I was so excited to see the newly-renovated Griffith Observatory, which had been closed since 2002. It re-opened Nov. 3, and I was able to get tickets for Nov. 5 -- bad move. We took the shuttle from the Hollywood Highland station, and there was no line, and no system at all. They took our tickets, but they didn't even check to see if everyone getting on the bus had tickets (waste of $8/person), so people just sneaked in. They also said there would be times/schedules, which were printed on the tickets, but they let anyone who was there ride the shuttle anyway, which caused the shuttle to be overcrowded. We had to stand the whole time with no airconditioning! I couldn't wait for the ride to end! Once we got there, it was a mass of people, and lines for everything. We tried getting tickets to the planetarium, but it was sold out. We tried to have dinner at the cafe but the lines were outrageous so we nixed that idea. We lined up for the telescope for 30 mins, until we realized it would be at least another hour and 1/2 before we got in, so we just went outside to line up for 20 mins to look into a small telescope (w/c lasted less than a minute). Looking at displays and features was horrible since there were so many kids who wanted to get ahead of us. Plus, there were still a lot of missing displays and exhibits. Argh!!! TIPS: get a planetarium ticket ASAP and work your schedule around that; try to have a meal before going coz it's ridiculous to spend so much time there, lining up for food; save going around till the end, after you've gone to the more important planetarium & telescope.
Pros: great LA attraction, awesome city views
Cons: super crowded, incomplete exhibits/displays, no system in place
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