Trip Report: WDW, US, DC, NYC, Vegas, LA

[crazy Cat Lady]

Hi team

Well, after a couple of years planning and much excitement our trip has come and gone.

We had a great time thanks to all of your great advice.

We learnt that we need to save waaay more for our next trip as we are woefully over budget.

The weather was fabulous, we only got rained on once in Orlando.

Crowds at the Parks were supposed to be 6-7 on the crowd calendars, but we never felt crowded or rushed. Lunch could be a bit of a challenge seating wise, but not impossible.

So strap yourselves in and read about our adventures.....

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Day zero

Flights on time from Melbourne and Sydney, so far so good! Boarded the international flight and as the plane filled to capacity we became more and more excited by the still empty seat in our row of three. Is someone running late? Is it not booked? OMG we could have a row to ourselves! I've never been happier to have a cabin door closed. Yep, row all to ourselves.

Sleep should be easy then right? Hell, I sleep on a one hour flight to Adelaide this should be a piece of cake. Nope, got in about 3 hours. Oh well, perhaps on the LAX - dallas leg, we are first class after all from LA to MCO....

On the upside we got to maximise our first class experience as we sat for two hours on the Tarmac as they performed repairs to a punctured baggage hold while our transfer window ticked away. Staff on the plane couldn't tell us what would happen if we missed our connection, it was a bit of a mess really from a customer service perspective.

In the end we were first off the plane in Dallas and at the customer service desk where the lovely lady made a call to see if we could make our 7.30 departure (it was 7.30 right at that moment). As expected, it was just leaving but there is a later flight we might make as standby, it's fully booked, but there is a chance.

We race to the train to transfer terminals for the next flight. We are one and two on the wait list... Five people are behind us.... Seven spots open up through no shows... We all line up holding our collective breath and looking anxiously down the concourse for signs of late arrivals. Sure enough, running families and stray singles pantingly show up... There are just two wait list spots left.... It's us! We make the plane and finally hit MCO around midnight.

We check into the holiday inn around 12.30. Our room is large, with a noisy air conditioner, so we turn that off and check the park bus schedule only to discover that if rope drop is your plan, that is so not going to work for you. Damn, the biggest reason I chose this property is a bust. Oh well, I'd factored a taxi in to the budget for day one anyway, I'll work the rest out later.

I worked out that by this point we have had about 6 hours total sleep in the last 27.

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Day one

Running on about three hours sleep we dragged ourselves out of bed and down to breakfast at Applebee's. The food was ok for the $12 per person buffet however it smelt like you were eating in a bar which I didn't enjoy.

The car was booked for 7.30 am and had us at AK by 8 am. Turns out for a 9 am rope drop that was more than ok. The park wifi worked well from the minute we arrived. The early arrival gave me a chance to make sure our memory maker was properly linked (it was).

I went with the strategy of booking early FP+ which served us well the whole trip. By 9.30 we had done the safari and were on our way. Crowds were low in the morning and none of the parks on any day were more than moderately busy even around noon.

We had our first memory maker photo of the trip taken on the bridge near the tree of life.



Flights of wonder was great, I fully recommend watching this great little show. Sit towards the front and you will see more of the action.

I have to say, unless you are an avid conservationist, give the train ride a miss. You see very little on the ride.

By about 1 pm we had seen and ridden everything we wanted and decided to use the buses to get back to Epcot to ride the mono rail to see now that worked. It was here that I discovered that I'd been reading the monorail map incorrectly! Whoops, oh well good to know that early on.

Rather than do any more parks, we decided to cab it back to the hotel and then walk up to the premium outlets. Really, we should have had a swim and a sleep instead as we were really too hot, sweaty and tired to shop properly . But I managed to pick up a few things. Lol.

For dinner we tried the Wendy's across the road. The disorder of this place was only out filthed by the condition of the toilets they shared with the small market next door. Lesson learnt!

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Day two - MK

Sleep! Yay!

Repeating yesterday we breakfast at Applebee's and book a car for 7.30.

We arrive slightly confused at the TTC.... But I asked for MK, why are we here??

Oh, so there is no car park at the MK, you can't actually drive there. Riiight, that hadn't clicked (I know, I'm a bit slow on the uptake sometimes ). The monorail it is then.

We are only about 10m back from the rope and position ourselves to the right so we can spear off and ride SDMT first up (no FP+).

Wow, by 9.10 we were loading on SDMT. What a great ride, we really enjoyed it. Wait time was up to 40 minutes by the time we got off.

Again, the park was not full and didn't get crazy all day.

We took our time and wandered around to the haunted mansion where wait time was posted as 15 but really only 5.

