Running for my Disney - Finally a TR!

[zanzibar138]

*zanzibar* TR Productions proudly presents…

“Running for my Disney: An Epic Tale of Running, Road Tripping & Disney”

Starring:

zanzibar & zanzibar’s parents



With special appearances by:

DH



Running just got interesting!​

Day 1: I'm off to see the Mickey! Part 1 (Melbourne - Fiji)
Day 1: I'm off to see the Mickey! Part 2 (Fiji - LA)
Day 1: I'm off to see the Mickey! Part 3 (LA - Anaheim)
Day 1: I'm off to see the Mickey! Part 4 (Disneyland!)

Day 2: Family Reunion Number 1 (DTD)

Day 3: Family Reunion Number 2 Part 1 (Expo)
Day 3: Family Reunion Number 2 Part 2 (DCA)

Day 4: The Warm Up Part 1 (5k)
Day 4: The Warm Up Part 2 (DCA)
Day 4: The Warm Up Part 3 (DCA)
Day 4: The Warm Up Part 4 (DCA)

Day 5: The Big Run and Subsequent Celebration! Part 1 (10k)
Day 5: The Big Run and Subsequent Celebration! Part 2 (DL)
Day 5: The Big Run and Subsequent Celebration! Part 3 (DL)

Day 6: Let the Road Trip Begin (Anaheim - Palm Desert)

Day 7: From Running to Riding Part 1 (Palm Desert)
Day 7: From Running to Riding Part 2 (Palm Desert)

Day 8: Another Planet Part 1 (Palm Desert - Twentynine Palms via Joshua Tree NP)
Day 8: Another Planet Part 2 (Joshua Tree NP)
Day 8: Another Planet Part 3 (Joshua Tree NP)

Day 9: From Desert to Forest Part 1 (Twentynine Palms - Calico Ghost Town)
Day 9: From Desert to Forest Part 2 (Calico Ghost Town - Kernville via Red Rock Canyon State Park)

Day 10: Among Giants (Kernville)

Day 11: On the Road Again (Kernville - Santa Margarita)

Day 12: Coastal Adventures Part 1 (San Luis Obispo)
Day 12: Coastal Adventures Part 2 (Morro Bay & Montana de Oro State Park)

Day 13: Bye Bye DH (Santa Margarita - Long Beach)

Day 14: Back to the Magic Part 1 (Long Beach)
Day 14: Back to the Magic Part 2 (DCA)

Day 15: DCA by Day, DL by Night Part 1 (DCA)
Day 15: DCA by Day, DL by Night Part 2 (DL)

Day 16: Going Solo Part 1 (DL)
Day 16: Going Solo Part 2 (DCA)
Day 16: Going Solo Part 3 (DCA)

Day 17: A Taste of Halloween Part 1 (DL & DCA)
Day 17: A Taste of Halloween Part 2 (DL & DCA)

Day 18: This is Halloween Part 1 (DL)
Day 18: This is Halloween Part 2 - Dapper Day (DL)

Day 19: What Haven't We Done Yet? (DL)

Day 20: Walking with Walt for My Birthday Part 1 (DL)
Day 20: Walking with Walt for My Birthday Part 2 (DL)
Day 20: Walking with Walt for My Birthday Part 3 (DCA)

Day 21: TTFN Disneyland (DCA) Part 1

 

[PrincessInOz]

Eagerly waiting.

 

[zanzibar138]

Melbourne - Fiji

The day started bright and early with DH giving me a lift to the airport before work. My first flight was with Virgin to Fiji, and I found their check in desk straight away. When I got to the counter, the check in assistant asked if I was going to Bali, and looked confused when I said no. We later found out that we were checking in at the Virgin counter for Bali flights only! Luckily she was happy to check me in anyway.

Next stop was brekky. We found a Hungry Jack’s and had our last brekky together for a while. Then DH went off to work and I went through all the usual procedures for leaving the country and found my gate. The gate was kind of in the basement of the airport, and wasn’t open when I first arrived, so I just sat in the normal hub kind of area until a bit closer to my flight.



When the gate was opened, it REALLY looked like it was the basement. Kind of like the Jetstar gate in the domestic terminal. While I was entertaining myself with my puzzle book, one of the staff came over and asked if I was on my own. When I said yes, he asked if I would like to be seated in the exit row. Of course I took full advantage of that offer and he whisked away with my boarding pass to exchange it for a new one.



Boarding was via a bus ride. We drove all the way out past terminal 4!



When we did board, I found out why they were desperate for exit row people. The plane was literally half empty. A lot of people had 3 seats to themselves, and even in the exit rows there was a spare seat in each group.



The flight was quite non-eventful. I had downloaded the Virgin in-flight app before boarding so I watched a few episodes of The Vicar of Dibley on my iPod. Dawn French is a genius! We were served small hot meals with soft drinks.



Soon enough we were coming in to land at Fiji airport.

To be continued

 

[zanzibar138]

Eagerly waiting.

Welcome PIO

 

[zanzibar138]

Fiji – LA

Because I was flying with another carrier (Fiji Airways) for my onward journey, I needed to collect my suitcase, enter the country, then check in for my next flight and exit the country again. I exited without too much ado, and wondered where the check in desk for the international terminal was.

I saw an official looking guy who looked like he worked for the airport and asked him where it was. That was a BIG mistake. Turns out he was some sort of taxi driver and tried to convince me to take a tour of Fiji. I was confused at first because he really looked like an airport employee, and I wondered if it was some sort of airport service like they do in Singapore, but realised that was highly unlikely and told him I didn’t have any extra money for stuff like that. He was very insistent, but I finally not only managed to get away, but got directions for international check in too. Go me!

It was only a short walk to the international check in area, and there was virtually no queue. However, the people at the check in desk were taking an insane amount of time, and there was only one open. In the end, a manager type person came out and directed the people in front of me and me to other check in desks. After that it was smooth sailing and I found my way to the little old Fiji Airways lounge.



There was one power point available for public use, and it was being used. As my laptop battery is well on its way out, I made my way to one of two computers available for use and spent some time on emails and facebook.



There were cold meats and salad items available, and some soft drinks in the fridge. None of it was that appetizing, but since I was hungry I helped myself anyway.





A few people started chatting, and other people were joining in, so I decided to go and join in too. In the end it was me and 3 older couples, and another single guy, and we pretty much chatted until it was time to leave. In the meantime, some other food items appeared at the buffet area – a soup and a noodle stirfry which was quite nice. Just as we were preparing to leave, some fish fingers (?) appeared and we grabbed a couple to go!

Although it wasn't a fantastic lounge, it was much more comfortable than the general waiting area with access to free wifi, drinks, and some simple food items. It was sorely missed on the way home lol!

I was happy to be able to skip the long line for boarding and get settled in on the plane. As it was just me, I took one of the two seats in the middle of the plane, for easy aisle access. The seats were spacious and comfy.





There were plenty of little places to stash stuff.



We were given a pair of comfy and affective noise-cancelling headphones, and a little toilet bag with socks, an eyemask, toothbrush and toothpaste, and earplugs.

We filled in a menu card with our breakfast order, where we could also specify what time we wanted to be woken up for breakfast (if you chose to be woken later, the choices were more limited). I chose mainly continental type items, but was given a full hot breakfast anyway (after this plate)!



The dinner was a little fancy schmancy for my tastes, but did the job.



I watched a movie (The Internship, which was great!) with dinner, then settled in for the night. The seat reclined right down and turned nearly into a bed.



It was bed-like enough for this terrible sleeper to at least get a few hours shuteye.

On arrival at LAX, I was one of the first off the plane (one of the benefits of business class) and into the immigration area. Unfortunately though, there was already a long line for immigration. It took close to half an hour, and it looked like we were the last flight for a while, because by the time I was finished there wasn’t much of a line at all. All the US citizens on our flight were able to use the e-passports and I enviously watched them all go straight through. When I did finally get to the baggage carousel, mine was already out. It would have been one of the first and had probably been going around for at least 15 minutes by the time I got there lol! There was also a very long line at customs, but the officers were very efficient and kept the line constantly moving so it didn't take long at all to get through.

To be continued

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Great start.

Those Fiji Business seats look great.

Remind me, did you fly business class home as well?

 

[zanzibar138]

Great start.

Those Fiji Business seats look great.

Remind me, did you fly business class home as well?

Yep, I flew business class NAN-LAX and LAX-NAN again. It was certainly more comfortable than economy

 

[PrincessInOz]

Believe it or not, you and I were in Melbourne Airport on that same morning. I had a work trip to make and thought of you that morning. Mine was a later flight out (but I got to the airport early anyway) and wondered if you got off with all the fog.

Bummer about the taxi guy at the Fiji airport. But business class looks awesome!

 

[zanzibar138]

Believe it or not, you and I were in Melbourne Airport on that same morning. I had a work trip to make and thought of you that morning. Mine was a later flight out (but I got to the airport early anyway) and wondered if you got off with all the fog.

Bummer about the taxi guy at the Fiji airport. But business class looks awesome!

Aww bummer I missed you then! I don't even remember it being foggy lol!

The business class on Fiji Airways is definitely at the lower end of the scale, but still much more comfortable than economy. The price was at the lower end of the scale too, so fair's fair

 

[PrincessInOz]

Aww bummer I missed you then! I don't even remember it being foggy lol!

The business class on Fiji Airways is definitely at the lower end of the scale, but still much more comfortable than economy. The price was at the lower end of the scale too, so fair's fair

I did think about it; but we were in different terminals.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Settling in to enjoy the TR over the next couple of weeks! Fijian business class looks much better than Jetstar's (that we tried when we went to Japan!)

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

*zanzibar* TR Productions proudly presents…

“Running for my Disney: An Epic Tale of Running, Road Tripping & Disney”

Starring:

zanzibar & zanzibar’s parents



With a special appearance by:

DH



Running just got interesting!​

Day 1: I'm off to see the Mickey! Part 1 (Melbourne - Fiji)
Day 1: I'm off to see the Mickey! Part 2 (Fiji - LA)

Yay, a trip report!

