An Aussie's Journey. Our final meal before coming home (food porn)....the last post! - Page 2 - The DIS Discussion Forums

PrincessInOz · 05-21-2010, 11:16 PM

Here are a few more shots around Miami and our hotel. DH has been having heaps of fun with the new camera and some of these are shot using the "no flash" mode.
Our hotel is the one with the sign.

The building 3 doors away from our hotel.

This one is of the canal.

This one is around Collins Avenue.

Melbourne to Orlando via Melbourne

Anyone who has read my PTR will know that I live in Australia, in a city called Melbourne. If you haven't caught up on the PTR - and a little bit of self promotion here - the link is in my signature below.

Here's a picture of Melbourne, Australia.

Melbourne is not exactly a name that is commonly used to name a city/town around the world. Aside from Australia, I believe that there is Melbourne in England, Canada and the one in Florida.

I am also aware that not every Melbourne consists of a population of 4 - 5 million people. But I had the calling to go visit Melbourne Florida.
Thanks to Capt_BJ and vicky c for their help on where to go for my tourist photos (reference: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2399939). Capt_BJ did try to deter me from going...

DS enjoying a drink in historic downtown Melbourne.

It is a little bit of a detour to get to Melbourne Florida (it probably added about an hour to the travel and we did stop for another hour to look around) and I can't exactly say either way whether it was worth it or not. I will say that we had a good time looking at the shops in Melbourne and walking the historic downtown area.

[Up next - We're at the World]

aussietravellers · 05-22-2010, 02:50 AM

PrincessInOz, I am loving the trip report!

Can't wait to read more!

Good Ol Gal · 05-22-2010, 06:23 AM

cool stuff so far..... but come on, I'm waiting for the World!!

you need to spend more time on the trip report... and less time on other threads!

TokyoDina · 05-22-2010, 10:36 AM

Hey you started while I was gone! I'm glad I got back just in time to see the trip to the World! I love the gifts by the way!!!!!!

PrincessInOz · 05-22-2010, 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aussietravellers

PrincessInOz, I am loving the trip report!

Can't wait to read more!

Welcome!! And thanks! I'm hoping to spend more time today at start reporting about the World.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Good Ol Gal

cool stuff so far..... but come on, I'm waiting for the World!!

you need to spend more time on the trip report... and less time on other threads!

It's my TR and I'll write it anyway I like

!
Thanks for stopping by but I know you only want me here and not in the land of the LAST so that you can win! Nice strategy.

The start of the World coming up....(I hope).

Quote:

Originally Posted by TokyoDina

Hey you started while I was gone! I'm glad I got back just in time to see the trip to the World! I love the gifts by the way!!!!!!

Hello! Long time between drinks! Glad to see that the gifts got to you safely. I did wonder....

PrincessInOz · 05-22-2010, 06:23 PM

POR - Are we staying in New Orleans or Florida?

At around 6 pm on the 4th May, we finally arrived at the World. It has been a 5 year absence from the last time that we were there and I was determined that the next time we came, we were staying on-site.

Our home for the first 5 nights of this trip was Port Orleans Riverside. For someone that has to travel over 20 hours (and that's just flying time; not including any transit time) just to get to Florida, you would want to maximise the experience. I wanted to test out a moderate and a deluxe resort....

We walked into the foyer of POR and immediately knew that we were in the land on hidden mickeys.

I didn't do on-line check in and given the queues, it didn't make a difference which line I was in.

I had a slight moment of misgiving when I found out that we were allocated a room in Oak Manor. I had requested Alligator Bayou buildings 14, 15 or 18. But the CM that checked me in was "earning his ears". He was obviously new and very nervous (perhaps the supervisor needed to step a little bit back). I didn't have the heart to make a fuss.
Turning around and looking out the window helped settle me.

We got room 9012 in Oak Manor. Our room was on the other side of the building, close to the car park.

It was about 5 - 7 minutes to walk to the main pool, the food court, Fulton's and the main bus stop.

It was about 2 minutes away from one of the quiet pools and the laundry.

We opened our room and were greeted by this. Mousekeeping kept this up every day.

There had been some chat on the DisBoard that POR was in need of a refurb and that the rooms were not up to scratch.
IMO, the rooms were a little well loved but I didn't see anything wrong with the room we had been allocated. It was clean and comfortable. TV worked fine...despite being an older CRT type and not a new flat screen.

