National Lampoons Aussie Vacation - 12/12/16 to 25/1/17 Universal - 40+ Days at Disney World

[wsssup]

I love ThinkGeek. Their Christmas sales online are the best! File that away for this year.

And that is so scary about the almost-crash! Did you guys get a rental?

Luck that Think Geek send to Australia. Even though Zing out here gets the same products even with our crappy Australian Dollar it is still cheaper to buy from Think Geek.
More on a rental will be coming soon hehe.

LOVE ThinkGeek and Hot Topic, especially their Harry Potter stuff! My DD bought one of ThinkGeek's "Feisty Pets" for her birthday, and it is hilarious!

They do have some awesome Harry Potter clothing, made me wish i liked Harry Potter

Hot Topic just recently came to Canada (or at least recently to my local mall!), love that place!

Eeek, scary about the Uber driver - hello...pay attention!! Glad nothing bad happened!

I wish Hot Topic would come to Australia, but like Think Geek they do post internationally and at a pretty cheap price too.

 

[wsssup]

DAY 18 - 29TH DECEMBER

Good Morning everyone . Time to rise and shine and come along to Hollywood Studios with us again. What a beautiful winter morning in Orlando again. It was tipped to be a hot one. Up early again we caught the bus from Pop. More delays catching the bus and it was a pretty quiet morning. We still made it with plenty of time to spare for the opening. Crowds were pretty light though it was early morning.

With the gates open we had to wait 15 or so for the whole park to open up. Once open we headed towards The great Movie ride. We didn't get very far as the 1st order Stormtroopers were out pretty early and had snuck up behind us and scared the crap out of us.

They were having a good old chat to my Stormtrooper backpack. Pulling at it, prodding it. Oh yes we were in nerd heaven again, as you can tell from my nerd smile. It's the random things that make the day and this was after just walking into the park. Awesome!
After letting them know the Empire ruled, we said seeya and began walking off. To our surprise with them in tow for awhile, still chatting and making sure everyone was moving out the way. Ummmm AWESOME again.

Finally we got around to checking out The Great Movie Ride, and after riding it they maybe need to drop the Great part. It was cool seeing some nice props in the line especially from Indiana Jones. For me though it was pretty tedious from there on out. It felt very outdated and the CM running our little cart seemed to be going through the motions. Far too long with no wow moments. By the Wizard of Oz section I was done.
We made it out alive, phew. India loved it, was a little scared in the Aliens section but loved it all. Bec was so so as well. I put it up there with It's a Small World, pretty painful haha.

Our fastpass for Star Tours was approaching so we made our way over. A quick snap for India, awesome and we were tapping that Magic Band and on our way in to Star Tours. Didn't take long and we were belted up on off we went. Now when we were in Disneyland the year before we must have ridden this thing 10 times without a hitch. This time though was a different story. I felt ill after this, real bad. And Bec wasn't feeling crash hot either. What is going on i thought. Are we getting too old? is there something wrong with my eye's. We watch 3d Movies at home, and have the Vr Headsets and have no problems.

These motion rides were really starting to hurt.. and it sucked because I love Star Tours but for some unknown reason it wasn't happening this time. India of course was wanting to go on it again and again and again. We had to coax our way out of it haha.

She was happy enough taking more pictures anyway. Snapping away at everything until the battery would go flat. Back to Launch bay to get some trading happening. India had come prepared with some goodies to trade with the Jawa.

Back to our favourite hangout at the Bar. They were pretty busy but this gave us time to just chill with some refreshments and not overwhelm the working Jawa. It's a tough living trading junk, they don't get paid very well.
We didn't have to wait long, one came running over to Bec to see the BB8 bag again of course. I think it was the same Jawa we had met the first time.
India started to chat and asked to trade. She said i have something shiny for you like you wanted.
She reached into her cat bag and wholah!

Out with some shiny white pearls. Walmart pearls of course. Ahh' this made our Jawa friend very happy and nodded. The trade was made, a droid part was given to India. More hugs and photo's and we let the Jawa get back back to work. Such a great experience for kids in this are and adults alike.

When we returned to the outside world we had to stop and pay our respects to the troops. Gotta support the Troops.

It was getting hot pretty quick, we need some shade. We found it inside the Walt Museum. This was a pretty impressive place, and interesting to see everything. India was not that excited but happy enough to be inside out of the sun. It started to get a little busy inside, as at the far end was the Moana meet n greet. The line for that was pretty huge, so no go on that one. We got back outside and off to ride a favourite of ours. Toy Story Mania.
Ahh what a great ride, and just the same as Disneyland, although the line queue was much better here. The fastpass line moved fairly quick and loading was even quicker.

The rest of the day was spent just enjoying our time together in the park, never rushing or sticking to any plan. Just going with the flow until we felt it was time to go. A few little gifts were purchased and we didn't stay too late as the tomorrow night was going to be Magic Kingdom until 3am for the New years fireworks. We opted for this as we were going to stay clear of the parks on new years eve.

Upon getting back to Pop, Bec and I had decided to take back the Panasonic camera we had purchased. It just wasn't performing well, especially for videoing. So back to Best Buy for an easy refund and the new gopro hero 5 and karma grip was purchased instead ( bad idea, more on that later).

A good rest was needed tonight, with a plan to hit the park later tomorrow and smash it out until stumps at 3am.... Disney crazy woooo.

 

[Mamahaz]

I found your trip report and started reading today. It makes me laugh that you love Walmart. We hosted a Russian exchange student for an entire school year and she loved Walmart also. It's the only major store in our small town. We would love to have a Target back again.

As for being a Raiders fan, I'll forgive you for that. Go Colts!!!

Thank you for sharing. I'll be looking forward to updates.

 

[elcmum]

THIS PHOTO IS THE BEST!

Finally we got around to checking out The Great Movie Ride, and after riding it they maybe need to drop the Great part.

I suspect there is a weird nostalgic sentiment that the people get when they ride it. I, too, thought it was boring and outdated... but I also felt that way about some of the rides at Epcot. Glad it wasn't just me!

We didn't have to wait long, one came running over to Bec to see the BB8 bag again of course. I think it was the same Jawa we had met the first time.
India started to chat and asked to trade. She said i have something shiny for you like you wanted.
She reached into her cat bag and wholah

Out with some shiny white pearls. Walmart pearls of course. Ahh' this made our Jawa friend very happy and nodded. The trade was made, a droid part was given to India. More hugs and photo's and we let the Jawa get back back to work. Such a great experience for kids in this are and adults alike.

This is so cool! Did she pick something specifically that she thought they would like?
I love it. I love that you guys had that experience and that she got that attention. Sooooo cool!

 

[wsssup]

THIS PHOTO IS THE BEST!



I suspect there is a weird nostalgic sentiment that the people get when they ride it. I, too, thought it was boring and outdated... but I also felt that way about some of the rides at Epcot. Glad it wasn't just me!




This is so cool! Did she pick something specifically that she thought they would like?
I love it. I love that you guys had that experience and that she got that attention. Sooooo cool!

We had done a bit of research on disboards with what people had traded. They do like things that shine. Cheap plastic pearls from Walmart and a few cheap Disney badges went down well .

Yeh there are a few rides at Epcot that are a bit meh.

 

[wsssup]

I found your trip report and started reading today. It makes me laugh that you love Walmart. We hosted a Russian exchange student for an entire school year and she loved Walmart also. It's the only major store in our small town. We would love to have a Target back again.

As for being a Raiders fan, I'll forgive you for that. Go Colts!!!

Thank you for sharing. I'll be looking forward to updates.

Thanks for going easy on me for being a Raiders fan haha. Yes Walmart is magical for us, we just dont have this kind of store in Australia. I miss those delicious Twinkies.

 

[sk8jdgca]

Oh the horrors of Disney Transportation! I always rent a car. Your choices to eat are so much more and shopping, lots of shopping!

 

[wsssup]

Oh the horrors of Disney Transportation! I always rent a car. Your choices to eat are so much more and shopping, lots of shopping!

Haha yes it took us awhile to figure that out , more coming soon on our transportation fix.

 

[wsssup]

DAY 19 - 30TH DECEMBER : MAGIC KINGDOM TILL 3AM

Wow Day 19 and still so much more fun to be had. Sleeping in and lazing about Pop for the most of the day was on the cards. For tonight we would be going to The Magic Kingdom for some pre New Years Eve fireworks and extra hours from 1am to 3am. Wooooooooooo, this was going to be fun. Another nap was taken around 4pm for a few hours then it was time to get ready. It was going to be a cold night so i think this was the first time I wore pants.

