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[Riebi]

I think I only will make a short trip report with all disney-related attractions. All the rest shouldn´t be that interesting for you all and last time I made a BIG trip report I stopped somewhere after hm 14?? Days...I start with an overview:

04. – 08. 10. : San Francisco: Galleria Park Hotel [+++]
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The Presidio [+++]   
Walt Disney Family Museum [+++]
   Golden Gate Park [++]
California Academy of Sciences [+++]
      De Young Museum [-]
      Conservatory of Flowers

   SFMoMA [++]
   Aquarium of the Bay

   Coit Tower

08. – 09. 10. : Monterey: Quality Inn Downtown

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Winchester Mystery House [++]
   (Flashlight Tour)
   Cannery Row [++]
   
09. – 10. 10. : San Simeon: The Morgan Hotel [++]
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Hearst Castle [+++]

10. – 11.10. : Santa Barbara: Motel 6 Santa Barbara Beach [++]
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   Old Town/State Street [+++]
   Stearns Wharf [++]

11. – 16. 10. : Anaheim: Ramada Plaza Hotel Anaheim [++]
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   Disneyland [+++]
   Disney California Adventure [+++]
   Universal Studios

   Hollywood [-]

16. – 20. 10. : San Diego: The U.S. Grant [+++] (Best hotel on our trip!)
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   Sea World [++]
   San Diego Zoo [+++]
   San Diego Zoo Safari Park [++]
   Balboa Park/Plaza de Panama [+++]
   Coronado [+++]
   Old Town San Diego [+++]
   Waterfront/Seaport Village [+++]

20. – 21. 10. : Palm Springs: Hilton Garden Inn Palm Springs [++]
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21. – 22. 10. : Phoenix: Hilton Suites Phoenix [++]
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22. – 24. 10. : Grand Canyon: Kachina Lodge [+++]
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   Grand Canyon [+++]

24. – 27. 10. : Las Vegas: Encore at Wynn [+++]
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   "O" [+++]

[dagobert]

Hi Riebi,

it's great to see a familiar user again. Since we plan a similar trip next year or early 2013, it would be great if you could post a little bit more than just Disney. If you don't want to do that, I'm fine, because I know it's a lot of work. However, I can't wait to see your pictures and read about your experiences.

[davewasbaloo]

Well as a native californian, I would love to read more than about Disney ,but I understand. GReat trip. ANd I agree ,the grant is a great hotel.

[Riebi]

So I think I will make a short report for all days.

Day I: We had the 9:20 AM fly from Frankfurt to San Francisco:
Duration: around 11 hours
Airbus 380
Lufthansa
We were around 12:30 PM at SFO and took the BART to Montgomery Street.  Our hotel was at Kearny/Sutter so we had only a very short walk. We had the same hotel as two years ago, the Galleria Park Hotel. It´s nice, central and has a great service. Around 3 PM we were ready for a walk. Our first destination was the tourist info at market street, also just a short walk, to get our San Francisco City Passes (Including 7 days muni (busses, cable car, trolley,... but not BART), De Young Museum, California Academy of Sciences, Bay Aquarium, a Bay Cruise and the SFMoMA.). With our passes we were ready for our first cable car ride. We chose the cable car station on union square (HINT for all that don´t love the waiting times at the cable car base station down at Market). Up and down the hill till FW/Pier 39 were we took a walk and then dinner at Bistro Boudin. I had the wonderful Waldorf Astoria Salad. If you are at SF I just can say: get this salad!
After dinner we went back (via trolley cars) to Market street and then back to our hotel. Around 9 PM we were to tired to talk but we had a great sleep ;-)

Day II:
Our first goal for today was to find the "PresidiGo" bus stop. It wasn´t that hard and so we arrived really soon at The Presidio Park. There´s a wonderful museum for every Disney fan. Not the kind of Direct on DVD/Disney Channel Movie Disney-Fan. More for one of the fans that know what Disney really means: The Walt Disney Family Museum. Its theme is – of course – Walt Disney. His live and how he make his way through the time, Walt Disney Studios and Disneyland. It start with a great "pre show": the biggest awards of Walt are in the entrance hall of the museum, including the Oscars. And some original furniture of his Disneyland apartment is also part of the entrance hall. The museum itself start in the next room with the birth of Walt Disney and it ends with the death of Walt in 1966. Between this two points you will see much much much of his life. I want to tell to much (cause some of you may make the journey to the museum itself) but highlights are:

-   how walt make its way to Hollywood
-   the trouble with Oswald the rabbit
-   the story of the mouse
-   how the studios became the studios
-   the up and downs at the studios
-   a really big model of Disneyland (with all attraction that Walt has planned till he died) means that you see a different Disneyland but with many think we know today

My mother don´t speak a word english (means she ordered nearly every morning a toasted beagle instead of a bagel). But even she is now one of the biggest fans of the museum. So WDFM is a must at SF but take your time! We were around 3 hours at the museum and didn´t get how fast the time passed (And they don´t let anyone in 1,5 hours before closing. They say that you won´t be happy with shorter time frames).

After the museum we went to the golden gate bridge (it´s also next to presidio). And then we took the bus back to the city. We strolled around the Ghiradelli Building, the wharf and pier 39 and had a hot soup at boudins. And that was day 2.

[dagobert]

Thanks a lot for the first part of your trip report.

How was it flying with the Airbus 380?

Hopefully you are going to post some pictures of the Walt Disney Family Museum. I can't wait to see it myself, since it must be very interesting. I'm glad to hear that you liked it.

I'm already awaiting your impressions of the Winchester Mystery House. When we lived in the US in 2007 we watched a 8 hours special on the Discovery Channel on Halloween. It was about a group of  ghostbusters and other people searching the house for ghosts.

[davewasbaloo]

Fab riebi, cannot wait to read more. And FYI, the cable car turnaround at the ferry building has some of the shortest waits of all.

[Riebi]

Thanks a lot for the first part of your trip report.

How was it flying with the Airbus 380?

Hopefully you are going to post some pictures of the Walt Disney Family Museum. I can't wait to see it myself, since it must be very interesting. I'm glad to hear that you liked it.

I'm already awaiting your impressions of the Winchester Mystery House. When we lived in the US in 2007 we watched a 8 hours special on the Discovery Channel on Halloween. It was about a group of ghostbusters and other people searching the house for ghosts.

The Airbus 380 is great! You have more space and you can choose more entertainment then time allows.
For the museum: You can´t really take much pictures inside. But on their website you can clearly see the diffrent stages:

//http://disney.go.com/disneyatoz/familymuseum/
-> museum --> our galleries

Now more  

Day III

Today was our Golden Gate Park Day. After breakfast we took the bus to the California Academy of Sciences area. And that was our first stop. The CAoS is a great place "for the big and little ones". You will find a planetarium, an aquarium, a rainforest and much more (penguins!). There much to see and everyone is very friendly. After the CAoS we visited the DeYoung Museum. That´s not much fun. Don´t get me wrong. It´s clear that a museum of arts isn´t the same as the academy. But ... the de young crew hardly tried to be "European" and "earnest". Seems they all take the german museum concepts (by Schiller). So it was hmmm...boring. It was like a school trip. They should really take more from the French museum concepts if they want to be that "European". There you have fun and art.
So after this boring part of the day we needed something other. We went to the conservatory of flowers. It´s just a little attraction inside the park, but its nice to come back to real life.
After the conservatory we took the bus back to the city. We made a shopping afternoon at market street and we visited china town. Then we took our way to union square and had a nice dining (after a 45 minutes wait) at the cheesecake factory on top of the macy´s building.

Day IV

Next day, next museum. We gave the art in San Francisco another chance and visited the SFMoMA. After a similar "we are all earnest here" experience at New York I wasn´t that happy first. But I must say it was a wonderful museum and fun. No it wasn´t boring and the museum guys were all friendly and not this kind of "I try to be European" people.
After the museum we made our way via cable car to the wharf. We had there a city tour with some kind of bigger cable car bus. It was very cold and cause it was the bigger kind of this busses it doesn´t stop everywhere. Was a bit sad cause last time we had a wonderful tour in one of the little busses. But OK.
After the tour we had a snack at the wharf. It was fleet week. So we had an air show over our heads. That´s nice for a short time. But at fleet week that means you will have EVERY day a air show over your head ;-)
We went then to the Coit Tower and took back the steps down from telegraph hill. Back at the wharf we went to the rainforest café for a cocktail and dining.

