UD11/4 TR WDW/NYC/TX'11 fort worth and the long trip home

[becpee]

Loving your TR so far

Great to be upgraded to PE! 2X

 

[WAMUMOF4]

I so know that feeling of arriving to no luggage at DFW even when it's not there fault.

 

[Travel Mum]

Wow, you have a real gift for trip report writing and I'm really enjoying it so far. Thanks so much

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Loving the trip report so far. I agree, you tell a great yarn so I'm looking forward to more laughs along your journey.

Bummer about the delays and luggage. Seems like everything that could go wrong did go wrong. I wonder if you kept that sunny disposition throughout it all or if you are giving us the "hallmark" version of events .

I don't mind flight delays but the luggage thing is annoying beyond words. This is why I always pack a little bit of everyone's clothing into each suitcase. My husband thinks I am anal but I'm going to share your story with him and I think he will see I am actually rather sensible

 

[Willow25]

I had never thought of a little of everything in each bag but that is so logical. That is a must do for the next trip.

 

[viaggiamo]

Great trip report,
C

 

[kyl]

loving the trip report......thats so good that you got up graded to PE! Wow and with so many of u as well thats great!

 

[OziJo]

Great TR so far So eventful!! After reading so many TR's with flight delays and luggage issues this is what I was expecting! We had no problems. All our flights were on time luggage arrived intact and all transfers ran smoothly. An upgrade to PE would have been nice but you cant have it all

 

[battymum]

I want to know did you pay for your seat allocation - I reluctantly paid for allocated seats - but I wonder if this means you miss out on potential upgrades?

 

[Melbourne5]

I want to know did you pay for your seat allocation - I reluctantly paid for allocated seats - but I wonder if this means you miss out on potential upgrades?

Hi batty mum

As a gold or platinum ff you don't pay for seat allocations. We were assigned the first and second row of the economy cabin. Upgrades occur for a lot of reasons but I have always found ( I have been doing 100 flights a year with work for the past 6 yrs) that it's the ff status level that makes all the difference. Eg: on a regular Mel-syd- Mel day trip there would always be lots of 'suits' and very few upgrades. However if I traveled in school holidays where the 'suits' don't travel but the economy cabin is full then my upgrade chances were usually 1 in 2 or 3. Our trip to the US was during Vic school holidays so perhaps less paying customers in the premium cabin and loaded up economy meant higher upgrade chance. ( is of course worked in out favor)

Also for all who areinterested in such things as flights there is great app called Australian frequent flyer) . It's a site like this but dedicated to those who are have questions about air travel, seating, special fares etc... I use it a lot for insight ( particularly cheap airfare sales)

 

[battymum]

Thank-you

As infrequent flyers - our chances for an upgrade would be slim at best - While I am paying for 5 flights, PE is only in my dreams - (although I have no problem seperating from my family if there were the possibility of a single seat up there !! )

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Hi batty mum

As a gold or platinum ff you don't pay for seat allocations. We were assigned the first and second row of the economy cabin. Upgrades occur for a lot of reasons but I have always found ( I have been doing 100 flights a year with work for the past 6 yrs) that it's the ff status level that makes all the difference. Eg: on a regular Mel-syd- Mel day trip there would always be lots of 'suits' and very few upgrades. However if I traveled in school holidays where the 'suits' don't travel but the economy cabin is full then my upgrade chances were usually 1 in 2 or 3. Our trip to the US was during Vic school holidays so perhaps less paying customers in the premium cabin and loaded up economy meant higher upgrade chance. ( is of course worked in out favor)

Also for all who areinterested in such things as flights there is great app called Australian frequent flyer) . It's a site like this but dedicated to those who are have questions about air travel, seating, special fares etc... I use it a lot for insight ( particularly cheap airfare sales)

Thank you for this information. It makes perfect sense to me. So here is my next question:-

Did you book your international flights directly with Qantas or did you book through a TA? I ask because you mention that you were assigned the front few rows of economy due to your QFF status.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Glad to hear despite the surprises (nice and otherwise) that you got to Dallas safe and sound.

 

[Melbourne5]

Thank you for this information. It makes perfect sense to me. So here is my next question:-

Did you book your international flights directly with Qantas or did you book through a TA? I ask because you mention that you were assigned the front few rows of economy due to your QFF status.

Hi Ms Shuttergirl

We booked directly with qantas online. Once the booking is made you are able to immediately go into the system and check which seats you have been allocated and change if you wish. ( remembering this is a 'bonus' for platinum and gold FF's) . out side of that , my understanding is , you must pay to secure a preferred seat.

btw...i did a few laps of the aircraft on the trip over and noticed the seats we were allocated in economy were full as was most of the economy cabin.

 

[Melbourne5]

Thank you all for your encouragement so far as i post. its great to see so many interested disboarders

Day 2
At 7am the alarm went off. Now thats 7am Dallas time. I had given up trying to work out what time our body clocks were set too.

My DW and DS1 were in one room and slept solidly. Almost too solidly as i had to go wake them up.....( i can vouch for the block out blinds in the Hyatt DFW and the triple glazed windows - no noise)
I however had the pleasure ( not) of being kept awake by DS2&3 who decided that about 4hrs sleep was enough and stayed up wanting to watch TV, play ipods, ds's between 1am-7am.

Perhaps somewhat deluded from the lack of sleep or only having half our bags the reality set in......no fresh clothes ( except for DS1) who in turn loaned a tshirt ( very genrous) to DS2. Need less to say the Qantas Jammies became ( ahem ahem) our new undies for the quick trip across to Orlando.

So all of us finally gathered up our things and headed just out the doors of the hotel literally 50m away from the American Airlines checkin counter.

Checkin was fine and boarding passes in hand we set off through security - USA style- the beloved TSA. I went through the new 'nudie-full body image' xray machine and got the third degree as i didnt take my wallet out of my jeans ( apparently everything comes off you when you do the 'nudie' xray machine).

As is struggled to raise my hands above my head and keep my jeans from falling down , i becam very aware my family were all

Anyhow having maintained my dignity, just, and not lost it ( tiredness was my new friend now) we were clear......time for breakfast.

In one of those moments we lobbed up to the counter of one of the many outlets serving food ( for an american airport the terminal D has very good facilties) and decided on bagels ( cream cheese and honey..mmmm) , coffee and juice for all.

DS3 was puzzled when he asked for vegemite and the server at the counter looked blankly at him and just kept asking 'not sure what that is sir' - i am sure she was probably thinking more than that but with a little food and drink all the melbourne 5 were happier and looking forward to their 930am departure.

Now it was time for a quick run around the shops for some clothes for most of us. but do you think we could find a tshirt that didnt look like one of those ' my granma went to dallas and all she got was this lousy tshirt' looking tshirts.....

Salvation came when we stumbled upon the Dallas Cowboys team shop and a few good quality tshirts were purchased with a ' do you think we can wear these please and pop these dirty, smelly 30hr old tshirts from the previous day in a bag please?' . You know you can only be in one place when they just smile and say ' of course you can sir/madam and by the way we just love your accent'

Boarding came shortly afterwards and feeling at least a little tidier we boarded our AA flight for the 2.5hr flight to orlando. I must say i was looking forward to a bit of a snooze, and i had an each way bet teh kids would be out like a light soon after take off...........but...........the next surprise was upon us......

'ladieeees and gentelmannnn, boys and girls ( trying to replicate a deep southern accent) its the captain here. now we are heading off to orlando and its a great day for flying. however we just cant go flying yet as we have a slight problem. we have a flat tire!!' ( you have to be kidding right). 'yes thats right a flat tire....now we fixem just the way we do it in our vehicles...jack em up , change em and get on the way. we just have a bigger jack ( then no kidding he laughs) ..so you soon feel the front of the plane lift up slightly and we are just going to slip that new one right on and the best part is you can all stay on board whilst we do it ( never ever in my flying life have i ever experienced this- i even checked with a pilot friend on one of the big airlines who concurred). any how after much lifting and lowering we got on our way.

the flight itself was smooth, we saw some good views of the gulf of mexico and before we knew it we were landing at Orlando airport.

Walking through the terminal it was not hard to notice you were in the 'park' capital of the world. there were signs everywhere for everything and the kids finally started smiling ( as opposed to thinking this was all a cruel joke). we had been told by the disney travel co that we could go straight to the Magical express terminal and hand in our bag tags and they could do the rest. So we headed straight for the counters.

We were in reach.....

We arrived to a very empty 'Disney Magical Express ' counter and in no time we had bag tags ( with a promise to have them to our room within 3hrs) , vouchers a warm welcome and the best bus ride of all time....the one that would take us to our home for the next 10 days...Disneys Grand Floridian

The bus we were allocated went straight to the Grand Floridian , was airconditioned cool ( wow that humidity was a knock out when we arrived!) and the magic started as soon as the TV show on teh bus started to explain everything , and more, we were going to need to know for the next 10 days). Being very Disney, everything was planned to perfection and around 35m later the bus arrived at the Grand Floridian.

