We had a Disney December, Bahamian Xmas, NYC NYE and then some!! COMPLETED!

[lffam]

Well it has been a few weeks since we got back and I thought I should start a trip report.

Executive Summary

Disneyland - Cars Land & Star Wars Launch Bay are awesome. Ice skating in DTD was a fun thing.
USO - Wizarding World of HP & Diagon Alley - wow just wow
WDW - Can't beat it! a truly immersive experience
Disney Fantasy Cruise - Like the t-shirt says, Eat, Cruise, Eat More..
DC - Such a fantastic city for US History and all things Presidential
NYC - 3 Months and I think you might give it a good crack.

A quick recap…

The Pre-Trip, including some posts towards the end during the trip, can be found here :

The Who
DH, DW, DS(12) from Australia.

We have had two prior Disney experiences, one in 2010 at Disneyland and in 2013 at Walt Disney World (trip report for WDW in signature). Both experiences for us as a family were magical, and we definitely enjoyed the Disney bubble . Our Disneyland experience in 2010 was onsite at the Grand Californian Villas which we rented DVC points. WDW in 2013 we stayed at the Wilderness Lodge hotel part, not in the villas.

We really did not know what to expect at WDW, as only had Disneyland to compare. We read as much as we could but we had trouble fathoming the size of WDW and traveling 20 mins from resort to park. Dining was something else quite different, or at least the emphasis on ADR's and the amount of dining locations.
We got “free dining” for our dates so really got into the dining and ADRs which is obviously as big part of WDW.

I (DH) am the most avid of the fan’s in the family. I do most of the planning and research and yes I do love it, a feeling which I know many of you here completely understand. That's not to say DW & DS are not fans they are, they just let me do my planning thing chip in where they like and leave the rest to me. We are the type of travellers who finds balance between a schedule and just "winging it”. We have some parts really planned and usually make it to most of those, but if we don’t we don’t stress to much about it, we are on holidays after all !! If something new or different catches our eye or we want to take some chill out time then we do so.

The Where

Well this holiday is most definitely Disney Centric. I titled my thread “Disney December” and when you see the itinerary you will see why. In 2013 we experienced the beginning of Christmas in the WDW. We started there at Halloween and had MNSSHP on Halloween itself, and then through to early Christmas in the park. That was a great experience, especially Halloween for us. This time we will be there early December so Christmas should be in full swing.

We did start out with the idea of a White Christmas somewhere. Various twists, turns and reasons then morphed that idea into this itinerary :

- Brisbane to Los Angeles 30 Nov
- 6 Nights Disney Grand Californian Villas
- 4 nights at Universal Studios Orlando
- 8 nights at WDW Boardwalk Villas
- 1 night Cape Canaveral
- 7 night Cruise on Disney Fantasy - Christmas Cruising - Disembark Boxing day
- 3 nights Washington DC
- 7 nights in New York including NYE
- 2 Nights LA
- Los Angeles to Brisbane arrive 9th Jan (lose a day)

It’s quite a long trip as you can see and we will be in Disneyland, Disneyworld or on Disney Cruise for most of December, hence my Disney December comment earlier.

The Why

Well do I really need a why??

This trip was borne out of my no travel blues which hit me hard at the 12 month mark after our 2013 trip. I was going back over photos, reposting pictures to Facebook, much to the chagrin of my Facebook friends. DS chipped in to help with my blues by doing a mock “plane boarding” with meal service and the inflight entertainment was watching some of the videos. This really got me reminiscing. I hadn’t written a proper trip report so this was the catalyst to do so. I went over my notes I had, the pictures and videos and some of the blog that my son had kept and made a start at writing a Trip report, some 12 months on.

If was to try to pin point what action it was that lead to me eventually booking another trip, it was this, writing the report for WDW 2013. It allowed me to remember, to share again to get feedback and questions from other Disboarders which all fed my travel itch. Within a few weeks of starting to write the report my writing was distracted and planning for a new trip begun! Within a few weeks we went from a spark of an idea to some plans which then firmed up over a few weeks.

