Diary of an Aussie Disney Honeymooner

[zanzibar138]

Welcome!

Welcome to Version 2.0 of my PTR. Some of you may remember me from my previous PTR, ‘Diary of an Aussie Disney Bride’. Well, unfortunately the Disney wedding will not be going ahead, but we will still be celebrating our nuptials Disney style with a Disney honeymoon instead.

For those who don’t know me yet, I go by zanzibar on these boards, but my real name is Lana. My partner is Ben. We met a couple of years ago at a ballroom dancing class and the rest, as they say, is history.



As well as dancing, we enjoy travel and hanging out with our fur babies, Evie and Sabah. In fact, we pretty much just love animals in general.



I am the Disney fanatic in this relationship, having had the good fortune to visit a good selection of Disney parks. We definitely both enjoy our fair share of geeky interests including gaming, Lego and board games.





We had planned to get married on 5 February 2025, and had started planning the trip around that. We will now be getting married on 10 January 2025 before we go. We already had our long haul flights booked in, so we’ll stick with the basic framework that we’d already planned, with a few tweaks. We’ll be away for about 4 weeks all up, basically the last half of January and the first half of February. Hoping for sunny but cool weather and low(er) crowds... one can dream right?

 

[zanzibar138]

The Plan so Far

I’ll keep this page up to date with all our current plans, what we have planned, booked etc. I’ll try to keep this brief!

Detours!

• Mini TR: A quick KL escape
• Mini TR: Taking Grandma to Tassie

Day 0 (Thursday): Travel
Our trip will actually start on the Thursday night. Our flight departs at 2:30am, so we'll be getting an uber to the airport at about 11pm.

Day 1 (Friday): Perth to Kuala Lumpur
We arrive in KL at about 7:30am. Usually I'll take the train or just get a taxi/rideshare, but I've booked a transfer since it's a special trip. We'll drop our luggage off, but will probably visit the KL Tower and Eco Park to fill in some until we're able to get to our room.

Booked:

• Malaysia Airlines MH126 PER-KUL
• Airport Taxi Transfers
• King City View Room at Sheraton Imperial

Day 2 (Saturday): Kuala Lumpur
Unlike our last trip to KL, we will really try to take it easy this time around. We intend to spend a decent amount of time enjoying cocktails at the hotel and relaxing at the pool area. Today we will probably go a bit further afield to the Batu Caves and then probably finish the evening with a nice dinner at the fancy Chinese restaurant at the hotel.

Day 3 (Sunday): Kuala Lumpur
This will be our last chance to relax for a while, so we'll take full advantage! After a leisurely day, we'll visit to the Petronas Towers for sunset, then catch the night time fountain show at the nearby park.

Day 4 (Monday): Kuala Lumpur to LA
This will be a relatively leisurely start. I've booked our transfer to pick us up at 10:30am, so we can pack the last few things and have a nice breakfast before we leave. Once we're at the airport, we'll check in and make our way to the lounge for some lunch, drinks and relaxing until our flight is ready for boarding.

Booked:

• Airport Taxi Transfers
• China Airlines CI722 KUL–TPE + CI24 TPE–ONT
• Enterprise Mid-Size SUV
• King Room at Azure Hotel & Suites Ontario Airport

Day 5 (Tuesday): LA to Death Valley



We'll start relatively early today, and plan to approach Death Valley from the west so we can see some different scenery on the way in and the way out. Interested in the Pinnacles, high mountain passes and Mosaic Canyon. If there's any chance of snow though, we'll approach from the east to avoid the higher altitude roads. Depending on timing, Ridgecrest might be a good lunch stop.

After checking in at the Ranch, we'll head to Zabriskie Point for sunset. If there's time, we can check out Golden Canyon on the way through. After sunset, we'll head back to the Ranch and have dinner and drinks at the saloon.

Booked:

• Standard Room at The Ranch at Death Valley (more info here)

Day 6 (Wednesday): Death Valley to Boulder City



We'll have another early start today to do some sightseeing before leaving the area. We'll head out to Badwater Basin first and maybe make quick stops at the Natural Bridge and Devil's Golf Course. Then we can do the Artist's Palette drive on the way back to the main highway.

Depending on how we're going for time, we'll also be interested in doing the scenic drive around Red Rock Canyon and/or along Lake Mead. Still love the idea of horse riding at Red Rock Canyon, but we'd prefer not to book anything to allow for more flexibility with timing.

Booked:

• Standard Room at Best Western Hoover Dam (more info here)

Day 7 (Thursday): Boulder City to Vegas



We'll aim to get to Hoover Dam in time to join the first tour of the day at 9am. We're much more interested in the dam than the power plant, so we'll have to do the longer tour. Then we'll make a quick stop at the Memorial Bridge on the way out.

Depending on how we're going for time, we may or may not stop in Kingman to check out any Route 66 stuff. We'll plan to stop in for lunch at the Oatman Hotel, and will probably spend a bit of time wandering through the town with the donkeys.

Then we'll head back to Vegas, drop off the hire car and get an uber to the Luxor. We'll check in and might have time for a drink somewhere before heading to the Tournament of Kings. After a big few days, we'll probably all be ready to call it a night.

