Divv3k

The next few days of our trip were spent in Las Vegas! It's certainly a unique place that everyone needs to visit. Great food, boozy drinks, awesome hotels, cool shows, crappy rollercoasters.. There really is something for everyone. Here's a look back at our few days in Vegas... Welcome to New Yo... I mean, Vegas! Where we stayed in New York! This place looks a little more elegant than Buffalo Bill's. This was the view from our window. Always great to hear screams of pain from riders as you try to sleep at night. We started our tour of Vegas hotels in the Bellagio where we foudn this huge WPT poker tournament ongoing. Daniel Negreanu! As an avid viewer and small time player of poker over the years it was really exciting to meet this guy and get a photo with him. If only I could play poker like he does! More Vegas hotel stuff! Eat this World of Color! I think this means I've got all my fountain credits for this trip. I hope so. It's the little things you see in Vegas like spiral escalators that help make all those hotels really cool. Our first show of our visit was Blue Man Group! It was quite similar to the show I saw in Orlando in 2008 but this show had something that one didn't. Balls. As cool as the strip looks during the day it looks super awesome at night! Neon sexiness. Bubba Gump! This was my first visit here. And oh man, it was awesome, though I was a bit perplexed that our drinks were more expensive than our food at this place! Memories of Primm are well on their way to being vanquished in Begas! (Check out that sunburn!) We also checked out the "old strip" up at Freemont Street. It's a little sadder and more depressing up here but it's interesting to see at least. Of course, there was the little matter of Circus Circus to attend to while we were in town. Ch-ching! This was before El Loco was built so it was really one and done in the pink tinged greenhouse. No credit for grown ups on this one. Would you expect anything less from a Pepsi park? Our second evening took us to Paris... Where we saw Jersey Boys! I LOVED this show. It's just a shame the Vegas audience doesn't get into it the same way a London or Broadway audience might. But it's still great show. These guys seemed to enjoy it too. Night fountains! Now I TRULY have all teh fountain credits! Manhattan Express doesn't look any more appetising at night. Just in case you felt that there weren't enough McDonald's logos in this trip report. Steak'n'Shake in Vegas? I'll go for some of that! m&m shake awesomeness! As burgers on this trip went this certainly wasn't the best (Five Guys and In-N-Out were way better) but it's still a decent effort and it's cool that Steak'n'Shake is an option here! Michael's a huge fan of Pawn Stars. I know nothing about it but apparently this place is a big deal. Pawn shop porn.... So that's Vegas! A fun place to spend a couple of days that I can only imagine would be an absolutely riot with a big group of friends. We need to engineer a Brit Crew visit to this place...

New state credit! Yup, this leg of our trip brought us to Nevada! We had a few days in Vegas to look forward to but had to get a stop in Primm out of the way first. What a dive this place was! The best thing about Primm and everything in ot is that it makes you appreciate Las Vegas a hell of a lot more! It's a long drive from Anaheim to Vegas and there' not a lot to look at except for this! George Mason RIP. New state credit! This Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger was by far the highlight of my visit to Primm. Seriously. Of course, this place is the real reason any coaster fan stops in Primm. There's a bit of a "Blackpool Coral Island but more depressing" vibe inside Buffalo Bill's. Speaking of Blackpool, there's Desperado! The Arrow hyper that took The Big One's spot as the tallest coaster in the world back in the 90s. We had to wait a while to get on this as the hotel won't run the coaster unless they ahve at least six people there to ride it. This was about as excited Michael got during our whole visit to Buffalo Bill's. At least we got on the coaster, I guess! It was pish! But I guess that keeps with the theme of the place! Onto Vegas next!

^ Man, that really is creepy yet strangely cool!

After our late finish at Disneyland we hit the road the next morning to make the drive to Las Vegas. One of the stops we had planned out for this road trip was in San Bernardino. Now you'll remember a few updates ago I posted an update from the the world's oldest operating McDonald's but that was the third restaurant. Yes, there was a couple of restaurants even older than that one which no longer exist. One of those of course is the very first McDonald's restaurant that was opened as a BBQ joint by brothers Dick and Mack McDonald in 1940. In the 1950s they changed the place to a hamburger fast food restaurant and eventually sold the franchise rights to Ray Kroc and the rest is history. This restaurant is long since closed down and demolished but a new building that now exists on the site was purchased by the Juan Pollo chain a while back where a museum commemorating the history of McDonald's now sits in its place. This location is not officially recognised by the McDonald's Corporation however. There's a museum in Des Plaines. Illinois where the ninth store was built (Ray Kroc's first) which the company officially says is their first store. But now you know better! (I'd still love to visit the museum in Illinois though!) When you enter the museum you are greeted by the curator who ushers you around and gives you a detailed history lesson on the company. You can tell the place is not official - it all looks a bit thrown together but what they have there is fascinating and it's great that this landmark still exists to such a historical site. More McDonald's history! Here I am at the site of the very first McDonald's restaurant in San Bernardino, California! You enter the museum and the first thing that grabs your eye is that utterly terrifying Grimace costume! There's a whole wall showing photos of some of the early restaurants and staff. Here's one of those milkshake mixers that Ray Kroc was selling when he encountered McDonald's and decided upon a career change. There's just cabinets upon cabinets of old school Happy Meal toys. Old busted fryers and bricks from the original restaurant - yup, they have those! A look back to happier times when Disney was in bed with McDonald's. More old school Happy Meal tat. There were some really awesome employee hats over the years. I'd love to see our good Brit Crew friend, Brad in one of those Big Mac hats! McDonald's razor blades?! It was a thing in 1980 apparently! These are happy meal boxes from way before my time. I love that they joined to make a train! The world's longest french fry (at one point at least, I've no idea if it still is). Looks delicious! The curator collects McDonald's promotional boxes from all over the world and encourages visitors from other countries to send theirs in. (I can kind of relate to this!) McDonald's Lego! YES! Mac Tonight was apparently some campaign from the 80s or 90s in the US. I don't think we ever saw it in the UK. Cool sign! It's worth taking a huge detour on any drive just to see one of the original straws from the McDonald brothers' 1940 Barbeque place! Here's a picture of what the original restaurant looked like before it was demolished. The outside of the building has a few items taken from McDonald's playgrounds over the years. There's loads of random pictures from the history of the company and other random San Bernardino stuff painted over the walls. And that's the Original McDonald's Museum! Like I said in the earlier update, I'm really fascinated by the history of McDonald's and since we were passing on the way to Vegas this made a pretty cool stop for us. Check it out if you're ever stopping by! Up next is Nevada - a new state credit for me!

