florida.

Well, this was the last night for our USA adventures as we settled down to a lovely hotel stay, free from our Wyndham rewards, and woke to do our final pack. We had talked our way into a late check out at 2pm so perfect for our then trouble free trip to the airport to drop off the car. Alamo is a rental car company I would recommend to anyone, they have been a trouble free experience and have gone out of their way to make it so. We have completed 13,100 miles of travels through this amazing country of natural wonders, big cities and very interesting people. Time to return to Blighty to see our family before returning to Australia so do stay tuned for more fun to end our world adventure, or part of it at least.

We had a trouble free flight and were met by Graham right on time, helped by following our flights progress on the good old iPad. It is a bright but cold sunny day and we enjoy the last minute views from flight over England of the green fields and hedges. Back on the ground we spend our time catching up on what has been happening over the last 3 months and reliving some of our adventures. The Bells welcomes back with the Christmas lights shining and fire glowing bright, just gorgeous. It is so good to be back.

Photos can be found on our Facebook page in the album DISNEYLAND.

FANTASTICAL FUN AT UNIVERSAL ORLANDO

This is the world of theme parks and, after much discussion and advice from those who have been here before, we decided that Universal was the place for us. Our first day is at Universal Studios, OH MY GOD WHAT A DAY. Here we are in a world that will shake, rattle, roll, spin, scare and speed you through the most amazing experiences. We start with the good old fashioned roller coaster. It’s fantastic! From there we live through the worlds of Shrek, Minions, Transformers, Wizards and Aliens. Even on the ground you are transported into other worlds, taking in a little Blues Brothers and Hollywood magic.

Our favorite world is not a Hollywood creation but boy they have done it well, Diagon Alley from Harry Potter. As we wonder through we imagine purchasing our needs for a year at Hogwarts and take a lunch break at The Leaky Cauldron, washing it down with a Butter Beer. Of course we have already withdrawn our galleons from the very special Gringotts bank with the help of some gorgeous goblins and a very special Dragon. Ah, the magic.

The afternoon is taken up with the Men In Black ride, not everyone’s favourite, and The Simpson’s Krusty the Clown ride that had us laughing the whole time including during the wait in line. We couldn’t leave without another visit to Diagon Alley and Gringotts, the best ride at Universal, and were lucky enough to catch Celestina Warbeck singing on stage, though we didn’t spot Molly Weasley in the crowd.

We take in an animal show with many specially trained creatures of the furry and feathered kind, including Marley from Marley and Me. Back to a little more adventure and into the world of Transformers, what a ride, rip roaring, stomach churning thrills as we save the world from evil one more time.

My stomach has done enough for one day but the girls decide to go back for more at both Transformers and Gringotts. Our senses have finally been pulverized enough for one day and we stagger on to look at the Universal City Walk of restaurants and evening entertainment before a cooling stroll back to our hotel where we collapse into bed.

Sunrise hits and we jump back up into the world of Islands of Adventure, two special islands devoted to more fun. These world concentrate on the cartoons of old and Super Heroes. We start the day with a new roller coaster, The Hulk, even better than yesterdays. We may have been a little park weary but this soon fired up the desire for fun and fear.

We decide to save the water rides for later in the day and head through Jurassic park. Then we move on to more Harry Potter fun. This time we enter into Hogsmead and eventually into the dungeons of Hogwarts Castle. Words can not describe the wonder as we watch and overhear the conversations between the moving paintings gossiping about the goings on at Hogwarts. Harry, Ron and Hermione appear from under the invisibility cloak and hatch a wonderful plan to transport us away from boring classes to be involved in the service of catching a snitch and other daring deeds for Professor Dumbledore.

Our ride is the best one yet and we emerge back onto the Hogsmead streets exhilarated and starving. The Three Broomsticks soon solves this problem. We ride a very terrifying dragon next and admire the Hogwarts Express, clouded in steam at the station.

We exit the exciting magical world and pause for a moment at a very special, very old talking rock. Children stop to have a little conversation and a delightful cooling off with Cosmo, their looks of wonder and astonishment as entertaining as anything we have done.

A little down time is the order of the hour and we wander on to The Cat In the Hat, Dr Seuss, world of fantasy, riding a very sedate overhead train looking on such colour and beauty, transporting us back into our childhood memories. A magnificent Merry Go Round full of magical creatures completes the experience. The batteries recharged by the beautiful world and lots of sunshine sees us ready to face the water rides.

As we tumble, slip, slide, scream and float our way through the Looney Tune creations we laugh uncontrollably as we and our fellow travelers are soaked to the skin and refreshed. Spider Man and Twister are last and though we have a new burst of energy it is only enough to transport us back through the streets of super heroes back into the real world and home before we crash in a heap, our body and minds overloaded with frivolity, fear and fabulous experiences. And we’re thankful for the stunning weather we had for both days at this wonderful place.

Wrapping up our Orlando experience is a little contradiction. NASA is trying its hardest to explore the universe and find life other than ours. In “reality” at Universal we seem to have found lots of life other than ours in the shape of fantastic monsters that we are spending a lot of energy trying to save the world from. Who has it right, and should we just be happy with seeing “stars”. On with the adventure I say.

Photos can be found on our Facebook Page in the album FLORIDA.

USA PHOTOS

We’ve finally uploaded all the best photos from our time in the USA so far, bar Washington DC (coming soon).

They can be found on our Facebook page in the albums below, just click on the place to see!

FLORIDA

GEORGIA AND SOUTH CAROLINA

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS AND BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY

NEW YORK