With a respectable 9am start, our group hit the road for the first time together. A tour group is always a fascinating thing to be part of to see the dynamics, but on our first morning we didn’t really get a sense, as we were on a larger public bus to our first destination, rather than in a smaller mini-bus exclusively for us. And boy were we starting with a big destination today. In just 3 hours we were going to be arriving at the famous Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza.

Chichen Itza is the main reason people probably come to this part of the world (outside of the boozing up in Cancun) and it was amazingly exciting to be heading there first up. I mean, it’s one of the 7 Wonders of the World! It was also one of the main reasons for the trip as a whole. I mean sure, Vegas and Disneyland are fun… but they were things on the way to where we were shortly to be.

Arriving we were taken by the fact we didn’t think there were that many people. Sure it would have been in the hundreds, but we were expecting to fight crowds as we arrived. Instead, as we walked in the grounds, we were greeted with this…

There it was! The iconic pyramid called El Castillo. While this was on our list of places to visit in the world, it’s also one of those things you just don’t think you may ever see with your own eyeballs. It was truly incredible.

We then embarked on a 3 hour guided tour of the whole grounds by our guide for the day Fillipe. He was a great older guy who had been doing this since 1974. He was super smart and full of knowledge, but also quite funny.

What was incredible though was that he could talk about the times when you could actually climb inside the main pyramid to see the inner pyramids. Those days are long gone sadly (but understandably), but to be hearing about it from him was great.

You might think 3 hours was a long time, but the whole Chichen Itza site was quite huge, and the time flew by. We saw where ceremonial games were played (and the requisite beheadings for either the victorious captain, or losing one… history is a bit fuzzy on that). We visited a cenote, a giant sinkhole effectively, caused by collapsed limestone. In fact this is part of the literal translation of Chichen Itza… “at the mouth of the well of the wizards of water”.

There were also other ruins scattered all around the site. One of the most impressive was an ancient Mayan astronomy… the only rounded building that was lined up perfectly for equinoxes and solstices.

Sadly our tour was up, but we still had some more time to wander the site and get some more photos. We were really appreciative of having such a long amount of time at the site.

Looking through the photos we seem to have so many similar pics, especially of the main pyramid. But it was one of those thinns where you would catch a different angle, with some different light and be amazed again. Breathtaking.

Alas, our time was up, and we had to board a bus to our destination for the next two days. The colonial city of Merida awaited!

We arrived just in time for a late-ish dinner, so it was a quick bag drop off and a combined orientation walk and dinner. I instantly embraced Merida much more than Cancun. It felt charming and colonial and a part of Mexcio you only read about.

Another group dinner and this time a tasty local cocktail (I need to remember the name of the main ingredients, but some kind of local leaf) led us to wind up the night, to get some rest for our Merida adventures tomorrow.

Hello again!

When we left you last I was catching up on posts while settling in after arriving at Cancun. We were too tired to do anything, so just settled in for the night. However we had a free day before starting our G Adventures tour, so after a very late start decided to hit the town.

When we mentioned we were going to Cancun, some people gave us strange looks… their understanding of the city being a bunch of drunken tourists raving on the beach. I was not sure if we were going to be seeing that, but our afternoon stroll confirmed that it (thankfully) wasn’t going to be the case.

We were staying in the start hotel for our tour, which was located not on the beach, but in downtown Cancun. And I imagine there is quite a contrast to where we were staying and the beach strip. While downtown Cancun was fine, it much more resembles what you think of Mexico, rather than Cancun as such. Street vendors, run down buildings, lots of cervesa being drunk on the street.

It was great to now feel like we were in Mexico, but alas there was not too much to see. Christmas was in full force, but otherwise, downtown Cancun is not somewhere I imagine many tourists spending much time.

That was fine, we settled into a sidewalk eatery and ordered tacos and beer. What else do you do on a warm Saturday afternoon? And it was delicious. I imagine that is something I will be saying quite a bit, but it was nice to have some chorizo tacos and ice cold beer. Mmm.

From there we wandered the rest of the arvo then back to the hotel, to meet our tour group for the first time. The eclectic bunch of Aussies, Germans, Brits, a Chinese lass, and a Hong Kong lad that we were was a good range of ages, one in which some fun will be had. Deiber, our Costa Rican tour leader was young and full of enthusiasm. Over a group dinner we all got to know each other a little better, but just enough to fill our bellies and then head back for the night for the next early rise.

