Day 1 Disney World - The Magic Kingdom

This is the beginning of my 4 day/3 night trip to Disney World in Orlando

Day One at Disney World...since we were staying at The Walt Disney Resort I had the luxury of flying in in the morning and still having a full day in the park. I took a 9am flight to MCO (Orlando Airport) which arrived around 11am I then proceeded straight to the Magical Express (a bus service for people staying at The Walt Disney Resort Hotels) it is a free service. Even if you don't know what flight your on make sure you sign up for this service...you don't even have to use it but if you don't sign up for it you don't get the luggage service (they pick up your bags from the carousel) and if you end up taking the express you have to wait in a LONG line to get your tickets to get on. Since I had my ticket I walked up and they scanned it and I was almost put on a bus right away. Sometimes even if you have everything ready you still have to wait 20 minutes or so for your bus. It takes about 45 minutes from MCO and as I was arriving on the bus so was my friend who was staying nearby for a Orlando wedding.

I used the online check-in so my room was available prior to arrive at the resort I was staying at the Pop-Century Hotel. We went straight to our room and changed for our day. Our package was 4-Base tickets, 3 nights in the hotel, and the dining plan. Since we were hungry we decided to go to the food area at our hotel and got what we wanted to eat, our meals included a entree, dessert, and drink. We also picked up our complementary unlimited drink refill mugs that came with our dining plan they are about $15/per mug without the dining plan, great for those coffee drinkers. After our meal we headed straight to the Magic Kingdom bus. 

One great thing about staying the resort is your room key is also your resort tickets, meal plan, and can also be your credit card. As soon as we got into the Magic Kingdom we did what everyone needs to do we got our ears, I was disappointed to find that Disney now charges to get ears with your name on them...it was truly disappointing to me...however since we had our buttons on that say we are celebrating our birthdays they gave us our embroidery for free as a "Magical Moment" 

Since we are staying in the Disney Resort hotels we get the benefit of "extra magic hours" which means for the us the park was open until 3am since normal closing time was midnight for non-Disney hotel guests. So our ride game plan was always first go get space mountain fast passes then go around the park hitting all the shows and rides that had less than a 20 minute wait...this is also smart because not all things are open during the Extra Magic Hours. Also the Extra Magic Hours change in each park each day sometimes they are 1 hour in the morning and some are 3 hours in the evening but never the same park the same night so check the calendar...in the summer they also add the extra magic hours to the water parks.

Since fireworks were around midnight we headed to the California Grill in the Contemporary Hotel around 9pm for our reservations they take the dining plan but its two sit down dinners per person but so worth it because if you are there during the fireworks they will hold your food and you can go to their outside walkway and watch the fireworks from there with the Magical Music. Below is a view from the walkway.

After we had our lovely Filet Mignon for Dinner we received our desserts which we absolutely decant and we were very very very full but running late because we wanted to get back for the Main Street Electrical Parade. Here are our desserts.

When we got back to the park we just missed the beginning of the Main Street Electrical Parade which I still think is the coolest parade they've ever had.

After this we literally walked in the Disney Circle doing all of the rides that you usually have to wait hours for like buzz lightyear, peter pan, and space mountain...as well as we repeated our favorites like the Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain...we went on some rides we wouldn't have normally gone on like Astro Orbiter...Although it was open on this trip this is a great time to hit dumbo for nostalgia because it too hard to get on it during normal operating hours. One huge thing to remember is since we got back at 3am there was NO food for us and that includes drinks so if you know your going to be hungry MAKE SURE you buy some sort of snacks and water at the shop so you won't starve because it happened to me on a trip before and it was no fun!...

If you have any question please feel free to comment or message me!

-Tanya

I know your wondering does she have twitter? Of Course I do please follow me! @TanyaNeshat

Disney Planning Contines...

After pricing out our vacation a couple times I looked at united.com vacations cause I could receive miles and then I looked at AAA because they have upclose parking and a lounge and then I priced through disneyworld themselves. The pricing wasn't that different I found that I neede to renew my AAA so the savings would be less than the cost of my renewal I decided since I was doing. Celebration I would book through Disney!