I am not sure i have seen anything quite so grand in all my travels ( it eclipses even the Grand Californian in my opinion). Everything and everyone was dressed in a 30's theme. The guys all had cravats and plus 4's ( think old fashioned golfers) and the girls all looked very proper with their dresses and aprons. The place was white as white could be, had white rolls royce ( 30's version ) in the porte cochere and a greeter ( who i had read about who is rummoured to be in his 90's) to welcome everyone who arrived.

We were lucky enough as i had mentioned to get a great deal (40% off the room rate) and as a result we booked a 'club floor' not quite knowing what to expect . well we didnt have to wait long for the service to kick in after being greeted as we were quickly met by a club floor concierege who whisked us straight onto a golf buggy and off to our building called 'sugarloaf' whilst everyone else lined up at teh check in counter....woo hoo ...this is the life!

We were shown to our room on the ground floor ( each of the 7 buildings that make up the hotel are 3 floors high) which we had requested for easy access and we all looked around, took a deep breath and thought....thank god we made it!!

Of course the room was beautiful and well decorated but not huge in size compared to other hotels ( i find this to be a very disney thing) but with two queens and a day bed room for us all too sleep, a balcony/patio out front close to teh pool what more could you want....? i am glad you asked.....we had noticed on the way in on the ground floor reception to our building a small dining area and so curiosity ( plus DW wanting a shower, wash hair, blow dry) meant the 3 DS's and i went down the corridor for a look.

Like aladdins cave filled with gold , we too stumbled upon the next treat in 'club floor' benefits - teh all day snacks/drinks buffett. as it was the afternoon ( or so the clock said as i had no idea what day or time it was due to the lack of sleep ) it was afternoon tea time and you just went and helped yourself.....so coffee and warm choc chip cookies for me and juice/soda and cookies for the DS's.....Disney heaven........

DW must have smelt teh cookies as before long she wandered down to see where we had got too and boy was she surprised, and even better, scones and jam/cream were just being put out.......!

In that area there were also 2 fulltime concierges available to talk with and one of them made a point of coming over and taking the time to welcome us and then take us through the disney dining pland and park ticket package we had brought and how it all worked.....this just keeps getting better.....

not to waste a minute it was time to load up teh daypacks and hit the road...

next up - we hit the magic kingdom and a dinner date with chef mickey.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Hi Ms Shuttergirl

We booked directly with qantas online. Once the booking is made you are able to immediately go into the system and check which seats you have been allocated and change if you wish. ( remembering this is a 'bonus' for platinum and gold FF's) . out side of that , my understanding is , you must pay to secure a preferred seat.

btw...i did a few laps of the aircraft on the trip over and noticed the seats we were allocated in economy were full as was most of the economy cabin.

Thanks for this. I wonder, if I end up deciding to book with a TA, I usually get her to help me with seat allocation but now I'm thinking if we are wanting to go with Qantas whether we might be better booking directly. Hmmm food for thought.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

How funny re the flat tyre on the plane. I've never heard of such a thing either .

I adore your description of GF. WE went there for breakfast at 1900 Park Fare and thought it was most definitely fancy and very lovely. Club level is a great perk and it sounds like you were making the most of it right away.

Can't wait for a further update.

 

[Mum from oz]

Just wanted to say great start to your trip report. I am really enjoying your writing style. It is so entertaining to read.

 

[Melbourne5]

With the flat tire plane delaying our day a few hours we really did have to huddle to get the MelBourne 5 under way so with a 'who cares what time it is nor how much sleep we had or even who cares what clothes we have' we made our way throughout the lobby of the grand Floridian ( will come back to this at the end of this post) and up the grand stairs to the GF's monorail station to cattch the monorail the one short stop to the magic kingdom.

The humidity that afternoon was at it's worst ( it hadn't rained to take that heat out ) so we all had to aclimatise quickly. After a short few minutes up pulled the monorail and off we went.

As we pulled up I think the reality had sunk in for all of us. 3 flights, too many hours in a plane and 16000km later here we were at the entry to 'the place where dreams come true'- the magic kingdom.

loaded up with our keys to the world ( and as our kids pointed out disappointingly at times - only DW and my keys were to the world - as we could room charge and they couldn't.......) we entered through the main gates for a quick 3 hr run in the park.

Our favorite rides ( plural) are big thunder mountain and splash mountain and mercifully at this park ( like California) close together....

We made our way to the back of the park, taking in main street and 'that view of the castle'- a touch less splendid given there was a massive crane next to it doing work for approx 3 weeks- and a left hand turn to move through adventure land and onto frontier land .

Great plan right....not....we didn't make it past main st before testing out our key to the world 'gold' card for some drinks and a snack. So 3 waters and 2 lemonades &. 5 cookies later we moved on a little further....

