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Disneyland and D23, September 2009

KeithS
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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby KeithS » Sun Oct 04, 2009 11:09 am

D23 Expo

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Arrival!

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Disney Dream Store entrance

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Della meets Lucky the Dinosaur at the Imagineering presentation

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All this excitement was a bit too much for Gerard! (Or maybe it was the beers on his big night out the day before :D)
Keith

Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015

KeithS
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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby KeithS » Sun Oct 04, 2009 11:56 am

A few more D23 photos

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Storm Troopers Invade Jay Rasulo's speech to announce Star Tours II!

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Crowds lined up to get into the Arena for a presentation.

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Mystic Manor model for Hong Kong Disneyland (and Gerard's head) - the funny thing is I didn't even realise I was standing next to Gerard at the time as we didn't visit this together. It was also pretty dark. Only when I got home and downloaded the picture onto my PC did I realise Gerard had been standing right beside me!

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And I met the Evil Queen character from the new Alice in Wonderland movie.

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And here we all are at the Castle on our last day together!
Keith

Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015

churros
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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby churros » Sun Oct 04, 2009 4:57 pm

Keep them coming Keith!

I know the football's on so I am likely to be lonely online for a few hours.

KeithS
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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby KeithS » Mon Oct 05, 2009 11:23 am

Okay - because you asked for it - here is Part One of my trip report...

T minus one day.
The day before we left Sydney, I decided I'd check-in via the Qantas online check-in system. When I went to view my seats, I saw we were near the back of the plane. That's okay - we don't usually care where we sit as long as we have an aisle. However I took a punt and clicked the "Change Seat" allocation button to see what was available. Lo and behold, there was a two seater (window and aisle) near the front of the aircraft. I quickly downloaded a Qantas seating plan and discovered these seats were actually in Premium Economy! I clicked them and they were allocated to us. It seems that the flight had more economy bookings than seats, so they had allocated some of the premium economy seats to economy passengers - I was just lucky enough to notice it. It was awesome too - because the seats were much larger, with a lot more leg room and pop-up foot rests. The entertainment system was in the arm with a big touch screen and we had a four station restroom exclusive for our little area, so no queues! This was our longest leg - SYD-LAX-JFK, so the seats were much appreciated!

Day 1 - Arrival in the US
We arrived into LAX and the place was REALLY smoky. The fires were all around the north of the City, but the airport and downtown areas had a blanket of smoke.

On arrival at LAX, we had to get off the aircraft and collect our baggage - even though we were getting back on the same flight and heading to NY. We quickly got through immigration (I'm a little paranoid about making sure the paperwork is done correctly as I've seen US Officials make people go back to the end of the line to correct their documentation) - picked up our bags and went straight through the customs line with nothing to declare. We then had to go through and drop the bags off at bag screening before going back through security to get on the flight. It sounds like a rigmarole, but it works fairly efficiently. The Qantas flight from LAX to JFK is classed as a domestic flight, so on arrival at JFK, you just pick up your bags and head to the taxis.

Taxis from JFK to Manhattan are a flat $45 fee. They are easy to catch at the airport and we were soon heading towards the City. We were tired, but super excited! Our driver asked us in whether we were paying cash - I said yep. It was early evening and the sun was shining as our taxi headed onto the freeway. Before I left Sydney, I looked on Google Earth to see how to get from the airport to the City and our driver was going the right way...at least for the first two minutes...then he got off the freeway and headed into the suburbs of Queens. I'm looking at Della thinking this guy is going to roll us for our money :) But it was nothing that exciting. It was Sunday evening and the first day of the US Open Tennis, so the freeway was blocked - he was using his backstreet knowledge to get us into the City quicker.