After our morning at Knott's we went for some lunch and then headed back to Disneyland. This was a Saturday evening so we didn't have any grand plans of riding stuff. Instead we just wanted to chill out and see the fireworks and Fantasmic. If any ride opportunities presented themselves then we'd be happy... Turned out to be quite a good evening where a lot of the rides had no lines really late on which meant we actually got a hell of a lot in! Rather than eat lunch at Knott's we tracked down lunch at Taco Bell seeing as I had some important credits to obtain! For the last time on this trip we arrive at Disneyland! Oh no, a parade! Good thing we got all our rides in on our previous visit this week! Ooft, that's a lot of people! Finally we succumbed to one of the long lines... But it was for a Dole Whip! Michael needed to pop that cherry! We decided to hop over to DCA and found that the Radiator Springs Racers single rider line is really quite tolerable even on a busy Saturday! We didn't ride Luigi's Tires but it doesn't look like it does a whole lot! Jeff introduced me to these awesome corn dogs last year so I was really excited to get another this time. The sun is setting so that means it's time to leave DCA and head back over to Disneyland for... Soup! Here's another delight that Jeff introduced me to the previous year. The soup in bread bowl combo is so good! Fantasmic! While not as orgasmic as the Tokyo version it's miles better than the one in Florida. Apparently they have fireworks around of the castle. If anyone can point out a castle around here to me that would be magic. Thanks. On the way out of the park I made sure to stop by the town hall to get Michael his obligatory first visit badge. we actually got a load of stuff done later this evening - Mansion, Pirates, Indy and more. When everyone leaves after Fantasmic it's a pretty good time to get a lot done! Alright, that's it for Disneyland on this trip. Up next - More McDonald's history!

Our next morning took us to Knott's Berry Farm - the way our schedule worked out we could really only visit on a Saturday so we decided to do as much as we could in the morning while the crowds were light and then we ducked out and went back to Disney. The park feels very "Cedar Fair" but there is some good stuff here... Like I say, this was a quick visit so there aren't a lot of photos... New park credit for me! Of course we started the day over at Xcelerator - I really liked this! One of my favourite Intamin launchers. Ugh, a boomerang. We missed the new section by a few weeks, but that's okay since we weren't expecting to ride everything on this visit. Pony Express. A bit of a weird ride for this park but it doesn attract a decent crowd. Ghost Rider was closed. I'm under the impression that I should be thankful that this was the case! Silver Bullet! One of the tamer B&M inverts for sure but certainly one of the better rides in Knott's. We were tricked into waiting in a long line for jaguar - I didn't realise that pyramid thing where the queue is goes on for so long! And that was about it for Knott's. I'll come back here again some other time when it's not so crowded! Next up - back to Disneyland!

After our visit to WB we had another wander around Hollywood and took a little visit over to Santa Monica... Meltdown comics! This was another place that was on my list of Hollywood places to visit! It's a really kickass comic book shop! This is also where loads of Nerdist podcasts and stuff is recorded. This shop is also kind of a museum with some of the old stuff they have here. Yeah, that's action Comics number 1! It's worth a little more than 10 cents now... Some super expensive landmark Spider-Man books! I loved this place! Just so Michael has some proof that he actually visited Hollywood. Our evening stop was Santa Monica Pier! It looks really cool at night! Pacific Park entrance photo! This place has probably been in as many movies as some of the spots we visited on the backlot. This was a quick visit so we just bought our tickets for the coaster and got on our way. This appears to be the only photo of the coaster in action that I have! Oops! It's alright! Our dinner stop tonight was also pretty awesome... In-N-Out! Double Double Animal Style! So good! Between this and Five Guys all our burger needs on this tour were truly covered! What a day! And Pacific Park was a great way to top it off! Knott's is up next!

