The 'so far to travel' threads make me laugh!

[5ofus]

I can't help it, and have to stop myself from being a one-upper with a "You think YOU have a long way to travel..." kinda reply. The latest one in the DL thread says that it will be a whopping 11 hours from door to door for them to get to DL OMG!!! I feel like replying with the 24 hour+ door to door that I will be doing - with a 2, 4 and 6 year old in tow - which would be longer still if we were going to WDW. I restrain myself and know that I have a lot less to travel than our WA friends so I shouldn't complain. Cracks me up that 11 hours door to door is a long time though, but I guess it is for some people. Maybe it's just that we have to go long haul if we want to go OS to anywhere but NZ and we're just use to it...

(and in other news - 8 days to go!)

 

[heidispidi]

Unfortunately it looks like I might be living in Perth still come April, so yes, I'll be one of those! (But we are ALL far away here in Aust/NZ, so we can all have our say!). I saw someone who posted that they are travelling 5555km to get to DL, and I was like you - meh, that's nothing, I have to travel 15,026km, apparently! Not including the 15km drive to the airport

I will, however, be stopping in at the in-laws' house overnight in Sydney, the night before the flight to LAX That should help break things up!

I'm envious of your 8 days to go, 5ofus!

 

[teddykins]

Haha we've had this discussion with quite a few americans about airfares, a few were complaining their fares to Miami for a cruise was $400.. I made the comment "gee only $400? I'll gladly swap with you!" and got my head bitten off so a friend said "I'm pretty sure $1400 flights, a total travel time of around 26-28 hours stomps all over your $400 any day of the week" and they shut up lol. Some Americans have NO idea how good they have it.. same goes for Europeans.

 

[WAMUMOF4]

It's funny isn't it but I guess for them when they have such a short amount of vacation time it's a bigger deal to them than it is to us. I also love the how much is your trip costing threads

 

[Kiwifan]

Those threads make me laugh too. Last year it took us 34 hours to get to Orlando from Christchurch. (We had a 4 hour wait in both Sydney & San Francisco between flights).
On the bus to Magic Kingdom one morning, I overheard a couple of Americans comparing their travel to Orlando. I think they were moaning about the 4-6 hours it took them to get there. Honestly they have no idea how far some of us travel!!!

 

[Royal Consort]

What I find even more amusing is when people decide NOT to travel because things are "so far", i.e. "we've never been to Disneyland because it's on the West Coast" or vice versa. When they do go it's a "once in a lifetime" thing in which "we don't know when we'll be back" - all of that is fine if it's simply not affordable for the family but just because of the DISTANCE?! Though I tend to find Americans quite an insular people generally.

 

[ColinA]

Americans do not know where the rest of the world is!

Had an american couple tell us once that most americans do not go past eight grade!

 

[ky71]

I am one of those Perth Disney fans that has to travel "all that way" when we go to WDW. 4.5 hrs to the east coast of Oz, 11-12 hrs to LA or Dallas, then 5 hrs to Orlando plus all of the airport waiting around AND the travel time to the airport from my home!

Who are they kidding? A 12 hr car trip would be better than any of the above!

I'm not complaining because I have to travel long distances, my issue is the price I need to pay to get my whole family there. How many nights can you stay at the GF for $12000? That's what flights cost us each time the family visits BEFORE we pay for a meal or hotel...rant over.

 

[baf65]

im with you on the travelling from perth!! even my friends here when i tell them where we are going say dumb things like 'oh id have to wait till my kids were a bit older its so far' or even more stupid 'why wouldnt you just go to the gold coast!'
then another funny thing is how people complain about how expensive the food is becoming in USA now, hey its still a darn sight cheaper than it is to get crappy food and even worse service here in Perth!!

 

[jacs1234]

Gosh if I could get to disneyland for $400 flights and 11 hours door to door I'd be there at least 4 times a year lol

 

[Royal Consort]

Gosh if I could get to disneyland for $400 flights and 11 hours door to door I'd be there at least 4 times a year lol

Absolutely.

Then I read all the complaints people make about Disneyland Paris. Hey, I'd be happy to take a fast train under a tunnel for 2 hours and spend a weekend at a Disney park before heading back!

 

[AussieCaribou]

I wish Disney would just get on the Disney Downunder Park...and if any one of the imagineers is reading this, belconnon in Canberra is a great place to house it! ;0)

I guess the thing that we should remember is that, generally, people in the US have less leave, less disposable cash, and more 'gotta be like the Jones' " than we from the Southern Hemisphere.

I know, for example, on family of four who live 2 hours from DL (oh the happy days!!) but they only get the opportunity to go to the parks about once every 2 to 3 years. The parents vacation leave is spent during school vacation. They are really able to travel the 4 of them together.

 

[jacs1234]

I could deal with Disney being in Canberra, but I'm sure there is still plenty of space on the gold coast lol I also think lego land would do wonderfully here in Australia.

