Hi everyone! I've finally written up the highlights of the first two days. So much has happened that I just can't do it justice in words - you just had to be here (LOL!)
Anyway, here is the short version!
Day 1 – 24 August 2015 (Sydney, Flying, Anaheim)
Today is one of those really, really long days that stretch about 40 hours! I got up around 4:30am in Penrith and Dad took me over to Della’s house. Della had prepared all the luggage, so we just loaded it into the car and headed to the airport. We had one bag overweight by 1kg, but no drama there.
We quickly got through Immigration and headed to the Qantas Club where we sat for an hour or so until it was time to go to the gate. The flight was non-eventful and we arrived ahead of schedule at 6:20am in Los Angeles. They have a new Smartgate system for ESTA countries so it took a lot less time to be processed. We were out of the terminal by around 7:15.
The Disneyland Express came right on time at 8am and took us to the Disneyland Hotel. When we got off the bus, we ran into another couple who were married on 22 August who were also checking in and had a chat to them.
We went to the reception and things started to get interesting. The girl behind the desk appeared surprised when she typed my name in and said the room was still being prepared and we could move in after 3pm. She said we were being given a big room. She was also able to see our itinerary and commented on the size our trip. She asked us for our favourite characters (Belle and Minnie) and she went backstage and came back with personally sign glossy photos of those characters – so cool. She also handed us an itinerary which contains a couple of VIP events, including seeing the Paint the Night Parade from the railway station, and World of Color from an exclusive viewing spot! (We aren't exactly sure who is responsible for arranging the VIP stuff be we assume it is one of our great Disney friends from the club!)
We gave our bags to the bell desk and decided to hits the shops in the lobby and then out to Downtown Disney. We firstly went to Earl of Sandwich for an early lunch and then made some purchases at World of Disney. Della hit the wall at that point and I tried to keep her going by taking her into Disneyland but she couldn’t keep going, so we headed back to the hotel.
We waited in the lobby for a bit but Della was falling asleep – so she just asked them if they knew how long it would be. The next thing we know – we were put into a suite on the 12th floor of the Frontier Tower!
We headed up to the room and couldn’t believe the room – it is enormous! Della crashed pretty much straight away and I contacted Wayne to see if he wanted dinner tonight. He said yes, so I went downstairs to book Steakhouse 55 in the Disneyland Hotel for 5:40. As soon as I gave them my name, they made a comment about seeing me in their system and said congratulations on my marriage! The news was obviously spreading!
When I got back to the room, Della was recovering so we just got ready for dinner. At 5:30, we headed to the restaurant and ran into Wayne and Jennifer as they were arriving. We were seated and they gave us some hors d’oeuvres “compliments of the chef”. We then had a great steak dinner and it was finished off with a free dessert with “congratulations” marked on it. It was a terrific night and one of the best meals I’ve had in the US.
We then all returned to our hotel room to show Wayne and Jennifer the suite and some of our wedding photos. We then turned in after that as we had had a very long day!