Finally, it was November and the FINAL full day of this trip. We actually still have a full week to go, but the nature of the trip will change quite dramatically for the next 6-7 days. Let’s focus on the City in hand before we Jet off early tomorrow for a completely different kind of pace.

Today was full-on Sightseeing as we try and squeeze as much juice out of our 2-Day Go City Chicago Pass as possible. We started the day off with our complimentary breakfast once again in the Ventuex restaurant downstairs. Today we chose some AMAZING French Toast and the irresistible Confit Duck and Waffles. The French toast was huge and came as two large thick fluffy slices of Brioche Loaf served with lashings of jam, roasted pumpkin seeds, and peanut butter. The Duck was super crispy and fell off the bone like all good Confit and came with a huge Waffle drenched in Syrup. An amazing way to kick off the day.

Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour – $54

The first attraction was the Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour. Part Tour, Part transport we love these fun little rides around the City, and while we usually wince at the prices charged, with the pass they always feel great. You get to see the City from a nice vantage point, get an interesting narration, and get transport to and from certain locations and attractions in the City.

The Tours do one large loop and you can hop off at various attractions and then back on to ride along to the next. They are not always the best form of transport and you can end up waiting a while for a bus, but they are pretty regular and as they are literally taking you to the exact locations you want to visit you get a really good tour of the City when used with the Go City Pass.

We planned on using this yesterday as they are great for orientating yourself in the City, but as it snowed we figured we would pass. This was a good choice as despite being pretty frigid today, barely above freezing, it was bright, clear, and gloriously sunny.

The Tour starts off just next to our Hotel by the DuSable Bridge, East Wacker and Michigan. We arrived promptly at 9 but the bus did not immediately show up. We assumed this was due to the off-season and sure enough one arrived eventually. The route starts off following East Wacker Drive along the River before the first stop at The Willis Tower. Here we Hopped off for our Next Attraction.

Skydeck Chicago – $50

The Willis Tower, formally the Sears Tower named after the now-defunct Retail Empire, is essentially the second tallest building in the country, and the tallest observation deck in the Western Hemisphere. It’s a stunning building that towers over the Chicago Skyline in a really imposing manner especially due to the rest of the skyline’s quite low-rise nature.

The Big Bus Tour dropped us right outside and we headed in, sing the Pass to get us straight to the top. The Highest Observation Deck in America offers a seriously stunning view of the City. Lake Michigan was glorious as the Blue waters shimmered under the clear blue skies.

The sun was blazing offering a pretty harsh light, making photography pretty challenging, especially through the reflective windows, the reason we much prefer outdoor decks. But the view from this height was still stunning as you look down on the myriad of towering buildings, still with a smattering of yesterday’s snow. The Views up and down the coast of Lake Michigan are truly inspiring. We love the New York Skyline from Above, but the Chicago Skyline has much more contrast and is overall a more aesthetically pleasing picture.

It seems it’s not enough to simply have a fantastic observation Deck these days, you need a gimmick as well and some of these are pretty poor. The Tilt at the 360 Chicago we visited yesterday is one such poor gimmick. At the Skydeck, this gimmick is the Ledge, and this is MUCH more worthwhile.

While the Tilt is a paid extra, access to the ledge is free, and they have a GREAT system for accessing the Ledge. You simply Queue, and then the agent assigns you a “Ledge”, and you can do as you please for a set amount of time in your own little space. We got exactly 5 minutes of time in the box, with the Agent only coming along to offer to take any photos for us. It’s great to have your own little alone time to make content without any pressure and without anyone watching over you! Once your time is up, if you want more time, you can simply join the back of the queue and have another slot. While we were there the queue was only 3/4 groups deep, so we could have as much time in the Ledge as we pleased. Even on Busy days, it would be well worth the queue for your 5 mins of time “On The Ledge”

What the Ledge is, is basically a Glass box bolted onto the side of the Building. And that’s about it. The glass floor gives way to 1,353 feet of air to the pavement below. This gives you endless possibilities for envy-inducing selfies and photo possibilities. We loved our time in the Box just trying out shots and making “clever” content.

We spent around and hour at the top before heading back down, grabbing a coffee, and hopping back onto the Big Bus to carry on with the tour.

The Next leg was a little tedious. The route here zigzags through downtown Chicago and was a little slow due to traffic. The Guide pointed out several interesting landmarks before the bus finally exited the City Center out onto the Freeway and off towards the Museum Campus. This is why we had wanted to use the tour yesterday as we would have hopped off here but the thought of an open-top bus in the snow was not a pleasant one. Even today, with the sun blazing, it was freezing cold up top, but still really exhilarating.

We didn’t hop off at the Museum Camps other than to grab a few shots of the Shoreline Vista and instead carried on to the Next Stop Navy Pier.

Shoreline Architecture River Cruise – $54.49

At Navy Pier, there are usually many options for shoreline cruises and River Cruises, but due to the adverse weather and late season, most trips were not operating. Infact we were pretty limited to options. In the end, we went with Shoreline Cruises and their Architecture River Crusie. This was only 1.5 hours and runs right u the Chicago River taking in some of the best sights in the City.

The Cruise was not for another 45 minutes so we spent some time just exploring the pier and getting some wonderful views of the City. Returning about 10 minutes before the cruise to ensure a good position on the boat.

The Cruise was really wonderful. We sat right up front near the narrator who regaled us with tales and information about the various buildings that line the waterways. There was some history, some architecture and design talk, and some pop culture such as filming locations. It was a great talk and along with some of the most stunning vistas in the City, we have to recommend this as one of the MUST do’s in the city.

There was a full bar on board, although we resisted, and just relaxed as the boat sailed along. The only downside was the really cold temperatures. This would be much more pleasant a little earlier in the year or around spring. However, it was not as cold as it could have been with the daytime temps now up towards 45°f (8°c).

The Boat finally returned to the pier, offering the final stunning views of the Lakeside Skyline. We hopped off and headed over to the pier’s attraction areas.

Navy Pier Ferris Wheel – $51 ($22)

The Pass includes a ride on the Ferris Wheel and three other rides, valued at a whopping $51. However, due to time constraints and some rides being closed due to the season, we opted to just take a ride on the wheel. So rather than $51 this was worth just $22 each.

The Wheel is the latest Navy Pier Ferris wheel and is built in the location of the only real Ferris Wheel ever built. The Ferris wheel was created here by George Ferris Jr for the 1893 World’s Fair. The Centennial Wheel is a touch smaller than the original but still towers nearly 200ft over Lake Michigan and give stunning views of the City.

You get several laps around the loop in the enclosed cars with incredible views. The light was stunning with the low winter sun colored by a little high altitude cloud, with the lake glowing under the towering skyscrapers.

A really wonderful experience.

From here we got back onto the Bus to head back towards the City Center. We hopped off at the Water Tower in the center of the Magnificent Mile as we wanted to do a touch of shopping and check out the Holy Name Cathedral, featured in the Miricle on 34th Street Movie.

We arrived at a pretty awkward time as the congregation was just arriving for mass so we just popped in and grabbed a couple of photos. A Beautiful church.

Mobsters and Haunted Mysteries of Chicago Walking Tour – $34 – Cancelled

For the Evening we had booked onto the Mobsters and Haunted Mysteries of Chicago Walking Tour which we were really looking forward to, however, we received an E-Mail saying the tour would not be going ahead due to low participant numbers. They offered us the chance to reschedule, but we were leaving tomorrow so this was not an option. Pretty annoying.

And on this low note, we kind of called time on the trip. We grabbed some quick fast food and headed back to the hotel to grab some final drinks with our resort credit at the hotel and then headed back to the room to organize and prepare for the departure tomorrow which would be bright and early.

Go City Chicago All-Inclusive 2-Day Pass – Running Total

• Attractions Today – 4
• Total Attractions – 7
• Attractions Cost – $177
• Running Total – Day 2 of 2: $293.49
• Cost Of Pass – $170

• Savings – $123.49

Honestly, we are pretty disappointed with our savings. Nearly 50% is really nothing to be sniffed at and we should be pretty impressed with this, we certainly saved money and saw a lot more of the City than we would have without the Pass. However, we just know we could have saved more. Some of this was the weather, some due to the fact attractions were slowing down for the season, and some due to time constraints and us doing other things.

We were annoyed the Mobster Walking Tor canceled on us as we could have planned something else, plus, we really wanted to do the tour, and we did not get full value out of the Navy Pier, there were also some fun speed boat tours we wanted to do but were not operating due to the weather and late time of year.

Overall we would have got much better value out of the pass if we had used it during the warmer months, but even so, we got a lot out of it. With Day 1, packing in some amazing Museums and Day 2 being a real sightseeing day. Also, another day would have only cost an extra $30 and we would have saved even more if we had another day in the City to do more.

Still, we had an amazing time with the Pass we saw so much of the City in our 2-day blitz of the sights. The snow was always going to cause issues and we were actually pretty lucky to get a beak on Day 1 to head up the 360 Chicago.

Like always when we use these Passes we feel we got an amazing overall experience. It truly opened up the City and we got to see more and pay less, which is how we normally feel when using a Go City Pass.

Our in-depth review can be found here, along with our Promo Codes so you can save even more!

Walking Total – 15,188 Steps – 7.8 Miles

Because we used the Big Bus Hop On Hop Off bus we saved quite a lot in steps today. The tour took us to all the major spots in the City and kept walking to a minimum.

Next UP! – Wilmington North Carolina!

Tomorrow we hop on a plane and head South. Chasing the sun and the last of the warm weather. We get out of the snow and onto the beach.

Live Blog – Trip Report

<<< Day 14 – Chicago – Sightseeing in the Snow – Halloween Parade

Week 3 – Wilmington North Carolina >>>

While we always knew this trip was going to be a big one, it was turning out to be even more epic than we anticipated. Up in the north of the country, things are very far apart, and what looks like a good idea on Paper, can be pretty challenging in practice. With that said there is always one day that will stand out as particularly challenging, where the moving parts never really look like they fit together too well, a day of days, or a Queen stage in Cycling Parlance. Today was that day. This trip had already taken it out of us and today was really going to push the limits of our already tired and fatigued body and mind.

To start off we were going to cram as much Niagra-based fun as we could into as short a time frame as possible. Then we had a date with US Customs and Immigration, followed by an itsy Bitsy 5+ Hour drive, over 280 miles to Cedar Point in Ohio, where we had an Epic Night of Halloween scares awaiting us. We would start out at 8 am and still be going at nearly midnight, 300 miles away, in a different country and 3 different States away.

This is what we LIVE for!

Poor Weather and Pancakes

“What a Difference a Day Makes”

For the last few days, we had had a huge weight hanging over our heads. The forecast for Niagara had been pretty dower. A large band of rain had been threatening to basically wash out our time at the Falls. The Falls had been a big part of this trip and without them, we would probably have cut out a load of driving and just flown to our next stop in Chicago, but getting to the falls was a big part of the trip, so it would have been pretty upsetting if we had only got to see them through rain storms and dull cloudy skies. Luckily the forecast changed at the last minute with the rain delayed, and not showing up until the early hour of the morning.

As the daylight began to build the scene out of our window could not have been more different than yesterday. It was still pretty spectacular, but the stunning blue skies and fall colors were all replaced by a pretty dull and gray palette.

TO cheer us up, we decided to head for Pancakes. We like Ihop, we know it’s a huge chain-branded restaurant, but we don’t get it outside of the States and it’s just a fun cheap(ish) meal. So we like to grab one when it’s convenient, however, this location was pretty different. Not only was it in our Hotel…it was situated at the TOP of the hotel…with Views like this:

With Views like this and Great pancakes, what more could you want for breakfast? After a couple of Pancake Combos (Pancakes with a side of Breakfast) and a good few pours of coffee, we were ready to get the day going.

The weather was still pretty grey and overcast and the wet weather had brought a winter chill in, and the morning was a cooler 50°f (10°c).

Not the Maid of the Mist – Niagara Cruise

The first attraction we wanted to hit was the famous Maid of the Mist Cruise. However, there is one big problem with this, the Maid of the Mist sails from the other side of the river! and while we could have hiked across, it seemed pretty pointless when Hornblower ran a nearly identical cruise from the Canadian side.

We booked our tickets online (CA$33.5) directly from Hornblower/City Experiences and headed over to the first boat of the day. We were a little late to board and didn’t get a very good spot on the vessel with the crowds gathering at the bow, however, we have a top tip here: Don’t worry about it. You will be able to stand wherever you want…

The cruise got underway shortly after boarding. This is a very short cruise simply taking you up the river, to the base of the falls. You are only on the water for 10-15 mins, but these are all highlight minutes. The views are stunning and getting this close to the falls is seriously invigorating. The power of the water is stunning and can be felt in your chest as it pounds over the falls.

The boat heads right to the base of the falls, where the “mist” drenched the boat and its occupants. Almost the whole ride there is a steady drizzle but as you reach the base of the falls, into the horseshoe, the blast hits you. The direct spray from the falls really comes out of nowhere and hits the deck like a cold wet explosion. You go from peaceful and serene to stunning soggy startledness in a moment. And at this point, around half of the tourists packed onto the bow of the boat, run.

They did not count on a sudden blast of ice-cold spray being blasted in their faces and despite their complementary ponchos, the conditions were just too much. This leaves plenty of room up front if you are willing to brave the worst of the conditions.

After experiencing the power and majesty of the fall right up close the vessel does a U-turn and lets the current take it back down to the dock. It’s a really short trip but absolutely essential, but yeah you do get pretty wet, despite the poncho.

As we headed back up the cliff face to the promenade, we noticed something quite amazing, the Gray Cloudy weather seemed to be largely dissipating, leaving nothing but blue skies and sunshine. it was still really cool, but absolutely beautiful.

