Our Remarkable Holiday to the USA. Part 2

Disney and a Tale of Two Hotels.

So we made it safely to our first hotel, in a district called Anaheim, not far from Disneyland. The hotel was a Holiday Inn with a great pool and spa and although we had just arrived and it would have been 2:30am back in the UK, we went swimming.

After a good night’s sleep, we caught the free shuttle bus from the hotel to Disneyland, to sample the delights of Disney Californian style, (we have been to the Paris one twice). Fair play, Disney know how to do theme parks. Mind you, it’s not cheap. $228 for the 3 of us, for just one park, you do the math.

It was whilst at Disney that we first discovered the outlandish portions served up at meal times. We stopped at one of the many themed restaurants, and the prices were really not too bad. I plumped for steak; Mrs Dave had the chicken, whilst Little Miss Dave tried the Bolognese.

Well, there was enough food to feed us three times over! Mrs Dave had just a leg short of a whole chicken.

Now I’m not one for wasting food, but this was one culinary challenge too far even for me, but I had a bloody good go!

Oh and don't Disney know how to do fireworks! Incredible display, set to music, with Sleeping Beauty's Castle lit up as well.

And they do it every night!

I bet the neighbours are fed up!

After two nights in Anaheim, we booked a shuttle bus to take us back to the airport, so that we could transfer to our next hotel, which apparently is quite near the airport. As we approached the airport, the driver asked which airline we were flying with, so that he could drop us at the correct location. I said that we weren’t actually flying, but using the airport shuttle to transfer to the next hotel.

He asked “which hotel”?

I said “the Radisson, over there” and pointed to the large Radisson hotel just outside the airport complex.

He said; “would you like me to drop you there”?

We said; “that would be great”.

So he drove us around and dropped us outside the Radisson hotel. One big tip lighter, we strolled into reception.

“There’s no reservation under that name, Sir”.

“Are you sure”?

“Yes Sir, would it be under a different name”?

“No, I don’t think so. Is there another Radisson hotel nearby”?

“Yes Sir, about 2 miles that way”. She said indicating with her finger in some direction totally lost on me, as I could no longer tell which direction we were facing.

I confirmed the address with her and we were definitely standing in the wrong place!

I’m not sure what made me feel worse, the fact that we had made the mistake, or the fact that I heavily tipped the shuttle driver to take us to the wrong place!

“Don’t worry Sir, I’ll give them a call and get the free hotel shuttle to pick you up”.

“Really”?

“Of course Sir, no problem, you just wait out front”.

See, back in England, you would have just got a shrug of the shoulders and a “well you cocked up matey, what do you want me to do about it” type look.

Anyway, we did have to wait quite a while for the shuttle to turn up, but it did and it delivered us safely to hotel number 2.

Once we had checked in, we spoke to the Tour Guide for the company we would be travelling with, who told us the departure times for the next morning.

So with the evening to ourselves we wandered around to the nearest Mall to peruse the shops. Now American shopping malls are big, this particular one was the size of Swansea!

After an attempt at sleeping we woke early to catch our tour bus to Las Vegas!


PART 3

Our Remarkable Holiday to the USA. Part 1

Free Drinks and Finger Prints.

So, I hear you ask;

“What is so remarkable about your holiday, Dave”? “And why are you writing about it here”?

Well let me answer the second question first, I always had the intention of blogging our holiday progress with photo uploads to Facebook etc. but time constraints with so much to see and do, plus the limitation of finding free Wifi, I couldn’t fully journal our progress.

However, I want to write it down, to share the experience and to maintain the details whilst it is still fresh in my mind.

“It’s only a holiday Dave, it’s not remarkable, surely”?

Let me fill in some background, I am just a raggedy arsed kid from a Council house background, I have never shown any real drive or ambition to travel the world, I have Google Maps and Wikipedia for that.

I’m also risk averse and a control freak, I don’t like tempting fate. I like to be in control of my own destiny, I don’t take chances and home is where the heart is and my heart is definitely at home.

“So given that information, why put yourself through the stress of booking a holiday to the USA”?

Luckily for me, I have two ladies in my life who provide the drive to do things. My Wife likes to see and do new things and my 13 year old Daughter would move to America at the drop of a hat! So with their enthusiasm, it was decided that we go to America!

Although, if we were going that far, I insisted that it wouldn’t be just a “sitting around the pool” type holiday, we would need to see different places and do different things.

So we started looking for American Tour holidays.

When you start looking for tours, the first thing you get is Fly / Drive…….

“What”! Fly and drive?

Drive in a strange car, in a strange country on strange roads? No thank you!

What about a Coach tour? That’s more like it, although they seem to be geared up to the “older generation” with no children.

Anyway we found something suitable and I left Denise (my Wife) in charge of giving them a call and checking what was available, as I was at work.

I received the following text message;

“You really shouldn’t leave me alone with a credit card and the telephone number of a Travel Agent”!

“What have you done”? I asked.

“I have booked us a 7 day tour of West coast California and a few extra days at the start so that we can go to Disney”, was the reply.

“Bloody hell”!

So we are all booked and ready to go, I even organised a shuttle bus to take us from the airport in Los Angeles to our first hotel.

We flew out from Heathrow with British Airways, never flown with BA before, but it was looking OK. It was even better when they announced that the cabin crew would be coming around with the complimentary drinks.

I turned to Mrs Dave, “Complimentary drinks”?

“Does that mean free”?

“Do they do alcohol”?

“Yes, yes, and I’m not sure” came the reply.

So I asked, “do you have any white wine”?

“I’m afraid we only have a Chardonnay, Sir” came the reply from the young steward.

“Don’t be afraid old Son, that’ll do nicely…… are you wearing eye liner”?

Anyway, one Chardonnay down, then dinner came around.

“Would you like a drink with that sir”?

“I’ll take a Chardonnay if you have one”.

“Certainly, sir”.

Blooming ‘eck! I could get used to this!

Free wine and the meal was actually palatable.

So we landed at LAX just slightly later than planned, after which we had to do battle with the US Immigration and Customs Officers.

We were corralled through the zig zag tapes until we reached the next available officer. And very officious they are too.

“What is the nature of your visit, sir”?

“I’m not a terrorist”!! is what I wanted to shout in my panic to get the questions right.

“ Business or pleasure, sir”

“Well we’re on our holidays! So I guess it’s pleasure”.

“Thank you, Sir. Now place your four fingers, left hand on the pad”.

“Left hand, sir”.

“Now left thumb”.

“Now four fingers right hand, Sir”.

“That’s the other one to the one you have just done, sir”.

“Now right thumb”.

“Now remove your glasses and look into the camera, sir”.

“Thank you, sir”.

Bloody hell, what next, a DNA sample? I’m only going to Disney!!

Still we got through OK, no problems and not too much probing mental or otherwise. After which it was plain sailing, we picked up the shuttle bus outside the Arrivals building and we were off. I sat in the Shuttle bus with an inane grin on my face, as we drove along the highway towards Anaheim.

It was just one of those moments where you really can’t believe you have done something.

We were in America!

PART 2