Review: Reserve123 Tours (Part 2)

While I was on vacation in L.A., I had the opportunity to try yet another tour through Reserve123. With all the normal sightseeing we had planned, Reserve123 set us up on a Los Angeles by Night tour with VIP Tours. This isn’t the first time we’ve driven with VIP Tours either. We went on two lovely city tours with them while in Hawaii and had a great experience. We were pretty excited to see L.A. in a whole new way.

Robin picked us up at our lodging in Anaheim, where we introduced ourselves and learned we were the only two on the tour that evening. This has happened to us many times on tours. Maybe we’re just lucky, or it’s because we often go on mid-week tours during the off-season, so there’s more chance of it being mostly empty. Either way, Robin was excited to show us his Los Angeles and we were able to do a personalized tour. He said we could see more if we didn’t actually stop at many places, which we agreed to, as we’d been pretty much walking non-stop for 7 days.

Our drive to the city included learning about Robin’s background and how his history interweaves with that of L.A.’s history. He’s lived there almost his whole life and knows more about Los Angeles than I know about pretty much anything. Los Angeles is the only major city separated by mountains and the only one where the main water source (the L.A. River) drastically changed its course. The river was prone to overflowing and flooding the city, so an aqueduct was built to make it twice as wide and twice as deep. This greatly improved the flow of the river and the safety of locals.

This photo of Echo Park is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Echo Park Lake under construction

On our tour, Robin taught us about the people who the major streets are named after – Mulholland, Bandini, Crenshaw, Pico and Sepulveda. We then drove to the Echo Park area where Hollywood started with movies like Keystone Kops and Charlie Chaplin’s first film, Making a Living. In this area, known as Edendale, is the park where the show Gilligan’s Island was filmed. While I wish I had gotten to see it in the daytime, I was able to get some great glimpses of the island with the tropical trees that was the main set for one of my favorite classic shows. At the moment, the park is under construction and they are planning to turn it into a great hang-out spot for locals that will enjoy its former glory mixed with modern touches, including nearby shops and restaurants. It gives me an excuse to return to Hollywood in the future.

Robin took us to some fantastic Hollywood hotspots, including the El Pollo Loco where Brad Pitt once worked as the guy in the chicken suit to bring in patrons and the beginning of Hollywood that is marked by five lovely Hollywood mavens: Mae West, Dolores Del Rio, Dorothy Dandridge and Anna May Wong are topped by a tiny Marilyn Monroe. We then passed by Paramount Studios and Century City, which is where Fox Studios resides and you can see the bridge from Planet of the Apes and the building where Die Hard was filmed.

Building where Die Hard was filmed

Riding along with Robin was like hanging out with a friend. He told us about the good old days when Hollywood was just starting out and execs moved their houses to the city from New Jersey, so they could film year-round and asked us questions along the way, so the tour was more of a conversation. When we had our own questions, he would answer them in a way that it turned into a story and then segue it back to what he was originally talking about. Because he used to make successful documentary films years ago, and was also in the theater, he had an inside view of the inner workings of the studios and their owners in the early days.

We had a wonderful time on our tour and were a little sad to see it end. We learned more in three hours than we did in three days and I would highly recommend taking it or a similar tour while in Los Angeles. Reserve123 did all the work for me in setting it up, all I had to do was call and confirm with VIP once I arrived in Anaheim. They have the same tour that picks up at different points in L.A. as well. If you have a large travel group, this would be an excellent activity, but it’s also great for just a few of you. We always have fun chatting with other people on our tours – if there are any.

Jim Henson Company

Reserve123 only works with reputable tour companies and once you book your tour through them, all that’s left to do is confirm directly with the company closer to your tour date and have a good time. Bring your camera for all the fun stuff you’ll see along the way. Also, with the holidays coming up, a unique city tour makes a great gift for the person on your list that seems to have everything. If you aren’t sure which one they would like, you can even buy them a gift card to use at Reserve123.com. With Christmas right around the corner, you might want to book a tour or activity to get yourself or your relatives out of the house for an afternoon, so you aren’t spending 24/7 with friends and family that may be driving you a little crazy.

We plan to book more tours through Reserve123, not least of which they are awesome, but they are also affordable and there is a huge variety to choose from in each city. If you missed my last review of how we were tourists in our own city on the Historic Portland Boat Tour, make sure you go check it out. I’m eyeing the Food Cart Tour next and will likely check out Reserve123 first when we travel in the future.

If you want to see the extensive list of tours and activities available for your home area and your vacation destination(s), check out Reserve123’s website. You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter.

Disclosure: I received a free tour for the purpose of this review, but all opinions are 100% my own.

Halloween Tourism for Everyone 10.20.12

Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Not me, but there are so many other things I am afraid of. Halloween is the time where you can face your fears and put a little scare into others. Why not spend this October hitting up places that have good old fashioned ghosts and goblins? The past few years we attended the Halloween events at Disney World's Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and I look forward to checking out the Disneyland events and returning to EuroDisney to check out the party happenings there. This year, I'll have to live vicariously through everyone else.