We used out FP+ for Splash and Thunder (Thunder it was really needed for by 11.30) and then chilled over some lunch, did some present shopping, saw parts of the parade and rode some more. The only downer was that pirates was out of action all day.

We really wanted to do Toy Story, but with a 70 minute wait, that wasn't going to happen. We decided to find a kiosk and pick up a forth FP+ for Toy Story. How about 4 pm? Well, not really, but ok we'll take it (this was 1.30 And we'd done everything else). Perhaps I can change the time via the app... Nope. How about if I use my browser and log into the website? Yes! By using the website I was able to change our 4pm FP+ to a 2.30 pm. I did this while standing in line for another ride, how cool is technology?!

By this point crazy cat boy was flagging a bit. I'm used to no sleep, but it's not really his thing. So back to the hotel we go via cab. We had a swim and then against our better judgement we have dinner at Applebee's. What is it with American restaurants and salt? Why take a perfectly heathy been bean and deep fry it? I don't understand. Lol

I login and check our memory maker photos, they are all there and for the most part pretty good. I fully recommend the photo package it works well.

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Day three - HS

I'd heard that HS was a half day park, but decided on rope drop again as I couldn't get a FP+ for Rockin Roller coaster and wanted to hit that first before the lines built up.

So once again positioning ourselves to the right at RD we shot straight around and rode with a 15 minute wait. OMG, what a blast is that ride? We decided to ride again straight away, but it was up to 40 mins. We make an executive decision to book a FP+ for our spare day (Friday) and come back. We gave Tower of Terror a miss as crazy cat boy is not a fan of drop rides.

I had the Great Movie ride booked as my T1 choice, but it was walk on early so we decided to get that done. Umm, can any one explain to me why this is a T1 attraction? I'm sure it was lovely in its day, but it didn't do it for us.

We had time to wander before our Star Tours FP window opened up and thought that Toy Story might be a nice filler. Or not, by 10am it had a 90 minute wait time. Wow, ok, perhaps we'll hit that rope drop on Friday when we come back.

We did the art of animation class and looked at the exhibition, all of which were fantastic (my genie drawing was a bit sad, but I had fun anyway. ).

A quick lunch took us up to our Star Tours window. I loved the ride, but this is where crazy cat boy had his first real bout of the motion sickness that was only going to get worse as the week went on.

By 2.00pm we were done at HS and decided to get the boat to Epcot for a poke around (having convinced Crazy Cat Boy that there really was a boat! LOL). Arriving at the international gateway was our first look at the food and wine festival. We celebrated with champagne and desert, got our first stamp in our passport and decide that Epcot needs more time to discover.

We caught the bus to Port Orleans and from there to Downtown Disney for a dinner at Wolfgang Pucks. It is while we are waiting for the bus that Crazy Cat Boy informs me that he really wanted to stay at Port... Bit late for that conversation darling. Lol!

Tomorrow is our first day at the dark side so we headed back to the hotel early after soaking up the DDD atmostphere.

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Day four - universal studios

Escape from Gringotts and Diagon Alley was my key aim for the day.

I thought rope drop was at 9am, so had us there just before eight. Just as well as the times had changed and 8 was rope drop!

I make a spur of the moment decision to upgrade the days passes to express (the lovely lady tried to talk me out of if, said we wouldn't need them, but I held fast ) and activated the star card package. Disney does ticketing and activation so much better. The process took much longer than it should have.

Gringotts was a 40 minute wait just after RD. Diagon Alley and the Gringotts theming is spectacular.

The amount of money that must have been invested! We think that the ride went down while we were in line for about 15 minutes as we had been steadily moving until just prior to moving from the bank into the tunnels. I adored the ride, however Crazy Cat Boy was looking pale and felt quite ill after.

Crowds were very low and we utilised the express pass to walk on to most rides as we made our way around the park (the idea was to ride everything and loop back around to Diagon Alley and ride Hogwats Express to IOA in the afternoon for a quick reccy). We really didn't need the EP, but it was worth it at that point to maximise our time (this was to change as the day unfolded!! ).

We made the decision to jump on the Simpsons ride... We thought it would be a gentle kids ride so Crazy Cat Boy could recover a bit. Ah, no! OMG what a piece of technology that is! Fantastic experience, however that finished him off for the day. He was dreadfully ill.

Using the EP I rode minion madness. (Crazy Cat boy loves minions, but he couldn't have done this without making himself worse) and Shrek. Standby for both rides was about 40 mins but I was on in 10 with the EP.

