Two Aussie first-timers in Disney! Lots of photos! NEW- FINAL CHAPTER! - Ch 20, Pg 30

[AussieAngel]

Yayyy, my first trip report!!

Now… yes, it is a little bit late. Our Disney adventure was actually last September, but you know what!? Since returning home, I’ve had Disney-itus! Or Disney homesickness! Or Disney miseries! Or whatever you like to call it – I’ve been sad that my Disney trip is over. Booo!

But before we went to Disney World, I wanted to write a trip report. Because I love writing, and I love the DIS boards, and I love Disney, so why not!? While we were at Disney, I wrote pages and pages of detailed notes about everything to remember for my trip report. It’s been 6 months since we were there, but I still remember everything about our trip!

Plus, I’m over my Disney homesickness now. I’m thankful that I went, and I had a fantastic, fabulous, fancy, frivolous, FUN time, and I’m ready to write about it! And also… we’re planning a return trip in September 2008. Heee! Disney homesickness is always a bit easier to get over when you know another trip is ahead!!

So I’m going to finally write my trip report!! I LOVE reading other people’s trip reports, especially ones with lots of details and lots of photos, so that’s what I’m going to try and do! I’m also going to try and post an update every couple of days – and you can hold me to that!!

Anyway, I’m already raving. I tend to do that…

So it was just the two of us on our trip. There’s me, AussieAngel - I’m 26, and I’m a teacher, and I’m the obsessive vacation planner. Then there’s my fiancé (DF), who is 27, and in business management, and he’s NOT the obsessive vacation planner – but he likes me so he’s willing to go along with my plans!! Phew!

Here’s us…

We’re from way over here in Melbourne, Australia. Which is a LONG way from Orlando. Too far! Boooo! We’re definitely Disney first timers. In fact, we’re America first timers! I’d traveled around Europe, but DF had never left Australia.

So how did we end up in Disney World? We actually planned a massive 7 week USA adventure holiday. Ooh la la! It involved a lot of saving and a LOT of planning, but it was definitely, definitely worth it. The trip of a lifetime!!

To cut a long story short, here’s where we traveled…

* San Francisco, stay for 4 nights
* LA - 4 nights
* San Diego – 4 nights
* Las Vegas – 4 nights
* Orlando – Stay at Pop for 7 nights
* Savannah – 3 nights
* Washington DC – 3 nights
* New York – 5 nights
* Toronto – 3 nights
* Montreal – 3 nights
* Dublin, Ireland – Stay for 6 nights
* Fly home!

So that’s our trip! 7 weeks all up. Lots of flying, lots of sight-seeing, lots of eating out, lots of hotel rooms… we loved it all! (Well, maybe except for all the flights.)

(And yes, I know Toronto, Montreal, or Dublin aren’t part of the USA. We wanted to sample a little bit of Canada, so Toronto and Montreal it was. My sister and her family live in Dublin, which is why we detoured to Ireland on our way home to Australia! Whew!)

I’ve always wanted to go to Disneyland. Or Disney World. In fact, 18 months ago, I didn’t know the difference. Actually, I didn’t even realize they were different places. It’s always just seemed like a very distant dream, which I knew nothing about, but I wanted to go anyway. So while we were researching our USA trip, we found out more about Disney – and decided Disney World was the place to be. We booked our hotel (Pop Century), and thought that would be it.

Then I discovered the DIS boards. And you know the rest! Among everything else, from you amazing people on the Disney boards, I discovered that the dates we’d booked at Disney – September 5th to September 12th – meant we were eligible for the Free Dining Plan!

Yayyyyyyyy! You all saved us about $800!! And we got to eat some delicious meals!

So all up, our USA trip planning was about 14 months in the making. We both saw this trip as our one massive overseas adventure while we’re still young with lots of energy, and before we settled down and bought a house, and all that grown-up stuff.

Actually, before we left for our trip, DF wasn’t my fiancé, he was my boyfriend! He popped the question at Niagara Falls, towards the end our trip, and of course I said yes! Yayyy! Did I mention it was a fabulous vacation!?

Next up… A quick review of our American trip before Disney! (Or if you like, I can just skip to the Disney bits!! Let me know what you’d prefer!)

 

[A fat english gent]

7 WEEKS NOW THATS A BLOODY JOLLY,I need to know more now please.....


ps...We don't skip on the DISS we need to know ALL about your trip....

 

[KimAshton]

wow what an adventure.

 

[mommys3]

Sounds exciting...can't wait to hear more!!!

 

[serendipity]

this sounds amazing. I can't wait to read more!

 

[MA pigletfan]

i am in!!! by now it sounds like you have seen more of my country than i have!! i need to work on that

 

[NMAmy]

I'd love a quick review of your American trip before getting to the main event! It sounds wonderful!

Can't wait to hear more.

 

[veryblessed]

Can't wait to read more!! My hubby and I are going this Sept!!! I can't wait!!

 

[crzyred]

holy lord....7 weeks! my first thought is how much luggage do you need for that!!? haha, i pack like i'm going away for 7 weeks when in reality it's only like 4 days, so i can't imagine actually being gone for that long...wow!! and to think you still like each other after that! hahah
congrats...can't wait to hear more!!!

 

[mvazul]

I want to read all of the details. No skipping!!

 

[mt mommy]

What a trip of a life time!!! How FUN!!! Can't wait to hear all about it!

 

[Scutapipig]

I am definitely subscribing to hear about a seven week trip! Looking forward to it!

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Wow, I think you've officially seen more of this continent than I have!

Can't wait to hear about it!

Did you do Disneyland while in California, too?

 

[AussieAngel]

Hey! Thanks to all those people who have replied - it's great to know there are people actually reading my report! It's all so exciting!

A Fat English Gent... (What a name!) 7 weeks WAS a bloody jolly! I'm not quite sure what that means, but I'm sure you're right!!

KimAshton, mommys3, serendipity. mt mommy & scutapipig... Thanks for stopping by and for your nice words!!

MA Piglet Fan... There's lots of your country to see!! You should definitely check it out! It's lots of fun! (But Disney trips are the best!)

NMAmy & mvazul... Thanks for your kind words! I will give a quick description of our American adventures before we hit DisneyWorld. Thanks for the encouragement!

veryblessed... Lucky you, going to Disney in September!! Time will fly, and you'll be there before you know it!! Exciting!

crzyred... Luggage was a problem!! I'd been buying clothes for months to take on our trip, and in the end I could only pack half of them. We could only take one suitcase each, and one piece of hand luggage. Terrible!! It was MUCH worse on the way back though, after I'd bought HEAPS of cool American clothes, and had to squeeze them all in!!

WDW Poly Princess... First can I just say - wow! I'm so excited you popped into my trip report! I have read all of your current trip report, and loved it all! DF and I are even thinking of staying at Wilderness Lodge in September 2008 because of you and your great photos!! Yeee!
But to answer your question, no, we didn't do Disneyland in California. At the time, we thought one Disney adventure would be enough, but now I wish we had of! We did, however, go to Universal Studios in LA, and SeaWorld in San Diego, which were both lots of fun.
Oh and also, we went to see RENT on Broadway!! No day but todaaaaayyyy!

Anyway, thanks again you guys, for dropping into my trip report! I'm going to post the first real chapter tomorrow, so keep an eye out!

 

[ILMICKEY]

This is going to be great!! Hurry Hurry!

 

[Marion]

What a fabulous exciting trip that was! I'd love to read about the whole thing, not just the Disney bits. And congratulations on your engagement!

 

[lisaj]

Waiting for the next instalment, tell it all please, I can't wait to go for three weeks, but seven - yES PLEASE!

 

[Disney_Dreaming]

I can't wait to read all about your exciting trip!

I have always wanted to visit Australia since I was a little girl. Hopefully that dream will become reality!

 

[AussieAngel]

ILMICKEY... I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying! Heee!

Marion... Thanks for your congratulations!

lisaj... Lucky you, going to the US for 3 weeks soon! Where are you heading?

DisneyDreaming... You definitely should pop over to Australia! It's a long way, but there's lots of great things to see and do!

Thanks again to everyone who's been reading my little trippie!!

 

[AussieAngel]

Part 1… Whizzing through the West Coast!

Well, we did it! After 14 months of meticulous researching, saving, planning, and packing, the day finally arrived! We flew out of Australia and headed for that enchanted far away land… the United States of America! Woooooo!

It was just our luck that two weeks before we left, all airlines brought in the new rule of no liquids in carry-on bags. In our 7 weeks of traveling around the US, Canada and Ireland, the most we were ever searched was in… Australia! Augh!

Before flying out of Australia, we had to literally unpack all of our carry-on luggage in front of security, and be felt up by security about 16 times. Ew! Never fun! But we eventually made it on board the plane. San Francisco, here we come!!!

14 hours later, we made it. Whew. I slept for about an hour. I was just too excited to sleep! For the other 15 hours, I was addicted to watching bad movies, wishing I had my lip gloss, and reading my PassPorter. Because, yes – even though we were traveling to 11 different cities and 3 different countries, I couldn’t stop counting down the days til we were in Disney!! Augh!

I’d packed everything I could think of for our Disney days… PassPorter? Check. Crocs? Check. Ponchos? Check. Camera with huge memory card? Check. ADR numbers? Check. Ridiculously action-packed itinerary? Check. Yep, it was all there, ready to go!!

But first… we had four other cities to tackle!! Don’t worry, I will get to our Disney arrival soon enough!! I'll just write a quick overview of our time in each city, but if you want me to elaborate on something, or ask questions about a particular place we went, please do so!! I'll save my raving for Disney!!

So San Francisco was first.

San Francisco in two words? HILLY and COLD!! We discovered the old saying from Mark Twain while we were there – “I’ve never lived through a colder winter than a summer in San Francisco.” Seriously. Wah! And also… I knew it was hilly, but I never knew it was that hilly!! Woo, boy! I got my legs into shape those 4 days, let me tell you!

That being said, we really enjoyed San Francisco. We loved the cosy, relaxed vibe of it all, and the cute Full House style houses! Our 4 days in San Francisco consisted of… lots of shopping, a cruise on the bay, a visit to Alcatraz, eating a huge (and delicious!) ice-cream sundae at Ghirardelli’s, playing on Fisherman’s Wharf, and a massive daytrip to Yosemite National Park.

Here's DF (in his crocs!) looking a bit tired and jet-lagged at Fisherman's Wharf...

And this is one of my favourite photos from our whole trip, at Yosemite. We LOVED Yosemite and wished we could have spent a few nights camping there. Maybe next time!

After 4 lovely nights in San Francisco, we sadly packed our suitcases and headed for our next destination – Los Angeles! Ooh la la!!

We actually hired a car and drove to LA. Why? Just for fun!! We fancied a little road trip across some Californian country-side. Or, should I say, across some Californian 4-lane highways. Do you know what I noticed about Californians? They like to drive some BIG cars!! I’ve never seen so many truck-cars in my life.

Here’s our little hired car, a Chrysler PT Cruiser, which we fell in love with…

Oh, did we mention that in Australia, we drive on the left-hand side of the road? Hee! That ride-hand side took a while to get used to! Erm… actually, I should say, it took DF a while to get used to. He drove the whole time, and I screamed “Careful!!” about 88% of the time.

So after our 7 hour car adventure, we made it to LA. After a small detour (ie, we got lost), we eventually found our hotel, which was right opposite The Grove, a faaaabulous shopping centre. It was here that my love affair with Abercrombie & Fitch clothes stores began. We don’t have A&F in Australia, and now, I’m obsessed with it. And no, not just the male models. Eep!

Anyway, we loved Los Angeles too! LA in one word? FUN! It was all fun and colorful and bright and fast and just what we imagined California would be. Lots of people had warned us before our trip that, “You’ll hate Los Angeles.” But actually, we loved it! It’s unlike any other place I’ve ever been to.

Basically our 4 days in LA consisted of… a day in Universal Studios, a day in Abercrombie & Fitch stores (ha, I’m kidding! I think.), a trip to the beaches, a tour of “Hollywood” and movie stars homes, and lots of eating at The Cheesecake Factory. Wow, we don’t have that in Australia either! Yum!

Here's me enjoying the LA sunshine...

And here I am in Tom Hanks' hands!

This might be a good idea to mention that we were gradually noticing the size of everything in America. Things are BIG in America. Not just the cars. For starters, the food servings at restaurants are MUCH bigger than Australian. We were completely overwhelmed by all the food – I don’t think either of us finished a meal the whole time we were in the US. We definitely got our money’s worth!! (And we eventually learnt to share!)

What else is bigger? The cities, the people’s personalities, the people’s passion for life, the hotels, the shops, the amount of television stations, the buildings, the EVERYTHING!! It was all just so exciting and colorful and fun and BIG!

In other words, we were loving our time in America so far! Can you tell!?

Next up… San Diego & Las Vegas (and we thought things were crazy and big before Vegas!!)