Finding Magical Jewels on the West Coast...9/18/2015 review (16,000+ photos & videos)

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When it was time to depart the crew loaded up the lifeboats, closed the platform, and then everything stopped. They could not get one of the lifeboats to rise. They spent a considerable amount of time working on it and kept maneuvering the ship around, it seemed like to possibly get it out of the sun in case heat was an issue.

 

Eventually though they did get it to rise incredibly slowly. It sounded like possibly using a manual override method. The second it was out of the water though the Captain didn’t wait a second to start turning the ship and heading out to sea. The boat wasn’t even stored away and we were already on our way.

 

 

 

That delay then perfectly lined our departure up with the sunset.

 

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For our final night onboard everything was focused on saying goodbye. It started out with the farewell show featuring Dennis going through a hilarious routine of what we were all going to do when we got home. It was the funniest farewell routine I’ve seen and it seemed like it was all original material that he likely repeats every week. Not the repeated top 10 list. The funniest part was that Dennis was honest about it all and said that he was sad to see us all go because it meant they would have to work hard again tomorrow when all the new guests came on with no idea what to do, but next week he’ll be telling them the same thing. He was great all sailing long and really went out on a high.

 

We then had a comedian, Jeff Nease who only had about 15 minutes to fill. He was good though, the majority of his humor was cruise based and seemed to be original from his own experience, much of it against Holland America.

 

To end the show the Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers came out to do a quick casual number before bringing all the crew and officers onboard out to say goodbye.

 

 

This is a fairly normal thing to do, but after exiting the stage they all remained along the exit of the theater to personally say goodbye to everyone. It was members of the CD staff, officers, performers, all different levels saying their goodbyes which I have not seen before. The closest I’ve seen to that would be when they line the entrance to the C&A Welcome Back parties, but that is only ever officers.

 

To close the night out the goodbyes then continued in the Safari Lounge with a farewell Big Band set followed by a farewell set from the Royal Caribbean singers. Both were very casual and fun events that seemed to be left up to the performers to do what they want and interact with the guests as much as they could.

 

Overall it was a great way to end the night. While I prefer a sea day to get my last enjoyment out of the ship, this last night was certainly far more about saying a last farewell between the crew and guests than anything related to the ship.

 

Here is the video for Santa Barbara. See all the beauty of the mountains from our final day in port.

[YOUTUBE]nsS3OCCq758[/YOUTUBE]

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Jewel of the Seas: San Pedro (Los Angeles), CA (9/26/15)

Photo Album: https://goo.gl/photos/yaYqeGQuNkSVJwmu6

 

Just after 5:30am we started to prepare for our final port arrival as we lined up to enter the harbor in San Pedro.

 

As we were making our way in there were cargo ships following us and several passing us on there way out to sea. We didn’t even have to get into the harbor to realize just how busy a place it was. In the distance we could also see the Carnival Miracle sailing by on her way to a later arrival in the port of Long Beach on the other side of the cargo yard.

 

 

 

The port is massive! Living in the north east I see the large cargo yards in NJ all the time and think those are big, but this place was a completely different kind of big. There were channels running all over the place with container crates and cranes for as far as you could see.

 

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It’s not a long ride to the pier, a surprisingly short one actually, I was expecting much longer. So with the short distance there is not that much to see beyond the cargo yard, but right by where the ship docks there are a few items. As we went around the final bend in the channel to reveal the terminal, the Battleship USS Iowa was right in front of us.

 

Along side the battleship was a small shed that housed a fireboat. We often see these in the harbor around NYC, but it’s not often we get to actually see one in it’s shed.

 

We were also right next to the Vincent Thomas Bridge which was a beautiful sight to sail towards and then watch the sunrise over once docked. (terminal on the left, cargo yard on the right)

 

The World Cruise Terminal accommodates a ship on the main channel side as well as on a little inlet where we ended up docking.

 

 

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We then ended the cruise with one last beautiful sunrise, once again positioned perfectly, this time with the bridge.

 

 

After watching the arrival and sunrise it was time for one last breakfast, and because the weather was perfect it was a final chance to enjoy the outside seating at the Windjammer. To make this last breakfast extra good they had a homemade donuts station setup. This is the first time that I’ve seen it on a Royal Caribbean ship. It was a nice little send off and tasted so good. They had fresh made donuts that were soft, doughy, and airy. They were delicious. They also offered both white and milk chocolate sauces to pour over them as well as some toppings. Royal Caribbean should seriously consider doing this more often because they were really good!

 

 

 

The chocolates were really hot so they ran before hardening, so while it may not look the nicest, it tasted great.

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After breakfast it meant that the cruise was officially over. There was nothing else left to do. Looking at the map we had hugged the coast the entire way down.

 

 

We headed to the our designated waiting location at the theater just before our designated departure time. When we arrived we were surprised to find that not only had our group already been called, but so had several others. After years of every cruise running slightly behind scheduled, the Jewel managed to be ahead of schedule. After being amazed at how efficient the crew was all sailing long, they ended things with that same standard. It was the most relaxed departure morning I can remember ever having/

 

Getting off the ship was a quick walk on the promenade deck to where they scanned our sea pass cards to leave the ship. Another walk along side the ship on the outside of the terminal, offering a nice view of the Jewel one last time.

 

Once inside since we already completed customs we simply walked right past the stations, went down an escalator and picked up our luggage in the large warehouse area. Every step of the way things seemed to keep moving. We did not hit a line until it was time to leave the terminal. Then there was a long line at the door with people waiting to catch a bus. We had a private van through Karmel Shuttle so we didn’t have to wait in the line. Port staff were going through the line and directing people to other exits for different purposes. Unfortunately while it’s normally fine for round trip sailings, the layout seemed to result in the bus line making most other exits inaccessible without weaving through the crowd first. It didn’t take long though and once outside it was empty. There was a 6-8 lane road outside the terminal and you could stand in the middle of it. I took note of it because any other departure morning the road outside the terminal is normally a busy place, not this time. Most people must have been waiting for those buses because there was no traffic or movement at all out there. Our shuttle was waiting for us on the other side though.

 

We quickly loaded up our luggage and were on our way to Disney’s Grand Californian for our LA stay. Leaving the World Cruise Center we headed for and across the Vincent Thomas Bridge giving us one last great view of the Jewel of the Seas.

