Disney World Day One (The first day of Erica-mas)

So finally, we got to Disneyworld - 30+ hours, 5 flights, lunch with the Lewis's, and a partridge in a pear tree, well not really 'cause thats Chrstmas, and the celebration we were celebrating was the week of Erica.

Disney's Wilderness Lodge

We got to the hotel, The Disney Wilderness Lodge was our home during the stay - and in the Disney style, we were "Welcomed home" on arrival.

The lodge is designed to look like the great National Park Lodges of the Western United States, and is quite beautiful.

The view from our room took in the courtyard of the lodge, the pool, and we had a view over Bay Lake.

The inside of the lodge was just as impressive. As we would learn through the week, Disney is about detail - miniscule detail, and most of the time they get it right.

We had been upgraded to have Concierge club access, which provided coffee and soft drinks and snacks during our stay, and our room was ready on arrival. We got to our room, and then headed down to lunch at the Whispering Canyon Cafe.

Whispering Canyon Cafe, Disney's Wilderness Lodge
The Whispering Canyon serves a "All you can eat" skillet for lunch, with the servers acting a little mean to the customers, all part of the schtick.

Appetizers
Southwestern Chicken Soup $6.49
Western Chips and Dip - Homemade Corn Torilla Chips with a bowl of freshly made salsa and queso dip $8.49
Cheese and Sausage Plate - cheddar cheese with sliced pork sausage, crackers, and barbecue dipping sauce $7.99
Chili - $6.49

Canyon Skillet All-You-Care-To-Eat
Smoked pork ribs, oven-roasted chicken and pork sausage, served with beans, seasonal vegetable, creamy coleslaw, mashed potatoes and fresh baked corn bread $15.99 per person

Entrees
Veggie Enchilada - cowboy beans and quinoa pilaf and enchilada sauce an Tillamook Cheddar cheese $10.99
Roast Chicken - with coleslaw and mashed potatoes $14.99
Chicken Salad - mixed greens with grilled chicken breast, cheddar cheese, candied walnuts, and honey-roasted walnut vinaigrette $12.99
Buffalo Chicken Salad - mixed greens with buffalo chicken tenders, black beans, blue cheese, and apple vinaigrette $12.99
Slow-smoked pulled Pork Sandwich - with beans, choice of grilled vegetable pasta salad or french fries, and BBQ sauce $10.49
Smoke House Stack Sandwich- turkey, ham, bacon, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, with shallot mayonnaise, on focaccia roll, served with grilled vegetable pasta salad or potato chips $9.99
Pan-seared Rainbow Trout - with roasted potatoes, smoked bacon, onions, spinach, and fresh cucumber relish drizzled with chili oil $16.99
Chicken Sandwich - grilled chicken breast sandwich topped with espresso BBQ sauce, bacon, cheddar cheese and choice of grilled vegetable pasta salad or french fries $13.49
Angus Chuck Cheeseburger - with cheddar, lettuce and tomato, served with choice of grilled vegetable pasta salad or french fries $11.99
Buffalo Bacon Cheeseburger topped with bacon, cheddar, spicy chipotle mayonnaise, lettuce, onions, and tomatoes served with grilled vegetable pasta salad or french fries $13.99

Desserts
S'more Cheesecake - NY Style Cheesecake on a Graham cracker crust topped with chocolate ganache and marshmallows $5.49
Apple Caramel Pie - crumb-topped deep dish apple pie with vanilla ice cream $5.49
Kahlua-flavored Chocolate Cake - chocolate mousse filling and fudge icing $5.99
Cinnamon Tortilla with Vanilla Ice Cream - topped with fresh bananas and banana-caramel sauce $5.49

So for Lunch we had:

Western Chips and Dip and the Cheese and Sausage Plate to start, followed by the Canyon Skillet.

We passed on dessert, so this meal would have cost us $48.46, being on the Platinum plan, however this was included in the cost of our package (I will be including rough totals along the way).

All in all while it was a hearty meal, it really was nothing special, and the restraunt was basically empty - which I think, paradoxically, made the service a little worse.

Following lunch we rushed to grab a shower, and get to the Grand Floridian Spa. Thus began the Erica and Matt tradition of running late!

Grand Floridian Sp, Grand Floridian Resort

Spa was very relaxing and enjoyable, we both had 50 minutes of Swedish Massage, and it would have been nice to loiter longer in the steam room or sauna, but we had Dinner with a princess to get to. (Cost of Spa Appointment $260 - on the plan).