[davewasbaloo]

Sounds like fun. Shame you didn't check out the Japanese Tea Garden next t the De Young. As a kid, the Academy of Science was my fav place in San Francisco. Also, did you see the herd of buffalo that live in the park?

Also, instead of the cheesecake factory or rfc, I would have recommended the Tonga room, a SF institution.

[dagobert]

Thanks for another update!

It seems you had a great time in San Francisco. Keep your updates coming.

[davewasbaloo]

Top of the Mark is another awesome and not too expensive restaurant with wonderful views over the city and bay (live music too)

[Riebi]

Sounds like fun. Shame you didn't check out the Japanese Tea Garden next t the De Young. As a kid, the Academy of Science was my fav place in San Francisco. Also, did you see the herd of buffalo that live in the park?

Also, instead of the cheesecake factory or rfc, I would have recommended the Tonga room, a SF institution.

Oh I will have to save this restaurants for the next time (yes we will come back!!!). After all I think I will be happy next time to have just new restaurants of my list.

We visited the entrance of the Japanese Tea Garden. And I found it great and would like to have a cup of tea like the other people inside the garden. But they told us that we first had to pay for the entrance and later for the tea. So we decided to just take a tour outside (we saw later more of the garden at our city tour) and not to pay so much money (some years before the garden was free).

Hotel Review San Francisco:

Galleria Park Hotel: It´s a great location next to market street and union square. It was clean, everyone was friendly and wonderful helpful to us. So I think next time we will stay again here. So +++ of +++ for this hotel!

Day V:

This day was a day in two parts. The plan was: First we had to go to Monterey (where our hotel was) and after a look around we would made our way to the Winchester mystery house.
So we left the galleria park hotel, had our last breakfast at san Francisco and went then via BART to the airport, where our rental car company had its offices.
The Rental car was a bit small for our luggage. It was OK but we were a bit angry with the ADAC germany cause the woman over there told us that it would be big enough to have even more pieces of luggage. One of the smaller cabin luggage ended on the back seat row, next to mum and dad.
So after 30 minutes tetris we took our seats. Sadly our GPS sad good bye forever at this moment. Thanks god we were at the airport and not in the center of San Francisco. So I was the navigator for the way to Monterey with an old style paper map in my hand. The way to Monterey wasn´t hard to find. We took the Highway 1 down to the city but we were a bit late cause of all this luggage small car and GPS error thing.
So we were at Monterey around 1:30 PM and then we had fun to find our hotel without a map. The tourist information wasn´t on the place anymore were all the signs showed it before. So we ask at the city museum. But there nobody knows something about the visitors center and the young man even don´t know the street with our hotel. After a longer search in the city I found a Map on a display. Thanks god we have mobiles with little cameras inside...
The street wasn´t far away from the center (walking distance) and so we were soon at the hotel after I found the map.
But it was now late and not much time for Monterey views. We had to find another GPS and then the way to the Winchester Mystery House. We ask at the hotel. But the young man behind the desk didn´t know any electronic store at Monterey. He only had big stores 30 miles away in his mind. After a small break of thinking he get an idea: just 1 mile away was a bigger shopping center with "all kind of shops". Sometimes I´m happy about such thinking breaks. So we made our way to the centre and yes there was also an electronic store. Sadly more people wanted to buy a GPS. So the only GPS that was not just in the shop but also in their storage was a 200 Dollar GPS. The other 5 GPS were all sold out at the moment. New delivery next Monday..."Five minutes ago someone bought the last of these" told us the young boy at the desk...We decided to eat something small and to look after a shop on our way to san jose. On our way to san jose there was not really a chance to buy another GPS. So it all ended in the wide streets of san jose without an plan were we are at the moment and were the mystery house could be. We asked at a subways where the mystery house could be. The young man at the desk didn´t heard something of the mystery house in his whole life. But a group of his guests knew it well and gave us the right direction. Because not everybody of our little group could believe that someone in a subways know the way to the mystery house we asked again at a little shopping centre for the way. We asked an older man at a little store by nightfall. He told us that we were on the right way. He also told us that we would find a GPS one street ahead at a big electronic store. And after all he ask us from which part of the world we came from. After we told we were from germany he said "oh dann können wir auch deutsch sprechen". Nice old man! I said since this time we should only ask older people for anything and not the young guys in the service (but clueless) industry at some desks.
We were much to late for our ticket time so we hadn´t the time to have a bigger chat with the nice old man. And cause we had to bought a GPS the time frame was even smaller. We found the big electronic store and we found our GPS.
We arrived an hour to late to the Winchester mystery house. So we had to ask if we could switch to another time for our flashlight tour. The young woman at the desk told us that there isn´t enough free places at the other tours. Disapointed we ha a thinking break. We ask the young service woman at the desk if she could split our group into two parts. Two one tour, two another. "OH that´s a good idea" she said. So the first tour was 10 minutes later and the second tour for us 20 minutes later. We had time to have a look at the house. Sadly it was dark so we couldn´t see that much. But what we saw there was impressive. It doesn´t looked that big at the very first moment. But if you take a walk around the house you will see that the façade has just another corner, another archway, another tower and another and another.
For the history fans of you: Sarah Winchester built this house that big. Why? Cause a fortune teller told her that she wouldn´t die if she just keep on building her house. So she built room after room, staircase after staircase, tower after tower. Most rooms without any sense. There are staircases that end in the  ceiling, there are rooms that never had a function.
As said before we booked the flashlight tour. This is a special tour during the Halloween time. It means that all light in the house is off and you just get a flashlight to light up the rooms. We were first in a very small group because some rednecks didn´t find the way to the tour entrance (rednecks because after they join our group they were a bit to kiddy for this house. It was one of these cool guys / shy girls group were the guys try to impress the girls by not having fun)).
But they were at a very late part of the tour part of our group so it wasn´t that havy for us. It´s a very long tour through the house and I must say it was quiet fun. I first thought that it could be to dark inside the rooms without any "normal" light. But cause everyone had a flashlight there was light enough. And it gave the house a special feeling.
After the tour we made a short stop at the café. We ate something and drove back to Monterey.

[davewasbaloo]

Lol, that sounds like quite a frustrating day. I haven't been to the Mystery House in about 30 years. But yes, it is certainly very different.

[Riebi]

yes, I took my time. But now I have again a part of this trip report ready for you.

And the best: it included many days. From the wonderful monterey to the World of Color disapointement.

Day VI
We spent the morning at the famous "cannery row". It was a bit foggy (yes we had sometimes fog in the morning) but it was perfect for this place. We saw Mr. Wongs store and the old canneries all over the street. We had a pumpkin spice coffee thing (smells like Christmas). And yes it was a beautiful morning. Monterey is really a nice little town and perfect for a stop on the route.
We had not the time to spent lunch time at Monterey cause we had tickets for hearst castle for the afternoon. So with the first rays of the sun we left Monterey. Highway No. 1 has here so much beautiful parts and its just great to stop then and now to take a picture or just to has a great view. We introduce my mother to many squirrels and other animals and reached finally the little bay next to san simeon, where the sea elephants grunted in the sun.
Then we went to our hotel, "The Morgan Hotel", which was a lovely little hotel. Nice people are working here. The name of the Morgan is from the hearst castle architect Julia Morgan. They have many interesting sketches of the castle from her everywhere in the hotel.
Later we had our ticket to hearst castle. We had the upper stairs tour and my parents had the basic tour with the dining room and the ground floor (cause it was the first time for them). We saw many many interesting rooms. We took last time also the basic tour and I was flashed by it but this tour was even better. We had a great tour guide. She explained everything in a wonderful understandable but not boring English;-)
You can see rooms like mr. hearsts bedrooms, mr. hearst's office, many guest rooms, his children's rooms and many more. They changed the tour-thing a bit. Last time you hadn´t the chance to walk on the grounds of hearst castle by your own. Now the first make a guides tour and then they let you explore the gardens and pools by your self. That brought a great picture from me at the neptunes pool.
After our tour we took a walk at hearst beach and had a Mexican diner at night (not bad but also not the best Mexican food ever).

