A honeymoon, a 3rd wheel & 28 days of organised chaos! Sept 2016 PTR - DINING UPDATE 8/21

[robinsa88]

Hi all, this is my first ever trip report…..well PTR but I figure start small because I have somewhat of a short attention span. Ideally I will also complete a trip report post trip but I find commitment a little scary so I figured, hey! Why not try this PTR to get warmed up! …..and also to figure out how to put pictures in my posts….haha

Well, without further ado, best to start with the introduction and back story:

Here’s me (Alyce) hanging out on Pulpit rock during our 9 night Norway cruise last year:



I’m a twenty-something (still….but only just) and I’ve always had a passion for Disney. I joke that I was clearly born in the wrong country because Australia is so far away from my home (WDW!).

I’m a clinical psychologist and work with children with disabilities…..I work hard and therefore play hard. It’s a tough gig, but at least the kids also love Disney so we relate well!

My bucket list goal is to tick off all Disney Parks worldwide, and I think I will get to over the next few years. Just need Shanghai Disney and Tokyo Disney to complete the set and at least they are close (well in relative terms – still 10hr flight for Japan and 8.5hr flight for China plus layovers and domestic flights).

I average a trip to DL or WDW every 18months. I used to do Disney solo and then I roped in my Disney BFF from high school – Peta – who actually I had no idea was big on Disney until I happened to mention I was planning a trip to WDW and she was like “can I come?” Haha well we never looked back! I’ve since roped her into a trip to DL, 2 to WDW and 3 Disney cruises! Here’s us in Grand Cayman in 2012:



And here’s Peta enjoying the mocktails on the Fantasy:



Now don’t let the title fool you – Peta is indeed just a close friend. Here’s where the trip plan changed slightly. See – we had planned this trip to be the be all end all (all our top hotel choices and as many days as we could manage!) and then I moved interstate and met someone kinda important……

Meet my DH, Trent, Here’s him at the Palace of Versailles:



Now, I’m not remotely the soppy kind and was very happy flying solo until I met Trent. He wasn’t a Diser when I met him, but he did at least know most the movies and he sure is now! Check out our rings – he designed my engagement ring……clearly he knows that my heart had be claimed long ago by a certain mouse! And he insisted when we got my wedding band made that he also got a mickey on his wedding band!



Now, I’m calling this his NOOB trip, because DLP does not count (seriously, you have no idea how many times I said to him on that trip “wait till you see WDW!” – I was seriously underwhelmed by DLP).

Regardless – here’s us with my leading man, Mickey:



And that’s a wrap for the original cast – But stay tuned for my next update where I promise I will fully explain the title and the plan for this trip! …..and introduce the tag-alongs we added later.

Keep in mind, that I am writing in retrospect so some things may be slightly out of order. I’ll try and keep it chronological to the best of my ability but again, that short attention span may get the better of me!

 

[robinsa88]

Here’s my contents post – to keep things orderly and keep me on track (will update links as we go):

The one with the blizzard and an ambitious trip plan

The one where Peta became the third wheel

The one where we delayed the trip a whole year!

The one where we realised all those Frequent Flyer miles would seriously pay off!

The one where DLP failed to impress

The one where I accidentally joined DVC and booked a Disney Cruise….all in the same day

The one where we roped in another family to the trip!

The one where I remembered about Halloween

The one where I pulled the others to the darkside…..twice

The one where Trent nearly fainted over the rockets

The one where Zika changed our plans…..again

The one where we realised that jet lag and driving don’t mix

The one where we added two MORE parks!

 

[robinsa88]

The one with the blizzard and an ambitious trip plan

OK, so here’s the thing. My PTR needs to jump back in time a little to explain the every-changing plan. As you can see from the contents (which is also a handy memory prompt) there have been significant changes to the original plan and each one really warrants their own update.

