Ok so since I’ve taken awhile to actually write this (yes I have been extremely lazy and have not been writing in my blog at all in the past year, and I wonder if anyone would still bother to check my blog); my memory of the vacation is just a little hazy, but nevertheless I will try my best to capture it here.

Our first day arriving in LA was pretty much a bore, as we arrived late in the afternoon and we had to drive down to Anaheim which took us longer than expected as for those of you who may have had some experience with Californian traffic, is absolutely horrendous. So by the time we got to the hotel, it was rather late. We stayed at Residence Inn which was basically situated just a few blocks down from Disneyland.

Next day, we were off to Disneyland. You may be thinking: “Aren’t you a little old to be going to Disneyland?”. Well firstly you are never too old for a trip to Disneyland. However it was not too long ago that I visited Disneyworld (last year’s vacation) and Disneyland is just about the same. But what can a person do when they are travelling with young children.

Day 3, we took a long drive back to Hollywood to Universal Studios. We haven’t been to the west coast for awhile now and I couldn’t believe how different this Universal Studios was from the one in Orlando! There was hardly anything to do there. I was very dissapointed.

Day 4 and 5 were spent going between Disney’s California Adventure Park (Disneyland’s twin park) and Disneyland. Well we actually bought this special pass that gave us 3 days access to these parks, so we might as well use it to the max.

Day 6, we check out of Anaheim. We then decided to visit the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana for awhile and a little shopping nearby before driving down towards San Diego. We stayed at Residence Inn again. The science center wasn’t exactly the best one I’ve ever been to but it was still rather entertaining after continuous days at Disney.

Day 7, drove further down into San Diego to get to Sea World. Nothing much to do there but watch the shows and enjoy the ribs (haha ;p). Then is was back to LA to pick up my elder sister who flew in from London to join us. That night we stayed at Embassy Suites.

Day 8, we initially thought of going to Knott’s Berry Farm but when we got there we found out that they were having a special weekend where if you bring in a toy (to be donated to charity for Christmas) you get to enter for free. And there were HEAPS of people!! So instead, we decided to go shopping instead.

Day 9, we checked out and headed north to San Bernadino where we checked in to Residence Inn there and then headed up to Lake Arrowhead to see a little snow. Unfortunely there weren’t that much but it was the first encounter with snow for my two little siblings.

Day 10, checked out and headed for Las Vegas. After a long long drive, we finally checked into MGM Grand. Then we went for lunch at Planet Hollywood’s Spice Market Buffet. Later that night, we caught Cirque du Soleil – LOVE at the Mirage.

Day 11, we went for Breakfast at Le Village Buffet in Paris (Las Vegas). Then we went shopping! That night we caught Mamma Mia! at Mandalay Bay.

Day 12, we ran late so we decided to have breakfast in the hotel itself at the MGM Grand Buffet. Then we went up the mountains to try our luck with snow again. The second time around was much more successful. We even made a snowman. After that we went back down to do more shopping.

Day 13, we returned to Planet Hollywood for breakfast. After we were done, we checked out and headed back to LA. It was a really long drive back especially with the heavy traffic and not so good weather. It was interesting though cause at one point we were literally driving through a cloud! That night was the night me and my younger sister were looking forward to as we caught Wicked at the Pantages Theatre.

Day 14, was spent shopping and later that night we caught High School Musical On Tour at the Kodak Theatre, home of the Academy Awards.

Day 15, the last day. Pretty much wasted a lot of time trying to get to Chinatown because of that crazy Californian traffic. But did manage a little bit more shopping. We flew back that night.

——————————

Hotel Review

Residence Inn Anaheim Resort Area/Garden Grove:

A little old but still clean. The room that we stayed in had furniture that was to my opinion needed to be renewed.

Residence Inn San Diego Oceanside:

Very new and very clean. Has brand new appliances like LCD TVs, alarm clock/ipod stand, and stainless steel kitchen appliances.

Residence Inn San Bernadino:

Relatively new and clean.

Residence Inn Los Angeles LAX/El Segundo:

A little old but well maintained. Small but due to it’s target market of business people who stay for a few days at most. Free shuttle to the airport which is just a few minutes away.

*All Residence Inn hotels basically have the same structure: free internet, free gym access, coin laundry, and buffet breakfast which usually includes sausage patties, potatoes, scrambled eggs, waffles, fresh fruits, assortment of breads and pastries, cerial, juices, coffee, hot cocoa, and soft drinks.

Embassy Suites Los Angeles – Downey:

Very old. Has low ceilings and bathrooms are very small. Needs a renovation. Buffet/cook-to-order breakfast is pretty good, includes scrambled eggs or you an order any type of friend eggs or build your own omelette, bacon, sausages, pancake, hashbrown, breads, pastries, fruits, juices, coffee, hot cocoa, cerial, and soft drinks.

