Diary of an Aussie Disney Honeymooner

[zanzibar138]

Welcome!

Welcome to Version 2.0 of my PTR. Some of you may remember me from my previous PTR, ‘Diary of an Aussie Disney Bride’. Well, unfortunately the Disney wedding will not be going ahead, but we will still be celebrating our nuptials Disney style with a Disney honeymoon instead.

For those who don’t know me yet, I go by zanzibar on these boards, but my real name is Lana. My partner is Ben. We met a couple of years ago at a ballroom dancing lesson and the rest, as they say, is history.



As well as dancing, we enjoy travel and hanging out with our fur babies, Evie and Sabah. In fact, we pretty much just love animals in general.



I am the Disney fanatic in this relationship, having had the good fortune to visit a good selection of Disney parks. We definitely both enjoy our fair share of geeky interests including gaming, Lego and board games.





We had planned to get married on 5 February 2025, and had started planning the trip around that. We will now be getting married on 11 January 2025 before we go. We already had our long haul flights booked in, so we’ll stick with the basic framework that we’d already planned, with a few tweaks. We’ll be away for about 4 weeks all up, basically the last half of January and the first half of February. Hoping for sunny but cool weather and low(er) crowds... one can dream right?

 

[zanzibar138]

The Plan so Far

I’ll keep this page up to date with all our current plans, what we have planned, booked etc. I’ll try to keep this brief!

Day 1 (Friday): Perth to Kuala Lumpur
Departing in the middle of the night, so we'll get nearly a full day in KL.

Booked:

• Malaysia Airlines MH126 PER-KUL (more info here)
• King View Studio at Element Kuala Lumpur (more info here)

Day 2 (Saturday) through Day 3 (Sunday): Kuala Lumpur
Stopover on our way to US, will include a bit of sightseeing, a bit of relaxing, and a lot of enjoying the yummy local food!

Day 4 (Monday): Kuala Lumpur to LA
Travel day, departing mid-afternoon arriving approx. 18 hours later... late that same afternoon lol!

Booked:

• China Airlines CI722 KUL–TPE + CI24 TPE–ONT (more info here)
• King Room at Azure Hotel & Suites Ontario Airport

Day 5 (Tuesday): LA to Death Valley
(more info on the whole road trip to Vegas here)
Road trip to Death Valley

Booked:

• Standard Room at The Ranch at Death Valley

Day 6 (Wednesday): Death Valley to Boulder City
Road trip via Red Rock Canyon

Booked:

• Standard Room at Best Western Hoover Dam

Day 7 (Thursday): Boulder City to Vegas
Road trip around the Vegas area, stopping in at Hoover Dam and Kingman/Oatman on Route 66

Booked:

• Pyramid King Room at Luxor Hotel & Casino

Day 8 (Friday) through Day 10 (Sunday): Vegas
No specific plans yet

Day 11 (Monday): Vegas to WDW
Travel day

Day 12 (Tuesday) through Day 14 (Thursday): WDW
No specific plans yet - brainstorming post here and here

Day 15 (Friday) through Day 22 (Friday): WDW
MK/EPCOT focus

Booked:

• Deluxe Studio Standard View at Bay Lake Tower (more info here)

Day 23 (Saturday) through Day 24 (Sunday): WDW
No specific plans yet

Day 25 (Monday) through Day 27 (Wednesday): Orlando to Singapore
Travel day(s). Departing LA late in the evening and arriving in Singapore in the early morning 2 days later. We'll get most of our arrival day in Singapore too.

Booked:

• Singapore Airlines SQ37 LAX–SIN (more info here)
• King Room at Mondrian Duxton Singapore (more info here)

Day 28 (Thursday) through Day 29 (Friday): Singapore
Stopover on our way home, will include a bit of sightseeing, a bit of relaxing, and a lot of enjoying the yummy local food!

Day 30 (Saturday): Singapore to Perth
Final travel day

Booked:

• Scoot Airlines TR8 SIN-PER (more info here)

 

[zanzibar138]

Long haul locked and loaded

We are flying premium cabins using frequent flyer points, and I know that some people are interested in this so including a bit of info on our experience. Yes, I'm a bit of a flight snob, and definitely prefer business class for long haul flights over about 8 hours or for any overnight flights... basically any time I would feel the need to sleep. I'm not a good flyer (despite having to travel often for work), and on a longer flight the combination of anxiety, travel sickness, ear pain, exhaustion and discomfort is a downward spiral that results in a hot mess with a long recovery time. Since the travel time between South East Asia and the US is close to 18 hours, these flights were definitely candidates for business class travel!

