Brisbane to Dallas, SFO, Disneyland in Y+

[Katie]

Stage 1 - BNE-LAX in Y+ on QF15


We left Brisbane on Friday, 30 April. To fly Y+, we had been booked through SYD to get Y+ seats, but a few weeks before our flights, I noticed that Y+ was available ex-BNE, and J seats were looking thin on the SYD-LAX-SYD flights (points upgrades had been requested). So, we decided to take the risk of an aircraft change ex-BNE, and swapped flights. It cost $450 with the TA, but well worth it – we ended up on QF 15/16 in J seats.

We got to the airport nice and early, security was fine, wandered through the shops, then made our way to the QP. Packed, as it typically is before QF15 departure. We grabbed seats, and Little Miss 3 tried to wangle her way to a seat by the windows (all taken). She used her cutest fairy looks, and it seemed to work well. We walked from the QP to the gate with another pax, who commented on Little Miss’s cute fairy outfit (nod to simongr for that idea). We told him we hoped he’d still think that she’s cute by the time we all arrived in LAX.




Random surnames were being called out for customs checks. My surname is pretty common, and they weren’t reading out first initials. It wasn’t me they were looking for, so we finally got to board. Little Miss and I were in 23 A/B (thanks to the QP ladies), and Mr Katie in 24D. Mr 23D offered to swap, but Mr Katie thought Little Miss might try to do a runner and decided to stay where he was. Of course, Little Miss stayed happily glued to the IFE for 12 of the 14hrs of flight. These seats, apart from being J seats for Y+ price, were great for travelling with a little one. We could keep her backpack on the floor easily throughout the flight to get to colouring in books, etc., and still have space to walk around them.



Pre-flight Heidsick for me, and watered-down juice for Little Miss. Lunch was served – I was really interested to see what a child’s meal in Y+ would be. An entree of 5 slices of ham, tomato wedges, asparagus and snow peas, with a main of lasagne. Main tray had the lasagne, salad bowl, fruit salad, popper, and milky way. A fair number of choices, and Little Miss might’ve eaten some of it had she not snacked in the QP.


Kid's lunch in Y+ (I had cut up the lasagne)


Adult lunch in Y+

Little Miss enjoyed her mid-flight snack of pizzas. I was so glad the FA had told me about this – I had to ask for it to be heated, but it was the most she ate of any meals in-flight. I forgot to take a photo of that meal.
Flight was non-eventful, except that being a ‘day’ flight (for a 3.5 yo), Little Miss had a 2 hour kip, and that was all. I can normally get 6-8 hours sleep on this flight, so that was a bummer for me.

 

[Katie]

Kid's breakfast in Y+


Adult's breakfast in Y+

Arrival into LAX TBIT was .... typical. Friday morning entry into T4 was chaotic. Line up outside the door to the terminal, with staff managing entry upstairs, probably so that people wouldn’t end up trying to get on the escalators when upstairs was already full. Happy that we had plenty of time before our flight to DFW. We lined up with the man who’d thought Little Miss was a cute fairy in BNE pre-departure. Interesting to talk to someone else while waiting.
Little Miss’s cabbage patch doll caused some consternation with security – the thing has a mechanism for “eating” (rectangular) toy food in its head. A bit of to & fro and consultation with colleagues, but no further hassles. Lounge time! Shower time!

LAX-DFW on AA2440 in Y
Typical AA dom flight. Non-eventful. Three seats together. Mr Katie and Little Miss slept most of the way there. Little Miss woke up as descent started and wanted to watch her DVD player. Not happy, tired, jet lagged child who cried for a while. Very difficult to distract her and stop her whinging/crying.
A bit of people watching at the carousel in DFW as we waited for our bags. Very few people from our flight seemed to get off in DFW, or were hand luggage only.
Taxi to our hotel – Hyatt Regency Dallas, location of my conference – through peak hour traffic. L Little Miss vomited in the taxi about three mins before we got to the hotel.

 

[Katie]

Dallas 30/4-6/5

I conferenced, Mr Katie and Little Miss wandered where they could – the Hyatt is close to the CBD, but just outside, and a fair bit of walking. Normally Mr Katie would be up to it, but he’d hurt himself & Little Miss was quickly bored with walking and wanted to be carried. Sixth Floor Museum was of little interest, though I had wanted Mr Katie to play mind games with the conspiracy theorists around the grassy knoll. Apparently he was too jet lagged.
We went to the West End for Cinco de Mayo celebrations on 1 May. Mexican food for dinner, including margaritas:

Some fun dancing, and a bouncy castle that Little Miss could stay on as long as she wanted.
We had a good view of downtown from our room (19th floor, IIRC), and a lovely rainbow one afternoon:

Our room was on the train station side of the hotel, so there was some noise with freight trains at night. Not enough to swap rooms. A fancy aspect of these rooms – there are French doors to the bathroom! Our room had two double beds, and was generally sufficient for our needs. As I find in many of the more expensive hotels in the US, I wished the room had a fridge. Otherwise it was fine.



After conferencing from Sat AM – Wed lunch, I told Mr Katie he deserved some alone time, and went to the Dallas World Aquarium with some conference buddies and Little Miss.