MGM Grand Hotel Casino:

The biggest hotel in the United States (used to be the biggest hotel in the world until 2006 which went to the First World Hotel in Genting!). Like most hotels on the strip, it is large, grand, well decorated, has loads of attractions, and of course has a casino. The bathroom is HUGE, includes both a bath and a shower, and two basins. No breakfast though but seriously people want to go around and try the different restaurants and buffets in Vegas, so it doesn’t matter. Ok so the night that we went to see Mamma Mia!, I didn’t want to walk all the way to Mandalay Bay, so we decided to walk across the road from MGM Grand to Excalibur where there was a monorail that goes across Luxor to Mandalay Bay. So on our way back, just as we reached the Excalibur station, the power died and we were stuck in the monorail along with a whole bunch of other people who were also returning from the show. It was hilarious. Someone in another section of the monorail started calling out “Let us out! Let us out!” but obviously in a joking way. After a few minutes the finally managed to dock the monorail and open the doors. Everyone cheered and clapped. When we got back to the hotel it turned out that there was a power failure at one of the plants and the whole hotel except for maybe the casino was out. Man that sucked! We had dinner in the dark and it was getting rather warm. Good thing it was winter and we could let cold air in. It seemed that the power came back at like 3 or 4 in the morning but by then we were already asleep.

——————————

Buffet Review

Spice Market, Planet Hollywood:

Lunch – Excellent! They basically have a food from different parts of the world theme so there’s Mexican, Italian, Asian, American, Mediterranean, etc. I loved the pastas the had. But everything was pretty good. They also have really good cookies and desserts.

Breakfast – Also has a world food theme but less choices. Crepes were excellent, the onl place with bananas as an option.

Le Village Buffet, Paris:

Breakfast – Huge buffet with good pastries. Some off the things an get a little repetitive but hey it’s breakfast there’s only so many choices. Loved the crisp hashbrown.

MGM Grand Buffet, MGM Grand:

Breakfast – Smallest breakfast but has excellent choices for salads, I personally am not the biggest fan of salads but I liked theirs.

——————————

Shows Review

Cirque du Soleil – LOVE:

  

If you don’t know what Cirque du Soleil is, it’s basically a show with beautifully choreographed dance and aecrobatic movements. Cirque du Soleil -LOVE is choreographed to a collection of songs from The Beatles and it also incorporates stories from their lives. It runs for a little under 2 hours and it’s not the most exciting performance of any kind but it was beautifully choreographed and it did have a few parts that was rather interesting. The only way to know is to go catch it if you can. But I would say that you might not enjoy it all that much if you are not a huge fan of The Beatles.

Mamma Mia!:

 

This musical is about a girl’s effort to find out who her father is in time for her wedding. Sophie is a girl in her early 20s and has never known who her father is, thanks to the hard effort that her mother, Donna, has put in to hiding his identity. After a lot of digging around, Sophie found that there are three possible candidates and invites them all to her wedding. But when they arrive, secrets start to spill over and things get out of control.

This musical is written to incorporate the much loved hits by Swedish band ABBA. It is well written and is full of laughter, love, fun, and a lot of comedic drama. I loved it. The only dissapointing thing was the crowd that night was pretty much filled with rather old people and were not that into it. Basically at the end they have a section meant for the audience to get up and sing and dance along but that crowd didn’t. But still it was great. The Vegas cast did a good job with Carol Linnea Johnson (Donna) leading the way. She has a very interesting voice.

For those of you who can’t catch it, no worries as Mamma Mia! The Movie is due to be released in the summer of 2008.

WICKED:

 

This musical is basically the untold story of the witches of Oz. You know The Wizard of Oz. Yeah that Oz. It tells of how Glinda The Good and Elphaba The Wicked Witch of The West met and even became friends. What happened to cause their separate ways and what “actually” happened to Elphaba. Some parts does not sync up with The Wizard of Oz but it’s still well written and has everything from action to romance to comedy to drama. It’s AWESOME! Please if you have the chance, go see it! I was already very used to Kristen Chenoweth (Glinda) and Idina Menzel (Elphaba), the original cast, and comparison was inevitable but Megan Hilty (Glinda) and Eden Espinosa (Elphaba) were excellent as well. They are both veterans with this musical and both have excellent voices. They are so comfortable with their roles that they could play a little with it. I just recently found out that Eden wrapped up her time as Elphaba on 31st December and I couldn’t believe we got to catch her, she was actually meant to be the original Elphaba until they found Idina. I really hope I can see it again in Melbourne!

High School Musical On Tour:

  

Ok firstly I’m sure most of you know HSM by now. The stage version is basically the same story line just compacted. The cast is not the cast of the TV version. I’m not really sure what to say, I don’t think that the original HSM cast are the best singers in the world but I don’t think that the stage cast did any better. In fact I very much prefer the original cast but hey I am being a little bias as I am, yes I am, a fan of Zac Efron’s. I think the stage cast had decent voices on their own but did not mesh well when they had to sing duets.

Unlike the Mamma Mia! crowd, this crowd was filled with tweens and little kids, and it was insane! Everyone was screaming and shouting and singing along! I was going deaf. Everyone was just so into it and I was just like… woah! Yeah so definitely a kid’s show.

Oh and it was held at the Kodak Theatre where they host the Academy Awards and American Idol. I was surprised that it’s quite small really although it has a large reception area.

——————————

Goofing around in the car

Me & elder sis

Me & younger sis

Three of us

Bought Pooh this year, since I bought Eeyore last year