Once we were past Flushing and the tennis, we got back onto the expressway and headed over the Queensborough Bridge (with a magnificent view of Manhattan) before driving through the streets to our hotel. Della was getting excited as I was pointing out the streets - "There's Park Ave" ; "That's Fifth Ave" ; "Shopping!" says Della...You get the picture. Eventually we arrived at the Salisbury Hotel on West 57th Street. After check in, we were dead tired, it was around 8pm. We headed immediately across the road to Starbucks, grabbed some drinks and bread rolls, then did a very quick walk down to the corner of 57th and 6th just to get a feel of the City. I was pretty pumped and I think I could have stayed out all night, however Della (being the sensible one) directed me back to the hotel. We did see our first (and only) New York rats on the way back to the hotel - they were on the footpath near a building site - we went past there every other night but never saw them again. They were pretty tame and the locals didn't seem to mind them and I like them too (I used to own a rat!) Della is cool too - she's not afraid of them at all - I thought she would freak, but quite the reverse, she stood there watching them "Aren't they cute" :)

After watching the rats go about their business, we got back into the hotel, ate our food, watched a bit of television before crashing around 9:30pm. We had made it to New York!
Keith

Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015

KeithS
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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby KeithS » Mon Oct 05, 2009 12:31 pm

Okay - this is a Disney website, but I can't do a trip report without mentioning the New York leg - so bear with me, I'll try and make this short (that can't be too hard can it? There's not that much to see and do in NY is there? Muahahahahaa)

Day 2 - Let's hit the City.
We woke up nice and refreshed and pretty much in the right time zone. No allowances for jet lag when on holidays! It was an overcast morning but the weather girl said it would burning off in the morning and the rest of the week would be sunny and warm. We got up and noticed a slip of paper under our door. Apparently the hotel has a breakfast each day - awesome! So we headed downstairs (we were on the sixth floor) and grabbed cereal, coffee, toast etc. We really liked the hotel, the only problem was the noise from the street at night. Because the hotel was 70 years old, it didn't have ducted airconditioning - instead it had the type that fitted into the window, so there was always street noise coming in. It didn't really affect our sleeping though, as we were passing out each night anyway!

Our first stop was The Empire State Building - I had pre-booked tickets before I left to avoid queues. We took the subway from 57th Street down to 34th. Subway trips are $2.00 no matter how far you travel on them. You just buy a Metrocard from a vending machine for however much you want - we kept buying $8.00 cards - four trips. The subways are clean and safe and the most convenient way of getting around. We arrived at the Empire State Building and took the long elevator ride to the 86th floor (changing elevators once). We had a self-paced audio tour and proceeded out onto the balcony. The view was awesome - we could see for miles! And boy - were we high up! I couldn't see any scratch marks from where King Kong had hung onto the building, but I guess they must have fixed them up in the last 70 years haha. We spent quite a bit of time up there to get a good idea of the layout of the City. We then headed back down to the gift shop and I bought a book on the construction of the building and Della bought some little ESB models (to go along with her Eiffel Towers...).

We headed out onto the streets and by now it was very hot and sunny. We grabbed a bite to eat at a McDonalds and sat next to two Australian women who were talking about Vodafone. I said my phone wasn't working here but they had no dramas (for some reason, Vodafone had deactivated my roaming...grrr...). They also said they saw us on the Qantas flight yesterday - how funny! After lunch, we walked up 5th Ave to the New York Public Library - we only went there because of the movie The Day After Tomorrow. We didn't go in, just took photos outside - the building was under restoration so lots of scaffolding.

We then walked along 42nd St past Bryant Park (where they were setting up for NY Fashion Week) and into the southern end of Times Square. We just wanted to scope out the location of the New Amsterdam theatre for the following evening's trip to see Mary Poppins. We then headed back along 42nd St towards the East River and the United Nations building. On the way, we popped into Grand Central Station to have a look around - it is amazing and worth the visit even if you are not travelling on a train.

We arrived at the UN and watched the police practicing motorcades which was fun - I've never seen so many police cars in my life with all their lights on - it felt like The Blues Brother movie! We didn't go into the UN - it meant more security checks just to go to the gift shop, so we headed back towards 5th Ave and the shops...

We came to 5th Ave right near the Rockefeller Center and Della amazingly located the new Swarovski signature store downstairs while looking for the restroom. Many dollars later, we were back on the street and we headed up to The World of Disney Store!

