USA Trip(Last part)

Last part of our trip was to Florida Orlando! Our favorite state in USA! Hahaha. Because all the theme parks are here!! The most awesome ones! Universal Studios and Disneyworld!! I repeat.. It’s Disney WORLD!!! Hahaha. Not land. It’s really the whole Disney by itself. I shall say more later on. Its just so amazing! But we ended with an unhappy experience though.

The last enjoyment part of our trip before back to Singapore was at Orlando! The whole trip, we were looking over to this state the most! So we set off to Orlando early in the morning from JFK. When we reached, Singapore’s weather greeted us. Hahaha. Though it should be winter season for them, but it felt like summer. It was 32degrees! Just like Singapore! Imagine we just came from New York, which was about 13-15 degrees, suddenly to 32 degrees. Oh man! Can’t stand it! hahaha. ok. So we rented a premium SVU again. Will need a big vehicle as we have about 3 big luggage and 1 small one. We rented a Chevrolet SVU. It was the similar model that we took from LA to Vegas.

Looks small here, but it’s seriously big.. We reached Orlando during the evening time. Grabbed our dinner and went to bed to charge our energy for the big days ahead.

Next day we went to iHOP for our breakfast. We had always wanted to try our iHOP as it’s famous breakfast place in USA. Especially their pancakes! Once you tasted theirs, you wouldn’t want to try Mcdonald hotcakes anymore! It’s really good! Ok… They have other food as well which were good. They have 24 hours delivery and they are also open for 24hours! I wonder why nobody franchise it to Singapore. Must be damn expensive. Didn’t show the photos of the food because I took quite ugly photos of them. Hahaha.

After breakfast… Off we went to Disney World! Heard about DisneyWorld before from my friends who been there before. She said that you need 7 days to actually visit all the parks. I was like… “WHAT!? Seriously??? I don’t believe.” Hahaha. Disney World has 4 theme parks inside. Magic Kingdom(All the princess and prince stories like Sleeping Beauty and etc.), Epcot(All the singing and performance by Disney, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse), Disney Hollywood Studios(Disney Studios), Disney Animal Kingdom(I think it’s like their Zoo with all the Disney animals). We chose Magic Kingdom because we wanted to see the Castle. =)

I entered Disney World, Magic Kingdom into my GPS before setting off. So as I was driving halfway, I saw the WELCOME SIGN “Welcome to Disney World!” It’s like those welcome sign when we enter in Sentosa. Thinking that we have arrived, I saw my GPS indicating that there’s still about 18km away. Huh??? Is my GPS faulty? How come it’s still so far when I’ve entered Disney World. I chose to continue to listen to my GPS. Along the way, you will go through a Highway, see Disney Billboard everywhere. It’s so damn big!!!! I know I’m abit “Kua Zhang”, but it’s as big as Pasir Ris & Tampines combine together. I believe so! Hahaha. So when we reached Magic Kingdom, I parked our vehicle, we will still need to take a tram to the ticketing location. After collecting your tickets from the counter, you will need to take either a ferry(Yes… A FERRY), or a monorail to reach the ENTRANCE OF MAGIC WORLD! Wah liew eh! It’s so big!!! Hahaha. We chose the monorail.

About maybe 10mins of monorail ride, we reached Magic Kingdom!

Something to note. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BRING YOUR SELFIE STICK INTO THE PARK. So we surrendered my GoPro stick as well. Sianz right?? Hahaha. I guess there might be alot of complains from the parkgoers being hit by those sticks.

When we reached, the parade of the Disney Characters was starting soon so we waited by the side for the parade.

After that we went to tour around the park.

The Castle was indeed beautiful just like how we see it on the website! =)

We took half a day to tour the WHOLE MAGIC KINGDOM! We didn’t even take the rides! Hmmm… We took one ride actually which allow Mikaela in as well. So… it’s big!!! hahaha. We waited til night time to see the fireworks which were so much nicer than Universal Studios one! They even have like storyline for the fireworks. Hahaha. We headed home when it was near the end of the fireworks because there would be a big crowd if we leave later. Drove back to the hotel and rest for the day as we were damn tired.

Next day, Universal Studios! We went to Universal Studios Florida before during our honeymoon, but we didn’t really tour the park as we were rushing to Harry Potter land. Hahaha.

Spot the different! hahaha.