From a trip lowpoint to the absolute highlight - Warner Bros Studios! For this day we plumped for the $250 6 hour deluxe tour around the studio. There's a two hour version which costs about $50 but we decided to go all out for this one and it turned out to be a great decision. The deluxe version includes access to loads of places not on the cheaper tour and also includes an amazing lunch in the commissary on the lot. If I ever get the opportunity I certainly will be doing the WB deluxe tour again! There are quite a few parts of the tour where cameras aren't allowed - foley studios, sound mixing studios and pretty much everything that's indoors on the lot. There's an incredible huge museum here with props from Warner Bros movies over the decades (and a full floor of Potter stuff but we were too intrigued by all the other movie props to even check that out). The tour also concluded with a visit to the sets of The Mentalist and Big Bang Theory! Very cool. Alright, so that's the stuff we couldn't photograph. Here's the rest! It's a bright and early morning and we've made our way over to Warner Bros Studios in Burbank! We're special, so special! Right away the extra we laid down for the deluxe tour was paying off when we got hold a real Oscar statue! It's heavy! Here comes our deluxe golf cart! Even the bottled water they give you makes you feel special! Like the Paramount tour this one starts out with a tour around the backlot where the guide points out all the different shows and movies shot here. The building on the left has been used in movies on this lot since the 1920s! For some reason it appears to be mandatory that all movie studios have a water with their logo emblazoned upon it. This little nugget in the backlot excited me immensely! Yup, this is the staircase down to the little shop from the start of Gremlins! You probably saw parts of this street whenever they needed to go outdoors on Friends! There's some things money can't buy. For everything else there's.. wait, what? BankMaster?! Here's the alleyway where Kirsten Dunst got her upside down on with Tobey Maguire! Merlotte's! This place will do bad things to you! "Must go faster". Yeah, this is where they shot the T-Rex chase in Jurassic Park! It's really tiny too - they just kept turning the car around and driving over the same hundred yards! In Hollywood a roof on your house is optional. All these houses are used when needed in shoots and double as production offices. The entrance to more offices on the lot or an airport from The West Wing? It's both! Like Paramount, WB have their own movie theatre on the lot. You probably don't realise how many times you've saw this exact Subway entrance on TV and in movies. Here's the Friends stage! This is where the apartments and Central Perk stood for ten years! I think this is where the Ark of the Covenant ended up. Whenever you see a WB movie now this is the building that appears right at the start. Simon Helberg lived here for an entire summer hiatus. This entire day was like being in Charlie Wonka's factory for movie fans! Yes! The ultimate Batmobile! It'll never look better than this! Though those Tumblers certainly do look much more practical! I was one of the only Chuck fans in the world so this was cool to see! They took a green screen photo of us and told us we'd get a souvenir photo at the end of the day. Some guests got a Superman photo and we got stupid Potter. Damn! Prop storage! Very cool place to visit! Michael, what a joker. Casablanca tat! Ooooh! President Bartlet's desk! So cool! Speaking of cool.. The Deluxe tour guests get to visit the Central Perk set by themselves without all the other guests running around. After the show ended the entire set was moved from Stage 24 to the prop warehouse so tour guests could see it for themselves! The thing that amazed me was how small it is! Seriously. it's Disneyland Castle small! May I take your order! We're both huge Friends fans so this was awesome to see in person! Here's the soundstage where ER was shot for 15 years! And a little more for the ER fans - the L train station! Of course like all good tour we end in the gift shop. We had such a good day we ended up buying some WB tat! Hands down the highlight of the trip! There were so many cool things on this tour that I couldn't show you here but it really is all awesome. If you're any kind of movie fan I would highly recommend checking out the deluxe tour if you ever get the chance!

That might be fair if I was only using Disney as a frame of reference but really I'm basing my review (and pre-visit expectations) off my previous visits to other Six Flags parks in 2007 and 2010. Based on this visit to Magic Mountain it appears that either Magic Mountain is an anomaly in the chain or that something has gone badly awry in the management of Six Flags in the last few years. I don't like to write a negative trip report, if you look through my history of TRs on this site you'll see that I've only wrote a handful of overly negative TRs over the years (Fuji-Q comes to mind!), I really am quite positive in my trip reports wherever I can be. Like Robb said, I've been to a fair few badly run parks over the years and it pains me when I have to visit one with the potential of a park like Magic Mountain.

The next park on our trip was a new one for me – Six Flags Magic Mountain. This is one of the parks that I had heard loads about over the years on TPR and having visited a decent number of Six Flags parks in my time I figured that I had my expectations set reasonably. I wasn’t expecting greatness, but wow even with my low expectations I was really underwhelmed by Magic Mountain. Actually, I really hated it. I don’t know if it was the operations, the staff, the clientele, the attractions but the place doesn’t give off a very nice vibe and the potentially positive aspects of the park seemed to have the life sucked out of them by Six Flags. And this was a reasonably quiet day that we visited... We started off running with everyone to X2 and got into a reasonable position in the line and then I started to witness the wonder of Six Flags Magic Mountain staffing. Dear lord, they are slow. The ride is very similar to Dinoconda in China and I really couldn’t tell them apart all that much. It’s an okay ride that’s good mostly for sucking up the crowds. We started to make our way around the rest of the coasters and the contrast to our visits in previous days to Disney and Universal couldn’t be more stark. Tatsu was a particular wonder – we got into a station with next to no line and still waited an age to get on the thing. At least it’s one of the better B&M Flyers. Green Lantern is another curiosity – curious in that Six Flags somehow managed to completely mess up one of the best rides in the world! How they can take a ride that’s the exact same make, model and layout as the incredible Insane in Gronalund and turn it into such a tame kiddie-like ride beggars belief. After enduring the park for about half the day we decided enough was enough – I was missing a few kiddie credits and Viper but I was so done with this place that I just decided to bag them. I could go on about how much I hated this place but I’ll get on to the photos... Here we are at Walley World! Unfortunately there's no moose outside to stop us getting in. The first thing you have to do here is join the rest of the zombies on the run to X2. This was where I first got it witness the stunning ineptitude of the SFMM staff. The ride is on the whole very similar to the new one in China - in look and experience. It's a fun ride but clearly it's a nightmare to operate. Tatsu! It appeared to be a walk-on but appearances can be deceiving at Magic Mountain. It took us a while to get on this one too. Still, the ride is pretty good as far as B&M flyers go. Some pretty intense spots on there. Superman only had one side open. I'm not sure if that means I missed a credit or not by the time I left here I kind of stopped caring about the credits. Green Lantern - this should have been a thing of pure joy at SFMM. Something to get really excited about! Unfortunately the ride has been neutered so much that it's only a mere shadow of the incredible version in Sweden. As far as B&M stand ups go Riddler is certainly one of the better ones. As a fan of Vacation I was very excited to get a ride on the Screemy Meemy. Of course only one side was open but I guess now I should be glad that I even got to ride it at all! Parking lot coaster. It's even more stunning to witness this in person. Seriously, it looks awful. How much does a few bags of gravel cost? As B&M floorless coasters go Scream is about as cookie cutter as they get. You know what to expect from this. YOLOcoaster! Actually we were a few weeks to early for this so we didn't get to live at all. Oh well. Apocalypse! The best ride in the park by miles for me! Although it was a bit on the short side as GCIs go. Apparently the reason for that is due to the expensive sound system they fitted onto the trains. The sound system that no longer works. Nice one, Six Flags. Funicular Railway credit! It's a sad day when this is the attraction in the park that's getting me excited. The original Goliath! The ride entrance for this is pretty cool. There it goes. Reveling in the uniqueness of its name. There you go Michael. You can tell everyone about how awesome Magic Mountain was now. We were getting to the middle of the afternoon and we still had some kiddie coasters plus Viper to do. After this one we decided to call it quits. I was so done with this place. A rare photo of Michael and I. Michael's the one on the far left with the red nose. So that's Six Flags Magic Mountain. Despite still needing a few credits there I'm in no rush to get back. I usually try my hardest not to be negative in trip reports but this place really was a chore to visit. Maybe I got here on a bad day or maybe it's Six Flags as a whole that have just started to get really sucky over the years. Hey, maybe it's me and I'm just really jaded by big corporate parks like Six Flags now. Who knows? At least I visited so I could form my own opinion on the place. The day wasn't a total loss though - we both popped our Cheesecake Factory cherries this evening since we left early which was pretty awesome. Every cloud, eh? Next up - The Deluxe Tour at Warner Bros studios!