The World of Disney Store on 5th Ave is good. It has similar merchandise to the WoD stores in WDW and Downtown Disney, as well as some exclusive NYC merchandise. We were reluctant to buy too much because we kept on thinking of the Disney Dream Store at the Expo the following week. Still, we made a couple of purchases - pins and shirts.

Back on the street, we wandered past Tiffany & Co and headed to FAO Schwarz. We located the Muppet Whatnot workshop and wandered around the rest of the store. Della was beginning to get over-stimulated by fluffies etc at this point, so we left. We knew our major shopping day was coming up on Thursday so there was no need to panic.

It was late in the evening, so we ate and headed back to the hotel.
Keith

Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015

KeithS
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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby KeithS » Mon Oct 05, 2009 12:56 pm

Day 3- Central Park and Mary Poppins
It is Tuesday morning and the weather is glorious. Perfect for our Central Park day!

After breakfast, I throw on my backpack and we headed up to the Park entrance at the corner of 59th and 5th and walked down to The Pond. You'd recognise it from Enchanted - it is the path along which Giselle and what's his face were walking when she begins to sing the That's How You Know song. In fact - the whole day in Central Park unveiled various movie locations - especially those from Enchanted as it is one of the more recent films from there.

We walked through the Central Park Dairy and picked up the trail map from the store there. I highly recommend it as it is very detailed and we never got lost using it.

We then headed towards the Central Park mall and saw thousands of people queuing - we didn't know what for until we watched the news the next day. It was Whitney Houston's comeback concert in Central Park. Walking up the mall, we ended up at the Bethesda Terrace and Fountain (again from Enchanted - the big musical finale was there). We sat and watched a few people in the row boats on the lake. So we headed to the boathouse and hired a row boat - just $10 for an hour. It was great fun too, I rowed us all around the lake and we stopped and took photos etc - it was brilliant.

Back at the boathouse, we grabbed lunch at the restaurant before heading the the Conservatory Water where they sail little model boats. There is also an amazing Alice in Wonderland bronze sculpture here.

From Alice - we walked to what is known as Belvedere Castle - it is a bit like NYC's old Observatory Hill where they used to take their weather readings from.

Then it was on to Strawberry Fields via a bridge across the lake, to see the Imagine memorial to John Lennon. We also headed out of the park for a bit to see the Dakota building where he lived.

Back in the park, we sat and watched some inter-office softball at one of the diamonds, while eating ice cream and then it was time to head back to the hotel to get ready for Mary Poppins.

After getting changed, we caught the subway down to Times Sqr and grabbed some dinner. Around 7:15, we went to the theatre and headed to the merchandise counter :) Della bought the full set of Mary Poppins pins, along with a MP umbrella and bag. We then headed into the theatre to find our seats.

And what great seats they were...front row - just one seat off centre, right beside the conductor. It was cool to be able to look into the orchestra pit.

The show itself was amazing - I was more looking forward to seeing The Little Mermaid before it got cancelled, but I think this would have been the much better show. I'll not say anymore about it as a lot of you will be seeing it next year. Just know that Della cried in that feel good, happy ending, type of way.

After the show we headed out into Times Square again and decided to walk the 15 blocks back to the hotel. Times Square at night is awesome - lights and people and noise - it is just a great atmosphere.

That's another day over.
Keith

Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015

KeithS
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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby KeithS » Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:21 pm

Day 4 - Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Financial District
We woke up to another cloudless day, which was perfect as we were heading across the water to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

After breakfast, we grabbed the subway which took us all the way down to the southern end of Manhattan Island - getting off at South Ferry station, right outside the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. Heaps of commuters were getting off the ferry when we arrived, heading up to their offices in lower Manhattan. We headed over towards Battery Park and Castle Clinton where we boarded the ferry to Liberty Island (after going through a security checkpoint of course - this is NYC after all!)

The crossing was spectacular - New York skyline behind us, and the Statue in front of us - it sure beat working :) (we were thinking of all you folks back home - honest!)

I had prebooked Liberty Island tickets and had obtained a monument pass which allowed us into the Statue itself. They only release 3,000 monument passes a day (whereas around 15,000 people come to the island) - so pre-book. They've even opened the crown again to about 250 people per day, but we didn't have crown tickets. If you have monument tickets - you have to go through a secondary and more intense screening. Firstly, you can't take backpacks, so you have to locker them. Then you have to go to a long screening line which is very slow as they use a sniffer machine to check for explosives - it looks like a metal detector, but you stand in it while they blow strong air over your body - it is a cool system, but slows the number of people getting into the statue.

Once again, we took the audio tour and it is very interesting - even for foreign visitors. Do it if you get the chance. The views of New York and New Jersey from the top of the Liberty pedestal are also worth the inconvenience of the security screening.

We grabbed lunch on Liberty Island and then headed over to Ellis Island. We spent a long time there going through all the galleries and hearing about the US immigration influx in the early 1900's - once again it was very interesting.

After Ellis - we headed back to Manhattan and decided to walk from Battery Park up to Wall Street past the Big Bull. Not much to see really other than the outside of the Stock Exchange, but at least we can say we've seen it.

We then headed over the Ground Zero, however there is not much to see there now as the viewing area has been removed due to the re-construction. Instead, there is a memorial centre on nearby Vesey Street that has a continuously running film about the events of 2001. Even after 8 years, it still struck a raw nerve seeing that big construction site and knowing what happened there.

After Ground Zero, we headed over the City Hall and grabbed a subway back to our end of town. We grabbed a bite to eat at a diner and headed back to the hotel to plan our shopping day!
Keith

Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015

KeithS
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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby KeithS » Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:43 pm

Day 5 - Shopping (zzz...zzz...zzz...)
Actually, this wasn't entirely bad - in fact, it was a lot of fun.

We started by firstly heading to the Apple Store. I'm not an Apple fan, hate Macs, and am very disappointed with the iPod I bought earlier this year, however I still had to have a look. But it is just an Apple Store and apart from the awesomeness of the building itself (underground in a glass cube) it wasn't anything special.

From there, we headed to FAO Schwarz - and this was more fun! Firstly, we had to buy two Muppet Whatnots - one for Della, and one for Gerard (who had provided us with the specifications before we left). Basically a Whatnot is a Muppet extra seen in the back of shots during Muppet TV shows and movies. You could select from a variety of bodies, hair, eyes, noses, and clothes - then the staff put it all together for you. It was quite an enjoyable experience.

While our Whatnot's were being built, we headed upstairs so Della could play on the Big Piano - just like Tom Hanks in the movie Big. And of course - Della did get to play it (although the tune wasn't very good!).

We also went fluffy hunting, buying and giant Dug and Kevin from Up, as well as a Minnie and Mickey "Pook-a-looz" - a sort of flat fluffy - I've posted some photos elsewhere on this thread.

After FAO, we headed to Tiffany & Co - where I sat around waiting for Della to buy as much as she could...which wasn't that much :) But she did get some nice charms.

We dumped all this at the hotel and then grabbed the subway down the Macy's on 34th. I believe Della (and her Mum) could comfortably live in Macy's - but she refrained from buying - thinking instead of her luggage space.

It was now on to Times Sqr and the Toys R Us signature store, but as usual, Toys R Us seemed fairly generic. Unfortuneately, Toys R Us have just taken over FAO Schwarz, and already we could see the changes there - no longer do they have the enormous life size buffalo etc that the store was famous for in the past. FAO is becoming like Toys R Us.

Back on the subway now and we headed towards Brooklyn Bridge. We went for a twilight walk across the bridge before heading back to the City and visiting the famous Century 21 outlet store opposite Ground Zero. This place was crazy cheap - especially for blokes! I could have updated my entire work wardrobe here with label clothing for next to nothing. I'm talking top name business shirts for $14.95. Of course I didn't - we needed that luggage space for Disney! Della did pick up cheap sunglasses though.