 

[lffam]

Pre Trip & Day 1
1. Pre Trip Planning Recap
2. Flight : BNE | LAX
3. Flight : Part 2 inflight Service
4. Entering Grand Californian
5. Disney California Adventure Park & Cars Land Part 1
6. Cars Land Part 2 & Paradise Pier
7. Animation Academy Works of Art
8. Grand Californian Studio Villas
9. World of Color - First time
Day 2
10. Day 1 Addendum and Day 2
11. Carthay Circle Lunch - World of Color Dining Package
12. Star Wars Launch Bay
13. Meet Vader & Chewie
14. Super Hero HQ - Marvel
15. Meet & Greet Thor & Spiderman
16. World of Color (Carthay Circle Viewing area)
Day 3
17. Storyteller's Cafe & Toon Town
18. World Famous Jingle Cruise
Day 4
19. Outlets & Steakhouse 55
Day 5
20. Plaza Inn Breakfast, Castle, Walt & Mickey
21. It's a Small World Christmas - Part One
22. It's a Small World Christmas - Part Two
23. Mickey and the Magical Map
24. Goofy's Kitchen & Ice Skating @ DTD
25. DCA at night
26. World of Color - View from Bridge
Day 6
27. Last day at Disneyland - Cars Land
28. Silly Symphony Swings & ¡Viva Navidad! Street Party/Parade
29. Aladdin and a close on Disneyland
Day 7
30. Travel Day LAX to MCO
31. LAX to MCO...cont.
32. Hard Rock Hotel Check in - Club level twin Queen room
33. Hard Rock Hotel & Universal City Walk
Day 8.
34. Universal’s Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios – Hogwarts Express
35. Diagon Alley
36. Diagon Alley Part 2
37. Animal Actors and The Blues Brothers
38. Macy's Holiday Parade
39. More Macy's Holiday Parade...
Day 9.
40. Islands of Adventure & Suess Land
41. Islands of Adventure part 2 The Grinchmas
42. 100 Years of Movies & USO After dark
Day 10.
43. HP, An Offer I couldn't refuse, Jaws & a Flux Capacitor
44. Back to IoA and Hogwarts.
45. Hard Rock Hotel - Universal Studios Addendum
Day 11.
46. Boardwalk Villas (Finally!)
47. Hollywood Studios, Star Wars Launch Bay
48. Walt’s One Man’s Dream
49. Streets of America & Trattoria Dinner
Day 12.
50. Minnie's Beach Bash Breakfast at Cape May Café
51. Animal Kingdom - Kilimanjaro Safaris
52. Animal Kingdom - Kilimanjaro Safaris cont
53. Mickey’s Backyard BBQ & The Wilderness Lodge Lobby Decorated
Day 13.
54. Magic Kingdom - Jungle/Jingle Cruise
55. It's a Small World
56. Buzz Lightyear & Hoop Dee Doo
57. Illuminations Fireworks from our Boardwalk Villa
58. More Boardwalk Villas photos & Video
Day 14.
59. Sci Fi Diner & Jedi Training
60. Jedi Training
61. Garden Grill Dinner & The Candlelight Procession (sort of!)
Day 15.
62. Outlets Seven Dwarfs & Main St Parade
63. Main Street Electrical Parade
64. Main Street Electrical Parade cont..
65. Main Street Electrical Parade Video
66. Wishes Fireworks
Day 16.
67. Epcot, World Showcase France
68. Disney Haircuts & The Hall of Presidents
69. Osborne Family Lights
70. 50's Prime Time Diner & Osborne Family Lights Encore
71. Photography Aspirations
Day 17.
72. Disney Springs, Illuminations & Late Night Magic Kingdom
73. Travel times
Day 18.
74. Sleigh Ride, Trail End Dinner and WDW to an end
75. WDW It's a Wrap
Day 19.
76. Holiday Inn Express Cocoa Beach & Kennedy Space Centre
77. Kennedy Space Center
78. Kennedy Space Center cont
Day 20.
79. Day 20 - Very Merrytime Cruise
80. Disney Fantasy Grand Entrance & Concierge Lounge
81. Disney Fantasy One Bed Suite
82. Our First Exploration of Disney Fantasy
83. Sailing Away......
84. Lighting of Christmas Tree
85. Our first meal at The Enchanted Garden
Day 21.
86. Recovery day, Mixology & Formal Night
Day 22.
87. Palo Brunch
88. Animators Palate
Day 23.
89. Tortola, British Virgin Islands
90. Lots of Ship Pictures
91. Pirate Night
Day 24.
92. EDGE ON THE DISNEY FANTASY: A REVIEW BY DS
93. St Thomas & Santa's Winter Wonderland
Day 25.
94. Christmas Eve
Day 26.
95. Merry Christmas!!!
96. Merry Christmas Castaway Cay cont..
Day 27.
97. Disembarkation..Orlando to Washington
98. Washington DC - Willard Intercontinental Hotel
99. Abraham Lincoln Suite cont..
100. First look at Washington DC
101. First look Washington DC cont..
102. First look Washington DC cont again...
Day 28.
103. Washington - Big Bus Tour
104. Washington - Big Bus Tour cont...
Day 29.
105. Spys in the News (International Spy Museum & The Newseum)
106. Spys in the News (International Spy Museum & The Newseum) cont
Day 30.
107. DC to NYC - Amtrak
Day 31.
108. NYC 15 year Wedding Celebration and Coming of Age…
109. NYC 15 year Wedding Celebration and Coming of Age, Central Park, NYC sights cont...
110. Radio City Christmas Spectacular
Day 32.
110. New Years Eve - Day - Central Park
111. NYE Event - well getting to it which was a feat in itself!
112. Brooklyn Diner Time Square - New Years Eve
Day 33.
113. Central Park Zoo
Day 34.
114. Walking the Brooklyn Bridge
115. Walking Brooklyn Bridge & lunch @ Grimaldi's Pizzeria
Day 35.
116. Lady of Liberty - Staten Island Ferry
117. 9/11 Memorial
Day 36.
118. NBC Studio Tour
119. Top of The Rock
120. Last sights of NYC
Day 37.
121. Travel day NYC to LAX
Day 38.
122. LA Live Grammy Museum, Staples Center
Day 39 & 40.
123. Rainy LA, Departure LAX (lost a day) Home sweet Home!!






Acronyms

DS suggested I list the acronyms that I've used that many of us Disboarders take for granted for any not familiar with them.

ADR - Advance Dining Reservation
DCA - Disney Californian Adventure Park
DTD - Down Town Disney
DVC - Disney Vacation Club
GC - Grand Californian Resort & Spa
MNSSHP - Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party
RSR - Radiator Springs Racers
VGC - Villas @ Grand Californian Resort & Spa
WOC - World of Color

 

[lffam]

Pre Trip Planning

As I mentioned in my original post, the itinerary that we now have certainly wasn’t the first. I don’t know how many iterations there were, but I would say at least a dozen until we settled on this one. After ruling out a true White Christmas (we will have to do that another time) our main consideration was, where we want to be for Christmas. We considered one of the parks, but thought that was likely to be the busiest time of year.

We thought New York, but we didn’t really want to be in hotel room with no one else we know around us in a strange city for Christmas and going to a restaurant for Christmas lunch/Dinner. We then thought about doing a cruise. We knew it would be busy, but it was going to be limited by the number of people on the ship. All the activities would be taken car of, as would dining and it would be Disney actually on Christmas day.

We thought that was a pretty good result. There was of course one big down side, the price. The cost of the Christmas cruise was significantly more than the same cruise a couple of weeks earlier. In the end we weighed it all up, and this was our choice. No matter what we did at Christmas it was going to be expensive, whether in New York Hotel rooms and dining out or the Cruise. We are happy with our choice in the end.

The planning for the trip started in Late October early November of 2014. Because we knew we wanted to go for more than three weeks, we knew the only option for us was after the school year ended as we did not want to take DS out of school. He finishes a week earlier than most schools which I thought was going to help with getting flights.

Speaking of flights, I was planning to use a combination of frequent flyer points and pay to get us three upgrade seats. It was all theory at that stage as I would not be able to attempt to book any flights until February 2015. I was getting my frequent flyer points balance to where it needed to be so that when the time came I could attempt. It could of course all fall in a heap if there were not award/upgrade seats available but I didn’t let that stop any of the other ducks I had to get lined up in a row. Figured the worse case was we would just buy the best sale fare and everything else would still fit in, we just wouldn’t be up the front of the plane LOL.