And it had airconditioning....thermostatically controlled. Either completely icy cold or warm...till I found out that DH turned the A/C to fan mode.

I had no complaints about our room location. It would take a bigger cynic than me to not appreciate views like this when walking about.

And this...

The food court is found in the blue building at the water's edge.

This was one of my favourite tables to sit at.

Because I could look out and see this and pretend that I am on a paddleboat going down the Mississippi.

One of the attractions for picking this moderate is that it has boat transport to Downtown Disney.

We did get to use this one of the nights...but more about this later.

Yup. There is no doubt about it. POR is a pretty resort and I'm glad I picked it as the moderate to try out.

For the animal lovers, I personally saw heaps of squirrels, rabbits and ducks. And on one of the mornings, DH also saw a black snake (no further description forthcoming because that's all I got out of him).

[Up next - Day 1 at MK and TGM is wrong!]

DisneyFirefly · 05-22-2010, 07:54 PM

Oh god, I cannot wait to go. We're planning on staying at POR and your pics made me completely certain that we chose the right resort

cmp1111 · 05-22-2010, 08:09 PM

It's a lovely setting - I've never seen it in person.

manntra · 05-22-2010, 10:02 PM

Hi there!!! Going to mark ny spot here and go back and read!

We met at the Ditch on the 5th over far too many margaritas!!! Looking forward to hearing all about your trip!!

Tracy

kcandbella · 05-22-2010, 10:06 PM

I'm here! Your report is great so far! It was nice to meet you at the meet. Your pics of POR turned out great. Can't wait to read more!

PrincessInOz · 05-22-2010, 10:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DisneyFirefly

Oh god, I cannot wait to go. We're planning on staying at POR and your pics made me completely certain that we chose the right resort

Firefly - we enjoyed our stay at POR. The beds were full sized, the bath was clean and the food court was pretty good. You won't be sorry.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmp1111

It's a lovely setting - I've never seen it in person.

Welcome back! It's worth a personal visit....are you planning anything soon?

Quote:

Originally Posted by manntra

Hi there!!! Going to mark ny spot here and go back and read!

We met at the Ditch on the 5th over far too many margaritas!!! Looking forward to hearing all about your trip!!

Tracy

Hi Tracy! Glad you could make it here. Hope you stop by again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kcandbella

I'm here! Your report is great so far! It was nice to meet you at the meet. Your pics of POR turned out great. Can't wait to read more!

Hello Kayce. Feeling is mutual. I've been enjoying your TR as well.

Ms. Shuttergirl · 05-22-2010, 11:07 PM

Ooooh the resort looks lovely. I love the scenery around the water, so nice.

PrincessInOz · 05-22-2010, 11:13 PM

I have a bad feeling that tourguide Mike's ratings for this week are horribly understated....

We are blessed with a DS that seems to run on a neverending battery. After check-in and unpacking and with this in mind, we began to plan our assault for the night...
MK was opened till 9 pm and that left us with a good 2 hours to hit that park.

I'd forgotten that you can't just park right near the MK gate. You park at the TTC and take one of these to the park.

And when we got through the gate, we met an old friend.

And took a photo of ourselves in front of our dream home.

Oh, oh! This was when I realised that there were a LOT more people at the park than a TGM rating of 4. What's going on?? Don't tell me he was wrong! I developed a very bad feeling about this week...

Undaunted we moved on to face our future.

Where we queued....

To get on this.

Don't get too used to seeing shots like these. I've realised that we seriously underdid photos at the parks!

Then we moved on to another old friend. Where we did more queueing...at 8 pm??? Really people...you should be out there watching Spectro and waiting for Wishes. If I ever meet TGM, I'm going to have words with him.

The boys did their best to save the universe...but I whooped their you know what with my score.

We then made a quick run for the speedway. DS is finally tall enough to drive himself....something that I won't need to really worry about for a few more years.

When we finished, we saw some fancy lights in the sky.

Given that no one seems to report UFOs in Florida, I figured we were safe in Tomorrowland.

Doesn't our house look pretty at night?

To finish the day, we needed some food....specifically DINNER. With nothing opened after 9 pm at MK, we jumped in the car and headed over the DTD.
We ended up at WPE.

Where we cashed in one CS credit for a pizza, huge brownie and drink.

And paid OOP for the soup...it was about $5 and wasn't worth using a CS meal for. Given that it was past 10.30 pm, WPE threw us some bread for free.

