Double the fun: East & West coast Disney & Universal parks during the holiday season - Sydney Complete!! - UPDATED 3/31 About This Page:

[Big Sister]

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Another great day! Great pictures from the Wildlife World! Robin Williams sounds great! Pixies for your flight!

Thanks so much. Yes, Robin Williams was very funny, and we enjoyed his show very much (we just wished we were sitting closer )

I started my next entry last night (was meant to start it sooner ) Wish we had your goodluck pixies for that particular day, as it wasn't all that crash hot . I'm endeavouring to write two entries in a row, so you can all end your reading for the day on a high note, instead of down in the dumps from my flight entry.

Not to worry though, as the next leg of our trip was super awesome!

[pamcarey]

Great update! It must have been great to see Robin Williams! Wow, those were some scary looking spiders! Eek!

[Big Sister]

Originally Posted by pamcarey

Great update! It must have been great to see Robin Williams! Wow, those were some scary looking spiders! Eek!

Thank you .

, it was great being able to see Robin Williams live. Just last night, I watched him again in Mrs Doubtfire.

Spiders always freak me out, but I can't help looking at them if they're in display cases (I draw the line at family members waving ones they've caught in a peanut butter jar, in front of my face though! )

[Big Sister]

DAY 4A: Friday, 12 November 2010

Sydney to LA

It's a rare night where I'm able to sleep right through these days, but last night ended up being one of those nights. I was so tired from having gotten up so early the previous day, coupled with the stress of not knowing what was going to happen with the flight, that I zonked out as soon as my head hit the pillow

We had set our alarm for the not very holiday friendly time of 7am, as we had yet to pack, have breakfast, find out what was happening with our flight, and make any necessary arrangements as a result of that, all before our hotel's checkout time of 10am

The easiest of those to achieve at the time, was breakfast. While Nest made a start on the packing, I walked down to McDonald's to get our usual order of hotcakes, hash browns, and mango blend.

As soon as it turned 9am, I rang Delta Airlines to see if they were able to give me an answer this time round. After being on hold for half an hour with no human contact, spotty music reception, and at other times, complete silence, I hung up in frustration I then rang our flight agent, Ivan, only to find that he didn't start work until 11am. Fortunately, his colleague, Carol, was able to help. I explained our situation, and got annoyed internally when I sensed annoyance in her voice when I said I had hung up on Delta after being on hold for half an hour with no service. She then proceeded to tell me how they're often on hold for over an hour. As she was the only person who could help us, I didn't bite her head off about not having the time to be so complacent about the matter, and how this whole thing had been hanging over our heads since the previous day. She told me she'd ring a special number reserved for flight agents only, and get straight back to me. While I was waiting for the call, Nest went and checked Delta's website, only to find it still hadn't been updated. Carol rang back about five minutes later, to say our flight would indeed be leaving at 9.30pm. Finally, an answer!

As we didn't have activities planned for that day, seeing as we had been expecting to fly out at 11.25am, I rushed down to reception to see if we could have the room we were in for another day, but it wasn't available. They had a possible two vacancies, but they weren't available until 2pm, and would've cost over $200 . We so would've loved to have had a place to relax for the day, and a place to shower just before the flight, but it wasn't to be. The only thing I achieved on that visit to reception, was booking the airport shuttle bus for 6.25pm that evening (on hindsight, I'm glad my attempt to book it the previous day, hadn't worked out, as I would've had to have cancelled the earlier booking and arrange for a late pick-up time, hoping they wouldn't get grumpy about it in the process.)

I rushed back up to our room to deliver the bad news re the room to Nest, then help with the finishing of the packing of our luggage and the general tidying of the room. We made it out five minutes late, and risked catching the lift down to reception (we had all day to fill in, after all, if it decided to break down again), where we returned our room keys and put our luggage in storage.

At that stage, we had roughly eight hours to fill in, so we began by walking over to Market City to buy a bubby turtle toy from Morning Glory I had seen on our first day, for Kib. After that, we spent quite some time sitting on a bench outside the store, wondering what to do. Even though we had experienced some great things in Sydney, we were both quite down in the dumps at that stage, with the way things had panned out.