 

[lffam]

We then started looking at which resorts to stay at. We knew we wanted to stay on site. For us, we love this. We really loved Grand Californian at Disneyland from 2010, so there was little other consideration, though did briefly look at Disneyland Hotel but quickly dismissed. Something about the Grand Californian Resort, I don’t know if it is because it was where we stayed for our first Disney experience or something else, but it is just a special place to us. We actually drew a lot of similarities between the Grand Californian to the Wilderness Lodge, where we stayed in WDW in 2013. The lobby in particular, the tall open space. We are really looking forward to going back to Grand Californian.

Where to stay at WDW was quite a dilemma. We absolutely loved the Wilderness Lodge. We would have been more than happy to go back there. But we did want to try somewhere different. We considered many resorts. I was pretty sure we were going to rent DVC points again, just wasn’t sure with who. I couldn’t really start making enquiries as it was too far out. We considered Wilderness Lodge, Grand Floridian, Bay Lake Towers, Beach Club and last but not least Boardwalk Villas. We ended up booking Boardwalk Villas. I can’t quite recall if that was because it was on our short list and we were able to make contact with an Aussie DVC owner who could rent us points or if we decided on it first and then went looking for someone to rent off. In the end it doesn’t matter, we are very happy with our choices.

I did try to rent from a couple of brokers but none had owners who had points for either VGC or Boardwalk. So in the end we rented from two individual DVC members we found on Disboards. The process was easy and worked out without a hitch. By Early January, which was the 11 month we had our first two confirmed and paid for bookings. The payment was important as not only was it significantly cheaper than buying retail (as anyone who has done DVC rental knows) with the falling Australian Dollar, paying this significant part of the holiday now meant I was protected from the drop in the currency which was predicted to, and did, happen.

Planning went on for months sometimes every night, sometimes weeks went by with nothing. To’ed and fro’ed between different hotels in the other cities but eventually settled with properties we liked. This time our biggest unknown was the Disney Cruise. We read plenty who said there was so much to do on it, but couldn’t really find actually what all these activities were. It was a little bit like prior to us visiting WDW in 2013, we couldn’t comprehend the size, the transport all the ADR’s etc, it wasn’t until we experienced we got it. The Cruise was like this for us also, but more on that later.

There was obviously more to plan, more decisions, but I’ll talk about that later as I want to try to get into the trip itself!

 

[lffam]

Flight : BNE | LAX

So fast forward and the time came for us to leave. Parts of the lead up to the holiday seemed to go fast, when we hit about 30 days out , time seemed to drag, I was really busy at work and while this might seem a positive , for some reason it seemed to drag things out even longer.

We were flying out the Monday after DS finished school for the year. We had the weekend to finish packing, get the house in order for our wonderful house and animal sitter and just start the trip of a lifetime. Packing was a bit of a challenge as we had to take clothing for three very different climates. California was mild, Orlando mild at night warm during the day and DC & NYC cold. Plus we knew we would need some extra space coming back after the shopping was done. We ended up taking 3 large suitcases and a fourth medium sized one. We were trying for three large with the medium sized packed inside one of the large, but we could quite fit. We had plenty of luggage allowance so we just went with 4 right away. We had packed most of our cold weather gear into two space bags. These compacted down really well and allowed us to fit more into the case.

We arrived at the airport quite early as we normally do, checked in. We were prepared with our Ziplock bags for liquids and gels this time, as opposed to our last trip in 2013 which we totally forgot about. Through security and then, we were given Express Passes for Immigration which bypassed a massive line.

We then went to the Air New Zealand Lounge which VA uses for there international flights out of Brisbane. Not a huge lounge by any stretch, but it was comfortable, clean and had a nice breakfast array of food.

Waiting in Lounge

Air New Zealand Lounge

We actually spotted someone who we had a feeling was famous but couldn't quite put our fingers on who she was. We were madly googling but couldn't find out. Then it finally hit me it was Summer Glau who was in Brisbane for the Pop Culture event Supernova. She was travelling with what I assume was her partner and 6 month old child.

The time came for us to wander to the gate where we waited and bumped into a boy and his family from my son’s school who was also travelling on the flight. There was a short line for the priority boarding queue and we were soon starting to board. I had our boarding pass and passports out. Then I was just about to get to the attendant where I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and a lady, standing outside the queue had my travel wallet in her hand and was handing it to me. I had dropped it and did not notice at all. It didn't have our passports, as I had them in my hand, but I did have half of our US currency in it! I thanked her profusely and then proceeded to through board with DS & DW right behind me, what a different start to the holiday that would have been. I thanked the angels!