The next day it was another early start as we were off to Disneyland again! We had another early start today so that we could get a look around Downtown Disney before the parks opened. This is the place in Downtown Disney I wanted to see! I love that they have Disney Lego models at their Downtown Disney stores. I just wish they could somehow work some more models into the parks! OMG. HOT. This is like porn for me. Super early in the morning and we saw this line of girls camping out for a gig in the evening. Turns out it was for Olly Murs. Who knew that guy had fans all the over here? Today was all about mopping up those rides we missed the previous day - I learned from Jeff last year that if you want to do the Submarines then you do it early! I guess we better such it up and get this over with... Roger Rabbit is an largely unheralded Disney dark ride, I feel that it does a great job of capturing the spirit of the movie. Michael only wishes he was pounding dogs. Here's another big ride that I missed by mere days last time (it was down for rehab) - Matterhorn! This Monte Cristo sandwich was good but man, it was heavy! I could have done with a lie down after this! For lunch I knocked another item off my Disneyland bucket list and arranged for us to have lunch at the Blue Bayou! The glowing drinks were a nice touch! After lunch we proceeded to sweated out our Monte Cristo comas on Jungle Cruise. After visiting Hong Kong Disneyland between my two Anaheim visits I was slightly disappointed by the lack of fire in this one! Of course, we couldn't resist another quick park hop over to Radiator Springs! A day later and it still looks pretty awesome! Oh no, a parade! We rode Little Mermaid. I still like it. Maybe that's a little to do with the lack of lines I always encounter at it but I think it's fun. This is Michael's "Why the hell are you making me ride the rapids, Divv?" face. Getting ready to leave but seeing as we were already wet we figured we'd stop back over at Disneyland for one more ride... How do you do? Pretty good, show us your bone! And that's it for Disneyland for a few days at least - we left in the evening in order to get to our next hotel, conveniently located in Valencia... Yup, I'm afraid that's what's next... Six Flags Magic Mountain.

Now for one of the main highlights of the trip - Disney! Less than a year before this I made my first visit to the resort when I had a spare day on a business trip to California. Jeff Johnson was a fantastic tour guide that day, making sure I got on as much as I could and i really did hit the majority of what both parks had to offer. The only issue was that my visit feel mere days before the opening of Carsland. There were previews going on inside the land on that visit but alas I was not one of those people. I had been haunted by peaking through construction walls and seeing guests enjoying the attractions. So I was really glad that less than a year later I was going to actually visit Radiator Springs! So what did I think of it? The land itself is fantastic, it just looks amazing for me I would say it looks better than Potter at Islands of Adventure and only behind the best parts of DisneySea in Tokyo (Mysterious Island!). The Radiator Springs Racers ride itself is really great too with some of the best animatronics I've ever witnessed (but still, if only it had some sort of lava monster to compete with Tokyo! Can't have everything I guess). The rest of our days time here was spent park hopping where I played tour guide this time showing Michael around both parks and no doubt boring him with inane Disney Divvia. Seeing as this is "Divv California Adventure" I guess we better start at Disney California Adventure! First stop of the day at Disney California Adventure is a favourite - Tower of Terror! This is a wait I can live with! I've learned that when Soarin' is a walk-on you have no choice but to ride at that point or forego it forever. Okay, so it's not quite up to par with Tokyo or Florida but it's better than Paris simply by not being in Paris! Alright, let's get to the real fun of this visit - Carsland! Good thing we went straight for Fast Passes first thing this morning! Wow, now that looks pretty awesome! There's some really great attention to detail in the theming here. The ride itself is really great too. The racing aspect of it adds a fun dimension. Lightning McQueen says"'Sup Bitches?" Not only does Carsland have a cool signature ride it has some great signature food items too! Check out my Chili Cone Queso! The Mater whip ride is a nice side attraction in the area - nothing earth shattering but they did a good job with it. I loved the cool references to the Cars short films in the Mater queue. Outside of Carsland, Muppet-vision is still going strong which is definitely a good thing in my book! Hope it can hold on a bit longer before something else comes crashing in! Still my favourite 3D show in any park! The Red cars weren't running when I made my last visit, they look really cool! Alright, time to hop on over to Disneyland itself! I could have sworn there was a castle here last time... Here's the standard "wait board photo" to refer to when planning your next ride. We hit up Star Tours - I didn't do this last time because I had already been on the revamped Florida version. It's Star Tours so it's fun, the 3D and new effects have certainly improved the ride. Isn't he a little short for a Storm Trooper? Here's a new addition thanks to that Marvel purchase! Just chilling out with Iron Man... For a Marvel movie geek like me the Iron Man exhibit was really cool. The suits look great up close! Haunted Mansion. It's brilliant. Captain EO and Space Mountain - does it get any more futuristic than this?? This was cool to see - Wreck-it Ralph style Fix-It Felix arcade machines that were made to look old school! Splash mountain is still doing it's thing. Another park hop and we re back in DCA. Toy Story Mania's frustrating lack of Fast Pass meant that we had to suck it up and stomach an hour or so wait. At least the ride is still bags of fun, we would go on to ride ti a few times on this trip but I just wish they had a damned fast Pass option like Florida does! California Screamin' - any ride with NPH narration is good in my book! I didn't appreciate it on my last visit due to all teh walls that were up around the park but it actually looks pretty decent now! I had heard so many great things about Carthay Circle that I made sure that we had reservations for our first night here. Here's some OMG Amazing Salmon. And some ultra tasty ravioli. Finished off with some incredible rhubarb and strawberry pie. Seriously, this whole meal was tremendous. I'd eat here again in a heartbeat. Our Dinner at Carthay Circle also meant that we got reserved spots for World of Color! This was a cool show and I was certainly more impressed with it than I expected. (still not quite a "Fantasmic beater" though). And that brings our first day at Disney to a close. There's still more from here to come though!