Being the eldest, I saw it as my responsibility to make things right. I summoned a huge amount of positive energy from goodness knows where, and came up with three of the most exciting activities I could think of:

· Luna Park: We had really wanted to go to Luna Park, but found it would be closed during our stay, and reopening on our departure day;

· Ocean World, Manly: We had paid admission to the place, on us, leftover from the combo ticket attraction pack we had bought on our first day; and,

· Taronga Zoo: A return visit so we could see the chimps, revisit the elephants, and see if the big cats were up and about.

As all three options involved ferry transport, Nest didn't want to do any of them, as he didn't want to stress about something going wrong with the ferry, therefore leaving us stranded, and having to deal with that problem on top of having to be back at the hotel by 6.25pm to catch the shuttle to the airport.

Nest suggested going to see Toy Story 3 at the IMAX Theatre, so off we went, finally with a purpose in our step. We stopped off at the Harbour Walk McDonald's for morning tea. Nest had a medium double cheeseburger meal (a double cheeseburger, medium portion of fries, and a medium Coke), with a normal sized (ie. tiny) cheeseburger on the side. I just had a cheeseburger, and finished off the Mountain Dew I had bought earlier.

The IMAX Theatre was a great disappointment. It prides itself on having the world's largest cinema screen (at 29.42 metres high by 35.73 metres wide), which raises your expectations of great entertainment. When we went in, there were no movie titles and screening times up on display - you had to line up and ask the employee on duty (how sick would they get at having to repeat the same information over and over again.) Toy Story 3 wouldn't be screening until 12 noon on Sunday, and the only thing screening during our eight hours, was a space documentary called Hubble 3D, narrated by Leonardo Di Caprio, which didn't appeal to Nest or myself. (Writing this entry three months after our actual trip, I couldn't believe to find that Hubble 3D is still screening at the Sydney IMAX Theatre! Either that, or the company hasn't updated their website for three months.)

Wish they had been showing Harry Potter during our stay!

We moved on to the huge Harbourside Shopping Centre, certain we would be able to find a cinema there, but we were mistaken. We did find something else to lift our spirits though - The British Lolly Shop. The staff were really friendly, and let Nest and I taste test the special strawberries and cream lollies. As I lived in England for 18 months on a working visa during my early 20s, I was super excited to be able to get my hands on my favourite English lollies after all this time. Goodies in question, were:

· A Caramac bar: caramel flavoured chocolate bar
· Fox's glacier mints: clear hard-boiled peppermint lollies
· Murray mints: caramel flavoured hard-boiled peppermint lollies
· Walker's prawn cocktail crisps
· Bassett's jellybabies: These were what I was most excited to find, as they're the yummiest jellybabies I've ever tasted. Once my friend and I had to eat loads more of them than usual (it was so hard ), so we could gather enough coupons to collect all the soft toy versions of the jellybaby characters.

Lollies Nest added to our haul of sugary goodness, were:

· Rhubarb and custard hard-boiled sweets
· Magic stars: tiny chocolate stars with a fluffy chocolate whip centre
· A packet of the special strawberries and cream lollies
· Flying saucers: super thin hollowed out rice paper in the shape of flying saucers, containing fizzy sherbet

I was really excited to find that they have an online store also, so I'll be able to order all my favourite lollies whenever I want now!

The next place we spent a bit of time in, was Kingpin Bowling. While we didn't go bowling (it seemed like an up-market place with nobody actually using the lanes), we did call in on their games arcade. Nest loves games arcades, and after he inspected everything on offer, the only thing we ended up doing, was riding the rollercoaster simulator. Out of the six coaster experiences available, Nest let me choose the Metal Striker. Obviously, it wasn't as thrilling as riding the real thing, but it was still a fun way to spend two minutes or so.

On leaving the arcade, we bought some bottles of iced water for the hot walk back to Market City, to check out the cinema that I went to on my last holiday in Sydney. I so couldn't believe it had been closed down - we were both so disappointed, as we had both been really looking forward to being entertained in air conditioned comfort for the next couple of hours.

To fill in time, we spent about an hour in Galaxy World, a big games arcade about to get even bigger, judging from the ongoing extension work. We exchanged some money for tokens, and went about playing the games we took a fancy to.

· Snorker: A dome with a vacuum hose and suction cap inside, that you directed to pick up your chosen prize. Only when you had it over the shoot, did you push the release button to claim your prize. Nest won a light up ring, followed by a cute little money pouch.

· High Tide: Either with another player or against the machine, you had to aim your water pistol at the spinning target, and get your soft toy to reach the top of the pole first. If you beat the machine (which we both did - woo hoo!), you won a bunch of tickets to exchange for prizes at the end of your visit.