Journey Behind The Falls

The next attraction we planned was the Jurney Behind the Falls. This was at the far end of the Promenade so we made our way back slowly now taking in the glorious weather and stunning views. Due to the wind direction, the Spay was largely heading over the other side of the falls and no longer creating a perpetual downpour on the promenade.

We had also pre-booked tickets for the Journey and walked straight into the elevators down to the Tunnels. If you don’t know the Journey behind the falls takes you down to some subterranean tunnels that give you access to the base of the falls. There is a large viewing deck giving great vires of the falls and the valley bottom, and there are two viewing windows offering an incredible view of the “BACK SIDE OF WATER!” Disney Jokes apart these portals were a bit rubbish. You really could not see much, the brightness outside meant the contrast was so bright you could not see anything really and the overall effect didn’t feel in keeping with the real power of the falls.

The Outdoor deck was worth it alone and we were pretty happy we had paid to come down here.

Not Rainbow Bridge – Back In The USA (Peace Bridge)

Finally, at around lunchtime we had done all we planned and had a long drive ahead of us so decided to hit the road. Trusting Google Maps to navigate us safely we hopped into the car and headed back across the Rainbow Bridge, however for whatever reason Google calculated, the Rainbow Bridge would not be the quickest and instead kept us in Canada a little longer.

We left Niagara via the West and hopped onto the Queen Elizabeth Way for 20 or so miles of pleasant driving before hitting Peace Bridge just outside Buffalo where we would attempt the Border crossing. We already had our ESTA in place, filled in the Electronic I-94 form, and paid the request fee ($12).

The border crossing was pretty slow, however we had anticipated it would take a while. The annoying thing was the queues were not very long, it’s just there was a lengthy delay for each car. This naturally didn’t bode too well for us. However once at the booth, which took us around 45mins, the agent asked us very little. He checked the passports, which obviously showed Valid Esta and I-94 on his system and he just checked where we had been and what we were doing before waving us through. He actually looked a little confused at the extent of our trip and wanted us gone before we explained any more confusing elements of our travel plans.

Overall a process we were dreading went through like a breeze. Getting into Canada could not have been easier and we had no real issues at all getting back into the States. So We highly recommend heading to the Canadian Side to see the best of the falls!

Lakeshore Drive – 270+ Miles

After passing through Buffalo, we found ourselves on the shoreline of Lake Erie. We had two choices here, follow the I-90 all the way to Cleveland and the Sandusky, or follow the smaller and slower route 20/5 which follows the coast more closely. There were two main differences between these two routes. One, the I-90 was a lot faster, over 45 minutes quicker (at least) but it would be pretty dull and had Tolls. Route 5 was slower, but it was free and would show us a little more of the scenery and pass through a few nice towns and villages.

In the end, we thought we would try and get a Toll-Free day. We were hit with Tolls yesterday and would not be able to avoid them on the last leg to Chicago, so we Hugged the coastline on Route 5 and took the longer prettier route.

This worked really well as not only was it much more picturesque, but we also passed through the Seneca Nation Tribe lands and were able to make use of their Tax Exemption to get the Cheapest gas on the entire trip!

We also saw quite a lot of Wildlife on this leg of the trip. To be honest there had not been much in the way of wildlife this trip. It was quite a disappointment. But along this section of road, we saw quite a lot in the way of Wild Deer. Overall it was a very pretty drive, even if they could cover what had returned and progress felt very slow, especially when we joined the back of a very long line of cars stuck behind someone who had no intention of going over 40mph, a bit of an issue with still 150+miles to go!

At the Pennsylvanian border, the I-90 reverts back to Toll-Free, so at this point, we headed back to the Interstate and began making much better progress. It was less scenic but we were moving much faster. We passed through Cleveland and then on to the smaller city of Sandusky.

Cedar Point Express

This stop was about halfway to the final destination of Chicago, but we were not stopping randomly. Sandusky is the home of Cedar Point, possibly the best Theme Park in the country in terms of Thrill Rides. It was currently hosting the last of its Halloweekends and we were here to have some terrifying spooky fun!

We had booked to Stay in the Cedar Point Express Hotel, one of Cedar Point’s own properties which comes with a few perks over staying in a local Motel. It was not overly expensive anyway, only around $150 a night, and came with FREE parking and early entry into the park. We did not need Early entry today as the park opened hours ago, but we were hitting the park tomorrow so that would come in handy then.

As we were arriving at the Hotel, it dawned on us, that maybe we were not that into Early Entry Tomorrow. The trip had been pretty exhausting. Today had been a huge day to top it off, and not even close to over, and the thought of getting up early for a savage day in Cedar Point was not overly exciting us. At this point we decided to check tomorrow’s opening hours and were both DELIGHTED to read it was 11 am, meaning we could have a Lie-in AND hit the park early. Phew.

But before that, we had to check into the Cear Point Express. The Hotel is not on the Actual Point but is a mere 5-minute drive away and offers free parking at both the park and the Hotel. So it is still really convenient. The Breakers Hotel and CAbins all look amazing, and are within walking distance of the park, but are probably better suited to the summer months as it was pretty bleak out on Lake Erie this late in October.

Our room at the Cedar Point Express was pretty much as expected. This is your typical Roadside Chain Motel-type place. Comfy beds, neutral tones workman-like fixtures and furnishing, and just about everything you need, but very little else. There were splashes of Cedar Point throughout with imagery of the park and the rides and we have to be honest it was a lot LARGER than we expected. But overall it was pretty standard, just enough, and a nice spot to spend the next few days.

After settling in a while we headed to the park. However, we were a little low on options for dinner. Honestly, the food at Cedar Point is not great and the dining options at this end of town were pretty sparse we were going to be so busy with the Haunted Houses and Scare Zones, that we didn’t want to waste time getting overriced garbage Themepark food…With a McDonald’s across the road, we caved and went for the cheapest easiest fastest option.

Halloweekends – Cedar Point

The Whole area around the Hotel, which was pretty much the main route to the park was really quiet, with the thick grey skies, howling winds and near-deserted feel the whole area had a post-apocalyptic feel to it. However as we drove the short drive over the Causeway, we definitely found the people.

Even before getting near the entrance to the parking lot the traffic queues formed. And they were long and slow moving. 45 minutes later we were in visual range of the gates and it was a sea of cars. In the end, the agents simply opened the parking lots up and allowed people to flood in with no charge. We got directed to the overspill carpark and got a spot right at the back, quiet where all the cars behind us were planning on going we had no idea.

This meant a long hike in the cold windy night to the park entrance. We were hoping to get in a little early to get the lay of the land and maybe a couple of rides, but there was no chance.

As you would expect the park was absolutely rammed. This was the last FULL night of the Halloweekend this year and it seemed the whole of the Midwest had showed up. We do not do well with queues and every attraction seemed to have a +1hr queue attached.

We started our night at the very back of the park under the shadow of Steel Vengenge with the Blood Bath (Haunted Maze). We then headed through Cut Throat Cove (Scare Zone) to the Freak Show (Haunted Maze). These three gave us a good introduction to what to expect from the Event and overall it wasn’t that great.

The Haunted Mazes, of which there are 5, were well-themed but quite short and there was a real lack of Monsters inside. We got very few scares and there was no opportunity to let the Maze Reset. A near-constant flow of people meant the Monsters never really came out of nowhere which is where the real scares are to be found.

The Scare Zones we also a letdown. These were again well-themed and while there were a ton of monsters and they did a great of freaking you out, they were always in very specific and defined areas and there were so many people around it was just a walking procession with some creepy guys in costumes.

So our initial impressions were not great. Things didn’t improve when after just over an hour and a half we went to our 4th planned attraction, Corn Stalkers (Scare Zone), and found the queue Closed due to Capacity. It never re-opened and we didn’t get to visit what was reviewed as the best Attraction at this weekend.

Tombstone Territory (Scare Zone) was not really a Scare Zone, it was just a themed area with a few Monsters, Likewise, the Clownz Death Metal Tour (Scare Zone), although there was a cool band there. The Blood Of The Bayou (Scare Zone) was pretty terrible. It was essentially a huge queue that never really went anywhere. We spent nearly an hour getting in and out of it, found about 5 monsters in some creepy-themed areas, and then had to queue to leave!

The Queue for Midnight (Haunted Maze) was showing for well over an hour and we just couldn’t face it. We took the time to visit Slaughter House (Haunted Maze) which was fantastically themed but still lacking monsters and Jump Scares. The last Maze we tried was The Haunting: Eerie Estate (Haunted Maze) which again was lacking in the scare department.

Overall we found the layout, execution, and overall imagining of the event to be hugely lacking. Last Halloween we visited the West Coast and the likes of Knotts Scary Farm blew the Cedar Point Halloweekend right out of the water. It didn’t help this was the last night and it was crazy busy, but we don’t think it would have been much better on a much quieter evening. It just lacked the impact and spectacle of the West Coast Events.

You might have noticed we didn’t actually do any rides. This is not because we didn’t want to, but the focus was on The Halloweekend Event…Tomorrow would be all about Rides. So we headed back to the car, which was parked almost a mile from the gate, and then headed back to the comfort of the Hotel.

The Weather was pretty wild and even more cold and bad weather was forecast for tomorrow and it was even possible we would have a washout. Fingers crossed for some good weather, as we felt we had come a long way for Cedar Point, but the outlook was pretty grim.

Walking Total – 24,615 Steps – 12.7 Miles

We had spent over 6 hours of today sitting down in a car, but we clocked up one of our biggest days on our feet. nearly a half marathon! This was partly due to the large amount of walking we had done at Niagara (hard to believe that was even the same day!) and partly the huge stomp we had put out around Cedar Point. The fact it was 1km+ from the car to the gate did not help, but it seemed everything we did today required quite a bit of walking.

Live Blog – Trip Report

<<< Day 10 – Rhinebeck – Catskill Mountains – Niagara Falls

Day 12 – Cedar Point – Rollercoasters and Rain! >>>

Today is the day we finally start racking up the Road Miles of this trip. For a road trip it’s been fairly road-free up until now, with us only picking up the hire car yesterday, and only taking a short drive to Salem…today we will crank out over 230Miles as we follow the Mohawk Trail to Upstate New York as we indulge in a little Celebrity Stalking.

Breakfast at the Salem Inn

For the first time on this trip, Breakfast was included at our Hotel. It was also a really nice breakfast served in their small downstairs restaurant. It was a typical Buffet-style affair, with Toasted fruit Cinnamon Bread, pastries, and Cerrial and Fruit, along with some Hot items cooked fresly for you to order.

Following this we packed up our things and decided to hit the road early. We considered spending some more time in Salem, but we hit it pretty hard yesterday and most shops stay open late and have pretty late opening times, so we decided to get moving and spend more time in our destination for today.

Leaving Salem

The next main stop on our trip was to be Niagara Falls and we could have headed straight there in one hard push. But instead, we wanted to take it easier and break the trip up with a Stop. This meant seeing a lot more of Rural New England and spending a lot more time on the road. We were certainly not taking a direct route and in fact, backtracking quite a bit, adding a good 2-3 hours onto the overall journey.

We had chosen to overnight in the Upstate Town of Rhinebeck. Not really the most intermediate town and actually quite a bit out of our way. But there are certain Hollywood connections we wanted to check out and Kate has been wanting to visit this quaint little town for a while. So despite the added journey time, we added this in as a stop.

Even with this additional Milage, we were not even planning on taking the fastest route on each leg either, instead taking a more scenic route that would avoid much Freeway driving and instead take us up into the mountains, through forests, and the small towns of upstate New York and Massachusetts.

Route 2 – Mohawk Trail

Heading out of Boston we soon picked up State Highway 2 – Also known as George W Stanton Hihway, before turning into the Mohawk Trail as the route follows an old  Indian trail once it rises up into the Hoosac and Taconic Mountain Ranges

The first section of the trail was fairly dull, There were splashes of the Fall Foliage we had come to see and several quaint little towns but little to make us stop other than the odd snarl up at a couple of construction sites. The first time the scenery really ratcheted up was at Turner Falls. Here we found a nice pull-out at a boat ramp and took in the stunning lakeside setting.

From here the scenery just got better and better. At Shelbourne Falls the Road picks up the Deerfield River and follows this right up into the mountains, later following the Cold River tributary. The fall colors and stunning scenery made this a really special drive passing through quaint little towns and villages some only a few houses large.

The weather was perfect for road-tripping. The Skies were clear and Blue with just a touch of cloud and the temperatures were unseasonably warm, ranging from 60°f (16°c) in the morning up to around 70°f (21°c) in the mountains. (21°c)

We were a little late in the year for Leaf Peeping, many trees had already shed their autumn foliage, but there was still bags of color in the Canpopies and this late autumnal scene really shone with deep hues of red and burnt orange, with the occasions steal grey from the trees that had fully dropped their leaves.

Wigwam Western Summit – Florida

As we approached the summit of the Hoosac range we felt a little lost as we appeared to be in Florida! No sign of Dinsyworld though just huge sweeping vistas from the Blue Vista Motor Lodge.

On the other side of the mountain, we pulled in at Wigwam Western Sumit. This is a cute little cafe and Shop situated right at the western edge of the range with stunning views out over North Adams and Williamstown. Dubbed America’s Switzerland by we think the owners of the Cafe and no one else, it was a really beautiful spot.

We pulled in a grabbed a Coffee and a Massive Blueberry Scone handbaked on the premises. The coffee was excellent with pure Maple Syrup added for sweetness and taste. It was a wonderful little stp and helped revitalise us ready for the next push on to Rhinebeck. We love stumbling on little gems like this and it’s all part of the Roadtrip experience.

We then descended down the mountains and into the really pretty town of North Adams and then Wilimastown. The streets are lined with splendid Churches and turn-of-the-century European-style architecture.

It was here we left the Mowhawk trail and started picking up larger roads and eventually headed out of Massachusetts and back into New York State before joining the Taconic State Parkway and fast-tracking to the next stop.