 

[newkie]

Loving it so far

 

[zanzibar138]

Settling in to enjoy the TR over the next couple of weeks! Fijian business class looks much better than Jetstar's (that we tried when we went to Japan!)

I haven't tried Jetstar's business class, but I'm gonna go ahead and agree with you on that one

Yay, a trip report!

Welcome

Loving it so far

Wow, you're easy to please - this is just the boring bit

 

[zanzibar138]

LA – Anaheim

I made my way to the SuperShuttle stop and checked in with the guy there. He said it would be about a 20 minute wait for the next bus to Anaheim, so I went and sat on the bench to wait. There was a girl on the bench who was just lighting up a cigarette, and the wind blew it right in my face. She immediately apologised, and I offered to switch places with her so that she would be downwind from me. We chatted for the next few minutes before her bus arrived.



I watched quite a few buses come and go while I was waiting, hoping to see a big Anaheim sign on any of them. My wait was definitely closer to half an hour, maybe even longer. The bus finally arrived. It was pretty full when I got on, so I expected to head straight out, but we went around once more and picked up 2 more people.

The driver was friendly, which was a good thing, because we were stuck with him for quite a while. While I’d been stuck waiting for the shuttle, LA rush hour had started.



When we did arrive in Anaheim, the driver dropped people off in a funny order, where he had to keep doing u-turns to keep going in the right direction. My stop at the Red Lion was last of course.

Check in was a little confusing, as I had booked through Priceline and they had my booking under the wrong name. The check in assistant was unable to change the name, so she just added my name as a second contact. She said to let them know at check out if there were any problems, but I never heard anything more about it, so they must have figured it out.

I was given directions to my room on the ‘first’ floor. I had to confirm whether she meant the ground floor or the next one up lol! It was indeed the ground floor she meant. I had a king room right at the end of the corridor with a lovely view of the carpark.



I kept the curtains shut most of the time for privacy.

The room looked nice enough at first glance, but on closer inspection, and after being there for a while, it was clear it was suffering a bit of wear and tear (for example, the bathroom door jammed close and I had to barge into it to get it to open, the microwave seemed to be on its last legs also). One thing I did really like about the room was the prevalence of power points. There were heaps of them, and also some USB ports in the lamps.





Unfortunately, I realised that the power adapter I had brought with me wasn’t going to work. I had a shower and got settled in, then asked about power adapters on the way out. The hotel staff had a stash of electronic things people had left behind, but there were no Aussie adapters in there. They had a multi-country adapter in the gift shop though, so I bought that and it seemed to do the trick. I gave the check in assistant a little koala for her help, and that seemed to make her day!

To be continued

 

[PrincessInOz]

Pity that Priceline stuffed up the booking of the name. But it seems to have worked out in the end.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

What a nice idea to carry some koalas for such an occasion where you want to thank someone but a tip would seem inappropriate.

Just a quick question: Did you tip the guide for the Walk in Walts Footsteps tour? I've read mixed messages about whether Disney guides expect to be tipped. A guide who did a tour for us of the Animal Kingdom Lodge at WDW said Disney Guides only accept 'Thanks'. But I'm not sure if DL is different.

 

[zanzibar138]

Pity that Priceline stuffed up the booking of the name. But it seems to have worked out in the end.

Apparently it happens quite often with Priceline bookings, but I didn't have any problems with my other ones (I had 4 Priceline ones all up).

What a nice idea to carry some koalas for such an occasion where you want to thank someone but a tip would seem inappropriate.

Just a quick question: Did you tip the guide for the Walk in Walts Footsteps tour? I've read mixed messages about whether Disney guides expect to be tipped. A guide who did a tour for us of the Animal Kingdom Lodge at WDW said Disney Guides only accept 'Thanks'. But I'm not sure if DL is different.

I wanted to give him a koala, but I didn't have one with me at the time (stupid stupid). I would have felt weird giving him a tip (whether he would have accepted it or not I don't know), and I didn't see anyone else give him anything.

 

[newkie]

Wow, you're easy to please - this is just the boring bit

I am easy to please! Actually, I've read and youtubed so much about Disney itself, it's all the other stuff that is interesting me now. And every little detail about the actual flight/airport experience itself is very helpful, especially since I've got 4 kids, I need all the inside knowledge I can get to make things run as smoothly as possible!

Of course the Disney stuff is fantastic too

 

[zanzibar138]

I am easy to please! Actually, I've read and youtubed so much about Disney itself, it's all the other stuff that is interesting me now. And every little detail about the actual flight/airport experience itself is very helpful, especially since I've got 4 kids, I need all the inside knowledge I can get to make things run as smoothly as possible!

Of course the Disney stuff is fantastic too

I hear you! I read heaps of reviews of Fiji Airways before I left in preparation, and I really struggled to find any DIS reviews of some of our hotels. I'll try to include everything (that I remember lol!) I think will be useful for you