We decide to hold off for rip ride rockit until tomorrow in the hope he feels better and can do that. After a quick lunch we took more time to explore to now much more crowded Diagon Alley and take photos before joining to 30 minute line for Hogwarts Express. This was about 1.30 pm and Gringotts was now 105 minute wait.

Again, theming was spectacular in the station and on the train. We arrived in Hogsmeade to a torrential Orlando downpour. Out came the ponchos that I had been soundly mocked for earlier in the week!

As Crazy Cat Boy was feeling pretty ordinary we headed for home after walking through IOA.

Just before we leave I stop to check that our photos are there, they are. Again, this process took much longer than it should have. After what seems an eternity they finish adding boarders etc and we head for a taxi.

New motion sickness tablets are acquired from Walgreens for CCB. Fingers crossed these help.

That night I notice another families photos on my card along with ours. I'll sort that out tomorrow.

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Day five - IOA

Straight to WWoHP and into the Forbidden Journey line. Once again I loved it but even with the new more powerful motion sickness tablets CCB was done for the day. We were both very disappointed. I used the single rider line to ride Duelling Dragons (nearly wet myself! ), Flight of the Hippogriff and Hulk.

We walk through the park and I didn't ride any more as I felt bad that we weren't experiencing it together. I did want go ride rip ride rockit and thought that Shrek would be a good ride for CCB despite all the scary warnings on it!

Again, crowds were very low in the morning and only moderate in both parks in the afternoon.

After a successful Shrek experience we made CCB's day while in the Minion shop... There were two Minions and a photo connect photographer with no wait!

It was at this point I decided to ride RRR using single rider. I emptied my pockets and off I went. I was in the front of the first carriage with another single rider who clearly hadn't read the very large and clear signs to empty pockets... He was asked to leave the ride.

So, this leaves me alone at the front. Now RRR looks long and high from the ground...it is nothing compaired to experiencing it. I just kept saying to myself that I hadn't heard of anyone dying on it as this seemingly never ending ride hurtled around. I was shaking so badly when I got off that CCB cheered up immensely!

By this point it was about 2pm and we needed some lunch and to explore City Walk. We did a final photo check, confirmed that the other "mystery" family had access to their pics and that they couldn't delete our account and left the park.

After lunch at Emilles and a spot of city walk shopping we decided to head to the closest outlets for more shopping (the bottle of wine at lunch may have influenced this).

Some alcohol induced purchases later we taxi back to the hotel. I have developed a thumping headache. Probably a combination of wine and rollercoaster whiplash.

CCB wants to try Taco Bell for dinner, which is a 20 minute walk from the hotel. I don't feel up to it, but knowing that he is still pretty upset about not being able to ride, I suck if up. Well, the girl who served us looked like she would rather be dead than where she was and the food was appalling. We abandoned the slop and decide that at least we know what we are in for at maccas!

Back at the hotel I take a headache tablet and go to sleep early.

Epcot tomorrow!

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Day 6 - Epcot

Today for the first time we use the hotel shuttle. We have FP+ for Test Track, Soaring and Spaceship Earth (something that has always intregued CCB).

The lines to get into Epcot seemed longer and slower than the other parks.

We concede that Soaring won't work for CCB and throw that FP+ back into the mix for someone else to pick up. I'll ride it myself tomorrow when we come back after our HS revisit in the morning.

Off to Test Track we go for our first FP. We had a blast designing our car and after the ride interacting with everything. Before the world showcase opened we spent time exploring the pavilions.

An early lunch was needed (have skipped breakfast) and we were one of the first through the gates into the food and wine festival.

We were happily sampling our way around the world when CCB asked what time our Spaceship Earth FP was. Ahhh, couple of hours ago! Doh. The one thing he really wanted to do and I've messed up. I feel so bad and we head straight off to find the standby line is 40 minutes. Plan B, locate a FP+ person and book a new one. Luckily this didn't take long and the window was just about to open. Phew!

Back to the food and wine for us. My cunning plan was to catch illusions and then off to MK for their shows tonight. However it was not to be. CCB was tired around 4 and wanted to head off. Next time I'll see them, I promise.

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Day 7 - "spare park day" HS & Epcot

Deciding that we are now experienced Disney transport people rotfl2 we use the early hotel shuttle to Epcot and bus it to HS for RD.

We head straight for Toy Story, at 9 am this is a 50 minute wait. Wow, again with the theming! The ride was a blast. We were out by 9.30 so it moved pretty fast. Line was 90 minutes on exit.

Our window was open for rockin rollercoaster and we headed over. Standby was 40 mins and FP had us in around 15 mins. This time we knew where the camera was and stuck our air guitar poses! I love that ride, I could do it all day.

We jumped the boat back to Epcot to finish off the little that we hadn't done the day before.

I had an idea that I might try Soaring as a single rider, but there isn't a single ride line and it was an hour wait, so that goes on the "next time" list as well.

At 11.30am we were eating Belgian waffles and plotting our next move. How about we pick up the car early? Ok, let's try that. Bus to downtown and walk over to the Hilton where the Avis desk is. Yes, you can have the car today.

So begins our USA road trip. First stop, Costco for some water and snacks. We also indulge in an early pizza dinner, with a side trip to the outlets for a final walk through.

Back at the hotel we pack up and prep for an early getaway.

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Days 8 and 9

Pretty until eventful road tripping. Junk food and petrol stops. Did need to remember a zip code for fuelling up (we also need one to buy subway tickets in NYC).

We had been seeing regular signs for "South of the Boarder" the entire trip, so we had to stop. We were early, so the theme park bit was closed, but the shops were open. It was very strange, but also very clean.

Late afternoon on day 9 we hit DC. After checking in to the holiday Inn Capital (clean, expensive, noisy) we went for a short walk. We didnt take the camera, but we should have! Lights, sirens, cops and a cavelcade of black SUVs blast past us heading for the Capital Building. What an introduction to Washington!

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Days 10, 11 and 12 - Washington

The hotel is close walking distance to the Smithsonian's, Capital Building, The Mall, Whitehouse and a longer stroll from the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials.

The air and space museum was very interesting and took almost a full day to see properly.

We had a ball at the spy museum and enjoyed an early morning stroll from the hotel to the Jefferson memorial and then along the river to the Lincoln memorial. We beat the bus loads to Jefferson, but they had over taken us by the time we hit Lincoln.

A lot of Washington seems to be under renovation at the moment, so we didn't get all the iconic shots as the buildings are wrapped in scaffold. Security around the Whitehouse was very high as they had a fence jumper and the fatal attack on the Canadian soldier had just happened.

We didn't get to Georgetown, the Pentagon or Arlington this time around. Washington needs a couple more days than we had to give. Next time we'll do the bits we missed.

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Day 13 - drive to Woodbury Common

The outlets at Woodbury common Google told me are about 4 hours from DC.

Google lied!

It took us most of the day to get there. We finally arrived around 4 pm. Found a hotel close by and drove to the outlet. We shopped for about 3 hours that night (register for the premium outlet VIP program and print off the voucher that gets you the extra coupon book! it is worth it).

Dinner that night was a Walmart chicken and salad in our room.

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Day 14 - Woodbury shopping!

I wasn't sure what we would find at Woodbury apart from the outlets, but there are plenty of restaurants, a 24 hr Walmart, Target and a heap of other shops just off the freeway. There is also a coin operated laundry in the main drag.

The outlets opened at 10 am and we arrived about 10.30 after doing our washing. We finished up at about 6.30 that night about $4k poorer! It was well worth the trip for us.

Having travelled over with on small checked bag between us we now invested in a couple of cheap rolling sports bags to carry our new acquisitions on the leg to NYC.

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Day 15 - 23 - NYC

The drive from Woodbury to the Holiday Inn Soho was about an hour and was uneventful.

After we dropped the car off we walked over the Manhattan Bridge, down through DUMBO and back across the Brooklyn Bridge. We got some great shots of the city from both bridges.

Highlights of the trip were:

• Eataly located on Broadway just across from the flatiron building. This is a cross between a large Italian super market and a food and wine festival. .
  
• Battery park and a walk up the waterfront
  
• The highline and Chelsea markets in the meat packing district. Both are well worth a look.
  
• Bryant park
  
• The Guggenheim
  
• The MET - take a day or two to experience this amazing museum
  
• Broadway shows - tip, go direct to the box office to book your tickets rather than a 3rd party booking agency. We found cheaper tickets and more options when we did this. This method also worked for the ice hockey we saw at Madison square gardens.
  
• Times Square, always a winner.
  
• The subway. Fast, easy and efficient. Free wifi on all subway trains as well.
  
• World trade centre and memorial. Very sobering and the memorial is well done.
  
• Shopping, OMG, the shopping! I found Bloomingdales to be a nicer experience than Macy's. Both offer visitor discounts. Lord and Taylor was also lovely to shop at.

Just walking the streets is a fabulous experience. I love NYC.

This trip we didn't do the iconic buildings etc, as we did them last time.

We were there for the marathon and Halloween, the vibe in the city was great for both events.

While in NYC we got an email from our credit card company to ask if we'd tried to spend a couple of grand on toys and plane tickets in Orlando or Barbados. Ah, no, no we haven't.

So that took one of our credit cards out of play until we could pick up a replacement in Vegas. Fortunately this as the card that we'd used nearly all of the credit on and we were about to have to switch to a different card anyway.

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Days 24-28 Vegas baby, Vegas!

The flight from JFK to Vegas was great, the only downside was waiting for our luggage, it took forever.

The MGM grand is a nice hotel and we were lucky enough to be able to check in early with no "early" fee. It really was the quietest hotel we stayed in all trip.

That night we had tickets to Michael Jackson One at the Mandalay bay. What a great show. I fully recommend it.

We really needed to do some laundry and found a place called Coras 24 hr coin operated not far from the convention centre . This worked for us as we were using the monorail to go to the convention centre anyway. Coras was clean, fast and during the day perfectly safe. I wouldnt wander around that part of Vegas at night however!

The next few days was a blur of hotels, some more shopping, at trip to the comedy club and a few more shows.

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Day 29 - the best laid plans....

On the final morning in Vegas we picked up our next car and headed off across the Mohave desert to Palm Springs.

The idea was a late lunch and wander in Palm Springs, before the last hour of driving to Temecula, the Southern California wine region. Well, a two hour traffic jam in the middle of the desert put paid to that!

When we finally did hit Palm Springs it was 5 pm on Saturday night and the place was pumping. We'd driven straight into pride week celebrations! The chance of a hotel room was non existant so we made the decision to push on to Temecula.

We had an idea that temecula was a quaint little town in a wine region, not dissimilar to Tanunda or perhaps cessnock. Nope, 6 lane highway all the way there, lots of suburbia and plenty of hotels.

Plan goes like this....

Find a hotel, have dinner, ask hotel to book wine tour for tomorrow. Simple right?

Reality.....

Get polite smiles from hotel staff as they explain that weekends in Temecula they are always fully booked in advance, eat an "In 'N Out" burger as we bicker over our next move. Ask Holiday Inn staff to book us a room closer to LA, drive additional hour to new hotel option, collapse. Lol, so much for winging it!!

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Day 30 - 31

Concede that wine tour is off the table. CCB is over it all by this stage and wants to collapse. So, we book ourselves two nights at the Inter Continental Century City in Beverley Hills.

This was a great move.

We had a nice time chilling and making full use of the complimentary hotel car. This was great, we were driven in style to local resaurants, shopping centre and of course, Rodeo Drive for some serious window shopping.

Our flight home was at 11 pm from LAX on the A380, a very nice plane indeed. Once again we were incredible lucky and had the entire row of three to ourselves.

Unlike the trip over, we both slept well and were in good enough spirits when we hit the ground not to freak out when our taxi driver had no idea how to get to our place and to calm him down enough so that he listened to directions on how to get back to civilisation!

All in all a very good trip. We were pleased to be home though. Now we just need to save some more money for the next adventure!

 

[zanzibar138]

Great report I'm always very envious of people who can keep their reports simple and concise unlike my marathon essays

I get motion sickness too, and am disappointed with the number of new rides that are simulator based these days - The Simpsons, Terminator, and it seems most of the Harry Potter rides... Plus there's the Disney ones like Soarin' and Star Tours. I'll happily take on any rollercoaster multiple times in a row, but 5 minutes on a simulator will put me out of action for the day. Luckily I've found that popping a couple of kwells seems to work pretty well for me.

I'm in absolute awe of your shopping Unfortunately due to some unplanned large expenses combined with being jobless before our trip, I had to go VERY light on the shopping. I hope to make up for it on our next trip, but it will still be in the hundreds of $$, not thousands $$

I also admire your willingness to 'wing it'. I couldn't do it - I'd spend my entire trip worrying about what was next. Although things didn't necessarily work out how you expected them to, it seems it all worked out well in the end.

Great luck with your flights too! It makes all the difference when you have a spare seat between you on long haul flights like that.

 

[lffam]

Great trip report. thanks for sharing, I really enjoyed reading. I love to hear about how others tackle the parks and what they enjoy or not.

Certainly did you share of shopping !! Just one carry on over wow thats impressive. how many did you end up coming back? We took a suitcase in a suitcase and then a roll on sports bag over empty so brought 2 extra suitcases back, but you sound like you well and truly topped that.!

Washington & NYC are two of our next places we want to go so I love hearing about what people get up to where to stay what to see and all that.

Any pictures to share also?

 

[PrincessInOz]

Glad you had a great trip. Pity that CCB was motion sick on most of the rides; but I guess you don't know that until you are actually in situ.

Well done on the shopping!

Thanks for sharing.