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

[Big Sister]

REPORT TITLE: Double the fun : East & West coast Disney & Universal parks during the holiday season (9 Nov.-21 Dec. 2010)

INTRODUCTION & ITINERARY
Our Party:
Myself - Big Sister (34) Disney experience: Disneyland Resort Paris (2001 & 2003) ; WDW (2005) ; Disneyland California (2007)
My Littlest Brother, Nest (20) Disney experience: Disneyland California (2007)
Our Journey: 9 Nov: Qantas flight from Canberra to Sydney ; 12 Nov: Delta flight from Sydney to LA ; 17 Nov: Delta flight from LA to Orlando ; 12 Dec: Delta flight from Orlando to LA ; 21 Dec: Delta flight from LA to Sydney: 23 Dec:Virgin flight from Sydney to Canberra. Economy class all the way
Our Lodging: Sydney:Aaron's Hotel (special request: deluxe room) ; Universal Studios Hollywood: Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City (special request: away from the pet friendly rooms) ; Walt Disney World: Pop Century Resort (special request: preferred room) ; Universal Studios Orlando: Hard Rock Hotel (special request: concierge level) ; Disneyland California: Disneyland Hotel (special request: couldn't afford any by this stage!)
Our Special Plans: The whole trip was designed to be special, but here are some outstanding highlights: Sydney: Seeing Robin Williams live ; Hollywood: VIP Tour of Universal Studios and Warner Bros Studios ; Florida: Harry Potter World ; being part of the Macy's Holiday Parade ; the treasure hunt around WDW I organised for Nest with the help of the lovely Jane from Presentations : Gifts of a Lifetime ; Big Cat Rescue down in Tampa ; Disneyland California: finally getting to dine at the Blue Bayou after a 10 year wait!

I was intending to post a pre-trip report before my departure date last year, and was really excited about the thought, but time simply got away from me. Now I have no excuse . Just a quick note before I start: we weren't able to keep to the itinerary 100% due to the occasional illness, unexpected tiredness, crowds, finances, and during our Disneyland leg - extremely unfortunate weather. I hope you all enjoy reading about our original plans, and I'll do my best to keep the updates coming, complete with photos . (Apologies this post is just one massive lump of text! I've compensated for the lack of photos, by the possible overuse of smilies .)

Tuesday, 9 November

Our adventure well and truly begins when we catch an 11.20am Qantas flight out of Canberra. To omit experiencing the stress of almost missing our connecting international flight like last time, we arrive in Sydney fifty minutes later at 12.10pm, where we'll be staying for the next three nights.

We'll be staying at Aaron's Hotel, which has been our family's choice of accommodation as far back as 1998 whenever any of us have travelled up to Sydney. It's located right in the centre of town, and is reasonably priced despite its convenient location. It's so reasonably priced, in fact, that I was able to book a deluxe twin room instead of the standard twin room I had originally been planning to book.

By the time we make our way out of the airport and catch the shuttle bus to the hotel, we should be able to check in. If not, there's a secure place where we'll be able to store our bags and go off exploring.

From the hotel, we plan on walking down to Darling Harbour and exploring the shops. We were going to try and fit in the Aquarium and Wildlife World on this day too, but since Luna Park is inconsiderately closed for the entire duration of our stay (noooooo!), we decided to devote the Luna Park day to a full day at the Aquarium and Wildlife World instead, so we can take them in at a more relaxed pace. So today will just be an 'easy' day, strolling around the shops, relaxing by the Harbour, and perhaps taking in a movie at the giant IMAX cinema.

Wednesday, 10 November

Today we plan on going to the Sydney Aquarium. I so love the Sydney Aquarium - there's just something about it I find so wonderfully relaxing (unless there happens to be screaming kids echoing through the tunnels ) Nest hasn't been to the Aquarium since he was a toddler, so it will pretty much be a new experience for him, which I'm excited about. Since my own Sydney holiday back in 2003 (I was travelling with friends at the time, not Nest), Wildlife World has popped up next door to the Aquarium, so we'll check things out there as well. You can get your photo taken with a koala here, which I hope Nest is up for, as I think it will turn out so cute.

Thursday, 11 November

I've been busting to return to Taronga Park Zoo ever since my last visit in 2003, and Nest has never been, which is going to make this visit especially exciting. To get there, we'll have to catch a water taxi to Circular Quay, followed by a ferry. It is an absolutely beautiful zoo, and quite large (as is their gift shop .) Last time I was there, there were renovations occurring all over the property, so I look forward to seeing it without all the construction going on. I receive Taronga's monthly newsletter, and I'm very excited to see for myself, all the animals these newsletters have been featuring, especially the baby elephants and the baby pygmy hippo. Nest is a wildlife photographer (though he's currently supporting himself in non-photographic jobs until he gets himself established), and we're both very excited at all the photographic possibilities awaiting him there. One particularly picture perfect photo I remember my parents taking when I was little, was of the giraffes. Their enclosure overlooks the harbour, with the Sydney Opera House in the background. I can safely say we'll definitely be staying at Taronga until closing time.

You'd think that going to Taronga Park Zoo is enough excitement for one day. I've been able to "plus it", as Walt Disney used to say, and have planned something incredibly exciting for our last night in Australia - tickets to Robin Williams' stand up comedy show, Weapons of Self Destruction, at the Sydney Entertainment Centre at 8pm! I first found out that Robin Williams was coming to Australia, from one lone paragraph buried in the middle of the newspaper - I almost missed it. I mentioned it to Nest, and he was very enthusiastic about us going to see him. The following day, I looked up on the internet to see if we'd be able to catch one of his shows, and was so excited to find that he starts his Sydney shows on our last night there! The Sydney Entertainment Centre is within short walking distance of our hotel, which is great. Just as great, is that there's a McDonald's next door to the Centre, which we can get a snack at afterwards if we're hungry . Yay convenience!

Friday, 12 November

Hopefully after the excitement of the previous night, we will have still been able to get ourselves ready for this morning's departure. We fly out of Sydney at 11.25am with Delta Airlines, who we've never flown with (let alone heard of) before, but I was assured that they're great. We touch down in Los Angeles at 6.10am that same day. Last time it took us quite a while to get through LAX, so hopefully by the time we make our way through this time, and catch the first shuttle that comes along, we'll arrive at our hotel at a more civilised hour.

We'll be staying at the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City, the hotel nearest the Universal Studios park. (We chose this hotel because of its close proximity to the park, but also because of the photo of the contents of our room's mini bar - Nest and I absolutely love snacks!) Checkin time isn't until much later, but hopefully our room will be ready anyway, so we can freshen ourselves up after our lengthy flight, before hitting the park as well as thoroughly exploring Universal City Walk (a place we didn't even set foot in last time, as we forgot about it, we were having so much fun in the park. By the time we realised this, it was time to catch our coach back to Disneyland.)

Saturday, 13 November

No doubt we'll be sleeping in big time today, getting over jetlag. An alarm clock will be set to ensure we wont be getting up when everyone else is going to bed though. Today will be another day devoted to Universal Studios, followed by dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in Universal City Walk. I've gone over their menu countless times, and there are so many yummy dishes and desserts to choose from! I still can't make up my mind looking at it even now ... hopefully I don't take this long in deciding when I'm actually there. I tend to stick with my firm favourites, as I know I'll love them, but at the same time, I think I should try something new I wouldn't normally have at home, and perhaps I'll discover a new favourite dish .

