Adventures Down Under take on the World!!!

[downunder]

Hi Everyone! My name is Jess and i am from Sydney Australia.


I am very nervous because this is my first ever Pre Trip Report! I am only new to the boards and i have spent many hours thus far reading some amazingly funny pre trip reports. I am not sure i have what it takes but i figured i need to give it a go.

I have so much information and advice that i want ask you all.

Firstly, ill begin with what is already booked.

We will be at WDW from the 2nd of January till the 13th of January staying at Pop! I am so excited i have read lots of great things about this resort.

We are then going on the Disney Cruise Line from the 13th -17th of January!!! i think i am even more excited about this!!!


Me Jess (26)
I am a primary school teacher, i think that is called elementary teacher in the states. I absolutely adore teaching children and knowing that I am creating wonderful learning opportunities for them. I enjoy my job and i love seeing their happy smiling faces. I am 26 years old and i will be married for 4 years by the time I aarrive in the world. I am married to a wonderful man, my high school sweetheart.

I am completely obsessed with anything disney!! (More on that Later)

DH Murray (26)
Murray is also a primary school teacher. He is not as disney obsessed as i am but he is definately a fan. His main passions in life are animals, especially frogs, snakes and turtles.

Previous Trips
I am very fortunate to have travelled to many disney parks. Coming from Australia, it is pretty expensive to get anywhere. It is costing us $6000 just to get to Orlando in January.

I have been to DL, WDW, Tokyo Disney and Hongkong Disney as well.

I was last in WDW in 2000. I came over as part of an international exchange program. I worked as a cast member for three months and i lived on property. I worked in AK. (Ill tell more details about this in a later post if people are interested).

 

[downunder]

My husband thinks i am crazy. He doesn't understand how i could spend hours planning for something that is so far away. When I told him that we had to plan our ADR's 180 days in advance he nearly had a heart attack. He thinks i am nuts.

I on the otherhand have had a ball searching through reviews and menus. I am so excited to try all of these wonderful resturants when i am there.

We decided to do the Disney Dining Plan
We have decided to go with the dining plan. I worked out that it will save me roughly $300. My husband is a coeliac (he cant eat gluten). Gluten is found in foods such as bread, pizza, pasta, cakes etc. As these foods are such a big part of the whole disney experience ie hot dogs, pizza and hamburgers, we figured that at least on the DP there is food he can eat.

180 Days ADR's here I come!!!! (well so i though so)

I have been waiting for today since i booked in April. I guess when you book a trip so far out, all the little milestones and events seem really big. Today is 180 days until we hit the world. I stayed up till 11pm and made sure that i called at exactly 7am orlando time. I have all of my ADR's ready and i am about to burst. After counting down from hours, to mins, to secs to go i finally dialled the number. When i spoke to the cast member she informed me that i was one day early. I got the days muddle because it is 180 days in Australia but you guys are 1/2 a day behind us in America. My husband was on the floor in a fit of laughter. He thought it was so hilarious. He later comforted me and reminded me that now i get to get excited tomorrow ALL OVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, here are the proposed ADR's

01/02 Spoodles @ 7pm
01/03 Chef Mickey's @ 6pm
01/04 Le Cellier 7pm
01/05 Sci Fi @ 6pm
01/06 1900 Park Fare @ 7pm
01/07 Mama Melrose @ 6:30pm
01/08 Crystal Palace 8am
01/08 Tony's Town Square 5pm
01/10 Boma @ 7:30pm
01/11 Chef de France (4th Wedding Anniversary Dinner)
01/12 Ohana's Breakfast 7:30am


So.......what do you think? Please let me know i hope that they are all good choices. I really researched so i feel like they are. I also had to choose resturants that catered for my husbands needs.

With all this delicious food i am dreading the amount of weight i am going to put on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11 I think i better commit myself to loosing at least 10kg (not sure what that is in pounds) before i go. There you go i said it. Now all i have to do is stick to it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry if i am rambling, i just love to talk......expecially when it concerns disney!!!!

