Trip Report From Disneyland to Disneyworld

Travel Day – Part 1 November 19th.

Hi all and welcome to my first trip report. I’ve been back home for a few weeks now after my three week trip to Disneyland and Disneyworld with an intermission in New Orleans. I had a great time, so much so that even though I had thought I wouldn’t do another American Disney trip for at least three years the thought of not being there for Christmas next year is unimaginable and I am now planning a (shorter) trip for December 2016.


The travel day began with a sad goodbye to my lovely dog (sad for me anyway – she was none the wiser) and a handover of my house keys to Dad who dog sat while I was away. This is Sookie as a very unimpressed Christmas elf.
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She is a three year old spoodle and named after Sookie Stackhouse from True Blood.


My flight left at 4.30pm so I worked until midday and then headed to Auckland airport to check in as early as possible. I am lucky at the moment to have the option to travel on heavily discounted but stand-by airfares. I had paid extra to be upgraded if possible and was hoping that this would come through, but mostly that the flight wouldn’t be full!! A seat on the flight was confirmed straight away which was a weight off my mind. I had a couple of wines with a friend and then a few samples of duty-free liquor while waiting to board and was starting to really feel fairly relaxed about my 12 hour flight. I felt even better when I was upgraded to premium economy.
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My seat was comfortable with lots of leg room and I had no one next to me so I could put all my stuff on the seat next to me and use the extra pillows. I watched the 2nd best exotic marigold hotel, Trainwreck, Ant man (I cant remember this movie at all- but my notes say I watched it so I must have!), Frozen fever, Poltergeist and a few episodes of Modern family. I kept trying to sleep as I was arriving in LAX at around 7am and knew I had a lot of time before I could get into my room to rest, but just couldn’t get comfortable or tired enough to manage more than a few minutes here or there.

The service was great and the food was good for plane food but not great. Here is a photo of my half eaten bread and butter, appetiser and dessert.

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One of my aims for the trip was to take photos of all my food and drink as food photos are one of my favourite parts of trip reports. I failed miserably at this task, either forgetting altogether or only remembering after I had already started eating the food. When I did remember the photos were crap until I finally managed to take a food photo I actually liked on the very last day of the trip. This bodes well for any future trip reports, but you’ll have to forgive the poor and half eaten quality of many of my food photos.


The cold chicken, cucumber and coriander salad was the highlight of the meal, really fresh and tasty. The main was a beef stew and dessert was an apple and custard tart which was too cold.

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Breakfast was nice with fruit salad, yogurt, croissant and pancakes although the rhubarb compote was too tart.

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Kiwiduck

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 18: 6th of December, Part 1
This morning I had breakfast at Captains Grille in the Yacht Club. If I lived locally I would come to this place every week and try the whole menu. There were so many great options. The buffet looked nice as well but I went for chocolate waffles with cherry compote and espresso mascarpone cream - with a side of bacon. They were delicious and Mickey shaped!!

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I walked to Epcot and did Test Track. In line a father kept asking his son to squeeze a huge pimple on his arm. Thankfully the son refused to comply with this gross request. My car failed to win anything this time but it was still fun.

I then did the new Colortopia exhibit which I thought was boring but is probably more fun for kids, followed by another ride of Spaceship Earth. A funny quirk of this ride is that when I tried to select where I lived it did not have an option for my hometown of Auckland which has a population of 1.5 million and is home to over a third of NZ’s population, but it did have an option for Hamilton a small city of around 100,000 people a couple of hours south! I think some mischievous Kiwi cast member who happens to be from Hamilton must have had a hand in this.

After this I did some shopping: I bought a Mr Toads Taxi Service case for my phone, a small Donald Duck with magnetic arms to attach to my bag, a set of attraction posters and a Darth Vader wallet which I had buyers remorse about and returned the next day. I loved how accommodating they were when I wanted to return this for no other reason than I didn’t want it any more, they even took it at the shop in the Yacht Club and didn’t make me return it at Epcot – I am not used to this type of service. Is it a Disney thing or is this common in the US?

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I attached Donald to my hand bag straight away and then took him on his ride. I really liked this ride.

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I loved the temple and volcano part with with the restaurant to the side, the Mexican small world bit, the three caballeros and even though I don’t love seeing screens in rides I can live with their existence if they are screening shots of naked Donald!
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Its not possible to tell from this still shot but that dude in the purple poncho was doing a crazy manic little dance.
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Kiwiduck

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 18: 6th of December, Part 2

I looked around the Mexico pavilion for some three caballeros merchandise, but all I could find were children’s t-shirts. It's annoying when you really want to give a company some of your money but they just wont let you!!
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I saw a short line forming and asked the cast member what if was for, she said Mexican Donald would be meeting soon. I got myself in that line quck smart!!

Donald was very excited to see the miniature version of himself on my bag and insisted I take him off so he could hold him(self).

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I would love to have bought one of these ornaments but they were too delicate and I was worried they would break on my way home.
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After this I continued my look around the world showcase, starting with some lunch at the Norway pavilion. I had meatballs and a pastry horn.
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The meatballs tasted much better than they look!
 

Kiwiduck

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 18: 6th of December, Part 5.
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I bought some food from Les Halles to have later; the ham and cheese roll was simple but delicious. The buche de Noel looked beautiful but wasn’t what I was expecting, I thought it would be a cake with icing but it had a very mousse like texture and I had no cutlery in my room to eat it with. This made for an interesting if unhygienic experience.

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I had thought about going back to Hollywood Studios in the evening but my long trip was catching up with me and I was feeling generally exhausted so I had a relaxed evening in my room.

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Kiwiduck

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 19: 7th of December.

Today was my day to visit with Harry Potter. I woke up strangely unenthused about it, I didn’t to leave the Disney bubble and go to another theme park. If I hadn’t pre-purchased my ticket I wouldn’t have gone at all. In the end I caught an Uber to Universal which was completely problem free (my first ever Uber ride) and quite cheap, approximately $13. I wont talk too much about my Universal day but I focused mostly on Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley both of which I loved, although I didn’t do the rides as I was fairly sure they would make me sick. I had wanted to do the Jurassic Park ride but I was really cold that day and I didn’t want to get wet, so I didn’t end up riding anything (apart from the train). I had a great time anyway.

I thought Springfield was very well done and especially liked these Duff topiaries. I was tempted to eat there but didn’t, as I wanted to save stomach space for Harry Potter.
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I though muggle London was very well done and had a far better “sense of place” than Epcots England pavilion. It actually reminded me of being in London whereas the world showcase is very cartoony (but beautiful!).
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I took a train from London to Hogsmeade as I realised I had accidentally entered the park that I had wanted to do second!– The train is fun and at it at least gives people who cant handle the rides the feeling that they have “done something”. In Hogsmeade I almost immediately bought a frozen butterbeer and drank it in a very quiet area at the back of the three Broomsticks with a great view of Hogwarts. The butterbeer was great (but cold – did I say I was cold!).
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I did a walking tour of Hogwarts which was awesome, I’m glad I got to see inside the castle.
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I think both Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley are amazing, but if I didn’t want to pay for a park to park ticket again I would definitely pick Diagon Alley, it is a step up into extra amazing. Once in Diagon Alley I had a nice meal of bangers and mash and pumpkin juice at the leaky cauldron – this was really tasty and I got to sit right by the leaky cauldron.
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Knockturn alley was my favourite part of Diagon Alley.
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Sorry about the blurry photo – but this butterbeer icecream was absolutely delicious, almost worth the entrance price by itself.
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My Uber trip home was almost a disaster. The actual ride was good but some time after I was back in my room I went to check my phone, couldn’t find it, and quickly realised I had left it in the back of the car. I panicked; nothing can make you feel more alone in a foreign country than losing your primary means of communication. A lovely CM in the lobby helped me work out how I could track it down. Using the find my iPhone app I could see my phone travelling to the airport and then turning around and heading back in what I hoped was my direction. Thankfully the awesome Uber driver brought my phone back to me as soon as he could.

When I saw that the phone at arrived at the hotel I went down and looked around the carpark area and the lobby hoping to find the driver and thankfully I found him as the hotel staff had refused to take the phone from him to pass onto me. He was very nice and was reluctant to take money from me to compensate for his time and lost fare but I’m glad that he did in the end as it wasn’t his fault some dumbass left her phone in the back of his car!

Later that evening with a firm grip on my phone I went back to Epcot to ride spaceship earth again. I tried to buy a ham and cheese roll from France on my way back but after a long wait they ran out so I had to have a lovely pastry for dinner instead.
 

Kiwiduck

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 20: 8th of December

Today I went back to Animal Kingdom. I headed to Kilamanjaro Safaris first but was distracted by these guys on the way. They were very engaging.

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The safari was great – there was a huge convention of rhinos and zebra and giraffes. Hippopotamuses were out of the water and dancing in tutus. Lion cubs were being presented to the world on rock formations etc etc. Sadly my camera announced that the memory card was full at the start of the safari and It didn’t really register with me that I could have used my phone to take photos, regardless, it was still the best of the safaris that I went on.

I went to try and buy a new card but a new store had opened that day and there had been a big reshuffle of stock and no one was really sure where the cards were being sold. When I did eventually find one it was around $60 for a small amount of storage so I decided I didn’t really want to use my camera that much after all. I also forgot to take good notes about what I did this day but I know I saw a Bugs Life which was fun and I ate a hotdog which was dry and another lovely coconut rum dole whip.

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I watched the gorillas again for ages. This was good timing as a large family with babies were having a great time and playing and then almost instantaneously all walked away.
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I love the Animal Kingdom and cant wait to see it again this year when it has a new show and a night-time safari, and even more so when Pandora opens.
 

melmel89

Well-Known Member
This hasn’t always been the case on previous visits, especially at LAX.
You are not alone there, my brother sometimes joins us from New Zealand (Queenstown) he gets his connection at LAX and always has grumbles about security staff! Great TR so far :)
 

Kiwiduck

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
You are not alone there, my brother sometimes joins us from New Zealand (Queenstown) he gets his connection at LAX and always has grumbles about security staff! Great TR so far :)
I found that the worse they have ever been was when I was transiting though LAX on the way to London, and I wasn't even wanting to enter the USA, I was just wanting to get back on my ongoing flight. I got lucky with really nice airport staff everywhere on my last trip though, so I hope the trend continues for my next trip.
 

Kiwiduck

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 21: 9th of December
Today was a Magic Kingdom day but I slept very late, then read on my balcony as I had late fastpasses. I had been having a lot of trouble backing up my photos so I couldn’t delete my cameras memory card but I deleted as many photos as I could. I wasn't too worried as I had already taken lots of photos.
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I had my first and only churro of the trip today. It was delicious, wish I had had more! Also, this is the only food photograph that I took which I actually liked.
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I rode Big Thunder, the Haunted Mansion and watched the Country Bear Jamboree before lunch.
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Can someone tell me what these birds are called – I saw them all over the place. Are they ibis?
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I had a very late lunch reservation at Be our Guest which I was a bit worried about as breakfast there was so awful. I had a roast beef sandwich and a chocolate éclair which were both delicious and it made me feel happy that the meal did some justice to the awesome surroundings.
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I went to Tomorrowland to ride the peoplemover but it was closed for renovation and the carousel of progress was also down. I had a look around the new fantasyland area instead.
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After this I watched the parade. The dragon float is magnificent!
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That evening I packed so I wouldn’t have to worry about it the next day – I had brought too much stuff with me and bought too much new stuff. I was really worried I would not be able to fit everything in. In the end I left a pair of sneakers behind; they were almost new but were just too small for me. I left a note with them that I had left them on purpose so no one tried to return them to me. I also threw out a pair of worn out old Toms and a powerbank that had stopped working. With getting rid of these things I just managed to fit everything in. After I had packed I had a blue frozen cocktail and a Mickey Bar for dinner.
 

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