Cheers, guys! More McDonald's history to come in this TR! Next time you're in LA you absolutely should do a studio tour or two. You'd love it. Ummm... I think NED may have a tab to cover such stats....

On our drive from Hollywood to Anaheim I had scoped out a very historic spot for us to stop for dinner - the oldest still operating McDonald's restaurant in the world! I love McDonald's and the history of the company fascinates me so when I realised we had the opportunity to visit here I couldn't not go! I'm not letting history pass me by! Anyone looking for some old school hamburgers? There it is! Built in 1953 this was the third McDonald's restaurant ever built and the oldest that is still operating! Before Ronald McDonald, Speedee was the mascot of the company - even in the 1950s McDonald's realised that promoting the speed of their service was important. Michael's absolutely buzzing to be sampling a taste of California history. Here's the original cash registers that were used at the store 60 years ago. Whilst the full expanded menu is on offer here I had to order something classic - cheeseburgers, fries and a shake. That's pretty much all the original menu consisted of. Next to to the counter there's a little enclosed seating area that was added later. There's also a little museum next to it - here's how the McDonald's corporation ending up hitting it big, the milkshake mixer. When Ray Kroc sold these to the McDonald brothers in the 1950s he ended up owning the franchise rights to the company and the rest is history. Some old school McDonald's tat. Here's the original menu from 1953! Wow, this place was cheap! The museum also has a little section saluting Speedee. He was a creepy looking guy. The arches of the restaurant were designed to look just like the logo that would become infamous all over the world. Talk about foresight! Alright, that's dinner sorted! If you're like me and fascinated by the history of what became one of the biggest companies in the world then this is a fun place to stop by. Next stop - Disneyland!

One of the reasons for this trip to California was to get a look behind the scenes at some of the movie studios based in Hollywood so we were very excited to take this two hour tour of Paramount Studios! They actually run a longer deluxe tour but we had plans for the afternoon and a longer tour coming up at Warner Bros later in the week so this was a good opportunity to get a look around. As our visit was in May most of the TV shows which usually film there were on hiatus so the studio was a bit quieter than usual but it was still really cool to see the place and start to recognise places on the backlot from movies and TV shows from over the years! In the afternoon we headed over to CBS Television City for a taping of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson but since they don’t allow cameras this update is all about Paramount. Here’s some pictures of the things we were allowed to photograph! Our second full day in California took us to Paramount Studios in Hollywood! Here’s a look at Paramount’s lot and a list of all the shows that have been filming here lately. Hey, look! Hollywood sign off in the distance! This was Lucille Ball’s office at the studios. Apparently she was a big deal or something. In order to understand what your tour guide is saying they give you these very snazzy looking ear pieces. I’m going to distribute these to everyone I have a conversation with from now on. OOOHH!! A building filled with nothing but ladders! The fun never stops at Paramount. Here’s one of the main cross sections of Paramount’s backlot. It’s amazing how many times I’ve recognised this place when watching TV shows since I visited. Glee for example has used it a few times. You can tell that Michael’s ready to break into a song and dance number of his own. Sunnydale! Any Buffy fans out there? This was cool to see – many a monster chased occurred on this part of the backlot! If you want to pretend the sky is blue in your movie then film in front of this. Now here’s a historic stage at Paramount Studios! Stage 4 was home to the Ops set from the best Star Trek show of them all - Deep Space Nine! And here’s an even more historic bathroom – this was Patrick Stewart’s favourite bathroom on the lot back in his TNG days apparently. As the tour comes to a close you get led over to the famous arched gate for the studio. A fun fact we learned on the tour – the Paramount logo features 22 stars which represent the original 22 actors who were contracted to the studio. Wow. Inside this building was one of the most fantastic looking movie theatres I’ve ever sat in. Directors often use this to test their movies out on the big screen and give staff screenings. How much I would give to see a movie in here! The Forest Gump bench! Apparently a few years ago Tom Hanks sat on this bench handing out chocolates to people on the studio tour. What a guy! Of course, like any good tour this one ends in the gift shop where you can buy copious amounts of Paramount tat! And that’s Paramount Studios! I’d love to do the longer tour at a time when more shows are filming and I’d certainly pay the extra to do so the next chance I get! Up next – a visit to a very historic California landmark!

