Anaheim to Los Angeles and then home

Our final day in the parks, doing some favourite rides again and taking the chance to look at the merch. We have to be out of our hotel room by 2pm, so we’ve enough time to enjoy some more attractions.

We checked out and then returned to the park to watch Frozen and collect a personalised Christmas ornament before returning to our hotel for our transfer to the airport. The ride to the airport was smooth until we reached the airport and then it was absolute chaos.

Mission breakout

Day 17 last full day in Disneyland

We had a sleep in today as our new room is very quiet and the bed was extremely comfortable. We then headed into Disneyland resort for our final full day in the parks before we begin making our long journey home.

We started with California Adventure Park and got through some new attractions and a repeat of our favourite ride the IncrediCoaster before heading across to Disneyland for some other attractions whilst we wait for our fast passes to become available later in the afternoon.

The afternoon we explores Cars land which we hadn’t visited before and thankfully we had a fast pass Radiator Springs racer as the wait time was over two hours.

We finished the night with dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and fireworks in the Disneyland park.

 Cars land

 Soarin

Pixar pier

Day 16 Disneyland, California

We had a sleep in today and then we moved to another hotel. It turns out sleeping alongside the I5 interstate without double glazed windows has an impact on your ability to sleep. Once we took an Uber across to our new hotel we made our way into Disneyland park to continue where we left off from the day before.

We spent the majority of the day in Disneyland park and went on the big rides thanks to a combination of fast passes and queuing.

In the evening we went to Carthay Circle restaurant for dinner (California Adventure Park), which is a replica of the original theatre that screened Snow White which then went on to win an academy award. Thee is a great photo of Disney being presented with an Oscar for the movie by Shirley Temple and smaller Oscars for each of the seven dwarfs. The food was absolutely amazing.

Day 15 Orlando (MCO) to Disneyland, Anaheim via Los Angeles (LAX)

We had another early start today but this time it was to pack up our room and head across the USA to California and then transfer to Anaheim the home of the original Magic Kingdom.

It is also Thanksgiving in the USA so everything was very quiet and we were surprised at how quiet the airport was.

The flight from Orlando to Los Angeles was almost six hours and it was a pleasant flight despite the bumps. There was so much turbulence that the pilot kept on apologising to us and was changing altitude to look for smooth air we mostly cruised at 26,000 feet as the higher altitudes were too bumpy.

On arrival we had a transfer arranged to whisk us away to Disneyland. We briefly stopped at our hotel to check in and drop off our luggage and then onto the Disney California Adventure park which neither of us had been to before. We managed three rides before transferring across to Disneyland.

We stopped for some dinner but soon the excitement and time zone shift caught up with us and we returned to our hotel to get some sleep.

 Jeff and I on the Incredicoaster

Our butterscotch Sundae served on our AA flight to LAX one of the benefits of flying first class, the meal service continued despite the turbulence

Day 14 Walt Disney World, Florida (final day)

Today is our last day at Walt Disney World and our first stop was Hollywood Studios Park so another early start to be at the park for when it opens at 9am.

Thanks to having fast passes we managed to get three rides done in the first 90 minutes despite the huge crowd numbers. We had lunch at Sci Fi diner where you sit in a car whilst watching movies in an old style drive in theatre, great theming although very interesting eating in the dark.

After lunch we went back to Animal Kingdom to see the park at night and try and get some more rides done before we call it a day.

 Tower of a Terror ride. A favourite in Hollywood Studios Park

 Outside Hollywood Studios Park

In Pandora Animal Kingdom Park

Day 13 Walt Disney World, Florida

Today we had a more leisurely day with breakfast at the Floridian cafe @ Grand Floridian resort before heading to the Magic Kingdom. Jeff got to ride on Splash Mountin for the very first time, it is always a fun ride.

We also had several fast passes which allowed us to ride many other attractions.

We ended the evening in Epcot at Chefs De France and had an amazing meal.

Day 12 Walt Disney World

Our first full park day and we had a lot of options and the parks were very busy leading into Thanksgiving this coming Thursday.

We started at Animal Kingdom then Epcot and finished at Hollywood Studios. We also managed to ride the main rides that we had to set out to achieve; Pandora and Slinky Dog dash in the new Toy Story land. We also squeezed in; frozen ever after, Journey to imagination and tower of terror.

 Na’vi at Pandora’s Flight of passage ride

Riding on Slinky Dog dash in Toy Story land in Hollywood Studios

My favourite deputy

Day 11 Miami to Orlando (Walt Disney World)

Our ship Carnival Magic arrived into port very early in the morning so when we woke up the ship was docked. We made our way to breakfast before departing the ship and making our way through immigration. We had a 9:30am transfer to the airport and we boarded our bus just after 9am and arrived at the airport just before 10am.

We checked in and then waited for our afternoon very short flight up to Orlando. On arrival we took the magical express service to our resort Port Orleans - Riverside. As we arrived at the resort the app gave us our room number and with our magic bands from our last visit we headed direct to our room and our bands unlocked the door. We quickly got settled and headed to our first park; Magic Kingdom. We had fast passes and dining reservations.

It was a very long day and by the time we returned to our hotel we where exhausted, but we had an amazing day and dinner at the Californian Grill was amazing.

 Magic Kingdom

B737 Max 8 flight to Orlando

Day 10 cruising to Miami (Sea day)

the last day of our cruise as we sail back to Miami, FL. The weather hasn’t been the greatest so we tried to stay sheltered from the wind as we make our way back to Miami at just over 19 knots.

We spent the day relaxing and enjoying our last restful day before we head to Disney

Our last drink at our favourite bar

Jeff doing the ropes course

Day 9 unscheduled return to Cozumel, Mexico

Our captain made the call to head back to Cozumel, Mexico as our next port of call Grand Cayman required the use of tenders to take us ashore and it was considered too rough to operate them. Our shore excursion had already been cancelled due to inclement weather.

The ship bounced around all night as we headed back across the Caribbean Sea to Mexico.

It was fun spending time in Cozumel as on our last visit we left the ship and headed to the mainland and didn’t set foot on the island so we definitely made up for that today. We walked into downtown from the ship, had some lunch, did some shopping before getting a taxi back to our ship. The afternoon we went swimming and made use of the water slides whilst the ship was mostly vacated.

We return to Miami tonight and arrive on Sunday and we’re looking forward to another sea day tomorrow.

Last night at dinner the staff sang us the Happy Honeymoon song which was very sweet of them.

Our route from Belize to Mahogany Bay and then our attempt to reach the Cayman Islands before heading back to Mexico.

Off the ship in Cozumel and looking forward to exploring the port.

Day 8 unscheduled sea day

We sailed onto our next port but the captain decided to continue onto our fourth and final port due to the inclement weather. We were scheduled to visit Mahogany Bay, Isla Roatan, Honduras. The ship bounced around all day like we were in a washing machine and the rain came tumbling down for most of the day making some parts of the ship flood.

We started the day with a run and then had a liesurly breakfast in the dining room and then walked a few laps of the ship to watch the waves crashing all around the ship.

A rainy start to the day

Day 7 Belize City, Belize (Central America)

Another day, another country, we continued south and reached our next port of call in the morning. We moored off the coast and we had to tender into the port, 30 minutes each way.

We wandered around Belize City for an hour and returned to the ship as there wasn’t much to do in town.

 The port of Belize

 Arriving at the pier. Terminal 1

A Carnival ship in the distance from the marina

Day 6 Cozumel, Playa del Carmen & Tulum, Mexico

We arrived at Cozumel, Mexico very early in the morning and berthed at the cruise terminal. We had an early start for our eight tour to visit the ancient city of Tulum which was on the Mexican mainland.  So we ordered room service breakfast and stepped off the Carnival Magic into a ferry to transport us to Playa del Carmen to join our bus transfer and guide to visit Tulum.

The ancient Mayan ruins were fascinating and well worth the heat and long travel times to visit the site. On arrival our guide made sure that we were inside the area and gave us all of the tips and traps about our visit and then she let us all loose to explore the area. After one hour of walking around in the hot sun we called it quits and headed out to have some Mexican food which was very good and authentic. We then had time to wander around and run the gauntlet of the many shop keepers wanting to sell us souvenirs. We opted for a coffee in Starbucks, what else would you expect in a tourist destination.

We then made the return to our ship and finally got back to our cabin just after 5pm where we drank champagne as the ship pulled away from the Mexican coastline and headed to our next port.

 Our sunset on departure

 Tulum

The Castle or El Castillo at Tulum

Day 5 Sea Day enroute to Cozumel, Mexico

Nothing much to report today as we had a sea day as we passed Cuba enroute to our first port of call Cozumel, Mexico.

 The Alchemy Bar
Pre dinner drinks

 We ate at the Italian specialty restaurant tonight

The ship at night is so peaceful

Day 4 Miami Beach to Carnival Magic cruise

Today we checked out of our South Beach hotel which was great and very handy to the beach, restaurants and bars and made our way to Carnival’s cruise terminals for our departure on our Western Caribbean cruise.

 Downtown Miami as our ship Carnival Magic departs

 Carnival Magic

South Beach Miami on departure

Day 3 Miami Beach + amazing Cuban dinner

Our last full day in Miami and we headed to Downtown Miami to Bayside Marketplace for some shopping and a look at another part of Miami. The day begun with a 7km run along South Beach and ended with an amazing dinner at Yuca (Cuban restaurant), the food and service was very good and a lovely way to finish up our visit.

We head to the Carribean tomorrow afternoon.

 Miami downtown and Bayside Marketplace

 Yuca restaurant South Beach Miami

Entree

Day 2 Miami Beach and Art Deco Bike tour

We thought the best cure for jet lag was a bike tour around Miami. We began and 10am and rode around Miami for two hours getting to know the lay of the land plus we also got some tips on eating and shopping.
The afternoon we had a swim at South Beach in our hotels private section of the beach.

Miami Beach looking North

A stop at the Holocaust memorial

A stop at the Botanic Gardens

Day 1 continues DFW to Miami

We had a great flight with Qantas to Dallas Fort Worth and then an uneventful connection to our AA flight to Miami.

Flight segment #2 DFW-MIA B738 AA2239

Miami at night

Day 1 SYD to DFW #Honeymoon

after months in the planning, a change of jobs for Jeff we finally get to travel as husband and husband overseas for the first time.

We had a leisurely start to the day arriving at the airport at noon for our A380 flight with Qantas non-stop to Dallas Fort Forth DFW.

Upper Deck A380