Back on the subway and we headed to the Rockefeller Center for dinner, before returning to the hotel - it was a long tiring day!
Keith

Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015

KeithS
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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby KeithS » Mon Oct 05, 2009 2:00 pm

Day 6 - Carriage Ride, USS Intrepid, and Baseball!
Our last full day in New York. Once again, clear blue skies and about 32 degrees as we headed up to Central Park to do a horse and carriage ride. I wasn't looking forward to it as I'm usually not too keen on these sort of things, but it turned out to be a great experience!We did a short ride through the park and our driver pointed out various movie scene locations. It was great fun!

We then headed over to the USS Intrepid - a WWII aircraft carrier that is now a museum. The Intrepid was one of the first ships to come under kamikaze attack in the war and was severely damaged but survived the war to this day. It is a great exhibit with some really unique aircraft for those interested (especially me!). There is also a submarine (USS Growler) and a Concorde on display. They are also trying to get one of the Space Shuttles when they are decommissioned next year. We spent most of the day crawling over ships and talking to the guides, it was great fun (although very hot on the flight deck!)

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel, got changed and headed out to the ballpark! In our case, the brand new Citi Field in Queens. You get off the subway at Citi Field station, which happened to be the same station being used for the tennis, which was on the other side of the railway from the baseball. It was a great atmosphere with people going to the different events and the Goodyear blimp flying overhead and crowd marshals on megaphones etc. Great fun.

We got to the stadium where they pat you down before entering (but it was only fairly cursory) and we headed in to find our seats. On the way though, we had to grab a footlong hot dog for dinner and a giant bucket of coke! We had great seats with access to the Caesars lounge (which we never even got to visit because it was so much fun outside!) The baseball game is a great thing to do when you are in the US - the game may be boring on television, but live - it is just crazy fun and fast. I highly recommend getting tickets if the opportunity arises to go the next time you visit the US.

After the game, we went to the merchandising store, bought some Mets gear and headed back home on the subway. For the record, the New York Mets beat the Chicago Cubs 6-2 - so it was a happy crowd!

Back at the hotel, it was late, but we did our tradition "loot photo" and got packed - ready for our flight the next day to LA and Disneyland!
Keith

Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015

churros
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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby churros » Mon Oct 05, 2009 2:12 pm

Great trip report so far Keith, keep it coming!

You seemed to have no problems navigating your way around - all that planning I suppose!

We had friends who realised as they were watching Enchanted that they had seen the actual filming at the fountain when they were visiting Central Park but didn't realise at the time.

How did New Yorkers compare with West Coasters and Floridians?

How did the food compare? I know Maccas is Maccas where ever you go but were the meals huge?

So did Della do the keyboard 'Big' style or Homer Simpson style?

I'm certainly looking forward to show and tell and the next meeting. (I'll try to remember to take photos for our interstate and OS members)

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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby KeithS » Mon Oct 05, 2009 2:20 pm

Day 7 - NY - Flying - LA and Anaheim
Okay, so we have everything packed...except we still hadn't purchased any I Love NY t-shirts. These ubiquitous items are standard for any NY holiday - you can buy them from about $19.95 at the airport, to 6 for $6- from the street vendors! We were in a hurry so couldn't be too choosy and got a stack of them for presents at $5 each from a 5th Ave street vendor. Then it was back to the hotel, pack the shirts, check out, and grab a taxi for JFK.

Once again, it was a perfect day and we were a bit sad to be leaving New York - it was a brilliant stay and we are really looking forward to going back there one day.

At the airport, we checked in at American Airlines for our flight to LA. Ate some sandwiches before the flight (no food on US domestic flights - even long ones - so beware!) and then headed for the gate. It was a public holiday Saturday and it took ages for us to take off - we sat in a queue for almost an hour near the end of the runway waiting for our turn.

Although the weather was great in New York, it was very bumpy for most of the flight and overcast from about Cleveland to Arizona. Funny thing - while on the plane, the stewardess who spoke on the loudspeaker had an Australian accent - I'm saying to Della - that girl is an Aussie. Anyway, when she offered us drinks, she asked where we were from! We said Sydney and she asked whereabouts - Della said Peakhurst and she replied her parents live in Riverwood - five minutes away! She had won a green card in the lottery eight years before and had been flying with American Airlines ever since!

