Today we had planned to visit the Universal Studios Hollywood. Because Hollywood is the place-to-be when it is about movies we expected a lot from this park, but we heard from people in the bus yesterday that this park is less than Universal in Orlando. So we were thinking, okay…… But we had to see it ourselves.

Because of traffic we arrived later as expected at the Universal Studios, at about 11:00 a.m. We parked our car in the parking garage and walked through the Universal City Walk to the entrance of the Universal Studios. First thing to do was the Studio Tour. They said the waiting times was approximately 30 minutes but in the end we waited over more than one hour. Then the tour begins. You drive through the real studios of Universal but there is not much more to see than just buildings. There were some nice scenes/attraction in the tour like King Kong, Jaws, Disaster and we also saw some really nice sets like from Desperate housewives and War of the Worlds. After one hour the tour was finished and we looked at the map what to do next. We were too late for the first show of Water World, so we went to Transformers.

Transformers is an attraction compared with the Spiderman ride in the Universal Studios in Orlando which attraction they do not have here in Hollywood. As the waiting line at the Mummy was not that long, we put our backpack in a locker and stepped into the waiting line. This ride is actually even better than the one in Orlando but really short.

After the Mummy all the attractions (except for Jurassic Park) in de Lower Level were done so we went back up with the escalators to the upper level. Because we really wanted to see the Water World show there was really nothing else we could do, so we went for a drink and waiter for Water World to begin. I must say, the show was good for a theme park. But when you know there were actors in it from shows like CSI and bones….. hmmmmm, it wasn’t that good.

We decided we had seen enough from Universal and we left the park and drove towards Santa Monica to visit the world-famous Santa Monica Pier. This sounds easier than it was. Because of all the traffic it took very long until we arrived but we soon found a parking spot not to far from the Pier. We walked over the beach (which has a road on it for cyclist, inline-skaters) to the Pier. The Pier is very nostalgic and also the end of the Historical Route 66.

We walked all the way to the end of the Pier where you have a very nice view at the Pacific Ocean. Slowly we walked around the whole Pier and back over the beach to the car.

Then it was time for a little shopping, but it took very long to get there because of traffic, but we did and survived. Tonight we had dinner at a new place for us called Johnny Rockets. They really have great shakes and burgers and all you can eat fries, but you won´t need it because the shakes are so heavy.

As soon dinner was over we drove back to the hotel.

Like I mentioned yesterday today was going to be a very busy day. We woke up early and got ready to leave for the VIP LA Tour. After breakfast the bus picked us up at the hotel and brought us to the bus terminal where we transferred to our bus to get started with the LA Tour.

Our tour guide told us what the plan was for today and we headded for downtown Los Angeles. As we drove to downtown we saw the prison where Lindsay Lohan went to jail and drove over the highway which had been used in the films Speed and Transformers (the first one).

After about 30 minutes we arrived at the financial district of LA where you find the buildings of The Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citi Bank and of course the World Trade Center. We made a quick stop to take some pictures of the high buildings and went further to the Disney Concert Hall, which is a big, silver building and it looks amazing. We also saw City Hall, Criminal Court, Los Angeles Police Department etc. On our way to Hollywood we saw the Los Angeles Convention Center (which is one of the biggest convention centers of the USA) and the Staples Center (home of the LA Lakers).

Next stop was Hollywood Boulevard. We had a stop here from about one hour to see the Dolby Theater (former Kodak Theater and host of the annual Academy Awards), the Chinese Theater (with the hand- and footprints in front if it), view at the Hollywood sign and of course the Walk of Fame. We took a lot of pictures here and it is really busy a this part of Hollywood Boulevard.

When the hour was over all the participants went back in the bus and the tour guide took us to Sunset Boulevard where we saw the apartment of Julia Roberts in the movie Pretty Woman, as also later the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Rodeo Drive.

We saw several famous buildings and houses all the way over Sunset Boulevard. Then we drove into Beverly Hills and saw a couple of really big houses and cars. The tour guide also told us so me stories about the rich and famous like that Bernie Eccklestone bought the most expensive property in Beverly Hills which would be the former house if Aron Spelling, which he bought for 123.000.000$ as a wedding gift for his 24-year-old daughter.

Next thing was driving over Rodeo Drive and see all the expensive stores from Louis Vuitton, Harry Winston, Cartier, Prada, Gucci and many more. At the end of Rodeo Drive you will find the expensive Beverly Wilshire hotel (known from Pretty Woman).

Because Rodeo Drive is so expensive we went to the Farmers Market to get lunch. We had sushi for lunch and shopped a little bit. This was the end of our tour and the tour guide brought us back to our hotel.

The tour was great and showed us everything we wanted to see in downtown Los Angeles.

We took a little nap at the hotel and at about 4:15 p.m. we left the hotel and went for dinner. Because everyone is so positive about In-N-Out-Burger we went to such a place. The burgers were good but all the rest was so-so.

Now it was time for Mickey’s Halloween Party at the Disneyland Park. The parking for this event was free and soon we met Gina & Glenn in the Park after we got the bracelets and the bags to collect the treats.

First we did the Matterhorn and next stop was to take a picture we Merida from the latest movie Brave. We could not miss It’s a small World so this was the next attraction of the evening. Then we wet back to Town Square where all the Villains were standing and we took as much picture as we could.

Now it was time for the parade, and because it was so low-crowded today we saw the parade in Main Street USA. the parade was a tiny one with only 2 floats and a lot of characters including Duffy. Soon after that it was time for the Halloween Fireworks which started at 09:30 p.m. Hosted by Jack Skellington.

After the fireworks there was only one hour left and we went for Photopass photos. We saw Jack Skellington, unfortunately without Sally, and Mickey and Minnie in their Halloween-outfits. At 11-o-clock the Halloween Party was over and we said goodbye to Gina & Glenn and went back to our hotel.

Tomorrow is also going to be a busy, because we’re going to visit the Universal Studios in Hollywood.