I know your wondering does she have twitter? Of Course I do please follow me! @TanyaNeshat

Planning for Disneyworld

My best friend is going to be in Florida for a wedding and she has some days free before she is flying home and she wanted me to come down so since it is almost my birthday I decided to treat myself. The first thing to do is get the Birnbaum Guide for 2012 this is the official Disneyworld guide, I also recommend going to www.Mousesavers.com they have soooo much information. I like to do pricing around but I want a package so Im going to be booking through Walt Disney I am going from March 18th-21st. I am still in the planning I know which hotel I want to stay at and I know we don't need park hoppers and Im pretty sure the dining plan is the way to go. I looking into the extra magic hour which is what you get when you stay at any Disney resort these are the extra hours that the park is open for resort guests only.


On the 18th the Magic Kingdom is open from 9a-12am but extra magic 12a-3a
On the 19th the Hollywood Studios is open from 9a-10p but extra magic 10p-1a
On the 20th Epcot is open 9a-9p with extra magic from 8a-9a
On the 21st Animal Kingdom is open 9a-8p with extra magic from 8a-9a


So those are the days that I am going to each park, Animal Kingdom take the least amount of time and I am flying out @ 7:30p and Magical Express to airport picks us up @ 4:30p so we have from 8a-3p to spend at Animal Kingdom which should be plenty of time just have to hit the big rides first. 


My detailed plans to come next week ;) Booking on Friday Im soooo excited :D


Here are some older pictures of me @ Disneyworld & Disneyland

Me on the Teacups :D

My friend Kami who is going to Dworld with me

Playing Buzzlightyear @ Dworld during extra magic hours around 2am lol

I know your wondering does she have twitter? Of Course I do please follow me! @TanyaNeshat

Coolist Louis Vuitton Store in the World

When I was in Sydney there was a Louis Vuitton store that had Handbags which had been made into animals by Billie Achilleos. Probably the coolest thing I have ever seen I couldn't get good pictures of all of them but it would be worth it to go see them if you are in Sydney anytime soon. 

I know your wondering does she have twitter? Of Course I do please follow me! @TanyaNeshat

The London Bridge on the Great Ocean Road

When my mom and I were in Melbourne, Australia we decided to do a tour with Go West Tours of the Great Ocean Road one of the stops was the London Bridge and apparently there is a legend and story associated with The London Bridge. You used to be able to walk on the rock formation that was The London Bridge however one day the part of the bridge that was connected to the mainland collapsed leaving two people stranded on the other part of the bridge that remains standing. The Legend is a man who was married called into work sick and told his wife he was going to work when really he was on the great ocean road with his mistress and got caught obliviously when they were stranded by the media. He was fired and received a divorce. The True Story is that is was a couple but a newly married couple on their honeymoon. Our tour guide said that the legend comes from a local area nearby where a man was caught cheating on the same day. 

Shown Below are the Before and After Picture of The London Bridge

London Bridge Before

London Bridge After

I know your wondering does she have twitter? Of Course I do please follow me! @TanyaNeshat

New Years EVE 2011-2012!

            I get off the plane in Sydney it is December 31st, 2011 at 8am. I had horrible sleep on the plane the guy next to me refused to give me an inch of room even though the seat next to him was completely empty so I had lots of Ache's and pains from sleeping in odd positions on the 14hr flight from LA where I had a 7 Hour layover from my 5 hr flight from Washington DC to put it bluntly I traveled for 26 hours but here I was right on time. My mother whom was meeting me, she had arrived a day before me since she was coming from Beijing. After getting through customs she wasn't there...as I had no phone I wasn't quite sure where she was so after attempting to get wifi on my phone from 45mins I was finally able to call her via Skype application on my cell and she said that she thought I was just coming straight to the hotel. So after what seemed like the most endless trip I was finally at the hotel. 