The scenery on this leg of the journey was less stunning than in the mountains but the easy driving and fall colors made this a very relaxed and enjoyable drive as we caught up on a few Podcasts.

Rhinebeck

Around 3 pm we arrived at our final stop for the day. The small Upstate town of Rhinebeck. Why had we chosen this particular stop, out of all the hundreds of other little towns along the route and one that was really pretty far out of our way? Well, the town has a few Hollywood connections and we just wanted to check it out.

This innocuous little town has become the home of some Big celebrities, most notably Paul Rudd, Geofrery Dean Morgan, and Hillary Burton. We Both love Paul Rudd, I am a huge Walking Dead Fan and was hoping to meet Lucille, and of course, Kate is a huge fan of One Tree Hill, and Staring Hillary Burton. More on this later in the trip!

Beekman Arms

The first stop was to check in to the Hotel for the evening and we had chosen the Historic Beekman Arms. This is the oldest continuously running Hotel in the Country. It has had some very famous Guests including George Washington, Fraklin D Rosevelt, Bill Clinton, and a host of Celebrities including Oprah, Bill Murray, and even BORAT! There is a host of ghosts that inhabit the building, although they did not show themselves to us, and overall it is just a fascinating old establishment and we couldn’t miss the opportunity to stay there.

Our room was spacious and well-appointed. we booked the Townsend House King and it was on the ground level at the back of the Hotel. The furniture was less vintage and more antique but the room was spotless and the linin perfectly modern and super comfortable. There was a separate Storage room, and super cute writing desk, a fireplace, an ancient TV (while we love the antique furniture and decor, we would prefer the tech to be modern), tea and coffee facilities, and most importantly, complimentary New York Cream Sherry!

The room was not cheap but was such a special establishment we could not resist. They did throw in a free breakfast and despite the high cost of $300 a night, we were very happy with our historic room at the Beekman Arms.

Stalking and Dinner

After settling into the hotel for a while we headed out to explore Rhinebeck.

We had been planning this part of the trip for a while and had both developed images of the town in our minds. Cool crisp Autumn air and bundled up as we explored the quaint little main street. What neither of us expected was 85°f (30°C) temperatures and a return of Summer. We had packed some warm-weather clothes as we were heading south later in the trip but we did not expect to be unpacking the shorts just yet. It was very odd, and would definitely not last. But we headed out to enjoy the last drops of a very late Indian Summer.

The first stop was Samuels Sweets shop. This is an old-timy sweet shop that’s been in the center of Rhinebeck for decades but recently looked set to close due to the retirement of the longstanding owner. Nobody else seemed willing to take on the challenge until a group of three Celebrities with strong social media followings took up the reigns to save the shop. Yep as we already mentioned this is Paul Rudd, Geofretyy Dean Morgan, and Hillary Burton’s Sweet Shop Now. This is one of the reasons we wanted to visit after seeing all their delicious produce online.

We bought a few sweet treats and a coffee and had a nice afternoon treat in the glorious autumn sunshine. We then explored the town a little. Kate is going to a Hilary Burton book signing later on in the trip so stopped by the local book shop to pick up a (pre-signed) copy and we hit the liquor store for some evening tipples, sidcovering the Joy of Peanut Butter Whiskey for the first time!

To Be honest this was about the extent of our Celebrity Stalking as we did not want to intrude on their actual homes or anything like that. We just hoped we might bump into them on the off chance but this was not to be. so instead we hunted out some dinner.

There is a good restaurant attached to the Hotel, but we were not feeling this, the menu was a little old-school for us and we wanted something a little cheaper. In the end, we decided on Fosters Coach House, an old-school saloon-type place, serving simple American food and some good beers.

We were seated outdoors, something we didn’t expect in late November in upstate New York, and basked in the evening warmth, it was very odd but very enjoyable. After a few drinks and some Excellent sandwiches (Classic Reuben and Chicken Parmesan), we retired to the comforts of the inn and relaxed for the evening enjoying the in-room Sherry, Peanut butter Whiskey and the archaic TV.

Tomorrow will be a BIG day. We have a huge drive to another country, some epic scenery en route, before exploring one of the most spectacular waterfalls in the world. So it pays to have a pretty relaxed afternoon and evening this side of that trip.

Walking Total – 6,015 Steps – 3.2 Miles

Most of the day was spent in the car so a really light day on the feet!

Live Blog – Trip Report

<<< Day 8 – Halloween in Salam – What to do in Salem at Halloween?

Day 10 – Catskills to Niagara >>>

Just a quick re-cap, We are embarking on a road trip up the East Coast of the United States and today is the 8th day of this trip after hitting New York and then Boston it’s time to move on.

Day 8 was the one we had both been looking forward to. We don’t really need a REASON to do these trips, but we tend to have a theme and a main purpose, a goal if you like. And everything else is planned around that purpose. For this trip, it was spending Halloween on the East Coast.

Last year we did Halloween on the West Coast, and it was EPIC! However, whenever you think of Halloween, images of New England come more to mind. White Picket fences, decorated with pumpkins, while black cats and witches prowl in the shadows it’s the stuff of childhood dreams and Hollywood incarnations.

Of course, when thinking of New England Halloween locations, and those perfect iconic scenes, there is one place that will ALWAYS jump out more than any other. Salem.

Home of the Witch Trials, setting of umpteen Hollywood Films and TV Shows with Halloween themes, and the picture-perfect New England Halloween town. We both had this as the highlight of the trip and were so excited to actually get to Salem. It’s really not too far from Boston and there are several attractions in the Town that are covered by the Go City Pass, so we just needed to get over there and start exploring. But first, we needed to get to the Airport!

It would be madness to fly to Salem, a little over 20 miles away, but we got the best price on the hire car renting from Logan Airport, so we hopped into an Uber to head over to the rental center to pick up our car.

Hire Car Pick up

This is a Road Trip…however apart from a few Uber rides, we have not actually done much road-tripping! We flew into NYC and used public transport, and then got the train to Boston, where again we utilized the public transport system. But today, finally, we get a car.

While our automotive part of this trip is delayed…we will be making up for it in the next few days as we embark on an epic journey over 1000 miles through mountains, forests, great lakes, and even into Canada as we head upstate New York and deep into the Midwest. Make sure you are subscribed to the Channel so you can follow along.

We had just rented a basic medium SUV, with plenty of room but nothing special, and got a good price with AVIS for 7 days as we headed one-way right across the country. The Mitsubishi Outlander was a little basic, and a touch beat-up, but gave good mileage and was perfect for our cross-country slog.

Salem

The drive to Salem was nice and easy, a single highway just passing through the Massachusetts suburbs on a glorious Fall morning. We arrived in Salem with a really strong feeling of Halloween. New York had been dressed pretty well for Halloween, but Boston had been really uninterested, however, Salem was full-on embracing it. We had been warned often in Boston that Salem would be CRazy on the last few days before Halloween, but on arrival, things were pretty quiet. We arrived shortly after 9 am so had a full day to explore. We got right on to hunting out some filming locations from our favorite Halloween Film…

Hocus Pocus

While many scenes of the film were shot in the main part of town, most of the iconic locations are just out of town so we headed there first before returning to the centre to check in to the Hotel. We had brought along our Own Binx in the way of a Loungefly backpack and were really excited about getting out and seeing some of the Movie Sites!

Salem Pioneer Village

The first point of call was Salems Pioneer Village. This is the first location of the Movie, but we did not plan it that way. The Pioneer Village is a replica of the kind of dwellings the first Pilgrims to the country set up as their homes as they established colonies in the new world. It was also the kind of village where the hysteria of the witch trials first began.

The Village was also used as the opening location in Hocus Pocus where the Sanderson sisters first run Amok and get banished to their cabin in the woods. Thackery Bink’s home is located here along with most of the scenes shot in the village. Unfortunate the Witches Cabin was shot on a Sound Stage in LA.

Despite being so close to Halloween the Village operates a weekend-only opening policy and was closed today, which was very annoying. But we headed along to see what we could see over the fences. We got an ok view and could grab some shots.

4 Ocean Avenue (Max and Dani’s House)

The next stop was Max and Dani’s house. This is the new home of the family as they move to Salem and only really appears briefly, apart from the indoor shots, but is still an Iconic location. This is a PRIVATE residence and the owners do not mind respectful visitors.

The road at this time of year is CLOSED to non-residential traffic. so we parked up respectfully a little distance away and walked down. The VERY clear road closure signs didn’t seem to be so clear to everyone at least one car while we were there ignored them and drove down to the house. Sat outside with their engine running while taking photos. We even questioned them on it and they proclaimed “Oh we didn’t think that applied to US!” Ok, guys who did you think it applied to, the Tooth Fairy?!

We took a few photos, only used our quiet indoor voices, stayed entirely on public property then moved along. The short walk down Ocean Av was really fun as the houses were really dressed up for the season with some really good spooky displays!

Old Burial Hill Cemetery

The final out-of-town stop was the Old Burial Hill Cemetary. We considered not visiting this location as it’s a fair way out of town and is only briefly if importantly, featured in the film. However, we decided to make the trek and we were very happy we did. If nothing more it was such a gorgeous location.

The Old cemetery sits atop a hill situated on the Marblehead peninsular and offers stunning views of the area. The fall colors were in full effect and the temperatures were an unseasonal 70 degrees and would top 80 later in the day, and we just enjoyed the area, the bonus Halloween houses… we even ended up on Elm Street!

As a filming location, this is where Max meets Ice and Jay and has his shoes stolen. It’s a short scene, but important, and it’s a really fun one to hunt out even though we could not quite find the exact angle at which the scene was shot.

Salem Inn

We were still a little early for Check-in, but we decided to head to the hotel to check out the parking situation and see if we could leave our luggage while we explored downtown Salem. Upon arrival, we were greeted with a warm welcome and told our room was ready and we could go ahead and check-in. We are only staying a night and after seeing our room, the property, and the warm welcome we wished we were staying a little longer. That’s the issue with these sorts of trips where we do SO much, we need to stay on the move and keep plowing on and packing things in.

Our room was pretty Vintage, but it had a real charm about it and was flooded with natural light and space, two things we seemed to have been lacking so far on our accommodation for this trip. The only problem was the strange door to a weird cupboard that felt a little ominous, more on this later…

After dumping our stuff, we geared up and headed out to explore Salem itself.

The Witch House

What you will find over and over again when reading about our trips is we value one thing in accommodation more than ANYTHING else…Location. And the Salem Inn is basically perfect. Slap bang in the missle and literally steps from two Iconic Salem locations, first, the Witch House.

This is the only structure in Salem still standing that was actually related to the Witch Trials, making this a very iconic location. It is an incredibly well-preserved building and dates right back to 1642, maybe earlier, and was the home of Jonathan Corwin one of the Judges who sent 19 innocent women to the Gallows

You can pay to go in and visit the Museum, but we were happy just viewing from the outside.

Ropes Mansion (Alison’s House)

Next Stop was the Ropes Mansion, another Hocus Pocus Location and the home of the Character Alison. The mansion is a real stunner and is heavily decorated for the season. Again there are garden tours but we just wanted a look and planned to come back when the sun had gone down.

Salem Town Center

Both these sites were right next to our hotel, but the center of Salem was a bit further away, still only 250m thought to the Town Center. This was heavily in the Halloween spirit with Characters wandering around posing for photographs (they do expect a tip however) all the Witchy shops fully decorated in the Halloween regalia, and various pop-up attractions here just for the Halloween season. The Town really embraces its Spooky heritage.

Just walking through the center was great fun, but it was time to head to our first attraction on the Boston Go City pass. We had one day left on our pass and it covers several attractions in the Salem area.

Peabody Museum – $20 (Closed)

Annoyingly the first Attraction we planned to hit was closed. We were getting a little frustrated that so many attractions were just shut down on random days in this part of the world. We are used to 24/7 sightseeing and had kind of assumed this would be the case most here, especially at Halloween. But this is not the case and we missed out on this one, and lost $20 of value on the pass.

The Witch Museum – $17.50

We had much more luck at the Witch Museum. This needed pre-booking and was only bookable on the morning off and we made sure we were up bright and early to snag the booking. But we ended up booking 1:45 and had planned to spend the time beforehand in the Peabody Museum. As this was not possible we had some time to kill, so grabbed some lunch at the Village Tavern, before heading over to the Common for some more sightseeing and hunting out another Hocus Pocus Filming Location.

Phillips Elementary School Building

This was the setting for the High School scenes in the film. It is no longer a school but just a large old brick building on the side of the common.

After Lunch and exploring this part of the town we headed back to the Witch Museum. The Museum is an interesting exhibit, Unfortunately, they have a very strict NO FILMING policy, which meant we were not able to get any inside footage.

The Museum opened in 1972 and its main exhibit has remained exactly the same for over 50 years. So do not expect too much in terms of technology. The main presentation takes place in a large very dark hall. The lights go out and a series of Diarahmas are illuminated in sequence around the upper edges of the room. An ominously voiced narrator tells the story of the trials as these Sets light up.

The detail of the various models is pretty impressive as the lifesize sets depict key moments of the Events that took place. It’s really quite creepy mainly as it’s so static with the manikins just staring lifelessly back at you.

It’s one of those things that really, is quite awful, but it’s just SO iconic and totally a part of Vsinting Salem.

There is a newer additional presentation afterwards about how witches are portrayed in Hollywood and the media and how that’s evolved over time, it was pretty interesting, but overall the Main Presentation is why you are here.

Real Pirates Salem – $18.50

After the Museum we continued our exploration of the Town, heading to the bottom end of the town and visiting the Real Pirates exhibition. This tells the tale of an actual Pirate Ship that was found just off the coast.

The Exhibit has several artifacts recovered from the wreck along with exhibits and recreations of life aboard a real Pirate ship that used to operate in the waters of the East Coast.