Day VII
Up up and away! Santa Barbara was our next big stop. Since I watched in my first first years always the "Santa Barbara" TV series together with my granny I love this city. Of course it look completely different there. It´s like a city on Tenerife or elsewhere in Spain. We had here the motel 6 at the beach area. It´s just some steps away from the beach and was the first motel 6 ever. The staff was great! Loved them. They helped us with everything and they gave us nice rooms with beach view. It is one of the completely renovated motel 6 (Don´t take the old ones anymore and the "refreshed" aren´t that good also...).
For our day we had a nice walk at the beach and at state street, we saw the santa Barbara court house and went there on the tower (great view for "not a penny"). Our dinner was at a restaurant on stearns wharf. Was also nice with wonderful views on the city and the sunset.

Day VIII
This morning I was a bit excited...I had a surprise for my mother in the evening. Mickey´s Halloween Party. It was really hot out there. Sunny. A wonderful day for such a surprise. But first we had to make our way from Santa Barbara to LA/Anaheim.
After the journey of 1000 Freeways at the LA area we arrived the city and our hotel, the ramada plaza Anaheim. It´s not far away from the parks on the corner Katella av. / harbour bvd. They have nice rooms and at the time we booked our hotels they had a super super down down price (first we wanted the h. j. ).
Cause it was early in the day and because I had to do something till the big surprise (excited!!) we went back to LA to the getty center. The GPS had another way for us in mind, which ended in front of a big rusty gate (maybe an very early street to the getty center). So we had to find the way with our paper maps. But we made it. The getty center is free for visitors. The parking is not free and is around 15 dollar per car. That isn´t really costly. You park at the bottom of the getty mountain and there is a little monorail/train thing that takes you to the center. It´s one of the wonderful places ever. Nice architecture, nice gardens and wonderful arts (all different). The view down on the streets of Hollywood is great. I just can say: Take a bit time for the center on your trip!
We were back at the hotel around 5. the party started at 6. so I told my mother that the best thing for dinner would be one of the restaurants at downtown Disney. And because the day later was our universal day she was happy to see some Disneyland area before our first Disneyland day. We also had to buy our California city passes at the Disneyland entrance. So we had two good cause to bring my parents to the entrance gates of Disneyland.
There was a lot of disguised people at the whole area. And at the Disneyland ticket counters you had a great view of all the folks in front of the Disneyland Park entrance. All for Mickey's Party. We get our city passes really fast and so my mother asked what all the people do over there. I said they go to Disneyland park?? You could clearly see that my mother was a bit sad that she wasn´t one of them (also my dad;-)). So she asked where we could eat now. I said that we should eat at Disneyland park and made the way to the park entrance. My mother told me that it seemed we need a ticket here. So I told here that we are some of the lucky ones that have one. She was happy like a squirrel in a cookie store.  
Mickey´s Halloween party is a great thing. You get a little bag for all the sweets you get on the many many "trick or treat trails". We had really a great time and a lot of sweets. We made many attractions were normally are really long queues: Matterhorn, Finding Nemo Submarine, Alice in Wonderland, the HM in it´s nightmare before christmas overlay...
And we saw many many people that seem to take the whole sweets for a year in their bags. Often they had five or six big bags full of sweets.
My parents were the first time in Disneyland Anaheim and I can say: they had fun!
We also saw the Halloween Fireworks. We knew them from our last trip but for my parents it was totally new to have such a big firework. One thing was much better: You could see much more cause there wasn´t that much people. Last time we saw it the parks were that full with people that we couldn't breathe. I first was upset that you only can see the Halloween fireworks during one of this events, I´m now happy with that.
After much much more fun we went back to our hotel and in our beds. Also Halloween stars need some sleep.