Our Bird "Caves Beach" taking us to LA

 

[lffam]

Flight : Part 2 inflight Service

As I mentioned earlier, we had been lucky to get three business class seats in Row 1. We did have row 5 available which many like on Virgin Australia due to it almost being its own mini cabin, but it wasn't for us, a little too confined. There was a chance that the new Business Class fit out would roll out prior to our flight which would change our seating assignment and experience totally, however about a 6 week out, Virgin announced that they had delayed the international refit of their Boeing 777 until 2016 so we would get the current fit out. I was ok with that, no more wondering if we would get a new fit out plane out not.

The seating layout for the current Business class on VA is 2 x 3 x 2. The three seats suited us perfectly, even though they were in the middle without a window. I certainly wouldn't really like to be travelling as a couple or solo and be allocated these middle seats, they are let’s say, "cosy" when laying down and don’t really have much separation as the large set guy behind us in the middle and the two guys either side of him found out.

We settled into our seats. The only small negative with our seats was the overhead locker on both side were not operational which meant our carry on luggage needed to go in another space. I’m always a bit uneasy putting my bags above someone else’s seats for disadvantaging them, but the air hostess said it would be fine they would make sure there is space for everyone, so this is what we did.

Legs extended and still had another 30cms to the Bulk head!

Our flight attendants introduced themselves explained the cabin and service available gave us a menu to peruse and offered us a welcome drink. DS had bought the cabin crew a little box of Tim Tam bites which they loved (a tip which I read over at Australian Frequent Flyer Forum!) This tip proved being invaluable on a couple of other flights also.

We were given the menu to look at. The service would contain a 3 course lunch serving, then about 2 hours out from landing a breakfast serving. There were items on the menu that could be ordered any time and there was a bar in-between rows 4 and 5 where you could sit chill drink. We didn't sit at the bar other than to have a bit of a walk around the cabin and I did have a bit of chat with the Cabin Manager (who was fantastic)for a while at some stage there.

Here is a look at the menu. Unfortunate I didn't take photos of each of the meals, I guess I was too busy eating !

Settled in nicely

Lunch Menu

I chose the carrot soup, the lamb and the custard. I only took photo of the soup and the table setting sorry!

Opera House S&P shakers

Garlic Bread

Carrot Soup - Delicious!

 

[viaggiamo]

Great TR, thank you lffam.

 

[lffam]

Great TR, thank you lffam.

thanks! bit wordy at the moment I know, that will thin out I'm sure and more photos

 

[viaggiamo]

I love wordy! Keep it going!

 

[Travel Mum]

Never apologise for being wordy - we love words just as much as photos! Off to a great start

 

[lffam]

So after our lunch meal we watched a few movies/TV shows. I took the time to take out our Telstra SIM cards from our iPhones and put in our AT&T cards that we had bought. I had activated the SIM cards and therefore knew our US "cell" numbers and added credit to one so that it would be operational once we landed. I had given the Town car Transfer company the number.

They dimmed the lights and we all got some sleep under the "stars"

A couple of hours out from LAX we were served our breakfast.

Breakfast menu

I had the Pancakes

We had made up a bit of time. We were going to be landing 30 mins early. We had been given our entry cards earlier in the flight and this was completed (one per family). We touched down and taxied to the gate. The captain came over the PA and said they were so early that there wasn't anyone at the aero bridge to operate it and also Customs and Border Control hadn't started yet, so we were kept on board for a few minutes. When we were able to disembark we strolled along and made it through to the Immigration area which was totally empty. We were literally the second people in the queue. I had never seen LAX like this in our prior two visits. We went through the motions with the officer, did our palm/eye scan and we were on our way. We walked off the plane at 6:05am and we were waiting for our luggage at 6:20. We were all amazed. Our luggage took about 10 mins to arrive and we walked straight out and there was our Execuar driver waiting for us(first of many). We were in the car and ready to head to Grand Californian by 6:40.

We hit some traffic on way to GC but arrived at 7:20am. Of course our room wasn't available, we would never expect it to be at that hour. On our prior trips to USA we had always booked our room from the day before so that we could check in straight away. We decided not to do that this time. I certainly didn't expect we would get through LAX and to Grand Californian so quickly. I was expecting maybe we would be there by 8:30/9:00. We knew last time we arrived at our Hollywood hotel, we threw our bags in our room and then hit the tourist track straight away, we thought we would do the same thing and we would get a call mid afternoon saying the room was ready. Sounded like a good plan, but it didn't really unfold that way! More on that later.

We registered at reception. I actual found the Cast Member to be a little disinterested. I noticed it, but didn't think to much of it, it was a long (but very comfortable) flight. We were given Key to the World Cards, just no room number yet. We also swapped our tickets vouchers for our Disneyland Tickets. We gave them our mobile number as we were told we would get a txt when the room was ready but it wouldn't be till 3 or 4pm. We checked our bags with bell services and then made our way to Grand Californian's entry into California Adventure park and headed right for Carsland which we had not seen before! !It's like 8:15am by now!

 

[lffam]

Never apologise for being wordy - we love words just as much as photos! Off to a great start

Thanks Travel Mum!

 

[LivingforDisney]

Sounds like we had the same luck as you with LAX, our flight was early, I think we were the first people in immigration, agree never seen it like that before lol.
We used super shuttle and once again no problems at all, we were the only ones in the van & were at the Camelot Inn & Suites around 7.30am I think it was, that's when I thought "why didn't I book the room for the night before", anyhow the guy that checked us in said " I know how long that flight is from Sydney is ,I have a room ready you can have now.
Wow that was a nice surprise, must say everything about the Camelot Inn was excellent.

 

[lffam]

Sounds like we had the same luck as you with LAX, our flight was early, I think we were the first people in immigration, agree never seen it like that before lol.
We used super shuttle and once again no problems at all, we were the only ones in the van & were at the Camelot Inn & Suites around 7.30am I think it was, that's when I thought "why didn't I book the room for the night before", anyhow the guy that checked us in said " I know how long that flight is from Sydney is ,I have a room ready you can have now.
Wow that was a nice surprise, must say everything about the Camelot Inn was excellent.

We must have passed the QF flight somewhere over the Pacific because they leave earlier and we got in before them! I would revert back to our prior ways and book the room from the night before for any future trip < /me must resist temptation to start thinking about next trip right now!!!......> That's great that you were able to check into a room right away.

 

[Montanabel]

Hi Iffam
Firstly, this trip report is awesome, love the detail. Secondly, did you change the photo of you and your family in the first post? I could have sworn there was a photo of you in an awesome Avengers Tshirt and your son had an Ant Man Tshirt?.........

 

[Zosha]

Never apologise for the words! We. Want. Words!

 

[lffam]

Hi Iffam
Firstly, this trip report is awesome, love the detail. Secondly, did you change the photo of you and your family in the first post? I could have sworn there was a photo of you in an awesome Avengers Tshirt and your son had an Ant Man Tshirt?.........

Oh I'm so glad you like it, thanks! You are correct about the family picture, I did change the photo, this morning when I looked at the thread the link was broken. I had that photo on Photobucket which I've been having some issues with so uploaded a new one to another picture cloud store.

Never apologise for the words! We. Want. Words!

again thanks Zosha!

 

[Minniesgal]

I'm really glad to find this as we are going over from Brisbane this year. Although we are flying economy so we will arrive a bit more crumpled and we fly immediately on to Orlando due to a catalogue of errors.

Hope you were not too exhausted to enjoy cars land

 

[lffam]

Entering Grand Californian

Here are couple of short videos by DS when we were entering Grand Californian ;

(16 secs)

(49 secs)

 

[lffam]

I'm really glad to find this as we are going over from Brisbane this year. Although we are flying economy so we will arrive a bit more crumpled and we fly immediately on to Orlando due to a catalogue of errors.

Hope you were not too exhausted to enjoy cars land

I'm glad you found it then also. When are you going? I'm happy to answer anything you might have a question on so feel free to ask or PM me if you want. It is definitely a treat going over the way we did and a result of a lot of FF points accumulation. We wouldn't be able to do it any other way. Most important thing is getting over safe and sound you will be so excited the trip over, while long seems to go reasonably fast.

Carsland was amazing, really well done. That should be my next main post.