Day 4 - Part 1 - Disney Bound!
Our time in Sydney was fun but we were really looking forward to the real part of the holiday...Disney! And now we were Disney bound! Plus Jared was officially on holidays.
We had decided in order to try get our bodies used to the time zone we were headed too we'd wake up at 3:30am. This was so that when we got on the plane we'd be ready to sleep (at about 12:30pm Sydney time).
It was really relaxing actually, waking up and not having to rush out the door. We'd gone to bed really early so getting up wasn't too hard! To distract myself I edited more Sydney photos and Jared slowly ambled around packing up all the stuff we'd managed to strewn across the room in one night! I think getting up early was easier with the thought that we were on our way to holidays.
We left the hotel at about 6:15am and headed into the airport. Security and customs were so quiet that morning that we arrived at the Virgin Australia lounge at 6:50am!
We enjoyed some really nice food in the lounge. And by that I mean really well prepared eggs (protein is always a good thing to fortify us before our long haul flight)
Jared got his glass of sparkling wine and we enjoyed looking at our business class boarding passes!
I again killed time editing photos. Jared did, I don't actually know (I wasn't paying that much attention to him
).
Anyway at this point my eye had really started to act up. It had started exuding pus and was really sore. I had the foresight to ask my Mum (whose a nurse) what to do the afternoon before, and she suggested I get drops. Jared, on his way to the airport hotel the previous afternoon, had stopped in at a very helpful Chemist (Pharmacist) who'd give him both over the counter antibiotic drops as well as an eye wash. He said if my eye was sticky it was probably best to use the antibiotic drops, twice a day until 2 days after my symptoms disappeared. I HATE eye drops, but I have to admit that it was better than having a horrid sore, red and pus filled eye for our whole trip. Since I can't administer them myself Jared had to do it for me. I just shut my eye - I'm like Rachel, though I don't need all my friends to hold me down to take the drops (I hope some of you got that reference).
We boarded the plane to LA feeling good. As I mentioned earlier we were flying in Business Class, having used points/miles to upgrade. So we were really looking forward to flying in style.
The flight was indeed comfy. I never LOVE the food on planes, even in business class, but this time around it was pretty good (plus check out the cute Opera House salt and pepper shakers!).
Our entrees (appetisers as you'd say in America)
And the mains (entree for you Americans)
I don't think I got a picture of dessert, but I had a delicious cheeseboard with some gourmet crackers, hummus and grapes.
I did sleep, though patchily, for about 8 hours. It wasn't the greatest sleep - and I'm pretty sure I woke up every 1-1.5 hours, but it was sleep so that was good.
We arrived in LA and the worst part of the transit began. I think it took us 2 hours to get through customs. This is fairly normal, and I was prepared for it. What I wasn't prepared for was the really bad headache I was nursing the entire time, which made being herded like cattle through not one, but two customs checks, very difficult!
For some reason (probably related to the new President and his Administration), the US has starting letting visitors from certain countries do a "virtual" customs process. You have to insert your passport into a machine and ask customs questions. The machine also takes your finger prints and photo, which I assume would be verified against your passport picture which was scanned. However, even after all that all we received was a receipt, and we still had to go to a Customs Officer, be fingerprinted AGAIN and have our photos taken and ID checked again. It's a strange system, and I think it took longer to do than the former process where you just saw a Customs Officer. Clearly the country has gotten stricter with immigration laws, but the new process doesn't really add any more security than the old one (in my opinion of course). Plus if you weren't from one of the special countries that were allowed the apparent convenience of this "virtual" process, the line looked a lot shorter!
So it wasn't surprising it took us 2 hours. And we were at the front of a giant pile of people debarking from all the flights from Australia/New Zealand/Asia at that time of morning. I'd hate to think how long it would take if your flight arrived later in the morning and you were at the back of that lot of people. So a word of warning to any Australian travels, allow LOTS of time to get through customs in LA. It's gotten worse!
We were also treated to this surprise upon collecting our luggage
Jared's suitcase was completely ruined. The photo above shows it after we, and the LA airport staff, taped up the gaping rip in the top of the case. In fairness the case was cheap and nasty, a cast off of a friend as we only have one proper suitcase. We normally borrow my parents hardshell case for big trips, but they had misplaced it and so we were stuck with this case!
So with the wait, the headache and the suitcase debacle, by the time we got to the Delta lounge ("The House") my headache was bordering on a migraine. I took some panadol with caffeine (a lot of it) which really helps when I have a bad headache and headed to the showers (thank goodness for Airport Lounges!). After about 40 minutes I was feeling a lot better.
The House lounge was nothing special, but it is always more comfy than being in the main airport. And food and showers are fantastic!
We knew we'd arrived in the US when we looked at the money we'd taken out of the Alien Time Machine (another quote I hope someone gets
)
It's so colourless compared to our money. Our money is also plastic not paper, so that's always different too!