Arriving at Magic Kingdom around 8pm we got in very quickly. There was little security screening going on so it was straight up to tap the Magic Band and get this rocking night started. The park was lit up beautifully and a fair few people were filling up the park.

It really looked fantastic at night, with lots of hustle and bustle going on. The right side CM pathway was open to allow for a shortcut to Tomorrow Land. We opted to go this way to miss the Main Street madness. Even this walkway was rocking, with a DJ playing half way and people dancing. Time to have a little walk boogie. Tomorrow Land was packed, more party action going on. We had a Fastpass lined up so it was time to head over to our destination.
This took a little longer than normal, walking through Fantasy Land was slow going but we just went with the flow and enjoyed the moment. It never got overwhelming at any stage through the night, I think this is the key when at any park when it is busy. Relax and go with it, and be prepared to change things on the fly.

We still had a little time before our Fastpass so we headed into Memento Mori. Being huge Haunted Mansion fans we loved this little shop. We scoped out many goodies and all were priced fairly reasonable. Our idea was to hold off for now as we did not want to carry things around. I know we could have sent it to the room but we thought we will be back so no rush.
Time was ready for our Fastpass.

Time for our fave, The Haunted Mansion. Oh this ride is so awesome. We were in pretty quick, and I must say the outside looked so much better than Disneylands version, even the line queue was more fun. The CM opened the doors and welcomed us into the room. Down we went into the madness. It was pretty packed and unorganised down stairs. It was like squeezing 10 car lanes into 1 withing 10 meters. Not very well run at all. We made it into the single line eventually and we were on our way. Loving every minute of it , taking notice of the few differences. India loves this ride and always comes out with a smile on her face. You cant go wrong with this one.

Back out in the cold we moved along. The Rivers looked amazing at night, so peaceful to look at but full of life. Another ride was needed. Most of the rides had very short waits tonight as many were out the front of the Castle waiting for the fireworks show. Fastpass tonight was really not needed so we opted to just ride whatever and walk around enjoying the night. We started a little chant "Yo ho ho ho a pirates life for me"

It was time for Pirates, another favourite of ours from Disneyland. We knew it was pretty different here so on we went to check it out. Once again such a better line queue with more to look at. It was a walk on, with not many people really on the ride. We jumped aboard our boat and away we went. Before we knew it the ride was over. Bec and I kinda looked at each other and said Oh is that it.
Wow what a huge disappointment that was. Everything just seemed small in size compared to Disneyland. The drop was pretty crap, even the battle scene was tiny. It was still pirates but yeh, sorry this one sucks bad. India was not that impressed either with the small drop. But anyway we had ridden it and off we went for more adventure.
Just around the corner was the Jungle Cruise which was still the Jingle Cruise. This was another favourite of ours so lets see how we go with this one. Excited to see the Jingle Cruise version we boarded a full boat and away we went.

Well this was another disappointment. The skipper was just not with it. Jokes were off, what was going on, it was really bad you could almost hear crickets in the background. No one on board looked like they were enjoying themselves. It really wasn't much Jingle going on. A bit of tinsel and some Christmas tree's here and there didn't really make it anymore Christmasy. Oh well, done and dusted and we wont be going on that again, it was pretty painful.

The firework show was about to start. We headed over towards Big Thunder Mountain, and found a great spot in the Smoking area. It was empty here and the view was perfect for the fireworks.

Oh my. What a show. It went on for ages. Fireworks were going off all around us. This was something special to witness and we wont be forgetting this moment ever. You could hear the crowd going nuts in front of the Castle from here. That's a fair distance and even over the explosions the crowd was very loud, cheering and screaming. When it was over we had to take a break from the visual eye party, it was an overload of awesomeness.

How do you top that? Good job Disney that rocked. From then on it was smooth sailing. The park got empty pretty quick with not many staying for extra magic hours. It was walk on's for all the rides, but they had shut down Mine Train early. That kinda sucked but oh well no biggie. We ended up back in Tomorrow Land. This place was packed earlier on, but now it was like a ghost town. Hmmm how about a ride on Buzz.
Insert funny ride pictures here.

Hahahaha, i have no idea why my face is like that, and well India was just going crazy.

