Anaheim

Disneyland
that's it
Anaheim is one of the worst cities in the U.S.
Even people in Orange County will say this

This is what I'm afraid of.

I've only flown into Ontario Intl. Airport once... it's a vast and vacuous airport. I was supposed to land at SNA (John Wayne airport), but it got fogged out at the last minute, so we were diverted to ONT, and were put in shuttle buses back to John Wayne. With typical SoCal traffic, it took an hour to get to SNA.. but at least it was free, given the diversion.

Check ONT's website.. I'm sure they have a specific Disneyland shuttle.

They mainly rep the fact that they have an enormous USO.

Hahah, well, I'm about, oh, ten miles or so away. In fact I took this photo in Anaheim just last night:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3142/2640395983_28b81e8705.jpg

It is actually very easily accessible by public transportation thanks to a combined Amtrak/Metrolink stop located at Angel Stadium, where said photo was taken, which has shuttles that run straight over to the Disneyland area. Via Ontario, I'd have to check -- if you were coming in via Burbank you'd be set.

Good eats in Anaheim -- there are actually quite a few tucked away! I can't recommend the excellent Ma's enough -- Islamic Chinese cuisine, done wonderfully. A very solid Eritrean place there as well, Merhaba. More suggestions, just scroll through here (any place that Gustavo recommends in Anaheim will be top of the line -- you can trust his taste thoroughly, he is the Jonathan Gold of the area).

UCI housing -- uh, probably not. I can check tomorrow. Usually open spots are already full with people there on summer programs.

Worth doing and seeing -- well there's easy bus connections to get down to the coast and/or my neck of the woods. Drop me a line for more.

Anyway, Elvis Telecom to thread for more, along with anyone else who's been there/lived nearby etc.

Though I see Mackro just posted. He is correct, there's really not that much in Anaheim beyond the Disney machine, and that has skewed the city to ridiculous degrees even for OC. It's a pretty stark division.

Disneyland resides in the very southeast corner of Anaheim, which feels like it's only miniature Disneycity. If you're staying there, well, just treat it like an oasis in an otherwise sea of dirty inland O.C. warehouses.

If you can somehow make it to Balboa in Newport Beach from there, I recommend it.. not because the locals are one of a kind, but the beach walk along the Balboa peninsula is really nice, and there's no other area with that kind of beach walk like it... especially with the Balboa Fun Zone (which I hope is still around.) I just wouldn't recommend hanging out at the bars down there.

I just wouldn't recommend hanging out at the bars down there.

Seconding THAT.

I see here that last year there were some plans set in place to extend the Gold Line to Ontario and specifically the airport -- smart idea! -- but that's all they are now. I think you might want to see about a shuttle straight into Union Station, then Amtrak/Metrolink as mentioned.

I've also just remembered that the two main bus lines I'm thinking of -- the 43, which passes right by Disneyland itself, and the 57, which connects (along with a short walk) to the Amtrak/Metrolink station, are two of the only 24-hour bus lines in the entire county. Use this to your advantage. The 57 goes directly down into Newport Beach, not quite to Balboa sadly, but not far away. Also passes within a block of where I live, so I know it pretty well!

Let me do some linking here (these are to PDFs):

The 43

The 57

Main OCTA site for more info re: bus: http://www.octa.net/

Metrolink info: http://www.metrolinktrains.com/ -- this is notably cheaper than Amtrak but does not always run as often. It's really only one train line through the north/east of the county but as such is key. I'd readily recommend it for day trips back north into LA and down south to places like San Juan Capistrano or San Clemente, say.

Hmm, I just checked SuperShuttle in from Ontario to Union Station -- a not-very-happy $70 for two people. Let me scrounge a bit more here.

Best thing to do in Balboa is pay the small fee to take this little tiny ferry over to Balboa Island (which is just another peninsula, but with a very tiny isthmus), walk around Balboa Island to find the spot where all the jellyfish are in that one dirty area of the bay, stare at them for a while, also all the little sea crabs everywhere, look at the all the houses, then ferry back.

the Balboa area of Newport Beach is basically a less affluent looking take on the O.C. stereotype which lives its fullest in Newport Beach. (At least The O.C. chose the right city, I'll give the show producers that.) But whereas the O.C. stereotype resides in the Fasion Island Mall area (and trust, you have no desire or reason to go there at all), Balboa seems like a way for many residents to create an anomaly in O.C., actual high density living. Some of the residents can be annoying, but it is an escape from the all the beige sound-walls and cookie cutter houses. People are actually forced to live really close together, and it's extremely colorful on top of it. Again, if only most of the residents were reflective of that (hence my warning against the bars.) Keep in mind this is the area that forces airplanes at SNA to take off at a weird angle for noise abatement, and you'd be surrounded by some of the most evil conservative fucks in southern California, but at least they have a relative sense of taste as far as where they live.

So there's no ONT shuttle to Disneyland?

I realize ONT isn't LAX, but even when I landed at weird godawful hours of the night at LAX, I STILL saw lots of Disneyland shuttle about. You'd figure people would fly into ONT as a way to bypass LAX to get to Disneyland. It can't be that hard. There are tons of hotel chains around Disneyland.. I'm sure a few of them have ONT dedicated shuttles cheaper than outside services, maybe?

Very possibly the ONT airport website's concession to public transport information is to list every provider of it from San Diego to Malibu.

Okay, there's a much more sensible option from Ontario, should have leapt out at me earlier -- if you're coming in on a weekday, you want the Metrolink Riverside Line, E. Ontario stop, which is a stone's throw from the airport:

http://www.metrolinktrains.com/schedules/html.php?id=261

If on a weekend, then you want the Metrolink San Bernardino Line for either Saturday or Sunday. The appropriate stops are further from the airport but still not so bad.

Either way just take the appropriate line in to Union Station in LA, then south from there.

And I'm sure there has to be some sort of direct Disneyland shuttle as mentioned but what, I'm not positive. Let me keep looking here.

(That said, Newport Beach is probably second to Dubai as far as selective extreme enforcement of marijuana possession. Ask Don Bolles.)

Some kind of Van service from the airport is probably going to be our friend; we arrive, late on a Saturday, from Boston with a precariously short connection from Boston via Dallas.

whereas the O.C. stereotype resides in the Fasion Island Mall area (and trust, you have no desire or reason to go there at all)

Yes and no! Fashion Island = useless, but it is also where the 57 line terminates. From there you can grab bus connections to go north or south on the 1 route, which is also the Pacific Coast Highway; going north means that there's a stop a couple of spots up from which you can walk down a short road to Balboa Island.

The designers of the 57 line are heartless, obviously.

(lol, ok fine, and a lot of people love going to Fashion Island for some reason, fair enough.)

The designers of the 57 line are heartless, obviously.

Too true! (The 55 gets me to more spots I need to go in Costa Mesa and would provide an even more direct route to Balboa but it doesn't run up to Anaheim. This said, Ed could also take the 43 all the way to the coast and then the 1 south to get to Balboa from the other direction.)

Some kind of Van service from the airport is probably going to be our friend; we arrive, late on a Saturday, from Boston with a precariously short connection from Boston via Dallas.

Ugh -- yeah, at that point I think you should just kick down the cash and not have to think too hard. Even if you caught the last San Bernardino Line in to Union Station you'd be too late to get any sort of connection south, Amtrak or Metrolink.

Well, depending on where you're at, if you go for hotel chain then there might be some sort of free shuttle service (though given fuel cost follies who knows), otherwise pretty much it's an on-arrival van service. I tend to fall back on SuperShuttle but there are other options.

A quick scrounge shows that SuperShuttle from ONT to Disneyland is $50 for two people, and that that's about the best price around. So I think you're covered there.

Excellent. so $100 bucks for both directions. Which is fine. Currently car hire would be over $300 plus petrol.

Yeah, definitely. Just budget that and you're good.

