AlyssaCameronsDad
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2009
Hello fellow Aussies.
We just returned from a 5 week holiday in the states, including 4 days at DLR, which means I can post here
Im too lazy to do a full trip report, besides, you all know what its like its wonderful and magical. Instead, I wanted to just do bullet points on experiences we had. It may be long, so I wont be offended if you leave early.
We flew Delta SYD-LAX, as well as for internal flights. Since we started in Melbourne, we flew Virgin to Sydney. We checked into Virgin domestic and had our bags checked through to final destination without any dramas. MEL-SYD was uneventful. When we got to SYD, we had to transfer via bus to the international terminal, which Virgin arranged for us. Then we had to stand in line, seemingly forever in Delta to get our boarding passes to LAX & onwards. By the time we cleared 2 security lines in international terminal, we go the gates as they were boarding, in a frantic mess, with no water. It took nearly 2 hours to get through Sydney.
The flight SYD-LAX was decent. The seats are 3-3-3, and we were a family of 4, so we were split up 2 & 2, which was a bit inconvenient. Flight was packed. Every seat has screens with on-demand video with selections of latest movies, older movies, bollywood, classics, comedies, etc, etc. tv shows, a few games, kids channels & hbo. I think a few things on hbo were free, but most of hbo was $3, but rest was free. Food was as expected. Lunch, snack & breakfast. Water & drinks served throughout the flight. Flight time was around 13 hours, getting into LAX around 530. Which was a problem because US Customs didnt start work til 6, so we had to sit at the gate for at 20 minutes. BTW, if you want to buy duty free on Delta, you have to do it on the plane because there isnt a duty free shop once you land. You might be able to do it in SYD, but be care of glass bottles you cant carry them on internally to US, they have to be in your checked bags.
Now if youve flown into LAX before, youve gone through the the 7 rings of hell that is the international terminal. Well flying Delta, we landed at the Delta terminal 5, and cleared customs there. We were the only flight and got through relatively quickly. My wife had to do the electronic fingerprinting, but that wasnt a hassle. Picking up our bags was easy & we went out and around the corner to book them on the connecting flights. Since we were flying delta, we didnt have to leave the terminal. I dont remember if we had to re-clear security, but I dont think so. From getting off the plane, to getting our bags checked for the next flight was less than an hour.
We had a 6 hour layover, so we had purchased the lounge access at LAX. It costs $90 for 30 days, which seems steep, but my wife really wanted a shower & a place to relax. And we could use it on all other connections. In terms of snacks, it offers less than Qantas/Virgin domestically. It did offer free alcohol & soft drinks & juices, bagels & toast.
The rest of our Delta connections (2) that day were on time & very pleasant. All full flights, but nothing unbearable.
We spent 3 weeks, including Christmas at my parents in northern Indiana. Mother nature did its thing and dusted snow for us the 1st morning we arrived the kids woke up to snow flurries. Then a week later, we had full on snow, enough for snowmen, sledding, snow angels & snowball fights.
Before I went over, I ordered 2 AT&T pre-paid sims from ebay. Cost us$4 shipped. It worked for my wifes iphone because shes not connected to a carrier. We then put $25 on it. We had a choice of 3 plans we did the .25/call plan and it worked fine. We purchased 200 text messages for $5. Still had $15 left on the sim when we left. It didnt work on mine because although Im not under contract, my phone was still attached to a carrier. So I bought a pre-paid from walmart. $29.88 (+tax) for 300 minutes. It was Net-10, and was .10/minute, and .05/text. Text messages - you pay for sending and receiving. Still had around $19 on that when I left.
We also purchased a tom-tom gps from the states. As stated previously, it was cheaper to buy one than hire it with a car. It worked fantastic & as others stated, I couldnt have done LA without it. Only annoying thing was that when doing LA routes, it asked if you want to avoid HOV lanes. I said I didnt, but that meant it directed me towards them. My 2 complaints with that are that I felt I drove too slow for HOV lane the speed limit it 65 which is minimum. I did 70 (120k) in the HOV lane, but felt too slow. And every time the HOV lane had a broken line to allow people in/out GPS would tell me to keep left. Became tedious when after a while. I did buy Aus maps here for aud$140. I probably could have bought them in the states slightly cheaper with exchange rate. I thought I could simply upgrade to Aus maps, but no luck, only upgraded US maps.