 

 

Traveling through the cargo yard the fields of containers and cranes seemed to just keep going. The place was huge and the highway just continued for what seemed like miles with no end in sight. Eventually we reached the end and off to the right side of the highway in the distance the port of Long Beach could be seen with the silhouette of the Carnival Miracle and the Queen Mary clearly visible on the horizon.

 

 

A nice sight to see as we left the ocean and ships behind on our way to start the land half of our vacation in Disneyland.

 

Here is the video of our arrival into the port of San Pedro on the 26th.

[YOUTUBE]EpbFdGLZxd4[/YOUTUBE]

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I tend to go into vacations with low expectations, high hopes, and an ability to spin anything so things usually end up pretty good no matter what. After last years Quantum failure I was a bit concerned but had hope since the cruise would be such a minor aspect of the cruise. I’ve already gone through all the itinerary details and touched on the ship, but let’s focus on the ship for a moment.

 

To look back on this cruise as a whole, the good the bad and the ugly. There really wasn’t any ugly. The only thing I can think of to throw into that category would be the dinner in the Windjammer which was a disappointment for being nothing more than what was in the MDR. The over promise and under deliver of Quantum was not an issue. In fact they promised a typical sailing and delivered one they continuously highlighted as being special for it’s uniqueness as a repositioning one off sailing. It was viewed as being far more special than the Quantum of the Seas Inaugural Sailing ever was treated.

 

The itinerary was the real star of this cruise and surprisingly it still was a cruise. With the port intensive nature and uniqueness of the itinerary I expected the cruise aspect to not really be that present. Surprisingly though it really wasn’t all that different than any other cruise. While it may have been different in terms of time to do activities at sea vs on land, it was packed with activities when we were onboard. They still managed to fit all the staples and IMO had a very solid lineup of activities and entertainment each night that far exceeded my expectations and in terms of density would be on the higher end of cruises I’ve been on, if not the highest. They also had a decent amount of variety to things, but most importantly Dennis Charles was incredible. I’m sure if we had a different CD it would have still been a good cruise but the ship side of things probably would have been closer to my expectations than what Dennis was able to do. I would sail with Dennis any day. He had an ability to change his style to perfectly fit what ever was going on and always seemed sincere and raw in that moment rather than an act.

 

There is not much I can say about the rest of the crew. The rest of the entertainment staff were all great and friendly, carrying much of the same vibe that Dennis had through there other activities. I’m not sure how much of this was Dennis, but the officers were also far more present onboard than any other ship I’ve been on. They even came out for The Quest to take part in a challenge where the new member of the team received his welcome aboard hazing. They were a far more casual and entertaining group than on other ships. At the same time the rest of the Jewel’s crew as a whole was far more professional and efficiency focused than any other ship. There really was no family feeling onboard IMO, but the crew got there work done as quickly and good as they possibly could. She was the most efficient ship I’ve seen, and where she lacked it was not considered acceptable and visibly being corrected at that moment. If there was a line, or something taking longer than expected someone would typically be working on a way to improve it right then, not just thinking for next time.

 

Jewel of the Seas (9/28-26/15)

In terms of the ship itself, as I’ve mentioned previously this was my first cruise on a Radiance Class ship. The comments I’ve heard from people onboard and online (just read the “Will they build a ship larger than Oasis thread”) created very high expectations for this ship. IMO expectations far beyond anything that could be reasonably met by any ship. I’ve even joined into the hype in wanting a Radiance Class ship to replace Grandeur in Baltimore based on all the comments I’ve heard. To board the ship with this mindset would have been a terrible thing. As I said at the start of the post I like to have low expectations and high hopes, so I applied reality to my expectations. I love big ships so to think a 10+ year old Radiance class ship could beat the Quantum was never going to happen. Instead I went in with the belief that the Radiance Class is a mix of the Vision Class with some enhancements from the Voyager Class. So logically my expectations were that all she had to do was be better than the Grandeur, who I love, but it’s still a rather low bar to hit.

 

To my surprise it was close. While everything else put her ahead in terms of vacations, the ship to ship comparison was a complete tie. I honestly cannot see the reality behind all of the push to replace Grandeur with a Radiance Class ship or say which was superior. This may be another statement on the quality of the Oasisizing of the Grandeur, but for every item the Jewel was superior the Granduer had something better (most from that Oasisizing). I’m sure prior to the Grandeur’s upgrades it was an obvious win for the Jewel and come April it may go back to that way, but at the moment it really is a tie.

 

There are a couple places that the Jewel is superior to not only the Grandeur, but every ship in the fleet:

1. The Coral Theatre: Every ship has a main theater but there is something different and better about this one. It feels like every element of what makes other ship theaters good exists here. The venue is skinny and long so almost all of the seats are facing forward instead of curving around with some angled sideways. The balcony is not that far from the outside walls so it’s able to hold it’s own weight meaning that there aren’t poles everywhere blocking views, in fact this may be the only theater where no view is blocked. To even further enhance that the main floor has a steeper grade with seating that is almost stadium like for most of the floor making it easy for even those seats to see over the person in front of them. The venue is just plain tall. There are actually three levels of seating with the top two both accessible from the balcony, can’t think of any other ship with three levels that I’ve been on so that’s rather impressive. Finally on the Quantum I was impressed by the air-conditioning that blows out of the seat in front of you and the Jewel has that as well! It really is the best theater I’ve been in to see a show with not a single bad seat and to top it off it’s really nice looking with a lot of vibrant colors and changing lights to accent it.

2. The Cinema: Never used it…a real shame but I never had time. I can still recognize it as a great venue though. Smaller ships like the Grandeur lacked any kind of venue while larger ships like the Voyager had a small screening room as part of their conference center (may be getting removed for more rooms now). Newer ships like Quantum don’t have anything, they rely on the outdoor screen. The pool TV is nice, but it’s a terrible place to watch a movie and is usually only used for that at night. For people wanting to watch a movie you need a dark, quiet, inside venue and that’s the Cinema. Complete with a nice size screen and stadium seating that covers two floors it is a full theater in a small space. I wish they would add this to more ships. Maybe Carnival’s inclusion of an IMAX theater in there new build will get Royal to rethink not having a movie theater. They even have popcorn available right outside the theater to complete the experience.