· Jackpot: Here, you released a ball down a tube, aiming for the jackpot hole on the spinning board. The number of tickets depended on the value of the hole the ball landed in.

· Deal or No Deal: Nest played this, but I didn't. He chose the suitcase he hoped contained the highest value, and then proceeded to open the remaining 26 cases. Towards the end of his turn, Nest let go of his chosen suitcase, and went with a new one as his final choice. He won fifty tickets as a result, but if he had stuck with his original choice, he would've won one hundred tickets.

· Whack-a-Gator: Nest and I took turns at playing this game. I particularly enjoyed it, as it's a great (and acceptable) way of letting off steam. I must've been cured before my turn was over, as midway though, I became very uncoordinated and couldn't stop laughing. Afterwards, I noticed that the way people got a 100% hit rate, was to have their whole group standing over the game, and have each person responsible for tapping certain gators, with their hands.

It was fun feeding our tickets into the ticket counting machine, and getting a docket back to take to the prize counter and choose prizes. We decided to put our tickets together, and combined, we had 410 points. Nest chose a soft toy pig, a mini skateboard with different coloured wheels you can change (the nuts and bolts are tiny), and a tiny football game (kind of a small travel version of foosball.) I chose a sheet of unicorn stickers, and a meowing cat in a bag toy. After our time here, Nest mentioned to me that he was feeling a lot happier compared to at the beginning of the day, which in turn, made me feel a lot more happier too.

On leaving Market City, we began to walk aimlessly back to Darling Harbour, not really sure at what to do next. Near the Entertainment Centre, Nest suggested we catch the little gold train that did a loop of the area. This was a great idea, as our feet needed a rest, and we were shaded from the sun. We took lots of photos during our brief ride, getting off at the Aquarium stop.

Just outside the entrance to the Aquarium, was an ice cream stall. It would've been an offence if Nest and I had walked on by without getting one, so we joined the queue of tourists already waiting to be served. We ended up being served first, as the people ahead of us were having trouble choosing. Nest had a scoop of honeycomb crunch and a scoop of spearmint choc chip on a vanilla flavoured waffle cone, and I had a double scoop of English toffee on a vanilla waffle cone. We sat in the cool of the Aquarium's eatery, watching the world go by. It was such a hot day, and the scoops of ice cream were so big, that I had trouble finishing mine before it turned into one big melty sticky mess.

After washing our sticky hands and getting to use the awesome hand driers in the restrooms, we decided to fill in the rest of the afternoon by going to the Aquarium again. We made this decision, as we had been disappointed that we hadn't seen the dugongs or platypus during our previous visit (plus it didn't involve ferry transportation!)

Once inside, we headed straight to the Aussie exhibit to see if we could spot the platypus. Much to our delight, he was in! Nest and I spent ages watching the little guy, as we had never seen one with our own eyes before, and he was so cute (though you have to be careful near male platypuses, as they have a venomous spur on their hind feet. If you get scratched by it, it's extremely painful.) He was swimming around really fast (therefore making it hard to get a good photo), searching for food. I thought it was funny how he sped in amongst where the yabbies were relaxing, sending them flying for cover, as they didn't want to be eaten.

On the way to Mermaid Lagoon to see the dugongs, we were excited to happen upon a snack stand selling churros! We absolutely love churros, but hadn't been able to have any since our trip to Disneyland back in 2007 seeing as they're not readily available in Australia, so there was definitely no holding us back on this occasion! Much to our disappointment, they turned out to be dreadfully stale As well as the churros, we also picked up a small cupcake each, which were decorated with a mountain of icing topped with a sugar coated colourful crocodile lolly. We so didn't 'get' all the Where's Wally? merchandise in the nearby gift stall, and how it could possibly relate to the Aquarium. (In America, I think Where's Wally? is referred to as Where's Waldo?)

The large corridor leading to Mermaid Lagoon, was decorated with a huge beautiful undersea mermaid mural.

The dugongs were lovely large gentle creatures, and we spent ages watching them slowly drift through the water, eating lettuce. The dugongs shared their lagoon with a curious fish called Happy Moments. They're sarcastically named after the pain felt after being jabbed by one of its venomous spines. The pain of the sting can last up to an hour.

After spending ages in Mermaid Lagoon, followed by a long spell at the Reef Theatre, we reluctantly left the Aquarium.

We had roughly 45 minutes till we needed to be back at the hotel, so we spent the time sitting on a shady bench in the Harbour area, doing our best to relax. During that time, we noticed some big white stork type birds, tending to their babies in the tops of the palm trees. I wondered how they coped with the loud noise of the traffic continuously travelling across the overpass the trees were planted right next to. Much to our surprise, those 45 minutes flew by.

At 6pm, we collected our luggage and waited out of the front of our hotel. Even though we weren't looking forward to the long haul flight ahead of us, we were happy and relieved to have made it through our unexpected extra day in Sydney, and we were excited at what lay ahead of us. Our shuttle was on time, and the diver was so crazy, that I was wishing I had a handle to hang onto!

We arrived at the airport without incident, and checked in to our flight with no problems. On the way to our gate, we finally came across a postbox, which I was really excited about, as there hadn't been a single one in the huge Darling Harbour area, which I found both surprising and frustrating. I posted all our backlogged postcards, before continuing on our way.

I was surprised when we reached our gate, to find it guarded by Security staff - all the other times we've flown, we've just been able to go in and sit down without any fuss what-so-ever. This time, we had to show our boarding passes, passports, put our hand luggage through the x-ray machine, and be scanned ourselves (despite just having come from a security check-point), before being allowed to enter the area. It wasn't until we were comfortably sitting down on the other side, did I realise I hadn't stopped at the newsagents to buy Nest some puzzle books, and myself a spare notebook, as planned, as I had been distracted by Nest falling ill and needing a bathroom quickly. Luckily, I was allowed to leave the secure area to go to the newsagents, and be let back in without the thoroughness of before, due to the security guard recognising me and being able to see that I just had a couple of mags and a notebook.

We had found out that morning, that our flight would be leaving at 9.30pm, the departure screen had it down as 10pm, yet we ended up leaving at 10.30pm. I txt my only bro back home with a mobile, loads while waiting to board. Leaving when we did was hard, as when we worked out if we had left at the original time of 11.25am, we would only have had roughly four hours left before arriving in LA.

The entertainment options available on board were simply amazing! There were so many great movies to choose from, and not enough time to watch them all (not that I wanted the flight to be longer so I could achieve this!) I ended up watching Predators starring Adrien Brody, followed by Dumbo, Pinocchio ("Faaaaather!"), and Monsters Inc.

Dinner was surprisingly delicious for airline economy class food - I had beef ragu with potatoes, corn kernels and peas. Accompaniments were tasty cheese and crackers, a dinner roll with butter, a green salad with dressing, and a chocolate mousse for dessert. I had lemonade as my choice of beverage. Nest's main course was chicken with a cheesy mac type sauce (without the macaroni) and vegetables. His meal came with all the accompaniments mine did, and his choice of beverage was apple juice.

Midnight snack was a little ham, cheese, lettuce and mayonnaise roll, accompanied by an apple (too healthy!) and an individually wrapped choccie Tim Tam (now that's more like it!)

Did my best to catch some zzz's at the end of that extremely long day.

Sydney wrap-up

Despite something going wrong every single day of our stay in Sydney, Nest and I would still like to return some day (it took quite some time to feel like returning, though!) Apart from Luna Park and missing the chimps at Taronga, the only other things we didn't get done in Sydney that we had been planning to do, were riding the ferris wheel at night, and going on the Oz Trek Experience located a few floors under the Sydney Tower.

Nest has mentioned wanting to return to the Aquarium with a better camera, and walking across the Harbour Bridge.

I would love to experience the Roar 'n Snore overnight activity at Taronga Zoo, and I'm still up for hitting Luna Park (as I'm sure is Nest on both those counts.) Also, my friend has drawn my attention to the Lindt Chocolate Cafe, which definitely warrants a visit! I'm also interested in the night time walking ghosts tours of The Rocks area, as I enjoy hearing about the folklore of areas I visit. I know for sure that Nest isn't interested in these tours though.

As for the hotel, there's no way we're returning to Aaron's! Our hotel of choice for next time, is the Novotel right on the Harbour - the night time views from certain rooms are absolutely gorgeous. I did look into staying there this holiday, but it was too expensive for me at the time.

The Novotel - where we want to stay next time

Next entry: First of five nights at Universal Studios Hollywood!