We probably hit home at around 11.30 pm and it was way past bedtime for us; irrespective of which timezone you care to use.

bobbiwoz · 05-23-2010, 06:41 AM

I'm enjoying your pictures and TR! Great job!

Bobbi

Adrienne · 05-23-2010, 07:49 AM

fellow aussie subbing in

05-21-2010, 11:16 PM	#16
PrincessInOz New Year PiO Boo Boo Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Melbourne Australia Posts: 64,455	Melbourne to Orlando via Melbourne Here are a few more shots around Miami and our hotel. DH has been having heaps of fun with the new camera and some of these are shot using the "no flash" mode. Our hotel is the one with the sign. The building 3 doors away from our hotel. This one is of the canal. This one is around Collins Avenue. Melbourne to Orlando via Melbourne Anyone who has read my PTR will know that I live in Australia, in a city called Melbourne. If you haven't caught up on the PTR - and a little bit of self promotion here - the link is in my signature below. Here's a picture of Melbourne, Australia. Melbourne is not exactly a name that is commonly used to name a city/town around the world. Aside from Australia, I believe that there is Melbourne in England, Canada and the one in Florida. I am also aware that not every Melbourne consists of a population of 4 - 5 million people. But I had the calling to go visit Melbourne Florida. Thanks to Capt_BJ and vicky c for their help on where to go for my tourist photos (reference: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2399939). Capt_BJ did try to deter me from going... DS enjoying a drink in historic downtown Melbourne. It is a little bit of a detour to get to Melbourne Florida (it probably added about an hour to the travel and we did stop for another hour to look around) and I can't exactly say either way whether it was worth it or not. I will say that we had a good time looking at the shops in Melbourne and walking the historic downtown area. [Up next - We're at the World] __________________ Disneyland - Dec 1986, May 1990, Dec 1997, Aug 2003, Jun 2005, Jul 2007 TR, Nov 2008, Jan 2011 and Nov 2012 Another Mad Dash TR Walt Disney World - Jun 2005, May 2010 (POR, BCV) PTR \|\| TR, Oct 2010 (CSR) PTR \|\| TR, Oct 2013 Anyone Game? PTR In Progress Hong Kong Disneyland - Mar/Apr 2012 TR Last edited by PrincessInOz; 05-24-2010 at 04:36 AM.

05-22-2010, 02:50 AM	#17
aussietravellers who LOVE disney holidays! Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 3,313	PrincessInOz, I am loving the trip report! Can't wait to read more! __________________ 1975 - 1990 - Many Trips - Disneyland California - Disneyland Hotel 1995 - Walt Disney World - Yacht Club Resort 2004 - Disneyland California - Grand Californian 2008 - Walt Disney World - Animal Kingdom Lodge & Disneyland Paris - Hotel New York 2009 - Disneyland California - Grand Californian 2010 - Walt Disney World - Animal Kingdom Lodge + Beach Club + Yacht Club Resorts My 2010 Trip to NY and WDW Trip Report *Yes, three tickers... Couldn't decide which to choose as I liked all of them, so decided to just use all three*

05-22-2010, 06:23 AM	#18
Good Ol Gal A Longhorn living in Buckeye Country who wants to live in SSR I love hanging out with my family My Snow Plowin' Grass Cuttin' Neighbor hates me! Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: OH-IO ~~ but you can find me in the Land of the LAST~~ Posts: 20,098	cool stuff so far..... but come on, I'm waiting for the World!! you need to spend more time on the trip report... and less time on other threads! __________________ TiVolicious Upcoming trip: BLT/ VWL March '13, WVL Dec '13 Completed trips: BTL/VWL Mar 12, Vero June 11, VWL Mar 11, SSR/VWL/BCV March '11, Vero & Boardwalk June '10, VWL & Vero Beach June '09, VWL Christmas '08, VWL Jul 08; POR / AKV / VWL Nov 07; BCV / VWL June 07; POR / OKW Dec 06; SSR Dec 05; SSR Dec 04 first DVC trip; FWC Feb 04

05-22-2010, 10:36 AM	#19
TokyoDina DIS Veteran Join Date: May 2009 Location: Tucson, AZ Posts: 639	Hey you started while I was gone! I'm glad I got back just in time to see the trip to the World! I love the gifts by the way!!!!!! __________________ DH (26) Me (26) Thanksgiving DL Trip first time going with my Dad! 2010 Jul Birthday Celebration DL/DCA 2010 Turkeys! You can't rush perfection Michael! May 2010 TR 2009 Mini Trip Report.