3. Arrival/Departure viewing: No ship can touch the promenade deck on the Freedom class (primarily because of it’s overhand around the MDR), but the Jewel wins for the quantity and quality of places to look out. She not only has a full wrap around promenade with bow access, she also has a full wrap around deck 12 that includes 3 different forward facing viewing decks! Some ships have 2, but 3 clearly gives her the win and they are all connected together with plenty of space making them perfect for everyone to come out and watch a sailing. Even more importantly though, the deck 12 viewing area has a large overhang from deck 13 making it usable even in the rain. That came in handy for our Victoria arrival when it was raining out.

4.

So those are the three primary elements of the Jewel of the Seas that IMO make her uniquely superior to the rest of the fleet in those areas. But it’s not all better, the areas that she lacked compared to others were:

1. The Windjammer: It’s a great design in theory and works when everything is perfect, but it’s just to small when the weather is poor. If they had a better ability to climate control the covered but open areas of it they could easily double the capacity, but with them exposed to the open deck it leaves far to much of the seating area unusable a lot of the time. In this case it was until the second day in San Francisco which was past half way before it was being used. The food was OK and the dinner disappointing, but that is a management decision and not reflective of the ship itself.

2. The ocean connection from inside: I thought this was the thing she was know for but it really was lacking compared to the Grandeur. The elevators in the Centrum, the size of the seating areas on the other side, and the Next Cruise deck area on deck 12 all seem to enclose it in and severely limit the views and amount of natural light that get into the venue during the day. I always viewed these as great ships for scenic itineraries, but it doesn’t seem any more suited than the Vision class, and even the Quantum class could be argues as more capable for cold scenic routes thanks to her Solarium.

3. The ship layout: Royal Caribbean is considered the best at this, but this class seems to be an odd ball. The large ships tend to have a central path through the ship from one end to the other. The smaller ones like Grandeur tend to have two paths that often cross forming “X”s throughout the ship. The Jewel was in the middle, like it was designed like a smaller ship but with the idea that a single path worked on the larger so they only needed one. The ship’s great capacity to size ratio helped counter it, but it was still weird to have paths leading to just one entrance of the theater. That often caused it to fill up unevenly and then backup afterwards. Even the Windjammer had an entrance on just one side that led to the centered buffet and split out to each side in the back. The elevators being on the side also threw me off a lot and changed the flow of things. That one is more a comfort thing that takes time, but it still seemed to harm the flow. In general it was a very odd ship when it came to flow.

 

This was obviously a very slimmed down analysis of her since there is a lot, but I did thoroughly enjoy the Jewel of the Seas. Much of the experience felt very familiar from the Grandeur of the Seas with some quality enhancements reminiscent of the quality in the Quantum’s venues. She was not the golden child that everyone made her out to be, but my reality already told me that was likely the case. Now that I’ve experienced one, I’m not jumping to sail another, but the experience on the Grandeur and her improvements make me really interested in seeing how much better the experience would be with all those new enhancements. Knowing what they are I could see what would be different as I was on the sailing, and I know it would easily put her ahead of the Grandeur (though not the Quantum for me). If another great itinerary called my name and it was on a Radiance Class ship I would have no second thoughts about booking it.

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In case you missed the other dedicated ship tour thread, the Jewel of the Seas Complete Ship Tour video is now available.

[YOUTUBE]tu3dP1XEGic[/YOUTUBE]

Thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=48273404

 

Now that the first half of the trip is over (theCruiseView is still on it’s way in it’s own thread), it’s time to move on from the cruise and look at LA. I don’t think people are as interested in this and it’s a bit more in-depth of a trip with more elements involved so I’m not going to go day by day through it. Instead I’m going to give a very quick and high overview of the itinerary for each day and then comment on each of the actual activity areas we did in LA individually instead of as part of a day. I think it’ll be easier this way to both write and read this way.

 

Just like the first part of the trip, the Disneyland portion was another 10 nights:

 

Saturday September 26, 2015 (Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/kdSpdGmt3k4t8LVf6)

When we arrived at the hotel we checked in. They gave us our first visit pins and collected our luggage. This was designed as an exploration and transition day so while we waited for them to text us our room number we explored the hotel and downtown Disney. Did a lot of our shopping (nearly all of it) and then returned to the hotel in the afternoon when our room was ready.

 

After a visit to our room and some unpacking we then headed to Earl of Sandwich for dinner. I’ve heard a lot about them but have never been to one so this was a quick, casual, and cheap first meal on land and just a short walk from the room into Downtown Disney. We then returned to the hotel and took care of all our laundry from the first half of the trip so we would have something to wear the second half. To close out our first night in Disneyland we went up to the hotels private DVC patio on the 6th floor to watch the evening’s World Of Color show in Disney’s California Adventure.

 

Sunday September 27, 2015 (Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/sEVveD7qQtqQ9ihe9)

For our second day in the Disneyland Resort and our first official day in Disneyland, California Adventure had extra magic hours so we started over there. After an hour we then headed to the actual Disneyland park for our first glimpse of Walt’s original vision. We covered about half the park before stopping for lunch at Carnation Cafe on Main Street. It was a nice little cafe style eatery with delicious sandwiches. We then watched Mickey’s Soundsational Parade right outside, hit a few more rides and then prepared for the new Diamond Celebration shows with the Paint the Night Parade and Disneyland Forever. Finally we closed the night out with Fantasmic! and a nice relaxing after hours walk around the park.

 

Monday September 28, 2015 (Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/jMEkhkCJiQVZ2ZTX9)

This was our actual California Adventure day and it once again started out early with extra magic hours. We got through nearly all of the park in the morning before stopping to have dinner at Wine Country Trattoria, a nice Italian restaurant. We had reservations for all our meals so it wasn’t a problem getting in but wouldn’t have been even without one. Afterwards we walked to Avis to pick up our rental car. It took a little over half an hour to get there from California Adventure and then about 5 minutes to drive back and park at the hotel. After a quick stop in the room it was back to the park for the Pixar Play Parade, a few more rides, and then World of Color from inside the park. As has become tradition for me I then strolled the empty park for a bit after closing before going to the Esplanade to watch the fireworks from that night’s Mickey’s Halloween Party in Disneyland just across the way.

 

Tuesday September 29, 2015 (Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/vRqqepza2EUGGJHG9)

This was our main LA day. We may not have been on a ship with early arrivals, but every day still started with getting up early. With morning traffic it took a while to get to her, but we made it to the Queen Mary right on schedule around 9:45am, in time to hear her blow her horn at 10:00am. After spending a considerably longer time than expected, we finally left her just after 3pm.

 

From there we made a stop at a California DMV. If your visiting California and plan to use a Handicap Placard you should know that only CA ones are valid and those are not valid out of the state. You must have a form filled out along with a second that a certified doctor must fill out. We got it all before we left but were to late to mail it in and ensure we would get it back in time so we had to stop in person to get a travel placard. It wasn’t to expensive and would have taken hours if they didn’t fast track us for having all the paper work already. In addition to allowing you to park in handicap spots, the side benefit to having one in CA is that like FL they give you the right to park at any meter for free. That’s the main reason they make it so difficult to obtain one there. Afterwards we then stopped at a near by In-N-Out Burger. It was OK, nothing special and easily the worst meal of the trip. I wouldn’t go back if visiting since their are plenty of much better unique venues to the state.

 

We then headed to the Hollywood Walk of Fame arriving just before 6pm. Surprisingly parking was easy, with or without a handicap placard there were plenty of places all along the street, even near the Kodak theater. We spent about 2 hours there before heading to our last stop of the night Griffith Observatory up on the mountain.

 

Wednesday September 30, 2015 (Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/3rQorMzrkYqzDPd67)

This was our Universal Studios day. I bought tickets online that gave us a two day pass for less than the price of a regular day pass (even better than the buy a day get the whole season deal) and no blackout dates. This gave us the flexibility to return if needed, an option we ended up not needing but was nice to have. We got stuck in all of the LA traffic again but still made it to the park just after opening. We spent all day there, were able to see every show and ride every ride and still leave the park over an hour before closing. We then did some shopping and walked around Universal Citywalk and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe there. We’ve eaten at them in the past and always were disappointed in the menu selection and quality. This time it was obvious that things were much improved. All of the food was delicious and they had a ton more variety than the basic dried out burgers they used to serve. After seeing all of Universal we then headed back to the hotel and were able to make it in time to not only watch World of Color from our balcony, but to then go to the Esplanade and watch the Disneyland Forever fireworks as well. The fact that this was even possible is part of the reason Disneyland was such a special and magical experience.

 

Thursday October 1, 2015 (Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/NZCeYXYKQ7Yyna5m9)

This was my first personal Disney day. While the rest of my family took the first relaxing day of the trip and enjoyed the hotel pool I went to the parks and maximized my time. On my trip to Walt Disney World I was a master of park hopping and the close proximity of the two in Disney made it easy for me to jump back and forth all day long. I finally ended the night with a nighttime spectacular of World of Color in California Adventure and then rushed over to Disneyland for the Pain the Night Parade and then Disneyland Forever fireworks.

 

Friday October 2, 2015 (Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/uBFsFiWFiS8v2N9F8)

This was my second personal Disney day. This time my family took a beach day at Huntington Beach while I once again maximized my park time jumping back and forth all day. Saw both Mickey’s Soundsational Parade in Disneyland and the Pixar Play Parade in California Adventure and then since Disneyland had Mickey’s Halloween Party at night I spent the evening in California Adventure. That night featured the Mad T Party in the backlot area and two showings of World of Color. The park then closed at midnight and I stuck around until 1am.

 

Saturday October 3, 2015 (Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/yuvQgQYynMzuGw347)

This was my fifth and final full park day and our third family park day. We once again started in Disneyland to finish out what was missed in the first two days. Then had lunch at the Blue Bayou in Pirates of the Caribbean. Afterwards we headed to California Adventure to finish off that park including another night of the Mad T Party. I then headed back to Disneyland for Fantasmic! and stuck around for the Disneyland Fireworks. Unfortunately they were canceled due to high winds so I then rushed back to California Adventure to catch the end of the Mad T Party and then rushed back to Disneyland to see the second showing of Fantasmic! to end the night out.

 

Sunday October 4, 2015 (Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/32qk2VQHGKCZEKw37)

This was the poorest weather of the trip with a rare cool and rainy LA day. Luckily it was the best day of the trip for it to fall on. We started with another early drive across LA to the WB Studios for the backlot tour, but since it was a weekend there was no traffic this time. We then headed over to the Walt Disney Studios which has no public access, so we instead just parked and took a walk around the block to see everything. Leaving there we then headed back to the Hollywood Walk of Fame for some last minute shopping. On the way we went past the Burbank Studios where the Tonight Show with Jay Leno used to film. After the quick shopping stop we then headed back to the Disneyland resort for lunch in Downtown Disney at the Rainforest Cafe. I’ve been to two other ones, and the one in Downtown Disney is by far the biggest with multiple floors and even an outside patio on the roof. The decor was of course on par with the usual Rainforest Cafe standard along with the food.

 

 

 

We then spent some more time checking out Downtown Disney before heading to the Esplanade to watch the Disneyland Forever fireworks over Disneyland. A quick shower passed through right in the middle of them but they were able to keep the show going. I then immediately rushed back to the hotel and reached the 6th floor patio just in time to watch World of Color one last time.

 

Monday October 5, 2015 (Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/rf4VKTFeT1wccDpX7)

For our final full day we then ended things by preparing for our next big vacation. Next year before the Harmony of the Seas transatlantic will be staying at the Newport Beach Club Hotel in Disneyland Paris so we took a beach day at Newport Beach. It was a sunny day and perfect weather for a beach day. We then returned the rental car and went back to the hotel to eat leftovers for dinner. Since Disneyland has a 5 day maximum on their tickets I purchased a ticket to the Halloween Party for that night which allowed me into the park starting at 4pm and enjoyed one last evening in the park with a showing of the Paint the Night Parade and Halloween Fireworks to wrap things up.

 

Tuesday October 6, 2015 (Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/CT8eWRADZtBoJfUf8)

After 20 nights, it was our final day. I was tired of always ending our vacations by getting up early and rushing to the airport to head home so I intentionally booked a later flight at 2:25pm. This allowed us to wake up and have a relaxing morning with a final dose of magic by going to Goofy’s Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel for a character breakfast. It was a bit pricey, even compared to WDW, but the food selection was so far beyond anything the WDW character breakfasts offer. It was easily worth the price tag for it. We then had plenty of time to slowly walk back to our hotel, relax in the room and pack our last few items up before going to catch the Disneyland Express for the airport. While many people often complain about LAX it was a smooth ride to get there and a rather quick and easy process to get to the plane. It may have just been the section we were in but it seemed clean and modern. Our cross country flight this time was half in the daylight offering us great views of the west including the Las Vegas strip.