Click here to read about our time at Universal Studios Hollywood!

[chezp]

What a dramatic end to your stay in Sydney! I've really enjoyed reading all about your time there.

[Colexis Mom]

Thanks for sharing your time in Sydney with us! Love all the pictures! Can't wait to hear about the rest of your journey!

[Principessa_di_Fata]

Loved traveling along with you in Sydney. You have some amazing photos. I'm sorry that some of it didn't turn out as you'd hoped, but you did a lot, and I've enjoyed the photos!

I am, however, noting that I'll never stay at Aaron's if I go to Sydney!!

[clio]

Thanks for sharing your visit to Sydney with us. Sorry about all the problems you had while there. I really enjoyed all your pictures, too.
Liz

[pamcarey]

Wonderful updates! What a pain trying to confirm that your flight time had changed! Can't wait to read about Universal Studios Hollywood!

[Big Sister]

Originally Posted by chezp

What a dramatic end to your stay in Sydney! I've really enjoyed reading all about your time there.

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Thanks for sharing your time in Sydney with us! Love all the pictures! Can't wait to hear about the rest of your journey!

Originally Posted by pamcarey

Wonderful updates! What a pain trying to confirm that your flight time had changed! Can't wait to read about Universal Studios Hollywood!

Originally Posted by Principessa_di_Fata

Loved traveling along with you in Sydney. You have some amazing photos. I'm sorry that some of it didn't turn out as you'd hoped, but you did a lot, and I've enjoyed the photos!

Thanks everyone - I'm really glad to hear you've all enjoyed reading about our time in Sydney, and appreciated the photos - it means a lot

Originally Posted by Principessa_di_Fata

I am, however, noting that I'll never stay at Aaron's if I go to Sydney!!

I'm super glad to hear it!

Originally Posted by clio

Thanks for sharing your visit to Sydney with us. Sorry about all the problems you had while there. I really enjoyed all your pictures, too.
Liz

No worries . Even though we experienced a lot of problems while there, we were still about to appreciate the great times we had . Never before have we experienced so many obstacles that had to be sorted out before continuing on, during our travels! It was quite a learning experience!

[Huntermom]

I really enjoyed your trip so far. It's quite the adventure.

[elisa1006]

Loved your intro and the parts in Sydney. As I'm sure I'll never have the pleasure of visiting there, it was nice seeing it through your photos! Sorry about your flight delay but seems you made the best of it.

[mcc0313]

Ok not sure how I missed this but just read through all of your Sydney Adventures, and it sounds like you had a lot of them. First off what an amazing vacation this is for you and your brother...I am off to read all about your Universal LA stay (as strangely I started the WDW portion first but I want to backtrack so I am in the right order). You take wonderful pictures...I love all the pictures of Sydney, what a beautiful city and amazing skyline.

[Big Sister]

**First up, apologies I've been absent from my TR for so long - I had lost my writing mojo Good news is, I just happened across it last weekend, and have a brand new WDW entry ready to post during my lunch break tomorrow Today's lunch break is being devoted to catching up on my responses.**

Originally Posted by Huntermom

I really enjoyed your trip so far. It's quite the adventure.

Thank you It certainly was a change of pace to our normal everyday life. Stay tuned for more adventures!

Originally Posted by elisa1006

Loved your intro and the parts in Sydney. As I'm sure I'll never have the pleasure of visiting there, it was nice seeing it through your photos!

Thank you - I'm happy to hear that! I'm glad to have opened up a window into a part of the world you don't think you'll ever get to visit.

Originally Posted by mcc0313

Ok not sure how I missed this but just read through all of your Sydney Adventures, and it sounds like you had a lot of them. First off what an amazing vacation this is for you and your brother...I am off to read all about your Universal LA stay (as strangely I started the WDW portion first but I want to backtrack so I am in the right order). You take wonderful pictures...I love all the pictures of Sydney, what a beautiful city and amazing skyline.

Yes, we definitely had quite a few adventures in Sydney! We certainly got more than we bargained for during that leg of the trip , but that's what makes these things all that much more memorable. I had been dreaming about this trip for years, and it was great to finally be living it after all this time. It's weird that this time last year, my bro and I only had two weeks to go till we set off on our travels. Time certainly does fly!

Glad you've been enjoying the photos - thank you

[Dlandmom2]

I'm so glad you're posting again! I really am looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip!