2 Aussies escape the heat... The most magical trip ever !

[jessiegirl84]

Hello,

I started my pre-trip report before we left but i really didn't get to spend much time on it before we left.

Here is a quick re-cap, my name is Jess and my boyfriends name is Dave.
We are from Brisbane in Australia.
We travelled to America in 2010 and had one day at Disneyland, and it was probably one of the best days of our entire trip and I ended up being away from home for 3months, that was an amazing day.

In Brisbane, we don't get snow at all, and I have only seen snow once and seem as how we love America, we decided to plan a winter wonderland christmas 2011 holiday which included Florida and Walt Disney World yah yah !

Unfortunately, we didn't get our white christmas which was very disappointing, but I did get the best christmas present I could even imagine.. But you'll have to wait , although if you check out my pre-trip report you'll see a sneak preview hehe.

We decided to stay at Pop Century Hotel, because the place looked like it was so much fun! We stayed from Sunday 11 December to Friday 17 December.

Here is a picture of me, Jess. This was at Disneyland.

And here is a picture of Dave. Also at Disneyland, he just got off Splash Mountain hehe he got a bit wet.

Hopefully you will stick around

Day 1 - http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44070029&postcount=2
Day 2, Part 1 - http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44100650&postcount=11
Day 2, Part 2 - http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44100742&postcount=14
Day 3 -http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44417687&postcount=16
Day 4, Part 1 - http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44417966&postcount=17
Day 4, Part 2 - http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44418095&postcount=18
Day 5 - http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44734123&postcount=22
Day 6 - http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44734189&postcount=24

 

[jessiegirl84]

Ok lets start

Day 1. Really it was day 4 of our USA trip hang on, maybe I should have listed out what our plan was for our a week week trip.

Brisbane to LA - 4 Nights
LA to Orlando - 6 Nights
Orlando to Miami - 3 Nights
Miami to Boston - 3 Nights
Boston to New York - 9 Nights
New York to Las Vegas - 4 nights
Las Vegas to LA to Brisbane

Ok now lets get back to Day 1 of Disney It was our favourite part of the trip!

We had an early flight at 6AM so that means our van picked us up at 3AM uggh! and we didn't go to bed until 11pm so we were so so tired when the alarm went off!
We bought some sprinkles cupcakes while we were in LA and we didn't end up eating them all, so Dave ended up eating them at 3AM haha early breakfast.

After a long day of travelling, we had a stop over in Miami and by then I knew we were so so close to Disney! I was almost jumping out of my skin.
Finally our plane landed in Orlando about 4PM, but oh man our bags took so long to come out, has anyone else experienced this long wait!? Then it took forever to figure out how to find the Disney Magical Express, but finally we found it!

Then we got directed to our hotel bus.. By this time I was seriously jumping for joy, tears in my eyes finally we had made it!

And then we saw our bus.. Yah! I have read so many people's Trip Reports here and I had dreamed and wished I could experience all of this. We got on the bus and I was literally crying tears of joy! Finally we were heading to DisneyWorld! We waited and waited for others to get on the bus and then we were off ! Yah, the movie started and soon enough we were at Pop Century! It was bigger and better than I expected.

We quickly checked it and we got given some first visit buttons, again feeling so so excited!! but unfortunately we didn't get my king size bed request. But they said they could move us the next day, so we decided to do that. They were so nice on the desk. We got up to room and it was pretty cool, to be honest I don't even remember what room or building we were in!

We were pretty hungry so we jumped on a bus and headed for downtown disney! But it had just started to rain boo! Please go away rain!

I didn't bother to make reservations for dinner, because I wasn't sure what time we would arrive, so I decided to try our luck at the Rainforest Cafe, yah we got in! It was such an awesome restaurant, all the animals coming to life, the rain and storm and lightening shows, very very cool !

We had a yummy dinner, we took ages to decide on what we wanted, but finally Dave ordered the Tribal Salmon and I ordered the Tuscan Chicken it was so so good!