 

With our flight leaving LAX at 2:25pm we reached EWR at about 11pm. That meant that once we collected our luggage and met our driver we didn’t get home until after 1am. About 3am I finally got to bed and since this wasn’t a weekend vacation it meant that I had to be up by 6:15am to get back to reality and go to work the very next day.

 

 

 

That’s the basic summary of the Disneyland portion of the trip. Coming up I’ll now post individually on each of the following elements of the LA leg of the trip as well as share videos from the Disney shows:

 

• Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel
  
• Downtown Disney
  
• Disneyland
  
• Disney’s California Adventure
  
• Mickey’s Halloween Party
  
• Queen Mary
  
• Hollywood Walk of Fame
  
• Griffith Observatory
  
• Universal Studios Hollywood
  
• WB Studio Tour
  
• Newport Beach
  
• Disneyland Resort Overall
  

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In case you haven’t seen it, the 8 episode series of theCruiseView for this sailing is fully available over here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2313620

That also means that I am now finished with all my videos and can get back to this review of the LA portion (which will include more videos from Disneyland).

 

Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel

For our hotel choice in LA we stayed at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel. I’ve often heard mixed reviews on this hotel based on people’s position on the Disney lines. This hotel is unlike the other two hotels that make up the Disneyland Resort. It looks and feels more inline with the hotels found in Disney World than the towers that make up the Anaheim hotels. It is also though, the only Disneyland hotel actually built by the Walt Disney company and the newest hotel. It is also considered to be Disneyland’s top level hotel, on par with the Deluxe resorts in Disney World.

 

The hotel has a feeling similar to the Fort Wilderness Lodge in Disney World with a forest feel. The hotel itself features a strong wood focus with a large ski resort like lobby area.

 

It’s a very large sprawling hotel, complete with a monorail traveling through it, though there is no station directly inside the hotel.

 

 

There is no hotel in the US that can get you as close to the magic as this hotel can. It is located in a corner of property surrounded by Disney’s California Adventure on two sides and Downtown Disney on a third. It even features it’s own entrance directly into California Adventure.

 

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The pool may have been cool with the sights and sounds of Disney’s California Adventure right behind and in the trees that surrounded it, but our room took that to the next level. I purchased a Disney Vacation Club knowing I would be taking the trip and it would be useful, and it certainly was. The DVC rooms are located in their own wing along California Adventure’s Paradise Pier area. All day and night our room offered incredible views of the park, the incredible ambience every time the door was opened, and yet was surprisingly silent with the door shut.

 

 

 

This included views of World of Color: Celebrate! which was performed once or twice every night and visible from our room as well as audible (a TV station also played the music to make it easier to hear if needed as well). In addition to the view from our room the hotel also offers an outside patio on the top floor exclusively for DVC members that offers even better views and also has the music piped in for World of Color each night.

 

 

 

I have a video of my raw World of Color footage so that you can see all 6 angles. The top 3 are filmed from Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel. I’ll share the multicam edit with California Adventure.

[YOUTUBE]mQiY1y6bJMc[/YOUTUBE]

 

I usually try to pick unique hotels, but I never consider them to be a big factor in a vacations enjoyment. This was a major exception. I have no doubt that the hotel itself was one of, if not the main reason I enjoyed Disneyland as much as I did. The hotels convenient location right in the middle of everything meant that in less than 5 minutes you could get from the room to inside of either park. One night after a day in LA we made it back early enough to walk down the the Esplanade to watch the Disneyland Forever Fireworks, then in 5 minutes made it up to the top floor patio to watch World of Color without any issue. Unlike Disney World, Disneyland is in the middle of a city, but from this hotel you never even need to see a street or use any form of transit. You can live entirely within the Disney bubble in a way that not even any of the hotels in Disney World can do, and that was a very noticeable positive element of this trip.

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Downtown Disney

The Downtown Disney district in California is surprisingly different than the one in Disney World (now Disney Springs). While Disney World’s is a massive shopping and dining center with little purpose beyond that, the one in Disneyland offers shopping and dining but is primarily the main passageway between the parking garage, hotels, and the parks. As a result it feels very similar to the Royal Promenade with a nice relaxing atmosphere to walk through and hang out, rather than a shopping center.

 

 

At the one end is access to the Disneyland Hotel with access to the Paradise Pier Hotel, as well as the parking garage.

 

Here is another multi angle video, the Disneyland Forever Fireworks with all 3 of my angles. The lower left quadrant is filmed from the Esplanade where tickets aren’t needed. A multicam edit will be shared with the Disneyland part.

[YOUTUBE]GY1nlWtSJPg[/YOUTUBE]

 

The entrance from the Grand Californian Hotel is about a third of the way from the Park end. About a third of the way from the other end is a monorail station providing direct access to Tomorrowland, so it’s about an equal distance to either walk to the park entrance or take the monorail in.

 

The stores and dining venues tend to close just after the parks, but since it’s a main passageway the area remains open and accessible 24 hours a day, including the Esplanade. This makes it a great place for an evening stroll with a pleasant atmosphere.

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Disneyland Park

Of course the main feature of the Disneyland Resort is the Disneyland Park itself. This year it was celebrating it’s 60th anniversary with a big Diamond Celebration so that added some extra focus on the history of the park. It was also October so some of the Halloween decorations were out already.

 

 

 

The park itself is significantly smaller than the Magic Kingdom, yet it features more to see and do. Many of the paths are small and winding through the areas helping to give a more immersive feel. No matter where you are your never more than a few feet from a ride. Since the park is so small, it seems like the rides are forced to stack over top of each other. They have cars overlooking submarines with a monorail overhead in one spot, and canal boats weaving with trains right next to it. Every aspect of the park feels smaller and more intimate than most parks.

 

 

Even the characters are more intimate with some just roaming freely around the paths while others freely walk through the park to different spots to stop and take photos with guests. The structure and planning involved with Disney World is nonexistent in Disneyland. Everything feels more raw and live in Disneyland.

 

With it’s smaller size though even on a weekday afternoon in September/October the park was crowded. At night when the evening entertainment begins and the annual pass holders get done with work/school it is even worse. While the crowds can make the paths and park feel crowded though, the lines for characters were rarely long and each interaction tended to be lengthy. Since there are so many rides squeezed into the park even they were typically 0-10 minutes, and the really popular ones were often 20-60 minutes. Using FastPass it was often possible to grab one for a ride like Big Thunder Mountain, wait 10 minutes in line to ride it, and then once you get off have your FastPass ready so that you can get right back on. You could never see waits like that in the Magic Kingdom even on days the park feels empty.

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That entertainment is where Disneyland takes things to the next level. The park is small so almost anything going on anywhere has an effect that can be seen, heard, or felt throughout the park. Somehow they manage to make their extreme lineup work. On a typical summer or weekend day they put on 1-2 daytime parades, 2 nighttime parades, 2 showings of Fantasmtic, and an evening fireworks show. That’s 6 to 7 major entertainment events taking place in the small Disneyland park in a single day.

 

The parades of Disneyland travel around town square, through main street, only pass a single quadrant of the hub in front of the castle, and go past the matterhorn to It’s a Small World. Like the size of the park, it’s a significantly shorter parade route than the Magic Kingdom’s and is often crowded long before the parade times.

 

The daytime parade in Disneyland is Mickey’s Soundsational Parade. This daytime parade is an older one, but for a first timer was new and captured the classic charm of the Disneyland Resort. This parade features floats and dancers for various Disney musical classics including many of the rarer ones that would likely never be given attention at the other resorts.

 

 

September 27th (Close View)

[YOUTUBE]tg9J5L79EIw[/YOUTUBE]

 

October 2nd (Distant View)

[YOUTUBE]zkYIRhZ2ftw[/YOUTUBE]

 

The second parade in the Disneyland Park is their new nighttime parade, Paint The Night that premiered with the start of the Diamond Celebration. This is a modernization of the classic Main Street Electrical Parade utilizing LED lights and screens to allow for animated colors and video to play out on the floats and cast members throughout the parade.

 

 

September 27th (Close View)

[YOUTUBE]svOR47dhy1U[/YOUTUBE]

 

October 1st (Distant View)

[YOUTUBE]AMoaQ35Bv_Q[/YOUTUBE]

 

The longest running nighttime show in Disneyland is Fantasmic!. With the exception of a few technical changes, the shows remains the same as it was the first time it premiered over 2 decades ago. Featuring a plot that follows Mickey through his imagination featuring choreography, stunts, pyrotechnics, fire, and water elements the show has maintained it’s popularity through the years and while similar plot wise, the Disneyland one is superior to the Disney World one. In Disney World a dedicated set and seating was built for it while in Disneyland it uses the existing Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island. For this reason many of the show elements take advantage of existing park elements such as the Sailing Ship Columbia, the Mark Twain River Boat, and even the Tom Sawyer Rafts giving it a much larger and more polished feel in this smaller park.

 

 

Multicam Edit

[YOUTUBE]6C7w0zZ8Uj4[/YOUTUBE]

 

Multiangle Edit

[YOUTUBE]TidsEgLmunM[/YOUTUBE]

 

The pinnacle of Disneyland’s entertainment lineup is the nightly Disneyland Forever firework spectacular. Premiered as part of the Diamond Celebration this fireworks spectacular combines with projection mapping to take over the entire park each night. The fireworks are set off from the back of the park by ToonTown with the audio pumped into every area for watching. With Disneyland Forever the fireworks are complemented by projection mapping that brings Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, the buildings along Main Street USA, the Matterhorn, and It’s A Small World to life with the show. If your in the Rivers of America area the water screens from Fantasmic! are used for projections as well. So regardless of your location in the park you can’t escape this massive show that takes the traditional night time fireworks to a new level of immersion right on top of and all around the guests instead of just off in the distance. For those on Main Street USA and in front of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle they also use pyrotechnics and an aerial rig to make Tinkerbell fly and Nemo swim through the ring of fire.

 

 

Multicam Edit (Multiangle edit in previous post)

[YOUTUBE]kFzxfrpcTBo[/YOUTUBE]

 

With so much to see and do in such a small space, Disneyland Park has to be the most densely packed high quality park around. More amazing though is there ability to make so many things happen so closely together within minutes of each other or even at the same time without causing any interference.

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Disney’s California Adventure

Located just feet away from the Disneyland Park, directly across the Esplanade is Disney’s California Adventure. Often referred to as a failed park, the massive investment in relaunching the park a few years ago certainly seemed to pay off. The park itself felt more like a modern Disney World park than it’s older sibling across the way. All of the paths were wide making for easy guest flow with very direct paths and routes rather than the many small routes available in Disneyland. Each distinct area of the park had it’s own highly detailed theming and atmosphere to it.

 

 

 

 

Compared to Disneyland Park, California Adventure features larger more highly detailed rides, but far fewer of them. All of the rides seem to have their own allocated space with gaps between them like you would find in Disney World rather than the tightly integrated and overlapping nature of the rides in Disneyland Park.

 

The most incredible part of California Adventure though would have to be it’s newest, Cars Land. Located in the back corner of the park the towering fake mountains of Radiator Springs can be seen from many areas of the park. Up close though the details in the rock work and false scale effects are incredible.

 

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Like Disneyland Park, the entertainment offerings in Disney’s California Adventure are packed and with the parks more mature audience offers a more diverse set of items. Like Disneyland, California Adventure features it’s own daytime parade and evening show, along with a party.

 

The parks daytime parade is the Pixar Play Parade which unlike most Disney entertainment offerings features no Disney animated classics, but instead features segments for each of the major Pixar films. Traveling on a route between the Tower of Terror and Paradise Pier the parade route crosses the entire park easing crowds as they disperse along the route.

 

While the main theme of the parade is Pixar, it’s also all about playing and having fun. This includes spraying the audience with water from many of the floats and cast members. This parade is not really boundary pushing like some of Disney’s new ones, but it did include some more exciting aerial performers.

 

 

September 27th

[YOUTUBE]Btq61BgryvE[/YOUTUBE]

 

October 2nd

[YOUTUBE]f_gC7u6R_ow[/YOUTUBE]

 

Many years ago to help build an audience for California Adventure Disney started hosting club like parties. Over the years they’ve gone through a few different formats before launching the Mad T Party as a cross promotion with the release of Alice in Wonderland. In the fall of 2014 it was once again changed to a Frozen Fever themed party with a lot of negative feedback. So for the launch of the Diamond Celebration in May of 2015 the Mad T Party made it’s return as the Diamond Mad T Party.

 

The Diamond Mad T Party is night club atmosphere party that lasts several hours at night in the backlot area of the park. It features the Mad T Party band which performs hourly sets throughout the party. In between the white rabbit DJ plays music to fill the gaps while Tweedle Dee and Dweedle Dum MC the event and the deck of cards perform dance routines. This is one of the few places that serves alcohol in the parks, including many special themed concoctions just for the event. While there is no age requirement to attend the event, it is clearly targeting the 20 something demographic and is dominated by it. The show features music from a variety of genres and timeframes including even Eminem songs, but still maintains a clean innocent fun to it that makes it feel Disney like. This goes all the way to the finale with a mashup of Disney memories and modern songs. Unfortunately once again this great event will be coming to an end at the end of March, for how longer or permanently is not known yet. This was one of the things I was looking forward to with Disneyland since they do target an older demographic of Disney fanatics rather than children, and it certainly lived up to and exceeded my expectations!

 

 

 

Opening Set

[YOUTUBE]MSVATbhdfyY[/YOUTUBE]

 

 

Closing Song

[YOUTUBE]PGeqAA4KGMY[/YOUTUBE]

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When California Adventure opened it didn’t have a lot to offer at night, that’s why as part of the reimagining they added fountains to the Paradise Pier area to create World of Color. For the Diamond Celebration they’ve increased the fountains, added more projection spots, and other effects to create World of Color: Celebrate!, a tribute to Walt Disney and everything he’s accomplished.

 

 

It’s uses water screens for projections alone with projecting onto the Mickey Mouse face on Mickey’s Funwheel and the loop of the California Screamin’ rollercoaster. Neil Patrick Harris hosts the show from these projections that combine with all the other show effects including Made With Magic Ears that can be purchased, smoke released from around the crowd, and lights in the crowd. It’s one of the few shows that really varies in experience depending on where your watching it. Something that is really reminiscent of the shows in Two70 on the Quantum Class ships. When in the back you can see the whole show, but when sitting up front you can see all the detail and appreciate each individual fountain and the enormity of the entire thing. You also get wet as these fountains and fire tower over you and then cause it to rain. Just like Two70, I would recommend seeing it multiple times from different spots. Even from up high in the Grand Californian gave a unique perspective of how high the fire and fountains go.

 

 

The show itself is kind of unique in that it not only features the classic Disney movies but also pays homage to the rides within the park.

 

 

Multicam Edit (Multiangle in previous post)

[YOUTUBE]sy9bcJkGV3c[/YOUTUBE]

 

You can find parades, shows, night pradades, fireworks, Fantasmic!, and even projections in both Disney World and Disneyland Resort. But only in Disneyland can you find a night club party designed for the older audience, and only in Disneyland can you find a massive fountain show. Both of these exclusives are also only found in California Adventure giving the park an extra edge at night.

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Mickey’s Halloween Party

Disney World has long been doing Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party during the month of October. In recent years Disneyland has been holding their own Halloween event known as Mickey’s Halloween Party. At Disney World’s Party nearly everyone dresses in costumes to go trick or treating and the park is taken over by halloween decorations and lighting. They also bring out all of the characters in Halloween costumes along with special characters that are not normally out.

 

In Disneyland things are a bit more toned down. Many of the Halloween festivities are available during the normal park hours including seeing the characters in their Halloween costumes and even some of the Halloween special characters. Some people dress up, but the majority of people still show up in normal clothes, most with just a halloween themed Disney shirt on. They hand out bags and have trick or treat areas setup throughout the park to get candy. Some of the areas were lines that you would walk through with multiple candy stations while others were single spots. Many of the stations had different kinds of candies and for anyone looking for a healthy option they had those as well with things like apple slices, carrot sticks, raisins, and graham crackers available at each station.

 

 

They had a handful of rare characters out including Mulan and Pocahontas. They also had rare meetings with multiple princesses together.

 

The park atmosphere wasn’t as heavily done as Disney World, with more reliance on the cast members to add the atmosphere. As you’d walk around the park in various locations you would find people in character putting on acts and even several comedic scare crows.

 

One of the main highlights of the atmosphere was the fog overtaking the Rivers of America with the Cadaver Dans sailing around on the Tom Sawyer Island Rafts singing Halloween songs.

 

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The biggest element of atmosphere in the Disneyland Park though is Sleeping Beauty’s Castle which for this event was taken over with projection overlays that animated with the Halloween music playing.

 

 

 

The main entertainment of the even though is the parade and fireworks. Normally the event features a special Halloween parade, but since Paint the Night is new for this year it was used for the Halloween event’s parade as well.

 

The Halloween Screams fireworks are the primary event of the Halloween Party. It’s hosted by Jack Skellington and like the Disneyland Forever fireworks it utilized fireworks, projection mapping on the castle, pyrotechnics, a floating moon for projecting, and a flying Zero. Compared to the Disneyland Forever fireworks, even at it’s older age it is a noticeably well done and more intense fireworks show. The atmosphere is purely limited to the Hub though with the moon not visible from farther back and none of the projections extending to the new main street systems. For those not wanting to buy a ticket, the lower pyro and projection elements aren’t visible from the Esplanade, but the fireworks are.

 

 

 

October 5th

[YOUTUBE]4Rj6oQy8kcA[/YOUTUBE]

 

Disneyland has an odd rule about their tickets. You can only buy up to 5 days and then must either start a new ticket with a full priced single day ticket or buy an annual pass to get a 6th day. Either option can be pricey so I bought a ticket for the Halloween Party as a more cost effective way of getting some extra park time for my last night in Disneyland. For this purpose it did what I wanted, I got more time to enjoy the park atmosphere, saw some new things, and got to visit some more characters.

 

Had I been going specifically for the Halloween Party itself it was a bit disappointing. Normally you expect the special ticket events to be empty, but this felt as crowded, if not more crowded than a normal day. I didn’t do many rides so they may have been slightly emptier but the paths were packed. If you wanted candy the lines were huge, you could wait for 30-60 minutes to go through a single candy line. Luckily I read online that at the end of the night the lines are short and they’ll put handfuls in your bag to empty out their carts rather than the usual 1-2 pieces they do earlier. So I went to a few right when they opened without lines and then waited to the end and got a full bag. I had expected more characters than usual, and there were more characters than a normal night since they usually all stop when the sunsets, but there were about the same number as a normal afternoon. The lines for the characters were also about equal or longer to a typical day. Luckily the fireworks were incredible. So it was a fun night, but there was so much waiting in line and not as much special about it to say that it would be worth attending specifically for the Halloween part of things only.

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Queen Mary

The Queen Mary is an iconic ship and probably the most famous classic ship museum in the world. It’s featured in movies and TV shows all the time. In the past year alone both New Girl and Brooklyn Nine-Nine did episodes where they went on cruises that were entirely filmed onboard her.

 

Full album from that day with tons of QM photos: https://goo.gl/photos/vRqqepza2EUGGJHG9

 

 

The Queen Mary offers various tours options to purchase that include different guided tours providing more information on the history of the ship. We went with the lowest cost basic tour. This allowed us to take an audio tour of the main areas of the ship as well as a guided “haunted” tour into some of the deeper areas of the ship like the pool and boiler room with some added theatrics thrown in. The main audio tour is based out of the main lobby and covers the majority of the ship.

 

 

 

 

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Onboard the Queen Mary are still many areas preserved in their original state including some like the radio room that are still operational and used on occasion.

 

 

 

 

After touring the upper decks and inners of the ships we traveled outside to the pier level and reentered the lower decks of the ship to see the engine room and propellers.

 

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The actual propeller is still attached to the ship but stored in a contained box attached to the side of the ship to preserve it and make it easier to see.

 

 

The area directly above the engines where you enter the ships for the lower decks has been gutted and converted into a modern museum on classic ocean liners with artifacts and exhibits on both the Queen Mary and many other classic ships like the SS United States.

 

 

In addition to the areas included in our tour we were able to get a glimpse of some other areas that are included in the higher tours, but had the doors open because the spaces double as venues for events to be held such as the main dining room.

 

 

In addition to the tours and actually seeing the ship itself, if you are in the area during the day you may hear her horn blow. Throughout the day Queen Mary’s horn blows at several designated times. Each time it is just a single blast of the horn that is very deep and loud, but surprisingly doesn’t sound as powerful as the Voyager/Freedom/Oasis class ships. When we arrived in the morning I made sure we were there in time to hear her first blast of the day (10am) before entering the ship. You can see it at 39:30 of theCruiseView’s 8th day:

[YOUTUBE]qChx1XjBi7M[/YOUTUBE]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qChx1XjBi7M?t=39m30s

 

I had allocated more time than was recommended to ensure we could fully enjoy the Queen Mary without rushing. In the end though we took even more time than that. We arrived before 10am and didn’t leave until 3pm, spending over 5 hours exploring the ship and likely could have spent even more time if we hadn’t needed to get to other places that day. I probably wouldn’t go back a second time since it’s a once you’ve seen it there’s nothing else to see kind of thing. But I am glad I took the time to see it and would certainly recommend it to anyone that has an interest in ships. The biggest thing that I took away from it though is how much our definition of high end has changed. The Queen Mary was the cheapest and tackiest ship I’ve stepped foot on. She can in no way compete with the high end appearance of the new ships that look far classier and elegant than her. At the same time though, there are a lot of areas where you can see the money was spent such as the wooden mural in the main lobby that used different imported exotic woods for each color one and the fancy stone, metal, and wood mural in the dining room. The fact that everything is hand made has allowed them to really take advantage of materials, but that same fact is why most of the areas look very plain and flat compared to the details found in modern ships.

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Onboard the Queen Mary are still many areas preserved in their original state including some like the radio room that are still operational and used on occasion....

Thanks for the photo of the radio room. Brought back memories of when I used to work there on a volunteer basis about once a month.:)

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Thanks for the photo of the radio room. Brought back memories of when I used to work there on a volunteer basis about once a month.:)

 

That's sounds like fun. Do you know how much of the equipment that is still used was really from her sailing days and maintained vs replaced and upgraded?

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Hollywood Walk of Fame

The Hollywood Walk of Fame was our third stop on our Queen Mary day (In-N-Out Burger was second, and a disappointment). Most of our stop offered their own parking, some free and others for fee, but some kind of parking. This was the one exception. The Hollywood Walk of Fame encompasses a stretch of Hollywood Blvd along with Vine Street. There are several parking garages around that can be used, but we had no luck finding on street parking for our visit. There were many spots all along Hollywood Blvd and we ended up parking just a half block away from the Dolby Theatre to start our walk.

 

It’s pretty much as you would expect, a lot of people and stars with celebrity names on the ground.

 

 

 

Along with the stars are a lot of tourist trap like stores. There was an award with something written on it for every possible thing you could imagine!

 

The theaters themselves are probably more significant a landmark than the actual walk of fame. The surprising thing though is that for how famous they are and well known their appearance is, they are just tucked in along side the rest of LA. As you walk down the street you just stumble into them without anything to really notice. They are in some cases right along side run down buildings. It’s a bit weird.

 

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Grauman's Chinese Theatre seems to be the most popular location along the walk of fame. The theater itself is a known landmark with it’s appearance even replicated in Disney World.

 

 

 

Part of the reason for it’s appeal is the fact that it is also the location where the celebrities sign their name and make hand/foot prints in the pavement. These are actually more interesting than the stars which are often replaced and refurbished. In most cases the celebrity listed on the star has likely never even seen the star, where as these are the original pieces of pavement the celebrity touched.

 

 

Since this is where most of the people tend to settle rather than just walk through, this is the center of all the celebrity impersonators and other antics. This is the place where you’ll find all the people trying to sell photos, CDs, and anything else they can come up with.

 

Many people have said that the Hollywood Walk of Fame is nothing to see and there right. It is LA’s Times Square. There really is nothing special about times square. It’s just a well known location with people trying to sell stuff and a lot of tacky tourist traps. The Hollywood Walk of Fame is the exact same thing for LA, and like Times Square it may not be anything special, but it’s still one of those things to go to see so you can say you’ve been there when you see it on TV. They both just have an excitement in the air, and every time I visit NYC I go through Times Square.