Even though Jaylyn's mom is deathly of afraid of anything scary. Let's hope Jaylyn isn't the same way.
She seems excited.
When had a few people flying in from different areas, but we all met up at the airport. While we were waiting for the others, our friend Don Lynch, who hasn't been on a trip with us for years, was talking about the Lynch curse. He just seems to have trouble most of the time when he travels and his fiance was mentioning that when she got engaged to him, she seemed to have inherited the curse.
So after everyone arrived we headed to the underground car rental at John Wayne Airport. Which I have dealt with many times on different occasions. Got down to the Advantage rental desk to get our rentals and they told me I had to go back to the Advantage Kiosk located at baggage claim to check in. Why couldn't they check me in at the underground desk? I have no idea. So I and the two other drivers headed back to the baggage claim kiosk.
I gave them my vouchers that I prepaid for 3 minivans. Upon checking us in, the agent informs me that they only have 2 minivans available. One is ready to go, the other is off site and they have to send someone to get it and there was no other option for a third besides a Camry, which is nowhere close to a minivan. I had no choice but to accept their offer, but they did offer to refund the price difference of the minivan vs Camry.
Then they informed me that they would not be able to match the the price that I prepaid for 3 minivans through a third party. Which I had printed out and handed to them. They ended up quoting me about $50 more per vehicle. So I tried calling the third party company to sort things out. Come to find out the company is located in Holland and they are closed due to the time difference. I just wanted to get the hell out of the airport since everyone was waiting. So I said okay to their terms and told them I would deal with the third party company later. The only good thing that came out of this was they were able to exchange the Camry for an SUV because someone had just returned it.
but they still had to clean it and we still had to wait for the second minivan to arrive. So 2 hours later we were finally able to leave the airport. I starting to believe the Lynch curse is the real thing.
We were hungry so our first stop was HiroNori Craft Ramen
Green tea.
Crispy chicken. Didn't try it, so don't know if it was any good.
Tonkotsu Ramen: The ramen was okay in my opinion. It was better than anything we have to offer in NorCal, but I still think Tsujita is still the best. If I'm ever in town and have time I usually drive an hour out of my way just to eat at Tsujita.
Well cooked egg though.
It was around 3 pm when we finished lunch. Headed off to Hotel Indigo in Anaheim. I booked 4 rooms, but when I checked in only 1 of 4 rooms was available. Check in is suppose to be at 3 and it was 3:15 pm when I checked in. We were on a tight schedule, so I took the one available room and left all of our luggage there. Amanda (the cursed fiance) checked her bag and realized that she forgot to pack her makeup and she was heading straight to NYC after this trip for business. So the curse is still kicking strong.
Headed to Amber Waves Haunted Lounge to have a drink like I do every year.
A few new items on their menu this year.
The bartender Daniel remembered us again from previous years.
I had to get a souvenir shot glass to add to my collection.
Jack-O-Lantern's revenge.
Poison Boysen
The Grave Digger tots. Looks like they changed their regular tater tots to Tetris Tots, but these were the crispiest tater tots I have ever had. We got them to-go and were eating them on our drive to Universal Studios and they stayed crispy. Highly recommend you get these.
There was a bit of traffic on a Sunday, getting to Universal. When we got there we headed straight to Saddle Ranch Chop House for some drinks.
Phillip and Jensen have missed a few years here and there, but they were able to make it out this time.
Far left is the cursed couple.
Not the entire group, but most of us.
I haven't been to Halloween Horror Nights since 2009, so I was hoping for a change of pace from Knott's Scary Farm.
The Jabbawockeez show was about to start so we stopped by.
It was quite and entertaining show, but I do miss Bill and Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure show.
After the show we headed to the Terror Tram
Glow in the Dark doughnut.
Diane's second time joining us, all way from Oregon.
The Terror Tram was really short from what I can remember in 2009 and it was quite disappointing.
They didn't even open Harry Potter World which was another major disappointment.
On a good note though, they do serve alcohol now at HHN, which they didn't years ago. You are limited to 2 drinks per person per night and they stamp your wrist for each person. They are very strict about it. It's better than no alcohol. You do have to stay at the designated area to drink and can't walk around with your alcoholic beverage.
Peter and Nicole which weren't suppose to go on the trip, but was able to make it out for the the night. They had to leave early the next morning.
The Walking Dead was a 20 minute wait, which is well worth the wait.
Our next stop was Blumhouse which was an hour wait. The maze was really well done, but for the length of wait, I'm unsure if it was worth it.
After we got dinner.
Then we headed to the lower level for one more ride.
Transformers The Ride 3D was only 20 minutes and it was awesome. Didn't know what to expect, but it was well worth it. Especially with the short wait.
By the time we finished the ride it was 1 am. We didn't have time for another maze. We ended up missing out on 5 other mazes. Should have just skipped the terror tram and gone for something else. My impression of HHN was about the same from 2009. There are outrageous long lines for the mazes. The quality of the maze is great, but without a front of line pass which is almost an additional $100 on top of your HHN admission, which is not worth the money, you tend to miss out a lot in a one nights visit. I won't be back to HHN for quite some time.
Got back to our hotel around 2 am. Went to the front desk to grab our room keys and they said my credit card got declined for the other 3 rooms. Which I have never had my card declined ever. So I had to call them and my agent informed me that she did not see any declined charges and had the hotel charge the other three rooms while I had her on the phone. Everything went through like normal, but the ordeal set us back a few minutes which was very irritating as we were all really tired. The curse strikes again.
That ends day 1. Tomorrow were off to Disneyland.
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