** Photos added!! Two Aussie Sisters plus 1 very excited 8 year old...

[PrincessInOz]

This is cut and pasted from the Aust thread...

You know you should be flying V Australia when ... 3 days before you are due to fly direct from Sydney to LAX, Qantas ring to advise that you have been bumped from the direct flight and will now be travelling via Brisbane, leaving 7 hours earlier, with a 3 hour stopover in Brisbane, before arriving at LAX 3 hours earlier...

Which sounds like it wouldn't be 'that' bad, arriving early. But for a miriad of reasons, it SUCKS! Losing a packing morning b/c you have to leave home around 5:30am to get to airport on time. The sitting around Brisbane airport. The extra take off and landing for 2 already nervous fliers. The potential for flight delays and missing connections...

Basically Qantas contacted Aust yesterday and asked whether we'd consider changing flights - obviously we said no. Their response today was that they could only bump people that they could contact. Seems a lot of people don't put contact details on their flight bookings (I can see why now!).

We have sent a fax to Qantas detailing why this is an inconvenience to us. I'm sure they won't care, but we've asked for at least access to the Qantas lounge in Brisbane.

FLY V AUSTRALIA PEOPLE!!!!!

Sorry you got bumped. I hope that you have smooth, trouble-free flights.

 

[heidispidi]

Qantas found us seats on our original flight but a day early - so tonight was spent packing etc! I was unable to book a night at GCH but I have at Disneyland Hotel, and we may be able to arrange something on arrival (although I may phone reservations in the morning and see what can be done before we arrive). Have to change my travel insurance in the morning also, get my daughter's hair cut and be at the airport by 11:30am/12 o'clock.

How good is it to be going TOMORROW??!!

If I don't update in the morning, I will when I get to DL.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Safe flying! And I'll look forward to the 'live' updates.

 

[Aust]

Here, and having a ball! Flight was awful, had next to no sleep. GCH is AMAZING! Asked for and received an upgrade to a room with pool views and California Adventures views also - it's really great!

Just quickly, as it's 11:35pm and I need to be up at 6am for MM, we went on something like 16 rides today, including Cal Screamin', Space Mtn, Splash Mtn, etc. Will list later. Had dinner with the lovely Chesire, her husband and 2 sons, so nice to meet them!

Half asleep here, just thought I should check in. Be back tomorrow!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Glad you got there safely Aust and Heidi. I don't sleep on planes either; which is why I prefer to fly out of Australia in the morning. That way I don't stress about the lack of sleep I'm (not) getting on the planes and spend my time trying to find other people to chat with!

 

[SnowWhite09]

Glad to hear your having a great time after all the issues with your flight. We flew V Australia on our last trip and they were great!

I hope the rest of your trip is as wonderful as can be and look forward to hearing how things go!!

 

[AussieDisneyNut]

Glad to hear you arrived safely ... have a ball! Lucky you getting an upgrade at GCH, look forward to hearing all about it.

 

[Aust]

This is Heidi. We'll do a full update tomorrow, but just want to say how AWESOME Fantasic was tonight! We were in the reserved seating with our dessert boxes - that cheesecake was YUM! The show is like nothing I've seen before.

Universal tomorrow, then DL closes at 8pm, so will update when I"m not so tired (a recurring them, we all had nanna-naps this afternoon!).

 

[ebert]

Glad you had a good time! Sounds like you were "flat out like a lizard drinking" trying to get here, but in the end it all worked out and "Bob's yer uncle".

That's about all the Australian I know. ;-)

 

[Aust]

OK, now I'm home (Heidi is in Hawaii for another few days) and can finally start the proper trip report! We were too tired and busy to do it while at DL.

So: Day 1 - Friday 7th January.

Found out on Thursday evening we'd now be leaving on Friday at 3.10pm (direct from Sydney) instead of Saturday via Brisbane! There went our leisurely Friday of packing and last-minute jobs. Also my 2 daughters were going to Phuket with my in-laws on Friday so I had to finish their packing as well as mine. So it was abit frantic, but all done, including a few phone calls on Friday morning to get an extra night's accomodation at GCH, change our car pickup, and extend travel insurance.

My girls' and in-laws' flight to Phuket was delayed and ended up leaving about 10 minutes after ours, so we were all at the airport together which was nice. The flight was not fun...we went Qantas and due to being an old 747 because of the A380 dramas the plane was pretty shabby. Also they forgot Jaymi's kid's meal (along with several others), the seats were plain uncomfortable and we slept less than an hour each (and not in one hit!), the meals were small and not very good, and some of the crew not very friendly or helpful. Towards the end of the 12 1/2 hours it felt like some sort of torture chamber. But on the upside, the engines stayed in one piece, so we were happy about that! (ha).

We got to LAX on time at about 9.30am and got our Execucar transfer to the Grand Californian with no problems. Loved the Grand Californian from the start! On checking in Heidi asked if there was a possibility of an upgrade from the standard room we'd booked. The CM said no, but then she checked again and said yes she could give us a better view, and the room was available straight away (it was about 12pm) which was great. We got our park tickets, some lovely balloons, buttons etc:

Then we went up to the room...I was expecting maybe a DTD view, but we opened the curtains to this!!

We were very impressed. But didn't spend too much time looking at the view, we wanted to go to Disneyland!

First we stopped at the bookshop/cafe in DTD for a quick sandwich. We had planned on doing the big first entrance to DL via the main gate but being so tired we decided to go via the monorail and Tomorrowland.

We had a wander around - it had been a bit over 3 years since my last trip, and I had forgot how compact DL is! Also Heidi was a bit underwhelmed by the size of the castle. I felt kind of unreal, like I wasn't really there - a combination of being so tired and having planned the trip so long and then being there a day early. It was all a bit weird. My head felt like it wasn't attached to my body.

We decided to make our first ride Space Mountain. Being a Friday afternoon it was a 45 minute wait. But when we got on it was great - one of my favourite rides, and Heidi and Jaymi loved it.

Then we wandered over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and waited about 30 min I think. They liked that too (Jaymi loves the thrill rides). Then I think we walked around a bit longer...can't really remember, was too tired! But we had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, probably didn't fully take in the surroundings, but the food was really good (BEST onion rings ever).

We wanted to try the volcano dessert but we were too full, and almost falling asleep at the table.

Jaymi looked how we all felt:

So we went back to the hotel (love the short walk!) and had all passed out by 7.30pm. I had a huge Disneyland blitz planned for the next day, Heidi and Jaymi didn't know what was going to hit them.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Welcome back Aust and a great start to the TR. That view you have is fantastic and it would have been nice to come back to that view every day.

I'll have to catch up on the TR when I return or where I have the opportunity for Internet over the next 10 days.

Hope Heidi and dd get home safely.

 

[Aust]

Day 2 - Saturday 8th Jan

We were up about 7am, feeling much better after our 12 hours of sleep. We had a quick breakfast in the room and got into the park about 8.45am (magic morning started at 8am but we decided sleep was better). Lined up for rope drop to Adventureland:

and at 9am we shot off to Indiana Jones (Jaymi leading the way).

Rides for the day:

1. Indiana Jones (walk on and got FP's for later)

2. Splash Mountain x 2 (walk on, and they let us go round a second time as there was no one waiting)

3. Winnie the Pooh (walk on)

4. Pirates (walk on)

5. Jungle Cruise (5 minute wait! drama!)

New Orleans Square still had Christmas decorations up so I was really happy about that, thought we wouldn't see any.

I had planned for lounch at this point but due to my extremely efficient planning it was only 10.30am! So we continued with the rides:

6. Railroad from New Orleans Square to Toontown

7. Roger Rabbit (5 min wait)

8. Gadget's Go Coaster (5 min)

9. Mickey's House (5 min)

10. Minnie's House (looked at from the outside as Minnie had gone on a break)

Toontown was also still decorated for Christmas. We got some nice photos of Jaymi with Goofy in front of the Christmas tree.

11. It's a Small World Holiday (10 min) - an improvement on the usual version! The song is a little less irritating when interspersed with Jingle Bells. And the decorations were really nice.

12. Nemo (30 min! longest wait of the trip except for the first day).

13. Indiana Jones (using FP)

Then we had lunch at the Riverbelle Terrace - the hot carved turkey rolls were really good.

A bit late but I finallly got a photo of Jaymi out the front of DL

We wandered over to DCA for Heidi and Jaymi's first look. We didn't go on any rides but met Aviator Minnie.

A short rest back at the hotel then we took a taxi to Anaheim GardenWalk for a spot of shopping. Heidi got her Sketchers and sunglasses, and I got some Harley shirts for a friend. It was pretty empty, had heard it's a bit of a white elephant, but we appreciated the bargains. Got to love cheap American prices combined with a record high Aussie dollar.

At 5.30pm we made our way to Big Thunder Ranch BBQ for dinner. We met up with DIS-er Cheshire and her DH and 2 adorable (and very well behaved) little boys. It was great to meet them and give them some tips for their upcoming move to Australia. And the food was really good too, just too much!

We loved the holiday lights on IASW:

Jaymi was desperate to go on California Screaming, so we went to DCA and rode it twice (once with FP and then a 10 min wait). Then back to DL for Space Mountain (FP) and Heidi and Jaymi went back to the hotel while I lined up for 30 minutes for a choc chip cookie ice cream sundae (worth the wait!) and the fireworks. Last trip I missed the fireworks so I was really happy to see them this time, they were also worth the wait. Loved them! Loved how they are set to the music, and the lighting effects on the castle.

So that was a pretty busy day but we got heaps done - exhausting ourselves in the process.

 

[skiingfast]

Sounds like you made a great go of it. I'm really glad you got to see the fireworks.

 

[Aust]

Day 3 - Sunday 9th Jan

After a late night we dragged ourselves out of bed Magic Morning (8am). Due to some creative line shuffling we ended up in the front at our turnstile and had a great view of the little opening ceremony. Jaymi had caught my DL commando-style so had to be restrainied from running up Main Street to Fantasyland, but she stopped for Donald!

Went straight to Fantasyland and walked onto everything:

1. Peter Pan - given Jaymi's love of roller coasters I didn't think she'd like Peter Pan, but she did.

2. Matterhorn x 2 (only once for me, I don't like the bits near the edge!)

3. Dumbo (by myself while Heidi and Jaymi went on the Matterhorn again) - felt a bit silly going on by myself as an adult but I couldn't miss it.

4. Mr Toad (Heidi was scared!)

5. Pinocchio (Heidi scared again!)

6. Snow White (as above)

7. Alice

We skipped the teacups as they make us feel sick.

We then went over to Tomorrowland:

8. Buzz Lightyear (5 min wait)

9. Space Mountain (5 min)

10. Then BTMRR (5 min)

We were starting to fade by this point - jet lag plus our busy day before was catching up with us! We dragged ourselves through Tarzan's Treehouse and then went to the Enchanted Tiki Room. Heidi described it as 15 minutes of her life she wouldn't be getting back...I thought it was interesting in a retro kind of way, and I actually really liked the chanting statues near the end.

We plodded back to the hotel - even though it was cold Jaymi wanted to swim so we headed off to the pool. In she went, while Heidi and I sat on deckchairs rugged up in 2 jackets each! Had to laugh at the lifeguards wearing what looked like ski suits, we wanted to see them perform a rescue to see if they jumped in fully clothed.

We ordered some beef nachos, burger and chicken nuggets from White Water Snacks. Loved the nachos, they are as good as everyone says. Then it was nap time for myself and Jaymi while Heidi went shopping in DTD - she spent up a storm in Quiksilver and Sephora, soooo much cheaper than at home!! Then we did a swap, she had a nap while I went shopping.

So feeling much better, we had dinner at Naples - ordered 3 'individual' pizzas, same size as a large here! Way too much food but really nice. Jaymi loved her balloon Ariel

We then wandered back into DL to check in for our Fantasmic reserved seating. Then wandered around New Orleans Square - I think that's my favourite part of DL.

Heidi bought herself a very attractive Dopey hat complete with ears - I want to see her wear it at home!

We got settled into our Fantasmic seats at about 8.30 with our drinks and dessert boxes. Yum - how good were they! Way too much food but really nice, especially the cheesecake. We had lots of leftovers. The show was great - again I missed it on my first trip so was good to finally see it. And as an added bonus we saw the fireworks from our seats before Fantasmic.

To top off the day we went back to Fantasyland where Jaymi and I went on Dumbo and Heidi dropped our dessert box leftovers (they should design the boxes better, I dropped them again back at the hotel, the lids come off too easily!) We also saw IASW lit up for the holidays - so beautiful, we were really happy to see it.

And there ended Day 3.

 

[Aust]

Day 4 - Monday 10th January

Universal Studios Day

No Disneyland today! We were picked up by Van the van driver for our trip to Universal. We planned on meeting some friends of Heidi's from home who were/are spending 7 weeks in the US and Canada.

After some fiddling around with our passes (wrong gate twice, etc) we entered US. It was my 2nd visit and the first for Heidi and Jaymi. NO crowds at all...we walked onto everything pretty much the whole day. And every other person we did see seemed to be Australian too!

Rides:

1. The Simpsons (loved it! wasn't finished when I was there last time).

2. The Mummy (seemed shorter than last time? but still fun)

3. The Mummy (again)

4. Jurassic Park

5. Jurassic Park (again)

On our way back to the upper lot we bumped into Heidi's friends and their 5 yo son - they made it despite spending the evening at the emergency room after their son cut his chin open at the beach. Agreed to meet up for lunch after we went on the tram tour and they did some more rides.

The tram tour was good, better than my previous time (before the fire) - loved the King Kong 3D. And we got to go down Wisteria Lane, wish I lived there!

Met up with Heidi's friends - their poor little boy had just ran straight into a rope in The Mummy queueing area and split his chin open again! All caught on video too. Lucky his dad is good at first aid and stuck him back together. We went to Citywalk and had lunch at the Chinese restaurant (Panda something? can't remember), it was really nice. Then a bit of shopping before we went back to US.

Trying to remember what we did then...The Simpsons again, Jaymi was very brave and went into the House of Horrors, and we watched the Terminator 2 show.

Van the van man picked us up and took us on a mini-tour of Hollywood and LA on the way home. Saw all the sights from the van and then spent a LONG time in the peak hour traffic! Finally got back to GCH about 7.30pm I think. We walked down to La Brea Bakery and had burgers for dinner, then back to the hotel for an early night (relatively speaking).

 

[Aust]

Day 5 - Tuesday 11th January

Ok, determined to get this trip report finished!

Today was our DCA day (we had been to DCA for a bit of California Screaming already).

First though we took advantage of Magic Morning at DL to go on Peter Pan.

Then off to the GCH entrance to DCA - hung around for about 5 minutes before they let us in to go on Soaring at about 9.30am. Love that ride! I'd forgotten how realistic it is.

Then we waited for rope drop at 10am

and went straight to TSMM. Even with rushing over there straight from rope drop we had a 15 minute wait - the people lined up at the GCH entrance were closer! Oh well, we got to go on Soaring so shouldn't complain. TSMM was fun, I was hopeless at the targets but it was better than Buzz and better than I expected.

Off to California Screaming again - twice in a row with a 5 minute wait each time. After embarrassing myself and Heidi and Jaymi with my excessive screaming on Saturday night I managed to tone it down this time and distract myself with the scenery of the snow covered mountains in the distance. Also I told Heidi about the hidden Mickeys during the loop-the-loop so we tried spotting them - Heidi did on the 2nd go.

Onto Mickey's Fun Wheel next - Jaymi wanted to go in a swinging gondola, Heidi and I said no way we were going but she was quite welcome to - she was in the line for about 30 seconds before deciding she didn't want to go by herself! And I think she was pretty happy about it when she saw all the people screaming in the swnging gondolas around us. We walked on (to a non-swinging gondola) and enjoyed the view. Love the view of all the construction up there.

Next on my schedule was Silly Symphony Swings and the Golden Zephyr - but Jaymi didn't want to ride them and Heidi hates round-and-round rides, so we bypassed those and went straight to the Tower of Terror. I was pretty scared of this ride, I chickened out last visit. But if my 8 year old neice wasn't scared, then I had to go on it with her! We walked on, and although we didn't have much time to enjoy it, I loved the atmosphere and decoration of the queue area and the room you go into first. And the ride itself - a bit scary but we all loved it! Think it's now my favourite ride. It's also the ride we never got sick of, even after going on it 5 times in 4 days. We walked on again for a second ride straight after the first and got FP's for later.

Monsters Inc after that, which was abit underwhelming for everyone (not fast or scary enough), then we walked through A Bug's Land (didn't go on any of the rides). I had a look in the Blue Sky Cellar at the DCA improvement plans. We dropped into the Tortilla Factory for our freebies (and were bad and went back for seconds). Then had lunch at Pacific Wharf - Heidi and Jaymi had Chinese chicken with rice, and I had a Chinese chicken salad in a bread bowl - the salad was good but didn't quite understand why it was in the bread bowl, think soup works much better in them! And sooooo much bread, and no butter to put on it - think they need to provide butter, otherwise that much bread is too dry.

What to do then....we wandered into the Animation Academy. I wasn't expecting much, but it was really great. We learned how to draw Daisy Duck (mine ended up looking a bit evil), and I loved the setup of the place. Then we went through the Sorcerer's Workshop. Again I loved the atmosphere and design of the interior, so much thought and detail in it. Jaymi spent AGES drawing her Mickey heads and balloons on the strip of paper to put in the circular thing to animate it (I helped but mine looked like distorted frogs). And we laughed ourselves silly when we did the singing thing with Ursurla, our Heigh Ho was not good (especially my attempt at whistling, wasn't working for some reason). We didn't stay for Turtle Talk with Crush so will have to do that next time. I think you could spend almost a whole day just in that building by itself, it was so much better than I expected.

A couple more rides after that - Tower of Terror (FP), Screaming (FP and I saw the hidden Mickeys), and Soaring (walk on).

We went back to the hotel then to do some mundane things like washing and resting. We then went to DL for dinner at the PLaza Inn. Between us we had 2 adult fried chicken dinners and 1 kid's meal - Jaymi ate our drumsticks plus her own, no way we could finish all the chicken! And I could ahve had the mashed potatoes and vegies and gravy by itself, was very tasty. No room for dessert (which was a disappointing thing all trip - we wanted to try the cookie dessert at Big Thunder Ranch BBQ, volcano at Rainforest Cafe, and cake or pie here, but the main meals were too big!)

Heidi went back to the hotel and Jaymi and I took the railroad (spooky at night) to Toontown for another ride on Dumbo - we both took a liking to it, I thought it would be too babyish for Jaymi but she liked it. Then back to the hotel for sleep!

 

[Aust]

Day 6 - Wednesday 12th Jan

Started today off with our character breakfast at Storytellers Cafe. The food was great - loved that they bring the waffles and pancakes fresh to the table, and the buffet food was great too, enjoyed it much more than Goofy's Kitchen my first trip. The characters were a bit ho-hum though, probably because they don't talk! When we planned the breakfast before the trip Jaymi wasn't really into characters so didn't really care who we saw - but once on the trip she liked them more, so maybe one of the other breakfasts would ahve been better for character interaction, but didn't matter, the food made up for it. The raccoon from Pocahontas (whose name I don't know) was so funny, a great communicator for a non-talking animal!

Our aim for the day was to finish off the DL rides we didn't do on Sunday as we were so tired, re-do some favourites, and be back at the hotel by 4pm as we had a flight to San Francisco that night.

So order of events was:

1. Peter Pan (less than 5 min wait)

2. Heidi and Jaymi met Tinkerbell and Iredessa (10 min wait) while I got FP's for Indiana Jones

3. Storybook Land Canal Boats (walk on)

4. Buzz Lightyear (walk on)

5. Splash Mountain (walk on)

6. BTMRR (5 min wait)

7. Indiana Jones (FP)

8. Tom Sawyer Island - which Jaymi didn't want to go to as she thought it would be boring, but she had a great time. And I saw a beautiful green hummingbird which was a first - when I told Heidi she asked if it was real! (getting too used to animatronic animals).

Lunch was at Cafe Orleans - I was determined to have my pomme frites! (was supposed to have lunch there by myself on Monday but went to Universal instead). Loved the pomme frites, they were delicious. I also had a house salad (just for the candied pecans and raqspberry viniagrette) and Heidi and I had the blackened chicken caesar salad and Jaymi had..I can't remember, something off the kid's menu. Again no room for dessert!!! (maybe due to the cupcakes we had earlier from Pooh's Corner).

I was determined we would do the other half of the railroad and monorail we'd missed. So We took the railroad from New orleans Square to Main Street, then the monorail from Tomorrowland to DTD.

We were picked up by Van the van man's father-in-law Chuck for the drive to John Wayne airport (which was much bigger than I expected, and I was a bit disappointed not to see the John Wayne statue, I wanted a photo with it, for some reason I was amused by being at a station named after John Wayne, Heidi didn't understand why). We were sooo early for the flight (a family trait - better to be 2 hours early than risk being late!) United flight to San Francisco was fine and we arrived there about 8.30pm for our less-than-24 hours visit.

From the taxi in the dark we could still see how nice a city San Francisco is. We stayed at the Radission at Fisherman's Wharf - a definite come-down from GCH!! but fine for the night and in a good location for our next day's activities. WOuld ahve been better if I'd slept, I was too worried about earthquakes (whereas Heidi was hoping for a small one, just to see what it would feel like).

 

[areweindisneyyet]

Loving the updates Aust. Sounds like you all had a great time. Cant wait to hear of the 24 hours in San Fran.

 

[Aust]

Day 7 - Thurs 13th Jan

San Francisco day!

Woke up to a cold drizzly FOGGY day.

Never mind, it was our only day in SF so we were making the most of it. Checked out and went to the nearby IHOP for breakfast. Then we wandered along Fisherman's Wharf to Pier 33 for our 9.10am Alcatraz ferry departure.

Very well organised, and a pretty good boat for such a short trip. And we saw a seal frolicking in the water right next to the ferry wharf! (it was there when we got back too, I suspect it's actually caged in for the tourists). If we strained our eyes we could JUST make out the Golden Gate Bridge from the ferry. Could see Alcatraz ok.

The audio tour of Alcatraz was really good, very informative and I liked how it included inmates and staff talking. The place itself is pretty grim but very interesting. Great souvenirs too, got some good mugs for DH and my FIL.

An Aussie surprise - a big gum tree on Alcatraz!

It was pouring and of course I'd left my umbrella and rain ponchos at the hotel (Heidi and Jaymi had their specially purchased rain jackets so they were ok) so I had to wear a bright blue Alcatraz poncho, I looked like a massive blue whale. Took the ferry back to Fisherman's Wharf and I bought an umbrella so I didn't have to embarrass them with my poncho any more. Had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe and then wandered around the touristy shops a bit before returning to our hotel for our private car tour pickup.

(The second half of the day):

I've forgotten our friendly tour guide's name - Heidi will have to remind me! Anyway, he picked us up about 1pm and apologised for the bad weather and fog (we didn't hold it against him). Basically he drove us around and showed us the sights and explained some of the history and interesting facts of San Francisco.

Jaymi had the front seat

We drove along Fisherman's Wharf a bit more, drove down the steep windy street (that I can't remember the name of)

We saw lots of hills including Nob Hill and Russian Hill, Union Square, the cable car museum,

Golden Gate Park, lots of beautiful houses including Robin William's

and the row of houses from the opening credits to Full House (very important for us children of the 80's)

and the Golden Gate Bridge. Which was completely invisible, even when it was right in front of us, due to the fog. We could only see it when we were actually on it! so I was hanging out the window taking photos up above. We drove over the bridge and through Sausalito which was really pretty. We definitely covered alot of the city in about 3 1/2 hours. We really liked it and I'd like to go back in the future and spend a few days (and hopefully see the bridge).

So then back to SF airport and the short flight back to ORange County airport, then the GCH (which looks beautiful at night with the fairy lights in the trees).

 

[heidispidi]

I'm so glad you are typing this up for us as I am sure I've forgotten half of the detail! You are doing a great job - keep it coming, only a couple of days left to go!

BTW, I made it home from Hawaii on Saturday night. Had a great time and will update the trip report here once Tanya has completed the DL section