BTW, you cant buy grog in Indiana on Sundays
or Christmas. But you can buy it at 1130pm on Christmas Eve, as thats when we realised we didnt have any wine for my wife. So out in our pajamas at 1130pm on Christmas Eve to buy it at the Pharmacy/Chemist which sells it. Surreal.
We spent the last 10 days of our holiday in Southern California split between San Diego & Anaheim.
When we flew into LA to start the trip, we didnt get in til almost 8pm. That was chaos. The warm weather was great after the cold of the Midwest. We booked a night at the Super8 motel LAX. It was really nice, considering it was a motel under the LAX flight path. The rooms were big & clean. Free breakie in the morning. Directly across from AVIS car rental & a 5 min walk to Hertz, who we used. I think we paid around $80 for the night. Wouldnt want to be there long term, but worked for 12 hours.
It was less than 2 hours drive down to SD from the airport. The freeways were massive! BTW, if you drive south on the 405 from LA to SD, dont worry about the toll road its around $5 for less than 10 miles not worth it.
In San Diego, we stayed at a house booked through Nancys Vacation Rentals. It was perfect literally 2 blocks from a beautiful beach with a playground. Less than 15 mins from Sea World & the Zoo. We decided to book a house over hotel because we wanted the space & wanted to be able to cook meals. Also saw that everything in SD you had to drive to. So, figured we go a house. Wed do that again if we ever go back to SD.
Sea world was our 1st park in our holiday. It was okay. It took 30 mins to get our vouchers exchanged for tickets, because there were so many people waiting in line. Then we had to line up to get in bag checks were the main thing. They say they dont allow food into the park, but we didnt see anybody getting food taken away. So not sure what you can take in. But its expensive to eat in there we paid over $50 for lunch for 4 which was a bit of a shock. The exhibits were good, the rides average. We split our visit over 2 days, with our 2nd day being New Years Day. We had booked breakfast with Shamu and were at the park at 830, thinking it opened at 9. Unfortunately, it didnt open til 10. So were driving through the parking gates, which were open, and its like Chevy Chase at Wally world. Driving through an empty parking lot, not paying, wondering what is going on. While they opened the park at 915, you couldnt get past the main area till 10. The 2 rides they have didnt open til 12. Bizarre. Breakfast with Shamu was alright, not convinced worth the price, though. Certainly all you can eat & we didnt eat again til dinner, but still, average. We did see the dolphins & the whales, but so could anybody who walked by the glass walls on the other side of the pool.
We did the Zoo over 2 days as well. Its very hilly, with some fairly steep hills at times. There is a bus that goes around, but we didnt do that. We did the sky rail which was fun. In contrast to seaworld, the zoo doesnt do bag checks. We took picnic lunches & didnt have problem eating it in the park. Although the zoo did have good exhibits elephants, bears, lions, etc there were a lot of older cage type exhibits which was disappointing. The Australian part was laughable - 2 poor kangas & 2 koalas, I think.
We did one day at Legoland. The day we went was NYE because they had special fireworks at 6 for the kids. Needless to say, lots of families went to Legoland on NYE. The park was packed. We did a few rides waiting 30 mins for simple kids rides. There were a few rides that we were interested in, but they were quoting times of 60-90 mins. The park was fun & the play areas good they had a number of areas to play with legos, which was good. It was fun to see everything they built of legos. As people have said in other boards, its great for kids under 10, but not much fun on busy days
All 3 parks had great play areas for the kids. Chill out areas where they could run amok & climb/play, and we could sit & watch without worrying. It was really nice.
When we were in SD, we did the shopping at Ralphs. One thing that was obvious is that there everything is on sale, if you have their membership card. I mean ridiculous savings I saved 20% on 1st go using their card. You just ask at the register & they give you one & then instant savings. The other big shop is Vons & presumably they do the same thing.
On to the Magic Kingdom. We did 4 days there, arriving on Sunday the 3rd Jan around 11. The park was very busy. Obviously being a Sunday & last day before their school holidays finished. We managed a few rides & saw the parade, which was fun. I actually didnt see a lot of the parade because I was watching my 2 yo son and his look of joy as he watched the parade priceless.
We stayed at the Hojo, so we parked our car there & walked over to the park. You have to go into bag check to get access to the park area including DL, CA & DTD. At first we were anxious about what they were looking for, but we asked and they look specifically for weapons & glass. They werent worried about food or drinks.
The Hojo was a nice hotel they definitely have that retro look, but nice on the inside. Lots of check-in staff to take care of us. We booked the kids suite, which was in building 1 on highway side. We were on the 6th floor near the lifts. The highway noise wasnt a problem. Perhaps because we were so high up, or what, but it was white noise. The aircon was louder, so if the highway bothers you, turn on the aircon
. We didnt use the waterpark, as we spent the entire day at the park, so I cant comment on that or the pool. The walk to the park wasnt a problem for us. My 5 yo daughter skipped all the way to the park, and still had enough energy to walk home at night. We pushed our son in the stroller, so it wasnt too bad. Granted there are closer hotels, but we were happy with hojo.
We did the princess meal one morning. My princess wore her Tinkerbell costume which was quite unique, apparently. We received lots of looks and comments on it, as they dont have that one there. We saw 5, I think, including Ariel. 1 or 2 of them were good & engaging, others not so much. You cant do photopass with the princesses, because theyll try to sell you package there. $30 for 1 photo, signed of course . But we could take photos with all princesses with our camera so that was good.
We did a few breakfasts at Mimis. We signed up online 2 weeks before & got 2 vouchers one for free breakfast main & another a week later for $5 off $15 bill. I gave both vouchers & got our breakfast for under $8
Worked 2nd day as well 
, but they did catch on the 2nd day, only supposed to use one voucher. The breakfasts were big we split a breakfast sandwich between wife & I for $8.
The last 3 days at DLR, we spent 1 full day at CA, then split between the 2 for last 2 days. We saw the pixar parade twice which both my kids loved.
I liked the TOT, Screamin. My 5 yo daughter really liked Soarin and all those silly spinny rides & rides that you fly in a circle. My 2 yo son liked the bugs land rides, poohs ride, the flying rides, toon town & fantasyland. I found autotopia long & tedious they didnt have fastpass & it was a 35 min wait. Plus my 2 kids cant drive very well
btw, if you have children who want to do rides on their own, and their over 40, they have to lie about their age the magic age is 7, apparently. My wife doesnt do spinny rides
, which rules out 90% of rides, so means Im doing them all . We all liked monsters inc ride & both Toy story rides 
. I wouldnt recommend Space mountain or Bobsled for kids who dont like dark rides. My daughter was in tears after both of them, because of the dark. But I found the rides jerky. But perhaps Im too old. Nemo has really poor imitations of aussie surfer accents.
After 4 days in the park, we had 53 photos on our photopass. Some of the photographers were really good, others a bit bored. But fairly good photos. It will cost $65 including tax. If you but it at the park, you get the cd immediately, but without any enhancements. Otherwise, you have 30 days to claim & then another 30 to finalise if you want to do it online. I dont know how much it costs to ship it though.
Oh, we used the cash cards from CBA & ANZ. We didnt have any problems with those, other than ordering stuff online. Amazon was fine, but it couldnt be used for walmart. Whenever we did a hotel, we used a standard cc to put the hold so they didnt use our debit money, and then used debit card on settling. We did have to pay $2-3 to take money out on top of what the card will charge you. Only place we didnt was in Indiana where we used a credit union, which didnt charge fees. Since the debit card doesnt have a name imprinted, it caught a few people off guard who were looking for a name. they want to match ID (driver license) to the cc, instead of signature, so since we didnt have a name, they didnt bother with either check.
We had to buy two more duffle bags to get all of our stuff back. We bought lots of clothes for everybody, and shoes for the kids. That and having Christmas at Grandmas means lots of toys to bring back. Since we were on an international ticket, we didnt have to pay any extra baggage fees. We did have to get 2 luggage carts whenever we went to an airport. They carts seem to be about $4 here & in the US. At LAX, we used $5 note & got back a $1 gold coin which impressed my wife. We took one stroller and two car seats and checked them without any strife. We packaged the cars seats up in one of those massive red, white & blue plastic bags you can get from the $2 shop.
So thats it. We spent 5 weeks in the states, thousands of dollars, but a lifetime of memories for us, our kids & my parents.
Sorry this non-trip report was so long. I hope everybody has a wonderful time over there.
-Brian
We just returned from a 5 week holiday in the states, including 4 days at DLR, which means I can post here
Im too lazy to do a full trip report, besides, you all know what its like its wonderful and magical. Instead, I wanted to just do bullet points on experiences we had. It may be long, so I wont be offended if you leave early.
We flew Delta SYD-LAX, as well as for internal flights. Since we started in Melbourne, we flew Virgin to Sydney. We checked into Virgin domestic and had our bags checked through to final destination without any dramas. MEL-SYD was uneventful. When we got to SYD, we had to transfer via bus to the international terminal, which Virgin arranged for us. Then we had to stand in line, seemingly forever in Delta to get our boarding passes to LAX & onwards. By the time we cleared 2 security lines in international terminal, we go the gates as they were boarding, in a frantic mess, with no water. It took nearly 2 hours to get through Sydney.
The flight SYD-LAX was decent. The seats are 3-3-3, and we were a family of 4, so we were split up 2 & 2, which was a bit inconvenient. Flight was packed. Every seat has screens with on-demand video with selections of latest movies, older movies, bollywood, classics, comedies, etc, etc. tv shows, a few games, kids channels & hbo. I think a few things on hbo were free, but most of hbo was $3, but rest was free. Food was as expected. Lunch, snack & breakfast. Water & drinks served throughout the flight. Flight time was around 13 hours, getting into LAX around 530. Which was a problem because US Customs didnt start work til 6, so we had to sit at the gate for at 20 minutes. BTW, if you want to buy duty free on Delta, you have to do it on the plane because there isnt a duty free shop once you land. You might be able to do it in SYD, but be care of glass bottles you cant carry them on internally to US, they have to be in your checked bags.
Now if youve flown into LAX before, youve gone through the the 7 rings of hell that is the international terminal. Well flying Delta, we landed at the Delta terminal 5, and cleared customs there. We were the only flight and got through relatively quickly. My wife had to do the electronic fingerprinting, but that wasnt a hassle. Picking up our bags was easy & we went out and around the corner to book them on the connecting flights. Since we were flying delta, we didnt have to leave the terminal. I dont remember if we had to re-clear security, but I dont think so. From getting off the plane, to getting our bags checked for the next flight was less than an hour.
We had a 6 hour layover, so we had purchased the lounge access at LAX. It costs $90 for 30 days, which seems steep, but my wife really wanted a shower & a place to relax. And we could use it on all other connections. In terms of snacks, it offers less than Qantas/Virgin domestically. It did offer free alcohol & soft drinks & juices, bagels & toast.
The rest of our Delta connections (2) that day were on time & very pleasant. All full flights, but nothing unbearable.
We spent 3 weeks, including Christmas at my parents in northern Indiana. Mother nature did its thing and dusted snow for us the 1st morning we arrived the kids woke up to snow flurries. Then a week later, we had full on snow, enough for snowmen, sledding, snow angels & snowball fights.
Before I went over, I ordered 2 AT&T pre-paid sims from ebay. Cost us$4 shipped. It worked for my wifes iphone because shes not connected to a carrier. We then put $25 on it. We had a choice of 3 plans we did the .25/call plan and it worked fine. We purchased 200 text messages for $5. Still had $15 left on the sim when we left. It didnt work on mine because although Im not under contract, my phone was still attached to a carrier. So I bought a pre-paid from walmart. $29.88 (+tax) for 300 minutes. It was Net-10, and was .10/minute, and .05/text. Text messages - you pay for sending and receiving. Still had around $19 on that when I left.
We also purchased a tom-tom gps from the states. As stated previously, it was cheaper to buy one than hire it with a car. It worked fantastic & as others stated, I couldnt have done LA without it. Only annoying thing was that when doing LA routes, it asked if you want to avoid HOV lanes. I said I didnt, but that meant it directed me towards them. My 2 complaints with that are that I felt I drove too slow for HOV lane the speed limit it 65 which is minimum. I did 70 (120k) in the HOV lane, but felt too slow. And every time the HOV lane had a broken line to allow people in/out GPS would tell me to keep left. Became tedious when after a while. I did buy Aus maps here for aud$140. I probably could have bought them in the states slightly cheaper with exchange rate. I thought I could simply upgrade to Aus maps, but no luck, only upgraded US maps.
BTW, you cant buy grog in Indiana on Sundays
or Christmas. But you can buy it at 1130pm on Christmas Eve, as thats when we realised we didnt have any wine for my wife. So out in our pajamas at 1130pm on Christmas Eve to buy it at the Pharmacy/Chemist which sells it. Surreal.We spent the last 10 days of our holiday in Southern California split between San Diego & Anaheim.
When we flew into LA to start the trip, we didnt get in til almost 8pm. That was chaos. The warm weather was great after the cold of the Midwest. We booked a night at the Super8 motel LAX. It was really nice, considering it was a motel under the LAX flight path.
The rooms were big & clean. Free breakie in the morning. Directly across from AVIS car rental & a 5 min walk to Hertz, who we used. I think we paid around $80 for the night. Wouldnt want to be there long term, but worked for 12 hours.It was less than 2 hours drive down to SD from the airport. The freeways were massive! BTW, if you drive south on the 405 from LA to SD, dont worry about the toll road its around $5 for less than 10 miles not worth it.
In San Diego, we stayed at a house booked through Nancys Vacation Rentals. It was perfect literally 2 blocks from a beautiful beach with a playground. Less than 15 mins from Sea World & the Zoo. We decided to book a house over hotel because we wanted the space & wanted to be able to cook meals. Also saw that everything in SD you had to drive to. So, figured we go a house. Wed do that again if we ever go back to SD.
Sea world was our 1st park in our holiday. It was okay. It took 30 mins to get our vouchers exchanged for tickets, because there were so many people waiting in line. Then we had to line up to get in bag checks were the main thing. They say they dont allow food into the park, but we didnt see anybody getting food taken away. So not sure what you can take in. But its expensive to eat in there we paid over $50 for lunch for 4 which was a bit of a shock. The exhibits were good, the rides average. We split our visit over 2 days, with our 2nd day being New Years Day. We had booked breakfast with Shamu and were at the park at 830, thinking it opened at 9. Unfortunately, it didnt open til 10. So were driving through the parking gates, which were open, and its like Chevy Chase at Wally world. Driving through an empty parking lot, not paying, wondering what is going on. While they opened the park at 915, you couldnt get past the main area till 10. The 2 rides they have didnt open til 12. Bizarre. Breakfast with Shamu was alright, not convinced worth the price, though. Certainly all you can eat & we didnt eat again til dinner, but still, average. We did see the dolphins & the whales, but so could anybody who walked by the glass walls on the other side of the pool.
We did the Zoo over 2 days as well. Its very hilly, with some fairly steep hills at times. There is a bus that goes around, but we didnt do that. We did the sky rail which was fun. In contrast to seaworld, the zoo doesnt do bag checks. We took picnic lunches & didnt have problem eating it in the park. Although the zoo did have good exhibits elephants, bears, lions, etc there were a lot of older cage type exhibits which was disappointing. The Australian part was laughable - 2 poor kangas & 2 koalas, I think.
We did one day at Legoland. The day we went was NYE because they had special fireworks at 6 for the kids. Needless to say, lots of families went to Legoland on NYE.
The park was packed. We did a few rides waiting 30 mins for simple kids rides. There were a few rides that we were interested in, but they were quoting times of 60-90 mins. The park was fun & the play areas good they had a number of areas to play with legos, which was good. It was fun to see everything they built of legos. As people have said in other boards, its great for kids under 10, but not much fun on busy daysAll 3 parks had great play areas for the kids. Chill out areas where they could run amok & climb/play, and we could sit & watch without worrying. It was really nice.
When we were in SD, we did the shopping at Ralphs. One thing that was obvious is that there everything is on sale, if you have their membership card. I mean ridiculous savings I saved 20% on 1st go using their card. You just ask at the register & they give you one & then instant savings. The other big shop is Vons & presumably they do the same thing.
On to the Magic Kingdom. We did 4 days there, arriving on Sunday the 3rd Jan around 11. The park was very busy. Obviously being a Sunday & last day before their school holidays finished. We managed a few rides & saw the parade, which was fun. I actually didnt see a lot of the parade because I was watching my 2 yo son and his look of joy as he watched the parade priceless.
We stayed at the Hojo, so we parked our car there & walked over to the park. You have to go into bag check to get access to the park area including DL, CA & DTD. At first we were anxious about what they were looking for, but we asked and they look specifically for weapons & glass. They werent worried about food or drinks.
The Hojo was a nice hotel they definitely have that retro look, but nice on the inside. Lots of check-in staff to take care of us. We booked the kids suite, which was in building 1 on highway side. We were on the 6th floor near the lifts. The highway noise wasnt a problem. Perhaps because we were so high up, or what, but it was white noise. The aircon was louder, so if the highway bothers you, turn on the aircon
. We didnt use the waterpark, as we spent the entire day at the park, so I cant comment on that or the pool. The walk to the park wasnt a problem for us. My 5 yo daughter skipped all the way to the park, and still had enough energy to walk home at night. We pushed our son in the stroller, so it wasnt too bad. Granted there are closer hotels, but we were happy with hojo.We did the princess meal one morning. My princess wore her Tinkerbell costume which was quite unique, apparently. We received lots of looks and comments on it, as they dont have that one there. We saw 5, I think, including Ariel. 1 or 2 of them were good & engaging, others not so much. You cant do photopass with the princesses, because theyll try to sell you package there. $30 for 1 photo, signed of course . But we could take photos with all princesses with our camera so that was good.
We did a few breakfasts at Mimis. We signed up online 2 weeks before & got 2 vouchers one for free breakfast main & another a week later for $5 off $15 bill. I gave both vouchers & got our breakfast for under $8
Worked 2nd day as well , but they did catch on the 2nd day, only supposed to use one voucher. The breakfasts were big we split a breakfast sandwich between wife & I for $8. The last 3 days at DLR, we spent 1 full day at CA, then split between the 2 for last 2 days. We saw the pixar parade twice which both my kids loved.
I liked the TOT, Screamin. My 5 yo daughter really liked Soarin and all those silly spinny rides & rides that you fly in a circle. My 2 yo son liked the bugs land rides, poohs ride, the flying rides, toon town & fantasyland. I found autotopia long & tedious they didnt have fastpass & it was a 35 min wait. Plus my 2 kids cant drive very well
btw, if you have children who want to do rides on their own, and their over 40, they have to lie about their age the magic age is 7, apparently. My wife doesnt do spinny rides, which rules out 90% of rides, so means Im doing them all . We all liked monsters inc ride & both Toy story rides . I wouldnt recommend Space mountain or Bobsled for kids who dont like dark rides. My daughter was in tears after both of them, because of the dark. But I found the rides jerky. But perhaps Im too old. Nemo has really poor imitations of aussie surfer accents.After 4 days in the park, we had 53 photos on our photopass. Some of the photographers were really good, others a bit bored. But fairly good photos. It will cost $65 including tax. If you but it at the park, you get the cd immediately, but without any enhancements. Otherwise, you have 30 days to claim & then another 30 to finalise if you want to do it online. I dont know how much it costs to ship it though.
Oh, we used the cash cards from CBA & ANZ. We didnt have any problems with those, other than ordering stuff online. Amazon was fine, but it couldnt be used for walmart. Whenever we did a hotel, we used a standard cc to put the hold so they didnt use our debit money, and then used debit card on settling. We did have to pay $2-3 to take money out on top of what the card will charge you. Only place we didnt was in Indiana where we used a credit union, which didnt charge fees. Since the debit card doesnt have a name imprinted, it caught a few people off guard who were looking for a name. they want to match ID (driver license) to the cc, instead of signature, so since we didnt have a name, they didnt bother with either check.
We had to buy two more duffle bags to get all of our stuff back. We bought lots of clothes for everybody, and shoes for the kids. That and having Christmas at Grandmas means lots of toys to bring back. Since we were on an international ticket, we didnt have to pay any extra baggage fees. We did have to get 2 luggage carts whenever we went to an airport. They carts seem to be about $4 here & in the US. At LAX, we used $5 note & got back a $1 gold coin which impressed my wife. We took one stroller and two car seats and checked them without any strife. We packaged the cars seats up in one of those massive red, white & blue plastic bags you can get from the $2 shop.
So thats it. We spent 5 weeks in the states, thousands of dollars, but a lifetime of memories for us, our kids & my parents.
Sorry this non-trip report was so long. I hope everybody has a wonderful time over there.
-Brian
)
Thanks for sharing 
We enjoyed reading your report.
