Arrival at Brisbane International

Our trip to Brisbane International went smoothly. We passed through customs without issue. We were good and declared everything we needed to, the result, customs had no problem with the declared goods.

Kym and Luke met us at the arrivals. It was nice. We enjoyed our trip very much, but there is no place like home. A quick lunch meet-up with Andy at Kenmore Plaza, and we headed for home. Jacqs had some motion sickness on the way home but otherwise uneventful. A quick reunion with Melissa's Mum at our home completed our happy arrival home.

Howard and Gizmo also came home today. Happy day all round. Now for the up packing....

Last Day in the USA

Day seven saw us do a quick half day trip to the Theme Parks to repeat some favorites. These included The Matterhorn, Space Mountain, Star Wars - Star Tours at Disney and Pixie Hollow. Soaring California and Screamin California at California Adventure. Unfortunately none of the rides had the same adrenalin rush as they did the first time except Screamin that would still be exhilarating no matter how many times you ride it. There seem to be a lot of glitches in the rides over the last couple of days. We were able to catch up with most of the rides we wanted to do after a couple of visits and uses of
Fast Passes. The one ride we missed and are disappointed about is the monorail. We tried to get on it a number of times over the last couple of days and missed out. We would have loved to see the Parks from above and take yet some more photos.

All in all our trip to LA and Anaheim has been good. We certainly know that Anaheim is really the only area we would spend any time in in the future. We know we are basing this on a very limited exposure. Unless there are any great changes we would not worry about visiting Universal again. Our accommodation, ,Desert Palms, was adequate but a little dated. Staff were very friendly and helpful. We would consider staying here again but now we know the lay of the land there are certainly many other accommodation options that we had seen during researching that are in the same area or even closer. We had a approximately a ten minute comfortable walk to get into Disneyland in one direction or we could approach from the other side and come into Down Town Disney in a similar time. There were some very handy shops very near to the hotel which contained reasonably priced grocery and basic pharmacy, laundry and souvenirs. Over the road was Subway, a great pizza place, Chinese, Mexican, ice-cream shop and more souvenirs. All of the fast food was quick, cheap and tasty.

Currently we are sitting at LAX waiting for our flight to Auckland. The girls have palled up with three children of a similar age returning home to NZ. They are sitting on the floor drawing, reading and playing cards. This is good as a three hour wait at the airport can be tedious for adults let alone tired children. We have found the children are two rows ahead of us. We don’t know yet whether this will be a good thing or not.

Trip Home

We are currently sitting in Auckland waiting to board our last plane of the trip, YEH. The trip has been great but the last week very tiring, we even slept on the plane. Charlotte is sleeping on a chair as we type. We saw very little of the NZ kids on the flight but the kids wanted to swap email addresses so we did before parting company.

Our taxi on the tarmac to our runway was very long, about twenty-five minutes. It was amazing. The flight over the Pacific was relatively painless as far as twelve hour plane flights go. Air New Zealand was very pleasant to fly with. We even saw the hostesses with water during the night. Hopefully our last leg will be just as pleasant. Now that we are out of Europe and US we can feel the need to be home.

Disneyland again, last rides

Out of time will complete back in Australia. Waiting for the shuttle to tale us to LAX, so I'll blog yerterdays visit to Disneyland.

We managed to finish Disneyland by visiting Adventure land, Critterland & the Pirates Lair. Adventure land included a boat trip.

Melissa took a detour to have a look at a fairly new shopping centre on the way to
Disneyland. We then all did the Indiana Jones ride which was a relatively slow rollercoaster but was very rough. It was a jeep that explored an underground temple. Complete with all the traps from the movie. Reaching the jeep, as with many of the rides, was an adventure in itself. We walked through many suitably themed tunnels that depicted further the movie.

This was one thing we noticed all the rides did well was provide plenty of entertainment, information and atmosphere to set the scene as well as keep you occupied while waiting. We were generally lucky in that we never really had much of a wait. The waits in high season would be terrible but Fast Passes work well where you get a ticket and return in a shorter line during a designated time period, usually an an hour in ¾ - an hour later.

We also explored Tom Sawyers- Pirates Lair, visited Pooh’s Corner, looked around Critter Country, Adventure Land to finish rides. We went on another roller coaster called Thunder Mountain which was themed around a runaway train. It was fairly fast and rough but most enjoyable. The girls and Cos went on the pirates of the Caribbean and Melissa had a wander around.

After this we embarked on our final shopping trip in Down Town Disney. Most of the time was spent The biggest Disney Shop in the world. Jacq’s went to the Lego shop and bought 2 containers of Lego for her collection. The Lego shop had not only boxed Lego sets but also mixed Lego pieces that you could choose from to fill containers. It was only basic pieces but great value. Charlotte did over Disney Shop and spent the money she had saved on bits and pieces of Disney Memorabilia. Cos bought a Mickey Mouse tie (watch for it at formal occasions and work) and Melissa bought a Mickey Mouse bag very cute and Mickey Mouse watch (with mouse hands) as well as other memorabilia. We then set out back to the hotel much later than planned to finish our momentous packing job.

Los Angeles-The Tour

Today (well yesterday actually) saw us do a tour of Los Angeles City and what an eye opener it was. Very different to what we expected. Most of it was fairly drab (except Rodeo Drive) and some parts pretty scarey. Los Angeles definately has a very different feel and look to New York. There are pockets of Highrises and they aren't as close together or high as NY. Our tour saw us drive over the HUGE interchange used in many movies including Speed. It is an amazing sight photos dod not do it justice. We went on to Hollywood and Mann's Chinese Theatre. The theatre itself was a horshoe shaped courtyard in front of a theatre ornately decorated with Chinese statues, pictures and carvings. The courtyard floor was made of large brick tiles (just under 1m sq) that had hand and foot prints and messages from stars. We only had a short time here and there were hundreds in the courtyard. You can see some of the ones we spotted. Also in this area the footpaths are lined with the stars 'stars'. There were area were also preformers playacting their character for tips. Some were worth it some not. Catwomen and Charlie Chaplin were great Marilyn was not looking so great although she did find a safety pin to keep her dress up at least. Thank goodness. Others outright rude when I took a photo with out permission. It was not expected to see spiderman just above your head hanging onto the scafolding!

One route and in the genereal area was Kodak Theatre (home of Oscars), saw again Hollywood sign, many movie locations some being Forest Gump & Independence Day. We saw the areas also where the Stars live and the shop, Rodeo Drive and Sunset Strip. We even saw where Julia Roberts' character was rejected from in Pretty Women. This area was nice enough but not as lush as we expected.

We stopped for lunch a The Farmers Market. There were heaps of places to choose from. We dicided to have Johnnie Rockets a traditional old style hamburger it was quick and tasty. We than had a look around the markets there was fruit & veges, bags, sunglasses etc in the market area and other retail shops around the outside. The girl had a look in American Girl which is a doll shop where you can buy clothes and accessories for you and your doll to match...at a price!

Our tour headed to Santa Monica and Venice Beach, but on the way we saw Beverly Hills (home of the rich and famous). We stopped in Santa Monica, nice but comparable to "Surfers Paradise" or some of the beaches on the Sunshine Coast but not a patch on some of our untouched "North QLD" beaches. Santa Monica has a famous wharf (used in the movies) with a "Fair-ground and side-shows on it. Sadly we were at Santa Monica for 45 minutes, so hardly time to make a fair judgement of the place.

The next place we found to be very seedy in nature, Venice Beach. The buildings were designed to look like the grand buildings of Venice Italy. They missed by a "country mile". The buildings looked tired, and the population was... alternative or trying to have "attitude". The side-walk stalls everywhere with street-performers harking for tips. A lot of big guys walking large dogs and endowed "ladies" strutting their stuff! All manner of in between, hair-styles, clothing, lifestyles, and even a small dog with a mohawk. Needless to say Venice Beach is not on our return list of places, and yes grandparents and all concerned we watched the girls extra closely. This was the only spot in the whole trip that we really felt uncomfortable.

After Venice Beach we headed back to Anaheim. We all certainly dozed off in the bus and I suspect many others did as well. The bus driver's comentary was very good and he certainly new his LA history as well trivia.

After we got back we headed back down to Down Town Disney for tea. We went to the Rainforest Cafe and had a lovely meal.

California Adventure Disney

Today we visited California Adventure Disney and Downtown Disney. Disneyland has three separate areas, these are the traditional "Disneyland" and newer themed "California Disney". Of course Downtown Disney is for those of us who like to shop.

We managed to complete "California Adventure Disney". We certainly enjoyed it so much so we are unable to finish the blog entry tonight...just too stuffed. So we will flesh out the entries later. For now here are some of the highlights in photos.




The day started with an amazing gondola ride of California in the form of simulation ride called California Soaring. It was perhaps one of best rides as it was a combination of visual footage of all aspects of California including surfing, mountains, the desert and fields. We went so close to the water we even lifted our feet for fear of getting them wet it was so realistic. The video ended with us being in the middle of Disney's fireworks display.

Another amazing ride was California Screaming which is very aptly named. You start the roller coaster ride like you have been shot out of a canon. It is quiet long and really fast and you go upside down. The Roller Coaster was based around a giant Mickey Head.