The highlight for us was actually seeing REAL pieces of eight and the opportunity to actually touch some real Pirate Booty…pretty cool!

House of the Seven Gables – $6.00

The last attraction we visited was the House of the Seven Gables. This is the closest you are going to get to the Sanderson Sister’s House. This was the inspiration, but unfortunately, the actual house was built on a soundstage, making this a must-see.

Unfortunately, you have to pay to see the house properly. You can scab a basic view from the road down the side, and we saw a few people doing just that, but to see the house properly there is a charge. It’s only $6 but feels a bit steep to look at a house. You can pat more for a tour or entry to the interiors, but we just wanted a look and were really happy the pass covered it.

The house is stunning and the grounds beautiful, so we spent some time enjoying the peace.

This was the last attraction on the pass so let’s do a little summing up on our overall pass experience. We had the pass for 3 Days’

Wine Hour at the Salem Inn – Burning the Place Down!

After the house, we worked our way back to the Hotel. Taking in one last Filming location.

Old Town Hall Halloween Party

This is the location of the Halloween party where the Sanderson Sisters Bewitch the Townsfolk with their hypnotic Number, “I put a spell on You“, again just a quick snap, and off we go, but we return to this later tonight as it is supposed to be pretty haunted.

We arrived back at the Hotel just in time for Wine Hour…only things went south pretty quickly. We went to our room, just as the Fire Alarm went off! A quick evacuation and we were out on th street waiting for Salems Fire Department …hoping it was a false alarm.

Seconds later the trucks arrived and the Fire Fighters bravely entered the Hotel to shut the alarms up. It was indeed a false alarm and it was all over in a matter of moments and we were off to Wine Hour after the brief moments of excitement!

What is Wine Hour…well it’s an hour …with wine… sounds good. Honestly, we didn’t know the hotel provided this when we booked and it was a welcome surprise, but essentially for one hour a day the hotel just gives you free pours of wine, as many as you like. We took full advantage of this and sunk a few glasses while we relaxed in the courtyard of this historic hotel.

We headed back to our room afterwards only to find the door to the creepy cupboard was open. We have both been sure this was closed but it was open upon our return. We ensured it was shut and then headed out for dinner.

Rockafellas Restaurant

The Bartender at wine hour had pointed us in the right location for dinner and we took her advice and ended up at Rocerfellas.

This was a nice Bar and Grill type restaurant that offered standard American dishes all done really well. We had a Buffalo Chicken Flatbread and a Balck and Blue Burger along with a few drinks to get us ready for the fantastic night we had planned in Salem.

Salem Ghost Tour – Black Cate Shoppe – $25.00 (Not on the Pass)

With so many strange and spooky goings on in Salem there really is only one thing to do in the evening and that is a Ghost Tour. There is a lot of competition in Salem for ghost tours and in October, in particular, there are hundreds of tours going on every night. We chose to go with one of the market leaders and our top tip for Ghost Tors in Salem, the Black Cat Shoppe, mainly because we are just a little obsessed with Black Cats.

The tour started at 8 pm sharp with the meeting point just across from the Shoppe at the Bewitched Statue. Our guide was dressed in a fantastic Halloween outfit something of a cross between a witch and a Pirate which is perfect for Salem.

The tour takes you around some of Salam’s most haunted and interesting sites while the tour guide regales you with tales of the undead and unfortunate. Murders, mysteries, ghosts, witches, and even Magigians, all feature as the guide takes you around the town center.

You are encouraged to take as many photos as you like but to keep filming to a minimum so we just grabbed a few short clips and lots of photos. Photos seem to work best as there is a higher chance of something showing up later on…although we could find no real anomalies in our photos.

The tour was really fun, although not quite as good as our last Ghost Hunting tour in San Francisco. The Town was just too busy with too much going on and this seemed to disturb the spirits.

We don’t take these tours too seriously and they are a lot of fun if treated as such, and this was especially so here where the busy streets meant there was very little in the way of spookiness. As ever the most interesting part is the history lessons that go with the tours as the guide sheds a light on the grisly past of one of the county’s oldest settlements.

The tour wrapped up on the back streets of the Town near a cemetery but the guide ensured we all made it back to familiar territory. It was now quite late and we headed back to our hotel. Where once again, the Creepy cupboard door was open…

…It would be an interesting night’s sleep in the almost certainly haunted room!

Tomorrow we really hit the road and start properly piling the miles onto the clock. We have 1000+ miles to do over the next few days as we move back into New York Stae, Head Upstate through the Valleys and mountains of the Catskills, up to Buffalo and into Canada to see the Falls, then traverse the edge of the Great lakes stopping off at Cedar Point for Halloween Horror, before ending the trip in Chicago.

City New York All Inclusive 3-Day Pass – Running Total

• Attractions Today – 3
• Total Attractions – 10
• Attractions Cost – $42
• Running Total – Day 1 of 3: $275
• Cost Of Pass – $139

• Savings – $136

The pass has been excellent. We really felt it opened up Boston in a way we would not have found without it. We did 10 attractions in total and based most of our time around it, although we still got to see a lot of the City as well.

It was great to have a few attractions included in Salem as this was always going to be part of our visit to New England.

Overall we saved a whopping $136 … however we used a 10% discount code so our actual savings were EVEN higher, with the Pass only costing $125.10 and the savings a huge $150!

If you are heading to Boston we highly recommend the Pass as it really did make the trip so much better and we had almost no issues with it. Annoyingly a lot of the attractions we wanted to visit were closed…but that would have been the case without a pass!

Walking Total – 21,015 Steps – 10.2 Miles

We were back to some pretty big step counts today. We did a lot of driving, but we were on the go from 7 am right through until 11 pm so clocked up some steady miles. We finally get a nice and easy day tomorrow as we spend a lot of time in the car.

Live Blog – Trip Report

<<< Day 7 – USS Constitution – View Boston – Harvard

Day 9 – Salem to Rhinebeck – Fall Foliage Leaf Peeping >>>

on Day 6 we awoke nice and refreshed in Boston. We were in no real rush to get the day started so had a pretty chilled morning before getting ready to get the sightseeing started. We had a 3-Day Boston Go City Pass to help us get the best out of the City and we will keep you updated on how that works out.

After a few coffees and a little time updating family and friends on our whereabouts, we headed out to activate the pass and use our first attraction. The 3-Day pass allows unlimited attractions so we planned to really rack them up today and hopefully break even on the first day with the Pass costing us only $139 (actually we paid $125 due to our discount code)

CityView Hop On Hop Off Trolley: 2-day Ticket – $78

The first redemption was a CityView Hop On Hop Off Trolley: 2-day Ticket. These Trolly Tours are a great way to get around the City. With Hop on Hop Off privileges for two full days. With stops all over the City and located at most of the attractions, you would want to visit the Trolleys add fantastic value to the pass, with a $78 value.

Along with handy transport around the City, you also get an engaging tour guide to help familiarise you with the City and point out interesting locations and attractions as you go. They are very touristy but really handy and a lot of fun with great views out of the open air windows of the City.

The first attraction we headed to was closed…the USS Constitution! So we planned on heading back tomorrow. Instead jumping off on the Freedom Trail to check out some historic locations from the Independence Era.

Old State House and Old South Meeting House – $15

First up was the old State House. This has a $15 entry but this gets you into this location and the Old South Meeting House. These are both pivotal locations for the Revolution and tell the story of the independence movement.

we found around Boston, that there is a really strong anti-British sentiment, which we hope by now is largely lighthearted, But it was a theme that carried on throughout the whole trip with the Bostonians never missing an opportunity to rag on us Brits…it’s a good job we have thick skins!

The State House acts as a Museum and while the building itself is an attraction it’s filled with exhibits and displays explaining how the whole revolution went down. It’s very interesting and insightful even though we were on the wrong side…

The second site on this attraction was the Old South Meeting House, another historical location and well worth seeing, this is where the plans for the revolution were cooked up. We had a bit of a heart attack when editing these photos as there appear to be ghosts of people from the past appearing in the images…but we realized these were perspex cut-outs that were part of the display.

The Value here is only $15 for two attractions, so it’s not saving us huge amounts, but the truth is, without the pass, we probably would have skipped these. The pass can feel like a key to the City, and having the pass means we don’t overthink things. We were really glad we got to see the insides of these locations but know, when faced with someone asking for money, we would have balked. So the pass really helps you see a location to its fullest.

This is also true of our next location The Kings Chapel

Kings Chapel – $5

Another historic location, that we would probably have skipped if we had been charged entry. It was only $5, but still, the desire to see the inside was probably less than the $5 in our pockets, but we are really glad we got to go in. It’s not the most beautiful church, and not overly relevant to the Revolutionary tale. but it was really nice to see inside.

Breakfast/Lunch – Beantown Pub

It was a round this time we realized we had not really eaten anything. And hunted out a late breakfast/lunch spot, ending up in the Beantown Pub, a historic pub serving American classics, known for its Boston Beans. We were still on breakfast so skipped the beans for a more traditional breakfast, which was really good.

More Freedom Trail Sites, Boston Common, Cheers Pub, Goodwill Hunting, and Ted Bench

We then headed out and explored the sites on the Freedom Trail, such as the Park Street Church, Massachusetts State House, Potato Famine Memorial, and the Various Graveyards and burial grounds before heading onto Boston Common.

The day was now stunningly clear and unseasonably war, around the 70degree mark, that 20-21 in celsius, and the common was wonderful to just explore and walk around. The Squirrels were out in force collecting up their winter stashes and there were even some hawks lurking in the trees hoping for a meal!

There were also the telltale signs of modern America as a portion of the park was largely taken over by homeless people, something that is ever-present in just about every US city we have visited.

We headed over the common and across into the Public Gardens, these are a little more manicured and very pretty, unfortunately someone seemed to have stolen the ponds, as they were doing extensive maintenance, a theme that seemed to follow us this whole trip, everywhere seemed to be having work done.

We hunted out the Ted and Robin Williams benches, and then across the Street to the Cheers Pub, which was incredibly busy, over an hour wait for a table and crawling with 60-something boomers who seemed intent on photobombing any shots we took! We are not huge Cheers fans, we are from a different generation, so left them to it and hopped back onto our trolley, heading over to the Boston Tea Party Museum.

Boston Tea Party Museum

The Museum is not on the pass and while we wanted to visit the museum, the show timings were not really working out, having just missed the last show and having a bit of a wait for the next show.

The Museum take the shape of a reconstuction of the events of that fateful day as the rebels took action if the form of violent protest and destruction of the Crowns property. We always feel a little sad about the loss of such a large amount of tea! The Ships on display, the Elenor and Beavor are only reconstructions and not actual relecs of the event, infact the only real artifact is one of the recovered crates that the tea was dumped overboard in.

Instead of waiting it out for the next show, we just admired the ship from afar and headed back to Long Wharf to catch our next Attraction on the City Pass

Historic Sightseeing Cruise – $46

The Historic Sightseeing Cruise was enough to put us in the green for the pass, and it was only 2 pm!

To use the Pass for the Cruise you need to head first to the Ticket office, to book either the next available cruise or choose a time later in the day. As it happened the next available was about 5 minutes away and we hoped straight on. We had not been planning on doing the cruise today as otherwise we would have booked on earlier in the day, but happy circumstance meant we could do it now.

during the summer or busy months, you are very unlikely to be able to book on so easily as the tours do fill up quickly. Your best bet is to head to the ticket booth and scan the pass as early as you can.

Due to us being pretty late to arrive there was limited room on the uper deck, but we got some great seats on the almost deserted Bow of the vessel.

The Hornblower Cruse takes you out into the Boston harbor and takes a close look at the stunning and ever-changing Boston waterfront. You get a detailed explanation of what is a Pier, a Dock, and a wharf, as the misuse of these terms seems rampant and really annoys the Narrator, and No One else.

The Tour takes you past the old and heavily modernised harbour district, The Container Dock, Fort Independence, and then out into the main Harbour with a little light-hearted British bashing.

The cruise takes a really close-up look at Logan Airport with incoming jets skimming overhead.

The second part of the cruise takes you down past east Boston, with its heritage ships and of course The USS Constitution.

It was a lovely cruise out of the clean waters of Boston harbor, a little cloud had formed replacing the stunning blue skies of the morning, but it was still clear and bright. We always think one of the best ways to see a lcation, eseciall a coastal loaction, is from the water. The vessel offered a full bar, but we refrained as we still had some sightseeing to do.

New England Aquarium – $34

After the cruise we headed, just across the wharf to our final attraction of the day the New England Aquarium.

We love Aqauriums and we will be visiting 2 of the best in the country over the next few days with the first being the New England Aquarium.

This is a fairly a-typical Aquarium with a strange layout. There is only one main tank and the whole aquarium is centered around the Main circular tank.

The pass got us straight in with no issues. The first attraction you come to is the Shark and Ray touch pool which is really fun with the friendly rays happy to come for a stroke. We then headed to the disappointing Shark Exhibit that does not actually have any sharks, apart from a couple of cat sharks so we left and headed to the main exhibit

We arrived at the perfect time as a trainer came out to feed the penguins. The penguins are super cute and we loved watching them eat their fishes. The Penguin habitat is around the edge of the main tank on the lower level.

After that we headed out to see the Sea Lions, who are really playful but a bit stinky and very noisy! Then it was time to check out the main attraction.

The centerpiece of the Aquarium is the 200,000-gallon Giant Ocean Tank. This huge cylindrical tank sits in the center of the aquarium and is filled with warm tropical seawater, coral, and thousands of marine animals.

There is a spiral walkway that meanders up to the top of the tank with various exhibits on the various floors as you go.

We love this design as it allows you to marvel at the amazing main display while taking in all the smaller, yet still interesting creatures on display.

