So today’s post I thought I would give you my tips and experiences from my visit to America, where I visited Anaheim in March 2017. This was part of a trip with my university course (there will be a part 2 focused on my time in Los Angeles). So I hope you enjoy part 1, happy reading!
The flight was from London Heathrow and I thought that it was a pleasant experience considering it is the biggest airport in the UK and normally I would fly from Birmingham International which is a lot smaller. There was plenty of places to eat (although as expected did come with a big price tag), places to shop and browse before your flight. Everything went very smoothly and there was no delays.
My flight lasted roughly 9 hours 45 minutes, despite it originally planned to take 11 hours 10 minutes (which was an added bonus after an early set off at 3am). I arrived around 3pm at LAX which was rather weird, as it was the first time I had encountered an 8 hour time difference. At the airport there was a long delay getting through security and passport control, eventually taking over 1 hour. By the time we had all grouped together, we got an Uber to our hotel based in Anaheim, called Kings Inn Anaheim (Uber was our preferred travel for long distances as it works out cheaper if you are in a group). Take a look at some of the amazing views from the flight:
From the Airport it was around a 1 hour 10 minute journey to the hotel due to peak time traffic, which was ok as it meant I was able to have a look at the surroundings. The hotel cost around £60 a night and I shared a room with two other people which made it much more affordable. It was around the corner from restaurants, a 15 minute walk to the gate of Disneyland and a 10-15 minute walk to the Anaheim Convention Center it was the best location for us (even better that it also had a hot tub and a pool).
My first night consisted of going out for food as a group and unpacking, as we was going to be here for five nights before moving to Los Angeles for the remainder of the trip. For food locations there was something to cater for everyone including, Chinese, IHOP, Denny’s, Bubba Gump and a CVS & 7-Eleven if you were just after a sandwich or snacks.
The first day in Anaheim was one of my favourite days from the entire trip, I went to DISNEYLAND. As a major Disney fan and going to the original Disneyland it was just incredible. It took around a 15 minute walk to get to the gates of Adventureland and Disneyland, I had purchased a ticket for Disneyland as I wanted to see the castle and the fireworks at the end of the evening. Although if I had been there for an extra day, I would have loved to have gone to Adventureland too.
I went on all the rides I had wanted too from Peter Pan, the Haunted Mansion, It’s a Small World, Goofy’s Drive School and so many more. Something that stunned me the most about Disneyland after visiting Alton Towers for over 10 years I had become accustomed to the long queues most of the time taking over 1 hour. However, I don’t feel I ever queued too long, especially considering the amount of people at the park.
Food at the park was somewhat how you would expect, unhealthy, fried and expensive food. But for my first day I didn’t seem to mind (the one thing I loved was the size of the meals as it reduced the amount I needed to buy and kept me fuller for longer).
The evening ended with fireworks by the castle, which was great! The best firework display I have ever seen (and even better that from the hotel at night you could see the display too). Even though Disneyland was a dream come true and I loved it, it was a very exhausting day. You spend around 10-11 hours here and I do not recommend doing it the day after you arrive and being jet-lagged. If I was to do it again I would have preferred to have gone a few days later so I could enjoy it even more. Have a look below at some of the pictures from the day:
The following three days was spent at WonderCon at the Anaheim Convention Center and the reason I was on this trip with my university. As someone who has never really took an interest in Comic Cons, I must say I was pleasantly surprised and it has completely changed my view on attending them in the future (just maybe different ones).
As I knew how expensive it was inside Disneyland, on my walk over to the Convention Center, I passed a CVS that sold sandwiches crisps and drinks. This was something that I did for my remaining time in Anaheim and something I did in Los Angeles too. I was saving at least $5-10 dollars each time by purchasing food from a store than when out and about. It also gave me a break from the food at night as compared to food in the UK it was very greasy and heavy.
The Convention Center itself was great and had so much to look at and different panels to attend, the fact I had three days there meant I was in no rush. One thing that I found to be great was the air con in the building, as at that time of the year it was around 20+ degrees so it was nice to go into a cool building. Although I would recommend taking a jumper/jacket as after an hour of being in the main hall I was cold and found myself wondering outside to heat up on the first day.
Some of the stalls and panel talks were great and even found myself enjoying my time here. I met fans of Back to the Future, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and sat watching the panel of the new Prison Break along with the premiere episode, which was awesome.
Although I really enjoyed my time at WonderCon, I can’t see myself wanting to attend in the near future, as I feel like it would have to be a spectacular panel to make me want to go. Otherwise, I don’t feel like much would change each year except the panels. But I would have a look at other Comic Cons to see what they had to offer. Have a look at some of the images that I took during the convention:
After the convention had ended, the next day I left to move onto our next part of my trip to Los Angeles, which will be in my America Part 2.
I really hope you enjoyed the insight into my experience and tips for visiting Anaheim, including visiting Disneyland and WonderCon. Don’t forget to like, comment and share your travelling tips too.
Part 2 will be coming soon!
The B Word 
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