Chasing Dreams: California Series: Hooray for Hollywood

I'm not sure if I stated this in my introduction post, but I participated in two internships with the Walt Disney Company. In 2012, the roommates I had for my second program became family to me, and we have remained close ever since. It became a yearly tradition for us to have reunion trips once our program ended, so this year we decided to do something different from our usual Walt Disney World vacations.

Disneyland had always been on our bucket list since the program, but were never able to find the right time to go. Our original California vacation was set for a week at Disneyland, but we changed plans yet again by taking part in our first Adventures by Disney vacation that consisted of Hollywood and Disneyland. What was our destination package? Backstage Magic of Hollywood and Disneyland! If you're like me and have never taken an Adventures by Disney trip, I highly recommend starting with the Backstage Magic tour.

Flying out of Orlando at 6:20 AM with Jackie was exhausting as we didn't get much sleep beforehand, but it was all worth it knowing that Hollywood and Disneyland were waiting for us. We landed in Los Angeles with Meagan landing a few minutes after us. I think the reality hit then that we were in Los Angeles and about to embark on a fun adventure once we were all reunited and then picked up by drivers... DRIVERS! Being treated like a celebrity for a day was quite nice, especially when our driver gave us a quick tour before dropping us off at the Loews Hollywood Hotel.

We met our tour guides (Lori and Lauren) once we arrived where we got a welcome packet and a time to come back for our first dinner. I knew right away that this trip was worth every penny as our guides had so much energy and made us excited for the week. They gave us our room keys and we decided to drop off our bags before getting lunch at In-n-Out Burger. In the last few pictures above, you can see our room and the incredible view we had.

We spent the rest of our afternoon at the pool and exploring our hotel before we met everyone in the group for our welcome dinner. There were about thirty people on the tour, so we were able to mingle with other Disney fans and get to know our guides better. The tables were decorated to celebrate Disneyland's Diamond Celebration, and we even played a quick ABC game involving Disney characters as an ice breaker.

We weren't expecting to do much on our first day, but our guides surprised everyone with a trip to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum! It was a great way to start our week.