Before this long weekend trip, Southwest sent me custom luggage tags since I am an A Lister!
There is the usual view of SoFi Stadium from the air as one lands into LAX.
At LAX, we saw the new Southwest Spirit of 1776 plane which honors America 250! Spoiler Alert: We are going to New England next to ring in the nation's 250th birthday!
The RMS Queen Mary looked amazing as we walked up to it! The parking lots were occupied for a large rave they were hosting that three day weekend so we had to take a shuttle from the temporary lot.
I was only able to book one night at the Queen Mary since they had a rave that long weekend and was not open to the public after Thursday night. Here is one of the stages set up for the Zoombie themed rave.
Our flight was slightly delayed so we rushed to the Chelsea Chowder House on board after we checked in to get a late dinner. They closed early that night.
We got some delicious fish and chips as well as the mussels for dinner. Of course, I washed it down with a nice bourbon.
We had a nice view of Long Beach from the Chelsea Chowder House.
We went to our cabin after dinner, and I was surprised at how large they were compared to many modern cruise ship cabins.
Our cabin had a small porthole that faced the port side of the ship.
The bathroom was decent sized for being on a historic cruise ship.
The bath tub was super small however! It looked like a shower stall. LOL. I guess people were smaller back then.
We explored the ship the next morning. The ship is of course named for Queen Mary, who was married to King George V of the United Kingdom and was the Empress of India.
These are some of the historic elevators on the ship which do not work anymore.
Guests could book their next voyage on the Queen Mary in the first class ticket office here on the ship.
This is the first class pool on the ship.
This is the front of the ship. The RMS Queen Mary is permanently anchored inside a blocked off area in the Port of Long Beach.
Here is the sports deck where guests could play tennis. It looked more like a pickelball court however because of the size.
The Carnival Firenze was in port that day. I took this ship two years ago to Mexico.
A vintage piano graced one of the rooms inside the ship also.
The gym had vintage exercise equipment that guests used back then including this mechanical horse.
The gym did modern equipment too inside so I was able to get my work out in.
I took this photo as we departed the RMS Queen Mary. We enjoyed our stay on board the historic ship!
One enters Universal Studios Hollywood through the City Walk like in Florida too. We had two day tickets for the park.
I had to get a VooDoo Doughnut before going into the theme park!
We are at the entrance to Universal Studios here.
We raced to Super Nintendo World first since we had lunch reservations at the Toadstool Cafe.
Super Nintendo World was so cool! It was like we were inside the Super Mario Brothers game!
The Toadstool Cafe had cool videos all over which told a story.
The food is mostly Italian, and they had lots of items with mushrooms since the "Toadstools" cook there. LOL. I liked the cool Luigi hat souvenir my sandwich came with.
When the lights were darkened, it was a sign that something was wrong. Bowser was attacking the Toadstool village! Boo!
We waited almost two hours for the Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge ride. The views from the top of the ride were cool!
Bowser is greeting us as we entered the inside of the ride area.
We had these visors that we needed to wear since the glasses that attached to it gave us a heads up display as we raced around.
My company sent me a Nintendo Switch 2 as a gift a few months ago which came with the Mario Kart game so it was like I was inside the game I play at home. LOL.
We posed with Megatron after the ride. He was pretty mean to us, but he is still my favorite Transformer!
That is the car from Back To The Future!
After we left Universal City, we met a buddy of mine, Allan, at Osteria La Buca in Sherman Oaks for dinner. The food was amazing!
The next day, we went back to Universal Studios with our friends, Gavin and Raquel.
We did the Studio Tour first after getting into the park. The lines were not that bad for some reason on that Saturday.
They had an area where an earthquake in San Francisco was recreated. We were inside a BART station.
We went inside Skull Island to meet King Kong inside one of the sound stages.
Jaws was tracking us as we made our way to that set.
The killer from Pyscho is waiting for his next victim?
We did the ride inside the Harry Potter Castle as well as the roller coaster outside the castle.
I got this Butter Beer flavor Ice Lolly to give me more energy to walk around the park. LOL.
We got lunch at the restaurant inside Harry Potter World too. They had British themed meals like this meat pie. I got the frozen Butter Beer also! That cup was a souvenir cup too.
Gavin and I got a drink at the Irish Pub Mulligans. I got some Irish whiskey.
Joy loves the Minions so she had to pose with one.
The next morning, we met with our friends Andy and Denny for breakfast at Flappy Jack's in Orange, CA. Their pancakes are amazing!
Joy and I went to the Korean Mall in Buena Park afterwards. We tried this Korean shaved ice with fresh fruit there.
There was a World Cup game in LA that day so we watched some of it at Ojos Locos in Downey.
Ojos Locos is a good place to watch Soccer!
We did a "scary" ghost themed escape room with Alex, Henyrk, Andy, and Evelyn on that Father's Day.
We flew home from Long Beach so we took our boarding selfie via the stairs.
My company gave us a
holiday in June so Joy and I decided to go down to Southern California
for a three day weekend to visit Universal Studios Hollywood and see
some of our friends down there. We flew down to LAX on the
Thursday before the holiday and spent the night at the iconic and
historic Queen Mary in Long Beach. They were hosting a crazy rave
that long weekend so we could only stay there the first night. It
was cool to stay inside one of the historic cabins on this famous
cruise ship. We also got to have dinner at the Chelsea Chowder
House on board. The next morning, we got to tour the ship before
we took off. We had a Buy One Day, Get One Free ticket for
Universal Studios that I bought through a discount site that my company
offers. We went to check out Super Nintendo World on that Friday.
After having lunch at the Toadstool Cafe, we went on their
signature ride, Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge. The ride
was super cool! I have a Nintendo Switch 2 so it was like I was
playing Mario Kart! After the ride, Megatron was taking pictures
with the guests so we did that. It was nice to not be rushed by
having two days to explore the park. We had dinner with my friend
Allan afterwards in Sherman Oaks. The restaurant he picked was great! I loved their octopus and squid ink pasta!
The next day, we went back to Universal Studios with our friends Gavin and Raquel. We went on the Studio Lot Tour as well as the rides inside Harry Potter World. Also, we went on the Minion's ride too. It was a fun day!
On Sunday, we had breakfast with some friends in Orange before going to the Korean Mall in Orange County. We also went to catch some of the World Cup game at Ojos Locos. Later that day, we met up with Alex and his son, Henryk, as well as Andy and his daughter, Evelyn, to do an escape room. It was a fun get away!
The next day, we went back to Universal Studios with our friends Gavin and Raquel. We went on the Studio Lot Tour as well as the rides inside Harry Potter World. Also, we went on the Minion's ride too. It was a fun day!
On Sunday, we had breakfast with some friends in Orange before going to the Korean Mall in Orange County. We also went to catch some of the World Cup game at Ojos Locos. Later that day, we met up with Alex and his son, Henryk, as well as Andy and his daughter, Evelyn, to do an escape room. It was a fun get away!