 

[WAMUMOF4]

im with you on the travelling from perth!! even my friends here when i tell them where we are going say dumb things like 'oh id have to wait till my kids were a bit older its so far' or even more stupid 'why wouldnt you just go to the gold coast!'
then another funny thing is how people complain about how expensive the food is becoming in USA now, hey its still a darn sight cheaper than it is to get crappy food and even worse service here in Perth!!

i am surprised you don't get the why don't you go to Bali I cringe everytime they all tell me what a wonderful time they had and then in the next sentence about how everyone had upset tummys most of the trip but we have booked for next year it's so cheap

I am one that thinks food is becoming expensive in the USA I don't understand how Americans on an average wage can afford to eat out so much it's not expensive compared to here I mean for their wages.

I am one of those Perth Disney fans that has to travel "all that way" when we go to WDW. 4.5 hrs to the east coast of Oz, 11-12 hrs to LA or Dallas, then 5 hrs to Orlando plus all of the airport waiting around AND the travel time to the airport from my home!

Who are they kidding? A 12 hr car trip would be better than any of the above!

I'm not complaining because I have to travel long distances, my issue is the price I need to pay to get my whole family there. How many nights can you stay at the GF for $12000? That's what flights cost us each time the family visits BEFORE we pay for a meal or hotel...rant over.

So true it's quite funny when you compare how far they have to go compared to us I just looked at my flight home and the travel time is 29 hours then we have a 2 hour drive home from Perth but it's all worth it

 

[Melbourne5]

For whatever reason on our last two trips ( wdw and DL ) we were asked if we were from NZ ( shock shock shock). When we said Australia they kept asking ' is that near NZ' when we got asked where we were from ( answer: oz) got the same response ( near NZ?). Weird.

 

[kylieh]

For whatever reason on our last two trips ( wdw and DL ) we were asked if we were from NZ ( shock shock shock). When we said Australia they kept asking ' is that near NZ' when we got asked where we were from ( answer: oz) got the same response ( near NZ?). Weird.

We had a lot of NZ references last time too!

Americans do not know where the rest of the world is!

We had a Switzerland/Austria reference on a trip a few years back then again, I think she was a bit tipsy! But they are all surprised that you would take the time to travel "that far" being just the SYD/LAX leg for us.

I think though, it's drilled into a lot of us from a young age to travel and see countries other than Australia, which in an un-educated on this topic opinion, is that many in the US don't have that!

 

[Kristin5]

Haha, during our last trip, on a few separate occasions we were asked if we were from Atlanta (because there's no world outside of America you know! ).

 

[FireflyFi]

While not exactly on topic of the op, talking about random things Americans ask...last year I was asked if English was the official language of Australia. By a woman who was a high school teacher...! I had to focus to keep a straight face answering that one lol

But hey, maybe it's just me, as every stranger I met took a guess at where I'm from and they guessed all sorts of places, but never Australia (and my family has been here for generations). It just seems odd that they couldn't pick the accent or it is so unusual that an Australian tourist would travel so far *** when I'm in the US it feels like there are Aussies everywhere!

 

[Brissymum]

While not exactly on topic of the op, talking about random things Americans ask...last year I was asked if English was the official language of Australia. By a woman who was a high school teacher...! I had to focus to keep a straight face answering that one lol
!

Funniest conversation we had when we were away
Them: So where are you from?
Me: Brisbane Australia
Them: Wow, so you live in the desert then....how cool is that??
Me: No we live in a city just like this......
Them: Oh..., you mean the city from finding nemo
Me: Not exactly

Admittedly she was a young 20 something college girl working at Applebee's, but we found it quite hilarious

 

[WanderlustNZ]

For whatever reason on our last two trips ( wdw and DL ) we were asked if we were from NZ ( shock shock shock). When we said Australia they kept asking ' is that near NZ' when we got asked where we were from ( answer: oz) got the same response ( near NZ?). Weird.

Lol. You can blame The Lord of the Rings for that.

When I went to the USA as a teenager, no one we met in Orlando knew where NZ was. I quite clearly remember my sister getting picked for a Universal Special Effects show. When the presenter said "Please welcome (DSis) from NZ", her voice fell into a confused flat tone when saying NZ and the mild applause suggested that the crowd were confused also. Yet "Please welcome Mary/John/Bob from Chicago/Atlanta/New York" was done with such excitement you'd think they were celebrities.

However, ever since The Lord of the Rings, NZ has become a place that many Americans know about and would like to visit. Peter Jackson has done more for NZ tourism than our government ever could. I remember visiting places like Memphis and Detroit and telling people I'm from NZ. About 50% of the time, their response was something along the line of "Cool, Lord of the Rings. I'd love to go to NZ one day". I even had a similar conversation with a CM on the phone to Disney the other day.