The next flight from LA to Orlando was not great! We flew with Delta and it was honestly one of the worst flying experiences I've had in a long time. In all fairness to Delta, we've flown with them before and never had such a bad experience before.
We were in the row without a window on the window seat, and that really impacted my comfort levels for the flight (I have wide shoulders and on the window there is a little more room so I'm not knocking up against Jared, but I didn't have that luxury this time). But the worst part of the flight was the bathrooms! An hour after take off they were disgusting, with wet patches all over the floor that, by their tint, were not water. And debris everywhere!
The flight went reasonably quickly (thankfully) and we had soon arrived in Orlando. Travel from the time we left Sydney until the time we arrived in Orlando was 24 hours! I shouldn't complain, this trip was better than when we have to fly Perth - Sydney - LA - Orlando, which was have done on 2 other occasions. So when we landed at the beautiful Orlando airport I was so grateful. Not only because we had finally arrived at our destination, but because there is something about the airport that just says "You are on holiday". And of course, it also says "You're at Disney now, so smile".
Tired but happy we hopped on the Orlando monorail to head to the luggage carousel. I love the monorail! It's very relaxing quick journey and always the signals the start of Disney holiday fun.
Believe it or not, we had never used Disney's Magical Express before! As all of our other trips have either included a lot more Universal, or had us staying off property (the first trip), so we've always had a hire car. We never the car to get to the Magic Kingdom but we discovered having a hire car is easier for getting to all the other parks, plus park hopping, than the Disney buses (but more on that later). There was no real need for a car this time, and being budget conscious we decided to forgo one. We were only heading over to Universal for one day, and could easily catch an uber for that. So after collecting our luggage, which was easy given their priority tagging (Virgin Australia has a status match with Delta so Jared is like a diamond member with them), we headed to the Magic Express station.
I got really excited when I saw this (probably too excited, it's not like we were in the line for the Grand Floridian - but you do what you can when the Australian dollar is so bad against the US dollar)
And even more excited when I saw these. I don't know why, but there's something really special about starting your Disney trip from the airport
Sadly for me, none of these magical looking Magical Expresses was ours. We drew the short straw that day and ended up with a plain yellow bus! There were no Disney promos or cartoons, or cute porthole windows. I was a little disappointed, but at the same time I was on my way to Disney so I couldn't be that sad! But see, no Disney video!
We were quite far back in the bus so zooming past the Walt Disney World sign this was the best I could do!
As tired as I was I got really excited seeing the sign. It meant we were at Disney. It also meant a bed was not far away! We were headed to the All Star Music Resort, our favourite of the All Star Resorts (as we are both musicians).
Check in was easy, and went fast. We picked up our magic bands (as non-US residents we can't have ours shipped) and asked a little about our
Disney Dining Plan and how we could find out where to see how many credits we had left. It was in a strange place in the app (under the Resort Hotel section) so I was glad I clarified where I could find it.
It was also our first time using the Dining Plan. When our dollar was doing well against the American dollar it really wasn't worth paying full price for the Dining Plan for two people. However this time paying an extra $500.00 to our total vacation package was totally worth it. We would have spent at least twice that on food with the current exchange rate as it is! Plus this trip we went more for quick service meals, so the Quick Service Dining Plan was useful.
Jared was particularly happy every time we got a food receipt for $0.00. It made his budget face very happy. We have a joke that whenever I want to spend money he has a grumpy looking budget face that's considering if we can afford it in this months budget. It's been shortened to "budgie" face and this picture has been assigned to depict it whenever we are chatting about money and budgets
.
We also asked the CM if we could request our friends, Derrick and Becky (who were checking in the next day) be assigned a room near us. As they hadn't assigned their room yet, and as we had their reservation no thanks to linking our plans in My Disney Experience, it was a request All Star Music was more than happy to accommodate.
We got into the room and planned to get some of the room service (without credits) as we were so tired Jared couldn't even be bothered walking up to the cafeteria for food. We were lucky to be in building 2, which is about as close as you can get without paying for a preferred room, but in our jet-lagged state it was still too far to go for food!
Here are some pictures of the room which Jared shot
I also enjoyed the fact that the wall runner included a picture of a Fender Strat that looked exactly like Jared's. It was the same colour and everything. FYI, that's a type of guitar if you aren't familiar with name.
While Jared showered I watched a little Stacey (is it just me or has she not been updated in a while). Watching Stacey is a little Disney tradition that I always enjoy (even though I don't really need to hear park recommendations and advice at this point). It's just a great reminder you are at Disney!
After our dinner (Parmesan chickens a-piece) was consumed we fell straight asleep as we were so exhausted! I took no pictures of the food because of said exhaustion, so you'll just have to take my word for it that that's what we ate!
And just like that we were really at Disney (24 hours, 2 flights, 2 customs checks, 1 bus and 1 monorail ride later)....
Continued in Next Post....