After dinner, we went for a walk around, we bought a few things at the Christmas Shop and then into the Art of Disney, and then finally we saw it ... aahh the massive World of Disney Store. I was so excited, as our only Disney Store in Brisbane closed so so many years ago, so I've had been deprived!
WoW this shop was bigger than anything I've seen before! Wow. We spent a bit in time in there, I don't think I bought anything we were starting to get a bit sleepy, the 3AM wake up call was starting to catch up on us.

We made it back to Pop, loving the bus system and for the whole trip we arrived at the bus stop just as a bus was arriving or only 5 mins away, except for a few times, it was awesome! So back at pop ready to crash, but we had one more stop. We went into Everything Pop to pick up our refillable cups, gosh they are awesome I do have to say! Plus used one of my snack credits on tie-dye cheesecake yummo!

Finally about 10.30PM we crashed! We had had a big day, but I went to sleep knowing we were in the happiest place on earth and it was living up to our expectations and we hadn't even step foot in a park yet!

Thanks for reading, up next Day 2, early Breakfast with Pooh & his friends

 

[PrincessInOz]

Subbing in! Great start.

 

[jessiegirl84]

Thank you

Can you tell me if the pictures are too big ? I'm having some issues with Photobucket.

 

[PrincessInOz]

The pictures seem okay. They are a little on the large size; but if you're selecting the large option in PB, then it's doing what its meant to do.

 

[Mum from oz]

Great start! The photos look fine to me. Maybe they sorted themselves out.

 

[bizeemom4]

Hi, Jess. Subscribing to your report.

 

[saintstickets]

Sign me up coach! I'm in. Pics are small at the time of this post but that might be me if others are okay. Looking forward to your TR.

 

[PrincessInOz]

You resized your pics. I liked them a little larger...but these are okay too.

 

[momabaarjo]

I am so ready to find out more....

 

[jessiegirl84]

Ok so how did we finish off? Yes, us totally being exhausted and collapsing in bed on our first night.

So we got up super early and jumped on the bus and headed straight for Magic Kingdom. Our bus turned up only after 5mins of waiting, we were thinking wow this was awesome! We had an important date at the Crystal Palace for breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and his friends.

Finally we arrived and I was again jumping for joy, with tears in my eyes, finally finally after months of stalking these boards we were here!

We entered the park and it was really great having an early 810am breakfast reservation as the park was really empty. We turned the corner and were faced with the best sight. Beautiful christmas decorations and the castle in the distance.

Then we got a bit closer, and the castle is so so beautiful. We stopped and had a few pictures with the photopass photographers. But I was concerned that we would get caught up and so we rushed off to the Crystal Palace.

We didn't have to wait long and our names got called. The characters weren't over yet so we raced off and got some breaky. I got some eggs, bacon and the famous mickey waffles yum yum!

Finally the characters came out and they were a lot of fun. Tigger then Winnie the Pooh then Eeyore and then finally Piglet.

After we left breakfast, it started to rain We walked through adventure land, walked up the Treehouse, the camel spit on me from the Aladdin Magic Carpets haha I wondered what that was. We keeping walking around and it was probably only 930am, but there was no crowds, maybe the rain was holding many people back.
We walked past splash mountain and I hesitated I didn't want to get wet haha, yes really funny because it was already raining! So we decided to go on Big Thunder mountain rail road. It was great, we loved that ride! Then we walked over to the Haunted Mansion ride.

Look how empty it was, and the rain had started to come down a lot, so we had about a 10minute wait, so we decided to go around the new entrance, it was fun.

It was very cool !
We love this ride, I think we rode it quite a few times during our stay!

Afterwards we walked around to its a small world ride, and the rain was starting to come down a bit, so everyone was hurrying into the ride to escape the ride hehe! I love this ride, I know lots of people don't but we just enjoyed sining along, but the song does get stuck in our heads for the rest of the day!

Then we went over to Peter Pan's Flight and we ended up grabbing our first ever fast passes! We were very excited haha, its the small simple things that excited us! And maybe they knew we were first timers because it gave us a bonus fast pass for Mickeys Philhilmagic!

After we went to the show, which was awesome we really enjoyed it! then flew with Peter Pan, we walked towards winnie the pooh and tried to peak into the new fantasyland. We are so excited about coming back to visit to new fantasyland!

We were starting to get a bit hungry so we headed towards tomorrowland. We stopped in for lunch at Cosmic Rays. We were on the quick service dining plan, we managed to add the free dining not long before we left, we were quite lucky we got so much food! It was ok, I don't even remember what we had, but it was ok, nothing really special. probably why i didn't write much about it.

After we finished lunch, we were going to get fast passes for space mountain, but then decided we will come back later for the parade and fireworks, but we noticed that Buzz Lightyear ride had only a 10minute standby time, so figured we may as well give it a go.

We absolutely loved this ride! We thought it was a lot of fun! Our picture that they took was so funny, so much concentration on our faces! Dave won that round but don't worry we played this again a few more times!

So we headed out of the park and back to Pop !
Update in the next post

quick update... just going back through my pictures and we ended up staying for the 3pm Celebrate a Dream Come true Parade! It was so much fun, we got place opposite the castle! I really need to practice my camera skills as so many of pictures of parades didn't turn out well, and the other half have peoples heads or hands in the way haha, does anyone else have this problem!?

 

[PrincessInOz]

That's a lovely picture of you and Eeyore. And I like the size of your pictures better!

Despite the rain, it's always a bonus to have an empty park to yourselves.

 

[Aussiesalad]

Yay Australian trip reports! Seems so rewarding getting to wdw when you have to spend a million hours on a plane!
Looking forward to hearing about your adventures

 

[jessiegirl84]

So after heading back to Pop Century, we went and refilled our mugs. We loved these!

We headed into the Everything Pop Store, we loved this store so much cool stuff and everything we need was there!

We decided to walk around the hotel and explore a little! How awesome is this hotel!!

The very cool hippy dippy pool !

I was born in the 80's!

Twister!! Love this game!

We seriously couldn't get over how big everything was! Dave looks so small !

One of the other pools

I think after we explored the hotel, we stopped in and had something to eat, I can't remember what we ate though, should have taken more notes sorry!

After grabbing a quick dinner, we headed back to Magic Kingdom for the Main Street Electrical Parade. We really enjoyed this parade. I really wish though I had a better camera, plus we should have got there a bit earlier, as a lot of my pics have peoples heads and arms in them hehe. Here are a few.

After the parade, we turned the corner onto main street, wow the castle took our breaths away, it was so beautiful!

We realised that the fireworks were starting soon, so we tried to make our way down to the front of the castle, it was so packed, the rain kept everyone away during the day, but everyone was back for the fireworks! We got as far as we could go, and waited for the fireworks, we were in a pretty good position. here is a few pictures

The perfect way to end our 2nd day in the happiest place on earth!

Up next: We took a day trip out to the Kennedy Space Centre.. eek away from the magic.!

Thank you all for reading

 

[BecBennett]

It's not your photo taking skills, it's those stupid people who have heads and hands!!! They ruin everyone's photos!!

You got some really good photos, the one from the very front of the park is amazing! There's no one in it!!!

 

[jessiegirl84]

Today we were heading to the Kennedy Space Centre, I was a little bit sad that were were away from Disney for the day, but I knew we would be back later.

We took a bus to the Disney's Swan and Dolphin Hotel, to get our pick up bus to travel to the space centre.

I won't go into to much detail about our day trip out, except to say we had a fantastic time! Dave is really big on space and science and all that nerdy stuff hehe. but I was quite surprised how much fun I had as well.

So here is just a few pics

Arriving at NASA

The rocket Garden

The Assembly Building which is very very impressive!!

After our great day exploring NASA, the bus dropped us off at Downtown Disney! I was so excited to be back in the world!

We wandered around through Pleasure Island, it had started to rain a little bit too. So we walked into Lego Land which was pretty awesome, I have to say. I wanted to buy so much, but I knew I would never use it and I don't have kids either.
I thought this Woody was pretty cool too!

We were getting pretty hungry and I had read a lot of reviews about Earl of Sandwich so we decided to head over there, it was so busy, but I had read that it goes quickly, and it did which was great!
OMG these sandwiches are A-mazing!! I wish we had of had the chance to go back again. Dave got the christmas special, which I think was turkey and stuffing? Anyways, he really enjoyed it.
I got the Hawaiian BBQ which had Grilled Chicken, Roasted Ham, Aged Swiss, Fresh Pineapple & Hawaiian BBQ Sauce on it yum!!

I really thought it would be very similar to Subway, how wrong was I?? This place is definitely on our list when we come back!

We were pretty exhausted, could hardly keep our eyes open, so we jumped the bus and headed back to Pop. When we got to our room, I found the cutest little towel animals in our window!

As soon as our heads hit the pillows we were out!

Up next, day 4 - the beginning of something so magical !

 

[jessiegirl84]

We woke up early as today was Animal Kingdom day! We went downstairs to Everything Pop and grabbed some breakfast. I am sorry I didn't take any pics of our breakfast, but I did enjoy it!

We didn't have to wait long and our bus turned up and we were walking through the gates!

Beautiful decorated tree out the front!

As we walked through the gates, and walked toward the Tree of Life. wow! it really is so beautiful!

The park was quite empty, and I don't think it was extra magic hours either, so we headed towards Expedition Everest.

We were planning on picking up fast passes for EE, but it was only 10 minute wait so we decided to go now. I was a bit worried first up though, not long after eating breakfast hehe. But it was great. I think I screamed the whole way! Was a great ride!

After EE we went for a walk through Maharajah Jungle Trek, the way that Disney have decorated this place is incredible! The themeing is amazing so much detail, we really enjoyed the self guided tour.

Next we headed towards Kilimanjaro Safaris, the crowds had started to pick up, so I thought we might have to wait for awhile, and I think it was about 20mins or so, but it moved pretty fast.
We jumped on board of truck and we had a great time. So many animals were out and about. The elephants were my favourite.

Afterwards, we headed over to Camp Minnie Mickey. We took photos with Goofy and Chip and Dale, they were so much fun. We didn't take pictures with our camera, but they are on the photopass card, so I'll upload them at the end of the trip. Minnie's tree was so so cute!

As you cross the bridge into Camp Minnie Mickey, I looked down and saw this.. how cute are they!!!

We walked away from Camp MM and stopped in at Piazzafari for lunch. We were pretty impressed with our meals. Ohh i should have mentioned we had the free quick service dinning, during our stay, so we used 1 qs meal point each. I had the cheese pizza, a side salad and chocolate mousse. Dave had the chicken caesar salad and a chocolate mousse. We really enjoyed the food!

After lunch we headed to the Festival of the Lion King... wow that show was amazing! We really really enjoyed it. The singing and dancing was so good! Loved it!

We had only planned on spending half a day here, but we were quite disappointed to leave but I did want to check out some of the other hotels.
So off we went, but with the intention that we will be back the next time we are back here at WDW!

Our first stop was the Polynesian Resort, this place is so so beautiful! I have read so much about the Kona Cafe and Tonga Toast, gosh I really wished we had of eaten here! Definitely another one on the new to do list when we are back! Does anyone else do this, make a mental to do list before you even leave WDW? haha

Next stop of the Grand Floridan Resort. This place is stunning!

Our main reason for stopping by was to check out the Gingerbread House! and it didn't disappoint! I even bought a little piece of the house at the shop inside of the House hehe pretty cool !

Just beautiful!

Up next, Day 4, part 2 - the magic is happening!

 

[jessiegirl84]

So after we explored the Grand Floridan, we took the boat over to Magic Kingdom, it was a beautiful afternoon!
We had tickets to Mickey's Verry Merry Christmas Party! and it was right on 4PM so we got our tickets out and were let straight in! Yah!

We walked around trying to figure out what we wanted to do! We ended up The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh! Gosh I love how they have themed this ride! We loved it! I'am a bit Winnie the Pooh Fan so I had to have a picture!

Then we headed back towards Tomorrowland and ended up at Buzz Lightyear, Dave loved this ride so much! But I kept telling him that that Toy Story Mania at DHS was meant to be better! Anyways, we ended up riding this ride about 3 times, there was about 10 minute wait each time! This was one of our favourite ride pictures!

After we exited the ride, look who we saw!

Dave loves Buzz so it was pretty awesome to meet him!

After reading some tips about Mickeys Verry Merry Christmas Party, we knew that if we wanted to get pictures with the 7 Dwarfs we had to be lined up by around 530/545. So it was about 5pm, we stopped at Peco Bills, it was good, I had the cheese burger and Dave had the Taco Salad. I remember we were full so we must have enjoyed the meal

So we walked toward where the map shows us where the 7 Dwarfs are meant to be coming out, but there was no line and I knew we were in the wrong place. They were meant to be just outside Splash Mountain, but you actually have to go under the train line and they are up the hill to the right. There was probably about 20 people in front of us, so we knew we were in the right spot!
We waited about 1hour and 15mins to see them and it was worth the wait!
Look how cute are they!

Next after my research, I knew that meeting the Ugly Stepsisters, and Prince Charming and Cinderella would be the next longest wait, so we walked around the Haunted Mansion and hopped in line. It was quite long, maybe a 30/40min wait, but then about 10minutes after waiting, the characters had a break for 20mins. So I decided to ring my sister to see how things were, she was having problems with her boyfriend, and then found out that they broke up, so that was very sad, especially not being to give her a hug.
We finally got to meet them and the cast was great, they were so character especially the ugly stepsisters so funny!

After we finished meeting them, we went and got our hot cocoa and cookies, yum! They were delicious!

We walked over to the castle, and decided to walk down near the water and the rose garden, to the Swan Boat Landing, which I only found out a few weeks ago that, that was the name of the place. So we decided to sit down, and just look over the castle, its such a pretty place. I didn't suspect anything was going on, as we had talked engagement before we left, but we said that we would look for rings early next year (2012) but little did I know something magical was going to happen!
Next thing I know, Dave was on his knee and asking me to marry him!

Here is the place, isn't it gorgeous!

We took a few pictures on our phones after it happened, after I stopped crying and being in complete shock! After I had been talking to my sister on the phone, all my phone credit was chewed up!! So i had to text my sister and tell her to call me. Which was hard, because we had just been talking to her about an hour ago, about her bf, but she was so so happy for us! Then I text Mum and Dad and as it was about 10am in the morning so they were at work. Dave texted his family too. but his phone was going flat haha not good planning Dave! I had no credit and his phone was almost flat. to be honest, it was nice that we were able to enjoy our time together without taking calls.

We ran off to City Hall to get our 'Just Engaged buttons', Gosh they are awesome, we got so many people congratulating us it was so so nice! Then we went and found a place to watch Wishes, it was perfect! Then I got to speak to my best friend on the phone which was great!
Afterwards we went and found a photopass photographer and it was right near the Castle, not far from where we got engaged! So Dave decided to re-enact the proposal hehe

It was funny the photographer mentioned that he had done so quite a few engaged photos that night hehe must have been something in the air!

We made our way to Main Street for the Mickeys Christmas Parade, We got good seats sitting on the curb, and it was funny we were standing around so many other Aussies! and another lady who got married at Disney. So it was great company.

The parade was really fun, the snow falling on the street was so magical, we don't get snow in Queensland, where I am from, so it was so special. Again my photography skills are crap! So here are just a few!

And one last picture to end today, my perfect gorgeous ring! he did so well

Up next, Day 5, we leave the World again!

 

[croach]

Enjoying the trip report. Those were great fireworks pictures!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Gorgeous Jessie! ... I mean the ring!


Congratulations and what a special moment for you and Dave. Sorry about your sister and her BF as I'm sure it would have put a tinge of sadness on your moment. Maybe it was just as well you had flat phones and no credits.


So....when and WHERE (in the WDW) is the wedding?