Let’s start with the original plan. Peta and I were on an epic 11 week adventure around the US back in Dec 2013 - Feb 2014 – including, of course, 10 magical days at WDW and a 7 day cruise to the Western Caribbean on the Fantasy.

Here’s us enjoying the Fantasy:



Well…..we were so excited about seeing snow (ya know, since Australia get’s next to none). But our lack of excitement for seeing more snow after the first lot was a theme of the trip. Especially since our two day recovery from the flight in Dallas became a huge mistake – Long story short, flights to Fl cancelled several times (and we had a days lee-way in which we planned to do universal) and a quick suggestion from our Disboards group and suddenly we were roadtripping across the US – jetlagged, on no sleep…..and is this a bad time to mention that Peta drives a modified car back home due to a chronic leg condition? So that leaves me driving the entire time……..

Anyway, I digress and writing this indicates that I really should have written a report about that….in retrospect it was amazingly comical – at the time though, not so much!

So…..the plan materialised while we were sat in our hotel room in Albany, NY, taking in a view of the blizzard that seemed to follow us on our roadtrip from NYC (NYE!!!!) through all of the North East states.

We thought the blizzard was insane but I know it’s probably just a way of life for most in the north-east and mid-west.



(Ok, so not us in a Blizzard, but this is more fun – Enjoying the snow whilst dogsledding in Vermont!!!!)

I believe the conversation went something along the lines of:

Peta – “We should go to WDW when it will be warmer”

Me – “Yeah, and I want to stay at the Grand Floridian”

Peta – “and let’s get the dining plan, and stay at the Boardwalk”

………You see how this became a very slippery slope?!?!?!?!??!

So – The original plan became 7 nights Grand Floridian, 7 nights Boardwalk, and 7 nights at the Contemporary resort. Did I mention we also wanted Deluxe Dining?!?!? (We regretted not getting the dining plan because we did lots of expensive meals and felt worried about the money we were spending – we did less meals and came in at the cost of the dining plan anyway – doh!)

So, yeah, we’ve always been pretty ambitious.

A quick work over of the sums left us gobsmacked (did I mention airfares pp from Australia to Orlando run between $1600 - $2200 depending on time?), but also comfortable knowing it would be a once in a lifetime trip. We concluded September 2015 would allow us sufficient time to budget and pay things along the way.

Up next: The one where Peta became the Third Wheel

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

Wow! I can't wait to hear more!

All you out-of-USA people get so much vacation!! I'm jealous! This Sept is my first two week trip since I was a kid. Everything else has only been able to be a week - including a trip to Hawaii (8+ hour flight) and Europe (9+ hour flight). Which is nothing compared to the flight from Australia to WDW. I don't know how you do it. I went crazy on our 8 hour flight to Hawaii!

 

[robinsa88]

Wow! I can't wait to hear more!

All you out-of-USA people get so much vacation!! I'm jealous! This Sept is my first two week trip since I was a kid. Everything else has only been able to be a week - including a trip to Hawaii (8+ hour flight) and Europe (9+ hour flight). Which is nothing compared to the flight from Australia to WDW. I don't know how you do it. I went crazy on our 8 hour flight to Hawaii!

Yeah, we are lucky - 4 weeks is the minimum per year in Australia - but given it takes two days to get to the US or Europe we have to make the most out of our trips! we would never got to the US for less that 4 weeks at a time.....takes a week to travel both ways and get over the jetlag! I sleep on planes....so I have that, luckily....because Sydney to Dallas is one of the longest flights in the world - almost 16hrs!

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

Yeah, we are lucky - 4 weeks is the minimum per year in Australia - but given it takes two days to get to the US or Europe we have to make the most out of our trips! we would never got to the US for less that 4 weeks at a time.....takes a week to travel both ways and get over the jetlag! I sleep on planes....so I have that, luckily....because Sydney to Dallas is one of the longest flights in the world - almost 16hrs!

4 weeks - wow! We start at one or two weeks depending on your job. Then after five years you usually get another week and then another five get another week. Unfortunately, I have been working at my job for over 10 years now but they switched the "rules" at the 8 year mark so I have 3 weeks when I should be getting 4. I'll get my 4th week at 15 years. We max out at 5 weeks and I don't know when we get 5 weeks (20 years? but for me it would be 25).

I can totally see needing at least a week to recover! Do you usually fly in to Dallas or do you fly in to LA?

 

[robinsa88]

4 weeks - wow! We start at one or two weeks depending on your job. Then after five years you usually get another week and then another five get another week. Unfortunately, I have been working at my job for over 10 years now but they switched the "rules" at the 8 year mark so I have 3 weeks when I should be getting 4. I'll get my 4th week at 15 years. We max out at 5 weeks and I don't know when we get 5 weeks (20 years? but for me it would be 25).

I can totally see needing at least a week to recover! Do you usually fly in to Dallas or do you fly in to LA?

Oh no! Thats bad luck with the additional leave. Ours is a lot more standardised. 4 weeks is minimum set by the govt and usually after 5 or 10 years you might get an extra week. But some professions such as paramedics automativally get 6 weeks due to the stressful nature and shift work.

We have only flown into Dallas once (out of about 10 trips) and I swore we wouldnt do it again because of all the flights being grounded. But it is actually quicker to get to the East Coast through Dallas and it was the only flight we could get on points.

I very much dislike LAX and am excited that qantas have just added a direct Syd - San Francisco flight daily! Can't wait to try that out as we hope to go back to Alaska next year or the year after.

 

[robinsa88]

The one where Peta became the third wheel

Ok, so I skip a significant amount of time here…..but let me catch you up. Basically I was just diligently enjoying planning the trip and negotiating restaurants and the like with Peta…….

When I got offered a job interstate and up and left. I assured Peta that we would plan via email and phone and everything would still come together with the usual spreadsheets, documents and bound itinerary books (did I mention that I kinda don’t do things by halves?). Plan was still a go!

Well…..then I met Trent….and there’s some mushy stuff here, you could say it was obviously meant to be that I moved to Adelaide (South Australia) and that it was meant to be that he was living with one of my oldest friends…..but yeah, I don’t really do mush so let’s take a look at the facts.

1) Met Trent Feb 2014

2) First date July 2014

3) Agreed to first overseas trip sometime shortly after

4) Trent says that must be Disney, I tell him I’m going with Peta (cue *gasp* noise from Trent who took mild offense to my implication that it was a girls trip)

5) Trent and I agree to DLP or HK DL instead

6) Fast forward a bit – I give in and call Peta. Trent has been using the catch phrase “but I want to go to Disneyworld” a lot. She doesn’t seem to mind the idea of Trent coming, and I convince her to convince her partner to join us.

7) Trent proposes in March 2015 and seals the third wheel status as Peta tells us she will fly solo – her partner does not wish to join us (really? Who doesn’t want to go to WDW – I will NEVER understand that)

So suddenly we were 3! Well not so suddenly, but in the grand scheme of things it kinda was pretty fast! We got married in March 2016 so it was a decent escalation from single to married!

Here’s us at our engagement party – where I seem to recall having a good chat to Peta to work out all the logistics of our trip. She was still very excited, but we’ve got a few friends who put a downer on in….making fun of her being the third wheel etc. etc. (I think if anything, being my long time Disney pal, Trent is more likely to be our third wheel haha)



Up next: The one where we delay the trip a whole year!

 

[robinsa88]

The one where we delayed the trip a whole year!

So I’m guessing you can guess by the title exactly where this post is going. Yep – we made the call to delay the trip.

Well actually Peta did in the last few days of December 2015. We were in Melbourne visiting her (and had just sat down to see the Good Dinosaur at the cinema) when she suddenly looked very sheepish and conceded that she was concerned about the money side of the trip but did not wish to change any of the details.

She said she had been thinking for a while and that it would be too much to save. So, Trent and I looked at each other and pretty much just said “makes sense! Let’s go next year!”

And just like that, our planned September 2015 trip became a September 2016 trip. No to worry….I decided that night that instead of Deluxe dining for only one week of our trip, we would go for broke! That’s right! The WHOLE trip with deluxe dining! Crazy, perhaps. But it feels amazing to know that, just this once we will not have to bat an eye lid about what we order – and I will arrange some gift cards to cover tips on the high side so that we aren’t caught out on that either.

Perhaps indeed, this is a blessing in disguise?

Next up: The one where we realised all those Frequent Flyer miles would seriously pay off!

 

[Zosha]

Hi Robinsa88. I'm reading along from the same city you live in sounds like it's shaping up to be a great holiday! It is an epic trip from Adelaide - Orlando. The Syd-Dallas flight is looonnggg...!

 

[robinsa88]

Hi Robinsa88. I'm reading along from the same city you live in sounds like it's shaping up to be a great holiday! It is an epic trip from Adelaide - Orlando. The Syd-Dallas flight is looonnggg...!

Welcome!!!!! Glad to see I'm not the only one from Radelaide snooping on these boards Lucky that we will have Disney World in our sights as we board that flight....Trent finds air travel somewhat exciting.....but I do not, at all!!!!

 

[Enchanted]

Joining in! This trip sounds like it's going to be soooooo epic! I'm so jealous!!! 3 weeks, 3 AMAZING resorts, AND Deluxe Dining???? That's what I call living!!!

Can't wait to read more!

 

[robinsa88]

Joining in! This trip sounds like it's going to be soooooo epic! I'm so jealous!!! 3 weeks, 3 AMAZING resorts, AND Deluxe Dining???? That's what I call living!!!

Can't wait to read more!

Welcome! Thanks for joining in......sit tight because as you'll see going along, I can't help myself! I just keep trying to make the trip MORE epic

 

[robinsa88]

The one where we realised all those Frequent Flyer miles would seriously pay off!

So this is a nice short update, but is fairly crucial to our ability to pull off the trip of our dreams. Of course, when I originally concocted the trip plan with Peta we had a budget and a plan in place to pull it off. But when Trent came onto the scene our plans got even more ambitious and we dreamt of upgrading rooms from regular view to theme park view….maybe even club level.

What I failed to account for is that having an extra person, comes with extra expenses – for example, we would need a bigger car hire etc. and that the desired change in hotel room would still lead to the same per person cost for the trip.

Then Trent reminded me exactly why we pay for most things on CC (and then promptly pay them off – we do not have an intention of paying interest!!!) – we get frequent flyer miles with our credit card. Now, that in itself is not necessarily cause to get excited – after all, there are only 2 airlines in Australia with whom you can accumulate points (Qantas and Virgin Australia) on a CC. And let me tell you – availability can be pretty much nothing for 1 person, let alone 3 on a popular route like Mel/Syd-LAX.

Well here’s the thing – I like me a bit of research and, after approximately 7 days of scouring websites, checking alternate routes to America I finally did it. All our flights on frequent flier miles!!!! Given the average cost of flights being $1500-$2200 pp, you can imagine my excitement! So the routes are clunky, but check it out, because we are in business class on the way home and everything. BUSINESS CLASS!!!!! At least the flight back home before we get back to reality should be a much more relaxing experience.

So, our itinerary is:

Thursday night – Adelaide – Sydney. Friday – Sydney – Dallas, then Dallas to Orlando!

Then, on the way home (looks longer due to date change/ time difference different but isn’t much longer):

Weds night – Orlando – Newark, Thursday Newark – Hong Kong, Hong Kong – Brisbane, Sat morning – Brisbane – Adelaide.

Here’s a preview of the Cathay Pacific business class we have to look forward to on the way home:



Next Up: The one where DLP failed to impress

 

[robinsa88]

The one where DLP failed to impress

Ok, I’ve got to fast forward a little bit here to June 2015. That’s for two reasons:

1) The trip had taken the backburner due to it being delayed

2) I had a sooner trip to plan!

The context here is that, after delaying the trip a year I was itching to go travel and I had promised my old housemate’s Jean and Shae that we would go on a cruise.

You’d never guess my luck – I convinced them to give the 9 night Norway cruise on the Disney wonder a go!!!!!

Here’s us enjoying some amazing Port Adventures in Norway:





Well of course, there was a slippery slope that went along with this trip (like, I said….that’s pretty much a theme), and I then added a 7 night Northern European cruise to make it a B2B and my friend Nicole joined me for that:



Suddenly, Trent was jealous and decided he wanted to go see the Austrian Grand Prix, which just happened to coincide with our trip. Now, neither Copenhagen nor Austria are anywhere near Paris, but since it is the same continent, I had a brainwave: 5 nights at DLP before parting ways for our own trips! Genius!!!!

I was so excited at the prospect of the alternate space mountain track, Ratatouille, and Crush’s coaster and at ticking another park of my list!

Sadly, that’s where my excitement pretty much ends.

We did have fun at DLP, and the Wild West show was awesome:



And apparently we also enjoyed the rides:



Sadly Trent remains a Space Mountain virgin as it was closed for refurbishment

And I was completely underwhelmed by the park. It had nothing on the US parks (which I knew going in) but what really got me was how dirty, unclean and damaged some of the attractions were. It literally felt like no one had cared for the park in 20 years, which made me sad. Trent of course loved it, but had nothing to compare it to. I’m expecting he will be absolutely blown away by WDW!!!!

My motto for the week was “wait till you see Disneyworld…..” (repeated by me following almost every attraction and experience).


Next up: The one where I accidently joined DVC and booked a Disney Cruise….all in the same day

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

Oh bummer about DLP! I'm hoping some day to be able to go to Tokyo DisneySea. Not sure when we'd be able to swing it but maybe I should start saving now!

I'm excited to hear - how do you accidentally join DVC??

 

[robinsa88]

Oh bummer about DLP! I'm hoping some day to be able to go to Tokyo DisneySea. Not sure when we'd be able to swing it but maybe I should start saving now!

I'm excited to hear - how do you accidentally join DVC??

I here that DisneySea is amazing! I'm desperate to try all the crazy popcorn flavours they have! Of course I think I would need a huge budget for the super cute merchandise. Trent and I have be toying with the idea of going for my 30th in July 2018.

 

[robinsa88]

The one where I accidently joined DVC and booked a Disney Cruise….all in the same day

Again here, as you can guess by the title. Back in June 2015, our trip fell victim to yet another slippery slope.

On board the Disney Wonder, in between Fjords and occasionally using free wifi at the many chocolate shops in Norway….I managed to message Trent (who you will recall was in Austria by then) about 2 times a day (in the Fjords internet was terrible but we would get reception in the open water).

It took all of one day to convince Trent that we needed to book a Disney cruise, and so I went ahead and booked the Sept 10th Eastern Caribbean for the week before our WDW trip. And so….as per the title our 21 day trip became 28!!!

And then, I did something crazier. I told myself that I went to the DVC preview for the sake of the free cocktail, but after that (very strong) cocktail I decided for some unknown reason to do some maths…..which I usually hate, but Disney maths is different. And the maths became very real as I quickly realised that purchasing enough points to cover 3 weeks every two years at WDW would be less than the overall cost of the buy in to DVC I was beyond excited. For years I had looked longingly at the DVC stands and had never thought I would be in the position to buy in.

Several confusing back and forth messages with Trent (who I think enjoyed researching every aspect of DVC) and we were proud owners at the Polynesian Resort!!!! And I think it took me two weeks for the reality of that to really settle in!

Meanwhile, I headed back to my cabin to brag to my cruisemates….with this in tow:



Still one of my fave bags – it’s my go to beach bag (sorry for it not being a real photo – mine is here somewhere, but in the next 3 weeks before we leave we are busy moving house!!!)

And so, the trip changed rapidly…..and became the Villas at the Grand Floridian, The Boardwalk Villas, and Bay Lake Tower…..in a one-bedroom apartment! Peta and I have rented in a studio before and can’t wait to see what the 1 bedrooms have to offer.

So that’s up to a 7 night cruise for Trent and I (read: honeymoon) followed by 7 nights VGF, 6 nights BLT and 6 nights BWV……all of which I managed to get at 7 months! Winning! Note that when we fixed the flights the dates had changed somewhat so when I added the cruise it decreased our WDW stay by 2 nights. Not to worry….I’m sure 19 days of deluxe dining is enough

Up next: The one where I remembered about Halloween

 

[robinsa88]

The one where we roped in another family to the trip!

So, when I joined DVC, they gave me the points for the year before as well – and I had banked these for the trip. The only thing was I also had the current years points and well, I was itching to do something with them.

I considered going all out and booking a 2 bedroom for us at each resort, but Peta had already said she was happy with sleeping on the sofa bed, and I had a better idea.

I was a bit nervous to suggest it to Trent, but I shouldn’t have been….he thought it was a great idea! I decided we would have enough points to get 4 nights in a studio for some of our friends in the US!

Enter Clint and Steph:



Peta and I met Clint and Steph on our first Disney Cruise in 2011 to the Mexican Riviera. At the time, they were living in Nashville, and we have been to visit them twice!

Here’s us in 2012 (with a few of their friends):



And we also visited in 2014….but again, with moving house I can’t find those photos L

Since then they have added to their family twice! And they’ve move to West Palm Beach! I was very VERY nervous to ask them whether they would come if we booked to accommodation……and much to my relief they said yes!!!!

So I booked them 4 nights in a Polynesian studio! We will hit all 4 parks with them!

Here’s them on a recent trip to the world:



More recently, Steph mentioned they were toying with adding a 5th night……and luckily I still had points left over! Well within 7 months it was super lucky that I managed to get the last night for them at AKL in a 1 bedroom! Which works well since we had planned AK for the last day with them and then we can do a 5th day as a 2nd MK day!

Clint and Steph are officially joining us from Sept 18th – Sept 23rd! Woohoo!!!!

Up Next: The one where I remembered about Halloween

 

[robinsa88]

The one where I remembered about Halloween

How could I forget about Halloween, you ask? Well, it’s quite easy when you like in a country that doesn’t celebrate it.

Here’s me in 2009 when I was an aupair, soaking up the American Halloween experience! (this was the air and scare at the air and space museum next to Washington Dulles airport)



Now that we have Costco, I do see some decorations and costumes around, but it’s really not the done thing here. You might get 1-2 trick or treaters and teenagers and young adults might occasionally throw a party but we also have people that revolt against it and refuse to partake – because it is perceived as an American holiday.

Regardless, our lack of exposure to Halloween means that anything Halloween is VERY exciting!!!! The day I remembered that our trip coincides with MNSSHP I pretty sure I recall letting out a literal squeal at work before texting Peta and then squealing again when she said yes!!!!!

We LOVED MVMCP and can’t wait to give the Halloween party a go. I have planned for the 29th Sept – because that’s the night before Trent’s birthday!

And then I got to some googling (of course one Halloween event was never going to be enough….and remember that all my decisions tend to lead to that slippery slope phenomenon).

And I discovered:



WOOHOO!!!!! I have a HUGE lover of haunted houses…..even more so since we don’t have any!!! I couldn’t resist and decided that it would be a must do!

Another addition to the trip plan was made!

Up Next: The one where I pulled the others to the darkside….twice