Bec was having the time of her life by herself, haha.
The middle part of that ride gave me a bit of a headache going through that spinning space room. Yes i was feeling woozy again on a kiddie ride hahaha. Must be getting old.
The night was coming to an end, what a great night. We all still had lots of energy and could have kept going all night.
A few early morning snaps were taken. This was the perfect time as the park was empty. It was almost 3:30am and we were slowly making our way out. Going very slow as we did not want to leave hehe.

The Castle was lit up and it looked awesome. Another moment was taken and you couldn't help but remind yourself of where you were.

And with that it was time to mosey on out. Not before taking our early Happy New Year pic. We had come and taken on the night at Magic Kingdom and had succeeded in having another awesome time. Even after this pic we still were very slow to leave, there were plenty of CM's around but no one was rushing to kick us out. Finally we were out, and off to the bus area. We jumped on the bus with only a handful of others and off to Art of Animation first to drop a few off then back to Pop. We were back in bed just after 4:30am. Sleep was upon us and well deserved. A lazy day was ahead of us after this great evening.

 

[wsssup]

DAY 20 - 31ST DECEMBER : LAZY NEW YEARS

Good afternoon. After not getting to be till after 4am the night before, it was a very late wake up time. Others were out and about and probably having fun in the madness at the parks, but not for us today. Last night was our new years and we were going to stay away from the parks and just relax, and probably fall asleep before the new year came in , haha.

Pop Century was pretty quiet, not many people around at all. I decided to take the new gopro and karma grip out to test a little better. Already there were a few problems, mostly from the sound. Sometimes it was recording no sound at all with the gopro in the karma grip gimbal. And after reading online and contacting Gopro this was a known issue. Oh great I thought, we just purchased this and already it is crap. Our S7 Edge phones were starting to get more use with Video and pictures, and we probably should have just used these all the time.

Since arriving at Pop we had seen people on bike carts, I dont know the correct name for them, riding around the lake. Something we had wanted to do, so we headed over to Art Of Animation to go hire one.

Off we went, with Bec and I peddling and India up front relaxing and ringing the bell to make sure people got out the way, as we were not stopping with the great braking system it had, not. It was fun for 10 minutes, then I started sweating, and huffing and puffing. Bec and I were buggered after a lap around the lake. We were seriously ready to take it back 20 minutes early haha. But we soldiered on and did another lap and in and around Pop. I think we took the bike in places it wasnt supposed to go, but oh well.

So with our exercise over we ventured around and relaxed. Like I said , nothing exciting going on today. India and I took a quick dip in the pool and another nap was taken. Everyone was still pretty tired. An early dinner from the Pop Diner was had, nothing special, pretty disgusting food really.
More browsing was then done at the Pop Shop.

So many goodies to look at. India was off to her doll section again, and also the Star Wars Section. There was nothing new there, but we always looked because we love Star Wars.

The lobby was pretty empty, thats right everyone was out having fun, but we were having fun as well doing nothing. I love the memorabilia on the walls at Pop going through the different Years. Some great collectables in there. The Christmas tree was still up as well as a few decorations.
The end of the night was coming to a close, a new Year was about to begin. It was cool being here for the 2016 Christmas and now staying until the end of January 2017 in Orlando at Disney World. Things couldn't get any better.

And yes you guessed it, we all crashed and burned before midnight haha. Tomorrow was a new day and a new year.

 

[kimnscott]

I love all your posts.

 

[elcmum]

You guys looked like you had the park to yourselves at 3:30am!

(And ditto -- totally agree on Pirates.)

 

[elcmum]

Last night was our new years and we were going to stay away from the parks and just relax, and probably fall asleep before the new year came in , haha.

That is probably the most genius thing ever when planning a WDW NYE trip! What a a way to ring in the new year, anyway!

 

[bcwife76]

Wow that is such an awesome way to ring in the new year! Middle of the night, fantastic photos!!

 

[wsssup]

We thought more people would have had the same idea. I guess not hehe. Back home in Australia it was New years so why not celebrate a day early in the US.
Plus we really did not want to go on the most busy day of the year.