05-22-2010, 06:23 PM	#21
PrincessInOz New Year PiO Boo Boo Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Melbourne Australia Posts: 64,455	We're at the World - POR POR - Are we staying in New Orleans or Florida? At around 6 pm on the 4th May, we finally arrived at the World. It has been a 5 year absence from the last time that we were there and I was determined that the next time we came, we were staying on-site. Our home for the first 5 nights of this trip was Port Orleans Riverside. For someone that has to travel over 20 hours (and that's just flying time; not including any transit time) just to get to Florida, you would want to maximise the experience. I wanted to test out a moderate and a deluxe resort.... We walked into the foyer of POR and immediately knew that we were in the land on hidden mickeys. I didn't do on-line check in and given the queues, it didn't make a difference which line I was in. I had a slight moment of misgiving when I found out that we were allocated a room in Oak Manor. I had requested Alligator Bayou buildings 14, 15 or 18. But the CM that checked me in was "earning his ears". He was obviously new and very nervous (perhaps the supervisor needed to step a little bit back). I didn't have the heart to make a fuss. Turning around and looking out the window helped settle me. We got room 9012 in Oak Manor. Our room was on the other side of the building, close to the car park. It was about 5 - 7 minutes to walk to the main pool, the food court, Fulton's and the main bus stop. It was about 2 minutes away from one of the quiet pools and the laundry. We opened our room and were greeted by this. Mousekeeping kept this up every day. There had been some chat on the DisBoard that POR was in need of a refurb and that the rooms were not up to scratch. IMO, the rooms were a little well loved but I didn't see anything wrong with the room we had been allocated. It was clean and comfortable. TV worked fine...despite being an older CRT type and not a new flat screen. And it had airconditioning....thermostatically controlled. Either completely icy cold or warm...till I found out that DH turned the A/C to fan mode. I had no complaints about our room location. It would take a bigger cynic than me to not appreciate views like this when walking about. And this... The food court is found in the blue building at the water's edge. This was one of my favourite tables to sit at. Because I could look out and see this and pretend that I am on a paddleboat going down the Mississippi. One of the attractions for picking this moderate is that it has boat transport to Downtown Disney. We did get to use this one of the nights...but more about this later. Yup. There is no doubt about it. POR is a pretty resort and I'm glad I picked it as the moderate to try out. For the animal lovers, I personally saw heaps of squirrels, rabbits and ducks. And on one of the mornings, DH also saw a black snake (no further description forthcoming because that's all I got out of him). [Up next - Day 1 at MK and TGM is wrong!] __________________ Disneyland - Dec 1986, May 1990, Dec 1997, Aug 2003, Jun 2005, Jul 2007 TR, Nov 2008, Jan 2011 and Nov 2012 Another Mad Dash TR Walt Disney World - Jun 2005, May 2010 (POR, BCV) PTR \|\| TR, Oct 2010 (CSR) PTR \|\| TR, Oct 2013 Anyone Game? PTR In Progress Hong Kong Disneyland - Mar/Apr 2012 TR Last edited by PrincessInOz; 05-24-2010 at 04:42 AM.

Sponsored Links
The DIS Register to remove Join Date: 1997 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 1,000,000

05-22-2010, 07:54 PM	#22
DisneyFirefly I wind up insanely itchy and liable to break skin I'm definitely a walking information desk when it comes to MK Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 12,465	Oh god, I cannot wait to go. We're planning on staying at POR and your pics made me completely certain that we chose the right resort __________________ Follow The Bouncing Ears 10/10 TR/PTR 10/10 Pop 2008-09 CM 11/06 Offsite 2004-05 CP/First Visit

05-22-2010, 08:09 PM	#23
cmp1111 DIS Veteran Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: New England Posts: 7,181	It's a lovely setting - I've never seen it in person. __________________ Me - C.E.! DH - D. DS10 - Woody DS10 - Buzz See my " The Decoy Trip" Report here. May 2007 - AKL Aug. 2008 - The Big Group Pre-Trip Report is here. And the Rain, Rain, Rain TR: Here

05-22-2010, 10:02 PM	#24
manntra DIS Veteran Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Upstate NY Posts: 2,397	Hi there!!! Going to mark ny spot here and go back and read! We met at the Ditch on the 5th over far too many margaritas!!! Looking forward to hearing all about your trip!! Tracy