For what it's worth, I have been saving frequent flyer points for a trip like this for YEARS, well before I even met Ben! I had ended up with around 350k in Velocity points (Star Alliance) and around 550k in Qantas points (OneWorld). Not sure if it's the same for long haul flights from the US, but for those of us without status, premium cabins for direct flights are practically impossible to get, so I had done quite a bit of research on the various options available, had estimated when they might become available, and was online every day in the lead-up, ready to book. My research consisted of looking up various routes on Flight Connections, and then searching for each of those routes individually in my rewards programs to get a gauge on cost and availability. Very time-consuming stuff!

After researching options from east coast Australia, across the Pacific and South East Asia, it looked like South East Asia was going to be the best option. From there I found a good value option that seemed to have quite good availability, departing Kuala Lumpur with China Airlines, flying via Taipei and then into Ontario Airport in LA. I wasn't familiar with China Airlines so I did a bit of research and it turns out they actually have a quite highly regarded business class product. Despite the name, they're actually Taiwanese, not Chinese (hence the stop in Taipei). We would have been literally flying over Taipei anyway (or pretty close to it), so the stop there doesn't add too much extra time. For both of us to fly business class, it was 278,400 Qantas points + 1,632 Malaysian Ringgit in taxes (about $350 USD).





I knew going in that I definitely wanted to try to travel with Singapore Airlines, as they are widely considered one of the best in the industry. They do a direct flight between LA and Singapore, so that was perfect! Unfortunately availability is an issue for that one too, but it's less well-known that availability is far better through Singapore Airline's own rewards program, KrisFlyer, and that you are able to convert Velocity points (at a ratio of 1.55:1). It took nearly all my Velocity points, but I did the conversion well in advance so I would be ready to book whenever the flights became available. For both of us to fly business class, it was 214,000 KrisFlyer miles (converted from Velocity points), with a grand total of USD $11.20 in taxes.



There are actually multiple layouts for this plane, but the first one below is the most common. Doesn't really bother me which type we get!



So for those of you playing along at home, it's costing us a grand total of USD $361.20 in cash (+ a butt load of points of course!) for both of us to fly the 18 hours across the Pacific in business class and back again. We'll be spending far more than that on our economy flights within the US and getting to and from South East Asia lol!

 

[zanzibar138]

Road trip!

Ben's friend has been hassling him to go back to Vegas for years, so when he heard that we were planning to get married in the US, the plan was hatched to meet in Vegas for a few days on the way across to Orlando. Now that we're not doing the Disney wedding, the friend is very happy that he no longer has to make time/funds available for Disney. However, because we're not going to be spending as much time together now, Ben wanted to spend a bit longer in Vegas to make it worthwhile.

Ben's friend has been keen to get something booked in for a few months now, so we've found ourselves planning this first part of our trip to and around Vegas as a priority. Both boys were keen to do a bit of a road trip, as neither have driven around the US before, and they were also keen to see a few of a the natural sights in the area. Hoover Dam was a major priority as they didn't get to that last time, and Route 66 was also high on the list. We think we've come up with an itinerary that will give us a small taster of everything.

Starting with our arrival in LA. I'm actually really excited to be flying into Ontario Airport and not having to deal with LAX, plus it puts us in a pretty good spot for the drive to Vegas. I've booked us in for the night at Azure Hotel and Suites, which just seemed to be the best combination of price, location, convenience and good reviews.



The next day we'll start the day with our included breakfast, pick up a hire car from the airport and aim to hit the road after morning peak hour. Our route for the day will be largely dependent on weather since, as an Aussie, the idea of driving in the snow is beyond terrifying lol! If we're able to, it would be nice to be able to drive in via the 190 through the Joshua Trees, past the national park sign and into Panamint Springs. It's fairly high altitude (and the longest option at about 5 hours) though so may be a no go. Option 2 is via the 178 past the pinnacles (not sure if you can see anything without going off road though), which would save us about an hour. Unfortunately that would still put us on the 190 before the main pass, so will still be a no go if there's any chance of snow. The safe option will be via Barstow and north from Baker on the 127. Should take us about the same time as option 2, but it's all low altitude area. Our destination for that night will be The Ranch at Death Valley.



We're pretty excited about this one, looks like a very interesting place (and the boys are looking forward to a drink in the old west style saloon). We'd be keen to do one of their horse riding tours either at sunset or sunrise the next morning. Other items of particular interest at Death Valley will be Zabriskie Point, Artist's Palette, Devil's Golf Course, Badwater Basin and Dante's View. Depending on our route and arrival time, we'll either do these things in the afternoon or on the way out the next morning.



Whether we do the sunrise horse riding tour or not, it will likely still be a fairly early morning to fit in some of the sights at Death Valley before the 2 hour drive to Red Rock Canyon. I haven't done a lot of research on what's there yet, but there doesn't seem to be anything specific that I want to see - might just be driving the scenic loop and stopping wherever looks good.



Then it'll be another hour skirting around the bottom of Vegas to Boulder City for a night at Best Western Hoover Dam. Again, this seemed to be the best combination of price, location, convenience and good reviews.



Will be another relatively early start the next day. After our included breakfast, we'll head out to Hoover Dam. Ben will want to take the tour, and I want to cross the memorial bridge as I didn't do that last time. We may even be tempted to do a rafting tour if there's one at a suitable time.



From there it's a bit over an hour to Kingman. There's nothing specific we want to do in Kingman - it's more of a gateway to Oatman really. Oatman made the list because of the iconic ghost town type feel and the wild burros. It's nearly an hour's drive from Kingman with some decent hilly sections but I wouldn't expect any snow (hopefully!).



Then 2 hours back to Vegas, where we'll drop off the hire car at the airport and take an Uber to our hotel on the strip (there is absolutely ZERO chance of me driving on the strip!). We'll be spending 4 nights at the Luxor. It's where Ben and his friend stayed last time they were there and they loved it.

 

[AnnaS]

Congratulations!!!

You are very thorough. Would love to go out West again some day. Might follow your itinerary . I will have to stop complaining about our long flight to Italy. (I do't like flying/but no issues with ears, etc.).

Following along.

 

[zanzibar138]

Congratulations!!!

You are very thorough. Would love to go out West again some day. Might follow your itinerary . I will have to stop complaining about our long flight to Italy. (I do't like flying/but no issues with ears, etc.).

Following along.

Welcome aboard!

I just love the desert areas over there, so much more interesting than our desert which is basically just a big flat straight expanse of sameness lol! I'd love to spend more time in Arizona and Utah - sadly didn't have time this trip as well as my concerns about snow and driving.

 

[zanzibar138]

Let's get to Disney already!

Being as this is a Disney forum after all, I'll get onto some of our thoughts for Disney. We haven't made any specific arrangements yet, it's more brainstorming at this point.

A rough itinerary:
We will have 14 nights in Orlando (so 13 full days), which is slightly less than we were originally going to do, but the wedding and associated activities were going to take up quite a bit of time.

• I'm really hoping to be able to do 2 full days (or equivalent with park hopping) in each park, with 3 in the Magic Kingdom. So that's 9 days...
• We had already put down a non-refundable deposit for wedding photography, so we're still going to have a bridal photo shoot. We plan to make that kind of a rest day, so that's 10 days...
• Ben really wanted to go to Kennedy Space Center, so that's 11 days...
• We both really wanted to spend a day in a natural area nearby too, would love to see some manatees (and it seems it will be the perfect time of year for it) and do an airboat ride. So that's 12 days...
• I would have liked to get to Universal too, which would take us out to a full 13 days, not accounting for any down time to enjoy Disney Springs, resort-hopping, water parks etc. Ben would also love to get to a basketball game while we're over there. Ugh, why is there never enough time???

Specific Disney activities:
I've got a long list of specific things I'd love to try to fit in to our trip. Some of these are to kind of make up for no longer having the Disney wedding.

• There's the bridal portraits shoot of course. Not sure where/when yet but I love the idea of incorporating horses and/or fireworks. But I also want daytime photos and a castle view... I think I need to work on my priorities lol! On our bridal portraits day, we'll also plan to do a character meal while we're in our full wedding attire - maybe Chef Mickey's?
• On one of our MK days, we'll plan to dress up (I'm having my wedding dress custom made as separate pieces that I should be able to wear into the park) and have a Capture the Moment session and a meal at CRT.
• Also in the MK, I'm interested in the Keys to the Kingdom tour, breakfast at Crystal Palace, and a HEA dessert party.
• At AK, I'm interested in the Wild Africa Trek, breakfast at Tusker House and another Capture the Moment session.
• At EPCOT, I'm interested in meals at Coral Reef, Space 220 and San Angel Inn.
• At DHS, I'm interested in a F! dining package, and Ben will love the Star Wars area. We'll have to do some sort of themed dining/drinking experience there and possibly another Capture the Moment session.
• Around the resorts, I'm interested in
  • Monorail bar crawl ending with Trader Sam's and fireworks from the beach at the Poly.
  • Doing the entire Skyliner route - I love cable cars!
  • Spending some time at AKL viewing the savanna and a meal at Boma.
  • A meal at Cali Grill since we were planning to have our reception there, or possibly the dessert party they have at the CR instead.
  • WL for Storybook Dining and/or Whispering Canyon.
  • Carriage ride at POR, but I also want to visit the horses at FW, so maybe we should just do the carriage ride there too.
• And other things I'm interested in include Cirque and Aerophile at Disney Springs, and a round of minigolf.