            It is important to note it is extremely expensive to stay in Sydney especially on new years it can run you $400-$600+ per night and there are really only two ways around paying that much, the first is planning ahead ideally a year because there are some really good deals for booking so far in advance. However we only decided to spend New Years in Sydney 3 Months beforehand. At that time hotels were just OUTRAGEOUS. However I booked a hotel that was moderately priced but it was outside of the city by 5 metro stops. I chose a hotel that just used a Credit Card Guarantee as opposed to paying in full. Even though we had a hotel I was always on the lookout for a hotel closer to the city and about one or two weeks before New Years I started seeing daily great deals on rooms, I'm sure if I was willing to wait a couple days before I would have gotten a better deal but I didn't want to know since I paid in full to our hotel and we stayed at the Sydney Marriott Darlinghurst which is in the city and walkable to our New Years Eve event in the Harbour. The room's were a little dated but it's not uncomfortable, they were offering free WIFI for members of the Marriott Rewards Club which was free to join online so I recommend you do that if you book there. They also as amenities go had a rooftop pool with the most amazing views and it was open 24/7 but the water was cold and the jacuzzi was luke warm and this is the middle of summer for them. 

           If you have ever been to or seen on television what New York's Times Square looks like on New Years EVE that's how it is in Sydney except that its blistering hot and there are hundreds more lookout spots to see the fireworks from. As I was arriving the day of New Years we weren't really in a position to sit out all day and stake out a spot. I had been looking into affordable but nice events that we would enjoy going to. I decided to go to the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens, they had 4 events to choose from for NYE. They had a public event where you brought your own food and chairs, they supplied port-o-potties They had enough Public Space for 26,000 people I am not sure how many people went to that but they had a nice view if you got there early enough. They had a Member's only event (Friends of the Botanic Gardens) which was the cheapest besides the free event, it was a smaller amount of people it cost about $60 if you were already a member but becoming a member was around a hundred and you could do it online. The next level up was the Lawn with a View event which was the closest to the fireworks and I believe it was about $200 per person and they gave a boxed Lunch for your to picnic with. However we went the nicest event they had partly because Lawn was Sold Out, we went to the event called Midnight at the Oasis it was probably the best decision I made on this trip, the picture they show doesn't do justice to just how good of a view you have. The view includes the Sydney skyline, the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and Two sets of fireworks on each side of you. I kid you not at the midnight fireworks show we had 180 degree's of fireworks, I was in awe. The even it's self was nice you are right on the waterfront they had a dance floor for people who wanted to dance and a bar, that was probably the biggest problem because the line was long like 80% of the night  and it cut right in the middle of the tables so the people in the back couldn't really see very much  so I would say book early and in front of the line.  The restrooms were amazing the event had about 300ish people they bathroom trailers so approximately 15 toilets and sinks for the ladies and 5 or so for the men, but I never met with any type of line and the tickets were $325 a piece so most everyone was a nice tourist adult, I met a professor from my university at the event, it truly is a small world. The food which probably the least important was really good and I am a picky eater so that's saying A LOT they gave us a little box of food upon arrival it had a roll, salmon salad, hummisplainish but very moist, I think it came with mash potato's I can't recall, they had two deserts both were a little weird but still not bad. Then later in the night after midnight they had meat pies. They kept the event open after 1am but I was so tired since I hadn't slept since arriving in Sydney I was ready to go home. It was nice to be able to walk because there was so many blockades you defiantly couldn't drive and you would have to wait forever and cram onto a metro otherwise, the hotels did have security though ours wanted our name and room number before they even let us in the front door. 

View from Midnight at Oasis

I know your wondering does she have twitter? Of Course I do please follow me! @TanyaNeshat

Going Premier

I never thought that I would travel enough to gain premier status on an airline but for 2012 I am a United Premier Member! Let me tell you I don't know if I could ever go back! I only have had the chance to use it once but it was awesome. When coming back from Australia I got free upgrades automatically to economy plus which means 5 extra inches of legroom on a 14hr flight it really helps! I also got two free bags checked and they were labeled priority so I bearly had any wait time getting my bags. At Sydney they also gave me the priority line pass for security which included priority customs yay! Lol when I got to my boarding area I was sent to sit with the first class boarding area people and it was really nice to be one of the first people on the plane I didn't have to worry about overhead bin space! I am hoping a flight sometime soon I'll get a buisness upgrade ;) lol see ya later!

I know your wondering does she have twitter? Of Course I do please follow me! @TanyaNeshat