Our first full day took us to Universal Studios Hollywood! This was a new park for me and one I was really excited to visit being a big fan of the Orlando version. We weren’t sure what to expect from the crowds given that this was a Sunday in May so we arrived for opening and made our way straight for Transformers and managed to get multiple rides on it before any queues started to form. I really liked it! I mean, it’s still no Spider-Man beater but that ride system really works well and I don’t think there are many themes that it wouldn’t work for. Although I do still think this was a missed opportunity to get some really kick arse animatronics into Universal but maybe that’s just wishing for too much. Mummy’s good if you don’t compare it to the much superior Orlando version and Jurassic Park is more or less identical to Islands of Adventure’s – which is certainly a good thing! The real star of the park is obviously the Tram Tour which was really great. As a HUGE Back to the Future fan I was super excited to see the Hill Valley square in person. There’s just loads of great moments in there and my only regret is that we didn’t do the VIP tour that lets you get out the tram! Next time. The rest of the park is good, but when we visited there were loads of construction walls around the Despicable Me and Potter sites which made the upper half of the park a little less appealing. Still it was a fun day and I’m itching to get back! When you see this globe it can only mean one thing. You’re in Hollywood! (Or Orlando or Singapore or Osaka) Nope, definitely Hollywood! If you needed any more assurance that you’re in a movie studios park just consult the statues. Yeah, this Trip Report is really late. First stop – Transformers! This ride is by far the best thing to come out of the movie franchise. The animatronics in the ride are REALLY lifelike! Optimus Prime shrunk himself down in order to fulfil all your photo op desires. Try not to think of Orlando’s version of this when you’re riding and you’ll really enjoy it. Universal spared no expense bringing us a Jurassic Park attraction. Spinosaurus. He wasn’t on InGen’s list. SKLOOSH! One of the few water rides I’ll happily take a soaking on! Onto the backlot tram tour. This was a lot of fun! Save the Clock Tower! It was so awesome getting to see the Back to the Future square in person. More behind the scenes stuff. InGen – We Make Your Future. It wouldn’t be a backlot tour without some kind of flooding scene. So here it is. Apparently this is the only western set that’s left on the Hollywood backlots so it gets used by loads of studios whenever a western setting is needed. Disaster! I mean, Earthquake! It was cool seeing how this tour influenced a lot of attractions that got expanded upon in the Florida park. Like this one! Here's one place where Hollywood has something cool that Florida doesn't! Shark still looks fake. If you want to sleep with a gardener then this is where to go. Bates Motel! Some shady dealings are going on here apparently. The War of the Worlds plane crash scene was incredible! It looked so real. I really love that they kept this for the studio tour. It really shows the scale of some of these big budget productions If you want to pretend you’re not in California anymore just stand in front of this screen. Don’t mess with these dudes. Or something. Lunch. It was adequate. I found it strange that there was still a Flintstones themed cafe here, but hey I guess that’ll go eventually. I last saw the Water World show in Osaka where it was all in Japanese. The English version doesn’t make any more sense. Back to the Simpsons! Yeah, the ride system is still a bit jerky and uncomfortable but the pre-show is awesome which pretty much makes it worthwhile. Unfortunately, there were no Flaming Moe’s to be found around here. Seeing as the park is built on the side of a hill you get some pretty decent views. (If you look beyond the weird looking dude in the foreground) Warner Bros Studios! We’ll see you real soon! Oooh! The original DeLorean from Back to the Future! This was pretty awesome to see! More awesome BTTF props. Hydrate Level Four please! The Blue Brothers are still doing their thing here though I kind of get the feeling that less and less guests know who they are as the years go by. We rounded out our evening with a visit to City Walk where I was really excited to introduce Michael to a TPR favourite for dinner... Upon leaving the park we passed this. We didn’t even drive here but if you don’t take a photo of a sign that says “Jurassic Parking” then you’re not even human. Buca!!! Once again this place was awesome. Pizza porn. As always Buca gave you more food than you could possibly eat. Tremendous. So that’s Universal Studios Hollywood. Maybe the Orlando version has slightly better versions of the attractions but if you’re a movie fan then the tram tour absolutely is a must do. This was a great way to start of our trip! Up next – The Paramount Studios Tour!

Like the vast majority of my trip reports this is WAY too late! This is a trip my friend Michael and I took in May 2013. Seeing as we’re both movie fans and I’ve managed to up Michael’s interest in theme parks over the years we decided that a trip to California was in order. Not only to visit the parks but also see some movie studios, take in a little trip to Vegas and a few days in San Diego –which I had visited a year earlier and really loved! Some of these updates will be quite short so this might not be as extensive as my usual trip reports but going through my photos I felt I had some decent stuff that I wanted to talk about, so indulge me please in this California Adventure! UPDATES: Part 1 – ARRIVAL & HOLLYWOOD (Below) Part 2 – UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOLLYWOOD Part 3 - PARAMOUNT STUDIOS Part 4 - WORLD'S OLDEST OPERATING MCDONALD'S Part 5 - DISNEYLAND, DAY ONE Part 6 - DISNEYLAND, DAY TWO Part 7 - SIX FLAGS MAGIC MOUNTAIN Part 8 - WARNER BROS STUDIOS Part 9 - KNOTT'S BERRY FARM Part 10 - DISNEYLAND, DAY THREE Part 11 - WORLD'S FIRST MCDONALD'S MUSEUM Part 12 - BUFFALO BILL'S Part 13 - LAS VEGAS! Part 14 - SEA WORLD SAN DIEGO & MORE! Our itinerary had us arriving into LAX – which I was a little afraid of given the horror stories I’d heard over the years. I had myself and Michael well prepared for a hellish arrival. Much to my surprise this was the easiest US arrival I’d ever experienced! I think we arrived at a good time because we went straight through security and our bags were waiting for us! I’m not sure what kind of bizarre airport I traveled through but I don’t expect to be so lucky the next time I’m at LAX! Given that it was evening by the time we arrived we just took a quick trip down to Hollywood Boulevard to get some dinner and take a look around. A bit of a tacky place I must say but still – there’s some really cool looking buildings around here and I really regret not being able to visit any of the movie theatres. Maybe next time! Here’s some photos! Like all my trans-continental adventures of recent years this one starts on a big BA plane! Hey look, it’s Las Vegas! I’ll be seeing you later! Looks like we made it to the right place! I was a little worried about getting through LAX given the horror stories I had heard but somehow this turned out to be the easiest and smoothest arrival in the US I’ve ever experienced! We walked off the plane, straight through security (it seemed like our flight arrived at a time when no other did because there were no lines at customs) and then our bags were there in minutes. We were off the plane and on our way to the rental car place within 10-15 minutes. I realise this is probably a huge fluke but I wish my experiences of arriving at US airports were always like this! Here’s a clear sign you’re in Hollywood – Batmobile Limo sitting outside your hotel as you check in. After checking into our hotel we decided to venture down Hollywood Boulevard for a gander. This hotel is a big deal or something for some people. Looks cool. Woo! Chinese Theater! Sadly, the theatre was closed for its IMAX renovation at this time which is a shame as I’m a movie theatre geek and would have loved to have seen something in here. Hi Shawn! Egyptian Theater! Sadly, this place wasn’t showing many movies when we there so I’ll need to try and get inside this one some other time. This guy is important. Important to this Trip Report at least. For our first meal of the trip we went for the most "Hollywood" restaurant we could find... The first of very many burgers on this trip. Michael can deepthroat a burger really, really well. Hollywood Boulevard was way more tacky than I expected but I still thought it was pretty cool. I’d love to come back and see a few movies in the various theatres someday. Anyway, out Califoria Adventure has begun! Up next – Universal Studios Hollywood!