Meantime looking over at UCI's website their short-term housing for summer is limited to UCI affiliates. There's also no easy and direct connection up to Disneyland from there anyway, you're talking at least three bus routes and/or two plus a short Amtrak/Metrolink ride. There's a fair sprawl of hotels and things around the Anaheim Amtrak/Metrolink station/the 57 bus line, though -- and frankly they feel less seedy than the ones around Disneyland -- and you'll be able to get any number of shuttles and/or bus connections from there down the street to Disneyland and the convention center, so don't rule that out.

Closest hotel right at that key Amtrak etc. intersection -- State College and Katella -- is this Marriott/TownPlace Suite. Comes out at $120 a night for a queen bed/studio setup, it seems.

Ed, how long are you staying?

9th through 13th of August

Handy, I'll still be around (am heading home for a visit on the night of the 13th itself).

The more I think about it, the more it seems clear that staying over near the station than near Disneyland would be to your best advantage unless there's a very good reason for your GF to be pretty much on-site beyond the conference hours themselves (and there might well be!). Gives both of you a chance to get out of the area very easily either down to the coast or on the train lines as mentioned!

Meantime if you scare up enough recommendations for places to eat that catch your eye and there's enough fellow foodies around at the conference with at least one rental car at your disposal then you can roam nearby pretty readily. And if you want to roam further down my neck of the woods there's a slew of great spots I can recommend, including a number of vegetarian and/or vegan locations. There are a LOT of great restaurants tucked away throughout the county.

Yeah, the thing I miss most about O.C. are all the vegan Vietnamese/Chinese/Thai places. Wheel Of Life is pretty U+K

Is Au Lac in Fountain Valley still open?

haha, stay away from the Yelp threads on these places. There are tons of one-star reviews from people who say "well, first off, I'm not a vegetarian so i was FORCED here by my stupid vegan friends..."

anaheim is so so terrible

But your favorite people are from there oh wait.

Au Lac and the Wheel of Life are still chugging along like gangbusters. And down in Costa Mesa I have introduced more people to the Avanti Cafe than I can count.

Thanks for all the info. When we know what's going on, if anyone would like to meet up for drinks/food that would be great. (I think we need to visit some of my GF's family too so have to organise around that).

If Ned and the gang can make you and your gf have a wonderful time in Orange County, Ned and the gang deserve accolades, and they would fully admit this and deserve them respectively. The challenge is part of the fun. (not being sarcastic!)

Pretty much what he said! We'll figure something out.

And I'm sure you have to humor your GF's family and all but if they say something like "Let's meet up at Claim Jumper or Hof's Hut," your love will be tested. But the experience is survivable.

Nah, everyone should go to some corny theme restaurant that's All Quantity What The Heck Be Quality? type place at least once while in the U.S. Might as well be Claim Jumper. Maybe it's regional, but Claim Jumper is far more vegetarian friendly than it used to be -- you just have to like potatoes a lot, that's all. Basically most places in the U.S. are far more vegetarian friendly than they used to be... maybe not vegan friendly though.

i would love, love, love to go to anaheim tonight

so much

Would anyone like to meet up for a beer or dinner or somesuch on Monday the 11th August?

I'll be in L.A. from the night of the 7th until the 10th (for family and 88 BOADRUM). Would be missing this by a hair.

Well JEEZ.

Monday the 11th, I'm totally down. Will you have car/have you figured out where you are at/etc.?

Yes, Staying at the something something something by the convention centre, we caved and decided to hire a car though so we are mobile. Would like to find awesome foods.

Can do, and can recommend great spots all around my neck of the woods easy. Drop me a private mail with details (phone number, etc.).

Will do (hope my SIM hasn't expired longest I've been out of the states since I got it).

I recommend the Montechristo Sandwich at the Blue Bayou.

Ask for a table with a view.

This is true, actually!

u killed the rhyme ned

I killed it dead

wtf anaheim riots?

For more:

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/anaheim_police_shooting_desmad/

This moment in particular:

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012/07/disneyland_fireworks_anaheim_protests.php

no justice no peace

stay strong ned

shit is crazy

I'm going to Disneyland this weekend!

http://www.ocweekly.com/2012-07-26/news/anaheim-police-department-city-hall-riots/