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

[maryr1oz]

Following along...sounds like a wonderful trip.

We will be in Orlando at the same time but mostly at Universal. We arrive at Pop the day you leave. Who knows, maybe our paths will cross.

Ah so exciting! We won't be venturing to Universal this trip, but i'm just crossing my fingers DH has a great time and we can go back again En joy your countdown!

Following - fellow Aussie also heading to WDW in September

Ah fantastic - what are your plans? I'm currently looking out my window at a foggy Melbourne sunrise and thinking about that Florida heat!

Following along! I love seeing how international travel goes!

Also, it is never too early for bubbly! Just ask for a glass of orange juice to go with it and have mimosas!

You're right - Mimosas are totally acceptable!

 

[Araminta18]

aw, love the shirts you got! So cute

and that's super neat that you volunteer at the airport! I'm sure the passengers appreciate it--I'm always so thrown off when flying international. The lounge looks awesome--I'm sure they'll have gluten free stuff for your husband. And definitely not too early for bubbly!

 

[Twilight Terror]

Ah fantastic - what are your plans? I'm currently looking out my window at a foggy Melbourne sunrise and thinking about that Florida heat!

Ours is a busy trip this time! WDW - NYC - WDW - B2B DCL - WDW Im tired just thinking about it!

 

[Nakkira]

New York City - October 2007

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Old trip photos are a great way to get/keep the mood going. I too am going in September. It feels so very far away...

 

[maryr1oz]

Old trip photos are a great way to get/keep the mood going. I too am going in September. It feels so very far away...

After counting down for 12 months, I finally feel like September is getting close

 

[BaymaxForever]

Following! You have quite an adventure planned-it’ll be hard to return to reality!

We’ll be staying in a Jambo House Studio during the same times-
Sept 14-22 for us, maybe we’ll see you around

Also planning Sunday the 16th as our MNSSHP night. It will be our first MK day and not my original plan, but it will still be exciting.

Happy Planning!

 

[maryr1oz]

Following! You have quite an adventure planned-it’ll be hard to return to reality!

We’ll be staying in a Jambo House Studio during the same times-
Sept 14-22 for us, maybe we’ll see you around

Also planning Sunday the 16th as our MNSSHP night. It will be our first MK day and not my original plan, but it will still be exciting.

Happy Planning!

Wow - our plans are so similar! Have you stayed in the Jambo studio before? I can't wait to see what the room is like!

 

[BaymaxForever]

We split a two bedroom at Jambo with another family our last trip. They pretty much had the studio part and we had the one bedroom part. It was just for 4 nights bc it was $$$! We really wanted to go back to AKL (before we even left the place!) and spend more time there, so are going with the studio this trip. My brother’s family will be in studio as well.

Though I didn’t spend much time in the studio side, I thought it was a pretty good size for the 4 of us to spend a week in this time. Besides...we’ll be at AKL again...so can’t complain!

 

[maryr1oz]

We split a two bedroom at Jambo with another family our last trip. They pretty much had the studio part and we had the one bedroom part. It was just for 4 nights bc it was $$$! We really wanted to go back to AKL (before we even left the place!) and spend more time there, so are going with the studio this trip. My brother’s family will be in studio as well.

Though I didn’t spend much time in the studio side, I thought it was a pretty good size for the 4 of us to spend a week in this time. Besides...we’ll be at AKL again...so can’t complain!

Yes - anytime at AKL is a great time i'm sure

 

[harddrive]

Hey maryr1oz, fellow Melbournian here!

Following along with your PTR and sounds like you have a great trip planned.
My DP and I have been to WDW in September/Early October for the last 2 years (2016 and 2017) and loved being there at that time of the year. MNSSHP is our favourite event of both of our trips.
Glad to hear you got most of your dining reservations, hopefully you are able to get on the system now and make bookings for yourself. We found that checking the site regularly in the couple of months leading up to the trip we were able to score the last of our reservations we couldn't get at our 180 day mark! There's always hope!

Both of us are a bit disappointed that we wont be heading back again this year in September, how will we survive not hearing the Sanderson Sisters belt out 'I've got a Spell on You' at the Halloween party, but at least we can live vicariously through your trip report! We are kinda making up for it though with a trip in January 2019, 4 nights a Disneyland and 14 nights at WDW.

 

[maryr1oz]

Hey maryr1oz, fellow Melbournian here!

Following along with your PTR and sounds like you have a great trip planned.
My DP and I have been to WDW in September/Early October for the last 2 years (2016 and 2017) and loved being there at that time of the year. MNSSHP is our favourite event of both of our trips.
Glad to hear you got most of your dining reservations, hopefully you are able to get on the system now and make bookings for yourself. We found that checking the site regularly in the couple of months leading up to the trip we were able to score the last of our reservations we couldn't get at our 180 day mark! There's always hope!

Both of us are a bit disappointed that we wont be heading back again this year in September, how will we survive not hearing the Sanderson Sisters belt out 'I've got a Spell on You' at the Halloween party, but at least we can live vicariously through your trip report! We are kinda making up for it though with a trip in January 2019, 4 nights a Disneyland and 14 nights at WDW.

Ahhhhhh hello fellow Melbournian! I'm so glad you think September is a good time to go, i know we won't have anything to compare it to but I love hearing you think that Good tip about the dining, i'll make sure to keep checking until we leave. Sounds like you have a great trip planned for January - that will come around super fast i'm sure!

 

[maryr1oz]

I just read the news last night that the Uzima pool and pool bar will be closed at AKL over our stay.

I feel bratty, but I am super disappointed. I had picked this resort (including pool) as being our first trip, and I am desperately trying to ensure DH had an amazing trip so that he would want to go back again. He's a 'relax by the pool' kind of guy. We rented DVC points, so changing resorts is not an option for us. I realise the pool at Kidani will be open, but that isn't the same as having a larger pool right outside. Also sure that pool will be overcrowded being the only option for everyone at both locations.

We have park hopper plus tickets, and I am actually thinking I might extend our car rental to cover our whole week at AKL. This way we could drive down to Blizzard Beach a couple of times for the morning, before hitting parks in the evening. This is time that I had otherwise planned as resort pool time.

I broke the news to DH last night, and as I suspected he was pretty disappointed. Out of our whole 4 weeks trip to the USA, this 7 days at AKL was the one resort with an amazing pool that we had chosen as our relaxing week.

If anyone has any other suggestions i'd love to hear them

 

[Araminta18]

aw that sucks! I'm so sorry--I was about to suggest talking to Disney, see what they can do, but yea, with rented points there isn't much I don't think. Though I'm not an expert, so hopefully someone else has ideas!

With the caveat that we aren't pool people, I would think that the pool at Kidani in the morning wouldn't be too crowded. For some reason I'm thinking most families do pool time in the afternoon...

Basically, no concrete good ideas for you, just sending lots of good wishes your way that your backup plan of going to the water parks/Kidani works out well and you still have a fantastic relaxing week.

 

[maryr1oz]

Thanks @Araminta18

Hopefully you're right about the Kidani pool - and regardless, i'm sure we will survive!

 

[maryr1oz]

Wow! So we are just about right on 3 months until we depart for our holiday - i'm so excited! We've had a crazy month here - both DH and I celebrated our Birthdays, we sold our house and we saw my sister off for a big South American trekking holiday.

I've slowly been adding things to our holiday plans...

Pre-departure night hotel
So we live smack bang in the middle of the city in Melbourne. The airport bus stop is less than one block away. It takes 20 mins from that bus stop to the airport. You could say, it doesn't really get any easier for us to get to the airport. However, my obsession with watching UK Florida vlogs had me desperate for a pre-departure night airport hotel stay. We will both finish work around 5pm on a Friday night, and we fly out at 9am the next morning. Staying at an airport hotel is a total indulgence, and one that is utterly pointless, according to my DH. Lucky the executive room at the Holiday Inn I found was on sale, and comes with gym access so he can spend the night before, or early Sat morning, sweating out some pre-flight energy. I am prepared to stretch out this holiday for every second i can

Concert at the Greek
We love live music so i've been tracking artists who may be in the same places as us at the same time - unfortunately there didn't seem to be anything that was matching up. Until last week when i checked the calendar for the Greek Theatre in the Hollywood Hills. We are only in LA for 2 nights right before we fly home, and one of those nights Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band are playing at the Greek. One of his All Starr guests is Colin Hay, an Australian songwriter and performer who we really like. I think sitting outdoors in the Hollywood Hills listening to live music sounds pretty fun.

Wild Florida
We've booked in to take an airboat ride at Wild Florida. This place has been on our radar for awhile, and will be a good chance to see some gators close to Disney. We also booked into a session for 'Sloth Selfie' where we will get to go behind the scenes and visit with a Sloth This makes me giggle just thinking about it!

T-Mobile
We plan on using Uber a lot while we are in the US, and DH will also still be completing some study which will require web access at particular times. Because of these reasons we decided to get US SIM cards for our phones. We ordered 2 x T-Mobile SIM cards with 30 days access, 4gb of data and unlimited calls for $50AU which I think is pretty good. We received the cards in the mail, ready to insert into the phones before we land. They also activate them for us on our arrival day.

 

[Araminta18]

Pre-departure night hotel
So we live smack bang in the middle of the city in Melbourne. The airport bus stop is less than one block away. It takes 20 mins from that bus stop to the airport. You could say, it doesn't really get any easier for us to get to the airport. However, my obsession with watching UK Florida vlogs had me desperate for a pre-departure night airport hotel stay. We will both finish work around 5pm on a Friday night, and we fly out at 9am the next morning. Staying at an airport hotel is a total indulgence, and one that is utterly pointless, according to my DH. Lucky the executive room at the Holiday Inn I found was on sale, and comes with gym access so he can spend the night before, or early Sat morning, sweating out some pre-flight energy. I am prepared to stretch out this holiday for every second i can

This is awesome, and I love it! Gotta stretch the vacation as much as you can. And sometimes, utterly pointless indulgences are awesome. Gets you right in that vacation mood! And hey maybe it is practical--if you realize you forgot something, you can pop home and grab it, no stress!

T-Mobile
We plan on using Uber a lot while we are in the US, and DH will also still be completing some study which will require web access at particular times. Because of these reasons we decided to get US SIM cards for our phones. We ordered 2 x T-Mobile SIM cards with 30 days access, 4gb of data and unlimited calls for $50AU which I think is pretty good. We received the cards in the mail, ready to insert into the phones before we land. They also activate them for us on our arrival day.

T-Mobile is who we have, and we love them. I had great reception at Disney

 

[maryr1oz]

This is awesome, and I love it! Gotta stretch the vacation as much as you can. And sometimes, utterly pointless indulgences are awesome. Gets you right in that vacation mood! And hey maybe it is practical--if you realize you forgot something, you can pop home and grab it, no stress!


T-Mobile is who we have, and we love them. I had great reception at Disney

Ahhhh that's so great to hear about T-Mobile - thanks so much!!

 

[Kiwibella88]

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

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

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

 

[Araminta18]

Ahhhh that's so great to hear about T-Mobile - thanks so much!!

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