Sunday, 14 November

Our main reason for staying in Universal City, is so we're able to take advantage of the Universal Studios VIP Experience. We both fell in love with the tram tour on our last visit, and the VIP Experience promises more access and other treats, so I'm sure we're going to have a fantastic time.

Dinner tonight, will be at the Saddle Ranch Chop House. I remember the building from our last visit, as we were standing near it while lamenting over forgetting to visit Universal City Walk as we waited for our coach. It wasn't until we saw the restaurant featured on Getaway, an Australian travel show, did I realise it was a place to take notice of! On locating a copy of their menu online, I was beside myself with excitement at all the delicious meal options on offer. I have no idea what I will end up having, main meal wise, but my dessert choice was locked in long ago - "The Cotton Carnival", a three foot tall cotton candy extravaganza accompanied by chocolate chip cookies, chocolate cake, and surrounded by fresh strawberries, bananas and whipped cream!!!

Monday, 15 November

Last visit, we discovered just how close Warner Bros Studios was to Universal, but weren't able to do anything about it at the time as all our plans had been locked in and we had no spare time. Now that we're aware of Warner Bros close proximity to Universal, we were able to include a visit in this year's plans. We are big fans of the Harry Potter movies and the TV series Supernatural, so we're hoping that the Deluxe Tour will include something about them. On my search for further information on this subject, I have learnt that there is a Harry Potter Museum. Even though photography's apparently not allowed in this section, I'm still super excited that such a museum exists.

Tuesday, 16 November

There will be no sleeping in this morning, as first item on the agenda is a 9am pickup for a 10am VIP Grand Helicopter Tour of Los Angeles, another discovery I made thanks to Getaway. I'm really excited at the prospect of seeing LA from above, and Nest is particularly excited of being able to see the Hollywood sign up close (one of his photographic goals for this trip.)

After the helicopter tour and if time is on our side, we're dearly hoping to be able to catch a taping of Ellen DeGeneres' show over at Warner Bros Studios. If this doesn't work out, we have two backup plans. The first one is exploring the Hollywood Hills, giving Nest a chance to do some photography of wildlife not present in Australia (Nest's other photography goal for this trip, is getting some photos of squirrels.) Our other backup plan is going to the Santa Monica Pier.

Wednesday, 17 November

There will definitely be no sleeping in this morning, as we're catching the 9.55am Delta Airlines flight to Orlando! Even though I'm looking forward to all stops on this trip, Orlando is the stop I'm most looking forward to. Ever since my brief week long visit with a friend back in 2005, I've been busting to return. This will be Nest's first ever visit to Orlando, and I'm absolutely ecstatic at being the one to introduce him to the magic of Walt Disney World at Christmas time, and witnessing his reactions of excitement and wonder .

We'll be touching down in Orlando at 5.43pm, and catching the Magical Express to Disney's Pop Century Resort, our home for the next eighteen nights! Even though all decades of this resort look fun (I'm a 70s baby and absolutely love that decade, Nest's a 90s baby, and we both love the 80s), I've asked for a preferential room in the 60's section, as the hippy flower power theme looks fantastically bright and happy.

On freshening up, comes the difficult task of deciding which park to hit first. I have a sneaking suspicion that it will probably be the Magic Kingdom, as one of our favourite rides is Splash Mountain, and there has been a running joke between the two of us about it for quite some time. Nest has been telling me that if I do anything embarrassing, or want to see a show he's not at all interested in, that he'll be on Splash Mountain.

A close second though, could be Disney's Hollywood Studios, as we're both massive fans of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone and Night Gallery, and absolutely love the Tower of Terror ride. I've been telling Nest the differences between the Californian and Orlando Tower of Terrors, and he can't wait to experience the Orlando one for himself.

Hey, if we're crazy enough, we could make both parks, therefore eliminating the hassle of having to choose between the two!

Thursday, 18 November

Our first full day at Disney World, begins with an 8.30am breakfast at the Crystal Palace. There is a dish here that I'm particularly eager to try, but have forgotten which one from all the excitement! Nest loved Winnie the Pooh and Piglet when he was little, so hopefully he'll still be happy in his own quiet way, to meet them in person at breakfast.

I soooooo love the Christmas season, and on this night Nest and I will be attending our first of six Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party! Disney does Christmas so beautifully, and I can't wait to share these parties with Nest, and make sure we get to experience every single thing possible, having time to redo our favourite things. Other party nights will be devoted to photography, as Nest loves experimenting with night light shots, so he'll be in his element here. On those nights, it will be my job to be his assistant, helping with lens changes and keeping his energy up with churros, spiced sugar cookies, and mugs of hot chocolate. 'Spose I had better make a note to keep a packet of wipes handy, as I know how particular he is about keeping his camera equipment in pristine condition. Nest's third photography goal for the trip, is to find the perfect place to take some awesome fireworks shots.

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party comes to an end at 12.30 at night, and I have organised a surprise for Nest for afterwards. While Nest and I are out partying, I have organised for Disney Floral & Gifts to come and decorate our room with the Dreaming of a Disney Christmas option. I sooooooo cannot wait to see what our room will look like, and the look on Nest's face when he sees it for himself (he's always first in the door, so there'll be no chance of me blocking the view.)

Friday, 19 November

Today will pretty much be devoted to the Animal Kingdom park, beginning with Donald's Safari Breakfast at 8.35am. Nest and I are particularly looking forward to meeting Donald, as we love the way he can be cheeky at times, and how he fusses and flusters about when he's caught doing something wrong or something doesn't go according to plan. Penciled in, but not locked in, is a possible lunch at Restaurantasaurus, followed by dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. It depends on what we're doing at the time, and how hungry we are.

I'm super excited about my first visit back to the Animal Kingdom park, as Expedition Everest has opened since my last visit, and looks absolutely AWESOME! Nest and I absolutely love rollercoasters, and are so looking forward to experiencing this one! We're also super curious about seeing the yeti, as in the old DVD documentary we've watched countless times, the ride is still under construction, and the imagineers are making a big deal about the yeti.

I only got to visit the Animal Kingdom once during my last visit, and didn't get to explore the whole park, as my poor friend had a badly swollen ankle at the time (it was seriously getting as big as an elephant's foot!), and was getting around in an electronic convenience vehicle. I'm really looking forward to exploring all the animals trails for the first time, as is Nest.

I'm really looking forward to taking Nest on the dinosaur ride, as my friend and I had an absolutely hilarious experience on it last time. We were the only ones in the car, and were driving along minding our own business, when without warning, this T-Rex shot out at us from the dark on our right hand side, and scared the living daylights out of us! One minute we were passing this dark patch, the next minute we were bathed in a sudden blinding white light and a roaring T-Rex! The resulting souvenir photo was absolutely priceless! We stood laughing at it for ages on the screen (seriously!), before purchasing a copy. It showed my friend half out of her seat with her hands over her ears and a super surprised look on her face. I always look funny in photos, so there's no surprises there . I really hope I can hunt down a copy of that photo - I know I have a copy stored safely away somewhere. Nest doesn't scare as easily, but I'm hoping our photo will still turn out funny. Without saying anything, I plan on getting him to sit on my right hand side

Taking into account our plans for the next day, any normal person would call it a night once the Animal Kingdom closed. Not Nest and I - we'll be off Christmas partying with Mickey once again!