So you can see why I'm concerned about not having much spare time outside of the parks!

Accommodation
Unfortunately for us, the AUD is not that great at the moment (although it could be worse!), which means that accommodation is going to be EXPENSIVE! We both agree that it's definitely worth staying onsite, and I'm trying really hard to justify the cost of renting DVC points to stay somewhere more convenient. I really hate buses and would prefer not to stay somewhere that doesn't have any other options for transport. We will absolutely be expecting to do a split-stay, with a preference for at least 4 nights at any one place.

With 14 nights, we would ideally be aiming for something like 5 nights MK area, 6 nights EPCOT area, 3 nights AKL. Based on the prices I've seen, a more realistic plan is probably 5 nights at an All Star, 5 nights CBR or DS area DVC rental, 4 nights WL DVC rental. Even that puts us about $100 p/n over budget!

 

[zanzibar138]

Taken the plunge!

So I did a thing... booked a week at BLT via DVC rental. I did get some feedback that a week would probably be too much, but honestly we're planning to spend quite a lot of time in the MK area, and the monorail to EPCOT doesn't fill me with dread. Within those 7 days, I will attempt to schedule the following to take full advantage of the amazing location!

• At least 2 full days at MK, possibly 3, including an EMH night. To include:
  • Capture Your Moment shoot
  • Meal at CRT (any meal)
  • Early breakfast at Crystal Palace
  • Keys to the Kingdom tour
• Bridal photo shoot with the castle/fireworks in the background
• Resort activities including:
  • Cali Grill and Chef Mickey's at CR
  • Trader Sam's at Poly
  • Storybook Dining and/or Whispering Canyon at WL
  • Possible horse related activities at FW

Even though I've never been a huge fan of the aesthetic/theming at CR, I wasn't expecting to ever get the opportunity to stay at a monorail resort, so I am SUPER excited!

The week is in the middle of our trip, so we still have the first 4 night to book and the final 3 nights. I will try my hardest to get into AKL for the final 3 nights, but the first 4 will most likely have to be value. I still think Pop will work well as a complementary resort for non-bus transport to DHS and EPCOT.

 

[zanzibar138]

Starting to come together

Thought I'd jump back on Qantas while I was in planning mode and see if I'd have any luck with any of our outstanding flights. Success! Business class flights from Perth to KL were available, 1 day before we'd planned to leave, but I'll take that. Very uncivilised timing, departing around 2am and arriving at 7ish in the morning, but it'll be doable in business class, and at least we'll get the whole day there.

We'll be flying with Malaysia Airlines for this leg. Many people have strong opinions about Malaysia Airlines, but I've never had any trouble flying with them before, and have always found the service to be good if nothing else. I haven't actually tried their business class product yet. I don't have high expectations, but it's gotta be better than economy for a 5 hour flight in the middle of the night!





For both of us to fly business class, it was 122,400 Qantas points + AUD $251.18 in taxes (about $164 USD). That takes us to a grand total of USD $525.20 for flights so far. Still need to book the domestic flights within the US and the flight home from Singapore.

 

[iivye]

I have followed along since the Aussie Bride posts. Your trip sounds amazing and things are really falling into place! Can't wait to hear more.

 

[zanzibar138]

I have followed along since the Aussie Bride posts. Your trip sounds amazing and things are really falling into place! Can't wait to hear more.

Welcome back!

 

[zanzibar138]

A *very* rough plan for Disney

Last night I worked through our itinerary now that we've got some accommodation locked in, to try to piece together a little bit more. It's like doing one of those logic puzzles, trying to consider location of our accommodation, likely crowd levels in each park, EMH nights, distances between everything, timings of specific activities and personal preferences for when we might like to do things... was really trying to consider downtime as well but I think I've failed on that one for now lol! So here's a very first very rough draft of what things could look like.