 

[wsssup]

DAY 21 TO 23 - 1ST TO 3RD JANUARY : DISNEY SPRINGS, GETTING SICK AND A CAR

DAY 21
Happy new year. We woke to 2017, so awesome still being here. Disney World in 2016 to 2017 had been a dream come true for us. We were up pretty early and it was very quiet this morning. I think a lot of people would be sleeping still after probably being in the parks. Magic Kingdom and Epcot were reported to be packed last night, so glad we skipped it and had done the new years thing a day earlier.

On the cards for today was not much. We opted to check out Disney Springs again as we had not seen the whole place as yet. This time we caught the bus from Pop, a long wait again and far from being on time. We knew later today we would start looking into hiring a car as we were completely over the transport.
Finally getting to Disney Springs we just took in most of the shops again, and grabbed a bite to eat for breakfast. The place was fairly empty so it was easy to get around.

After spending a few hours here we decided to head back to pop. Bec and I were not feeling the best and could both feel a cold coming on. I suppose it was bound to happen at some stage.
Back at Pop we started looking into hiring a car. We finally decided on on just getting from from the Disney through Alamo at the Car care centre just next to the entrance of Magic Kingdom. Once again being on the phone and trying to talk was becoming hard as they had no idea what we were asking. Surely our accent was not that bad. A call back was supposed to happen by the end of the day but never did, so we thought lets just wait till tomorrow morning.

DAY 22

Oh dear. Yes we were all not feeling good today. Coughing and sneezing we had all caught something. But this could not stop us as we needed to sort out a car.
We went to the front desk of Pop and were helped in organising a car from the car care centre. They would come pick us up and take us to Alamo to fill out paperwork and get the car.
It was a pretty speedy service and the shuttle was on time to pick us up and soon we were at Alamo singing paperwork and deciding what car to get. Of course daddy wanted some American Muscle but we could not afford the Dodge Challenger Srt ....boooooo hisssss. So we had limited choice, but opted for the Chevy Impala. It's pretty much just a Holden commodore back home, just a little smaller.

So in we jumped and I was set to drive for the first time in the US. Yes it was weird sitting on the other side of the car - THE WRONG SIDE!!!. After about 5 minutes it just became second nature, it was very easy to drive and even learnt quickly that you could turn right on a red light. Back home we can't do that and I thought it was a great idea.
We headed back to pop as we were toast and feeling crap. This was our day, all in bed trying to rest.

DAY 23
Another day of being sick. Up and at em though, we powered on. Time to go to Walmart and get some medicine. Oh it was so good being able to get up and get in your own car. No more silly Uber and no more crappy Disney Transport. Woooo hooo.
Arriving at Walmart again we headed to get some medicine. Wow everything is so cheap over here, we get ripped off back home. Next stop was Best Buy.
We opted not to add sat nav to the car hire as it was nearly $100. We figured we would just go buy a portable one for $70 and save money and at least we will always have a Sat nav for America.... Route 66 here we come .
In and out with our Sat Nav. Right next to Best Buy was Olive Garden..... oh yes we are going in here for lunch.

We had seen this place many times on some Youtube Shows we watch so this was on our list. It did not take long to get seated, it was pretty busy.
The food came out quick and hot and i think we all savoured just eating something a little different other than Disney Food. It was well worth the visit for us, and was pretty cheap to eat here. A big thumbs up.

With lunch done it was time to go back to Pop. We all smashed down some needed medicine and all probably slept the night away for 15 hours straight. It was a well needed few days rest, as tomorrow was go go go again.

 

[bcwife76]

I'd say you made a good choice renting the car, it was well worth your money. You were spending money on Uber anyway, why not spend a little bit more and have the convenience right? Plus since you were staying onsite parking was free at the resorts and parks, woohoo!

Sorry to hear you all came down with a darn cold didn't stop you guys much though

 

[wsssup]

I'd say you made a good choice renting the car, it was well worth your money. You were spending money on Uber anyway, why not spend a little bit more and have the convenience right? Plus since you were staying onsite parking was free at the resorts and parks, woohoo!

Sorry to hear you all came down with a darn cold didn't stop you guys much though

You are spot on. It just took us awhile to figure out haha. Uber was really not that cheap and like you said , better to be paying for a car really whivh gave us a lot more freedom.

 

[wsssup]

DAY 24 - 4TH JAN : BEC VS BEE

Up and at em. Another day was upon us, still all not feeling the best , we powered on. Coffee Energy drinks and for India Twinkies , haha. This was Disney World and we needed some magical action to brighten up our day and forget about feeling....well.... really crap.
There was no rush this morning, as we did not need to be on a Bus schedule that was never on time and slow. So good knowing we had the car now.
So in we jumped and away we went. Yes back to Epcot to explore more and see how we felt. We arrived up to the entrance and Magic Band was scanned and onward's we continued with free parking. This was the bonus from Annual Passes, and also it is free if you stay onsite, so either way it was free for us.
We followed the traffic and were directed to our parking bay.
It was not really far from the entrance so we thought better to just walk than wait for the Epcot tram.

Through the gates was easy enough once more, and we were back in. We were not going to worry much about rides today, as we honestly probably couldn't handle any. A few slow kiddie rides would happen later, but nothing intense like Test Track.
Heading right we came across a shop with Artwork. So in we went to check it out. Wow lots of great pictures and figures. A fair bit of time was spent in here, there was so much to look at. Bec was excited to see all the Snow White Artwork, if only there was an easy way to get some of this home. Something we were going to try to figure out tomorrow with posting items home.

Lots of Haunted Mansion items were in here as well which was a surprise, even India was surprised. She is a huge fan of Haunted Mansion. So many goodies but we controlled our impulses once again and thought we better get out of this place before things got ugly haha.

There was a thirst to be quenched and this was becoming a ritual at Epcot for us.

Yes it was time for Club Cool. The place of delicious free drinks and sticky floors, and people crowding around machines. India could stay in here all day and was always a question you would get throughout the day... can we go to club cool...

In we ventured, as Adam the Woo and Justin Scarred would say, through the PARTY ZONE..
The machines were a little crowded but not too bad. Just walk up to the back corner and there is always a spot free as no one bothers to go all the way to the back.
With cups in hand i was greeted with a sad sight at the machine.

The delicious Melon Frosty was run dry. Oh no panic set in. To another machine i went... NOOOOOO. The whole place was dry on Melon Frosty, the greatest beverage on earth. India was quick to just get in and get a drink. Yes we had all had the Beverly before and wow, what a terrible drink. Reminded me of drinking Aspro clear with metal in it. While we were filling up a nice older lady was pouring the Beverly. We said oh it's a great drink and be prepared. She took a sip and her face was priceless. Probably the same face we had when we had it.

It was time for Daddy to squeeze in and just go the Raspberry, I really was still sooky no melon frosty was there. Oh well we would be back.
Time for some food, so off on a long walk to Japan to grab a quick service lunch. Lots of rice chicken and beef was had. It was a delicious lunch and all were satisfied. The weather was heating up very fast, Orlando again bringing Winter sunshine and heat. Having a cold though this made you feel very drowsy.

Smile were still plentiful though after lunch. A quick stop for some Asahi beer, that will help with the cold hahaha. And off we marched again.
We did not get very far from Japan when it happened.
India and I were walking along in front of Bec a little when all of a sudden Bec let out a huge OWWWW!!!. Scared the crap out of us and a few people close by, and she was holding her arm. We quickly moved to the side and in Becs arm was a bee sting. A Bee had just flown into her and instantly stung her.
She got the stinger out and grabbed some ice from a drink stand.
It was a good idea to just pay a visit to the medical centre so off we went. The guys in there were really nice and checked Becs arm out and said she would be fine. They gave her some pain medication and on we went.

I had gotten a fastpass for Nemo, i think thats all we could muster. It was the first time on the ride so we were keen to check it out. At least it was nice and cool inside, and it was a quick fastpass line and away we went.

I think I almost fell asleep through the ride. Very short ride indeed, just as your kind of getting into it , that was it.... ending without any real story or anything. Oh well it was done and after Nemo we were all pretty toasted again and not feeling well at all.

A bit more sight seeing was had, but with the weather getting hotter and all of us getting slower and more sleepy, it was time to pull the pin and head back to get some rest. The sickness was coming back in full force and we were not going to escape it unfortunately.
At least getting back to Pop was a breeze, the car was the best decision to make. Back at Pop and down with some medicine it was time for rest. Who knew how long this was going to last.

 

[Zosha]

Love reading the report guys. We were there around the same time too - Dec 16th-31st. We loved Universal probably more than we loved Disney this time but still I want to go back! Am having massive disney planning withdrawals!