Saturday, 20 November

It's a very early rise this morning, as Nest and I have hired a driver to take us to Tampa for the day, as we need to get to Busch Gardens to sign in for our 1pm Tiger and Orangutan Keeper Experience by 9.30am. I wasn't able to find a single review for this experience, but I love big cats so much, and Nest loves primates, that I thought it would be a great activity for us. Ever since a tiger got out of its enclosure at San Francisco Zoo a few years back with fatal human consequences, and more recently, a white lioness escaping her enclosure at Mogo Zoo here in Australia (with no fatal human consequences, but unfortunately the lioness wasn't so lucky, which I was upset about), Mum has tried forbidding us from going to Zoos or having anything to do with big cats. So for this day, we've been telling her that we're doing an Orangutan Keeper Experience, and not mentioning anything about the tiger aspect

Seeing as we only have one day at Busch Gardens, when buying our admission tickets online, I discovered that for a couple of extra dollars, I was able to buy a Quick Queue add on for us both. This allows us access to the quick line of the top nine rides, enabling us to make the most of our time at the park.

The park closes at 7pm, which is when we'll leave, and not a minute earlier! I've been aware of a Mears Shuttle bus that has return transport to Orlando for just $10 each, but I read the small print, and they say they can't guarantee you'll arrive at the park before 11.30am, and departure time is something like 5.30pm. Nest and I want to have the full ten hours there, hence our decision to hire a driver. Unfortunately, his fare isn't $10 each though

Sunday, 21 November

Nothing has been locked in for today, surprise surprise. That is probably a good thing, as it will give us a chance to catch up on some sleep (not too much, mind you!), and I suppose I had better start thinking about that unavoidable task of doing the laundry :

If I am forced to do the laundry (can't somebody else do it for me?!), we had better come up with something super fun to do afterwards, to make up for starting the day with such a mundane task! My vote is for Disney's Hollywood Studios to ride the Tower of Terror endlessly, which I'm sure Nest will agree to. The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights should up by then too, so that will be a massive treat for both of us to experience - I hope Nest remembers to bring his camera!

Monday, 22 November

Today is another free day, so seeing as both of us have never been to Epcot, today would be a good day as any to go! I can't imagine what it's going to be like to finally be able to go there, despite having watched documentaries about it and reading a variety of guidebooks. I'm really excited at the prospect of eating our way around 'the world' though, experiencing rides we've never been on, and going to the aquarium, not to mention viewing the very impressive sounding Illuminations for the first time.

Tuesday, 23 November

If we thought our Tampa day started early, then we have another thing coming today. I wont mention our starting time for the risk of offending anybody with the shocking-ness of it! Our morning activity is a Blue Water Balloons Flight over Orlando, which we're both greatly looking forward to (ignoring the departure time )

A possible activity for when we return from our hot air balloon flight, is a visit to Gatorland. I read how they're installing a zipline, which sounds incredibly exciting to us both. After Gatorland, we're considering spending the rest of the afternoon/evening exploring Downtown Disney, including a stint at DisneyQuest, followed by dinner at Planet Hollywood.

The other possibility to the above, is falling asleep on our return to the Pop Century Resort, and hitting a park when we wake up.

Wednesday, 24 November

Today is an incredibly full day, with Nest having booked us in to the very exciting sounding Backstage Magic Tour from 8.45am-4.45pm.

For dinner, I have reserved places for us at Cinderella's Royal Table. I'm particularly excited about this, as I was ill when my friend and I went in 2005, and I couldn't enjoy myself fully or eat very much. Nest is not sure about having his photo taken with Cinderella, which is something I have to work on if we're to fully document our trip in photos

Thursday, 25 November (Thanksgiving Day)

We're looking forward to experiencing a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner at Tony's Town Square Restaurant at 7pm. Nest is not a big fan of turkey legs, but I hope to find room for at least one sometime throughout the day as well (as well as every other day we're in the parks! )

Friday, 26 November

Nothing has been locked in for today, but we have a long list of things we'd like to do. I think I'm contradicting myself here


Firstly, we'd love to go to Blizzard Beach, as we have read about some awesome slides there, the Summit Plummet one in particular! (I'll probably change my mind in wanting to go on it once faced with the actual 120 foot plunge though!)

We'd then like to devote the remainder of the day to Downtown Disney once again, starting with a Pleasure Island Characters in Flight Balloon ride if it's still operating (I haven't heard much about it, except that it exists.) Afterwards, we're hoping to go to the cinema to see the latest Harry Potter movie, and finishing the day with dinner at the super fantastic sounding T-Rex restaurant. All the dining areas there sound so fantastic, that I hope Nest is able to make a decision as to which one to dine in, as I know I'll be useless in deciding. Once again, I cannot decide on a main course, but the chocolate extinction dish for dessert looks promising

Saturday, 27 November

Today is a super massive deal to me, as we're taking another day trip to Tampa, this time to spend the day at Big Cat Rescue. As I mentioned before, I absolutely love big cats (cats of all sizes, really), and when I discovered the existence of place, I knew I just had to get there no matter what.

Big Cat Rescue is a sanctuary for big cats. As you're not permitted to go around the sanctuary unescorted, I've booked a variety of tours to allow us to stay the whole day and make the most of everything on offer. We begin our big cat day when we checkin at 11.15am for our two hour Photo Safari from 11.30am-1.30pm. At 1.45pm, we checkin for our two hour Keeper Tour from 2-4pm. Our last big cat activity begins at 4.25pm, when we checkin for the hour long Feeding Tour from 4.30-5.30pm. Hopefully sometime during the day, we'll have a moment for a quick snack ourselves, as well as a definite visit to the gift shop (which closes during the Feeding Tour), not to mention some loo stops

This has got to be the non-themepark day I'm looking forward to the most, but don't tell Mum

Sunday, 28 November

Usually when I know a place of any kind is going to be packed, I tend to do my best to avoid that place at all costs. Not this time. Knowing that themeparks are particularly popular on weekends, Nest and I have decided to get in the middle of it all and be part of the crowd. Looking at my diary, we have locked in activities at the Magic Kingdom for the entire day.

We start with the Keys to the Kingdom tour from 9.30am-2pm, which I have been super excited about ever since I read about it. I seriously hope one of the attractions our tour guide chooses to focus on, is the Haunted Mansion, as it's something I've always wanted to learn as much as possible on, yet I've heard the tour itinerary varies. Having said that though, I'm sure whatever we end up doing on the tour, we'll enjoy.

In the evening, Nest and I will be attending Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

Monday, 29 November

Our itinerary has gracefully provided us with a rare sleep-in opportunity if needed (ha!) Well it can't possibly a rare opportunity to do the laundry! I refuse to acknowledge the fact! We don't have to be anywhere in particular until 12.30pm, where we have a lunch reservation at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theatre in Disney's Hollywood Studios park. I'm really excited at the drive-in theatre concept, where you get to sit in cars facing a screen showing corny old science fiction movies while eating - Nest and I will be in our element here! Drive-in theatres disappeared from our home town in the early 1990s, so it's going to be fun reliving the memories here at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theatre!

If we haven't managed to fit it in somewhere already (or even if we have), we plan on staying in Disney's Hollywood Studios park until closing, as we want to fully experience the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights.

