from somewhere in my imagination

Planning a Trip to Disneyworld

When I am telling people about the 6 week USA adventure we enjoyed last year they are often perplexed by the fact we spent as many nights at Disneyworld as we did. Disneyland in Anaheim is generally the place Australians are more familiar with and I think it is safe to say that if you spent as many nights ay Disneyland as we did at Disneyworld you would definitely have done everything.

Eight nights at Disneyworld is not enough time to do everything.

Disneyworld is made up of 4 parks plus 2 water parks and the downtown Disney area that is open to the public. We did not include the waterparks in our magic your way package, and that was a good thing. We barely had time to swim in the pool at our resort, we would not have had time to spend in the water parks.

There are many many resorts to choose from at Disneyworld. We stayed at the Beachclub and I would choose to stay there or the Yachtclub or at one of the boardwalk resorts if we went back. They are central to both Epcot and Hollywood Studios meaning that you are less reliant on buses for the whole time you are there. Getting between parks during busy times around opening and closing can be a bit of a slow process.

The Animal Kingdom resort looks fabulous but it puts you far away from the rest of the parks and there are no night time shows inside the Animal Kingdom so you would end up finding yourself travelling much more than by staying there than at one of the more central resorts.

The budget all-star resorts have been given thumbs up by both a friend who stayed at one and an old school friend who was lucky enough to work there for a year.

Include food in your package. You are highly unlikely to be going anywhere else to eat and it is cheaper and infinitely more convenient to have it prepaid and included. Make sure you book some of your meals before you go.

I still dream about this mexican meal!

There are some really nice restaurants (especially at Epcot and at Downtown Disney where you food package is still valid) and it's easier if character meals are prebooked. That said if you arrive at the start of a meal session it isn't all that difficult to get a table at a character meal.



Don't expect to get too many early nights. With the exception of The Animal Kingdom the parks are alternately open until quite late. Guests staying in the park also get extra hours, I'm talking 3am close in the Magic Kingdom some nights.

Make good use of the fast pass system and plan your days.

Once you are at Disneyworld it is hard to get out. We wanted to spend a day at Universal studios. That involved hiring a car, just getting to the car hire place to pick it up was tricky. It is also expensive. Between car hire and the park tickets for Universal and paying for the days' food it cost us the best part of an extra $1000 which would have paid for another couple of days park entry, accommodation and food at Disneyworld.

It's sliding scale, the longer you stay the cheaper it is per day.

If you are planning on doing some shopping for clothes do that first so you don't need to pack more than you need. Stay outside the park near the outlets if you are going to be shopping in Orlando.

It's a 4-5 hour flight from LA to Orlando. We left Sydney around lunchtime which got us in to LA mid-morning. We then had a red eye flight from LA to Orlando. We checked ourselves in to the Holiday Inn express and tucked ourselves into bed for the afternoon before heading back to the airport. That was a sensible move, next time I would prebook the accommodation so we knew where we were going.  You do actually pay for the room overnight even though you are just there during the day.  The airport hotels don't seem to do day rates.

April and October seem to be the cheapest times to stay at Disneyworld. I'm told you are best to avoid it at Christmas when it is crowded and during summer when it is really hot and crowded. Ideally it's best to visit before the American school year finishes but after Spring Break or after school has gone back in August but before Thanksgiving. We were there at the beginning of May and the heat some days even managed to affect us, seasoned hot weather dwellers that we are :)

I can't tell you how highly I rate a family trip to Disneyworld and I would take us all back there in a heartbeat if I could.

Tatum xx

9/11 - 10 Years On & Still Surreal

There are certain things that happen in our lives that we never forget where we were when they happened for example I'd been on a Geology field trip the day Diana died, I remember coming home, turning on the television and Diana's death was all that was there.  We discovered that Osama Bin Laden had been found and killed when we disembarked from our flight to LA, that kind of added to the surrealness of our 9/11 experience.

In September 2001 Steven and I were in Europe, we spent about 10 days in Sweden where he had a training course for work which we followed up with 4 or so nights in Paris then another 10 days or so in England.  I clearly remember that there were significant problems with protests and refugees at the time.  There had been several instances of people actually entering the tunnel near Calais and travelling by foot to England.  It was all over the media at the time.

When the planes hit the twin towers Steven and I were aboard the Eurostar travelling from Paris to Dover.  We knew nothing of what had happened until we arrived at Steven's Uncle's home in Canterbury.

When our train arrived in Calais from Paris police boarded and removed 3 passengers and their baggage.  They did a full sweep of the train looking for and removing unattended luggage.  My irrational self was inwardly terrified about what might happen but never thought much retrospectively about what might have happened.  I don't know if there was any relationship between our train and the word trade centre attacks.  I sincerely hope there wasn't.  It was the last train to travel through the tunnel for many hours.

When we arrived at Dover Uncle Terry picked us up and made comment along the lines of 'isn't it terrible what's happening in America'.  We thought he was referring to all the refugee related unrest happening globally at the time.  We actually had no idea what he was talking about.

When we arrived at his home we saw what he was talking about.

In the space of time that Terry had travelled from Canterbury to Dover and back to collect us the second plane had hit.  We were glued to the television for many hours after that, I'm fairly certain that we were already watching when the Pentagon was hit.  I have memories of it all unfolding, most of my memories of the footage (and floods of tears) probably come from the one year anniversary when I was at home with one month old Charlotte.

For all the things we Aussies poke fun at the US about one thing that I absolutely love is their love of country and general patriotism.  It only took a couple of baseball games and J knew exactly when she needed to be standing with her cap on her heart during the Star Spangled Banner before the game and God Bless America during the seventh inning stretch.  She's been known since to hear one or the other on TV and come running to stand at attention.

We visited the 9/11 memorial site on the eve of the Memorial Day weekend.  There were a number of US Navy Officers visiting at the same time as us.  It's hard watching your own husband cry but it's harder seeing a military man shedding tears for his own country and countrymen.

It's impossible to explain what happened to your children.

It broke my heart seeing the artefacts, reading and hearing the stories, looking at the family photos of the victims and the missing person fliers, seeing the responses from everyday Americans from their visits to the memorial and above all looking at the sheer length of that list of names.  In many respects, for me, such an act of terror in modern day is still unfathomable.

Time moves on, but this is one would in the modern western world that will take a very long time to heal, if it ever can.  I look forward to revisiting the site in a few years time when rebuilding is complete.  In the meantime I remain thankful for living the 'the lucky country' and say a prayer for every soul, and their loved ones, who lost their lives that day.

It was a day that altered the world we live in.

Where were you that day?

Tatum xx

Small Style 23 - Our New York Rainbow

It's been ages since my last Small Style post.  Ever since we got back from our trip to the US the kids have been rugged up for winter and haven't had many particularly stylish days.

However, I have been wanting to post about our little new york rainbow ever since that day back at the end of May.  Have I mentioned how much I miss New York and want to go back?

It was the Thursday, a completely gorgeous end of spring kind of sunshiny day and the kids had dressed themselves.  We headed downtown on the subway, we were heading out on the Staten Island ferry to get another look at the Statue of Liberty, as we emerged at Battery Park I noticed that the kids had dressed themselves collectively like a rainbow.

It made me smile.

Sebastian is wearing Polka Shorts and Green Dandelion Happy Shirt

Lil is wearing a Cotton On T with a Ralph Lauren skirt

J is wearing an Old Navy Dress

Charlotte is wearing a Country Road top and Pumpkin Patch denim shorts

I'm linking up with Small Style on Mama Loves Papa.  Morgan's blog is just lovely, I'm sponsoring her this month and we are collaborating on a spring/fall sew along in September.  If you have never sewn anything for yourself but have always wanted to try you are going to want to join us!

We have had some unseasonally warm weather here this week, I know it will be sad when it drops back down to wintery cold again tomorrow.  Thankfully those warm spring days will be just around the corner...I'm looking forward to unpacking the suitcase of new warm weather clothes we brought home but haven't seen the light of day yet.

Which do you prefer rugging up and snuggling on cold winter days, enjoying the summer heat or those lovely in between days you get in Spring and Autumn?  T

hose in between days are defintely my favourite, warm enough for short sleeves and jeans during the day but still cool enough for the doon at night.  I love opening up the house and letting the breeze blow through.  It makes me happy in my heart.

Hope that you are having a lovely week.  Don't forget to check out my Planning with Kids Giveaway, it's a fabulous organisational tool for every family.

Tatum xx