Cindarella's Royal Table, Magic Kingdom

So, we raced to dinner with Cinderella, half suspecting we would be told that because we were late that it would not be possible to get in (this is one of the most popular places to eat in Disney World, with reservations filling 180 days prior to eating).

After photos with Cinderella, we where whisked upstairs to the Grand Dining Hall in the castle for dinner (The Menu Follows)

Appetizers
Choice of one:
BLT Salad - a mixture of frisee, iceberg lettuce, baby spinach, with applewood bacon, tomato, eggs, red onion and roasted shallot vinaigrette

Castle Salad - Mixed Field greens with Blue Cheese, Raspberries and Candied Walnusts tossed in a Berry Vinaigrette Vegetable Spring Roll with soy bean and bok choy salad and ginger-garlic sauce

Corn and Crab Soup with sour cream and chives

Entrees Royale
Choice of one:

Roast Lamb Chops with fingerling potatoes, Vegetable Ragout, and drizzled with a Herb Pesto

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with orzo cheese casserole, cremini mushrooms and a port wine reduction

Lemon Lavender Chicken on Mashed Potatoes served with Wilted Spinach and a chicken Jus

Roast Prime Rib of Beef with gratin potatoes and a cabernet sauce

Pan Seared Salmon with a grain pilaf, Grilled Asparagus and glazed with Rosemary-lemon

HoneyCheese Tortellini with julienne vegetables, garlic marinara Sauce and fresh Romano

Finale
Choice of one:
Chocolate Cream Cheese Buckle with choclate ice cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce

Poached Pear on Angel food cake topped with Mango Sorbet and drizzled with a Port Reduction

Raspberry Sorbet

Erica played the role of princess for the evening.

The dining room itself was pretty impressive, with windows with a view out to Fantasy Land.

And the Fairy Godmother and her small band of mice assisted in making the meal jolly:

And of course, this being the beginning of the week of Erica's Birthday, there was cake and fairy dust on the table!

The dinner was barely average however, and the service a bit gruff (this is one of the few places in Disney where the tip is included in the total price, so there was I guess no reason to perform). We both had salad followed by the beef, and it was just not that impressive. Dessert was better, with erica having the sorbet (the first of many), and I had the Pear Angel Food cake.

All up had we paid for dinner I think I would have been more dissapointed, but the location was pretty stunning, and we weren't down anything for having eaten there, so it goes.

Total cost had we not been on the plan: $82.00

Following dinner we went on a few rides in Tommorowland, and Erica slept through some them. Splash mountain beckoned.

We went and watched the fireworks from our special VIP viewing point (Note to disney: cut down the tree in front of the special VIP viewing location). The VIP viewing sites cause some consternation to the other people in the parks who seem to camp out for _hours_ to get a half decent view, and seemed quite perturbed when Erica and I waltzed up five minutes prior to the fireworks starting, oh well.

The fireworks are very impressive, and the message laudable.

After the fireworks we went back to tommorrowland, saw the carousel of progress, and then pretty promptly headed home to bed.

End of Day 1 - total not spent: $390.46

Day 1 - Getting there is half the fun... (or alternatively - will this day ever end) (Part Two - Sydney-Honolulu-Los Angeles-Dallas-Orlando)

Ok, it's been a while, but when the story ended the intrepid explorers where in the Qantas First Class lounge waiting for the departure of JQ 3 to Honolulu.

Time to board came, and we headed to he Gate to jump on board our Jetstar flight to paradise.

Jetstar Flight JQ 3 - Sydney to Honolulu (Starclass) Airbus A330

We didn't really know what to expect on this segment, we where booked in StarClass which is variously pitched as Premium Economy or as a Business Class product.

We boarded (our seats had been changed to far less desirable ones than we had assigned ourselves on the web), so we had a middle and aisle seat in the centre section of row three, rather than the window and aisle seat we had picked (it had been stolen by a family needing the bassinet position). Sparkling something was served before takeoff, and the rather substantial amenities pack distributed.

Entertainment came on individual hand-held video on demand units, and included a hillarious "Airport" style documentary about Jetstar international.

Dinner was chicken or beef, nothing too exciting but not bad either.

Apart from the fact i was stuck in a middle seat, I was pleasantly surprised at how good this flight was, it is definately closer to business than economy, and by and large a not entirely unpleasant way to spend 9 hours in the air - it will be interesting to see this product develop with the introduction of Jetstar's 787 fleet when Boeing finally get around to delivering them.

We arrived in Honolulu early on the 19th August (will this day never end), and where quickly through immigration and customs - we needed to check in for our American Airlines flights, so had to sit around and wait for the Agricultural inspection counters to open, so we decided to hang out at a Starbucks and enjoy the heat.

Lucky we did really, cause halfway through my frappachino a young Australian girl came up to me and told me that we had accidentally swapped bags through customs - so there was some baggage stuff to sort out. Once that was done, we where able to check in for the American Airlines flights.

American Airlines staff are really some of the more pleasant airline staff you could come across (well the ones manning the first class counters are), so after a pleasant chat with our check in agent and some suggestions about nice plases to spend a couple of hours that are not Honolulu airport, we headed off to have breakfast at the Aloha Towers shopping mall.

Breakfast was nothing special, but we wandered the dock out the back a little bit.

The dock looked out onto Pearl Harbour, so it was interesting to see the flags of many nations on the ships moored at the dock.....

After looking at the shops briefly, and Erica spotting the Honolulu campus of the University of Phoenix we headed back to the airport.

Honolulu Airport is big - American Airlines shares it's lounge with Qantas (it is actually a Qantas Club that American Borrows during the day), and it seemed to be miles away from the gate. After a refreshing shower in the lounge and some loitering up there, we headed to the gate, grabbed a coffee - (Erica would not allow me to purchase the pinapples that where for sale everywhere).

Soon enough, time to leave paradise - think we will have to return and have a better look at some point.

American Airlines Flight AA 284 Honolulu-Los Angeles (First Class) 767-200

The American Airlines service to Los Angeles was very enjoyable, with International Business Class seats and pleasant crew. I mostly read and slept through the flight, enjoyed a good meal, and some good wine. This flight proved that when American tries they can get it right.

We arrived into LA a little late, but with time to spare before our flight to Dallas.

We discovered on arrival that the Admirals Club at Los Angeles closes at midnight, so no lounge for us, but we hung out at the gate waiting for our delayed flight to Dallas.

American Airlines Flight AA 2414 Los Angeles-Dallas (First Class) 737-800

Nothing much to report on this AA flight, it was a red-eye Nuts and Drink flight. We mostly slept through the flight, waking up to discover that we where in Dallas (Late, but none the less in Dallas)

American Airlines Flight AA 1734 Dallas - Orlando (First Class) 757

We raced through Dallas Airport to connect with this flight - well actually we raced to the train, then took a scenic tour of the airport, then raced from the train to the gate, but never the less...

Breakfast was served, the plane landed in Orlando, we got off, our bags made it onto the luggage belt.

So some 30 or so hours after leaving Sydney we were in Orlando, Florida!

After haggling with Alamo (our rental car agency) about whether or not we needed fuel/random bits of insurance/a set of steak knives/a convertable we where out of the airport and onto Florida's toll roads - oh f*&@ does anyone have $1.25 to pay a toll - exact change required right...

But in about 1/2 an hour we had reached the entrance to the most magical place on earth...

Getting there is half the fun

Matt says that I'm not really blogging unless I post to the blog, so despite the fact that we are about to run away and board the aeroplane, here is my first post.

Day 1 - Getting there is half the fun... (Part One - Canberra to Sydney)

Well, Departure day finally dawned and we were off to Canberra Airport to begin our intrepid journey.

CabExpress got a cab to our door ahead of time and we where off with our 7 pieces of luggage to the airport. Surprised about the number of Kangaroos hangin out along the road behind Mt Majura - it was almost a perfect way to depart, pass a bit of early morning wildlife...

Canberra Airport checkin went smoothely, and I avoided scalding the check in agent who didnt seem to entirely believe me when I said that Hawaii was a part of the USA. She suggested that it was an island, and so different than the US - I practiced my "Coping with stupid people that can otherwise F*** up my day" strategies, gave her a quizzical smile and headed off to the lounge.

Erica ate toast with Vegimite - i drank cofee, boarded our 9:40 am flight and left the Peoples Socialist Republic of the ACT.

Arrived on Sydeny about on time, headed up stairs to the new Business class lounge to go to the bathroom, then came to find Erica's parents who where taking us out for lunch.

Lunch was, as is usual when shared with the Lewis's, an enjoyable "event".

For now, we are ensconsed in the Qantas First Class Lounge, having enjoyed the good wine, the food, and their internet connection, we await the call to board JQ3 our Jetstar flight to Hawaii.

I am imagining that Jetstar will be a little like flying "Pam Anne" - They only make the same mistake twice...

By popular demand it is a travel blog...

So following Erica's farewell dinner on Saturday night, it seemed that there was overwhelming demand for a blog to be created of our intrepid journey to the USA.

So, consider it done. Time will tell as to whether this is a project that we will see through, but who knows...

Matt