I didn't remember that but I do remember the McDonalds at Ocean Park. Shaka Shaka Seaweed Fries Luna Park (Coney Island) now has White Castle in the park. I'm visiting Coney Island next month so really excited to hear they now have White Castle! Here's the McDonald's in Mitsui Greenland in Japan. Here's the one that Larry mentioned in Ocean Park.

Me too!

Nah, that turned into a BK at the same time Alton Towers switched from McDnald's to BK. Now the BK at Chessington is gone too - replaced with a generic burger restaurant. I think Thorpe is the only Merlin park with any of the major chains inside. As far as McDonald's go - Mitsui Greenland has one slap bang in the middle of the park.

So the TPR China Trip comes to a close with the most anticipated park of the tour (for me at least!) and this one was extra anticipated for me as it meant that I was accomplishing a goal I had set for myself a few years previously of visiting every Disney park in the world! I had read and heard a lot about this place since it had opened - there was a lot of criticism of the park for being too small and for the behaviour of the guests. Who could forget the tales of guests urinating out in the open in the park? I had also heard many glowing reports of the park so I was really interested to see how this compared to the other Disney resorts. Bearing in mind that this trip (for me at least) encompassed two Disney resorts in different continents I can report that I DID witness public urination in a Disney park - but NOT in Hong Kong Disneyland! HKDL makes Paris' clientele and operations look like a terrible Six Flags park. HKDL was the total opposite of all the negative stories I had heard. The staff were amazing, the people were really nice and the rides were really, really great. Yeah, you can criticise the place for not having enough to do but I really don't see that being an issue for much longer. With Big Grizzly Mountain and Toy Story Land now opened and Mystic Manor imminently opening (at the time of our visit) the park seems well on its way to being a true Disney Resort. So how were the rides? For me, Big Grizzly Mountain was fantastic! I had no idea about the "twists" in the ride. I really thought it was a simple Big Thunder type ride with some animatronic bears so it was a huge pleasant surprise to find all these extra elements on my first ride! It's very re-rideable and looks fantastic at night. The whole Grizzly area is a huge win for the park. Space Mountain is also great here. We were lucky enough to visit at the start of their Halloween celebration which meant the Ghost Galaxy overlay was in effect, which was a really nice twist on the ride. Mark that four out of five Space Mountains that I really love! (Sorry, Paris - you really suck in the Space Mountain department too!). Everything else was solid Magic Kingdom fare for the most part. Jungle Cruise offered some nice twists and even It's A Small World was more tolerable than most versions! All in all I really liked this park. It kind of felt like a "Mini" Tokyo Disneyland in some ways and if they keep on expanding the way they are the place is only going to get better and better. I'm already desperate to get back to check out Mystic Manor! With this update, my China TR is (finally!) over... Once again I just want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to Robb and Elissa for once again putting on an unbelievable trip. Even when China tried its best to derail things Robb and Elissa always had an answer to make for the most fun trip in the world. I say it every time I do one of these but it bears repeating - these trips are the best way to see the world and make great friends in the process. I guess I can pay no higher compliment to the trip than to say that when the next China trip comes around I'll be doing my best to make sure that I'm on it because there's no one I'd rather regain my Disney World Grand Slam with at Shanghai Disney than with TPR... And I hope to see many of you there! Here's some photos from Hong Kong Disneyland and our departure day... At last! It’s Hong Kong Disneyland time! Hey look, a tiny castle! I think this one looks marginally better than Anaheim’s (mostly due to the hills and mountains in the background!) but I still don’t understand why they chose to clone the lamest of all the castles at this park. First stop of the day – Pride Rock... I mean Grizzly Gulch! Woohoo! You can’t beat Disney ERT in the morning! Watch out for bears, they could be lurking around any corner! Some cool theming in the Grizzly Mountain queue. BEAR!!! I had no idea of the layout or the gimiicks involved with this before riding so the “fake” lift hill thing was a lot of fun! Twisty! I LOVED Big Grizzly Mountain! It’s such a great combination of Big Thunder and Everest. I would go back to HKDL just to ride this more! This Toy Story Land is WAY better than the one I visited at the start of my trip. You know why?? Because it’s not in Paris! TPR Takeover of RC!!! Next in line for the TPR Takeover treatment was this Disney staple. I don’t know about you, but for me It’s A Small World is immensely improved by having Disney characters to look for throughout the ride. Doesn’t make the song any less irritating though! Final credit of the trip and it’s a good one... Space Mountain! Similar to the California version this is a really great Space Mountain. (Let’s face it, they’re all great, except Paris!) Here’s another Disney staple with a Hong Kong twist – Jungle Cruise! Oh my. This is a bit sinister looking for a Disneyland! This Jungle Cruise has fire. This automatically makes it the best Jungle Cruise in the world. Our visit in the park coincided with the start of the HKDL Halloween celebrations. For us this mean many a goofy (more than usual) photo opportunity. Brian, you’re doing it wrong!! Philharmagic is a really fun show so I was really excited to see it in HKDL. How all of these coaster enthusiasts managed to fit into one elephant is a mystery to me too. Sigh... Every time I see a photo of a Winnie the Pooh ride that’s not Tokyo I get depressed. Really Hong Kong? You had to go for this sub-par version?? At least it’s better than the Anaheim one! I guess there are worse places in the world where one could perish. Chuck just totally kicked Buzz Lightyear’s arse. Who knew that Stitch Encounter would be the source of huge amounts of hilarity?! All because of Steven! Stitch had Scottish’s number and knew all about his criminal ways! Larry, that’s one smokin’ ride you’ve got there. I was a little surprised that they even included Autopia in this version of the park as it takes up so much room and seems a bit dated but it’s fun to ride and rounds out Tomorrowland quite well. What’s this?! Non-regular Popcorn flavours! Sadly they weren’t on sale the day we visited so it was regular or nothing. Still glad to see that HKDL does offer this though! Mickey Sushi! How cute! I guess this must be Larry’s “excited for the Disneyland Railroad” face. I love that they add little details liek this to the train circuit at the point when you’re just passing the backs of buildings. Woohoo! I finally conquered all 11 Disney parks in the world. Mission accomplished! (For now...) Oh no! A parade! Owing a little to the relative lack of attractions at HKDL someone had the bright idea of checking out the Golden Mickeys show.... It was not good. Not good at all. Who’s idea was it to go see this pish?!?! Damn you, Jessie. You’re the worst. It was simultaneously super exciting and super frustrating passing this! How awesome does this look? So excited to come back and ride Mystic manor in the future! The big treehouse in HKDL doesn’t belong to the Swiss Family Robinson as it does in Florida but rather Tarzan. Regardless of who lives there, getting the raft over the water to access it was pretty cool! OMG, Rosie O’Donnell is stealing that baby! Someone help! Larry took this opportunity to flash back to his skiffle days. We were not impressed. Did I mention that the version of Space Mountain we rode was Ghost Galaxy??? It was really cool, especially later in the day when your eyes were adjusted to the darkness and you could really appreciate all the effects in the ride. And then we finished our day at Hong Kong Disneyland as we started it, with Big Grizzly Mountain. This thing rocks. Especially at night! Thank YOU for having us, HKDL! After the park we all headed to Chef Mickey’s for awesome mouse shaped cuisine and then met the man himself! Good job, Mickey! The next morning a few of us headed out on the awesomely themed Disney trains and went to do a little more HK sightseeing. Woo, another cable car with awesome views! CULTURE. Here’s today’s super fun group of giant Buddha enthusiasts. what I’m really enthusiastic about though is Wasabi Shaka Shaka Fries! OMG, these were AMAZING! And with that it’s off to HK airport to bring this all to a close... Not before I finally receive my damned Golden Mickey though! And that’s it! I’d like to thank Robb & Elissa for organising yet another INCREDIBLE TPR tour. Seriously nothing comes close to the awesomeness of these tours. Even in the sketchiest of sketchy places in China you always have the most fun on these tours and I hope to keep doing them for years to come. I don’t think there’s much chance I’d ever have visited the likes of China, Japan or even the Midwest of the USA if it weren’t for TPR tours and so for that I’m eternally grateful to Robb & Elissa and all the awesome participants who make them so much fun. Thanks for reading! Hope you guys enjoyed... Until next time!

