From Australia to WDW - our first trip September 2018! UPDATE 6/17

[maryr1oz]

Fellow Melbournian here You’re going to have a wonderful time!! My boyfriend (can I call him a DH..? haha) and I went to WDW just last Christmas and it was amazinnnng.
Just over the top- magical out the wazoo- amazing. (First and hopefully not last time to WDW!).

We arrived in Orlando in the evening and got the magical express to our resort around 8pmish so, like you, our first real day was a party day.
Have as chilled out a day as possible until you go to the party. Trust me. We resort hopped like crazy to look at all of the beautiful decorations and were feeling pretty knackered by the time we arrived at MK around 3.30pm (perfect timing actually-lines we’re already solidly forming).

The partys are excellent. We felt like we had ample time to walk around the park and sample the atmosphere. I’m not sure what the deal is this year with FP+ and whatnot but we were able to utilise that 4-7pm window (so long as you book all of your other FP+ days first). YMMV.

Hamilton is incredible! I saw it a few years ago and it was really moving.

Not too long now! Exciting

Ahhhhhhhh thank you so much! It's so easy to day dream about Florida heat when it's so cold in Melbourne - yesterday was horrible Good tip on the relaxing party day, i think we'll make it a resort pool day. I cannot wait for time wandering around Magic Kingdom. Good to know you also felt like you had plenty of time.

Following along. Plans sound great so far. We will be there at the same time. Love September Disney trips.

Thanks so much! Our countdowns are on now, it's getting closer!

If you do have any problems, their customer service is really good too (I can always get a real person on the line within a minute). Hopefully you don't, but in case you do, they'll take good care of you

Oh that's great to know, thank you so much!

 

[maryr1oz]

New York City plans

We arrive in NYC at JFK around 4.30pm on Saturday 8 September. We will have travelled from Melbourne via LAX, and it's about 24 hours door to door. I have gone back and forth between Uber, a town car and the train to get from the airport to our hotel in the Financial District. At the moment i'm leaning towards the train purely because I imagine, at that time of day, it will be the quickest route to Manhattan? I don't care about cost, I only want the quickest mode of transport - any suggestions?

I'm hoping to arrive at our hotel (providing flight is on time) around 6.30pm. We are staying at the Q and A Residential Hotel down near Wall Street.



I know we will be beyond tired, but we will try to stay awake a couple of hours in the hope that we might sleep longer during the night. I'm hoping to check-in, drop our bags and go out for a walk. Perhaps we will wander over to Eataly and get something fresh and quick for dinner - as long as they have salads that DH can eat.



Sunday becomes our only real 'full' day in NYC. We plan to get up reasonably early (no doubt the jet lag will be in our favour here) and visit the 9/11 Memorial Museum. I'm sure we'll spend a couple of hours here.

From there we will walk through FiDi - i have a whole list of things to check out including a lot of public memorials, sculptures, the parks and some shops. In the early afternoon we plan to rest at the hotel for a couple of hours, before getting ready to go out for dinner.

After a rest, we'll take the subway north and visit MoMaCha - i'm not really sure why, but this place just interests me



Then we will walk up through Astor Place, and across to Senza Gluten - a completely gluten free restaurant - for dinner.



Monday morning we will check-out, take the subway up to Penn Station, and leave our bags with Amtrak for the day. Once the bags are taken care of, we will walk east and to my #1 must do - the Highline! It was still incomplete when we were last in NYC (2009). I can't wait to walk the Highline.



From the southern end of the Highline, we'll exit into Chelsea Market, for brunch at Friedman's - they also specialise in gluten free fare.



After we have full bellies, we'll take the subway to 5th Ave and ascend to the Top of the Rock. I got really sick last time in NYC and we missed doing this, so i'm really looking forward to seeing the view. We will wander through Grand Central, Bryant Park and Herald Square, before arriving back at Penn Station at 4pm ready to take our train to DC. We will have to collect the bags and make our way to the platform. We booked business class seats (aware they're not super special) but hopefully the seats are easy to find.



From there we will be whisked off to Washington DC, after a whirlwind 48 hours in NYC!