Ill be back tomorrow to let you know if i got the ADR's! Here's hoping!!!

 

[mvazul]

Sounds like yo have a great trip planned. I hope you get all the ADR's you want!!

Michelle

 

[Avivasmom]

How lucky you are to come from so far!!

We will more then likely be there from Jan 2-5, 2008 to celebrate my DD 7th birthday...just not sure where we are staying yet.

You have some great places to eat too!

 

[Avivasmom]

Forgot to add...if you call the restaurants ahead of time they will cater to his Cieliacs. They have helped a few people I know who have been.

 

[downunder]

After all of the mix up over these ADR's, today was finally the day for me to book. I spent all day checking and changing my mind. I think i ended up with the exact same list that i started with in the first place!!!!

Anyway, i managed to stuff it up again and once again my husband was on the floor in a fit of laughter. I kept ringing and ringing and didn't understand why the dining was say that it was closed. I was ringing at 5am Orlando time. I muddled up the conversions and called 2 hours early.

Anyway it was now 9pm Sydney time and i was on the phone to disney. The other FOUR!!!!! times i have called in the last couple of days i have gotten straight through to a cast member. Today when i called it said that there was a high number of callers and to expect a wait!!! I am away on holidays at my parents holiday house and now i am sitting on hold to AMERICA!!!! Thankfully I was only on hold for 10 mins.... singing away to the lovely disney music. (I think they whould record guest on hold and then play back there singing it would be so funny).


After all of this suspense, i guess you are dying to know if i got my reservations. I am happy to report that i got all of my reservations except for one. I even managed to get all of the times i wanted. Tony's Town Square will be under renervation from Jan 5th so i missed out on that one. I replaced it with Whispering Canyon Cafe which i am really happy about because i have heard great things about that. So here is the final list......
01/02 Spoodles @ 7pm
01/03 Chef Mickey's @ 5pm
01/04 Le Cellier 7pm
01/05 Sci Fi @ 6pm
01/06 1900 Park Fare @ 6pm
01/07 Mama Melrose @ 6pm
01/08 Crystal Palace 8:05am
01/08 Whispering Canyon Cafe 7:30pm
01/10 Boma @ 7:30pm
01/11 Chef de France 7pm(4th Wedding Anniversary Dinner)
01/12 Ohana's Breakfast 7:55am

I want to go there right now. If today was any indication of how excited i am going to be i am a little bit scared. After i got off the phone i called four people chanting "I got my ADR's". My dad and sister thought i had gone mad and the other to said"WHAT ON EARTH IS AN ADR!!!!"
I am so glad i have all of you lovely people who understand me and are interested in my disney planning.

 

[downunder]

Forgot to add...if you call the restaurants ahead of time they will cater to his Cieliacs. They have helped a few people I know who have been.

Thanks for the advice about the coeliac link. I have just made sure that all the ADR's I have made, there is at least one thing on the menu he can eat such as steak etc.

thanks again

 

[downunder]

Well today i called to talk to the disney cruise line reservation centre. FIrstly my cast member was so helpful and friendly. I love when that happens. I am all booked on the 13-17th of January 2008. I was originally booked for a category 12 but today i upgraded to a category 11. She even gave me my room number. We will be staying in room 7009! i am so excited. She told me that it was a very good room and location. DOes anyone know if this is true? I also made all my arrangements on transportation and i am going to use the disney cruise line transer bus. I am so excited i can't believe i got my room number and an upgrade all in one day

 

[downunder]

Hi everyone,
Here are a few memories of my time as a cast member in 2000. I though you might be interested.

It was April 2000 and my life had taken a rather horrible turn, I was 19 years old and I had been engaged for a year to my high school sweetheart (now my husband). After the constant reminder of how young we were, especially by his father and friends he ended the relationship. I was completely devastated. Everyone told us that we were to young and how did we know we had found the right person if we had only been with so few thus far. We both knew that we were soul mates after 5 years of friendship but I guess he just had to find out that for him self.I very realised saw that this break up was for a good reason as I would never experienced being a cast member if we were together as I wouldn’t have moved away from him. It is ironic to think that the worst time in my life managed to become the best time in my life. All it needed was a little MAGIC!!!!

I have so much to tell i don’t know where to start. I saw the job advertisedin the travel section of the paper in 2000. Requirements were universitystudent 18-35 years, speaks english. As i fit all of those criteria i wentto the interview. I t was in a hotel in Sydney and there were hundreds of other Australians there. I was so nervous, I have never wanted anything more in my life. We sat there watching presentations about WDW and life as a cast member. We were so excited. We then were given an interview time and we all sat and nervously waited. The interview went well and I was fairly confident that I had got it. I am very bubbly and I can talk, especially Disney!

It was an agonizing 5 month wait but ill never forget the day the acceptance letter arrived. We went to Orlando on a J1 visa. We lived on Disney property in the international and cast member housing called Chatham. It was pretty much the Truman show. All the building were identical. I remember arriving and thinking, “how an I ever going to find which house is mine?” I lived with 3 other girls and all up there were 200 Australian and New Zealanders.After arriving at about 12pm and all of the excitement I don’t think we slept that night. The next morning they took us on a bus to Wall-Mart. Wow what an experience! I had never seen a store that big, it even had a McDOnalds inside it. We went crazy buying groceries. We were amazed by the size of the portions and the strangest discovery was “cheese in a can”. How strange. I was also completely blown away by the fact that there were guns for sale in the store. That was the first time I had ever seen a gun.

 

[downunder]

I was assinged a job at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

We were assigned our jobs on the 2nd day. I was very lucky and i had a greatjob in Animal Kingdom at ODF (out door foods). (ice cream crats, hot dogcarts, tarzan show popcorn etc). People worked in all different areas of theparks and resorts. Some were mickey mouse, some in the parades, onegirlfriend drove the safari trucks at kilamanjaro in AK, some where burger flippers at pinnochios, some where in merchandise at tinkerbell’s treasures at MK.

I probably enjoyed going through the training days at the Disney university called Traditions the most. I loved learning all about the WDW history, Mickey Mouse and of course Walt Dinsey. Of course I new all of the answers to everything they asked. It was quite strange that of the 200 Aussie and NZ not many of them actually had an interest in Disney. I was labeled the Disney freak shortly after that day, a name I wore proudly.I very rarely worked!

I only ever worked enough to pay for my accommodation and I was always the first to put my had up to go home early. As a CM, we were given free entry to all of the parks. I wanted to play not work.

I spent way to much money on merchandise but it was hard not to. There is this great place called Property Control. It is a big store that is under big tents. They sell all old stock and broken stock at really cheep process., I remember I got a snow globe for $5!!!!!!!!!!!!

There were many great things that CM got to experience.At the end of my time we had a graduation ceremony and our diplomas were presented to us by Mickey mouse. I had a wonderful time exploring the tunnels at MK, not that I was allowed to be there because only MK cast members were allowed. But nothing was going to stop me from experiencing the tunnels. It is amazinghow easy it is to get back stage.... I am worried when i go back Iespecially want to go back stage to where i used to work in AK. I think illask a cast member it can’t hurt to try. We had great discount at the resort but i only had time to stay at All Star Music. At Christmas time we had 50% off merchandise and all year round I think it was 30% or 40%.I should probably stop now, I have probably bored you all to death.

Sorry, once I get started I just can’t stop. If there is anything else that you specifically want to know, just ask. It is really hard to summarise 3 months worth of memories into one page.

I think i only had one bad experiences as a cast member. I remember it being my first day of work. My back stage area was at the back of pizzafari in Animal Kingsdom. I walked around the corner and i say Chip and Dale both with their heads off and they were smoking. I burst into tears. I didnt want to see them with their heads off ever again. I guess it was a good thing that i didnt have to be a character as it would have just spoled the magic to much for me. I made sure that i was always walking with someone any time i turned a corner when walking back stage from that point in.

Jess

 

[downunder]

After many changes, here is my final booking and DDP options


Pop 2nd-8th Jan
6 nights dining
10 day hopper pass plus water parks and more

8th- 13th jan
5 nights room only

I feel much happeier about this aswell.

Here are the new adr's

01/02Whispering Canyon Café 7:20pm
01/03 Chef Mickey's @ 5pm
01/04 Chefs De France 6pm
01/05 Boma 8:30pm
01/06 1900 Park Fare (6pm)
01/07 Le Cellier 6:30pm


I cant believe how many times i have changed these!!!!

 

[downunder]

just wanted to see if my signature is now attached

 

[alabamagirl]

Wow! I loved reading about your CP experience. Post more I'll read it! We are a lot alike. I am starting school this semester to get a master's degree in Elementary Education. I really want to teach small children. I am also married to my high school sweetheart and as you know participated in the CP.

I can't believe you saw Chip and Dale like that! With their heads off is one thing, but to be smoking IN COSTUME. My word......they could have been fired for that.

I am super jealous that you are going on a Disney cruise. I know you will have a great time.

I am glad that you and your DH had a happy ending.

Keep it coming!!

 

[gogo65]

Hey Jess,
Have to subscribe to this one.

We will have to let the other disers know that we met on the disboard when i offered you our fridge swap at POP, and found out we live 5 minutes away from each other in the suburbs of Sydney
We will be at Disney the same time
It's so good to have met you and now we can talk Disney all the time

Looking forward to your trip report
Another Aussie
Gab

 

[downunder]

OK, so here is a bit of a wierd story for you all.

The post above is by Gab GOGO65 (i think that is her user name). We met on the disboards when she found a mention in a thread of me going to POP in January 2008. I assume that based on my user name she figured taht I was an Aussie, and doing the Aussie thing she decided to help a fellow Aussie out by offereing me a fridge swap.

At the time I had know idea what a fridge swap was. Anyway to cut along story short, we began emailing each other, she gave me her fridge swap and we realised we live 5 mins apart. We have meet twice in the last 2 weeks and i am having and we are having a ball helping each other plan our trips and when we can meet up in which parks. i think we will be friends for life now

SO thank you dis boards and thank you gab for finding me!

Jess

 

[downunder]

Wow! I loved reading about your CP experience. Post more I'll read it! We are a lot alike. I am starting school this semester to get a master's degree in Elementary Education. I really want to teach small children. I am also married to my high school sweetheart and as you know participated in the CP.

I can't believe you saw Chip and Dale like that! With their heads off is one thing, but to be smoking IN COSTUME. My word......they could have been fired for that.

I am super jealous that you are going on a Disney cruise. I know you will have a great time.

I am glad that you and your DH had a happy ending.

Keep it coming!!

Hi, I have really enjoyed reading your TR aswell. It is bizzare how similar we are. One question, do you scrapbook????

I am so excited about the cruise aswell i cant wait.

 

[njdisneyfreak]

I found your TR! Thanks for the link. I'm really enjoying it, so far. I can feel your excitement with each posting. Your stories from the time you worked in the CP program are great. I'd love to hear more. I wish I had known it existed when I was eligible. I don't blame you for not wanting to see the characters as anything but characters, and not as the human beings they are underneath. I couldn't imagine seeing one of my beloved favorite characters doing something like smoking or cursing. That would totally be weird. Feel free to share more of your stories about that time. I find it fascinating. I doubt whether you'd be allowed back in the tunnels area, unless you went on a tour, for security reasons. Let us know, though, if they let you.

You have some great ADRs! I would have been upset too, if I went to make my 180 days out ressies and was told I was too early. I was SO EXCITED when it was time to make mine, and since we're going for two weeks, I remember being upset when I was told I couldn't make some of the ADRs for the last few days, yet. As you already read in my TR, I had to call them back over a series of days, before I got all of mine.

I've never been to Whispering Canyon Café, but heard it's great. Remember not to ask for ketchup, unless you want to be the center of attention. I love Chef Mickey's, but have only been there for breakfast. My DH and I are looking forward to trying out Chefs De France. The menu looks good. I'm hoping for a windown area table. We are leaving Boma for another time, but the pictures and reviews of this restaurant look amazing! We originally had booked ADRs for 1900 Park Fare, and I think we just cancelled them for another place, but I have nothing but great things about it. I cannot wait to go to Le Cellier. Are you going to try their cheese soup?

You're going to have a great time, and you get to go on a Disney cruise afterwards! How great is that? Have you been on a cruise before? You're doing my two favorites, Disney and cruising. As you can see in my sig, we are going on a Disney cruise for the first time in 2008. We can't wait. Whenever we've gone on other cruises, we have inevitably run into one of the Disney ships. We have even gotten our pictures taken, on the deck of one of our ships, with the Disney ship in the background! We always laugh at those pictures, remembering how we would say that one day we'd go on a Disney ship. Congratulations on the room upgrade! That's always exciting.

I think it's great that you and your DH are teachers! What age children do you teach? How long have you been teaching? As you already know, I'm a teacher. I cannot believe that I just completed 10 years. It goes fast, and I still love teaching. It's one of the best professions, getting to make a direct impact on future generations. I love it!

Keep up the great TR! Have you bought any Disney luggage? My DH and I each have our own sets, all ready for the trip! We might even get shirts made, but haven't decided on that yet. I am at my 118th day before leaving. Isn't it crazy to be this excited and have the trip still be so far away? I've been excited since last summer, when I knew we would be going on this trip, so I can't even begin to imagine how I'll be when it's time to go

 

[downunder]

Hi njdisneyfreak,

FIrstly, whats your name? I am Jess!

I am definately going to ask for Tomato sauce (or ketchup as you call it). DH hates ketchup and he has no idea about what will happen when i ask for it he will be so emarressed

I am so excited for chef mickeys. I love it. ALl i remember is waving a napkin above my head to music

We are going to CHefs de France for our anniversary 4 years dinner.

I am a very big Alice fan so i wouldnt miss 1900 Park Fare for the world!! (she better be there)

I am not sure about the cheese soup? I have read about it but now that appitizers are not included on the DDP i dont know if i will pay for it OOP!


We have never cruised before so i am so excited. Everything will be totally new for us. My DH isnt that interested in disney so it will be interesting to see how he goes after 3 weeks with the mouse!

That is so funny about your cruise photos with the disney cruiser in the background

Murray and i both teach year 1 (6 year olds) this year. I love it to! I live in a lower ecconomic status area with underprivedledge kids. I agree it is so rewarding!

thanks for your lengthy response!!!

 

[gogo65]

I am not sure about the cheese soup?

I can't imagine cheese soup it really doesn't sound very nice

Is that something that most Americans eat, or more of a gourmet/specialty type food.
I think it would be like yoghurt but taste like cheese

QUOTE]

 

[njdisneyfreak]

Hi njdisneyfreak,

FIrstly, whats your name? I am Jess!

I am definately going to ask for Tomato sauce (or ketchup as you call it). DH hates ketchup and he has no idea about what will happen when i ask for it he will be so emarressed

I am so excited for chef mickeys. I love it. ALl i remember is waving a napkin above my head to music

We are going to CHefs de France for our anniversary 4 years dinner.

I am a very big Alice fan so i wouldnt miss 1900 Park Fare for the world!! (she better be there)

I am not sure about the cheese soup? I have read about it but now that appitizers are not included on the DDP i dont know if i will pay for it OOP!


We have never cruised before so i am so excited. Everything will be totally new for us. My DH isnt that interested in disney so it will be interesting to see how he goes after 3 weeks with the mouse!

That is so funny about your cruise photos with the disney cruiser in the background

Murray and i both teach year 1 (6 year olds) this year. I love it to! I live in a lower ecconomic status area with underprivedledge kids. I agree it is so rewarding!

thanks for your lengthy response!!!

We're not sure about the cheese soup, either. Everyone on these boards raves about it, but it sounds kind of odd to me. You're welcome for the lengthy response.