There is a 3D Toy Story ride where you are in a virtual fun park and trying to win on the sideshow attractions like throwing darts at balloons, hoops on objects and shooting suction darts on to moving objects. It was fun. The girls enjoy this better than Buzz we prefered Buzz. There was also some other 4D movies. One was Bugs Life and the other Muppets. The Muppet one in particular was fun because the brought live muppet characters in. There was Turtle Talk with Crush (Nemo), were were shown how to draw Mickey. We also went a raft ride and we got wet, Jacqs got soaked as can be seen. She did not have a dry spot. Luckily it was fairly warm and she had a jumper she could change into. These were the better rides but there were other Show Circuit type rides that the girls enjoyed.

There was also a High School Musical 3 miniconcert on a moving stage that the girls really enjoyed. There were also many stars that the girls got autographs from.

Universal Studios Hollywood

Today we took a break from Disneyland to visit Universal Studios, Hollywood. It was 75 minute trip to the studios past down-town LA and the Hollywood sign. Which incedently was build 1923 as advertising for the land development of the day. The fog (or was it smog) was thick most of the day, around the city, and this reflects in the city photos. LA is spread-out, so compares poorly to the dense skyscrapers of New York, but impressive compared to Australia skylines. The skyline unlike New York with skyscraper after skyscraper is generally more low lying with patches of highrises.

Universal Studies was good, but Movieworld on the Gold Coast is better if you like rides and Disneyland by far the best of all. Universal Studies is certainly great if you want to see how movies are made, which fortunately we did. We watched animal actors do their thing in a stage show. Even
saw some of the animal actors from 'Evan Almighty' Watched how "Backdraft" fire scenes where made and how general special effects are constructed. Both girls got to star in special effects back stage tour which involved Jacqs controlling an 8 foot werewolf by body movements, and Charlotte adding sound effects to a movie scene. The girls got very excited when they spotted their first star. Unfortunately this happened to be 'Marilyn Monroe'. They were somewhat disappointed when they were told that she had actually been dead for around 50yrs and somewhat concerned.

The back lot tour of the various sets and stages was very interesting and entertaining. We saw dozens of sets from famous movies and TV shows. The 175 seat "tour tram" travelled across falling bridges (used from silent movies era to the current day), into subway earthquake scenes, passed dancing cars, witnessed a scene from "Psycho", dodged flesh eating scarab beetles from the "Mummy", and saw "Jaws" have an "entree".

Unfortunately "Jurassic Park" ride the and "The haunted House of Horrors" ride were closed for re-furnishment, we dodged "The Mummy" ride because it was too scary. Ran out of time to see "Water World" and "Terminator 2 rides". We did ride (cough cough splutter splutter) "The Simpson's" (cough cough splutter splutter) ride, which we all (cough cough splutter splutter) greatly enjoyed and would ride again if the opportunity arose. (Excuse us while we just wash our mouths out with soap as we cant stand the Simpsons but this ride was awesome.) It was an amazing simulation that took you around a Krusty's 'Amusement Park through broken rollercoasters, sideshows, over and through Springfield, through a waterfall (4D) in Maggies mouth (4D) and many other places. It was really hard to overrule your feeling that you were actually moving. There was even two spots where you 'went upside down' that were totally convincing.

Of course at the end of day we purchased a few nick-knacks to remember the place. A great day!

Disneyland Day 2

After a very deep sleep, often difficult in unfamilar bed we all gleefully visited Disneyland for a second day of fun and games.

Today we saw much more, having finished off Fantasyland, Tomorrow Land and Toontown. We are really enjoying the rides and attractions. We have got a better feel of the lay of the land today and moved around much better. The girls have become roller coaster fans and Cos is slowly being converted. (Well maybe not converted but the screams are less now).

Space Mountain (a roller coaster ride) and Pirates of the Caribbean ride are fantastic. Cos even enjoyed Space Mountain which is a pitch-black environment with stars; and the space ship (the roller coaster) flies around at very high speed. Pirates of the Caribbean is a water based ride that takes you through a series of scenes from the movie. Holograms, props, loud sounds and plunging rides leaves you amazed. The gun and canon battles over your head is a little diconcerting though especially when you feel the rush of air over your head. Certainly worth a return ride. Other favourites included "Finding Nemo" (a submarine ride) and "Peter Pan" (an much much older ride, but pretty special) where you fly over London to Never Never Land.

They don't seem to be having actual fireworks at the moment but are having a Light Fantasia Show which is a combination of live actors, holograms, laser lights, fireworks and pyrotechnics and very impressive. We caught the end of it last night from the back of a very large crowd so the girls saw very little. Tonight we found a great spot early and had a great view.

We are visiting Universal studios tomorrow so that should be good.