The Many Adventures of an Aussie Disney Honeymooner

[zanzibar138]

Apologies, I seem to be experiencing technical difficulties at this time! Somehow ended up duplicating my previous post.

 

[iona]

Glad you managed to get your hoodie even if it wasn’t quite the right size!

 

[pkondz]

was surprised to see Smuggler’s Run down to 15 minutes!

Short! (for that ride)

By the time we arrived, the wait time had gone up to 20 minutes, but we were still happy to wait.

Still very good, I think.

There had been a noticeable increase in the number of cheerleading groups and teenage girls in general in the park

Ugh...

Ben and I were made pilots.

Yuss...

At that point, the two teenage girls in line behind us cracked it, made a big fuss that they wanted to be pilots and sulked until they got their way.

Entitled, much?

I don't have a problem with politely asking. And if the answer is "No", then so be it.

if the girls had just asked nicely about it, we would have offered to swap. Since they made a big scene and got all sulky about it, there was no way I was going to offer (even though it probably would have helped the CMs).

Good for you. Don't reward bad behaviour.

was surprised to find Ben and I being led to our own private ride vehicle instead lol!

Really! Huh!

Turned out it was for the best, because it turned out that Ben and I were absolutely terrible pilots,

Even Ben was getting a little frustrated and started having a go at me to steer better…

Oh dear...

turned out he’d forgotten he was the one controlling the side to side and I was just doing up and down

By the time we were finished, wait times were actually down all over the park. We figured it must have been people leaving to watch the Superbowl.

This is good intel. I can always watch it later... or at least I could. Not sure about now. Don't really care!

As well as drinks, we ordered a mousse dessert to share. It was very photogenic, but I wasn’t entirely convinced on the flavour combination. Ben, who is normally very fussy and only likes the plainest desserts, actually quite enjoyed it.

Definitely photogenic.

It was the one and I was super excited to get one!

Yay!

We got there probably 45 minutes before the show and got decent seats pretty close to the centre (but of course I had the tallest guy in the park sitting right in front of me ).

Of course!

And there, in the corner, was a small stash of adult sizes in the F! range!

Yusss!!! Score!

Apparently, there was some sort of after hours party for the cheerleaders.

I can't even imagine.

Sadly, the bus was crowded and noisy, and we had to stand – not the most wonderful way to finish off such a magical stay.

Been there. Pretty tough after a long day in the park.

We opened our mystery pin pack to reveal… 2 new pins! Hoo-bloody-ray for that!

I was kinda hoping you'd get the same two... again!
Would've been frustrating for you, but funny for us readers.

 

[zanzibar138]

I was kinda hoping you'd get the same two... again!

That would have been super frustrating for us since we had no more opportunity to trade!

 

[pkondz]

That would have been super frustrating for us since we had no more opportunity to trade!

Still funny, though.

 

[zanzibar138]

Chapter 8: In which zanzibar leads an expotition to find home

8.1. The long journey begins​

We had a big travel day ahead of us, starting with the 5.5 hour flight to LA, due to arrive at LAX at around 10am. After a very long layover at LAX, we had the 17.5 hour flight to Singapore, departing at 10:30pm. We’d actually been surprised by how expensive flights were from MCO to LAX, so even though I could only find economy fares available, I still booked our American Airlines flights using Qantas points. The 17.5 hour flight was a whole different story, and one that I was not willing to do in economy I had a stash of Velocity points that we were able to convert to KrisFlyer points to get business class flights with Singapore Airlines. Converting the Velocity points to KrisFlyer gave us heaps better availability, so was well worth it.



Many of you may choose to leave the TR at this point, as the exciting Disney part has finished, and Singapore may not be of that much interest to everyone following along. Thank you for following along to this point! For those who choose to stay, I apologise for the wordiness of the next few travel-related posts.

The alarm blared at 5am. We groggily dragged ourselves out of bed, got dressed, and packed the last of our toiletries and pyjamas. We couldn’t resist one last look at the view from the balcony.



Then we headed downstairs with suitcases in tow. I know the new thing is that you don’t need to check out, but it doesn’t really sit well with me yet, so we stopped by the front desk on the way out. We wanted to ask where we could get an uber anyway.