After our visit to Ocean Park it was time to do some sightseeing around Hong Kong... For some reason everyone trusted Larry with their money for our next activity. We’re dumb. We’re off to see Hong Kong from water level! Larry gives the secret signal that indicates he just made a decent profit on this boat trip. I’m special (so special) so I got to sit at the front of the boat. In Hong Kong you’ll find many a restaurant just floating out in the middle of the river. You’ll also see what appear to be peoples homes. Land apparently at a bit of a premium in HK so using water instead must somehow make sense! If you don’t want to live in a house on the water you can always go for a tower block like this! We might be out of Mainland China but there’s still factory tours to go on! Check out the excitement on everyone’s faces! Here you see some dude making pearls or something. I lost interest in here pretty quick. The next stop however, was pretty interesting... Victoria Peak! The view from here just prior to sunset was immense. Such a great spot to visit in Hong Kong. Getting up and down from Victoria Peak also means that you can get another funicular railway credit! This trip must be the TPR Tour record holder for most funicular railways. (I'm sure Larry ahs acoutn of thsi somewhere) Here’s our first Chinese meal in Hong Kong. It was excellent. Who knew it would take visiting Hong Kong to get some decent Chinese food. The Hong Kong pudding was a little questionable though. Still, at least I was more amenable to giving things a try here! Hong Kong is pretty well known for its evening lights show on the buildings. It looks cool to see them all lit up but the show itself is nothing special. Another awesomely cool thing about TPR trips – meeting friends that you went to school with on the other side of the planet! These are my good friends from school Lisa and Jonathan who now work out in HK and live pretty close to Disney. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get a few drinks with them and expose them to some of the TPR madness! And that’s our day sightseeing in Hong Kong done! One more update to go and it’s a good one... Yup, next up is the final update.... Hong Kong Disneyland!!!

I think this is worth than Colby taking Tina. At least that was close vote (Tina won 4-3). He would have beat Kass 9-0 and instead chose the route that lead to an 8-1 wipeout. For me it's the worst move anyone's ever made in the show's history.

^ I was worried about the same thing. I wonder whether Spencer's plea to the jury was instrumental in salvaging some votes for Tony that were going towards Woo.

^ That was an amazing comeback. Great win for Tony, he played a flawed but incredibly impressive game. Woo's boneheaded decision was a great cap in what has been a fantastic season. This is a top five all time season of Survivor for me. There's loads of people in this cast I'd love to see again!