Booked:

• Pyramid 2-Queen Room at Luxor Hotel & Casino (more info here and here)
• Tournament of Kings dinner show

Day 8 (Friday): Vegas
I think we'll all enjoy starting the day with a decent sleep in! We'll aim to catch a morning showing at the Sphere, and then head into the Downtown area for lunch and to explore that part of town. Points of interest will be Fremont Street, the Golden Nugget, maybe the Mob Museum. We've also talked about going to see the Pawn Stars shop. We'll hang out as long as we want to, with the intention of seeing the Fremont Street lights. We might stop by the Strat on the way back and check out the viewing deck and attractions at the top.

Day 9 (Saturday): Vegas
We'll spend today on the strip, checking out the different hotels and casinos. On the agenda will be the rollercoaster at New York New York, the High Roller wheel, Ice Bar, gondola rides at the Venetian, and fountains at the Bellagio. Ben's mate is shouting us dinner at the Eiffel Tower as a wedding present, with a view over the fountains.

Booked:

• Dinner at Eiffel Tower

Day 10 (Sunday): Vegas
No specific plans for today, but will be an opportunity to do anything we haven't got to yet. I'm pretty keen to find a Hot Topic outlet since it's pretty inaccessible from Australia and I might be able to find some cute items for Disney! While I'm shopping, Ben and his mate will probably do something relating to arcade games or maybe shooting.

We've got the ice hockey game in the evening, and will probably finish off with some farewell drinks since we won't see Ben's mate again before we leave.

Booked:

• Florida Panthers vs Golden Knights hockey game

Day 11 (Monday): Vegas to WDW (MK AH)
We'll have a very early morning to get to the airport in time for our 8:40am flight to Tampa, due to land just before 4pm. We'll hire a car from the airport and drive ourselves to WDW. Hoping we can get to WDW before the car centre closes at 7pm, and will just get an uber from there to the Poly.

After checking in and freshening up in our room, we'll probably head out to enjoy the fireworks and maybe EWP with a drink. Then we'll grab a boat over to MK for the after hours party! Yes, I'm concerned about our energy levels by 10pm (nevermind 1am lol!), but I think adrenalin will get us through We can't think of a better way to start our stay at WDW.

Booked:

• Spirit Airlines NK183 LAS-TPA
• Lake View Studio at Polynesian Villas
• 14-Day Park Hopper + Tickets
• Disney After Hours at Magic Kingdom

Day 12 (Tuesday): WDW (EPCOT at leisure)
After a big travel day a very late night, I had been planning to book Space220 for lunch, but I couldn't get an ADR so had to swap with GG breakfast. I've booked the latest breakfast possible, so we'll plan to just go straight there. The rest of the day we'll just go with the flow, do some of the easy rides at EPCOT and look around, and plan to go back to the Poly to watch the fireworks and have an early night.

Booked:

• 14-Day Park Hopper + Tickets
• 9:50am Chip & Dale's Harvest Feast Breakfast at Garden Grill

Day 13 (Wednesday): WDW (AK EEH + HS AH)
Today EEH is at AK for some reason! So we'll head over to AK at our leisure, I'm guessing around lunch time. We'll be happy to spend some time on the animal trails, and Ben is very keen to check out the ToL. As the sun goes down and the crowds disperse, we'll take the opportunity to tick off a few of the more popular rides, and obviously check out the Pandora area after dark. When AK closes, we'll head over to HS for the after hours party there.

Booked:

• Disney After Hours at Disney's Hollywood Studios

Day 14 (Thursday): WDW (MK CM Day)
Today will be the annual CM appreciation day at MK, which means the park will close at 4:30pm, and is expected to be about as close to a ghost town as you're gonna get. Of course, we'll plan to take full advantage of this, planning to arrive as early as possible and spend the day. We won't want to waste any of that precious low crowd time with TS meals, so we'll just grab and go for the day. We've left the evening open. We're very keen to spend a lot of downtime at the Poly to get the best bang for buck, so we'll kind of plan to spend the evening there again, but will also be open to hopping to EPCOT if we feel like it.

Day 15 (Friday): WDW (EPCOT EE)
This will be our first resort transfer day, so we'll have to be up pretty early to pack and check out, aiming to get to EPCOT as early as possible. I've booked lunch at Space 220. After that, we can hang around at EPCOT for a bit longer or hop to MK until our new room is available.

Booked:

• Standard View Studio at Bay Lake Tower
• 1:00pm Space 220 Lunch

Day 16 (Saturday): WDW (day at leisure)
No set plans for today. It's forecast to be a busier day, although MK and HS aren't too bad so we can go there if we want to. As long as we're back at WL in time for our dinner. Other possible activities could include:

• Take a drive to see the manatees
• Spend some time at Disney Springs and nearby resorts
• Check out Blizzard Beach if it's warm enough
• Check out the Boardwalk area and maybe play a round of mini golf
• Resort hop on the Skyliner
• Check out Wilderness Lodge and/or Fort Wilderness

Booked:

• 7:05pm Storybook Dining at Artist Point with Snow White

Day 17 (Sunday): WDW (EPCOT EE + HS)
We'll plan to get to EPCOT for RD this morning, and enjoy a few attractions there before heading to HS. We've booked an early dinner F! package at 50's Prime Time.

At this point, we'll start to think about anything that we've been struggling to do so far and if it's worth booking any LLs for the end of our trip.

Booked:

• 4:15pm 50's Prime Time Cafe Dinner Fantasmic

Day 18 (Monday): WDW (AK EEH)
EEH for today was also moved to AK for some reason (which means we unfortunately won't have any EEH or AH at EPCOT which is a little unfortunate). We'll start the day with a leisurely late breakfast at Chef Mickey's, then make our way to AK for the afternoon and evening. We won't make it back in time for HEA, which is scheduled for 8:00pm, but we might enjoy a night cap and maybe find a good spot to watch the EWP.

Booked:

• 10:20am Chef Mickey's Fun Time Character Breakfast

Day 19 (Tuesday): WDW (day at leisure)
No set plans for today, but we might start with EE at MK, maybe hop to EPCOT. HS is forecast to be busy, but we might even be tempted to hop there for the evening. Or we may end up doing a non-park day, check out Fort Wilderness or something.

Day 20 (Wednesday): WDW (MK EEH)
We won't book anything this morning, as I'll need some time to do my hair and makeup for our post-wedding photoshoot. We plan to get photos around the CR in full wedding attire. Then we'll do a quick change into something less bridal, take the monorail to the Poly and get some more photos there.

After the shoot, depending on timing, Ben and I may have lunch/drinks at the Poly or might just head straight to MK. Super stoked to have CRT booked for a fireworks timeslot! Then we'll enjoy the remainder of EEH.

Booked:

• 10:00am Photoshoot around CR and Poly
• 7:20pm Fairytale Dining Dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table

Day 21 (Thursday): WDW (HS EE + EPCOT)
We'll aim for an early start at HS this morning. This will likely be our last day for HS, so will give us an opportunity to knock out any last rides. Then we'll hop to EPCOT for dinner and a show. I had been aiming for Rose & Crown, but happy enough with Spice Road.

Booked:

• Spice Road Table Fireworks Dining Package

Day 22 (Friday): WDW (MK + ??)
This is our next resort transfer day, from BLT to AKL. MK is forecast to be busy, so we probably won't spend much time there, but we will take the opportunity to do the walk one last time for a late breakfast at Crystal Palace. We'll leave the afternoon open, with a 'welcome dinner' at Boma.

Booked:

• Savanna View Studio at Animal Kingdom Villas (Jambo House)
• 10:30am A Buffet with Character Breakfast at The Crystal Palace
• 7:00pm Boma - Flavors of Africa Dinner

Day 23 (Saturday): WDW (day at leisure)
I've left this day completely free, as the plan is to spend some time at the resort, but it will also give us the opportunity to do anything we feel like we've missed.

Day 24 (Sunday): WDW (AK EE + MK)
We'll aim to get to AK for EE, and knock out a few last rides before a final character breakfast at Tusker House. When we're ready, we'll probably hop to MK for a last hurrah, but of course will be open to going wherever we feel the need to on our last day!

Booked:

• 9:40am Donald's Safari Breakfast at Tusker House

Day 25 (Monday): Orlando to Singapore
This will be a VERY early morning to get to the airport for our 8am flight to LAX. Better than 6:30am though which is what we had originally! We'll land at LAX at about 10am, and at this point still not sure how we'll fill in the time until our next flight, which isn't until 10pm. Depending on how we feel, we'll have a few options.

• Take an uber to an airport hotel that does day rental, sleep, shower and generally relax before heading back to the airport.
• Take an uber to a hotel that does day rental, freshen up, drop off our luggage and take another uber/bus to the beach for a wander.
• Hire a car and take a drive along the coast or somewhere else, stopping at points of interest along the way.
• Hire a car and drive to Universal, head straight to Nintendo World and also check out WWHP.

Once we're able to check our luggage at the airport, we can head through into the lounge, have showers if we want to, food and drinks, and relax until our flight is ready to board.

Booked:

• American Airlines AA880 MCO-LAX
• Singapore Airlines SQ37 LAX–SIN

Day 26 (Tuesday): In transit
Due to time changes, we'll be skipping this day!

Day 27 (Wednesday): Orlando to Singapore
We arrive in Singapore at about 8am, and will probably just take a Grab (SE Asian version of uber) to our hotel. Mum and Dad will have arrived the day before, so we'll be able to put our stuff in their room and freshen up before we get onto sightseeing. We will definitely be spending a fair bit of time enjoying cocktails and relaxing at the pool here too.

Booked:

• King Room at Mondrian Duxton Singapore

Day 28 (Thursday) through Day 29 (Friday): Singapore
Stopover on our way home, will include a bit of sightseeing, a bit of relaxing, and a lot of enjoying the yummy local food!

Day 30 (Saturday): Singapore to Perth
Final travel day

Booked:

• Scoot Airlines TR8 SIN-PER

 

[zanzibar138]

Long haul locked and loaded

We are flying premium cabins using frequent flyer points, and I know that some people are interested in this so including a bit of info on our experience. Yes, I'm a bit of a flight snob, and definitely prefer business class for long haul flights over about 8 hours or for any overnight flights... basically any time I would feel the need to sleep. I'm not a good flyer (despite having to travel often for work), and on a longer flight the combination of anxiety, travel sickness, ear pain, exhaustion and discomfort is a downward spiral that results in a hot mess with a long recovery time. Since the travel time between South East Asia and the US is close to 18 hours, these flights were definitely candidates for business class travel!

For what it's worth, I have been saving frequent flyer points for a trip like this for YEARS, well before I even met Ben! I had ended up with around 350k in Velocity points (Star Alliance) and around 550k in Qantas points (OneWorld). Not sure if it's the same for long haul flights from the US, but for those of us without status, premium cabins for direct flights are practically impossible to get, so I had done quite a bit of research on the various options available, had estimated when they might become available, and was online every day in the lead-up, ready to book. My research consisted of looking up various routes on Flight Connections, and then searching for each of those routes individually in my rewards programs to get a gauge on cost and availability. Very time-consuming stuff!

After researching options from east coast Australia, across the Pacific and South East Asia, it looked like South East Asia was going to be the best option. From there I found a good value option that seemed to have quite good availability, departing Kuala Lumpur with China Airlines, flying via Taipei and then into Ontario Airport in LA. I wasn't familiar with China Airlines so I did a bit of research and it turns out they actually have a quite highly regarded business class product. Despite the name, they're actually Taiwanese, not Chinese (hence the stop in Taipei). We would have been literally flying over Taipei anyway (or pretty close to it), so the stop there doesn't add too much extra time. For both of us to fly business class, it was 278,400 Qantas points + 1,632 Malaysian Ringgit in taxes (about $350 USD).





I knew going in that I definitely wanted to try to travel with Singapore Airlines, as they are widely considered one of the best in the industry. They do a direct flight between LA and Singapore, so that was perfect! Unfortunately availability is an issue for that one too, but it's less well-known that availability is far better through Singapore Airline's own rewards program, KrisFlyer, and that you are able to convert Velocity points (at a ratio of 1.55:1). It took nearly all my Velocity points, but I did the conversion well in advance so I would be ready to book whenever the flights became available. For both of us to fly business class, it was 214,000 KrisFlyer miles (converted from Velocity points), with a grand total of USD $11.20 in taxes.



There are actually multiple layouts for this plane, but the first one below is the most common. Doesn't really bother me which type we get!



So for those of you playing along at home, it's costing us a grand total of USD $361.20 in cash (+ a butt load of points of course!) for both of us to fly the 18 hours across the Pacific in business class and back again. We'll be spending far more than that on our economy flights within the US and getting to and from South East Asia lol!

 

[zanzibar138]

Road trip!

Ben's friend has been hassling him to go back to Vegas for years, so when he heard that we were planning to get married in the US, the plan was hatched to meet in Vegas for a few days on the way across to Orlando. Now that we're not doing the Disney wedding, the friend is very happy that he no longer has to make time/funds available for Disney. However, because we're not going to be spending as much time together now, Ben wanted to spend a bit longer in Vegas to make it worthwhile.

Ben's friend has been keen to get something booked in for a few months now, so we've found ourselves planning this first part of our trip to and around Vegas as a priority. Both boys were keen to do a bit of a road trip, as neither have driven around the US before, and they were also keen to see a few of a the natural sights in the area. Hoover Dam was a major priority as they didn't get to that last time, and Route 66 was also high on the list. We think we've come up with an itinerary that will give us a small taster of everything.

Starting with our arrival in LA. I'm actually really excited to be flying into Ontario Airport and not having to deal with LAX, plus it puts us in a pretty good spot for the drive to Vegas. I've booked us in for the night at Azure Hotel and Suites, which just seemed to be the best combination of price, location, convenience and good reviews.



The next day we'll start the day with our included breakfast, pick up a hire car from the airport and aim to hit the road after morning peak hour. Our route for the day will be largely dependent on weather since, as an Aussie, the idea of driving in the snow is beyond terrifying lol! If we're able to, it would be nice to be able to drive in via the 190 through the Joshua Trees, past the national park sign and into Panamint Springs. It's fairly high altitude (and the longest option at about 5 hours) though so may be a no go. Option 2 is via the 178 past the pinnacles (not sure if you can see anything without going off road though), which would save us about an hour. Unfortunately that would still put us on the 190 before the main pass, so will still be a no go if there's any chance of snow. The safe option will be via Barstow and north from Baker on the 127. Should take us about the same time as option 2, but it's all low altitude area. Our destination for that night will be The Ranch at Death Valley.



We're pretty excited about this one, looks like a very interesting place (and the boys are looking forward to a drink in the old west style saloon). We'd be keen to do one of their horse riding tours either at sunset or sunrise the next morning. Other items of particular interest at Death Valley will be Zabriskie Point, Artist's Palette, Devil's Golf Course, Badwater Basin and Dante's View. Depending on our route and arrival time, we'll either do these things in the afternoon or on the way out the next morning.



Whether we do the sunrise horse riding tour or not, it will likely still be a fairly early morning to fit in some of the sights at Death Valley before the 2 hour drive to Red Rock Canyon. I haven't done a lot of research on what's there yet, but there doesn't seem to be anything specific that I want to see - might just be driving the scenic loop and stopping wherever looks good.



Then it'll be another hour skirting around the bottom of Vegas to Boulder City for a night at Best Western Hoover Dam. Again, this seemed to be the best combination of price, location, convenience and good reviews.



Will be another relatively early start the next day. After our included breakfast, we'll head out to Hoover Dam. Ben will want to take the tour, and I want to cross the memorial bridge as I didn't do that last time. We may even be tempted to do a rafting tour if there's one at a suitable time.



From there it's a bit over an hour to Kingman. There's nothing specific we want to do in Kingman - it's more of a gateway to Oatman really. Oatman made the list because of the iconic ghost town type feel and the wild burros. It's nearly an hour's drive from Kingman with some decent hilly sections but I wouldn't expect any snow (hopefully!).



Then 2 hours back to Vegas, where we'll drop off the hire car at the airport and take an Uber to our hotel on the strip (there is absolutely ZERO chance of me driving on the strip!). We'll be spending 4 nights at the Luxor. It's where Ben and his friend stayed last time they were there and they loved it.

 

[AnnaS]

Congratulations!!!

You are very thorough. Would love to go out West again some day. Might follow your itinerary . I will have to stop complaining about our long flight to Italy. (I do't like flying/but no issues with ears, etc.).

Following along.

 

[zanzibar138]

Congratulations!!!

You are very thorough. Would love to go out West again some day. Might follow your itinerary . I will have to stop complaining about our long flight to Italy. (I do't like flying/but no issues with ears, etc.).

Following along.

Welcome aboard!

I just love the desert areas over there, so much more interesting than our desert which is basically just a big flat straight expanse of sameness lol! I'd love to spend more time in Arizona and Utah - sadly didn't have time this trip as well as my concerns about snow and driving.

 

[zanzibar138]

Let's get to Disney already!

Being as this is a Disney forum after all, I'll get onto some of our thoughts for Disney. We haven't made any specific arrangements yet, it's more brainstorming at this point.

A rough itinerary:
We will have 14 nights in Orlando (so 13 full days), which is slightly less than we were originally going to do, but the wedding and associated activities were going to take up quite a bit of time.

• I'm really hoping to be able to do 2 full days (or equivalent with park hopping) in each park, with 3 in the Magic Kingdom. So that's 9 days...
• We had already put down a non-refundable deposit for wedding photography, so we're still going to have a bridal photo shoot. We plan to make that kind of a rest day, so that's 10 days...
• Ben really wanted to go to Kennedy Space Center, so that's 11 days...
• We both really wanted to spend a day in a natural area nearby too, would love to see some manatees (and it seems it will be the perfect time of year for it) and do an airboat ride. So that's 12 days...
• I would have liked to get to Universal too, which would take us out to a full 13 days, not accounting for any down time to enjoy Disney Springs, resort-hopping, water parks etc. Ben would also love to get to a basketball game while we're over there. Ugh, why is there never enough time???

Specific Disney activities:
I've got a long list of specific things I'd love to try to fit in to our trip. Some of these are to kind of make up for no longer having the Disney wedding.

• There's the bridal portraits shoot of course. Not sure where/when yet but I love the idea of incorporating horses and/or fireworks. But I also want daytime photos and a castle view... I think I need to work on my priorities lol! On our bridal portraits day, we'll also plan to do a character meal while we're in our full wedding attire - maybe Chef Mickey's?
• On one of our MK days, we'll plan to dress up (I'm having my wedding dress custom made as separate pieces that I should be able to wear into the park) and have a Capture the Moment session and a meal at CRT.
• Also in the MK, I'm interested in the Keys to the Kingdom tour, breakfast at Crystal Palace, and a HEA dessert party.
• At AK, I'm interested in the Wild Africa Trek, breakfast at Tusker House and another Capture the Moment session.
• At EPCOT, I'm interested in meals at Coral Reef, Space 220 and San Angel Inn.
• At DHS, I'm interested in a F! dining package, and Ben will love the Star Wars area. We'll have to do some sort of themed dining/drinking experience there and possibly another Capture the Moment session.
• Around the resorts, I'm interested in
  • Monorail bar crawl ending with Trader Sam's and fireworks from the beach at the Poly.
  • Doing the entire Skyliner route - I love cable cars!
  • Spending some time at AKL viewing the savanna and a meal at Boma.
  • A meal at Cali Grill since we were planning to have our reception there, or possibly the dessert party they have at the CR instead.
  • WL for Storybook Dining and/or Whispering Canyon.
  • Carriage ride at POR, but I also want to visit the horses at FW, so maybe we should just do the carriage ride there too.
• And other things I'm interested in include Cirque and Aerophile at Disney Springs, and a round of minigolf.

So you can see why I'm concerned about not having much spare time outside of the parks!

Accommodation
Unfortunately for us, the AUD is not that great at the moment (although it could be worse!), which means that accommodation is going to be EXPENSIVE! We both agree that it's definitely worth staying onsite, and I'm trying really hard to justify the cost of renting DVC points to stay somewhere more convenient. I really hate buses and would prefer not to stay somewhere that doesn't have any other options for transport. We will absolutely be expecting to do a split-stay, with a preference for at least 4 nights at any one place.

With 14 nights, we would ideally be aiming for something like 5 nights MK area, 6 nights EPCOT area, 3 nights AKL. Based on the prices I've seen, a more realistic plan is probably 5 nights at an All Star, 5 nights CBR or DS area DVC rental, 4 nights WL DVC rental. Even that puts us about $100 p/n over budget!

 

[zanzibar138]

Taken the plunge!

So I did a thing... booked a week at BLT via DVC rental. I did get some feedback that a week would probably be too much, but honestly we're planning to spend quite a lot of time in the MK area, and the monorail to EPCOT doesn't fill me with dread. Within those 7 days, I will attempt to schedule the following to take full advantage of the amazing location!

• At least 2 full days at MK, possibly 3, including an EMH night. To include:
  • Capture Your Moment shoot
  • Meal at CRT (any meal)
  • Early breakfast at Crystal Palace
  • Keys to the Kingdom tour
• Bridal photo shoot with the castle/fireworks in the background
• Resort activities including:
  • Cali Grill and Chef Mickey's at CR
  • Trader Sam's at Poly
  • Storybook Dining and/or Whispering Canyon at WL
  • Possible horse related activities at FW

Even though I've never been a huge fan of the aesthetic/theming at CR, I wasn't expecting to ever get the opportunity to stay at a monorail resort, so I am SUPER excited!

The week is in the middle of our trip, so we still have the first 4 night to book and the final 3 nights. I will try my hardest to get into AKL for the final 3 nights, but the first 4 will most likely have to be value. I still think Pop will work well as a complementary resort for non-bus transport to DHS and EPCOT.

 

[zanzibar138]

Starting to come together

Thought I'd jump back on Qantas while I was in planning mode and see if I'd have any luck with any of our outstanding flights. Success! Business class flights from Perth to KL were available, 1 day before we'd planned to leave, but I'll take that. Very uncivilised timing, departing around 2am and arriving at 7ish in the morning, but it'll be doable in business class, and at least we'll get the whole day there.

We'll be flying with Malaysia Airlines for this leg. Many people have strong opinions about Malaysia Airlines, but I've never had any trouble flying with them before, and have always found the service to be good if nothing else. I haven't actually tried their business class product yet. I don't have high expectations, but it's gotta be better than economy for a 5 hour flight in the middle of the night!





For both of us to fly business class, it was 122,400 Qantas points + AUD $251.18 in taxes (about $164 USD). That takes us to a grand total of USD $525.20 for flights so far. Still need to book the domestic flights within the US and the flight home from Singapore.

 

[iivye]

I have followed along since the Aussie Bride posts. Your trip sounds amazing and things are really falling into place! Can't wait to hear more.

 

[zanzibar138]

I have followed along since the Aussie Bride posts. Your trip sounds amazing and things are really falling into place! Can't wait to hear more.

Welcome back!

 

[zanzibar138]

A *very* rough plan for Disney

Last night I worked through our itinerary now that we've got some accommodation locked in, to try to piece together a little bit more. It's like doing one of those logic puzzles, trying to consider location of our accommodation, likely crowd levels in each park, EMH nights, distances between everything, timings of specific activities and personal preferences for when we might like to do things... was really trying to consider downtime as well but I think I've failed on that one for now lol! So here's a very first very rough draft of what things could look like.

Day	Accommodation	Daily Focus	Morning	Afternoon	Evening
MON	Arrival, Pop?	Travel day
TUE	Pop?	EPCOT		Coral Reef	Luminous
WED	Pop?	DHS			F! Dining Package?
THU	Pop?	Kennedy			Trader Sam's
FRI	Transfer to BLT	MK	Capture Your Moment	CRT	Cali Grill
SAT	BLT	AK	Tusker House		WL, Water Pageant from Geyser Point
SUN	BLT	MK	Keys to the Kingdom
MON	BLT	Mixed	Manatees	Airboat	EPCOT EMH, San Angel Inn
TUE	BLT	Rest/DS		Aerophile	Cirque, DS Dinner/Drinks
WED	BLT	Mixed	Chef Mickey	Bridal Portraits	MK EMH, HEA Dessert Party
THU	BLT	EP		Space 220
FRI	Transfer to AKL?	DHS			Boma
SAT	AKL?	AK		Wild Africa Trek
SUN	AKL?	Open
MON	Departure	Travel day

 

[zanzibar138]

Book ends nearly complete

With accommodation now booked for our short stopovers on the way to and from the US, we are gradually getting our itinerary locked in. We now have all accommodation booked except for our first few and last few nights at Disney. And all international flights except the one back from Singapore. My parents have decided that they will meet us in Singapore (and probably arrive a couple of nights before us to give themselves some more time), so we might try to get on the same flight as them coming back.

As usual, there was quite a process for me to pick the hotels, involving spreadsheets and ratings and 'if' formulae. I finally settled on these ones!

Element Kuala Lumpur
I chose this one partly due to its location in the city centre area, near the Petronas Towers and close to transport links.



It also has great views from the pool.



And some of the rooms (I have booked us a 'view' room, so hoping for a great view of KL Tower).



It's a relatively new hotel that also gets pretty good reviews.

Potential activities for KL:

• Petronas Towers and surrounding garden area
• KL Tower and surrounding rainforest reserve with suspension bridge
• Botanic Gardens including bird and butterfly aviaries
• Batu Caves
• Night markets

Mondrian Singapore Duxton
This one I booked mostly because it was great value being a bit of an opening special. Got it for a great price for Singapore, with the added bonus of included daily breakfast, daily drink and late check-out of 2pm (which we may or may not use). It's also a decent location kind of on the edge of Chinatown, should be about a 10 minute walk to Outram Park Station, which gives us access to 3 different train lines to pretty much take us wherever we might want to go.



It also has this amazing rooftop pool.



I couldn't justify the extra spend for a view room, but I'm sure we'll be very happy with our standard room.



Potential activities for Singapore:
(we have only recently been to Singapore, so did most of the 'must-do' list on the last trip)

• Further exploration of Chinatown including finding the famous Satay Street
• Finish my tour of Fort Canning Park which got rained out on the last day of our last trip!
• Explore more of Sentosa Island with a focus on more of the walking trails/beach areas (we won't bother with Universal Studios)

Both of these hotels are far more luxurious than I normally book, so I'm a bit excited!

 

[zanzibar138]

All international flights done and dusted

After trying for a long time to no avail, and finally confirming with Qantas over the phone this morning, I have been unable to get us business class flights with points for the trip from Singapore back to Perth. It's frustrating, because the flights are available to book with points as part of a return journey, just not one way. And I have plenty enough points to be able to cover it.

It is what it is, so we'll be flying with Scoot. Scoot is Singapore Airline's low budget carrier. I've flown with them before and have always been very happy with them, so it's not terrible, just not business lol! It's only a 5 hour flight, and in the middle of the day, so economy will be fine. Having said that, I decided since we've saved so much on our other flights, we could splurge on Scoot Plus, which has included luggage and meal, plus a slightly wider seat with more leg room and a few other perks like priority boarding and KrisFlyer points. There are only 2 seats across too which is nice. Once I'd added luggage and meals to the economy fares, Scoot Plus wasn't actually that much more expensive to get the bit nicer end to our trip!





Sadly this flight has cost us in cash terms - came in at just over AUD $1,100 for both of us. We're still sitting at a grand total of just over USD $1,200 total though, which is pretty good! Just the domestic flights to go now within the US. Sadly there was no availability for reward flights from Vegas to MCO, but there was plenty of availability for MCO to LAX, so I might get that booked in soon.

 

[zanzibar138]

Flights finally finished!

For now... lol!

I've been watching reward flight availability from Orlando to LAX, hoping for business class to open up. Sadly nothing has come through for us yet, but in the meantime, I decided I'd better go ahead and book in an economy reward flight in case they start booking out too! There are several versions of this plane - I think version 1 is most likely. Booking using Qantas points, we can't purchase our checked luggage in advance, so will have to do that at the airport. Cost for both of us was 36k Qantas points and USD $11.20.



The flights from Vegas to Orlando have been doing my head in since day 1! There's very little available, hardly anything direct and nothing low cost. Reward availability is non-existent but frustratingly, available the day *after* we need it (I believe there is some sort of running event in Vegas at that time, so bad timing!). Southwest dropped their fares the other week and it wasn't as cheap as I'd hoped, so I've been hemming and hawing for a while, but this morning decided to just go ahead and get something booked in before the prices go up. It'll be important to us to be able to board early to be able to sit together and have our hand luggage close by, and I didn't love the idea of having to constantly watch the clock while we're trying to enjoy our time in Vegas, to make sure we check in right as the window opens up. With just this last flight to go, we were still about $2k under our $5k flight budget for the trip, so I thought it was worth splurging on the business select fare type. This is the most expensive flight of our entire trip, at around $1200 AUD. Seems a bit ridiculous for me for a 4.5 hour flight in economy, and we don't even get any food! FWIW, if we'd have gone with the cheapest option, it still would have been about $850, with no guarantee of being able to sit together. On our honeymoon.

In Australia, we'd pay about $700 for both of us for a similar length flight on a full service airline that lets you choose your seats in advance as well as having checked luggage, full entertainment, free wifi and a hot meal with an alcoholic beverage if you choose! Plus we'd be getting lounge access, although I did have to pay extra for that

Yep, not much to this cabin layout lol!



I believe Southwest are launching a cabin refurb next year, so we may get the new look...



But I'd say most likely we'll get the old one...



Both flights are fully refundable, so I'll continue to watch reward availability and re-book if something comes up!

 

[zanzibar138]

Not sure this will be exciting for anyone else, but I don't really have anywhere else I can share my own excitement so it's going in here anyway lol!

Work has started on my wedding dress

Here's my fabric. I'm having a base layer made in the blue that can be worn separately (corset style top with removable straps and an ankle length fit and flare skirt with a split). I'll have a topper made out of the lacey fabric which will be boat neck with little cap sleeves. You can't see it in the photo, but the lacey fabric has tiny sequins sewn in which offer a beautiful subtle sparkle. Then I'll have a big floor length organza skirt over the top with a sweep train.



The design will look something like this in the end.



Doesn't look like much at the moment, but I went in last week for my first calico fitting. Ignore my terrible hair lol! And that's my mum you can see watching in the mirror



I'm so excited to see it all come together!

 

[zanzibar138]

The MDE mission

I decided to go ahead and download the MDE app and start having a little play around and see if I could add our BLT reservation. I wasn't sure if I would have an account already, but it recognised my email and I managed to log in ok. But then had heaps of trouble adding my reservation!

I must have set up my account many years ago, during my first marriage, because I eventually realised that the name in my profile did not match the name on my reservation, and figured that must have been it. I figured out how to change my name and address in the app, but then when I went back to the home page, there was no longer a link to add the reservation and I couldn't find it anywhere! I decided to go online to see if I'd have any luck there. Even though I'd changed my name, it still would not link my reservation.

I decided it might be best to start over, so I deleted my account entirely and set it up again using my other email address. Success! With the new account, it recognised the reservation as me! But then I had to add my partner before I could complete the link. Took a bit of figuring out too, but I was finally able to add him as a profile that I can manage.

So finally got there, but boy it was a mission! Hopefully it's a bit more user friendly from here

In other news, I also decided to subscribe to Touring Plans, and have been playing around in there. I think it will be quite useful for us as complete newbies.

 

[zanzibar138]

We now have tickets!

Yesterday I saw a post on the January travel thread about an adults at kids prices ticket deal. I didn't realise that kids are nearly adult prices anyway lol!

I've always thought that the 14-day UK ticket would probably work out best for us, since we'll actually be staying for 14 nights and were planning to add park hopper and memory maker. These tickets are specifically targeted to UK visitors, but are marketed as being available to any international visitors, and they do actually seem to be ok for US visitors too. The deal is basically 14 days for the price of a 7 day park hopper + so it's only a good deal for those taking an extended trip. The cost includes:

• Park access for 14 days, valid for 18 days from first date on the ticket
• Park hopper
• Disney PhotoPass Lenses + Audio Tales (not sure if these are included with regular tickets too)
• Water Parks + more access (both water parks, both mini golf courses + Oak Trail, Wide World of Sports)
• Memory Maker
• Plus extra bonuses through Orlando Attraction Tickets:
  • Free WonderWorks admission (not sure what that is lol!)
  • Free Eat & Play card
  • A heap of shopping and dining discount vouchers

I did the figures to compare the 2 options (10-day park hopper + Memory Maker for a fair comparison) and it was an absolute no-brainer. The AUD is currently faring better against the GBP than the USD too which helped. For about $700 less, we were able to get all those extra bonuses!

I received the ticket voucher overnight, and have just successfully added it to my MDE account. Exciting stuff!

Now I just need to figure out what we're going to do for the few nights at the start and end of our trip, and we'll have all the major expenses out of the way.

 

[zanzibar138]

Missed the hire car update!

Just realised that I forgot to post about our hire car that I booked last week. Since there will be 3 of us in the car with large suitcases, we wanted a larger car. I also thought an SUV might be handy in case we do come across any snow or even just for easier driving through mountainous terrain. I just searched for a mid-size SUV with pick-up onsite at Ontario airport and drop-off onsite at Vegas airport (we'll get an Uber to our hotel from there - no way I am driving on the Strip again!). Enterprise had the best price so I've just booked that. Booked through an Australian website which offers 3% cashback and I paid upfront so we're not subject to exchange rate fluctuations. Apparently we'll get something similar to a Nissan Rogue.



I've driven in the US several times before and, after going to the effort of getting an international drivers licence the first time around, quickly discovered that it is not necessary if your licence is in English. It also specifies this in the agreement for the hire car. However, Ben is very concerned about this and wants to make sure we tick all the boxes. It's not difficult or expensive to get an international drivers licence, so we'll all just get one so he can feel better about it. Both boys are keen to do some driving in the easier areas.

 

[zanzibar138]

OMG the excitement!

I've just booked our final few nights of accommodation. For our first 4 nights, we will be staying at...



The Poly!

I never thought I'd be able to justify the cost of the Poly, but there were several factors at work here. Our late afternoon arrival at MCO is kind of that awkward time where it's going to be too late to really do much, but early enough that we'll want to do *something* somewhere nice. I started daydreaming about going for a nice relaxed dinner/drinks and watching the fireworks/EWP from the resort, and I just couldn't get it out of my mind! After comparing the costs for all the MK/EPCOT area resorts direct through Disney, it looked like WL was going to be our best option and I was willing to splurge on the cost for such a special trip. Although I liked the idea of spending a few days in the EPCOT area to offset our week at BLT, those resorts were just way out of our price range!

After my experience with DVC rental for BLT, I decided to see what my options were for that, and ventured away from the 'confirmed reservations' to the 'custom reservations' options. I was initially looking for BRV or CCV, but there were no studios available, so I started looking at other options. I very seriously considered AKV as it was such a great price, but I REALLY wanted to start our trip with fireworks and end with animals lol! To my surprise, VGF was only slightly more expensive than WL through Disney, so I also considered that. Until I saw the lake view room at Poly for only slight more again! Now, there is no denying that this is still an incredible splurge for us, especially once converted to AUD But, given that it's our honeymoon and this will give us everything I wanted (including easy access to EPCOT), I took the YOLO approach and clicked through to book!

And for the final 3 nights, as planned, we'll be staying at AKV (Jambo), in a savanna view room.



And I am officially a DVC rental convert