• Many park days at the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland in Sept-Nov are cut short for this party that requires a special ticket to get in. From 7pm to midnight, many of the park guests come dressed in costume to enjoy 5 hours of trick-or-treating, dancing, nighttime thrill rides (only specific rides will be open during that time, not the whole park), Hall-o-wishes fireworks display, an all-villain musical show in front of the castle, villain meet and greets, amazing park decorations and, best of all, a special parade opened with the Headless Horseman on horseback. It’s all totally Disney and so out of their normal festivities that it’s worth putting off your vacation until that time of year.

• Knott's presents Knott's Scary Farm. Save $6-23 on your tickets by buying them online instead of at the gate, where they will be $57 each.

• Universal puts on Halloween Horror Nights. While ticket prices don't waver, you're sure to get your money's worth while riding select rides and being scared out of your wits with roaming creeps, themed haunted houses and scare zones. It's like being in your very own horror movie. 

• Busch Gardens in Tampa offers up Howl-o-Scream. Much like Universal, they have scare zones, haunted houses and themed entertainment. You can't get cheaper tickets for this event either, but it'll scare your pants off, which you maybe can't put a price on.

• Sea World has a great event for the little ones and admission is included with your regular park ticket. It's called Spooktacular and it offers trick-or-treating, silly and spooky shows and kids are encouraged to come in costumes.

Now, that's just the major theme parks that have fun activities. There are plenty of other activities the world over that you can get in on. Here are some inexpensive things you can do during the fall season or any other time of the year.

• The Dungeons are on my list of kitchy and kinda scary (if you're afraid of the dark and mirror mazes where you might be followed) and must-do attractions. The site offers best price guarantee and you can get discounted deals if you purchase a combination ticket with Madame Tussaud's and/or the London Eye. If you plan to visit off-peak hours, you can save up to 50%! You must purchase your tickets online though. Each dungeon (located in London, York, Hamburg, Edinburgh and Amsterdam) walks you through the "streets" of history and winds you through creepy stories and rides that take you from one area of the dungeon to another

• Paris Catacombs. There are miles of underground tunnels underneath Paris full of human bones that were put there when the cemeteries became overcrowded. Even now they are still crowded, but with tourists. Get there right at opening and beat the crowds. Lines can stretch up to 2 hours long and with prices at only 5 Euros per person, it's one of the cheaper things you can do in France. If you want to skip the lines and go on a 2 hour guided tour with a small group. Viator can help you with this if you're willing to pay more than 5 Euros. For a little more than $54 per person, you are guaranteed access into the Catacombs, which is extremely limited.

• Plenty of creepy things have come out of London. One of the most famous? Jack the Ripper. He was never caught and you can walk the same streets on a London night with a small group for around $15 per person. Feel some of the fear those women must have felt while standing in a dark alley and hearing about the gruesome and brutal murders that happened on the very spot.

• New Orleans has always claimed to have a rich history in the occult and creepy myths. For an hour and a half walk among the darkened streets on the New Orleans Vampire Tour for only $20 per person. Many other walks are available, but who wouldn't want to believe in the undead and the horrible things that happen in the shadows of the city?

• New England always seems to be the backdrop for creepy and bizarre happenings. Stephen King loves to write about New England in his scary novels, too. One such story, which happens to be true, is the tale of Lizzie Borden in Massachusetts. Not only can you stay in the very house both her parents were murdered in (whether she did it or not, as she was never convicted, but moved to live outside of town where she was shunned for the rest of her life), you can also take a tour of the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast. As cheerful as a B&B sounds, this one claims to be haunted. People have said to have had many encounters with ghosts while staying there, but if you can't get in to sleep there or are too scared, take the tour. They are only $12.50 per person and occur only during daylight hours, so there's (mostly) nothing to be afraid of, but what happened to the real murderer?

• Portland's Shanghai Tunnels are quite a tourist attraction. There is a whole city of tunnels under the Oregon town's downtown area. For $19 per person you take a flashlight tour of the tunnels and learn about how people would be pulled into the tunnels (often drunk), have their shoes stolen and forced into slave labor. If you missed my blog post on underground sightseeing, find it here.

• Winchester Mystery House. Tour 110 of the 160 rooms of the house that took 38 years to build and has stairs that lead to nowhere and doors that open into walls. There are several tours to choose from, including a flashlight tour special for specific October dates. Tours range from $25 to $33 per person and should be purchased online.

• Almost anywhere you go that has open land will have a corn maze. You can go during the day or the evening and enjoy getting lost in a labyrinth of corn! The daytime maze will be fairly tame and the maze at night is dark and may have several spooky surprises. Though you may not be able to take advantage of pumpkin picking, you CAN stop at the general store they have set up and get some local foods to take home, like pumpkin butter and huckleberry candy (okay, that's probably just what we have here in Oregon). 
• Check out some fun musicals for Halloween season. Search for discounts on great theater in London on BroadwayBox. Two musicals that might be of particular interest to you are Thriller Live and Wicked. This week we're going to see Lost Boys: The Play! in Portland, done by a great local sketch comedy group. 