Tuesday, 30 November

I am so super massively excited about today, as I have organised a surprise for Nest with the Presentations : Gifts of a Lifetime people, and I'm soooooo looking forward to seeing what they come up with! The only thing I've specified, is that they give the experience a treasure hunting theme, as ever since Nest was a little boy, he has had this obsession of hunting for treasure, and I know that obsession is still lurking within him, going by his recent excited reactions to shows on TV with the same sort of theme. I've asked if his gift can be placed in a treasure chest (not a big hunking pirate sized treasure chest - I didn't want to be seen as unreasonable!), and that when he opens the lid, his gift is surrounded by foil covered chocolate coins and gaudy costume jewellery. I've hired a photographer for the event, and I so hope they can capture the reaction on Nest's face when he opens the treasure chest

My expectations for the above activity are so high, that you wouldn't think I'd need to have anything else planned for the rest of the day, but seeing as I love excitement and happiness (as I'm sure we all do), I've decided to keep the pixie dust in full flow by finishing off the day with another attendance at Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

Wednesday, 1 December

The feeling of being so super massively excited continues today, where it's all going to be about Christmas Christmas Christmas! I was so excited after having booked the following two tours, that I went about the house doing a sped up crazy dance, and when Nest asked if I was ok, it just made me dance even crazier! It was midnight at the time, so his question was warranted

Our first tour of the day is the Yuletide Fantasy tour, beginning at 9am. I first found out about this tour a little after returning from my 2005 trip, and I was soooooo disappointed that I hadn't known about it before-hand, so my friend and I could've experienced it. Luckily, five years later, the tour is still on offer, and I seriously can't wait to experience it! I'm particularly looking forward to visiting the foyers of hotels we wouldn't otherwise have time to go and see off our own bat, as well as behind the scenes at Holiday Services (how do you get a job there?!)

Our second tour of the day is the new Holiday D-Lights tour, beginning at 4pm. As the name suggests, this tour focuses on the holiday lights at Disney World. It's going to be so brilliant hearing the story behind them. I'm curious about the Candlelight Processional part of this tour - even though I've heard very favourable reviews about the event, and how people make it a tradition to attend every year, it's not something Nest and I would go out of our way to see (I think I'll duck for cover now, in case somebody decides to throw something at me! ;) I am pleased that it's included in this tour, as it gives Nest and I the chance to experience something we wouldn't have otherwise, and I'm sure we'll be pleasantly surprised. I was excited to read that Whoopi Goldberg is going to be one of the guest narrators, but unfortunately we wont be there on the date of her appearance. The last time I checked, the guest narrator for our viewing hadn't yet been decided.

The Disney employee helping me book the tours above, was Betsy-Lyn. She was such a super nice and polite lady, and when I was telling her how it will be my brother's first trip to WDW, and how I was so excited at introducing him to the magic there, she said she made a note on our reservations to ensure our tour guides will know that it's his first visit. I'm not sure what this means, but I'm terribly excited all the same! I didn't tell Nest about this part of the phonecall, so that it will be a surprise for him if something unexpectedly nice does happen.

To keep the Christmas theme of the day in full swing, I've organised yet another surprise for Nest. While we're out and about on the Holiday D-Lights tour, I've organised for Disney Floral & Gifts to come into our room once again, and set up Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Tree, as well as Mickey's Stocking of Surprises. These two options weren't available until December 1 (I did ask if it was possible if they could be set up earlier, but it wasn't.) I'm doing my best to make Nest's first trip to WDW totally unforgettable .

Thursday, 2 December

The only activity locked in for day, is attending Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party at 7pm.

Friday, 3 December

Our stay at WDW will be coming to an end by this stage (nooooooooooooooooooooo!), and we will be attending Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party for the last time.

Saturday, 4 December

This will be our last day at WDW, so we plan on going mental and hitting all the parks in an attempt at experiencing our favourite rides and attractions for what will be the last time for quite a while. The night will be devoted to packing our suitcases and most probably scrambling around the property taking last minute photos of the larger than life icons from across the decades.

Sunday, 5 December

While it will be sad to be leaving WDW, I will be cracking open a new case of excitement, as we'll be travelling just a short way up the road! How far up the road? All the way to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, people! Ever since the announcement was made back in 2007 that such a park was in the pipelines, I've been busting all over with excitement! I was always on the lookout for information, articles, and photos, and it wasn't until last year that they started being readily available and I became even more excited. I just knew that I had to visit, no matter what.

Nest and I will be at Universal Studios for a week, where we'll be staying at the Hard Rock Hotel. On the rare occasion when I can stop thinking about WWoHP, I get really excited about our choice of hotel. Since Nest and I could only afford a value resort at WDW due to the length of time we decided to stay (we had originally wanted to stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge due to Nest's love of wildlife photography), I decided to treat ourselves at the Hard Rock Hotel, and for $40 extra a night, was able to book us a club level room on the 7th floor with two queen size beds, a great view, and free breakfast daily! It was originally meant to be a surprise, but I ended up not being able to keep my mouth shut from excitement after having seen the photos, and blurted it all out to Nest, who in turn became just as excited as me .

There will be no surprises as to which park we'll be hitting first once settled in .

Monday, 6 December

If we didn't manage it the day before, today is the day we must try and have lunch at The Three Broomsticks. I'm not sure about Nest, but I plan on tasting every single dish and beverage mentioned in the Harry Potter novels, especially as I've read that butterbeer in particular is exclusive to the park, and will not be available anywhere else (not the authentic stuff, anyway.)

Tuesday, 7 December

Today will be devoted to the seven hour 1 day/2 park non-exclusive tour of Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure parks. I was unable to find a single review of this tour anywhere, except for a really old paragraph written by someone who had taken it previously, which didn't really shed any light on what I wanted to know. The brief description on Universal's website promises interesting facts and possible behind the scenes access when available, which is the main thing we're after - the express access to top attractions and shows is a bonus .

Wednesday, 8 December

Even before any mention of Universal getting the rights to WWoHP, I have been eager to visit Universal Orlando. Just recently, I came across an absolutely fantastic book on the park, called Universal Orlando 2010 : the ultimate guide to the ultimate theme park adventure, written by Kelly Monaghan and Seth Kubersky. It was published before the opening of WWoHP, but still contained information on it. I'm sure the 10th edition will have thorough coverage of it though. Anyway, this book is fantastically detailed and very fun to read. I have a long list of things I don't want Nest and I to miss as a result, and it has me thinking that we wont have enough time to experience it all properly!

One of the results of reading the book, is having a long list of eateries to test out. One restaurant I don't want us to miss out on, is Mythos. It sounds so wonderfully themed, and apparently the warm chocolate banana gooey cake comes highly recommended. Circus McGurkus Cafe Stoo-pendous is another eatery I don't want us to miss, purely to see the Dr Seuss themeing, and see the High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride go overhead as you eat. Classic Monsters Cafe also sounds like another must do, as it's themed with monsters of the corny old black and white horror movies, which Nest and I absolutely love. I also love the sound of Blondie's, an overstuffed sandwich shop. Elasticized pants - here I come!

The book has also left me super excited about the rides and attractions at Universal. We were going to try and go on them all anyway, regardless of having done any research on them or not - it's just excited to know a bit more than if I hadn't read up anything beforehand at all.

Thursday, 9 December

After having lamenting (in a joking tone - I hope you picked that up! ) about worrying at not having enough time at Universal, we've locked in a day at SeaWorld for today. They have some amazing sounding tours on offer, but we ended up deciding to take things easy and just go about enjoying things at our own pace. To ensure we get to do everything (we don't plan on moving that slow, but you never know ), I've bought an unlimited all day quick queue pass for each of us, in addition to our normal park admission. This will allow us front of line access to SeaWorld's four rides (Journey to Atlantis (love this ride!), Kracken, the new (to me) Mantra (can't wait to try it!), and Wild Arctic), and I can't quite remember, as I forgot to print the screen, but I believe we also get quick access to the skytower and the paddle boats.

I had been planning on taking Nest to the place where my friend and I had lunch back in 2005 (the pizza place that sells super amazing waffle fries), which I know he'll thoroughly enjoy, but I have since discovered Sharks Underwater Grill - the view of the sharks you have here while eating your meal, looks simply amazing! Since reservations are made on the day on the of your visit, we'll wait to see how things pan out - the final decision will be Nest's .

Friday, 10 December

Here's another non-themepark day I'm super massively excited about! The main treat of the day is partaking in an Air Florida Helicopter Charter Tour. They have a number of options to choose from, and Nest and I are hoping to do their choice of flying over the WDW and Universal parks. Massive thanks to the small print in a fan article on WWoHP for that tip - if it wasn't for that, I would never have known the existence of this company!

Lunch is going to be at the World's Biggest Maccas, which we're incredibly excited about. We don't eat McDonald's much at home, but the fact that there's a world's biggest near where we'll be staying, is exciting. I got their menu off the internet, and it's nothing like the McDonald's we have here in Australia! We're so excited! Nest keeps on saying that he wants a cup of dirt (one of the kid's dessert options on the menu.) One of these nights when I'm not feeling so lazy and he says something about wanting a cup of dirt, I'm going to go out into the garden and get him one as a joke .

At 9pm, we have a reservation to see the Blue Man Group perform a show. We're not incredibly big fans of shows per se, but when we read that the Blue Man Group use glitter, coloured paint, jelly, and Twinkies, to name but a few props, we thought we'd definitely have to check it out for ourselves!

For dinner (I'm not sure yet whether this will be before or after the show), we plan on going to the Hard Rock Cafe.

Saturday, 11 December

This will be our last full day in Orlando for a very long time (queue hanging onto the nearest doorway to prevent being taken away ), and we plan on getting our fill of both Universal parks.

Sunday, 12 December

Since our flight to LA doesn't depart until 5.30pm, I'm guessing we'll have a bit of last minute Universal/WWoHP themeparking to do if we're organised enough (which we will be ... honest!) Our flight arrives in LA at 7.58pm, where we'll catch the Magical Express (if it's running that late - will have to check it out) straight to Disneyland . We'll be staying in a standard room with a standard view, at the Disneyland Hotel for the next nine nights.

Another thing I'll have to check out before our trip, are the opening hours of the Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure parks. I'm hoping they'll still be open on our arrival night, so we can hit the parks running and grab some dinner. Since our last visit back in 2007, I've become aware of some pretty big changes, so it will be interesting to see them for ourselves. If the parks aren't open once we get in, we can see what's happening in Downtown Disney, or just grab some dinner from room service and take it easy for the remainder of the night.

Monday, 13 December

Today we hope to be doing the Walk in Walt's Footsteps tour. We wont know for certain until reservations for this date open up on our second day in LA at the beginning of our vacation. Fingers crossed!

Tuesday, 14 December

We plan to start off the day with a hearty breakfast with Chip 'n Dale at the Storyteller's Cafe, and close the evening with dinner at the Blue Bayou. Hope they still do mint juleps and cookie dough boats! (We slept through both reservations last vacation - nooooo!)

Wednesday, 15 December

We enjoyed our dinner at Goofy's Kitchen so much last time, that we'll be dining there again this vacation! This time, we'll only have to roll into an elevator to get to our room afterwards, instead of blobbing all the way back to the Grand Californian (last time I ate so much, I was quite ill afterwards. That'll teach me!)

Thursday, 16 December

Today begins our first of three days out of Disneyland! Will we be able to cope? Last vacation, we ended up cancelling two of our out of park excursions, as we couldn't bear to pull ourselves away from Disneyland! Today's excursion will be to San Diego Zoo. Due to the travelling time involved, I expect it will be room service for dinner. We don't mind in the slightest though, as we enjoy being waited on, and I personally fell in love with their meatballs 'n spaghetti, followed by fruit cobbler for dessert, last time we came to Disneyland.

Friday, 17 December

Today we've locked in the ten hour LA/Hollywood Experience. This was one of our excursions we cancelled last time, and we're looking forward to finally going ahead with it, three years later. Hope the weather will be good! (On the day we would've been on it in 2007, it rained.)

Saturday, 18 December

Our last out of park excursion, is to Knott's Berry Farm. I'm sooooooooo looking forward to going on Elf Mountain Christmas, and seeing all the super corny scenes again. This time I hope we have to time to go on it more than once, as I'd love to capture it on film. I so hope it hasn't changed! We're both looking forward to going on the white river raft ride we totally missed last time, and Nest is particularly looking forward to collecting all the Snoopy Christmas themed pressed pennies (we didn't discover them until we were on our way out of the park last time, and by that stage, we no longer had the correct change on us, and didn't have time to sort that problem out.) Another of my goals, is to ride the scary rollercoasters without shutting my eyes - LOL! Nest has also requested that we have a relaxed dinner of Mrs Knotts' famous chicken - last time Nest had to race to hold the coach for me, while I waited for our chicken to be boxed up at the takeout counter (after all that rushing, it turned out that we were the second party to arrive and board the coach.) Oh, and I'm also getting more than one chocolate cookie from the bakery attached to the chicken takeout place. Goodness knows why I only got one to share last time - it tasted so super yummy!

Sunday, 19 December

Today will be totally devoted to both Disney parks. There was so much we didn't get done during our stay last time, and that was for two weeks! So goodness knows how we're going to experience everything in these last remaining two days, but we're sure going to have good fun trying!

Monday, 20 December

As above

Tuesday, 21 December

Our super magical holiday ends at 10.45pm, when we board our flight back home to Australia . Because our flight departs so late, at least we'll have time to zig zag between both Disney parks!

Thursday, 23 December

We arrive back in our hometown right on lunchtime, the day before Christmas Eve

[Colexis Mom]

Great start! Can't wait to hear all about it!

[pamcarey]

Wow! Sounds like an absolutely amazing trip! I thought I was reading it wrong when I first saw how long your trip was!

[chezp]

Sounds like one amazing trip!

[Grammy Grumpy]

Awesome! I am so looking forward to hearing all about your trip. We just missed you two as DH and I arrived 12/4 for 10 days with our kids/most of the grandkids!

[Lillybug]

Wow! That sounds like a fantastic adventure!! I can't wait to read about it!!

Tara

[ilovedisney247]

Wow! What an amazing trip! I cannot wait to read all about it!

[Big Sister]

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Great start! Can't wait to hear all about it!

Originally Posted by chezp

Sounds like one amazing trip!

Originally Posted by Lillybug

Wow! That sounds like a fantastic adventure!! I can't wait to read about it!!

Tara

Originally Posted by ilovedisney247

Wow! What an amazing trip! I cannot wait to read all about it!

Thanks everyone! I'm looking forward to sharing my adventures with you all. Apologies it has taken me longer than expected to get a move on!

[Big Sister]

Originally Posted by pamcarey

Wow! Sounds like an absolutely amazing trip! I thought I was reading it wrong when I first saw how long your trip was!

Thanks, Pam! At one stage, I was madly trying to fit a couple of days in San Francisco in, as well as a 3 day Disney cruise to the Carribean, too, but I couldn't afford it (the cruise for that time was sold out, anyway.) As it was, we ran out of money during our last leg . That's a story in itself!

[Big Sister]

Originally Posted by Grammy Grumpy

Awesome! I am so looking forward to hearing all about your trip. We just missed you two as DH and I arrived 12/4 for 10 days with our kids/most of the grandkids!

Thanks loads! I hope you and your family had an awesome time at WDW! On the day we left Universal Orlando, the weather turned really bad. You still would've at WDW at the time, so I hope you still managed to have a good time despite the weather.

[Big Sister]

DAY 1: Tuesday, 9 November 2010

Canberra - Sydney: Sydney Tower & the Aquarium

Woke up at 5.30am to say goodbye to my bro, Byron for the last time in six weeks, who was leaving for work. Nodded off, then woke up and said goodbye to Johnny and Kib, my other bros, who were leaving for work also. Got up properly around 7am. I did some last minute packing with mine and Lizzie's Disneyland Paris 2003 holiday video going in the background. The last bit I watched in full, was Peter Pan's Flight. The Casey Junior train ride came on as I was turning it off to leave for the real thing. I got the music to the night parade stuck in my head for the rest of the day (and was humming it as we went through our boarding gate at Canberra.)

Nest and I set off for the airport at 9am. We seemed to get there really quickly. It had changed drastically since my last visit due to expansion, and the approach to it was in a huge confusing mess as a result. When we were checking our baggage in, my suitcase was 5kg over the limit. As I couldn't leave anything behind (or so I thought at the time), I had to pay $50 before I could get my boarding pass.

We had a bit of time to relax before our 11am boarding call, so we went to Hudson's Coffee on the ground floor, for refreshments. Nest got a chicken, avocado, egg and mayonnaise sandwich, an apple and cinnamon muffin, and a Pepsi Max. I just got a bottle of water, as I was so intent on making sure things would go as smoothly as possible, I had made myself almost sick with worry. I believe I was thinking at the time, that once we got settled in our Sydney hotel, I'd be able to relax and then be able to catch up on all the eating I hadn't been doing that day.

At 11am, we went through security and up to the departure lounge, where we found our gate and were able to line up straight away to board our plane. The plane wasn't one of those little ones I'm used to catching to Sydney, but a medium-sized one, which ended up being absolutely packed. We waved to Mum, who was easy to spot in her bright blue t-shirt, as we took off on our adventure, not being able to believe it was actually beginning to unfold after all the months of planning we had put into it.

The flight to Sydney was the quickest 50 minutes I've ever experienced. Our in-flight refreshments were a packet of two small passionfruit shortbread rounds, and a cup of water. There was the usual tea and coffee rounds afterwards, but Nest and I don't drink either.

Once in Sydney, we waited for a while at our allocated luggage carousel to collect our bags. Ellen was on the TV nearby (a guest was being scared by someone dressed up as a spider), which made us think about how excited we would feel to be in the audience if we're able to get tickets as planned during the LA leg of our trip.

As soon as all our luggage was accounted for, we went to the shuttle information desk and bought return tickets to our hotel. We then made our way to the shuttle stop outside. While we waited, we both made the same observation of how the area reminded us of the transport shuttle area outside LAX, but instead of palm trees, there were gum trees.

The shuttle turned up in no time at all, and luckily for us, we were the last two people it could accommodate, as it was absolutely packed. After loading our luggage in the trailer ourselves (thank goodness Nest is so strong, as I've always had difficulty in doing anything but drag my luggage), we made our way down the extremely narrow aisle to the last two vacant seats in the back row. It was so uncomfortably squashy, and I couldn't apologise enough to the two English tourists next to us - thank goodness they were in a great mood (I heard them saying to each other that the Sydney leg of their trip was the part they had been looking forward to the most. My curiosity wanted to know why, but I'm not the kind of person who invites themselves into private conversations.)

After driving for a while through industrial estates and other unfamiliar areas, Nest and I were suddenly informed it was time to disembark, which was a surprise. The shuttle had advertised itself as a door-to-door service, yet here we were being dropped on an extremely busy corner in unfamiliar territory a block away from our hotel with all our luggage! I was taken aback, but what can you do? We followed the driver's directions, and arrived safely at our hotel without incident - phew!

The hotel we would be staying at while in Sydney, was Aaron's Hotel. It has been our family's choice of hotel while visiting Sydney, since 1998. While simple in design and amenities, it has a restaurant downstairs, a little supermarket on the corner, and is within walking distance of quite a lot of attractions. Nest and I were half-an-hour too early for check-in, so we put our luggage in storage, and walked across the road to Market City for lunch and a look around the shops.

For lunch, we went to Mr Kebab. I was surprised and happy to see it was still there after my first visit thirteen years ago! Nest had a chicken kebab, fries and a bottle of water, and I had a beef kebab, fries and a bottle of water. We were hard-pressed to find a seat and table to eat at, but eventually one became available, and we snapped it up straight away. We had an exciting view of the escalators leading in and out of the building, and across the way was some kind of darkened Chinese lounge with neon signs in the window and a big dragon out front guarding the entrance. Lunch (and my first meal of the day ... if you don't count the passionfruit shortbread on the plane) was very tasty and hit the spot quite nicely.

With our appetites satisfied (for the time being!), we set off for a look around Market City. Even though it's a big place, virtually none of the shops interested us (especially as the lolly shop was no longer around.) The only shop we went into for a good look around, was Morning Glory, a Japanese shop full of cute knick-knacks for me, and anime merchandise for Nest. Having said that though, we didn't buy anything, as we were both still in 'Saving for our holiday' mode, instead of the now acceptable 'Spending' mode.

Half an hour was well and truly up by that stage, so Nest and I returned to our hotel to check in and freshen up, before hitting the town once again. Little did we know, we were about to receive the first of many shocks concerning the hotel, from that point onward.

The first shock came when I had to pay $586 for our stay, which I hadn't budgeted for. I hadn't budgeted for $586 at this point in the trip, because I was of the strong belief that I had already paid for our accommodation. Since I didn't have my credit card transaction details to back me up, I had no choice but to pay. (I later read the small print of my confirmation notice, and in poor English, it did indeed state that payment was due at time of check-in.)

Nest and I got a massive shock when we entered our room and saw what was to be our home for the next three nights. It was as small as a matchbox, and my bed was so close to the thimble-sized bathroom, that if I were a guy, I seriously wouldn't have had to leave my bed to use the toilet! So we'd have room to walk in the door, and from either bed to the bathroom, we had to physically push my suitcase over my bed to right in front of the already inaccessible wardrobe. Another thing we didn't like about the room, was that what we assumed must've been an old lock, had been removed from the door to make way for the electronic key card system, and the holes it left behind hadn't been filled in, and you could seriously see right through them into the corridor, and vice-versa. I repositioned one of the many (and unnecessary) dictatorial notices from the back of our door, over the offending holes so we'd have privacy.

The room description I had read online, said that deluxe rooms have more room than a standard, so I'd hate to see what a standard actually looked like (the online photos didn't correctly reflect the actual room.) I'm not the kind of person to make a fuss, but I felt so strongly that we had been given the wrong room, that I went down to reception to complain (in the nicest possible way, of course.) As well as feeling strongly that a mistake had been made, it was also the beginning of our six week dream holiday we'd spent so long planning, and I wanted to do everything in my power to have it turn out as perfectly as possible.

I am so not good at complaining. I presented my case to the lady on duty at reception, only to find out she didn't speak fluent English, therefore couldn't understand me, which made my levels of determination and confidence drop. She went and got the lady who had originally checked me in. She checked my paperwork and the computer, and said that a mistake hadn't been made, and that we were indeed in a deluxe room. I felt so guilty, and was hoping I wouldn't have to deal with them for the rest of our stay. As I walked off though, part of me was very cross that I had given in so easily. That part of me said I should've asked to see a standard room to compare it with our deluxe, and that I should've asked to see another deluxe while I was at it, but I just didn't have it in me to make that kind of fuss. To this very day, I'm of the strong belief that they had overbooked, gave us a standard room, still charged us for a deluxe, and fobbed me off when I went down to complain.

The only thing I liked about our room, was the brightly coloured shower curtain, and the big flat screen TV. It was this TV we watched cartoons on while getting over the shock of our room, and deciding what to do for the rest of the day. We eventually decided on visiting Sydney Tower, followed by the Aquarium, as Nest had found a leaflet saying it was open till 8pm (instead of 5pm like we had thought.)

There's a saying that bad things happen in threes. Nest and I were about to experience just that. With renewed positivity, Nest and I left our room to catch the small lift to the ground floor (we were on the second floor.) When it opened up, we saw that it was already full of teenagers (nine, to be exact.) We began to go and take the stairs, but they made the effort to bunch up to make room for us, and seeing as we didn't want to appear rude, in we went.

And what a mistake that turned out to be! The lift came to a sudden grinding halt two feet under the ground floor level (though we weren't aware of that particular measurement at the time), and the doors would not open, no matter how hard we tried to wrench them. We were all stuck in that tiny little box for half an hour (though it felt so much longer at the time.) Because the lift was filled to capacity (though not over the recommended maximum limit, no matter what Nest says about the size of my butt ), there was no room to sit down and wait it out. As time went on, it got hotter, and hotter, and hotter, and hotter, to the point where condensation was visibly running down the doors, sweat was pouring down your back, the girls' make-up was running, and people's photos weren't turning out (Nest and I were in the presence of that social breed of people who feel the need to update their Facebook and Twitter accounts at all times.)

Luckily for Nest and I, the teenagers sorted out a rescue plan in amongst all this social updating, squealing, and loud dramatic conversations. It turns out their teacher had taken the stairs, and they were able to ring him to let him know what had happened, and he went and informed reception, who in turn called a lift technician.

I know I'm stating the obvious when I say it was such a relief to get out of there! We were all so excited when the doors were wrenched opened and we could see the light of day again, and feel the cool blast of air conditioning hit our faces. The teacher was standing right at the entrance, so that when Nest and I came clambering out, he heartily shook our hands and patted us on the back for surviving so long in such cramped conditions with his rowdy students. Nest and I kept well away from the hotel's lift for the remainder of our stay.

We walked up to the 7 Eleven to get some much needed bottled water (you can't drink the tap water in Sydney), then continued on our way to the monorail station. Despite having a map, we went the wrong way, turning left when we should've turned right. Looking at it in a positive way, at least we weren't still stuck in a lift, and we were getting to see parts of Sydney we hadn't been planning to, including a nice skyline view of the city.

We eventually came across a monorail stop near the Powerhouse Museum. While waiting for the monorail to arrive, Nest got a commemorative monorail souvenir coin. We didn't have to pay for a ticket, as a mother and daughter had given us their all day transport passes when we had first arrived at the hotel, which I thought was nice of them.

When the monorail arrived, we found a compartment to ourselves, and travelled all the way to the City Centre stop. The monorail stop was buried inside a maze of a shopping centre consisting of extremely tacky stores, as well as high end stores. Once we had figured our way out, we made our way to Market Street, and found the building in question. As we were waiting to cross the road, I looked up at the Sydney Tower, my stomach doing somersaults at just how high up it was (309 metres/1014 feet above ground level.) Then I spotted a little yellow platform attached to the top of the observation deck, and began exclaiming to Nest how I couldn't believe that I had actually been planning on doing the Skywalk when I was younger! I definitely would've been bolting in the opposite direction at this stage, if we had decided to do it this time round!

Once inside the building in question, we were directed up to the 5th floor. I couldn't tell which way to go once we got off the escalator (this building was filled with stores and coffee shops), but luckily Nest was paying attention. I bought us each a pass to four attractions which cost just $50 per person. The attractions in question, were: Sydney Tower, Sydney Aquarium, Sydney Wildlife World, and Oceanworld Manly. I thought this was such an excellent deal, as to buy the tickets to these four attractions separately, would've been so expensive.

Before going up to the Tower, we had to go through a security gate just like the ones at the airport. Then we had our photo taken against a green screen, which we thought was for security purposes also, until later on. Despite having just come from spending half an hour stuck in a lift, we caught one up to the observation deck. Well it was either that, or climb the 1504 stairs! The ride up to the top took 40 seconds, where-as the record for climbing the stairs the fastest goes to Paul Crake, who took six minutes and fifty-two seconds. That record was set in 2000, and hasn't been broken since (and I wasn't about to try! )

We were met with the most fantastic 360 degree views of Sydney that went on for miles and miles once we reached the top and got out of the lift. You could see attractions such as: the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Darling Harbour, the Botanical Gardens, and St. Mary's Cathedral. I also enjoyed the aerial views of the residential areas and the business areas, and if you looked through the many binoculars provided, you could see the swimming pools on the grass top roofs of the nearby skyscrapers. I wonder if the residents are aware of this? It was also fun looking at people the size of ants, going about their business, blissfully unaware that 309 metres above, there were people watching over them. Even the vehicles were tiny, and reminded me of the ones you look down on as you fly over London during Peter Pan's Flight.

Nest and I spent a good half hour taking in the views in air conditioned comfort, and trying to get our bearings of the city while relaxation music played softly in the background. I was excited to see that there was a post box up there as well - the highest operating one in Australia! My excitement was short-lived when I realised I had nothing on me to post - it was the very first day of our holiday, after all.

Once Nest and I had taken all the photos we wanted, we went to the photo booth to have a postcard made featuring our good selves. We both only just fit inside the booth, and it took us three attempts to get a photo we were happy with. I think that was mostly my fault, as a cheesy picture of a gorilla kept coming up on the screen to make us smile, and I was always looking in the wrong direction by the time the flash went off.

We caught the lift back down to the 5th floor, where we discovered that the photo that was taken of us earlier, had been made into a photo pack, which we purchased on our way out. From the quick glance we got of the gift shop as we walked by, we could see that it only stocked generic items you could get pretty much anywhere, so we didn't stop to buy anything.

Nest suggested we walk to the Aquarium instead of catching the monorail, so off we set. It had looked so straight forward when we were looking at it from inside the Tower, but we still ended up going the wrong way. Luckily, we realised our mistake before too long, and got going in the right direction. There were so many people, even more traffic, and lots of tall buildings surrounding us as we made our way through the congested streets.

It was a relief to get to the Aquarium. We were a little disappointed to see that it was closing two hours earlier than the leaflet had advertised, but we still went in, as we were excited to be there. It was unexpectedly crowded in there, which was frustrating, as people were crowding the displays for long lengths of time, so you weren't able to get a look-in yourself. We didn't want to see things out of order, as it was only two hours till closing, which meant we wouldn't have had have time to backtrack. Around that time, Mum rang me up to see how we were, and Nest busied himself taking photos of the unpopular fish no one was jostling to see. By the time we had both finished our respective tasks, the way had cleared somewhat for us to be able to "move forward", as our current Prime Minister likes to say (a bit too often!)

We spent ages looking for the platypus in the Aussie section, but he was nowhere to be found. The only Aussie creature I remember there being a plentiful supply of, were yabbies, which Nest took an awesome close-up shot of.

I absolutely loved the next section we went into - it was full of curious, colourful and cute little sea creatures. Apart from sharks, jellyfish are my favourite sea creature to see when visiting aquariums. This section had two types of jellyfish on display - moon and upside-down snowflakes (I wasn't able to verify the latter name, but it's what most people seem to call them.) I could've spent ages watching them, as I find them so relaxing to look at, but the crowds had started to bottleneck in this section, so I felt pressured not to spend too long in front of the displays. Having said that, I was able to look at the snowflake jellies for long enough to notice that there were ones the size of those bits of paper you find in hole punchers (approximately 5mm in diametre! They were so super cute!) There was a button near their tank, that when you pressed it, it lit the jellies up in fluoro colours. Nest didn't want me to press it while he was trying to take a photo, as he wanted them to appear natural.

The most curious fish we saw in that section, was the Red Indian fish, so called because its head looks like an indian. We had never heard of them before, and thought the one on display looked so unusual. He was standing up at the front of his tank, looking out. I was surprised to find that they call the sponge gardens in the Southern waters of Australia, home.

The second cutest seat creature we saw that day, was a tiny little baby blue-ringed octopus. Blue-ringed octopuses are the most venomous octopus in the world, and can grow up to just 20cm. Blue-ringed octopuses are brown in colour, but turn bright yellow with iridescent blue rings when irritated. Despite their small size, they have enough venom powerful enough to kill 26 adult humans within minutes of being bitten (glad I wasn't in that experimental group!) Their bite is tiny and quite often painless, so victims may not be aware they've been bitten until symptoms of paralysis and breathing difficulties set in. Unfortunately, no antivenom for a blue-ringed octopus bight has been developed as yet. This little baby's body was smaller than a ping pong ball, and had such tiny little legs with even tinier suction caps on them. He was sitting still on his glass window when we came to him, but the moment Nest went to take a photo, the octopus proceeded to do a crazy octopus dance all around his tank. It must've been some kind of marathon, as he just didn't stop, no matter how long we waited.

Other fish I was excited to see, were the pineapple fish and the fish that look like vertical pipe cleaners. There was also this super cute little pink starfish. I showed a photo of it to a friend when I got back, saying that it was a miniature Patrick Star, and she said it made her want to put little shorts on him! I haven't laughed so much in ages!

After we had finished in that section, we moved onto the much bigger stuff. We headed off to the Open Oceanarium next (or what I refer to as the shark tunnel.) Along the way, were massive posters of different types of sharks, along with their stats such as the length they grow up to, whether they're on the endangered species list, and how many known human fatalities they've caused since 1580 (I'm not sure how they went back that far ...) The photos were absolutely amazing, and I imagined the photographers who took the shots must've gotten a real adrenaline rush at the time.

There was also a shark cage used by some shark documentary makers you could go into, which faced this big screen showing the documentary itself, giving you an idea of what they faced during filming. There was quite a queue for this, so Nest and I weren't able to experience it properly.

We also came across a life size animatronic shark, which gnashed its teeth and rolled its eyes periodically (kind of like me when I'm hungry ) The eye rolling was a bit freaky, as its eyes went from black to just plain white, leading to me suspect it must be some kind of underwater robot zombie

Walking through the shark tunnel was fantastic - I totally loved looking up and seeing such huge sharks gliding effortlessly above us. The largest sharks on display, were 3.5 metre grey nurse sharks. Also in the waters of the shark tank, were these absolutely massive stingrays - so big, that they blocked the light big time as they slowly swam overhead.

At one end of the shark tunnel as you turn to go down the other side, was this map projected onto the floor. As you walked through the water part of it, it actually rippled like real water, which I thought was just so cool!

The last display we came to, was a massively large long tank aptly called the Reef Theatre, containing a wide variety of fish of all sizes, including one of my favourites, the "nose fish", so christened as such by my friends and I, simply for the fact that they have long noses, and we haven't been able to remember what they're really called. (After considerable effort in the brain department, I believe they're called Unicorn Fish.)

To see part of the display, you had to walk across a glass floor, where you could see the water and fish passing beneath you, which I've always thought was a great effect, as I'm sure Nest did once he had regained his balance

As it is these days with attractions, the exit was through the gift shop. It was right on closing time, so I felt really pressured to leave, but first I wanted to quickly pick up some postcards. It was while I was at the postcard rack, that I realised we had missed seeing the dugongs, which I was soooooo disappointed about. At the checkout, I couldn't resist making a last minute purchase of a grow-your-own Spongebob.

I would've liked to have spent more time at the Aquarium (especially when I realised we had somehow missed the dugongs), but it wasn't to be. Still, I had very much enjoyed my time there. The tanks and displays were sparkling clean, and all the creatures appeared very well cared for. The only thing I didn't enjoy about our visit (apart from the initial crowds), was that they were really pushing the sale of a particular DVD. It was blasting out from TV screens set up strategically around the Aquarium, which I found incredibly annoying, as I just wanted to look at the exhibits in peace. The DVD was called The Future Is Wild, and was about futuristic sea creatures. Apparently scientific fact supported the kind of evolution the DVD was predicting. There were huge models on display of some of the creatures in question - namely, a giant pink fluorescent pink squid (called the Mega Squid), and some alien looking helmet shaped things with legs (called Silver Swimmers.)

We walked back to our hotel from the Aquarium, stopping at the Harbour Walk McDonald's for dinner. Nest got a medium-sized Grand Angus meal (Grand Angus burger, medium fries, medium Coke) and a box of chicken nuggets with sweet 'n sour dipping sauce. I got a large Big Mac combo deal (Big Mac, large fries, large Coke) and a chocolate sundae. We ate our dinner at the outdoor seating area, where we fed a lone seagull the fries we weren't able to fit in. We had timed our visit well, as they began to close up as we were finishing (I'm used to all McDonalds being open 24 hours.)

We continued on back to the hotel, passing this big lit up ferris wheel, which we both decided we should go on the following night. We also passed another McDonald's, and the Sydney Entertainment Centre, where we'd be going in two nights time to see Robin Williams.

Johnny gave us a call just as we got back to our room, to see how things were going. I thought we'd be able to relax for the rest of the night afterwards, but we ended up having to go back to the 7 Eleven for two huge bottles of water. While we were there, we also picked up some bottles of fizzy peach soda, and some tasty cheese and crackers for emergency snacks. On our way out of the hotel, we came across the people we had been stuck in the lift with, coming up the stairs.

We were finally able to relax when we got back, which I was massively relieved about, as my feet were so tired and painful that I could hardly walk by that stage. We layed on our beds writing our journals, drinking our fizzy peach sodas, and watching TV. I believe that night's viewing was QI (an educational, yet very humourous English game show hosted by Stephen Fry and starring Alan Davies), followed by Survivor (I can't remember which series it was now, but it was the one won by Fabio.)

Before I went to sleep, I checked the map I had picked up from the 7 Eleven store that night, to see if it was any better than the one we'd been using that day. It turned out not to be a map of tourist destinations, but the location of every single 7 Eleven in Sydney! While we still may get lost, at least we wouldn't be hungry! We laughed for ages over it!

Next entry: Taronga Park Zoo

[Grammy Grumpy]

I do believe that the teams of the "Amazing Race" were just at that aquarium! Great TR and pictures!!

[chezp]

Wonderful start to your trip report!

Oh my goodness, what a nightmare at the hotel - that experience in the elevator must've been terrifying, I'd have been freaking out!

[Colexis Mom]

Sorry about the small room! And getting stuck in the lift! Great pictures of your day!

[pamcarey]

Great update! What a disappointment with the hotel room! Doesn't look very deluxe to me! Great pictures from the aquarium!