The main tank is filled with a huge array of fish, from small sharks, rays, Snapper, Filefish, various jacks, Lookdowns, and even a selection of Sea turtles. There is so much to see in there from small reef fish to huge Permit fish.

The top of the tank is open and we were really lucky to get there just as three huge Sea Turtles came up for air, giving us quite a show.

North End / Italian Quarter / Little Italy

This was a perfect end to a pretty hectic day and we headed back to the hotel for a rest before dinner.

All we had heard about all day was the amazing Italian food that was on offer in the Italian Quarter at North End, and as we had only had one meal all day, it was time to head out and check it out. We love Italian food and more so live American Italian. It’s not as refined as real Italian food, but has bags of flavor and always great portions and we were really hungry.

We just headed to little Italy and picked a spot that looked good. We ended up in Antico Forno, one of the first places we liked the look of, but only after wandering around for quite a while. Here we gorged on huge piles of Lingine Fruit de Mer and an epic Four Cheese Pizza all fired in a Brick oven.

A great end to our first day in Boston.

Our first day with the pass had gone excellently and we had already saved $39 and had ticked off quite a few of our planned attractions…with still two days to go on the Pass. We will Pick this up again Tommorrow

Go City New York All Inclusive 3-Day Pass – Running Total

Get 10% Off your Boston Go City Pass

• Attractions Today – 5
• Total Attractions – 5
• Attractions Cost – $
• Running Total – Day 1 of 3: $178
• Cost Of Pass – $139

• Savings – $39

Walking Total – 18,491 Steps – 8.9 Miles

With the Trolly at our Disposal we did not spend too long on our feet, however we still clocked up an impressive 8.9miles and 18,000+ steps making our feet pretty sore but the close of play.

Live Blog – Trip Report

<<< Day 5 – New York City – Boston on the AMTRAK Railway

Day 7 – >>>

Our trip to New York had been a whistle-stop tour. We have visited the City so many times and only really included it in this trip as it offers the best transatlantic route options. However we scarcely need a reason to visit the Big Apple, so were happy to head in and tear up the City as usual. But the real trip was starting today as we headed away from this City to another one…Boston. From there we will head up to Salem before driving halfway across the country, Upstate New York, Buffalo, Niagara Falls(Canada), Cedar Point, and finally Chicago.

NYC – Boston on the Amtrak Regional line.

We had a lot planned along the way and were really excited to get going. For our first hop, we were using the Amtrak. We really love using the Amrak to get around, especially in and out of New York. The main advantage is it’s so convenient. The line from New York to Boston starts and ends right in the heart of both Cities. There is no schlep over to the airport, no expensive Ubers, No baggage restrictions, and no security. You just nip to the station and hop on. We did the same last year when heading to Washington from New York.

The ticket cost was $32 each all-in and we were on the Regional line which is a bit slower than the Acela train but a third of the cost. The trip takes around 4.5 hours and you get a large comfy seat aboard the train in a 2×2 format. Compared to flying there is so much space, with tons of leg room and the seat was really comfy.

With the Train due at 9 am, we had a bit of an early start. The clear weather that turned up yesterday had continued into today and we felt a little sad leaving the City on such a glorious day. We headed straight to the Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station which has been recently renovated. The hall is just a little too far to walk with heavy cases, but felt a little too close to Uber, but needs must.

Arriving at the hall we found getting something to eat a little trickey. There were a couple of coffee shops but we wanted something a little more adventurous, but most of the dining options were more lunch and dinner, and most were not even open until then. In the end, we found a Bagel Shop that was extremely expensive, but really good and we got some super stuffed bagels for around $12-13 each.

The newly renovated hall is really impressive but the system is a little chaotic. The trains arrive on an unknown platform which is only announced 5-10 mins before boarding. This leaves people watching the boards like a hawk unsure which platform to queue up at. When the Platform number finally pops up there is a mad dash to the platform for the first come first served seating and luggage space. Just before our number came up, some local passengers seemed to second guess the platform and started queuing up at one particular platform, hoping they knew something no one else did we joined in and right enough the platform was annoyed getting us ahead in the queue.

The guard scanned our tickets and we proceeded down to board the train, easily getting some nice seats with a good window view and a free Luggage rack. After 10 minutes at the platform as others behind us boarded not always with as much luck, we pulled out of the station right in time.

We were a little unsure of the route the train would take and a little unsure which side to go for. We gambled on the right-hand side and in minutes were disappointed as excellent views of the City appeared on the left…However, this was the only disappointment as for the rest of the Journey we had hit the jackpot.

The line runs right up the New England Coastline and offers stunning views out over the Long Island Sound. With the leaves turning a stunning orange and bathed with beautiful Fall sunshine the whole way, it was a seriously pretty train journey. Relaxing in our large comfy seats it really is hard to see why so many people opt for the hassle and stress of air travel for short journeys such as this. We are pretty sure door-to-door the train is faster, and it’s so much more relaxing and the scenery really was stunning. We spent over half the journey just looking out the window before eventually loading up the tablet to watch a few episodes of our favorite current TV Show…and no I am not being coy, I literally forgot what we watched!

There is a dining car on the train which amounts to little more than a snack shop. You can get sandwuched drinks and snacks from here but do not expect them to be cheap. You can get wine and beer though which is nice. We brought along our own snacks and also finished the bagels we brought from the Station.

After a few relaxed hours meandering along the New England Coastline through Connecticut, Rhode Island, and then Massachusetts, we finally arrived in Boston. We departed at the South station which was just a short 10-minute walk to our Hotel.

Harborside Inn

The Inn had been a bit of a bargain, around $170 a night, and really central to everything we wanted to see and do in Boston. We checked in a little early, which was no issue, and headed up to our room. It was quite small but well-appointed. The only issue was the lack of natural light. We were given an interior room and it looked out onto an atrium that was almost perpetually at twilight. This made us think it was light when dark and dark when light, it was a little confusing to a still jet-lagged body clock. However, we did not plan on spending much time in the room.

As such we headed straight out and down to the Harborside.

Boston Harborwalk

At this point, we were still pronouncing harbor as 99% of the English-speaking world does, but soon enough the temptation to rattle off  “Haabah”, as any good Bostonite would say, would start to take hold!

The Harborfront has recently been renovated and now has a continuous walkway, over 47 miles long along the entire Harborfront, known as the harborwalk. While we would love to walk this, 48 miles was just a little too much for our first day in Boston, but the beauty of the walk is you can just dip in and out of it and walk the bits you like. So we headed down to the water and just wandered along taking in the sea air.

Two things stuck us immediately, first, how clean the water was. It was a translucent shimmering green and clear of any murk, scum, trash, or anything. Having spent the last few days in New York, it was a striking contrast. I can’t say I have ever considered going for a swim in the Hudson or the East River, the Boston water was clean and inviting. I managed to resist, not sure how warm it would be in Late October, but it was really nice to see such wonderful clean water.

The second thing was the come-down. New York is a huge System Shock. We come from a pretty rural location, and even in our big Cities, it’s not like New York. There are people everywhere and everyone is ANGRY. Walking around New York is a bit like a long continuous fight. It takes a while to get into that mode, and it takes a while to get out of it. As we started exploring Boston it felt a little like New York and the tension and aggression were still in us, ready to barge people out of the way if they slowed down for even a second… but this was really not the way of life in Boston.

Everything was slower, calmer, and friendlier. It was lovely, but it took a while to get that New York out of us and just relax.

After walking a few miles down the Waterfront we realised we had not got very far in terms of distance away from the hotel. Tracing the various wharves as they head out into the harbor means while you walk quite far, you make very little progress as the crow flies. We were only just in Little Italy and decided at this point to head into the Old Quarter of the City in search of Lobster.

I had scouted out Reds Fish Market in the Old Boston Market, so we headed there to see what was on offer. In season they have Live Tanks and will boil the lobster whole for you. But it was pretty quiet and they had no Live Lobsters and were just offering very expensive Lobster Rolls so we decided to skip. We looked around the Market Halls which has a modern upmarket Farmers market vibe, and then headed back towards our hotel via the old narrow streets of the Irish Quarter. These cobbled old streets and historic pubs are better normal for us but it’s rare to see something so old in the States!

Legal Seafoods – Lobster

Back at the hotel after an enjoyable exploratory walk, we headed to a seafood restaurant right down by Long Wharf about 100m from the hotel. That had been a long walk to end u right where we began.

Legal Seafoods is a legend in Boston and has been serving up Lobster, Oysters, and all kinds of seafood for over 70 years. While we visited they had an Oyster festival with half-price local oysters. We love Oysters but to be honest we did not know there was so much to them. Our incredibly eccentric server walked us through the menu and we ordered a half dozen of varying varieties. It really was amazing the huge differences between the different varieties even though they all came from within a few miles of the restaurant.

We then went on to split a bowl of chowder and a conversation about Metric and Imperial measurements the Server was completely blown away by the fact we Brits really just mix and match between the two … Distance in miles. Measurements, Millimeters. Height, Feet, and Inches. Some foods in Grams some in lbs, body weight is in Stones…Bottled Drinks ml, but beer and milk are in Pints…honestly, we just make it up! At least when America REFUSED to go metric, they stuck to the guns, We just half-arsed it.

Anyway, the Chowder was amazing and came in a 10oz bowl (hence the conversation) with some excellent Bread Rolls. This was followed, as per recommendation from our server, the Lobster Mac and Cheese! This was quite unlike any Lobster Mac and Cheese we have had and features a WHOLE lobster, smothered in Creamy Cheesey Pasta goodness!

After the meal, it was back to the Hotel. While we had not really done a lot today, the early start and the long train ride meant we were pretty tired so we just had a relaxed evening back at the hotel getting ready and planning for the next couple of days.

Walking Total – 11,590 Steps – 4.9 Miles

Despite spending all of the morning sitting on a train we still clocked up a good amount of steps, mainly from out hike around the Harborwalk. This was not a big day on our feet but we had already got a few of them in the bag and a lot more coming up.

Live Blog – Trip Report

<<< Day 4 – Rise NY – Boozy Brunch – One World Observation Deck – Brooklyn and Dumbo – The Ride – Top Of The Rock

Day 6 – Boston -Trolley Tour, The Freedom Trail, Harbor Cruise, and the New England Aquarium >>>

Our last day of the Trip, and another amazing trip to the States ticked off. There was basically no plan for today other than getting to the airport, dropping off the damaged car, relaxing in a lounge, and then flying back to London Heathrow on Virgin Atlantic.

Checking Out

We had a complimentary breakfast included in our stay and we decided the easiest way of using that was via room service. However, try as we might we could not get through to the restaurant to order! eventually, we gave up and headed down to pick up breakfast in person. The restaurant was little more than a coffee shop and the food was pretty bad. We were just happy it was free.

Then after just relaxing and doing very little, we checked out and headed to the Car Rental Centre.

Avis Car Rental Return – Cracked Windscreen

Amazingly this is the first time we have ever had to return a car in America with Damage. We always make sure we are fully covered and that any incident would not be a problem and we have never actually had one. Careful driving and a good lump of luck have always steered us in the right direction. But there is nothing you can do when a stone chip flicks up and shatters the windscreen. It looks like our luck ran out. However, our Cover hadn’t.

We were a little nervous taking the car back as you hear so many horror stories about car rental firms but Avis was really good. They took one look at our booking and said “oh you have the inclusive cover, no problem it will all be taken care of” and that was about it.

The only problem we did have was the fact with all the worry of the cracked screen we completely forgot to fill the tank up. this ended up costing us an obscene amount in Refueling charges!

With everything sorted, we hopped on the Shuttle bus and headed to the Terminal. When boarding the bus the Driver rather grumpily told us to lay our cases flat or they would go flying. We argued that everyone else’s were like ours and they were pretty well jammed in, but she shook her head and said they will go flying anyway. Yeilding to her superior knowledge we lay all our cased flat but the other riders knew better than the driver. Predictably halfway to the airport, they all went flying, nearly busting out of the door opposite and damaging several cases and almost injuring several people. Ours lay flat as instructed, never moved. There is a lesson in there somewhere.

Virgin Atlantic Premium Economy

We had flown out in upper class but the return leg was to be only in Premium. We joked about how we had to slum it, but in reality, we adore the Virgin Premium product and were quite happy to be flying home this way.

Check-in

Security was a breeze. The TSA were using dogs as scanners and while the queue to pet the dogs (don’t pet the dogs!) was huge, it moved really fast and once past them, the secondary checks were super quick. We didn’t have to unload electrical items or de-shoe and we were through in around 15mins.

This was great but Check-in was a nightmare. First off, we couldn’t find the Virgin Check-in Desks at all. We wandered up and down several times and they were nowhere to be seen. Eventually, we asked and they gave us a desk number, but on arrival at the said desk there was no sign of Virgin instead, it was a Korean Air desk.

It soon became clear that the Koren Air Check-in was about to end and Virgin would take over these desks. So we formed a Queue ready for the Queue. Unfortunately, the Korean Air team was having trouble with the last passengers and would not vacate the desks. The Virgin Crew had all arrived and were waiting to go, but the Korean Air Team just held their ground. Eventually, after 30+mins the Crew were done with the awkward passenger and finally got out of the way. We were then checked in super fast and on our way to the lounge.

Centurion Lounge LAX

As we were in Premium there was no lunge included on our Booking, however, we did have access to the Centurium Lounge via our AMEX Platinum, so naturally we headed straight there.

It was super busy and we really struggled to get a seat. Several laps of the lounge only resulted in seats at a pretty uncomfy dining-style table. Unhappy with this we kept doing laps looking for better seats while also getting started with drinks. Naturally kicking things off with a nice glass of bubbles. Eventually, we got some comfier seats near the second bar and settled in for our 2-hour wait for the flight.