Day IX
This was our Universal Studios day. So we drove to Universal city and my parents talked the whole way that the party was a great thing and next time they would have a costume and next time they would have even more sweets and and and...
Then we arrived the universal parking lot. It doesn´t really matter were you park here. I think for an American it does matter because it seems they hate every walk. But if you could make the way from hotel new york to Disneyland park the universal parking question isn´t really one. They want you to take a VIP or else better parking but you can also take the normal ones.
The Universal studios were really empty this day. We had just 15 minutes to wait for the studio tour. The tour is a real studio tour, which is great (an better then paris). But the KING KONG 3 D WOW WOW EXCITED main attraction of the tour isn´t that interesting after some years of normal 3 D cinema (maybe because it not really has a story. A movie without 3 D and a story is better then a 3 D action short without any story).
It was really like a fast pass day. Everywhere was no line. And so we made the whole park in a half day. (we started around 11:30 AM and we done everything around 16 PM).
We had then a cup of ben an jerrys ice cream at the city walk and bought a shirt at the hard rock cafe Hollywood.
Our dinner was later at the cheesecake factory Anaheim (wish of mum. New sentences since cheesecake factory sfo: "Isn´t there a cheesecake factory somewhere??"). Wonderful as always.




Day X

The first city pass day in Disneyland park! And it was sunny and 39 ° C. A cast member told us, that this would be the hottest day of the month and of the week and everything. Cause it was a wonderful day at the park I have not much to say;-)
We introduce my parents to the Indiana jones ride, the jungle cruise, splash mountain, their version of big thunder mountain...POTC was closed (sad thing). We had a fast pass for space mountain ghost galaxy (my mother said, that the rides over there seems to be a bit slower then the rides in paris). We had a dole whip. We had dinner at the carnation café. We saw the new soundsational parade, which was a bit disappointing. Last time they had no parade at Disneyland park. They had something that would be in paris a cavalcade. Very "Disney cool modern" with little bikes and lot of "let´s dance together". And we all knew what happen if Disney tries to be cool as ice.
The soundsational parade was a bit like this cavalcade but bigger. Not much magic, but cool sounds and dancing Disney characters. Yes it was a parade this time. But the soundsational parade has not the quality of "our" parade in paris.
We loved the little show at it´s a small world called "the magic the memories and you". It´s such a nice little show.
We then made our way to frontierland to watch fantasmic!. Also a first time for my parents. And we had a great view on the bridge in front of POTC. We had a bit to fight for the place because there were again so many big people in wheelchairs that have the attitude that they have to get everything first. (Again: Disney should really do here something! It´s unbelievable and you won´t see that in another place in California. There are so many people that haven´t really a handicap. They just rent a wheelchair to be the first in queue and have a better place for the shows. And to let everyone with a wheelchair have all this privilege is just poor management. Mainly for the people that have really a handicap. They have more problems because Disney advance this bad guest behaviour. )

Now something for this European fan – American fan thing: No the American guests aren´t nicer. But they have much more CMs that stop the guests. We saw many guests that try to take a barrier, stepped on grass or on flowers and everything...but at Disneyland is always a CMs next that tell them (very rude) that they can´t do that. (and I´m sad to say that, but also Disneyland has some maintenance problems at some spots;-))
So for the guests and for the CM behaviour: It think the guests are the same, the CM behaviour is mostly the same but the Disneyland Anaheim CMs are sometimes a bit rude (and they think that the only language in the world is English erm...american! Was a big problem for my mother because the CMs are getting rude if somebody don´t understand them directly)


Day XI

California Adventure! We made our way through the fences to condor flats and over to paradise pier first. California Screaming was closed for refurb...so our first stop was at Midway Mania. Love it. Then we made a silly trip on the silly symphony swings. Yes it´s ok. And it´s really high over there. Next stop was mickey´s fun wheel. Of course in the swinging part of it. Then a miracle happened. They opened California Screaming. I love California screaming. We made the ride two times in a row. Then we made our way along the lagoon to ariel´s undersea adventure. The building isn´t really much detailed. I would even say the world of Disney store in paris has more details on the outside as this building. For the ride: It´s a good basic ride. I loved the "we going under water" effect. The only problem is, that it seems they cut the ride in the middle and made the last scene after it without any story bridge. I don´t know if someone will get the story without a knowing of the movie. Seems like they had a budget problem and tried their best. I don´t know exactly why but it feels a bit incomplete. Next stop was a rafting journey through bear mountain and then we went to lunch at the wharf. After that we shrunk to bugs and saw this great movie in bugs land. It´s a wonderful 3 D movie with everything I need for such an attraction. Next attractions were the Hollywood tower hotel. The Cast members seems to forget that they should be a bit evil. They are mostly bored or they told some funny stories to other CMs about their weekend. I prefer the ghostly CMs of Paris.  
We also had a look at the blue sky cellar and made some other funny things. But then the fun cames to an end and the world of color part began. It was a bit colder now so we bought us some pullovers and long trousers. We reserved a terrace table at Ariels Grotto for the World of Color Dining package. At the front desk nobody knew something about this. But we weren´t the only ones. There were more people with reservations that weren´t "in their systems" then people with "system-reservations". Sad organisation. So we had to wait 15 minutes till our table was ready. It wasn´t on the terrace, it was inside. Bud cause it was a bit colder now, it was OK for us. Then we had the fastest dinner ever...it must be a horror dream for every European. But they really get us through this dinner in just 30 minutes. It was unbelievable. First we had some antipasti. We had not the chance to eat everything...a waiter said "Finished" and took in the same moment all the plates away. We were a bit shocked by such a behaviour. In the same time he left the room other waiters came along with our main plates. We took our time to eat it while the waiters watched at us. After 6 minutes a waiter came with our dessert and he hid it behind a column. (!!!) I´ve said to my dad "Is this our dessert??" The waiter watched for our plates several times. Then he ask "Are you finished?" we said "no" with just the half of our food eaten. Then a waitress took the dessert in her hand and was waiting behind the column (isn´t that silly?). Again the waiter ask us "Are you finished???" we said "no" cause it was just one minute later...so after we were finished 2 minutes later we saw something that I would call "the incredible plate flip". The could go to circus with that thing. Two waiters took our plates while the girl behind the column (yes she waited all the time for us) came between them just to put the dessert on the table. I started clapping and we all laugh out for a minute. We laugh our whole dessert time (which was around 5 minutes cause at some point the waiter put us the bill on the table and told us that the world of color tickets are inside). Cause we hadn´t the chance to get an espresso or else we leave the restaurant.

First warning: NEVER take the world of color dinner at ariels grotto. The food is fine but you won´t have the time to eat it.

 The world of color dinner included a preferred view ticket for world of color. That means that first they push you in a kind of sheepcote. Then you will go with all the other to the preferred viewing area. That´s the area next to the lagoon. Sadly all the wheelchair people are the first people that get to this area. So we hadn´t the chance to get a place in the preferred viewing area. The only area for us was the wet zone. That's next to the lagoon. Where the wind blows the waters of the fountains in. And not the best place to view the show because very next to the show. Nice place if you pay a lot of money for a world of color dinner package.

Second warning: NEVER take the world of color dinner package. They make a fool out of you! Don´t pay something you won´t get.

So after we pressed our bodies in the backside of the wet zone together the show started. The World of Color parts are really beautiful. For most parts I was a bit disappointed of the whole show. There seems not to be a story behind it. I first was thinking it´s about the animated colors and everything what you can do with a brush and a bit of pixie dust. But then they have a POTC sequences, which fit not a second to the rest, inside the show. The whole show seems to have a big problem: they built all this fountains but nobody was thinking about what they can do with it in a right way. They just use them. But without a story or a thread. Made me a bit sad cause I was so excited to see world of color. Again: I loved the colourful world of color parts of the show. But the rest was mostly boring and without any sense. The after show fountain show was great. The whole lagoon with this small colourful fountains looked magical.

So after the show we went home with mixed feeling about this evening.

[dagobert]

Thanks a lot for another great and lenghty update.

Hearst Castle sounds interesting to me and now I have to talk to my girlfriend about visiting it.

Do you plan to post some pictures about your trip? I would love to see some.

[Riebi]

Thanks a lot for another great and lenghty update.

Hearst Castle sounds interesting to me and now I have to talk to my girlfriend about visiting it.

Do you plan to post some pictures about your trip? I would love to see some.

For the pics (Cause I don´t have much time at the moment;-) I will post them from time to time via Instagram/Facebook.