Down Under Disney

The door to your Boss' office has never looked so daunting. You slowly approach, half expecting to see a troll guarding the entrance. A solitary bead of sweat forms on your brow. In your hand, the paper you hold flutters, as you pass the air vents. Knock Knock. "Enter!" Comes the muffled but authoritative voice. He has his stamp ready. You hand him the paper. Thud! He hands it back. "Leave Approved", it reads. When to Go! So far we have discussed the hows of getting to Disneyland we should probably discuss the whens! While it is fantastic that your leave has been approved, what's more important are the dates you printed on your form. You may have already checked out some flights and hotels and based your decision on these factors already. However, it is also important to check out when peak times occur at the Disneyland Resort. The graph below gives a rough guide to when the best times to go to Disneyland are in terms of queue times and crowd numbers....

The hard part is over and after the 12 hour, time defying flight, you're feeling like Marty McFly, arriving at LAX Airport 4 hours earlier on the same day you departed. As excited as you are to get going and collapse into your hotel bed you realise Anaheim is still at least 1 hour away, depending on your mode of transport. So what is the best option to get from LAX to Disneyland? Once more this will depend on personal preference, budget and how many you have in your party. Below I will provide you with some of the most common/simple options. Shuttle Van Service: There are countless Shuttle Van services all over LAX. They are cost effective, ride sharing transports that drop you at your hotel and are perfect for single travellers and couples. Supershuttle and Prime Time Shuttles are among the best options in this category. A one way trip to Disneyland will cost you between US$15-20 plus a 15% tip. You can also book as a return trip for about US$30. I recommend pre-book...

Much like your flights, choice of Hotels will simply come down to your personal preferences but again I will try to give you as much information as possible to get you started! Let's begin with the Disney owned hotels. While they are the more expensive option they come with a few perks that you cannot find in other hotels. There are three hotels owned by Disney: The Original "Disneyland Hotel", "The Grand Californian" and "Paradise Pier". The locations of these are shown in the map below. *The stars are essentially where the entrances to the two parks are, including the hotel only entrance to California Adventure Park direct from the Grand Californian. Perks of Stay: When staying at a Disney Hotel there are a number of perks: - Price of room comes with tickets for the number of days you are there. Extra fee if you want to do both parks in a day, which is called a park hopper ticket. - Access to the park an hour before the general public, ev...

Living on a cotinental, albeit beautiful, island often makes getting places difficult and expensive. However awesome it would be, we cannot simply jump into a chalk painting, catch the Casey Junior Train or take a magic carpet to have our dreams fulfillled. Indeed, in the words of my friend Boromir here... While it would be ridiculous of me to suggest what flight and airline you should take on the 12-14 hour flight (yes it is worth it) to Los Angeles, I will offer you some basic information to help you on your way.  Flights: At the time of this post, Brisbane (2 flights), Melbourne (3 flights) and Sydney (5 flights) all have direct flights to Los Angeles. If you are in any other part of Australia you will have to stop in at least one of these cities on your journey. From Sydney the carriers for these flights include: QANTAS, Virgin, Delta, American Airlines and United (Budget option). Melbourne are restricted to QANTAS and United, while Brisbane has the option of Virg...