They added new things to Harry Potter Land! =) They had the Hogwarts Express Train this time! So damn exciting for Samantha! Hahahaha. The train actually links from 1 theme park to another. So if you want to take the Hogwarts Express Train, you will require 2 theme parks entry ticket. The train interior design is same as the one in the movies! WooOOo! During the ride, you will look at the “window” which is actually a TV screen that shows you the route to Hogwarts. The door will have effects like Harry Potter, Ron and Hermonie walking pass your cabin! The ride is about 8mins long. When we exit the train station, you will see buildings like those in movies in Harry Potter. While walking out, we saw people entering a corridor, being curious ourselves, we went in as well. It was actually the Diagon Ally! It feels so real in that place! In the ally, there were places where people can play with their wand which they purchased it previously. They just stand at a place, swing their wand the right way, and there will be some effects on the object. Hahaha. I guess it’s damn interesting for the kids!

I took the Gringotts Bank ride. I queued for 1.5hours in the single rider line! Samantha waited for me outside as she need to take care of Mikaela. It was quite fun ride. You got to experience it yourself!

The rest of the trip in Florida was just shopping and eating and relaxing. On the last day of our trip at Florida, we had to wake up at 3am to catch our 7am flight to LA.

I mentioned that we ended at an unpleasant note in Orlando Airport. Here’s what happened. We reached the airport like 2.5hours before our flight. There was a super long queue at the check in counter. They are separated into 2 procedure. You will need to print our your own boarding pass first before going to the counter to check in your luggages. So there are 2 queues that you will need to be in to check in. So that took about 1 hour plus. Next, we got go through the security check counter. that took 1 hour plus! We tried telling the officers there that we needed to rush for our flight so is it possible to let us go first. They rejected us and went away. They just simply don’t care! WTH MAN! So when we are finally cleared, we ran to our gate. The door was just about the close and the plan haven’t left yet. We asked to board the flight. The counter girl told us while closing the door “sorry, I can’t let you board the flight” and she shut the door. WTS MAN! Why can’t we checked in!? The lady didn’t answer us. Just say we can be on standby for the next flight. We gave up, and went to the airline counter to ask to board the next flight. What they told us next was not good as well. Next flight is at 6pm and we are on standby only. Meaning we can only board the flight if there’s anyone that backed out or like us, missed their flight. How could we risk that with Mikaela with us!? What if we can’t board the next flight, our luggages and stuff will be at LA airport! We decided to purchase new tickets to LA instead.

Oh yah, there were about 10 other people who can’t board the same flight as us. Same situation.

We bought the next flight tickets at $1000plus and boarding time is also 6pm. So we decided to check in to the Airport Hotel. It’s about $130plus for day hotel. We took it, rest for the day and went to take our flight at 6pm.

When we reached LA, we went to look for our luggages. There were like 100-200 luggages around. We managed to find our luggages within 10mins. But their security for the luggages was quite lax. Anybody could have take anyone’s luggage away. There was no verification.

Checked in our hotel and rest for the day as we were going to have a long flight back to Singapore. Next morning, we went to buy In and Out Burger for the last time before proceeding to the Airport. We met with a bad traffic jam to the airport, and it took us quite some time. We were so afraid that we will experience the same thing of missing our flight again!!!! So I dropped Samantha at the airport first to check in our luggages. At the checked in counter, there was a long queue as well. Not wanting to miss our flight again, Samantha went to approach the counter manager, ask if she can check in the luggage first and I have to leave them to return the rented vehicle. The manager managed to help us check in our luggages, but he was not able to issue us the boarding pass first as I will be away. He will only issue us when I come back.

I went off to return the vehicle. As the rental place isn’t at the airport, I got to drive to another place to return it. Used the GPS on my phone. Driving around for a long period, and realized that I was actually going the wrong way! I was lost! OH MAN!!! What a bad bad day! Are we going to miss our flight again!?!!”??! NO!!!! So drove damn fast to the correct location. Returned the vehicle, rushed to the airport. Got our boarding pass like 30mins before our take off time. When we reached the security check place, we saw a super long queue. We were feeling so hopeless. Just kept praying that we won’t miss the flight again. I hate that feeling! Then the help came. We saw a SIA staff holding on to the card asking for anybody in our line is taking the flight. I tried calling the lady, but she couldn’t hear me. Luckily there were people helping us to shout out at the lady to get her attention. We skipped the long queue and went to an express queue for the security check. We managed to board our flight on time… Thank you Jesus.. Really it’s God’s protection over us.

Even with all the hiccups we experienced at the trip, I really enjoyed myself alot!! =) Will surely be back again! I guess Mikaela will be able to take those rides by then!

