Elliot's Vacation to Los Angeles 2010

Day 1: Arrive / Downtown Disney
Day 2: Tour of Warner Brothers / Tour of NBC / Jay Leno Show / Sitcom Taping
Day 3: Tour of City - 11 Hours
Day 4: Bronson Cave / Drive Around on my own / Downtown Disney
Day 5: Universal Studios
Day 6: Disneyland's California Adventure Park
Day 7: Disneyland Park / Magic Kingdom
Day 8: Return Home to Orlando
Day 9: Taping of the Price is Right

My Hotel:
Anaheim, CA

Jolly Roger Hotel

Day One:
Arrive / Downtown Disney

Downtown Disney

-Entrance to Disneyland Hotel

-Entrance to Disney's California Adventure Theme Park

Day Two:
Tour of Warner Brothers
Tour of NBC / Jay Leno Show
Sitcom Taping

-VIP Tour Entrance

-VIP Tour Buggies

-Backlot = Fake Buildings
-Frontlot = Indoor Movie / TV Sets

-Setting up a movie set

-Frontlot Buildings

-The Set of FRIENDS... the coffee shop

-The Batomobiles

-Some random Hollywood Bar... any virgins?

Day Three:
All-Day Tour of Los Angeles

-View to Disney's California Adventure Theme Park (Construction)
-8am Pickup at my Hotel

-Los Angeles Olvera Street (The birthplace of Los Angeles)
-Today it's a tourist trap / flea market

-Olvera Street Museum

-Lamborghini and homeless person begging for money!

-View to Santa Monica Pier / Beachfront Houses

-Beachfront Houses

-Santa Monica Beach

-Santa Monica Pier

-My Vibram FiveFinger Shoes

-Venice Beach... a far cry from Santa Monica just 5 miles away

-Venice Beach... Botox on the Beach, 420 Doctor and Toe Rings

-I guess business wasn't booming

-Finished the day at Anaheim's Garden Walk
(Cheap Rip-Off of Downtown Disney)

-Anaheim Garden Walk... EMPTY at 8pm

Day Four:
Hollywood Sign / Bronson Caves
Downtown Disney Again!

-Bronson Caves in Griffith Park

-Bronson Caves in Griffith Park... A.K.A The Batcave

-Bronson Caves... near the Hollywood Sign

-Parking Garage at Disneyland (I walked from my hotel)

-Downtown Disney by daylight... Atop DTD is the Grand California Hotel

-Monorail entrance at Downtown Disney
-Takes you from Downtown Disney to Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom
-2 minute journey (kind of pointless these days)

-Downtown Disney ends at the
lobby of the Disneyland Hotel

Day Five:
Universal Studios Hollywood

The day started with a charity 5K walk. To be honest I didn't care about the charity but it got me free breakfast and admission to the Universal Studios Theme Park. The walk itself was a complete waste of time because they didn't count my time or give any medals / certificates of completion. Plus they allowed you to walk at your own pace which meant most people took a casual stroll with no motivation to complete the walk in a timely manner. The course was completely unorganized and I could have easily strayed from the course without security noticing.

In fact, if I had never shown up they wouldn't have even noticed as I did not have to sign a waiver, check-in or anything! I literally just showed up and security waived me through to the parking lot. Many of the walkers were people who looked like they should have been in a hospital, obese and huffing and puffing the entire walk.

Disney's themed "Endurance Events" are far superior!

The Universal Studios Theme Park in Hollywood is located on the side of a hill which means there are long escalators that take you to different sections of the park. I enjoyed the theme park but it had many of the same rides and attractions we do in Orlando. All in all a good day but next time I would just pay the fee for the charity walk and go into the park.

-Universal's City Walk is similar to Orlando's but this one has all the glitz of Las Vegas

-Main entrance before the gates

-Main entrance through the gates

First stop... rush to the FastPass distribution queue. Without a FastPass for the show there is no guarantee that you'll get a spot in the designated viewing area. The viewing area holds several thousand people and is divided into different tiers. If you get a FastPass first thing in the morning you'll be in the front of the viewing area. If you wait then you might end up at the back or have a less desirable side-view of the show.

Paradise Pier section... home of Toy Story Midway Mania Ride. One of the few rides without FastPass. A Cast Member told me it was because not every ride can have FastPass. It's a copy of the Florida version and just like in Florida the line gets out of control fast!