Is a year too late to do a TR? A whole year later... Sept 2011!

[Franrose]

As I find myself singing with excitement because I think I've *finally* nailed down our loose itinerary/what we want to do for Christmas next year, I ask myself... is it too late to do a TR from September last year? I might as well give it a go, right? So expect this to be a patchy, slow report but I'll give it my best shot!

Ok, the slow part starts here because we're heading out for a bike ride right now but watch this space, I'll search the cobwebs of my mind and see what I can come up with!

 

[WAMUMOF4]

Better late than never i say

 

[Travel Mum]

Oh Yes, yes please Franrose!! You know that I've always wanted to read your TR regardless of how sketchy the detail is now.

 

[Caroline NZ]

Never too late for a trip report

 

[becpee]

YAY!

I love any trip report!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Never too late for a TR!

 

[shushh]

Ok i'm in!

 

[Aussiefamof5]

TR are great!!! especially for first timers like me.

 

[Andona]

i'm in..

Andona

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

TR's are always welcome, no matter when the trip was taken.

 

[Marlea98]

It's never too late. In fact, I'm still doing mine on my blog from Dec/Jan I keep getting distracted by DIS and planning our next trip that I keep forgetting to update my travels on my blog! I think we've just left Montana or Vegas...

 

[JessNewbs]

You have my attention!

 

[5ofus]

I'll add myself to the long list of tragics who will read and look forward to any trip reports

 

[Franrose]

So... why no trip report so far? (Sorry, this is a bit of a teaser. Yes, there are photos! No, they're not food porn, or even Disney lol.)


We got home from our lovely trip at around 6.45am on the 3rd of October (2011) after something like 28 hours of travel from NY (including transit). We spent that day unpacking, washing as much as we could, and moving furniture... because at 7am (7am!!) on the 4th, this started:

(And it was oh-so-noisy - we couldn't be at home while it was happening, health and safety because of the noise!)


Immediately following that we ripped out our kitchen, two bathrooms, toilets and laundry, and put it all back together again, and repainted. After that, lets just say I was stuffed, lol. It was weeks of takeaway and my washing machine coming and going (depending on whether they were ripping up or laying tiles in the laundry) and hopping around on tiles avoiding the freshly laid ones. So much fun! (But very much worth the end result!)


My bedroom, at one point -

Hey, where's my kitchen gone!

Slowly coming back together

The lounge, while it's being repainted (that's DD-then-4 sitting there in amongst the piles of furniture etc being temporarily rehomed. She had a newly broken arm in this picture... I'd worried so much about one of my kids breaking their arms before we went [just one of those random worries] and it happened shortly after instead)! Goodbye yellowy walls btw

Update: some before and after shots

I actually don't have a lot of after shots because I feel like it's still not "finished" and never tidy enough, lol! When we bought this house (which has a great layout and at the time was really toddler friendly) we always had plans to do bits and pieces, but to be honest after two years of living in it, I felt like I couldn't live with the colours anymore. Terracotta/burnt orange tiles, yellowy walls and dark green and gold accents. We had dark green fake marble benches in the kitchen, bathrooms and laundry, edged in dark wood. It just never felt relaxing, kwim? So we pulled everything out and went much more neutral which is SO much nicer to live with! I am much happier in my home space now. Add to that the fact that I went from incredibly basic to lovely pyrolytic oven, ceramic cooktop to induction, hideaway rubbish bins and more drawers in the kitchen, cupboards in the laundry (previously there were none), much nicer rather than super budget toilets, and stone bench tops with more bench space in the kitchen - I have been a pretty happy camper since!



Old colour scheme from real estate pictures (which look brighter/nicer than my phone pics, but you'll have to trust me, the new colour scheme is a big improvement!):

New (kitchen pic is from phone so not greatest):

And that, lovely people, is why I did not get around to a trip report, and it is also the last time I shall subject you to such boring pictures in a trip report.

 

[Franrose]

Quick Outline

The travellers on this trip are DH & I, and our two daughters, then aged four & five. We were tagging along with a group of about 90 but are quite independent of them, they are dancing at Disney and we are just in for the group discount

Dates:

September 16 2011: Fly out
Sept 17 - 20: Disneyland Hotel, Disneyland CA
Sept 21: Fly to Orlando
Sept 21 - 26: POFQ, Walt Disney World, FL
Sept 27: Fly to New York
Sept 27 - Oct 1: Doubletree Guest Suites Times Square, New York, NY
Oct 1 - 3: The million hour flight home

 

[Franrose]

Apologies in advance if I am not following correct format here: I have no idea what I am doing lol! But I'll jump in the deep end and make a start.


16 Sept 2011 - Day 1.

Flight out of Brisbane, leaving 10.20am.

As we were travelling with a group we had to arrive RIDICULOUSLY early for this flight and then hang around forever for the check in desk to open, but finally we were off on holiday!

Hiccup (and it was repeated throughout the trip): the people organising didn't really understand the importance of grouping passengers as families and had submitted all our details in alphabetical order. Because I was travelling under my maiden name, this meant my pre-assigned seat for a 14 hour flight was well away from my then 4 & 5 year old DDs and DH. And apparently not changeable. For some people, this would be delightful but I am a bit of a mama bear who loves her cubs and didn't want to be separated from them. (We were, after all, at the very beginning of our family trip to DISNEY - the plane is where you let your hair down and start building up some excitement!) Our only choice to fix the problem was to board the plane and hope some of the people around us would do a swapsie so I could sit with my DH and girls. Fortunately, someone was happy enough to do this so crisis averted! I tell you this up front because quite honestly, it was the one and only downside/hiccup on our trip, although it was a bit of a recurring one. It was very frustrating and could have easily been fixed prior to check in, before all seats were assigned. (More I could say but can't.)

The flight: Boy, leaving at 10.20am is hard with kids! They weren't tricked into that "fake" night thing for a moment, so very little sleep was had. Over a 14 hour flight (with me sandwiched between the two of them in the end) I think I managed to watch one movie. They watched lots of TV though, and changed the channel/movie a million times, and needed help with eating, and couldn't get their pillows right, etc etc etc as anyone with young travellers will know

Food: can't remember. Sorry about that. I have a vague memory of something in the middle of the night (snack) with a lot of garlic in it and wondering how this might affect my entry at customs.

Customs: I was SUPER impressed to the point of feeling like something was too weird. They were nice! They were friendly and helpful and not at all scary! And pretty efficient too. I wonder if we just got the good shift? At the time though, I seriously wondered if they'd taken "KiwiHost" type courses (not sure of the Aus equivalent) in the hopes of appearing more friendly to tourists and encouraging them to visit, rather than the opposite. DD4 needed to use the toilet at customs control so I asked where the nearest one was. They told me to just go back from where we'd come (the customs line up), there's one behind that, and when we're done just wander back out through one of the empty/unmanned customs desks and into the baggage claim area. I'm thinking, I can just walk out through customs control without getting my passport checked again? How would they know for sure I wasn't a first timer, among all these people? It all seemed so super casual! But we did it, and even though the whole time I was waiting for someone to tap me on the shoulder and arrest me for evading customs checks, nothing happened and out we walked!

Once we landed, we waited around for our bus. We had landed at 6.25am and our hotel check-in was not officially until 1.30pm, so the bus was a combination of transit & tour. We jumped in and headed out to Hollywood, doing a tour of LA on the way (passing Olvera Street and the city's buildings etc). Hopped off at Hollywood Blvd, wandered along to see the stars and outside the Chinese theatre. Then we did what all tourists on a flying visit to Hollywood should do: crossed the road for McDonalds. Oh yes we did.

(In our defence, we'd been up at this point for close to 24 hours and as a group, some of us were getting pretty tired. My girls were very excited and loving it all though, but did fall asleep on the bus after this and were completely out to it until we reached the hotel!)


Straight out of the bus window:

I've probably not mentioned my love for Kermit the Frog before. It's true, I'm into puppet amphibians. I've searched down particular 'versions' of him so my girls and I all have one each, and I have a second vintage Kermit too. Ah Kermie!

DD5

DD4

A quick stop at Walmart let everyone grab a few bits and pieces for hotel rooms, and then we were there... DISNEYLAND!

 

[Franrose]

Please, let me know if pink is too hard on the eyes

 

[5ofus]

Pink is fine for me . I'll pop back in when I'm on the train to read it properly

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Enjoying so far. Definitely better late than never
Your kids are so cute. I'm keen to hear how well they cope with all the flights as I'm concerned my 5 year old is going to struggle.

 

[5ofus]

Well done on remembering so much . Did the organizers not realise that they could change seating allocations before each flight? That would have been a pain

Thanks for pointing out that morning flights with kids are hard. We figured it might be the case, but now we will really make an effort to get arvo flights do the boys will get at least some sleep. ANZ Skycouches are looking more enticing all the time