USA Trip Part 5

On Christmas Day we drove up to Washington DC from New York City. At first we rented a normal Sedan Car as we feel we don’t need a big car. Big cars are usually more expensive. But when we went to collect our vehicle, they upgraded our car to a SUV! Reason being that the reception saw we were having a baby and stroller, she felt that we needed a bigger car! YEAH!!! So thanks to Mikaela, we got a bigger car! More comfortable! =)

We rented the vehicle for 1 day. It cost us about USD$100plus with all the insurance covered. Oh yah..If you want to rent a car in States. If possible, just buy the full coverage of the insurance for the vehicle as it covers even if the car is spoil or total damaged.

So off we went to Washington! Hahaha. WooOOO! See the White House! Hahaha. The drive there was quite scary as that day it was very foggy. It’s like while driving, infront of you there’s a cloud. So those cars in front of you, they will drive into the cloud and you totally cannot see them. So as I was approaching the cloud, I slowed down to prevent any accident just in case if there was a jam inside the cloud. So I entered the cloud. Everything is back to normal. You are literally IN THE CLOUD. It’s like you are inside a different dimension. Amazing!!! If I can get the video from Tina, I guess I will post it up. Hahaha.

So… after about 4 hours drive. We reached Washington! It was raining when we reached Washington.. Sianz… As it was Christmas Day, White House was closed. We didn’t get to enjoy the tour of the White House. Only managed to see it from outside. We will definitely come back to White House again and go for the Tour!

After the White House, we walked to Lincoln Memorial, passing by Washington Monument. They are all located together at the same area. About 10-15 mins walk from each of the location. There isn’t much available parking at the area, so we decided to just walk.

Couldn’t really take very nice photos of the place as it’s raining quite heavily. AHHH! SIAN MAX! hahaha.

It was quite an awesome experience to be in Washington DC as these are the places we usually see in movies. Being there to see the place yourself is really… AMAZING…

We didn’t had dinner at Washington DC as it’s Christmas day, lots of restaurant were closed on that day. So we went to eat, KOREAN FOOD once again back in NEW YORK! hahaha.

Just to share. Before I went to New York, everyone mentioned that driving in New York is crazy. So damn difficult. But honestly speaking, after driving in New York, I didn’t feel that it was difficult. Yes, I agree that there’s always traffic jam. But… being a Singaporean.. Since when you will slowly wait in 1 lane. You will surely keep changing to any lane that is moving faster. So my advice if you really want to drive in New York. Just be brave. The cabs will surely horn at you, and they are really impatient. Just let them horn and move on. It’s really ok…..

Parking in New York. It’s freaking expensive. Maybe the most expensive parking I’ve ever seen. For parking at the carpark for the night, it cost USD$55. Normal day parking, it’s crazily expensive. Maybe it’s like 3hours for… USD$50??? They even have package for parking! Like..”BUY NOW! PARKING will cost $38 for 3 hours!” HAHAHA. So… Parking is really expensive!!!

Tina went back to Singapore on Boxing Day.We dropped her off at the airport and we went to have lunch at Shake Shack! Their burger is really tasty! Soft bread, juicy meat. Freshly made! But their fries, not as good as In-N-Out. Burger wise, they are the same standard.

We didn’t order so many burgers. The photo was taken by Tina on other days. Only dine in, then they put the burgers in such presentable way.

Sam and I went to Central Park for a walk. Nice place… Beautiful park… Hahaha. AND I GOT A SUMMON WHEN WE WERE TOURING CENTRAL PARK!! Hahaha. Because I parked beside a Fire Hydrant. Haha. Stupid me… The summon was… USD$115. Don’t make the same mistake as I am! Their Fatimah really efficient.. Don’t try your luck. =)

At Central Park, they have this horse carriage ride which you can sit on and tour Central Park. It’s about USD$15 if I can remember. But after seeing how sad the horses look, we decided not to take the ride and let the horses rest.

We didn’t visit the Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State Building(Tina said it’s like Taipei 101), Grand Central Terminal. We shall leave it to next time!

On our last night at New York, we went to their night market. It’s like our Pasa Malam but more ‘atas’. They have a ice skating rim as well in the Pasa Malam. Lots of interesting stuff there but we didn’t buy anything. Just looking around. =)

So.. My review on New York City. Really nothing much to do. I don’t feel safe there. People are not friendly. NOPE! Not a place I will want to come back again if I had toured all the places of interest. I will recommend just be at New York City 4 days 3 nights at most. Seriously… There’s nothing much, unless you want to go to the factory outlet to shop for 2 days. =)