I look forward to finding out all the new fun Halloween activities for the this season. What are the cool things to do in your town that are fun and affordable?

Review: CityPASS Attraction Cards

Earlier this year CityPASS offered me a pair of passes to try out their services, but I had no travel plans at the time. They were gracious enough to still provide the pair as a giveaway, which my readers were super excited for. Since I had used their services before, I knew how great they were to work with and wanted to pay it forward with my trip to SoCal this Fall and purchase cards so I could do a full-on review. My cards arrived quickly after ordering and I put them in a safe place in my travel bag. After all, these were going to get me into Disneyland, California Adventure and Universal Studios. (They also were good for admission to SeaWorld, but we didn’t have plans to drive to San Diego on this trip.)

Why CityPASS, you ask? It’s true. I could have just purchased 3-day park hoppers directly from Disney and 1-day admission to Universal, but the cost would have been quite different. CityPASS saves you a significant amount of money on attractions with their cards – up to 50%!  And you all know that budget travel is the name of the game, so the more money saved off the bottom line the better. Regular ticket prices for Disney are $250 for a 3-day hopper and Universal costs a whopping $80 to get in, making your total $330. CityPASS gets you into these two attractions (including a Magic Morning at Disney) and SeaWorld for just $279. It’s a potential total discount of $129 per person, but even the $51 we saved was a good chunk of change. We used the difference to purchase $49 front-of-the-line passes at Universal – and still kept a few bucks in our pockets.

CityPASS is super easy to use. You bypass ticket lines, stroll up to the gates and your PASS is scanned and a regular ticket is presented to you. You pocket both and continue with your day. It literally takes less than 30 seconds for them to scan your card and give you a ticket. No holding up the line or complicated procedures at all. Now, in Universal it doesn’t really matter if you have a real ticket, but at Disney, you need your ticket to be able to use FASTPASS machines that get you ahead in the lines and save you time.

Here’s how we used our Southern California CityPASSes – remember, you need one for each member of your travel party:

Day 1 – California Adventure

We arrived on a Saturday night and were able to check in, get settled, make a grocery store run that involved a spontaneous stop at Wienerschnitzel (pretzel buns are back???) which we don’t have anywhere at home, watched fireworks on the rooftop (of our lodging, not Wienerschnitzel) and then headed to bed for an early morning at the parks.

Sunday, we waited patiently for the ART bus and then waited not-so-patiently in line for security to check our bags. Turnstile lines were short, so we waltzed over to the shortest one and the wonderful cast member scanned our CityPASS, pushed a few buttons, gave us regular park tickets and reminded us that we needed to use those each time we came back on our visit. Easy!

Day 2 – Disneyland

Using our park hopper tickets given to us the previous day, we had absolutely no issues getting into the park a second day. We even used them to hop to California Adventure and back with ease. Once inside the parks, we used them to get FASTPASSes, too.

Day 4 – Universal Studios

Three days after we first used our CityPASSes, we arrived at Universal Studios Hollywood and presented our cards to the attendant and they were quickly scanned. They don’t bother giving you a regular park ticket, which saves some paper.

Day 7 – Disneyland

This is the day we used the remainder of our 3-day park hopper passes for the Disney parks. Again, we had no problems using them for entry and FASTPASS options.

If you want to save up to 50% off your activities on vacations, CityPASS should definitely be on your list of buys before you leave for any of these 11 destinations: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Hollywood, Houston, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Southern California or Toronto. The more you use it, the more you save. Like you needed an excuse to pack more things into your budget, right? If you have kids, you can purchase CityPASS for them at a lower rate and it works just as conveniently. When you save big on certain aspects of your travel, you can splurge on other things (like your hotel or food) or realize how you can have a great vacation with your allocated travel funds.

Mickey gives CityPASS a thumbs up!

CityPASS has generously offered to give me another pair of passes for one of my readers. While I normally would attach that giveaway to this review, it will be part of our Best of the Best Travel Gear Holiday Giveaway next month where we will revisit the awesome travel products and services of 2012 and give away a whole slew of prizes from those merchants. In the meantime, keep CityPASS in mind for any travel you have coming up to the cities they are available in as well as holiday gifts for the traveler on your list. CityPASS is also perfect for getting yourself or your family out of the house over the holidays. If you live in or will be visiting a featured city, spending every waking moment with relatives is not always stress-free. Use CityPASS to save your sanity.

More information:

Where you can buy them: CityPASS online

How much they cost: varying

Where they are available: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Hollywood, Houston, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Southern California and Toronto.

Other specs: CityPASS is good for one year from purchase and makes a great gift.

Doesn’t CityPASS sound cool? You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter

Disclosure: I was not provided with free CityPASS cards for the purposes of this review. My review is purely unsolicited, but the giveaway will be sponsored by the lovely people at CityPASS.