The drinks are really good here, and we got well prepared for our flight with several offerings from the bar. The bartender at the second bar was excellent and made several offerings and suggestions on tipples. We had some excellent Chardonnay and Cabinet Saviuon from Napa Valley which brought back Wine Country Vicbese from earlier in the trip. When enquiring about old fashioned the Bar tender stated these were his specialty and they certainly we very good, good enough to try another to make sure.

Food wise the lounge is a little limited. There was some grilled chicken, some pasta, a Vegie Polenta dish, and several salad options. There were also a couple of soup options. For Dessert, there were just some Warm Cookies…very nice warm cookies but not a lot of choice.

We were only looking for a light lunch so all this was fine, but it was pretty limited.

Overall we had a great time just relaxing in the Bar area and enjoying the drinks ready for our 10+ hour night flight over the Atlantic. Boarding was at 3 pm so we reluctantly gave up our seats, in the fast-emptying lounge and headed for the gate.

Cabin and Seat

The Premium Cabin on the new A350 is really nice. There is loads of space and the seats are wide and really comfy the entire flight we had absolutely zero issues with comfort. The seats are far more modern than the older aircraft and look pretty minimal, but are still really comfy and supportive. The headrests are also excellent and really support your head once you get them right.

The Screen is really large and high definition and the various Map views and cameras help you keep track of the flight. There are loads of power points and a decent amount of storage. Despite being in these seats for over 10 hours they were a really comfy way to spend the time.

Main Meal and Drinks Service

Upon boarding, we were offered a complimentary Glass of Bubble to sip while we waited for take-off and once in the air the first round of drinks were served promptly. A real advantage of having a small Cabin and dedicated crew…we think we got drinks here faster than we did in upper class?

After Drinks Dinner was served promptly. We have a choice of Lemon Grass Chicken Breast with Ride, Fish Cakes, or Eddamae Fennel Risotto. While we were intrigued by the Risotto, it was a morbid curiosity as it sounded appalling, so we resisted and went with the Chicken (Steve) and the Fishcakes (Kate).

The meal comes on a single tray with your Starter, Main, and Dessert all served on real crockery. The Starter was a small Salad and a bread roll. It was actually really nice with ripe tomatoes and tangy Feta Cheese. Our mains were passable. While this is an upgrade from Economy dining it’s still pretty basic. Imagine a high-end supermarket ready-meal rather than a cheap one.

The dessert was actually excellent though a good slab of Key lime Pie Cheesecake. We often find Arline dessert very nice but incredibly small but this was a good lump of Pie. The meal came with another round of drinks. Finally, after Dinner the Cabin Crew came around with tea and coffee, but we broke rank and ordered a final round of drinks.

Overall Flight

After this, the Cabin lights were dimmed and most people tried to get some rest. We watched the end of a movie, “Don’t Worry Darling” and then tried to get some sleep. Kate nodded off pretty soon but I was not really able to. The problem was, it wasn’t really dark yet and it was on;y 8 pm in the evening…

Instead, I simply watched another movie and then browsed the music channels not really tired and quite enjoying the IFE. Looking out the window it never really did get dark. As we flew pretty high up towards the Arctic Circle we had perpetual Twighlight. The moon rose above the Icey lakes of northern Canada and overall it was a stunning night.

At around 12 pm or 8 hours into the flight I started to get pretty tired but not so much it was a problem and by then the Sun was beginning to come up and the Cabin Crew starting to make breakfast. I had basically powered through but overall it had been a really enjoyable flight.

Breakfast and Arrival

Breakfast was served and Virgin did their usual trick of providing far too much, in the hope you might just be able to stomach one thing. Having powered through the night largely fueled by alcohol I was actually really hungry and demolished the lot. Kate who had slept felt groggy and sick and didn’t touch hers.

We got a hearty Breakfast of Egg Sausage, Bacon, Hash Browns, and Mushrooms. A really fresh fruit plate and a tasty and refreshing Yoghurt. All were served with a nice cup of tea. It was one of the better breakfasts we have had on an airline.

The flight had powered across the Atlantic and we were over UK soil in superfast time, nearly an hour early. Unfortunately, Heathrow ATC was not ready for us and we were put in a long holding pattern waiting for our turn to land. IT was really busy above London and we could see the various aircraft stacked up.

Eventually, we got a slot and dropped down to a pretty heavy touchdown.

Leaving Heathrow

The Busy Airspace made us pretty worried about the state of immigration. While as premium we were first off the plane after Upper Class, that does nothing if several big jets have just landed in front of you, as borne out on the inbound flight!

However it was actually really quiet and we flew through immigration, even beating our bags to the Carousel.

We then headed outside and jumped in a Cab and off to pick up the Car at the Hotel. We had arranged to stay with some relatives local to the airport, so headed off on the short drive to their house for some much-needed sleep.

RECAP!

What an unbelievably crazy trip. From the Hustle and Bustle of San Francisco to the remote scenic beauty of the PCH. The finery and good life of Napa Valley and the sheer breathtaking scenery of Yosemite and Inyo Forest. The desolation of Death Valley and the madness of Las Vegas and finally the world of make-believe and happiness in Disneyland and Universal. It was a wild ride, over 1500 miles over 21 days, two plane rides, one in Pure Luxury of Upper Class, a Ballon Ride, Casino Winnings, one Super Car, and one less than Supercar that did all the donkey work. Incredible changing Landscapes and varied and temperamental weather.

This trip really had it all and that is why we LOVE California!

Join us again in October as we head to the East Coast for Halloween and a little Leaf Peeping!

Live Blog – Trip Report

<<< Day 20 – Universal Studios – VIP Experience

Return to Live Blogg ^^^

On our Epic trip last year, we visited Universal Studios on the VIP Tour and it was one of the best theme park experiences we have done. So this year with the arrival of the insanely popular Mario World we thought… let’s do it again! This was the last thing we would do before flying out tomorrow, and we hoped it would be a real treat.

Rush Hour

We had decided not to stay near The Studios as it would be easier to just have another night in the Kings Inn and then drive the hour or so over to Universal in the morning. We got Breakfast included with the tour and Valet parking so it made sense and then we could drive to the Airport Hotel right after. The only glitch in that plan…LA Traffic.

The 1 hr drive suddenly became almost two hours as Google Maps started turning RED in the morning. While this was annoying we had planned for it and had plenty of time, we just didn’t really want to sit in traffic for hours on end.

The other slight Issue we were facing was Los Angeles’s perfect Blue Sky Weather had turned a very unusual shade of deep grey, and it appeared to be raining quite heavily. Not good. We later found out this Spring has been a real wash-out in LA and we had bagged the only good days so far for our Disney trip. But the glom had returned and the Sky was noe thick with rain. Forecasts had it drying up mid-morning but remained pretty gloomy all day.

Af our tour was not until 10:15 the traffic started easing up slightly as we drove towards the Studios and in total it only took us 1:30 to cover the 35ish miles…only! As we said the VIP experience comes with FREE Valet so we dropped the car off, which was full of Luggage with the Valet safe in the knowledge it would be nice and safe.

Check-In and Breakfast

Check-In at the VIP Desk is always exciting, you get your own red carpet, are assigned a Guide, and receive your very useful VIP / Express Pass lanyard. You also get to meet your group and get access to the Breakfast Buffet.

We love how the Breakfast is described as light when there are mountains of food for you to choose from. Smoked Salmon and Egg Cheese Croissants, Muffins, Cookies, Cereal, Fruit, Unlimted Tea, Coffee, and Juice. All really fresh, tasty, and delicious. While enjoying Breakfast on the Outdoor Terrace overlooking the regular guests we got to meet our Guide Brogan.

He was certainly flamboyant and had the look of a Medival Salvic Warrior, with a large Build, Black flowing hair, and a neat beard. He was certainly an imposing man, but it was clear from the off he was a softy really. We got together in our group as Brogan explained the itinerary. First up we would be hitting the park then taking the Tour of the studios afterwards.

Super Nintendo World and Writers Strikes.

It was a strange time to be visiting the park. The recent addition of Super Nintendo World had sent queues skyrocketing and Writers Strikes meant the Studio was in a state of flux. While not a lot of filming was going on, there were still a lot of areas out of bounds. Ninja Warrior was in town so all of New York was off-limits and there were a lot of places off-limits due to maintenance work.

This all made the tour quite different from the last time we did the VIP Experience. We no longer go reserved seats to water world and three rides, Secret Life Of Pets, Minion Mayhem and Simpsons were no longer on the tour, although we did have Express Lane access for later. In place of all that was one experience. Super Nintendo World.

VIP Experience – The Park

The first part of the tour was simply the walk down to the Lower lot where 4 of the big rides are located. On the way down Brogan explained how the day would go and pointed out lots of interesting things along the way. We were then walked right to the front of the Queue for our First Ride.

Ride 1 – Transformers – The Ride

We love transformers and with Queus of nearly an hour today it was very nice to walk straight to the front. This ride does not seem to get old and we love the raging battle that takes place through the streets.

Ride 2 – Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge

After Transformers it was time for Chaos.

The Queue time for Mario Kart: Bowsers Challenge was now over 2 and a half hours, and that was on top of the crazy virtual Queue required to even get into Super Nintendo World. When Universal announced the Nintendo World we were pretty skeptical it would be a success, it’s not the 90s anymore, wow were we wrong?

We have not seen Universal Studios this busy in a long time and it seemed this was entirely due to Super Nintendo World. And while we know Mario Fans are really Die-Hard, we just did not know there were this many of them. It was only a random Monday in Early June and the park was RAMMED! Even getting into Super Nintendo World looked like an impossible task…Unless you have a VIP Lanyard and a Brogan.

We walked right in through the Iconic Green Drainpipe and into a world of bring colors, Moving Blocks, mushrooms, and Bowsers Castle. It is certainly very impressive what they have done with the place. However, there is not much to really do in the world. If you pay for the power-up band there are some mini-games to play around with, but not exactly mind-blowing, and there is the Toadstool Cafe which is basically permanently sold out. But that is about it.

Of course apart from the BIG attraction Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge. This new headline ride has a lot of people excited. The queues were simply insane. The fact we could basically walk -on was very appealing anytime you can save a 2-3 hour queue we are very happy. And the only way to d this at the minute is with VIP as the Expres does not get you into Mario Kart!

Even with the VIP and the Guide walking us to the front of every Pre-Show, it still took nearly 30 mins to get to the front of the ride. We were kitted out with all the gear, the hilarious headsets, and really excited for the ride. I was a big Mario Kart fan back in the day and would spend hours with my mates battling away with Shells and Banana skins. Even Kate, who is not a gamer, had some good times with Mario Kart as it is such an accessible game.

We always like to be positive, we don’t give things bad reviews for the sake of it, and we are mindful not to unset the hordes of very passionate Nintendo Fans out there, but this ride is UTTER garbage! We hope this does not upset any Nitendo Fans as they should really be upset at this TERRIBLE representation of their beloved Franchise! Mario Kart was such a fun and accessible game and this is just garbage. We will try and articulate this better in the full review, but the combination of a slow and boring ride and infuriating and pretty pointless mini-game happening before your eyes means all we really remember is the odd Mario character appearing in front of you, if you hold your head right, firing virtual shells somewhere in their direction, and vaguely having to steer the kart because a huge arrow has told us too.

The game is terrible, the ride slow, and largely missed due to the game, and the whole experience massively underwhelming. We do not think we have ever been this disappointed with a ride experience. We just can’t imagine the horror of queueing 3 hours for this!

Ride 3 – Revenge Of The Mummy – The Ride

Largely confused at this point as to what the hell had just happened, we were quickly ushered out of Super Nintendo World and into the Mummy. This quickly snapped my attention back to the real world, by being flung around a dark crypt being chased by mummies, and reminded me Universal is actually pretty good at this stuff usually.

Kate is not a fan of the Mummy as the ride is just too Violent. The sudden direction changes in the dark along with the pretty rough ride has a habit of putting her back out so it’s best avoided. Instead, she stood with our Guide and drilled him for information. Mainly about the new format o the tour due to Super Nintendo World, some awkward customers on our tour, and what was coming up today.

Ride 4 – Jurassic World – The Ride

Next up, was the very enjoyable Jurassic World Ride. While we certainly feel the ending of the Jurassic World ride is a letdown compared to the old ride, it’s still a fantastic romp through the Jurassic World Universe. The modernization is really good and some of the very old models have been replaced or updated and feel far more believable. The Mosasaurus Tak is brilliant and we love the destroyed Predators Cove with the rustling buses in the raptor cage. The focus on all this really means you forget how steep and sudden the drop at the end is.

It’s still a great ride, just some of the storytelling elements are not as great and that has a big impact on the ride.

Once off the ride, the free Ponchos saved us all from a drenching and we got to see the Triceratops out on display interacting with the crowds. This is rarely out and we were really happy to see her.

Ride 5 – Flight Of The Hippogriff

We then headed back up to the upper lot and into Hogsmeade for our Harry Potter Fix. The first ride was the Flight Of The Hippogriff. This is very much a family coaster and a really short one at that. But it is quite fun, especially if you can skip the 45min queue. The best part will always be the great views of the castle though!

Ride 6 – Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

Then it was onto the main event and a ride on the Forbidden Journey. This is such a fantastic piece of ride tech. The whole experience from being in front of the castle, the amazing sets in the queue line to the fantastic visuals of the ride, and the seriously fun Robo-ride vehicles. It’s just so good, it’s hard to understand how Universal made this AND Mario Kart.

Ride 7 – Wand Shop

After Forbidden Journey, we still had a little time before lunch so our guide hooked us up with an extra ride. We wanted Simpsons, but as we were in Hogsmeade he got us into Ollivander’s Wand Shop instead. This was a good shout really as there is no Express line here and we can Do Simpsons after the Tour on our Express Pass. We also really like the wand ceremony and had some kids on the tour with us that were really big Harry Potter Fans.

Unfortunately, they didn’t get picked but it’s still really fun seeing the wand pick out its wizard.

