Chunky's USA Trip 2009

[chunky]

Well an uneventful trip through Brisbane International. We were lucky to be put through the express queue because we had all the little ones but it wasn't really needed. The flight over was not full so we took advantage of a row or two for ourselves.

Couldn't use the bassinet for our 14 month old as she would just get up and try to jump out - not a good thing to think about. Melanie was very restless and I just squeezed 2 movies in bits and pieces as I juggled looking after her with the +1. The other 3 chunky kids loved it especially being able to pick their own movies.

I must say the Qantas crew over were excellent. All of them made particular effort to make sure we were ok and bent over backwards for any requests. One even carried some of our carry on out to customs in the US.

Thanks to Jasper, who was busting to go and the requests from that same Qantas crew member 'Stephen' we were allowed to quick queue through the USA citizens line and bypass all the Aussies waiting in the main queue. We even had help completing our green forms from the customs official - yes this is LA airport - I was just as confused but very plesantly surprised at their 'niceness'.

Hassle free SuperShuttle to Anaheim and I am writing this after we ducked down for lunch at Downtown Disney. Hmmm, yumm some nice sangria and a nachos. I have to remember their portions are big over here. Ordered two for out family but only one was needed. Unfortunately for the baby - the time difference has taken its toll and while the kids were extremely happy to soak up the atmosphere we wanted to get Melanie back for an afternoon nap.

So the piccies will come. Too tired to do them now and the only reason I am not napping is that I will go to bed in sync tonight. We also have a character dinner to go to later so looking forward to that.

[Xena]

Great start!

[Farty The Snowman]

Good To hear Chunky...

Goodluck for the rest of the trip [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Podlettte]

Sounds like a lovely experience of LAX chunky! looking forward to pics etc

[SnowSnow]

Sounds like I will be flying with Qantas.

[karen97]

Nice one Chunky Say hi to Mickey Mouse for me [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Jahoota]

Originally posted by chunky:

I must say the Qantas crew over were excellent.

you musta got lucky. Hopefully you'll be just as lucky on the way home. My SIL had a horror one trip from japan with her young brood on qaint****. The experiance was so unpleasant she's used JAL ever since....

[Polaris]

Sounds like the perfect start Chunky!!

Hope it continues that way.

[chunky]

Thanks guys. Yes the Qantas staff were very good to the point that +1 wants to send a complimentary letter about it.

[chunky]

The kids finally getting excited even though today was just visiting the Disney Downtown area.




My son wanted the light sabre and tried wrenching it out of Darth Vader's hand. Luckily he did not.



Ok as I mentioned before we went to Goofy's kitchen for the character dinner. A Snowatcher said this was a good idea. Well it's $36 USD for adults and $16 for over 3's for kids. The food was nice - not what I would normally pay for that sort of buffet food but there was a nice selection. But that's not what we came here for.

The staff are extremely friendly and once they found out it was our first visit we all received Disney first visit badges and also as it is a reunion of sorts with my best friend, who is working overseas and my sister's family we also received 'family reunion' badges. A nice touch and they also wrote on our dinner tablecloth (it was just paper) in big writing - 'Welcome to the USA'. They made us feel really welcome.

This next shot is of Minnie visiting our table and Melanie's reaction and she did this to every character that came. It was something I wish I had videotaped!






We came for the Disney characters. We had Goofy, Princess Yulan, Peter Pan, Chipendale and Minnie Mouse visit our table. They gave us time to take photos, played with the kids a bit and signed 'autographs' in their holiday journal. It was great for the family and what we hoped for. Seeing the joy on our kids faces as they got over their shyness was wonderful.



Long day but a great start. On to Disneyland tomorrow.

[size="1"][ 25.01.2009, 05:44 PM: Message edited by: chunky ][/size]