Travel: USA - Florida/Orlando
-
Hi, just returned from a trip to Orlando on Emirates - SIN-Dubai-NY-Orlando. All in about 31 hours including layover of 3hr 45mins in Dubai and 2hr plus in NY. Overall flight was ok but personally still prefer SQ. Took Emirates due to huge price differential bet Emirates and SQ. Have to be careful with the short 2 hr plus layover at NY as the immigration clearing was a long queue…we had to "cut queue" as we explained to the immigration officer that we had to catch a domestic flight and the lady was very kind to assist and allowed us to clear immigration first.
-
Miracle Child:
Hi, just returned from a trip to Orlando on Emirates - SIN-Dubai-NY-Orlando. All in about 31 hours including layover of 3hr 45mins in Dubai and 2hr plus in NY. Overall flight was ok but personally still prefer SQ. Took Emirates due to huge price differential bet Emirates and SQ. Have to be careful with the short 2 hr plus layover at NY as the immigration clearing was a long queue...we had to \"cut queue\" as we explained to the immigration officer that we had to catch a domestic flight and the lady was very kind to assist and allowed us to clear immigration first.
I thought my SQ SIn- Moscow- Houston- Orlando of 27 hours is bad, since my previous direct Sin-NY-Orlando was about 21-22 hours only. Your 31 is worse. We had a 1 hour stopover in Moscow to change crew (same plane) and 2 hours in Houston to clear immigration. The 2 hour in Houston was just nice. Long queue but still can make it. -
it is good to fly with UA or other US flight especially there are connecting flights. We took UA, everything was perfect with the connection. Only i felt humilated being the only one to be 100% screen. Other family members were cleared.
On top of that UA is very generous with their domestic flight. We were bring upgraded 3x in Colorado, New York to and fro. -
As promised, my Trip Review (Part 1-Disney's Polynesian Resort and Magic Kingdom)
We just came back from our 19 days door to door trip to Orlando. Spent 11 nights at the Disney's Polynesian Resort and 5 nights at Universal's Hard Rock Hotel.
Disney's Polynesian Resort:
We had a theme park view room at Tahiti Longhouse. It was a long track from our room to the Grand Ceremonial House (\"GCH\") where the restaurants are, but it has a wonderful view of the Magic Kingdom's Cinderella Castle. We watched the MK fireworks from our balcony nightly. It was wonderful to see the whole sky light up every night. There is also a nightly electrical water parade on the lagoon in front of our room. While far from the GCH, the room is near the MK's Ticket and Transportation Center, where there is an express monorail to MK and a direct monorail to Epcot. We use the TTC for all our visits to MK and Epcot. Very convenient. To get to the other 2 main parks and minor attractions, there are only buses.
The room itself is however on the old side and in need of refurbishment. understand that large scale refub is planned for 2013. Size wise, Poly has one of the largest rooms in Disney. It was very comfortable for 5 of us with 2 queen size beds and a sofa bed. The room I think is more than 490 sf. Bathroom is also big with 2 sinks. It has a bathtub but no shower cubicle. This was the case at Hard Rock too.
We ate at the 2 sit down restaurants at the Poly, Ohana and Kona. Breakfast at Ohana was with LILO, stitch, Mickey and Pluto. The food is fixed price per person, brought to your table, and eat all you can. There is the usual Mickey wafers, eggs, sausages, bacon, pastries, breakfast potatoes. The juice was great, a mix of some tropical juices. At dinner, Ohana served BBQ food brought to the table in skewers, some noodles and potstickers. I had made dinner reservation here because of the raving review and since it's convenient for us to eat there. The night of our reservation, my daughter was not well so I stayed with her in the room and my husband went with our boys. They did not really like the food. Americanised Asian food does not go down well with them.
Food at Kona was pretty good. We could order sushi from the sushi bar next door and my kids loved sushi. DS said clams was great. DH liked his lamb, but I did not like the coconut almond chicken.
There is a counter service restaurant, Captain Cook, where we had a few meals including takeaways. Food was ok, but after a dinner and a lunch here, my kids got sick of the food and we went elsewhere for variety. We did get takeaway pizza on certain days and it was pretty good. I like that we can get the Mickey premium ice creams here for dessert as well as dole whip, a pineapple soft serve that is only available at MK and here. We had the resort refillable mugs and this is where we get to fill up on fountain drinks and coffee/ tea unlimited during our stay.
Now the Themeparks. There are 4 main Themeparks in WDW.
1. Magic Kingdom - the main Disney park which most people will call \"Disneyland\" or equate to Disneyland in LA or HK.
There are the usual FantasyLand, TomorrowLand, FrontierLand, AdventreLand and Liberty Square. The new FantasyLand expansion just opened with Enchanted Tales with Belle, Under the Sea with the Little Mermaid, a new Ariel's grotto, Belle's village housing Gaston's Tavern and Beast's castle which housed the new themed Be our Guest restaurant.
We spent 2 half days at MK and 2 evenings. We had 2 prepark opening breakfasts, one at Crystal Palace where we met Pooh and Friends and one at Cinderella's Royal Table (inside the castle) where we met Cinderella and other princesses. These breakfasts were great. We got into the parks before it opened and were able to walk down an empty Main Street to take pictures and also get pictures of the castle without other people in the background. Also, it allowed us to be already in the park when it opens. We were among the first in FantasyLand and Tomorrowland on both mornings and could walk into popular rides without wait. We did multiple rides on the popular Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Under the Sea, Buzz Lightyear, Haunted Mansion, Dumbo, etc. We left MK around 2plus on both days which allowed our kids to nap and be well rested for our planned activities at night.
One of the evenings at MK was for the Fireworks Dessert party. There is a slightly alleviated reserved area where we had a dessert buffet and where we had an unobstructed view of the lighted up castle and fireworks. It was wonderful to see Tinkerbel fly towards us at the start of the show.
On the other evening, we had dinner at the new Be Our Guest restaurant. It became one of our favorites. The theming was fantastic. There were 3 dining rooms. Only 2 were open the night we went, the ballroom which looked exactly like the ballroom in the movie, and the West Wing which housed the enchanted rose and has a slashed picture of the human beast just like the movie. We sat in the ballroom which was beautiful and had enchanted windows which showed a snowy French country side outside. Very pretty with the falling snow. Beast walked down the aisle every hour or so to wave to guests. After dinner, we proceed to the library for a photo with beast. My daughter was dressed as Belle and on seeing her, beast bowed, she curtsied and after they took a photo, Beast waltzed with her. She was overjoyed and it was so cute. The food served was French and this is the only restaurant in MK that serves alcohol. We like the food. The server brought out a special dessert for my daughter because she is the \"princess\" who has come back to the castle. It was the \"grey stuff\" mentioned by Lumierre in the movie, but you can't get it on the menu. I pinched some and must say it was delicious.
One afternoon, DD did her makeover at The Bibbidi Bobbidi boutique at MK. We had brought our own sleeping beauty costume and she just did her hair, makeup and nails. There were several hairstyle to choose from. She chose the Diva style which came with add on long hair. Only the princess style came with a tiara. Diva style came with 2 diamanté Mickey clips. I had brought along a tiara which they put on for her. If you did not bring your own, you can buy the additional tiara from them too. Each child is given her own makeup palette and nail polish and comb which they can take home. Much better and more hygienic than in HK disney where they use common stuff for all the kids. They treated each child like a princess and lavished them with lots of attention. I can see that all the girls enjoyed their experience. I think it is the process rather then the end product that the girls enjoy.
After she was dolled up, we went to 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian hotel for dinner with Cinderella, Prince Charming and her step family. It was the usual buffet dinner but the plus here is the hilarious step sisters and step mother. The stepsisters were really into character and when DD offered one of her brothers to a stepsister for marriage, she went round pretending to kiss him! So funny.
Stepmother was also very much into character such that DD was really a little scared of her. :rotflmao:
(To be continued...) -
wow THANKS. i can’t wait for the 2nd part of your trip review.
-
Trip Review (Part 2 - Epcot)
2. Epcot - there are 2 worlds in Epcot, Future World and World Showcase. This is the biggest park in Epcot and my son says that Epcot stands for Every person comes out tired! We spent 2 half days and one evening here.
The rides here are mainly at Future World. The good ones are Soarin which is also at the LA park. It simulates taking a hand glider and flying over California. Even my girl likes it and we did it twice. The queue for this can be long so plan wisely if you want to take this multiple times. We have 5 mins wait each time. The other ride which my sons love is Mission Space, but it gives me motion sickness. Test Track simulates the test track of a racing car and has been recently updated. My sons say it is now better than previously. There is a Nemo ride for family and a show turtle talk with Crush which lets the kids in the show communicate with Crush. Pretty cool and funny. Other rides are Space Ship Earth, Ellen’s Energy, Figment imagination etc, all suitable for younger kids. We skipped the Michael Jackson show. Did not like that previously.
Each time we spend the early morning in Future World and went into World Showcase for lunch. World showcase features diff countries in the world with replicas of their landmarks. Nice place for photos. Merchandise and restaurants reflect each country so food is more varied. DD did the Agent P world showcase adventure which gave her a cell phone with clues to find in each country. It is a scavenger hunt and when she completes each mission, there is a special effect or secret that she uncovers. This activity makes world showcase fun for her and even my boys who helped her. Without doing agent P, world showcase can be boring for kids. World showcase is also a place to meet characters, if interested.
We had one lunch at Chef De France in France. Here there is an animatronic Remy which comes out 4 - 5 times a day. I timed lunch to meet Remy. Very cute and the kids were truely surprised to see the little Remy on a cheese tray responding to them in rat language.
Brought DD for lunch on another day at Akershus in Norway to meet princesses. The boys did not join us. Overdose of princess for them. They were happier catching their own counter service lunch in Japan. They miss their Japanese food. Between CRT in MK and Akershus, we met most of the disney princesses. For this trip, DD was able to meet all the disney princess, sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Belle ( in yellow gown and blue provincial dress), Ariel in dress and fins, Mulan, jasmine, tiana, rapunzel, Merida and Snow White.
One of the days, we went back after our afternoon nap for a late dinner at Rosé and Crown in England and saw the Epcot night fireworks and laser show Illumination from our outdoor dinner table of the pub. Great to be able to sit down and enjoy dessert and coffee while watching the show. Food is pretty good English pub fare. If we did not stay at Poly, going back to rest and then coming back again would not have been easy. We had direct monorail so it was feasible.
(To be continued…) -
Trip Review (Part 3 - Disney’s Hollywood Studios)
3. Disney’s Hollywood Studios was set up after Universal Studios set up shop in Orlando. It is suppose to be a movie based themepark so there are many live performances and shows here.
We made used of our early park entry privileges here because we wanted to catch the popular ride Toy Story Mania which is a recent addition and so is new to us. This ride is very popular but has a slow load factor so queues can go up to 60 minutes or more. So going there during extra magic hours for on site guests helped us take this ride 3 times each with minimal wait. This was really fun, similar to buzz light year in MK, but instead of shooting aliens, you are playing fun fair games like throwing balls, hoops etc. very cool.
The other headliners in HS are Hollywood Tower of Terror which simulates a 13 storey fall. I did that previously and have no guts to do it again. DH did this with DS2 who is a thrill seeker. The other headliner is rock and roller coaster, a fast and smooth coaster ride with Aerosmith. We did this a few times too, but without DD of course. We use child swap.
DD enjoyed the stage shows here. Particularly, Beauty and the Beast stage show, a compressed live performance of the movie and the Voyage of Little Mermaid stage show. The Indiana Jones stunt show was also good. We brought DD to the Disney Junior puppet show, but she didn’t like It. Said it was for small kids. Other interesting rides/ shows are Muppet 3D, Star Tours, a Star Wars ride. There is the Great Movie Ride featuring movies over the years. DH thought it was boring. Other stuff we skipped were art of Disney animation, the backstage tour etc. These we did previously and didn’t like. Thought the backstage ride was pretty waste of time. There is also a Light Motor Action car stunt show which is good.
We had lunch at the Italian restaurant, Mama Melrose on the Fantasmic package. It gave us reserved settings at the HS nighttime laser show, Fantasmic. Besides Fantasmic, during this year end season, HS has an Osbourne Family light up in the New York section of the park at night. Very pretty and worth seeing.
This is our longest and most tiring day with no mid day break. DD fell asleep on the bus back to the hotel.
(To be continued…) -
Wow thank you.
Waiting for part 4 anxiously.
Dnls u could publish a book on yr Orlando experience! -
Trip Review (Part 4 - Animal Kingdom)
4. The 4th park at WDW is Animal Kingdom which is also the smallest. While some people don’t really like it, it is one of our favorites.
We started our day at Animal Kingdom with a pre- park opening breakfast at Tusker House. The characters we met here are Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Mickey, all in Safari wear. We had picked up our car by then and so drove to Animal Kingdom rather than take the Disney bus. The breakfast was the usual Disney breakfast buffet with a delicious jungle juice which is an orange, passion fruit mix. Tusker House is situated quite far inside AK in Africa. The walk in was again nice and peaceful and provided great photo op opportunity. The next best thing is that Tusker House is right next to Kilimanjaro Safari ride, the popular safari ride in AK. Again we were able to finish BF before park open and were the first to get o the Kilimanjaro ride. The best thing about riding this early is that the animals are most active in the cool morning and this time, we were able to spot the Big fives and many more animals very few meters. It was great. We love the ride.
After Kilimanjaro, we went for the next big thing, Expedition Everest, in Asia. Did this 3 times with no wait. Next we headed for Dinoland where we rode Dinosaur, Triceratops spin and primeval whirl. Dinosaur is quite scary, and DD set out like for Expedition Everest, as well as primeval whirl. Primeval whirl can cause motion sickness. We don’t really like it. triceratops spin is the typical spook and hub ride.
After that, we headed back to Asia to ride Kali River Rapid and got bottom half of our jeans wet since we had ponchos on. Did this twice. If did it once would have been ok. Lunch was counter service at Yak and Yeti for some semblance of Chinese food.
Thereafter headed for the Festival of the Lion King show. They have changed it a little somehow and it is diff from the one in HK Disney. the one in HK Disney was same as what we same here 5 yrs ago. DD met Pocahontas today. The other good rides which we went to was It’s Tough to be a Bug, a 4D show inside the AK icon, the Tree of Life. This show has also been updated and is now better than 5 yrs ago with better effects.
We skipped the bird show and walk through zoological stuff since we get l see lots of animals in our SG zoo already. We watched the parade and left AK around 4pm, and went back to our hotel to rest.
That night we went to the counter service restaurant at Contemporary resort for dinner. The boys ooh the monorail and we took the car o see who is faster. We got there faster because of the loop the monorail took, but they got back faster. They have sushi there which delighted the kids. The Mahi fish sandwich was good too.
(To be continued…) -
Dnls_mum:
:thankyou: for the information.
I have done both Sin-New York - Orlando and recently also Sin- Houston -Orlando.BBEwee:
Can someone advise me which is the best way to Orlando from Singapore?
1)SIN-Houston-Orlando
2)SIN-New York -Orlando
3) SIN-LA-Orlando
Did the direct Sin to NY then Orlando. This is the best since it is the shortest route with 18 hour direct to NY. But I think the direct flight no more now, SQ just announce canceling it. So now go NY still have to transit Frankfurt.
Sin to Houston need to transit Moscow. So now whether go,via Houston or NY all need a stop either in Moscow or Frankfurt. No diff. We chose Houston because we travel during winter and weather in NY is more uncertain and could affect flight schedules and punctuality.
To me Sin-La or SF is out because they seems to be the longest, and more importantly, LA or SF to Orlando is much longer than from NY or Houston to Orlando. That means more time on a US airline, which cannot compare to SQ in terms of inflight service. I'd rather minimize my flight time on a US carrier.
With all this ,I can easily plan my flight to Orlando.DH is so worry about the kids unable to take the long flight there.
I guess will choose Houston too,I prefer to fly in Dec too.
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login