05-22-2010, 10:06 PM	#25
kcandbella DIS Veteran Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: IL Posts: 951	I'm here! Your report is great so far! It was nice to meet you at the meet. Your pics of POR turned out great. Can't wait to read more! __________________ Me (Kayce, 32) DD Bella (7) June 2012 POR Sept/Oct 2011 Pop May 2010 POR Many offsite stays as a child

05-22-2010, 11:07 PM	#27
Ms. Shuttergirl DIS Veteran Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Australia Posts: 3,035	Ooooh the resort looks lovely. I love the scenery around the water, so nice. __________________ Oct 2009 Disneyland - stayed at Disneyland Hotel Sept/Oct 2010 WDW - split stay Wilderness Lodge/POP Century - Trip Report http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2559987 PTR Christmas 2012 - http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2979947 TR WDW/US/Canada Christmas trip 2012 - http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3030550

05-22-2010, 11:13 PM	#28
PrincessInOz New Year PiO Boo Boo Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Melbourne Australia Posts: 64,455	We're at the World - Day 1 @ MK I have a bad feeling that tourguide Mike's ratings for this week are horribly understated.... We are blessed with a DS that seems to run on a neverending battery. After check-in and unpacking and with this in mind, we began to plan our assault for the night... MK was opened till 9 pm and that left us with a good 2 hours to hit that park. I'd forgotten that you can't just park right near the MK gate. You park at the TTC and take one of these to the park. And when we got through the gate, we met an old friend. And took a photo of ourselves in front of our dream home. Oh, oh! This was when I realised that there were a LOT more people at the park than a TGM rating of 4. What's going on?? Don't tell me he was wrong! I developed a very bad feeling about this week... Undaunted we moved on to face our future. Where we queued.... To get on this. Don't get too used to seeing shots like these. I've realised that we seriously underdid photos at the parks! Then we moved on to another old friend. Where we did more queueing...at 8 pm??? Really people...you should be out there watching Spectro and waiting for Wishes. If I ever meet TGM, I'm going to have words with him. The boys did their best to save the universe...but I whooped their you know what with my score. We then made a quick run for the speedway. DS is finally tall enough to drive himself....something that I won't need to really worry about for a few more years. When we finished, we saw some fancy lights in the sky. Given that no one seems to report UFOs in Florida, I figured we were safe in Tomorrowland. Doesn't our house look pretty at night? To finish the day, we needed some food....specifically DINNER. With nothing opened after 9 pm at MK, we jumped in the car and headed over the DTD. We ended up at WPE. Where we cashed in one CS credit for a pizza, huge brownie and drink. And paid OOP for the soup...it was about $5 and wasn't worth using a CS meal for. Given that it was past 10.30 pm, WPE threw us some bread for free. We probably hit home at around 11.30 pm and it was way past bedtime for us; irrespective of which timezone you care to use. __________________ Disneyland - Dec 1986, May 1990, Dec 1997, Aug 2003, Jun 2005, Jul 2007 TR, Nov 2008, Jan 2011 and Nov 2012 Another Mad Dash TR Walt Disney World - Jun 2005, May 2010 (POR, BCV) PTR \|\| TR, Oct 2010 (CSR) PTR \|\| TR, Oct 2013 Anyone Game? PTR In Progress Hong Kong Disneyland - Mar/Apr 2012 TR Last edited by PrincessInOz; 05-23-2010 at 10:13 PM.

05-23-2010, 06:41 AM	#29
bobbiwoz I'm happy to dance with you I have 2 opinions We had tried usual things to keep them away, including something like coyote urine, it is sold in hardware stores by us Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Washington Township OH and Cape May NJ Posts: 50,488	I'm enjoying your pictures and TR! Great job! Bobbi __________________

05-23-2010, 07:49 AM	#30
Adrienne Mouseketeer Join Date: May 2005 Location: Adelaide, South Australia Posts: 481	fellow aussie subbing in __________________ Adrienne- Disney fanatic from 6 weeks old First trip to WDW- Dec 1984 with DM,DGM,DGF- don't know where we stayed. prob off site First trip to DL- July 2003 on my own off site DL -Dec 2004 with my ex gf- off site WDW- June/July 2006 with other ex gf- at POP - first WDW trip as an adult IT ROCKED!! DL- Feb 2009 alone @ Ramada across the road HONG KONG DISNEYLAND! - feb 2012 with beautiful lover girl

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes	Rate This Thread
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode	Rate This Thread: