It's all about Rides and Rocks (the trip that nearly wasn't) TR starts page 6

[Caroline NZ]

So envious of both Diagon Alley and the View Hotel.

You showed great restraint not buying a wand - I don't think I could have been quite so good. I showed restraint last year with a wooden wand that doesn't do anything, but the new interactive wands would have tempted me greatly.

I hope the rest of your trip is magical

My children had great fun with their interactive wands. Also splurged and bought DD a robe, tie, headband, badge, Falkes soft toy, Gryffindor bag, Quidditch t-shirt etc. As I type this DD is watching Deathly Hallows on the TV, and it's making me want to go back to Diagon Alley!

 

[WanderlustNZ]

My children had great fun with their interactive wands. Also splurged and bought DD a robe, tie, headband, badge, Falkes soft toy, Gryffindor bag, Quidditch t-shirt etc. As I type this DD is watching Deathly Hallows on the TV, and it's making me want to go back to Diagon Alley!

Lol, those gift shops are definitely tempting. I bought a HP hat from Universal, but DH and DS went crazy in the Star Wars gift shop at Hollywood Studios instead

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Lol, those gift shops are definitely tempting. I bought a HP hat from Universal, but DH and DS went crazy in the Star Wars gift shop at Hollywood Studios instead

I was tempted in that store as a big Star Wars fan too.

Not impressed with Comfort Suites or maybe its hotel.com fault as both with them but first Durango and then Page billed our cc and have taken lots of repeat phone calls to remind them someone was supposed to be fixing it before finally fixed- still waiting for Page credit. Orbitz bookings have been great. Interestingly both hotels rack prices were much cheaper than what we paid though I did my research including comfort suites own site before booking - guess its the walk-up price! But probably wary for next trip as it's a pain getting it fixed and with exchange rate fluctuations possibly be more out of pocket.

 

[zanzibar138]

Sounds like a wonderful trip. Too bad you ran into some problems with hotels.com. Speaking from experience, dealing with refunds etc in US dollars is not something you want to do if you can help it!

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Ended up making a profit on Page I think it was, which offset the very slight negative on Durango so we came out ahead after all that!

Well we are back - bit of a mix few days back home, I have a job offer for 2016 so 2 years guaranteed work - yaay! but dentist check-up resulted in my needing yet another 2 crowns (sigh)-back teeth too which I hate as they have difficulties numbing them properly. He swears his new machine has had great success with other "difficult" clients like me. He also is billing one this year to the health fund and one next year for me to get maximum return though they both get done together in Jan. (Trusting no-one on the Dis works for or has incredible loyalty to any particular health fund??) Dad had a rather nasty test done Wed which we took him to but left him a bit shook up - made me feel queasy in empathy! 40C predicted for us this weekend - only mid November - OMG. Visiting friends with a cement pond for drinks this pm! Other friends more important than I at UQ have invites to Obama's speech today. Would be something to hear him speak in person. I will probably just watch the live stream.

Have to sort out the 100's pics before I get the TR on the road. I always rely on DH to be the photographer as he does know what he is doing and has the high fangling camera gear but this trip, not telling me, he decided to just enjoy and wing it on auto and not worry too much about taking pics which means quality pics are down. He could have told me first this was his plan! Ah well. Since our internet is pretty slow out here I only upload a small sample of pics to Photobucket as it takes so long but I am sure I will have a representative sample for you's all to enjoy - and I took lots in Universal!!!

Our DD always asks us the pits and peaks of a trip so my peaks were Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks closely followed by Diagon Alley at Universal, RPH at Universal, Fantasyland in MK at WDW, Santa Fe, and Lower Antelope Canyon Tour in Page. Top rides Gringotts, Transformers, ET (has ousted Peter Pan as my all time favourite kids dark ride), The Mummy, Spiderman, 7DMT, old faves Haunted Mansion, BTMR, Pirates of C, and Pluto's Bilge Rat Barges. Peak meals sushi at RPH, Pad Thai and non-alco Banana Daiquiri at Mythos, duck at Chef de France, Creme Brulee from France F&W Fest stall, salmon and apple pie at Brew Pub at Zion and frozen ready to serve turkey in honey pepper sauce (forget brand) and NY cheesecake from the deli at Walmart in Page! (the latter two surpassed many restaurant meals and cost a total of $3.75 (if you halve the cost of cheesecake which was 2 slices, one vanilla, one chocolate we shared).

Pits - usual tired legs averaging up to 30,000 steps some days. Not enough time in WDW - knew this but on a tight time frame and unwilling to sacrifice anything else but another day to laze about the resort, explore Riverside next door etc would have been nice. DH confirmed reaction to walking at altitude-Machu Pichu and Cusco look like definitely being a no-no for him. Long plane flights and jet lag though the 2 seats together around row 36 in Air NZ was a great tip thanks. Far too spicy Pho from Rice Monkeys in Durango (though I didn't have a bad reaction). Really pits are minor and few.

Oh and I am a confirmed lover of MDE - worked fine, having one wrist band do everything was wonderful and a noticeable advantage compared to Universal when I had 3 cards to juggle at times, prebooking FP made everything so much less of a run around and rush and meant we could get to the parks a bit later if we wished knowing we had our fave rides locked in.

Now back to those photos......

 

[PrincessInOz]

Welcome back! Look forward to reading all about it.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Welcome back and a huge congrats on the job offer!

I enjoyed reading about your highlights and look forward to seeing some pics.

 

[zanzibar138]

Welcome back! Thanks for your brief rundown of highlights and lowlights. Looking forward to reading about it in more detail and seeing your pics

 

[PrincessInOz]

Yes. I totally meant to say something earlier as well....but my fingers forgot to type it out.

Congrats on the new job. A 2 year position is great! Well done, you!

(Commiserations on the dental work. )

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Tues 21st Oct Our first encounter with a dragon

For once heading out on an o/s trip the day started at a civilised hour at 6am with coffee in bed and DD took us to the airport for an 11.30 departure to Auckland. Brisbane airport is undergoing reno’s so gets about 1/10 from me but we passed the time catching up on FB – and I was excited to see we were flying to New Zealand on Smaug.



An uneventful but pleasant flight with the safety instruction delivered by Bear Grylls in a hilarious skit – I do love airlines with a sense of humour - was followed by a tedious wait in Auckland in transit. This was when I gave Auckland 4/10. WanderlustNZ asked so my rating system is based on the number of toilets for the traffic, cleanliness of toilets, availability of comfortable chairs for long waits, range of food options (light, full meal, junk, healthy etc) and number open at awkward hours like early am or into the evening (like this wait), cold water stations, availability of free wifi, availability of charging points. Auckland loos in the main departure waiting area were few and grotty, and many food places were shut in the evening limiting choice, we couldn’t get wifi and charging stations that worked seemed in short supply. On our return wait I would probably boost it a point or two as we discovered the lounges near the gates have more decent loos (which is unusual in my experience), there are some hidden alcoves with more comfy chairs and ottomans that can double as footrests or tables in the gate area and some more charging points though you have to stand up as no seating nearby. Anyway, those of you with lounge access, hope you appreciate the benefits!!

Our flight left on time around 10.40pm. Thanks to Wanderlust for the tip about seating, we paid $60 extra each and had the two seats together at 35A and B. The only drawback was the armrest did not fold up out of the way. The plane was a new 777-300 and economy is definitely more squishier than the last Singapore Air flights we made. I can see Premium Economy in our future!

Luckily the flight was half empty so after our midnight dinner everyone was able to spread out and we got to use the 3 seats behind us for a nap-I could have curled up more comfortably on ours had the arm rest not kept getting in the way! This meant we both snatched around 3 hours sleep taking it in turns – unusual for us on a long flight. Food was the usual Air NZ great standard. I failed at plane food porn, sorry, but remember an excellent chicken and pasta with sweet potato salad and icecream. DH got the hot breakfast of egg, sausage and beans while I went for the fruit, muesli and yoghurt option.

We landed on time at 2.45pm and would have been in a short line for immigration til an official shuffled us along to an emptier lane-which proceeded to clog up with some problematic visitors so that while we were in one of the first groups in line, we were the last in the plane to actually get through! Still bags were only just coming off (pleased to see ours was there – always worry one day it won’t be!) and we whisked through customs and off to the hotel shuttle bus stop.

We stayed at Crowne Plaza on W. Century Blvd, as a cheap lastminutetravel option. Neglected to take any pics but here are two we could have taken, compliments of the internet.





It was pleasant enough and not as crazy as the Hilton which seemed to have a string of conference visitors both times we popped in, but food in the café was not as good as the Bistro at the Hilton. DH had a very greasy pizza and I settled for a light ready-packaged Asian style chicken salad which was the better choice. The bed was comfortable, it didn’t seem too noisy and we slept well til our disgusting 4.45am start. Still debating the merits of going straight through to Orlando but being able to stretch, take a stroll in the fresh air and get a good sleep still sways us to this longer option.

 

[zanzibar138]

Seems like a relatively uneventful trip across - the way I like them to be I have yet to be on a long haul flight with enough room to stretch out across a whole row of seats!

The extra space in premium economy is nice, but be aware that the arm rests don't move, which I found to be a bit of a problem for sleeping. Having said that, premium economy on ANZ looks amazing and I'm definitely hoping to experience it one day

And yes, I am VERY appreciative of my lounge access! Every time we have to fly without it I gain a newfound appreciation for it

FWIW, going on your rating system, if you give Brisbane a 1/10, I would have to give Fiji a big fat 0. No free wifi, definitely no charging points, one expensive food place that only seemed to sell deep-fried junk, no comfortable seating (and what seating there was filled up pretty quick), AND I had to wait about 10 minutes in line for the very ordinary toilets! Sorry to get off topic

 

[PrincessInOz]

Gotta love flying on Smaug. Can't wait for the final edition on Boxing Day!

Glad you got there safely.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Brisbane used to be more like a 4/10 but current refurb has closed most of the loos and eateries and shops at the moment. I have been in Fiji airport in the evening with a starving 18 month YO - back then yes it would have received 0 - like LAX does!! Changi still gets my 9.5/10.

Trying to download Photoshop (old computer that died last year had it, new hasn't) so I can mass resize my pics for upload as the large MB files won't upload to Photobucket with our slow internet connection - and it's being very, very, very, slow today. So the 985 MB program is downloading at 16.6-39.9 KB/s - will be an all-day thing I think. Sigh. Have to get DH onto it - we think they have jiggered our connection back at the exchange. May have to earn some $ and do some work instead this arvo!

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Creme Brulee from France F&W Fest stall.

Oh and I am a confirmed lover of MDE - worked fine, having one wrist band do everything was wonderful and a noticeable advantage compared to Universal when I had 3 cards to juggle at times, prebooking FP made everything so much less of a run around and rush and meant we could get to the parks a bit later if we wished knowing we had our fave rides locked in. /QUOTE]

Welcome home!

We enjoyed the crème Brulee as well, my fav @ food and wine festival was the peking duck pancake from China. I don't agree with their human rights record, but damn they do a mean duck! ;-)

I have to agree with you on Disney being streets ahead on ticketing, FP+, memory maker, etc. It was a much more organised affair than Universal. I felt that FP+ provided a structure to the day, which sooths my control freak of a soul!

Congratulations on the job offer.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Wed 22nd Back in my happy place and a 2nd encounter with a dragon

The day started at 4.45am and ended at midnight. LAX terminal 3 was its usual woeful self (reno’s are happening across the airport but we experienced none!) with one coffee shop open to feed the masses – I succumbed and finally satisfied the hunger with a Starbucks coffee and fruit bagel (I had forgotten how good US bagels are!) The flight with Virgin America was long, but I watched the freebies on the TV (very good student anime finalists, and some interesting top 10 lists of bizarre things) while DH played Mahjong on his phone.

Finally we landed and made our way from Terminal A to Terminal B for DME. I was the only one in the queue with no paperwork (arranged by phone) but two clicks on the computer and she confirmed it was entered on MDE and away we went.



Or didn’t as we waited forever for the bus to leave. The downside of catching DME. When we finally arrived, the folks at POFQ gave us that wonderful Disney welcome:



Our magic bands were ready and waiting-our greeter seemed surprised we had customised bands all set to go despite coming from Aus – and my parcels had arrived – yaay! So loaded up we headed out to building 7 – could we have been further from the bus stop!! But we were happy to be up on the top floor. Our Mickey bands opened the door fine but we had no time to linger.









A quick unpack of the important things and it was down to Sassagoula’s Floatworks for a bite and a bus to catch. I had a Seven Dwarves Mine train FP+ booked for 8-9pm.









We both had a loaded baked potato for dinner (I was still trying to keep to a gluten-light diet that was already falling by the wayside cf the bagel for breaky and fell over completely by the time I was on the road trip). I had the broccoli, cheese and bacon and DH the BBQ pulled pork. Both were excellent and came with side salads (our choice) or soup. We’d devoured them (very tasty) before I remembered my food porn obligations and there are no decent pics on the internet as yet, so here is a pic from the menu board – looked pretty accurate.




Then we headed off to the Magic Kingdom. We arrived at 8.15pm and flashing our bands while taking our thumb print quickly made our way to Fantasyland, dodging the huge crowds pouring in for Mickey’s SpectroMagic parade (our other reason for coming in too). Our magic bands worked perfectly for our FP. The ride was great fun and faster and bendier than I imagined it might be. The animatronic figures only play a small role though – I would have liked more scenes. (Pics to come in our daytime visit).

The crowds were so heavy around the hub and with the building work fences also disrupting traffic, we took the back route to Liberty Square and decided to watch MSEP from the veranda of the Liberty Tavern. They had recently announced extended hours and a second MSEP parade for tonight but I thought we might be too tired from travelling to stay. We had an OK view and I really enjoyed the parade.

Around about now DH surprised me with handing me my camera – that was not my camera! Turns out he had decided to buy me a new one duty free since my beloved older one was having issues lately. I should have been excited – yes? No, I knew how to use my old one, here we are minutes before a parade I want to photograph and I don’t know which setting does what. It’s a great camera (Sony) but the control buttons ergonomically are in a bad position so being new, when I held the camera one-handed I kept knocking them changing settings or pressing ‘record’ when I didn't want to record, and the zoom is much shorter than my former camera. Yes, I have got used to it and it does have some awesome functions, but at the time I lamented couldn’t he have at least given it to me on the plane so I could have played around with it BEFORE I wanted to use it!! (and really I would have liked to have a hand in choosing it to select the functions I think were right for me, not what he thinks I need). Boys! He means well and the poor love, I am never grateful. He just doesn’t get it sometimes!

Anyway a sample of mine and his pics as I fumbled (and cursed) my way through including some from our 2nd viewing on Main St (we took far too many!)






























continued next post

 

[Aussie Wendy]

The dwarves floats echo 7DMT









My 2nd dragon





Stars & Stripes






When it was over we made our way with difficulty back to the Hub by the construction fence, inching as close to the central as we could – it was crazy busy, and watched Celebrate the Magic (not as good as the Paris Dreams show), and Wishes.

A pic from Celebrate:



Some of our better pics from Wishes (not being of PIOs standard!):













After the show we snapped some favourite pics of the castle:





We decided we needed to let the crowds disperse so wandered through the now deserted back streets of Adventureland and walked straight onto the Jungle Cruise – much more fun at night, and our all-time favourite Pirates of the Caribbean. Tiredness was beginning to set in to my chagrin as I contemplated all those walk-on rides. Besides, it was now 11pm, the park was closing with the 2nd MSEP parade so we stopped to watch in Main St – much better views this time round and so we practically closed the park.

A few Halloween pics as we exited:









Buses were waiting and we soon were back in the quiet comforts of our room… but despite how tired we were, sleep evaded us. We both kept waking every 2 hours. By 4am we gave up, made coffee and contemplated the day ahead - EPCOT and the Food and Wine Fest, and discovered DH had left the American convertor plug back in LA. How were we going to charge everything He wouldn’t let me ring the hotel and have it sent over (another boy thing). Turned out the charger for one of the phones came with a universal adapter and USB port so that was saving grace-we could charge one thing at a time at least so long as it had a USB lead. Later he jury rigged an Aussie extension plug to fit and that worked fine too - perks of being an engineer!

 

[Aussie Wendy]

So how do I put the link to the post in to the headers in my first post?? Every TR I forget and today can't find the "how to" in the tech section. I know it involves the post number in the top R corner????

 

[zanzibar138]

I admire your stamina! I always make it a fairly easy day the first day.

Despite your qualms with your new camera, you got some fantastic photos of both the parade and the fireworks! What model Sony did you get? I love my cybershots (just don't get them anywhere near water!).

So how do I put the link to the post in to the headers in my first post?? Every TR I forget and today can't find the "how to" in the tech section. I know it involves the post number in the top R corner????

You have to click on the the post number, which will open a new tab with just that post in it. Copy the web address of that page. Then you edit your first post and enter your text. Select the text that you want linked, then hit the link button (little picture of the world with a chain on it), and paste the address you copied. Voila!

 

[Aussie Wendy]

That's right!! Thanks. I will go and do that tomorrow night. Bed is calling (and work, actually having to go in for meetings-sacre bleu! tomorrow!!)

Yes, I was pleased with some of the pics I got on the road trip as I got used to the camera but still need to explore it and learn how to use many of its functions for when I don't use auto. The above pics are a mix of DH and mine. I have to ask DH what Sony it is - I sound so dumb but I have no idea as I didn't get to open it in its box. Its a small one obviously. Came in handy at Universal!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Great pictures, Wendy. You did very well with the hand-held fireworks pics!

Your DH did great with giving you a camera....but he could have done better with the timing of the gift!!

It looks like you had a super day. Glad you managed to get there in time for your 7DMT FP+.
Sorry that sleep evaded you both and I guess we'll find out if you made it through the next day without any issues.