Serious jet lag set in just a few hundred meters further and 'we just have to stop for a ride dad' so we all headed for the comfort of the pirates of the carribean ride. The lines were short ( I should mention on this night the park was closing at 7 to turn over to the MNSSHP so between 4-7 it was really light on with crowds) and we almost walked straight on.

Just like sitting in your favorite chair or even visiting your favorite relative our very first ride of the trip was under way. POTC is a great ride for all ages and has enough spills and thrills and cold air to impress anyone. There were a few differences to the DL version but seemed to go for the same amount of time.

With our first ride out of the way it was a very short walk to aladdins flying carpet ride. I can handle most rides but the ones I can not do are the teacup and saucers and dumbo ones. This ride fits into the dumbo ride category, round and round with the ability to use a lever to go up or down. The kids and DW loved it. I got some great video and pics and the kids notched up another ride.

Within another few steps the jungle cruise ride beckoned and it was time to set sail. The older kids find this one a little boring now but DS3 was in awe of all there was to see. He did however have reoccurring nightmares about the piranhas towards the end of the ride. All very relaxing just on dusk and it all makes a difference when you get a really engaged boat skipper. We did and throughly enjoyed. ( as an aside I watched on the official Disney site and interview with John lassister of pixar- cars,nemo etc fame who was a skipper at DL in California for a few years during his college years...makes you wonder who might have been driving us).

So I finally dragged the Melbourne 5 throughout adventure land through to frontier land and on to the big ones. We arrived at splash mountain ( picture Clark griswald reading the closed sign at wallyworld) to a group of very apologetic cast members ( they really are special) telling us the ride had broken down and was being repaired and with a little of tinker bells fairy dust would work again soon. Kids were convinced . Clark ( I mean me- thought you need more than tinker bell to fix a $50m ride like this) but without blinking we diverted to our last ride for this quick trip to the MK , thunder mountain railway .

I must say i was a little glad this would be all the time at MK as time,heat and wearing around jeans was taking it's toll. Not that I mind, i wear suits all the time for work, but Disney time is tshirts,boardies and runners. So I felt a little like a kid who gets taken to maccas in their pJ's. Very uncomfortable.

Anyhow the waiting time was modest ( about 20 m ) and we got a great seat towards the front of the train. It was great fun listening to the music, watching the scenery and the attention to detail and of course the fun of the ride. We sat 2 +3 and I have some classic video footage of my rally cry of 'arms up...arms up' as we were about to take off after reaching the summit. Even DS3 is in on it screaming his lungs out 'arms out' with that hint of terror in his eyes as well.

Ride done it was time to head out of the park ( which by now was filling fast with nearly everyone dressed up for MNSSHP .....- I made a note- must do something about this for our MNSSHP in a few days).

We made it out the gates and hopped on the monorail for our next stop 'the contemporary resort' and dinner with chef Mickey .

The few minutes later and we arrived at the hotel/monorail stop . huge and very different. The monorail goes straight through the hotel ( which is shaped like a giant a-frame. We had an ADR for 8pm and were right on time. I was really looking forward to this dinner with Mickey , having enjoyed goofys diner in DL, but I might have just caught the new minimum wage ($5 per hr ) Mickey and his kitchen. The place was a zoo. I say that knowing a I have 3 boys, none of whom are angels, but it was a zoo. It was noisy,noisy and noisy. The food was basic at best and I was pleased we were on the dining plan as the charge of $59&$39 was about $30 too much). . The staff seemed rushed, short staffed and our waiter in particular, whilst friendly, disheveled with shirt hanging out and stains.

Anyhow the two highlights were of course the characters who do an amazing job of photos, autographs and dancing with all. A new one for me was napkin twirling too....a big hit for the room when the singing happened every 20 m or so. Lots ofnphotos with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, daisy and goofy. Kids had big smiles and had waaay too much soft serve.....

We headed off cooler, fed and happy with the memories of our visit to chef mickeys. It was voted by our family at the bottom of our sit down meals at wdw....

Hopped on the monorail, got to see the Polynesian hotel ( looks very nice) and back to GF.

Walking through the lobby we sat for a while to take it all in. ( more likely we just all had indigestion from over eating) the lobby is amazing . There is a band playing old tunes ( Disney and others ) every night and the music resonates all through the building. There are more lounges, seats and lamps than I can recall seeing anywhere else and you can't leave without being impressed. Very classy, very cool, very Disney.

Returning to our building- the sugarloaf- it was time for a night cap in the club lounge. Cookies and milk for the kids and a beer and wine for us. Very fitting way to end the evening.

Time to sleep...

Next up ....EPCOT......and an underwater dinner

 

[PrincessInOz]

Sounds like a short but sweet time at MK for the Melb5.

Looking forward to your next installment.