We touched down on time in LA despite the late departure, so our pilot made up good time. Once again, it was cloudless and no smoke in the air! Woohoo - much better than the previous weekend. After getting our bags, we headed out to the curbside pickup to catch the Disneyland Magical Express bus to Anaheim - it is always great seeing that bus come around the corner and you get on board!

We were the last pickup and we headed onto the freeway - southbound for Anaheim. The sun was setting as well pulled up at the Carousel Inn. It was early evening and after checking in, we headed across the road to guest services to pick up our park hopper passes. Then a quick run into Downtown Disney for some shopping before heading to McDonalds for dinner - we resisted the urge to go to the parks as we were still on NY time and getting tired - there would be plenty of park time in the coming days!
Keith

Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015

KeithS
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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby KeithS » Mon Oct 05, 2009 2:21 pm

Lots of questions above from Beth - I'll answer them soon, but I'm just logging off - big thunderstorm here!

I'll get back to it later tonight!
Keith

Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015

KeithS
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Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby KeithS » Mon Oct 05, 2009 4:03 pm

You seemed to have no problems navigating your way around - all that planning I suppose!
New York isn't too hard to get around once you understand how the street/avenue numbering works and how to follow the subway map. It was made easier as it was my second time there.
How did New Yorkers compare with West Coasters and Floridians?
This is interesting - most places I've been to in the US, the people take an interest when you say you are from Australia, but not in NY. We figured it was because everyone in New York is from somewhere else - even those that live there! Everyone has their own story and I really like that - it is a real mixture of cultures. It is almost as if they class themselves as New Yorkers before Americans - I like it, and I like the people (and nowhere near as rude as most people would have us think). They also didn't seem as loud as those in LA and NY - and there wasn't anyone riding around on those EMVs in New York - it is a much fitter population than Florida and LA. Last time I was there, it was a weekend and wasn't very busy. This time, I was expecting much bigger crowds - especially on subways as we were there on a working week. But it didn't end up like that - we got around quite easily. The only big crowd we saw was in Grand Central one evening at peak hour.
How did the food compare? I know Maccas is Maccas where ever you go but were the meals huge?
Maccas is Maccas, although they've introduced their "Angus Third Pounder" which is pretty big! Restaurant meals were pretty large but not insurmountable. We went to a nice Italian place near our hotel called "Angelo's" - I had the best chicken parmigiana ever! It also came with a big helping of spaghetti which I couldn't eat - just too much. I can't remember what Della had, but she got through all hers. We always ordered a meal each where ever we went.
So did Della do the keyboard 'Big' style or Homer Simpson style?
Well, she didn't sing "Rock Around the Clock" like Homer did, but it didn't sound that much better...Tom Hanks has nothing to fear!
I'm certainly looking forward to show and tell and the next meeting.
There will be loot to see - lots of loot!
Keith

Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015

KeithS
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Joined: Sun May 29, 2005 10:28 am
Location: Peakhurst Heights, NSW

Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby KeithS » Mon Oct 05, 2009 6:14 pm

Day 8 - Disneyland
We awoke to another fine morning - full of excitement for the day ahead. We headed to the breakfast room at the hotel and we could see the Disneyland half-marathon was underway. It was going to be a busy day in the park, being a long weekend and the marathon as well.

We went back to our room, got our backpack and water bottles, then headed across the road to Disneyland!

I always love day one - going through those gates and seeing the park again. It had been three years since our last visit to Anaheim, yet it all seemed so familiar - like we had just left there a day or two before. We walked through the right-hand arch and up the stairs to the railway station for our traditional "Grand Circle Tour of the Magic Kingdom". That completed, we headed first to space mountain, knowing that it was about to go down to have its new Halloween overlay added. Luckily, it was pretty quiet - the sign said 20minutes standby, but in truth we just walked on (the queue takes ten minutes just to walk it anyway!). That done, we headed to a new ride for us - the Finding Nemo submarine voyage. On all our previous trips to the park, the lagoon was empty, so it looked great full of water and colour and submarines! I was so engrossed by the ride that I forgot to take my sunglasses off - it was only when we got out at the end that Della asked me how I saw anything! I was fine though (but I must admit my second trip I could see much better...).

We then hit Buzz and emailed the game photo to Nicole at work. We always like to include the people left behind in our adventures - even if it annoys them (sorry Nicole!). We checked out the new House of Tomorrow in Innoventions, although a lot of the stuff there is actually available now (if you have the cash) rather than something for the future. Still, it is a big improvement over the old Innoventions!

Then it was on to some old favourites, Autopia, Pirates, Haunted Mansion (needed to do it before it closed for the holiday overlay as well) as well as the Fantasyland dark rides, teacups and the upgraded small world. Then time for some Main Street shopping, Dole whip in the hub, and a look at the Celebrate - A Street Party thing (sort of a cheap parade while they prepare the big new parade for next year - which I was told they are already practicing for!).

We hung around and watched the new fireworks show called "Magical" before wandering around the new Pixie Hollow area at night, which looked awesome. The Magical fireworks was excellent and included Tinker Bell and Dumbo flying over the castle - pretty neat.

Then it was time to head home for the day. I didn't think it was as quite crowded as what I expected - I had seen it much worse in the past. We never waited more than 20 minutes for a ride, although a few rides like Indy we ignored (for some reason it had about a 70-90 minute wait all day - thankfully Fastpass solved our problems for any long waits.)
Keith

Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015

KeithS
User avatar
Annual Pass
Annual Pass
Posts: 6082
Joined: Sun May 29, 2005 10:28 am
Location: Peakhurst Heights, NSW

Re: Disneyland and D23, September 2009

Postby KeithS » Mon Oct 05, 2009 6:30 pm

Day 9 - DCA and Disneyland
And now the day we had all been waiting for! No, not the opening of the Expo, but our Princess lunch at Ariel's Grotto! But first, we had some rides to conquer :D

Before we could hit the parks however, I had to go to Guest Relations in the Esplanade to pick up our four tickets for that night's Fantasmic Dessert buffet for Wayne, Jennifer, Della and myself.

Once in DCA, we started the day at Soarin' Over California, before heading through "Constructionland" to Paradise Pier. We wanted to go on Toy Story Mania, but the queue was already 60 minutes. Instead, we headed to Tower of Terror which was a walk on, followed by Monster's Inc and Talking Turtle with Crush. Della loves the Crush attraction but he never talks to her (but more about that towards the end of our trip :D)

It was now time for lunch. We headed to Ariel's Grotto and gave our name - they gave us a buzzer thing and we waited for it to go off. When it did, we went downstairs and was greeted by Ariel! We got our photos and she asked us a lot about how we got from Sydney and whether we knew Nemo and how she found it a long and tiring swim to go visit him. She was totally awesome.

We were then shown our seats and received our entree - I won't tell you what we ate because I can't remember - too much was happening too quickly! We noticed that the kids all had crowns, but they hadn't given them to us, so Della asked and they bought them out to us :)

Then the parade of Princesses began. I can't remember too much after that - I guess I blacked out :D

And before we knew it - it was all over :( and I was back outside. We went on King Triton's carousel (which is the first time we've ever done that) followed by the upgraded Mickey's Fun Wheel, which was a great way to view all the construction happening around the park. We then went to the Games of the Boardwalk and won two big Mickey Mouse fluffies (I posted the photos earlier on). We then watched the Pixar Play Parade which I really enjoyed (and got pretty wet - it was a hot day and they were in full-wet mode!).

It was getting late in the afternoon by then and we had to meet Wayne and Jennifer at Club 33 entrance in Disneyland at 8pm. So we left DCA for the day and took our stuff back to the hotel before entering Disneyland. Disneyland was packed - it was the Labor Day public holiday. We caught up with Wayne and Jennifer and headed to the Fantasmic Dessert registration desk. W&J had just arrived off the flight that afternoon. The dessert buffet was great and we were right in front. Murphy the new Dragon was very impressive! We stayed and watched the fireworks from our seats then had a long chat with Wayne and Jennifer before heading back to the hotel for the evening - another great day complete!
Keith

Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015


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