Day	Accommodation	Daily Focus	Morning	Afternoon	Evening
MON	Arrival, Pop?	Travel day
TUE	Pop?	EPCOT		Coral Reef	Luminous
WED	Pop?	DHS			F! Dining Package?
THU	Pop?	Kennedy			Trader Sam's
FRI	Transfer to BLT	MK	Capture Your Moment	CRT	Cali Grill
SAT	BLT	AK	Tusker House		WL, Water Pageant from Geyser Point
SUN	BLT	MK	Keys to the Kingdom
MON	BLT	Mixed	Manatees	Airboat	EPCOT EMH, San Angel Inn
TUE	BLT	Rest/DS		Aerophile	Cirque, DS Dinner/Drinks
WED	BLT	Mixed	Chef Mickey	Bridal Portraits	MK EMH, HEA Dessert Party
THU	BLT	EP		Space 220
FRI	Transfer to AKL?	DHS			Boma
SAT	AKL?	AK		Wild Africa Trek
SUN	AKL?	Open
MON	Departure	Travel day

 

[zanzibar138]

Book ends nearly complete

With accommodation now booked for our short stopovers on the way to and from the US, we are gradually getting our itinerary locked in. We now have all accommodation booked except for our first few and last few nights at Disney. And all international flights except the one back from Singapore. My parents have decided that they will meet us in Singapore (and probably arrive a couple of nights before us to give themselves some more time), so we might try to get on the same flight as them coming back.

As usual, there was quite a process for me to pick the hotels, involving spreadsheets and ratings and 'if' formulae. I finally settled on these ones!

Element Kuala Lumpur
I chose this one partly due to its location in the city centre area, near the Petronas Towers and close to transport links.



It also has great views from the pool.



And some of the rooms (I have booked us a 'view' room, so hoping for a great view of KL Tower).



It's a relatively new hotel that also gets pretty good reviews.

Potential activities for KL:

• Petronas Towers and surrounding garden area
• KL Tower and surrounding rainforest reserve with suspension bridge
• Botanic Gardens including bird and butterfly aviaries
• Batu Caves
• Night markets

Mondrian Singapore Duxton
This one I booked mostly because it was great value being a bit of an opening special. Got it for a great price for Singapore, with the added bonus of included daily breakfast, daily drink and late check-out of 2pm (which we may or may not use). It's also a decent location kind of on the edge of Chinatown, should be about a 10 minute walk to Outram Park Station, which gives us access to 3 different train lines to pretty much take us wherever we might want to go.



It also has this amazing rooftop pool.



I couldn't justify the extra spend for a view room, but I'm sure we'll be very happy with our standard room.



Potential activities for Singapore:
(we have only recently been to Singapore, so did most of the 'must-do' list on the last trip)

• Further exploration of Chinatown including finding the famous Satay Street
• Finish my tour of Fort Canning Park which got rained out on the last day of our last trip!
• Explore more of Sentosa Island with a focus on more of the walking trails/beach areas (we won't bother with Universal Studios)

Both of these hotels are far more luxurious than I normally book, so I'm a bit excited!

 

[zanzibar138]

All international flights done and dusted

After trying for a long time to no avail, and finally confirming with Qantas over the phone this morning, I have been unable to get us business class flights with points for the trip from Singapore back to Perth. It's frustrating, because the flights are available to book with points as part of a return journey, just not one way. And I have plenty enough points to be able to cover it.

It is what it is, so we'll be flying with Scoot. Scoot is Singapore Airline's low budget carrier. I've flown with them before and have always been very happy with them, so it's not terrible, just not business lol! It's only a 5 hour flight, and in the middle of the day, so economy will be fine. Having said that, I decided since we've saved so much on our other flights, we could splurge on Scoot Plus, which has included luggage and meal, plus a slightly wider seat with more leg room and a few other perks like priority boarding and KrisFlyer points. There are only 2 seats across too which is nice. Once I'd added luggage and meals to the economy fares, Scoot Plus wasn't actually that much more expensive to get the bit nicer end to our trip!





Sadly this flight has cost us in cash terms - came in at just over AUD $1,100 for both of us. We're still sitting at a grand total of just over USD $1,200 total though, which is pretty good! Just the domestic flights to go now within the US. Sadly there was no availability for reward flights from Vegas to MCO, but there was plenty of availability for MCO to LAX, so I might get that booked in soon.