Sadly, we weren’t running quite as on time as we’d hoped – the plan was to be downstairs and ordering an uber by 5:15am, but it was after 5:30am. And our uber was still going to be 12 minutes! Given all I’ve read about MCO, I was starting to get a little panicky about our 8:30am departure. Luckily at that time of day, there were no more delays, and we made it to the airport a little after 6am. We quickly found the American Airlines area and began the check-in process.

In my sad and slightly sleep-deprived state, I made some really stupid error on the check-in machine. I forget what it was, but when we were able to finally find a customer service rep to help us, and she figured out what I’d done, I felt like a right idiot. I dutifully added my carry-on case as checked luggage because I couldn’t be bothered to lug it around with us and was having anxiety about not being able to find room for it on the plane. We paid the rather hefty sum for our 2 large suitcases and 1 small one, and were then offered the option to check our cabin luggage for free

As we made our way to the security line, we were approached to try some sort of skip the line service. We assumed it was for US passport holders only, but we wouldn’t have bothered anyway – the line wasn’t that long and seemed to be moving relatively quickly. In fact, it was moving far quicker than the line for the skip the line service lol!

We grabbed some nondescript overpriced breakfast on the way through, and found our gate. Usually I check what seats we’ve been assigned as soon as we get our boarding passes, but for some reason I hadn’t on this occasion, so I checked while we were eating breakfast. There were no seats allocated and instead it said something along the lines of ‘see gate staff’. Oops! I promptly set off to see the gate staff.

I had been having visions of the flight having been overbooked and us having been bumped to the next one or some other unpleasant scenario. To my surprise, we’d actually been assigned exit row seats! I returned to Ben with a bit more of a spring in my step. By the time we finished breakfast and I went to buy some drinks for the flight, it was nearly time to board. I whipped out my phone and started playing a game while waiting for our call. Having exit row seats, we were of course in Boarding Group A. We heard the call for our group, and by the time we actually put our phones away and got ourselves organised, they’d actually started calling for the next group! In Australia, we get at least a few minutes between the first few groups. Boarding Group B wasn’t bad though, and there was still plenty of room for cabin luggage. I was surprised that we weren’t instructed to put our bags in the overhead lockers, as is usually the case when I’ve had an exit row.

The seats weren’t too bad. Plenty of leg room of course which was nice! But aside from that, there were also proper seat pockets (which apparently is not always a thing these days!), tray tables and a device holder. The seats felt downright cushy compared to Spirit lol!



After they’d managed to squeeze on the last few people and magically find some space for their cabin luggage, we were off. I had the window seat for this flight, and enjoyed seeing the changing landscape (when it wasn’t covered by clouds).







Along the way, even as a basic economy passenger, I was pleased that we were given a snack and a drink (from memory I think it was a decent sized cookie and a small can of soft drink – again, better than Spirit). We were also able to connect our own devices to their inflight entertainment system. We had prepared by downloading movies in advance, but I actually ended up settling on something from their entertainment menu instead.

The seatbelt sign was on for most of the second half of the flight, and approaching Palm Springs we were warned that it might be a bumpy landing. Again. Thankfully, it actually ended up being the smoothest landing yet!

Continued in next post…

 

[zanzibar138]

Our arrival at LAX actually went relatively smoothly in general. It didn’t take too long to get through the terminal, grab our luggage and start to wonder what we were going to do next. In the lead-up to the trip, we’d tossed around a few options, but had decided not to book anything so we would have the option to do what we felt like at the time. Turned out we didn’t feel like doing much at all. Many, many people had told us that we would not be able to check our luggage for Singapore Airlines so far in advance of our flight, but we decided to go to the counter anyway, more so to query when we would be able to check in and factor that into our decision.

We had to change to the international terminal, but it was only a short walk. Took us a while to find the check-in counter for Singapore Airlines but eventually we did and were pleased to find that it was staffed. We joined the line for the business class check-in and were soon with the attendant. We explained that we were on the late flight that evening, and that we were just wondering when we’d be able to check our luggage. To our surprise, he offered to do it for us there and then! And the surprises continued when he told us we would be able to access the Star Alliance lounge immediately!

It didn’t take us too long to get through to the departures side, and we decided to bypass any shops and just go straight to the lounge. It was upstairs, with an internal ‘balcony’ area overlooking the shopping area.



We found a cosy private spot inside and settled in for a long day!

We were pretty well-covered for drinks for the day There were several self-serve bar areas, as well as a staffed, fully-stocked bar.



The food selection was a little more limited, but there was enough there to get us through. By the time we arrived, they had the lunch selection out, with a small selection of different types of snacks too.



We pretty much filled in the time by eating, drinking, catching up on photos/Facebook and playing games on our devices. After a few hours, I decided to spend some time exploring the rest of the lounge. It was quite a decent set-up. There was a lovely outdoor terrace with a firepit (even with the firepit, it was a little too chilly for us out there), and I also found kind of a theatre room. It was a nice idea, but I thought there was a missed opportunity there just having the news on. I guess most people aren’t in the lounge for long enough to watch movies





I’d also passed the entrance to the showers, and thought that seemed like an appealing thing to do next. I rang the bell for the shower attendant and she led me to a free and freshly cleaned shower room. I didn’t take any photos, but the shower rooms were really nice, with a big luxurious walk-in shower with rainfall shower head, a decent-sized counter top with a nice basin and a handy toilet as well. They were well-equipped with everything you’d need – towels, shower gel, shampoo and conditioner, lotion, shower cap if you wanted, plus a hairdryer and straightener. It was a nice way to freshen up.

By the time I was done there, they’d switched to the dinner menu, so we got some new food to try. It wasn’t anything particularly notable. I started to get creative with my drinks, noticing a bottle of Bailey’s at the self-serve bar. I asked at the attended bar if they had any chocolate milk. They didn’t, but the bartender found some ingredients to make something akin to a Bailey’s chocolate milkshake for me so that was worth asking about! I sat there for a while chatting with him.

I’ll be honest, I was starting to go a little stir-crazy and was keen for a change of scenery. One of my friends had told me there was another lounge we may be able to get into, but Ben was quite happy to just wait it out for a couple more hours. His ankle was still causing him a lot of grief, so he wasn’t keen on doing any more walking than was necessary.

After a very long day in the lounge, we finally decided it was close enough to departure time to start leisurely heading to our gate. It was a decent hike to get there, but we still arrived about 30 minutes before we really needed to. At least it was a change of scenery though. We’d sure gotten our money’s worth out of the lounge for that flight!

Continued in next post…

 

[zanzibar138]

Finally, it was time to board! We excitedly found our seats and got ourselves settled in for the long flight. We were provided with the usual hot towels and welcome drinks, but no toiletry bag (we were told they still have them available for people who ask, but no longer give them to everyone as a matter of course).





Shortly after take-off, we were served ‘supper’. I can’t remember what the other choices were, but the beef and accompanying vegetables were all quite nice.



The dessert looked very pretty, but was a little bit too fancy for me with some strange flavour combinations. Still, always nice to have that sweet finish to a meal.



I actually didn’t love the seats on Singapore Airlines (first world problems ). It's not that they weren't comfy enough, as seats or beds. Most times I’ve experienced flatbeds on planes, the ‘bed’ setting is just an extension of the recline function, so you can adjust it using the control panel to be upright, semi-reclined, lounge position or full bed. These seats needed to be manually adjusted from seat to bed. The instructions were complicated, so I just got one of the cabin crew to help me. I just went to the bathroom while they were setting it up. It did look very cosy!



I was pretty ready for bed by that time, so didn’t have much trouble falling asleep. I probably managed a decent 5-6 hours of sleep. When I woke up, the cabin was still in darkness, and we were obviously expected to sleep a bit longer, but my body hadn’t received that memo and was ready to start a new day. And we still had a full day’s worth of flying ahead of us!

The ‘bed’ was quite comfy as a lounge type chair, and I comfortably followed the map for a while and then found a couple of movies to watch. They were offering little pizzas to anyone who was awake, which was quite enjoyable. I was starting to feel a little stir-crazy again though!



Now here was my main gripe about the seat. As we got closer to Singapore, the flight was getting a little bumpy – nothing serious, but enough that the captain was keeping the seatbelt sign on. And because I needed to get up to change the bed back into a seat, I was actually stuck with a bed for the foreseeable future. While the bed configuration was comfy enough for lounging around, they were going to be serving meals again soon, and I didn’t think it would be a great setup for eating. I waited and waited, and as soon as the seatbelt sign went off, I called one of the cabin crew to fix up my seat and took the opportunity to head to the bathroom again. Literally as soon as I got back to my (now) seat, the seatbelt sign went on again!

We were getting closer and closer to our destination and, at about 5am Singapore time, we were served our next meal… dinner.



Yep, on our overnight flight we were served ‘supper’ and ‘dinner’. The lamb cutlets and accompanying vegetables were very nice, but it was too heavy for me at that time of day. I would have much preferred a nice muesli with yoghurt and fresh fruit (and maybe a cheeky mimosa).

I had time for one more movie before we were starting our descent into Singapore. Although the approach had been bumpy, it was a nice smooth landing. Being in business class, we made it through the large and complex Changi Airport in no time, and soon had our luggage and were headed into the city on the train.

 

[pkondz]

We had a big travel day ahead of us, starting with the 5.5 hour flight to LA, due to arrive at LAX at around 10am. After a very long layover at LAX, we had the 17.5 hour flight to Singapore, departing at 10:30pm.

10.5 hour layover???
17.5 hour flight????

Many of you may choose to leave the TR at this point, as the exciting Disney part has finished, and Singapore may not be of that much interest to everyone following along.

Still here and interested.

In my sad and slightly sleep-deprived state, I made some really stupid error on the check-in machine. I forget what it was, but when we were able to finally find a customer service rep to help us, and she figured out what I’d done, I felt like a right idiot.

Oh dear... But at least it got straightened out.

We paid the rather hefty sum for our 2 large suitcases and 1 small one, and were then offered the option to check our cabin luggage for free

To my surprise, we’d actually been assigned exit row seats!

To our surprise, he offered to do it for us there and then! And the surprises continued when he told us we would be able to access the Star Alliance lounge immediately!

Nice! Two bonuses at once.

I’d also passed the entrance to the showers, and thought that seemed like an appealing thing to do next. I rang the bell for the shower attendant and she led me to a free and freshly cleaned shower room. I didn’t take any photos, but the shower rooms were really nice, with a big luxurious walk-in shower with rainfall shower head, a decent-sized counter top with a nice basin and a handy toilet as well. They were well-equipped with everything you’d need – towels, shower gel, shampoo and conditioner, lotion, shower cap if you wanted, plus a hairdryer and straightener. It was a nice way to freshen up.

That sounds pretty nice and must've felt nice after a long day already.

That looks pretty good for airplane food.

I probably managed a decent 5-6 hours of sleep.

Impressive. I can never sleep on planes.

That looks very impressive for airplane food!

 

[zanzibar138]

10.5 hour layover???

The irony is that the late afternoon would have had us arrive at LAX with perfect timing, at around 7:30pm. Since the flights were ticketed separately though, it just wasn't worth the risk in case that flight had been significantly delayed or cancelled. At least if something had gone wrong with our early morning flight, we would have had all day to try to get ourselves to LAX if we needed to.

17.5 hour flight????

The realities of living in Australia

That sounds pretty nice and must've felt nice after a long day already.

I don't often make use of the showers at airport lounges, but for longer travel with layovers involved, it's definitely to have the option.

That looks pretty good for airplane food.

There is a significant step up between economy and business. Business class passengers expect restaurant quality food and presentation. We are much more simple beings and would often prefer the economy meal is the business class one is too fancy lol! I still enjoy the presentation though.

Impressive. I can never sleep on planes.

I only can in business. I can sleep in a reclined sitting position if I'm tired enough, but only if I can put my feet up (right up, not just a couple of inches off the ground on a sad little footrest). Otherwise I get very bad restless legs (and body, and mind ). Hence why I am unwilling to fly anything other than business for a 17.5 hour overnight flight

 

[pkondz]

The irony is that the late afternoon would have had us arrive at LAX with perfect timing, at around 7:30pm. Since the flights were ticketed separately though, it just wasn't worth the risk in case that flight had been significantly delayed or cancelled. At least if something had gone wrong with our early morning flight, we would have had all day to try to get ourselves to LAX if we needed to.

I get that. I’d probably do the same.

There is a significant step up between economy and business.

So I see!

We are much more simple beings and would often prefer the economy meal is the business class one is too fancy lol!