Oh, and time enough to wander Cancun some more and share in our first group Mescal shots 🙂

I think I’m caught up folks! Don’t worry, no more Disney from here on in… tomorrow we head to Chichen Itza! Woo! To say I am excited is a bit of an understatement.

Posts when I can!

Today was our last day at Disneyland before heading south. We had actually done most of what we wanted, so today was about finalising some gifts and doing the last few things we had missed or wanted to do again. Rather than bombard you with more ramblings, let me summarise it a bit more this time…

1. Magic Mornings

So we had a “magic morning” this morning, which is early entry on one day if you have a four day or more ticket. We used it this morning, and gets you in an hour early. To be honest, not sure it was too worth it. Only 2 lands are open, and as quite a few people have early entry you don’t save too much time. We did walk straight on to Astro Blasters though, where I got to be placed in the top 10! At least for a little bit anyway. What magic morning did help for was lining up early for some things that usually take forever.

2. Princess Photos

Like Princess photos! This is usually 75-90 minute wait, but with the early entry Kate was lined up just before 9am, and got in pretty quickly. So she got to indulge in photos with Cinderalla, Snow White and Aurora. Nice to see the classics get some respect! I of course had to get at least one photo…

3. Radiator Springs Racers Fast Pass (and Park Hopping is Good)

We found out that California Adventures has magic morning on Wednesdays, which explained the crazy line for fast passes for Radiator Springs Racers yesterday. All the early entry people could line up! Well, we park hopped at about 9:30am over to get some fast passes for ourselves. Tip… get yourself a fast pass first thing in the morning. We had to line up but it went super quick and got passes for mid afternoon. Perfect!

4. Shopping at Disneyland

The next thing was to finalise all our shopping. Here is a big tip. We found that Disneyland will ship anything you buy in the park home for you. It costs, but we were able to send quite a bit of stuff back for about $50. Soooo much better than shlepping around everywhere! And they told us if there is ANY hassles they will sort it out… that they take full responsibility and insure it. Win! Everything sent was itimised, so this sounds like the way to go I have to say. Remember this one!

5. Be Prepared for Ride Closures

Next tip… if you have time to do a ride you really want to do, then DO IT. I think over the past few days almost EVERY ride was closed at some point. This was hammered home when we went back to Radiator Springs only to find the ride closed when we had our fast passes. Sad face. But we were able to get straight back on later in the day IF it opened. Fingers crossed! Well, OK, you know from the pic further above… it did reopen 🙂

But still, we missed out on Toy Story Mania for a third time (we did get on for a second time) because it had to close. So you are warned!

6. Disneyland Resort has good Shopping

If you want more gift ideas, Disneyland Resort has some quite cool stores. Lots of different Disney stuff, including some great artwork. They also have a big Lego store where you can buy any colours and types of bricks you want! Nice.

7. Trader Sam’s is Awesome and Evil

Our last thing we wanted to do was visit Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar at the Disneyland Hotel. We knew it was all tiki themed but also did crazy things when some drinks were ordered. Drinks? Kitsch? Of course we had to go!

We were super tired and knew we had an early morning the next to get to the airport. But surely one drink wouldn’t hurt? And of course it had to be triple shot of run cocktail in a Zombie Head mug! How could I not get that? And boy it went down easy. I knew it was strong and going to kick me later, but it was exactly what I needed. Kate had a rum cocktail to in a special mug, a Hippo-Poto-Mai-Tai, which was also super strong and tasty.

Next thing we knew we were ordering more drinks. Uh oh. An different mai-tai for Kate, and another souvenir tiki mug for me. This was going to get rough. Tasty, but rough.

We loved being in the tiki bar, there was things going off everywhere and everyone was having a great time. Even though we were well boozed up from our two strong drinks each, we knew to call it a night.

Farewell Disneyland! For the time being anyway…

Hello again!

This post, like the previous one will be going up a bit late. While I would normally do it all each night, time and the need for some sleep is getting the better of me. Plus these posts are going to be pretty much all Disney (with an exception here).

Today started pretty early, with us planning on getting to California Adventures again nice and early. But I tell ya, it was a struggle this morning. We are slowly catching up on sleep but given we have been pushing it each day, so 7 hours or so a night isn’t really cutting it at the moment. Oh well, what can you do.

We got there on 9am, and the plan first thing was to get fastpasses to Radiator Springs Racers. Well, best laid plans. The queue just for fastpasses was almost an hour itself! “Forget that” we both said and checked out what to do next.

