Our adventure truly began on the Friday that I finished work and headed straight to Heathrow Airport but for the purposes of keeping this interesting, I will skip ahead slightly to our arrival at Los Angeles on the Saturday afternoon. I will also try and explain the various companies and groups that were part of the whole trip. I apologise if you already know a fair bit about them, but I wanted to write this so no one gets lost along the way. You'll see what I mean...
After the usual rigmarole of getting through the LAX airport security (which was marginally better than our previous trip where it took three hours), we got our bags and were pleasantly greeted by a man with a sign just outside as we clambered to get out and find a place to use our e-cigs.
 |
| Loews Hollywood Hotel |
The driver then drove us over to Loews Hollywood Hotel which is where the Adventures by Disney portion of our trip would begin. The hotel is located just behind the Dolby Theatre so we had a fantastic view of the huge arches and shopping centre which accompanies the theatre which plays host to the annual academy awards.
I should drop in, for those that do not know, Adventures by Disney, or ABD to the frequent users, is an excursion trip. The aim of ABD trips is to provide culturally immersive, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. The trips are hosted by two Adventure Guides who attend to all the details and enable you to experience cultures and traditions in ways that show more than just the sights. You get to experience parts of the world through the eyes of a storyteller and in many cases, get access to opportunities that are not actually available to the general public. Our trip was called Backstage Magic and it really focussed on the career of Walt Disney from his arrival in Hollywood through to the opening of the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim.
Our Adventures By Disney trip was booked through Dreams Unlimited Travel. Their slogan is that they are 'experts at helping you plan the perfect Disney vacation' and they certainly did not disappoint - more on that later.
We got checked in very quickly and then had the rest of the evening to get settled in, so to speak. My first stop was to locate the smoking area before showering and generally freshening up for the evening. Within minutes I spotted somebody who would also be on the ABD trip. Pete is the owner and anchor host for 'The DisUnplugged'. The DisUnplugged is essentially the podcast and video show part of the 'The Dis', a website that covers absolutely everything you could want to find out about vacations in Walt Disney World, Disneyland California and Disney Cruise Line. If you can't find what you need in the multitude of articles, there is plenty of people to ask in the 'DISboards', an expansive forum frequented by one of, if not, THE largest Disney fan groups outside of the official Disney fan community, D23. The DisUnplugged is also supported by Dreams Unlimited Travel.
It was a little nerve wracking approaching someone I have been following for years. It felt like I knew him really well but I was nothing but a stranger to him. I am not sure what gave it away but Pete instantly knew exactly who we were the moment we went over to introduce ourselves. Perhaps the British accent was a giveaway. We had a brief chat before heading up for that shower. We had been on the go for several hours after all and we also had until the following evening before our ABD expedition begun.
For the rest of our evening, I had arranged to catch up with a colleague who is based locally. We had never actually met in person and only conversed through email and FaceTime as part of our jobs on either side of the water. He was going to take us to somewhere called 'WeHo'. At this point I would like to point out my naivete about what WeHo was. I thought it was some fancy Hollywood restaurant and it certainly didn't occur to me that it was an abbreviation for West Hollywood. WeHo, as I very quickly discovered, is also a vibrant LGBT district, in fact it is actually considered to be one of the most prominent 'gay villages' in the United States. I could definitely fit in here and found it very exciting to be in an LGBT space outside of the UK. The people were incredibly friendly and I don’t think I will ever tire of being told, "they love my accent".
We started out at PUMP for a couple of drinks. The self proclaimed sexiest restaurant in LA is also owned by Lisa Vanderpump of Real Housewives fame (amongst other things). The venue itself is a very interesting place, almost like you are sitting in a very rich person’s patio garden with fancy and ornate chandeliers and tableware. It had a wonderful relaxed vibe and the bar team were fantastic. It was actually a really good icebreaker so that we could chat and get to know each other better and gave my husband a little more insight into the world of my job. After some fantastic food at a place, the name of which I can not for the life of me remember, and possibly too many drinks considering the lack of sleep, we were driven back to our hotel and I just about made it up to our room to get some well earned sleep!
I should drop in, for those that do not know, Adventures by Disney, or ABD to the frequent users, is an excursion trip. The aim of ABD trips is to provide culturally immersive, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. The trips are hosted by two Adventure Guides who attend to all the details and enable you to experience cultures and traditions in ways that show more than just the sights. You get to experience parts of the world through the eyes of a storyteller and in many cases, get access to opportunities that are not actually available to the general public. Our trip was called Backstage Magic and it really focussed on the career of Walt Disney from his arrival in Hollywood through to the opening of the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim.
Our Adventures By Disney trip was booked through Dreams Unlimited Travel. Their slogan is that they are 'experts at helping you plan the perfect Disney vacation' and they certainly did not disappoint - more on that later.
We got checked in very quickly and then had the rest of the evening to get settled in, so to speak. My first stop was to locate the smoking area before showering and generally freshening up for the evening. Within minutes I spotted somebody who would also be on the ABD trip. Pete is the owner and anchor host for 'The DisUnplugged'. The DisUnplugged is essentially the podcast and video show part of the 'The Dis', a website that covers absolutely everything you could want to find out about vacations in Walt Disney World, Disneyland California and Disney Cruise Line. If you can't find what you need in the multitude of articles, there is plenty of people to ask in the 'DISboards', an expansive forum frequented by one of, if not, THE largest Disney fan groups outside of the official Disney fan community, D23. The DisUnplugged is also supported by Dreams Unlimited Travel.
It was a little nerve wracking approaching someone I have been following for years. It felt like I knew him really well but I was nothing but a stranger to him. I am not sure what gave it away but Pete instantly knew exactly who we were the moment we went over to introduce ourselves. Perhaps the British accent was a giveaway. We had a brief chat before heading up for that shower. We had been on the go for several hours after all and we also had until the following evening before our ABD expedition begun.
For the rest of our evening, I had arranged to catch up with a colleague who is based locally. We had never actually met in person and only conversed through email and FaceTime as part of our jobs on either side of the water. He was going to take us to somewhere called 'WeHo'. At this point I would like to point out my naivete about what WeHo was. I thought it was some fancy Hollywood restaurant and it certainly didn't occur to me that it was an abbreviation for West Hollywood. WeHo, as I very quickly discovered, is also a vibrant LGBT district, in fact it is actually considered to be one of the most prominent 'gay villages' in the United States. I could definitely fit in here and found it very exciting to be in an LGBT space outside of the UK. The people were incredibly friendly and I don’t think I will ever tire of being told, "they love my accent".
We started out at PUMP for a couple of drinks. The self proclaimed sexiest restaurant in LA is also owned by Lisa Vanderpump of Real Housewives fame (amongst other things). The venue itself is a very interesting place, almost like you are sitting in a very rich person’s patio garden with fancy and ornate chandeliers and tableware. It had a wonderful relaxed vibe and the bar team were fantastic. It was actually a really good icebreaker so that we could chat and get to know each other better and gave my husband a little more insight into the world of my job. After some fantastic food at a place, the name of which I can not for the life of me remember, and possibly too many drinks considering the lack of sleep, we were driven back to our hotel and I just about made it up to our room to get some well earned sleep!
0 comments:
Post a Comment