Lunch

Then it was time for Lunch. We shouldn’t say this is our favorite part of the tour, but it is such a good Lunch we always look forward to it… a lot. Lunch is held in the Moulin Rouge Restaurant and only VIPs can use this dining location, and it’s the best menu in the park! There is an indoor and outdoor covered seating area and we love dining outdoors with stunning views over the San Fernando Valley.

Foodwise it’s a high-end all-you-can-eat buffet. Having been on the road for nearly 3 weeks now our diet has not been the most healthy and we love the act thee are loads of fresh green vegetable options available. The Salad station has multiple salad options along with Shrimp Cocktail, Fresh Poke, hummus, cheese, and various dips. On top of that, there is Shrimp Scampi, Roast sirloin, Chilli Salmon, Chicken Tenders, Chicken Tika Masala, and various potatoes and vegetables for the main course.

Dessert offers warm fresh baked cookies, Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Ghoclate Gatau, Creme Brulle, and some really nice Gelato. It’s a fantastic Spread and all really good quality. We dined away happily for an hour enjoying the food, free drinks(soft), and amazing views while chatting away with some of the other guests. A great lunch.

We also got to meet Doc and Count Dracula who were both exceptionally entertaining.

VIP Experience – The Studios

We then met up with the rest of our group and our tour guide ready for the main event. We mentioned some awkward members of our group, these had spent the morning badgering the Guide to move along faster and get more done, we are not really sure how we could have gone about this as it was pretty swift and we got everything in that was planned, and more. But for some reason they were unhappy, and we noticed they didn’t even come for lunch. And thankfully they didn’t show up afterwards. We hung around for a short while in case they were just late and then left. It was clear they had ditched the tour and were missing out on the main reasons to actually do VIP. All the other perks are great but they don’t really add up to enough to fully justify the high cost. The VIP Tour of the Studios is what it really is all about and the reason we are happy to pay so much more.

We headed off on the tour and were a little disappointed in the opening segments. Due to Nija Warrior Taking over New York Street, we had no access to this part of the Studio. This is a big deal as there is a lot of really cool stuff in there. We have been before so it was ok, and out of anyone’s control regardless, but a shame all the same.

Instead, the tour headed off to the other live sets such as the lake, the flood, and the Earthquake set. We then did the King King Ride, the Hollywood Cars, Fast and The Furious, Jaws, the Bates Motel, and the War Of The Worlds downed Airliner. It was all pretty cool, but we realized we were basically JUST doing the basic tour. We had not done anything over and above the regular studio tour. Last time we had made 2 or three stops and had been out exploring real sets, but this was basically the same tour as the regular guests receive, only on comfier trams with personal tour guides!

We were about to raise the issue when the guides jumped in and explained, that yes up until now we had just done the regular tour, but while the normal Trams would head back, we now had an extra 30+ mins to do things most people do not get to do!

The first stop was the Props Department. This is new to the tour and really cool. Things in here were so secret we were not allowed to take photos and were actually accompanied by a security guard the whole time! These are all live and in-use props used by actual movies, either existing films or ones being shot in the upcoming months. This is why it was so secret props actually had tags on them declaring which movies they were earmarked for, and some of these were not even fully confirmed movies.

It was really cool and we just got to see a fraction of it.

Following this we headed to an Actual soundstage. Large parts of a studio tour are spent driving around these enormous buildings. However, you rarely get to get out and actually go inside. But again as a new part of the tour, we were allowed access to one of the newest sound stages in the far reaches of the Studio. Inside it was eerily quiet, literally able to hear a pin drop. Our guide spoke in soft tones and we could easily hear them due to the incredible acoustics of the building. And it was BIG, normally a space such as this would echo for ages but it was instead eerily quiet.

We didn’t spend too long here as, well, it was just an empty building, so we boarded the tram again and moved on. This time stopping at Colonial Street. This mock-up of American Suburbia has been used in a lot of shows, far too many to list, basically, any time a generic suburban street is needed, and they are not filming on an actual street they use Colonial Street, but the most iconic production filmed here is Desperate Housewives.

This was one of Kate’s favorite Shows of all time and getting to walk down Wisteria Lane has been a dream of hers for a while. Unfortunately, we did this exact same thing last March so the novelty at least had worn off, but was still really cool and a great end to the Tour.

We then headed back to the Park and got ready to part ways with our Guide. Brogan had been really good but the whole day had not been quite as special as the last VIP tour we took here. Maybe it was the novelty maybe it was the pretty crappy weather (It had remained very grey and overcast but at least the rain held off) or maybe it was the fact Super Nintendo World had consumed so much of our time and was not really worth it! It was probably a combination of all the above, and possibly a little of the fact we were at the very end of a very long USA road trip. But something just felt not as good as last time…

We thought our time with Brogon was done, but instead, he said he would walk us onto one last ride and we all agreed the 75min queue for the Simpsons ride would be one we would like to skip.

Ride 9 – Simpsons The Ride

Once again we were walked right to the front, although we did have Express passes for the rest of the day and onto the ride straight away. The Simpsons ride is really fun, it’s a bit of a stomach churner u so much fun and the humor is really good, as you would expect from the Simpsons, and very apt to the location.

Ride 10 – Transformers – The Ride

After this, we said goodbye to Brogan and ventured out into the park itself. After walking 30+ miles over the last few days we were not looking for any heroics from the rest of the day, we had done most of what we wanted and were just ticking boxes. We headed to Secret Life Of Pets, a ride we really like but the queue had gone mental. Even the Express Pass queue was out the door, probably due to the ride going down, so we decided to skip it. Instead, we headed back down to the Lower Lot for a ride on Transformers again. The Express passes this time getting us on almost instantly.

Ride 11 – Secret Life Of Pets

We then headed back to Secret Life of Pets and got on straight away. This is such a fun ride, and really family-friendly. It’s not really like Universa to have such a Dinsey-esque Dark Ride, but still, it’s really well done and great fun.

Ride 12 – Minion Meyhem

The last ride of the day that was not a Re-Ride was Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem. A fun Simulator ride that transforms you into a Minion and on a crazy adventure through the Lab. Again out Express pass getting us straight on.

Ride 13 – Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey

We decided to end the day in Hogsmeade enjoying some Harry Potter immersion. We obviously re-rose the Forbidden Journey, taking our time in the Queueline to really take in the interior of the castle. Easy to do from the Express Pass line as we slowly wandered around the castle halls.

Outside we took the time to try and soak in the land. The grey overcast weather really helped set the mood. It’s always a bit odd in Summer when the skies are blue and the temps 90°f+ to have snow on the roofs (maybe not so odd after our drive through the Sierra Nevada Earlier?) We really looked around the shops and the back alleys of the land and took it in far deeper than we usually do on our whirlwind visits.

We even tried Butter Beer again and still despised it, they definitely missed a trick with that!

It was by now after 6 pm and we decided enough was enough and we headed out of the park and back towards Valet to pick up the car and head down to our overnight Hotel at the airport.

Hilton – LAX

Our flight was due to leave at 3:40 pm tomorrow but with so much already behind us we decided that we would not plan anything for the final morning and just relax in the hotel before heading for the airport. As such we booked a hotel right by the Airport and headed straight there from Universal.

The drive there was around 25 miles and we left Universal late enough that the traffic had calmed down from rush hour. We arrived at the hotel and decided to Valet as PArking was $45 a night and Valet “only” $55 so not much more and we simply could not be bothered working out the hotel self-parking.

We checked in and received a few benefits due to our Hilton Honors status, chief amongst them was a 12pm check-out and a free breakfast. Unfortunately, we did not get a room upgrade as we were in their top tier for upgrades already with a Runway View.

In the room, I have to say we were pretty unhappy with the Runway view. You could see a runway but was pretty distant and not active, the rooms at the front of the Hotel have much better views and this view off to the side was pretty awful, but we were beyond caring and just settled into the otherwise large and plush room.

For dinner we decided there was only one option…the famous In-N-Out at LAX. So we hopped into the car and headed over. It was fairly quiet, at least for this location and we found parking and got out food in short order before sitting outside watching the planes soar over tucking into our 3×3 Animal Style Burgers. We always miss in and out when not on the East Coast.

After this, we just headed back to the room, made sure everything was in order for the morning and just relaxed for the evening. A rare treat on what has been a seriously epic road trip.

Thinking back to only 3 weeks ago, over in San Francisco, it’s hard to believe the incredible scale and scope of the trip we have just embarked on! Over 1500 Miles through the most incredible and diverse scenery and landscapes imaginable. Just amazing.

Walking Total – 17,395 Steps – 8.8 Miles

While 17,000+ steps and 8.8 miles seem like a pretty hefty day, it’s actually a really light day for a theme park day. One of the reasons we love the VIP tour. While you are still walking around the park, everything is done efficiently and with a purpose. The Guide knows he can walk you onto every ride so can plan the most efficient route, whereas tackling it on your own you are always winging it a little and end up having to Backtrack several times during the day. The complete lack of queueing also minimizes time on your feet so as we left at the end of the day our feet felt SO much better than the last two Disney Days.

Live Blog – Trip Report

<<< Day 19 – Disney California Adventure – Disneyland Fireworks

Day 21 – LAX – London Heathrow – Virgin Atlantic Premium – >>>

As the day dawned on our final day in Las Vegas, so did the realization that our trip was drawing to an end. We still had 5 days left, and an awful lot planned for those days, but the trip really was wrapping up now. This led to a little bit of melancholy, only to be overridden that by the end of the day, we would be back at Disneyland and you can only be HAPPY at Disneyland!

Leaving Vegas

We had a little Hotel credit to use up and figured the best way to do that now was with a great breakfast. We headed to the very pleasant-looking Salt and Ivy Restaurant overlooking the pool. Most breakfast options in the hotel were looking manic with huge queues but at Salt and Ivy, it was fairly short. We were offered seating inside or a long wait for seating outside. we opted for the latter and after a whole 8 minutes, we were shown to our seats.

The outdoor terrace is really nice and we were seated on some comfy garden-style furniture overlooking the pool. The menu was modern American Breakfast, and we ordered Eggs Benedict, and chicken & Waffles. Both were really good and a great end to our stay at the Aria.

We then headed up to our room, packed out gear, and headed out. Down at reception, everything was in order, very much unlike the Cosmo and we were off out the door in minutes as it is meant to be. We still had the long trek back to the Garage, but the desk had given us better directions so we didn’t have to trek all the way through the Aria’s MASSIVE casino.

Back in the car, we noticed the windscreen crack was larger than ever but still not obscuring the driver’s view so we pressed on. We filled up with Gas, paying the lowest price we have all trip from a Station right on the strip, which felt odd.

As we left the City, we had one last stop to make, at the (in)famous Las Vegas Sign. No matter how many times we come to Vegas we still want a quick stop at the sign. We don’t queue for photos but just grab some shots from the sidelines. Then it was goodbye till next time to Las Vegas. We had a couple of stops on the Way to Anaheim but nothing too time-consuming.

7 Magic Mountains

The first stop was the Seven Magic Mountains. An art installation on the outskirts of Vegas. This has become quite a draw for tourists and honestly, we don’t know why. This is the first time we have made it here, and only as we were passing directly by. It’s just some painted rocks piled on top of each other and not worth a trip unless you are passing. The good news is it’s right on the I-15 the most often used route into Vegas so it’s a fun stop if you are going by but otherwise skip it.

It did make us think about neolithic stone monuments around the world such as stone henge, they don’t really know why the ancient people went to such effort to build these monuments, they are assumed to have a deep cultural or religious significance, but what if they were just built to lure tourists out to try and scalp them for tickets to a show or some cheap merchandise? Probably not, but it’s what we do now!

Back on the road, we pulled off at Jean. not for any real reason just to stop at the same petrol station the wolfpack used in the Hangover Movie.

Primm

Our final stop-off for the day was Primm. This is the closest town to the California Border and the first place California residents can stop at to gamble. If they just can’t make the extra 40 or so miles to Vegas Primm is a very poor alternative. We really don’t know how places like this still survive but we wanted to make a quick stop just for one reason.

Fallout. If you are not a Gamer this will make no sense but one of my favorite ever Game Franchises is the Fallout Series. I just love the dystopian post-apocalyptic worlds created in the series and one of the best Titles is Fallout New Vegas. One of the most recognizable destinations of the Game is the small town of PRIMM.

There isn’t much there, just an old Casino and a roller coaster, and that’s pretty much true about the game, and today! I just wanted a shot in front of Buffalo Bills with its iconic rollercoaster and then we were off.

The next part of the journey was a non-stop pull all the way to Anaheim. We passed the incredible Ivanpah Solar Power Station, which is straight out of a Sci-Fi movie, and through the desert all the way to Anaheim. Traffic was not great and as we headed through the Cajon pass the traffic crawled to a halt. As we headed into Los Angeles the Radio came alive with traffic reports all promising doom and gloom on the roads, but we seemed to carve a path through the chaos and arrived in Anaheim in pretty good time.

Kings Inn Anaheim

Arriving at Anaheim we checked into our regular Disney accommodation. We love the King’s Inn, it’s really modest but clean, comfortable, and minutes away from the Gates. For the price it’s unbeatable and we just can’t always justify the cost of a Disney hotel when we Visit the resort so often.

Our room was handily located right at the front of the resort, near the Rooftop Terrace which offers modest views of the fireworks. There isn’t a lot to say about the Inn, it really is just a bed to sleep in when we are not in the parks

Downtown Disney

After Checking in we headed off to Downtown Disney. We both wanted to check out the Disney 100 Medaloons and Kate wanted to hunt out some Merch. I just wanted a Big Burger and a beer at Black Tap Craft Burgers.

The first stop was the World of Disney Shop. Kate had plans to put out Vegas winnings to good use, but in the end, there was not much on offer that took her fancy. We did pick up a New Magic Band+ to try at the Disney 100 Celebrations.

Then it was over to Black Crafy Burgers. We got the Truffle Burger and the Greg Normal along with a Craft beer, a nice Blood Orange IPA. The burgers were seriously good and while we really wanted Crazy Shake we just didn’t have the room.

Instead, we headed off to look for the 100 medallions, and tbh we were really disappointed. Each medallion simply did the same thing and flickery of fairy dust around the outside edge and tinkling sound to match. It was very underwhelming.

Better was our Visit to Topanga Terrace where we grabbed Dole Whip float with Rum! We love Dolewhip and we, obviously, love rum too so this is the perfect Drink/Dessert!

After this, we headed back to the Hotel, after a quick stop in The Disney Dress Shop which fortunately still offered nothing Kate wanted to buy. Here we just relaxed for a while before heading out and watching the Disneyland Fireworks from the Terrace.

An early night was on the cards as we had a really early start and a BIG day tomorrow!

Walking Total – 11,714 Steps – 5.9 Miles

With a lot of driving today we didn’t do too much walking but a respectable 6 miles is not bad considering how much time we spent in the car. We had a feeling the next two days would more than makeup for any light days!

Live Blog – Trip Report

<<< Day 16 – Go City Las Vegas – Madame Tussauds – Fly Over Las Vegas – High Roller – and more…

Day 18 – Disneyland – New Rides – New Shows – Dessert Party – 18+ Rides! >>>

Today was a BUSY day. We had to return the GTR, Check-out of the Cosmo, Try-out a new Buffet, and a new part of Las Vegas, Check-into the Aria, Spend some serious time on the Casino floor, make use of the Go City Las Vegas Pass we bought, and maybe even grab some time at the poo. There was a lot to do and a lot going on so we got up nice and early to get going!

Eggslut

Today we headed for Eggslut nice and early to try and beat the queues, and while the line was a little shorter than yesterday, it was still pretty hectic for breakfast sandwiches. It took around 15 minutes to line up and then another 5-10 to get our order. We ordered the GAUCHO SANDWICH* and the Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Sandwich, with Truffle Hash Browns as a Side.

There is very limited seating in the venue but there are general-use tables in the vicinity that can be used. Overall, we don’t really see what the fuss is about. These are nice Breakfast sandwiches, but they are only slightly fancier versions of McMuffins really. The Hash Browns were pretty special though, even if they have probably never seen a real truffle in their lives. We also managed to spend a whopping $65 on a couple of breakfast sandwiches, which is not really great value and made us really happy this was going to be charged as resort Credit!

After this, we headed back to our room to prepare to leave. We had a late check-out at 4 PM but really had no intention of staying any longer than necessary. Having packed things up we left the cases in the room and took the GTR out for one last drive before we returned it to its Pick-up location. After filling it up with Premium and following the very specific return instructions, we dropped the car off, again photographing everything, and then grabbed an Uber back to the Cosmo, being very careful to avoid the Chaos on the strip.

We then grabbed our stuff and headed to Check-Out. Ready to butt heads again with the staff we waited in line for 15 mins in the Priority queue, we can’t remember the last time we had to queue to check out, and we noticed every single person was with each assistant for an inextricable long period of time.

Once at the Desk, we found out why. The Agents just couldn’t use the system and our entire bill was wrong. Another real failure of the Cosmo. All the Credits that should have been applied to our account were not applied and we had been charged for everything! The Agents quickly confirmed this was a mistake, but it then took nearly 30mins to actually have the charges taken off. We then had one final try to see if we could get some kind of non-robotic response to our complaint about why we had not received an upgrade and how we had been repeatedly lied to about it, focussing mainly on why we had received such an inconsistent answer and treatment.

No such luck they just wanted to keep repeating the same thing at us and not actually have a coherent conversation in the English language. In the end, they did let slip what we already knew. There WAS availability, They were just not willing to give it to us as we were not a high-enough Tier on their Loyalty program, Identity, and they were saving those rooms for people on a higher tier. Maybe if they had just said that from the start things would have been better. It’s not the answer we wanted, but it was honest at least!

Anyway, after they tried to regurgitate the whole saga once more to try and explain how we had been lied to, we cut them off, last chance had been had and we just wanted out. So we paid the final remainder of the bill and left. Probably never to return unless we sense serious change has occurred. We loaded up the car and headed out.

Palms Casino

The first stop was the Palms Casino. The plan was to try out the AYCE Buffet on their spectacular Lobster Wednesday Buffet. All-you-can-eat lobster for 90mins. Only actually getting a seat at the Buffet is problematic. Apparently, no one at the Palms has heard of Open-Table and instead, they have the most bizarre and time-consuming “system” in place that makes getting a seat almost an endurance sport!

There are two options for getting a Table, The first is to queue for the first 2 PM Sitting. This gets you into the Buffet when it opens at two and gets you 90mins of all-you-can-eat. This is limited to 300 people. The second option once the 2 pm seating is full is to join the Mobile waitlist, once on this you will receive a message when your table is ready and you can come back to the Buffet to be seated. This doesn’t sound too bad, however…

The line for the 2 pm seating opens at 12 pm. So you need to be in line and pay for your Buffet then and then return at 2 pm to be seated. This Buffet is VERY popular and the Line for the 12 pm opening starts to form around 10:30 pm and begins filling up fast after 11 pm, which is when we joined. By 11:15 it was stretching around the Casino and was well over the 300 people who would get the initial seating at 2 pm. The rest, once on the Waitlist, would get to eat at some unspecified time in the future…maybe.

It was pure madness, the staff were running around shouting at people, who just looked bemused and confused. “it’s all on the Website” they barked, but it isn’t. There is some Vague mention of a waitlist but no specifics of how it works or how to get on it. You are just left to piece things together from forum posts and such.

Anyway with out 2 pm Seating confirmed we left the Palms and went to do other things but lots of people simply got in the queue for the 2 pm seating. This meant they were queueing for 3+ hours for some lobster! The people not lucky enough to get on the list had to wait around killing time in the vague hope they would get a callback…What is wrong with the normal way of just booking a reservation at a TIME! that way you can plan your day properly.

If we were not running the Blog and only dining here to help bring you this information we would in no way have been willing to sacrifice so much time for such an idiotic procedure! We like Lobster but DAMN!

Area 15

Just down the road from the Palms is the New Area 15 Area of the City. We were not 100% sure what this place was so headed over to check it out. There are several parts to the location, but our time was pretty limited and we couldn’t do many of the attractions available.

We headed to the Illumination Experience as this was included on our Go City Pass. This was quite fun, but the effects are really only so-so and not very convincing. We love the floor effects such as Butterflies scattering when you walk, puddles splashing and animal footprints following you around.

The main attraction is the Meow Wold-Omega Mart, an Interactive Art installation based around a supermarket. The installation uses Simpsons-style humor, over-exaggerating real-life quirks of the American tendencies to overindulge and over-hype everything. As you explore this surreal and highly caricatured space you can solve clues and follow a narrative to discover extra locations and secret spaces including a Speak-Esy-style Cocktail Bar. This is really fun, but it’s very busy and most people seemed to not solve clues and just follow the other people.

It’s all a bit odd and we are not sure we “got it” or it’s just not our thing. It felt very much like it was trying to seem clever but just felt cliche to us.

There are several other things going on and none of it that interesting to us. The location seems to split people with some loving the quirky surrealism, and others thinking it’s a bit of a waste of time, we tend to follow the latter view.

AYCE Lobster Buffet

After this diversion, we headed back to the Palms ready for our 2 pm seating. Back at the Buffet and the line to enter at 2 pm was humongous, stretching the entire length of the Casino and blocking the entrance to the Beauty Salon. It was madness, and we were e15min early. The queue continued to grow as the Large Female Security Guard repeatedly shouted at us telling us not to worry as the line will move fast.

Staggeringly once the line started moving the Wait Staff got the entire line into the Bufet and seated in around 10mins. We got out table and our server brought us soft drinks and a variety of Lobster Tools and a Bucket for the Shells. Off we went to join the Queue for the Lobsters.

The Queue is limited to One Whole Lobster and One Tail Each per serving. You can queue up and come back as many times as you like. The queue for the Lobster was around 5 mins, but after 10mins of the seating this had dropped, and often it was just a walk-up. The Lobster itself was pretty varied in quality. My first one was awful. The tail meat was ok but the Claws were completely shriveled up and dry. The Lobster Tail was pretty good though and was drowned in Drawn Butter and was still moist and tender. Kate’s Whole Lobster was better and the claws were still full and tasty. After a second round both our lobsters were middle of the road.

An All you can eat Buffet is never going to offer fantastic Quality as it’s cooked to a price and in bulk meaning no individual lobster is going to get the same time and temperature of cooking. But the Whle Lobsters were still pretty disappointing, even if the Tails were actually really good. Our Advice is just to stick to the Tails.

Outside of the Lobster the Buffet was really good. There was an Excellent Calving Station, lots of Shrimp and Crabs Legs, and other seafood. Some great Brisket and Crispy Pork Belly and lots of homey America Classic Dishes.

The Desserts were also nice, but after the Lobster Queues died down the Dessert Queues seemed to build. There were lots of Tastly Treats and we particularly liked the Dole Whip, after all, Dole Whip rocks!

Check-In to Aria

Full to the brim we headed off to check-in to the Aria. We always like to switch hotels just so we can keep up to date with as many hotels as possible. After our disappointing experience at the Cosmo, we were hoping for a smoother check-in. The trek from the Parking lot was pretty grueling, but once at the Check-in Desk things started going better. There were once again no Room Upgrades available, but we had booked a stip view and aside from a Suite, there were no better rooms anyway. Our assistant got us a nice high floor and good location so all was good. Again we had booked through the Amex so got some nice perks. Free breakfast each day and $100 in Credit.

We headed up to the room and despite being a little smaller than the Cosmo it was really nice and very high-tech. The view is nothing to write home about but we were really happy with the Hotel so far. We were heading out tonight but decided we wanted a bit of downtime so headed for the Pool.

Hitting the Pool

We headed down to the wonderful Aria Pool Oasis. It was surprisingly quiet and we found a spot right by the water in the sun and enjoyed a few hours just smoking it all in. The drinks were extremely expensive but about the going rate for high-end Vegas pools.

The Aria Deck is really nice, it’s a large deck and is now well-planted and quite lush. It used to be a little concrete but as the years have gone by the gardens have really matured and now there are large trees and green shrubs helping make the area feel more tropical and relaxing.

After some much-needed downtime, we headed back to the room to get ready for the evening. Due to the time it took to get into the Buffet, we had really not used the Go City pass at all so we needed to visit a few attractions to get the value up.

Fly Linq Zipline

First up was the Fly Linq Zip-line. We love this attraction and took the opportunity to ride it at night. The Zipline is not too scary and even Kate, who does not always like scary rides is happy to zip along over the Linq Promenade.

The whole process is really quick and it took less than 30 mins from start to finish. The Attraction was really quiet and we got to ride just the two of us and had a great time.

Eifell Tower

After the Zipline, we explore the Strip a little and even headed into the Flamingo Nature Reserve at the Flamingo. Things were a little too natural as we watched the evening inhabitants (Rats), take over the place, mopping up any food missed during the day. We suppose this is the natural order and it’s better than them being in your room!

After that, we worked our way back down the strip and stopped off at the Eiffel Tower. This 460ft Observation deck often gets a bit of stick but we love it and it has one of the best views in Vegas, especially at night and we even got to see a fountain show at the Bellagio.

Again this is a quick attraction and we were up and down again in less than 45 mins. From here we headed back to the Aria as we had some serious gambling to do! We were honestly not fussed about food, so we just grabbed a Chick-Fil-A on the way back.

Aria Gambling – Free Play Wins!

We headed back to the Aria to use our $150 Freeplay that we got through My Vegas. This was $100 regular Freeplay, linked to our paid stay, along with 2x $25 MyKonami free play. As always with Freeplay we try and win back the overall amount meaning $150 free money, but we always cross our fingers and hope for a BIG win.

We started off with a quick play on a Thindercash, which went poorly and nothing wanted to pay out until the last roll where we hit the bonus and won a measly $25. We also really struggled for drinks in this location and had to really hang around to get served.

After this, we headed over to one of our favorite Games the Gods of Olympus. These have always done well for us and tend to pay lots of small amounts out so we can build up the Freeplay payback. After a good, while slowly building up our profits Kae hit the Bonus and started collecting the coins. Slowly filling in the screen until there was just one coin left to collect for the $10,000 grand jackpot!

First spin, missed, second spin…missed, third spin for $10k…

…Missed.

So close, but a lot of fun. In the end, we had done what we planned and walked away with $145 in real money from the $150 free play. We had already won $45 and had another $50 tomorrow, so all was going well. We also got through 3 free Martinis while we were playing so all in it was a really successful night.

Go City Las Vegas Pass – Day 1 of 2

• Attractions – 3
  • Illumination Experiences at AREA15- $29
  • FlyLinq – $36.50
  • Eiffel Tower Experience – $27.25
• Attraction Cost – $106.75
• Total Attraction Cost (2-Days) – $106.75
• Pass Cost – $159
• Savings – $-52.25

Overall we didn’t feel like we had done much at all this day as far as the Pass went. The Buffet just took so long and we had loads of downtime at the pool. We also quit early to head to the Casino, yet er managed to do three attractions that cost nearly 2 thirds the price of the Pass. Tomorrow should save us a ton as we really have a lot planned!

Walking Total – 18,179 Steps – 9.6 Miles

A big day for steps and we are not even sure why! This was one of those days we didn’t really go anywhere but still racked up big numbers. Tomorrow would not help either as we had a really big day planned.

Live Blog – Trip Report

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Day 16 – Go City Las Vegas – Madame Tussauds – Fly Over Las Vegas – High Roller – and more… >>>