Soaring California was a ride that wasn’t really on our radar but given the small wait time I decided to give it a crack. Kate decided to pass given it was a flight simulator, and simulating more flying was not exactly her idea of a fun ride. So in I went to embark on a solo mission. Basically, we were belted into a suspended seat and stuck in front of a massive screen, then moved around to simulate flying over parts of California. It was quite nice, and the size of the screen made it super immersive, but in the end I was more keen to get back to some of the other attractions…

… Toy Story Mania being the main one. We missed this the previous day given it had no fast pass and the wait was usually a while. But today we settled into the queue to get some action. The wait was not too long by some standards, and when we got in we went crazy. Like Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, this was a carriage ride of shooting at targets, but even better.

Wearing 3D glasses, it played out like a carnival tent, going from game to game, furiously pulling our cords to fire our guns at the targets in each mini-game. Holy cow it was great fun! By the end we were exhausted from getting into it so much, and were without a doubt we would be back.

A visit back to A Bugs Life was in order to go on some of the remaining small rides. One was a bit teacups-esque, spinning around in a lady beetle. With Kate’s aversion to all things spinny, I went solo again. Fun, but probably much more fun if I was 6.

The Tower of Terror on the other hand demanded another go, and with no queue in I ran. Ah, there is nothing like being on a ride where your stomach spends considerable time in your throat.

It was only a bit after lunch so we decided to head back into Disneyland. This was the beauty of the park hopper pass, and the parks being literally 30 seconds walk from each other. We had a bunch more to do in Disneyland, so in we ran to knock off some more rides!

Without going into all the details, we ran around like loons… judging line sizes and chasing characters. We did Pirates of the Caribbean, where the old-school feel of the ride was only changed by the occasional presence of a suspiciously Johnny Depp looking pirate. Splash Mountain was then in order. It was warm enough in case of getting too wet, but fortunately some young asian girls copped the brunt of the water, for which we thanked them immensely when the ride was done.

There was also a bunch of the storybook rides like Pooh, Pinocchio and the like that, while a bit lame for someone my age, are still kinda kitschy fun to go on. Pooh, Eeyore and co were about, so took the opportunity for photos. But this was mostly waiting for our fast pass time for Indy to arrive, which it did so on we jumped.

To be honest I had much fonder memories of this than what I experienced going on it 15 years later. I remembered a crazy jeep ride with many more thrills and a great boulder chase. What it was, was a bumpy jeep ride with a fleeting appearance of the boulder and that was about it. Not disappointing, just a little let down.

We were fast checking off all the rides. The Matterhorn awaited, but Kate wasn’t really interested, so I got some single rider quick action on to it. Boy howdy it was rough. This was definitely feeling its age.

Also aged, but in a kinda still charming way is It’s A Small World, although this time of the year it was all Christmased up. What that meant is that by the end of the ride, rather than never wanting to hear the It’s A Small World song again, it was Jingle Bells. But, it is what it is, and you can’t really go to Disneyland without going on it.

Just outside Small World we got to catch up with Merida from Brave, all red-headed and flowing locks. In the brief chit-chat of where we were from we managed to convince we have pet kangaroo… why not keep those stereo-types going huh? Well, she started it by asking us about Koalas.

Anyway, the day was winding up for us as we had to get ready to go to our evening’s plans. On the way out we stopped by one of the stores to be party to quite an odd conversation between a visitor and a staff member. “Do you have any gifts for animals?” the visitor asked. The staff member seemed a little confused but in complete deadpan asked “For a dog or a cat?”. “A cat” came the reply, and the staff member then proceeded to come up with some gift ideas. I gotta say that about the Disney staff. Never once did I see one who would not do what they could to help out.

With that it was time to jump into a cab, not to go back to the hotel, but to the Ice Hockey! We had organised tickets sorted for the Anaheim Ducks v Minnesota Wild before we went and tonight was it. The stadium was nice and close and we were there early to slow down a bit and settle in for some bone-crunching hockey action.

And bone-crunching it was. Slamming into the walls, pucks into the crowd. It was everything you wanted. After a slow first period, the second fired up with two great Ducks goals at our end. The final period was a nail biter with the Wild coming back, but the Ducks held on for a 2-1 win. Go Ducks!

And with that it was back to the room to crash. A late one meant all we wanted was sleep… which we drifted off for given we had another early morning to come.