If you are ever in Dallas, I would highly recommend it – much more impressive than the Waikiki Aquarium we visited last year. The Dallas one has all kinds of marine life – penguins, sting rays, turtles, manatees, fish ... and then other animals that live near water or can swim, such as toucans, flamingos, a jaguar, snakes, spiders, a sloth ... and yes, I did say a jaguar:




Thu 6 May – DFW-SFO QF3058/AA codeshare
On Thursday morning we went out to DFW for the flight home. Love that my lowly PS gave our whole family Priority AAccess for boarding – thanks AA! I think our flight left from concourse D. Great terminal for wandering, the AA lounge was fine. We got another set of 3 drink chits (1 each), which we didn’t use. Little too early for alcohol, and we didn’t want soft drinks. Little Miss was happily occupied with games, colouring in, and her DVD player. This time we all stayed awake, being firmly on Central Daylight Time.
I was so excited on arrival to SFO. We got a good view of the Dumbarton Bridge, San Mateo bridge, and a bit of a glimpse of the city:

We grabbed our luggage, and went to the car hire terminal. Not long after Mr Katie got in line, an alarm went off, and we had to evacuate the building. With all of our luggage. And not using the lifts. What a fun welcome to SFO. Not. We eventually got to our Kia SUV, picked one of the child seats that Avis had available (which probably wasn’t even legal for us to use, as we found out later – the seat did not have a harness, you could only use a regular lap belt with it. The other seat they’d offered was too small for Little Miss) and got onto the 101 South. Residence Inn at San Mateo was our next stop, and our home for the next 5 nights.

 

[Katie]

Menu for Y+ BNE-LAX
(W15, Mar10 Y+ for BNE-LAX for those of you who take note of codes on menus )

Lunch
Green Leaf Salad with Beans and Bocconcini
Mains:
Grilled Chicken in Wild Mushroom Sauce with Sweet Potato Puree and Seasonal Greens
Braised Beef in a Smoky Tomato Sauce with Colcannon Mash and Broccoli
Cheese and Biscuits
Dessert:
Ice Cream
Grinders Coffee, Dilmah Tea


Refreshments available at any time throughout the flight:
Toasted Baguette with Emmental, Slow Roasted Tomatoes, Baby Spinach & Dijon Mustard
Toasted Turkish Bread with Italian Salami, Mozarella, Tapenade and Rocket
Or
Turkish/Sourdough Baguette with: Italian Salami, Fresh Mozarella, Emmental Cheese, Olive Tapenade, Slow Roasted Tomatoes, Rocket Leaves, Baby Spinach, Dijon Mustard
Fresh Whole Fruit
Mother Meg’s Hazelnut Biscuit
Chocolate Bars


Breakfast
Continental:
Orange Juice
Cereal
Spiced Fruit Bun
Seasonal Fresh Fruit


Hot Breakfast
Orange Juice
Fruit Salad
Poached Eggs Hollandaise with Bacon, Braised beans and Sauteed Spinach
Spiced Fruit Bun
Grinders Coffee, Dilmah Tea


Beverages:
Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve Champagne

Selection of white and reds (didn’t take note of what was offered, but it’s full, real bottles, like in J)
Spirits: Bacardi White Rum, Bundaberg Dark Rum, Campari, Chivas Regal 12yo Scotch Whisky, Plymouth The Smooth English Gin, The Glenlivet 12yo Malt Whisky, Wild Turkey 86.8 Bourbon, Wyborowa Polish Vodka
Beers: Hahn Premium Light, Heineke, James Squire Golden Ale, VB
Liquers: Baileys Irish Cream, Cointreau, Martell VSOP Cognac
Foritified & Dessert Wine: No brands listed, “Australian fortified and dessert wines is available for your enjoyment”
Non-Alcoholic: Pretty standard selection, Bundaberg Ginger Beer, and Ginger Ale are the notable differences to DOM Y offerings, I think.

 

[MelUser]

This is a great TR - keep up good work. I have flown with our young ones a number of times and Y+ is that bit nicer and more relaxing for all.

I think Qantas have done away with Y+ on the LAX to BNE route which is a shame.

The skybeds are now gone for Y+ on MEL/SYD-LAX. I think this was a GFC thing and those of us lucky enough to score the J seating on Y+ should thank our lucky stars!

 

[serfty]

Nice TR

... We got another set of 3 drink chits (1 each), which we didn’t use. Little too early for alcohol, and we didn’t want soft drinks. ...

Note that with these you can (at some of the A/C's) get a "good" coffee or a bottle of water.

Also, once used, you are quite welcome to go back to the service desk and request more.:idea:

 

[Katie]

In SFO
On arrival at the San Mateo Residence Inn, we were told that the room we’d booked wasn’t available. Some long-term guests had extended their stay, so we were asked if the “sub-penthouse” would be suitable. The room had the same configuration as the “penthouse”, but without a proper bedroom downstairs for Little Miss. There was still a floor to ceiling curtain dividing her Pullman bed sleeping area from the lounge area, so that was fine. This was our most spacious accommodation of the trip. Separate bedrooms, two bathrooms, fridge, kitchen, 2 TVs, luxury!

Thursday night, we went to Hillsdale mall for a wander. Hit the Apple store, and all three of us had turns playing with iPads. We had been surprised not to have spotted any in transit or on flights in the US. I’d seen one in use at the conference in Dallas, but that was all. I inquired about availability, and continued to umm and ahh as to whether I’d like one for Mother’s day (that Sunday). We grabbed dinner at Carl’s Jr (Mr Katie’s choice) and went back to the hotel to eat. Washing night – the only vaguely interesting part about that is that with 2 or 3 dryers on at once (not even all of them), I managed to set off the smoke alarm in the laundry room. It was quite cool outside, 10C or so, so not too surprising. Hopefully no-one in nearby rooms could hear it!

Little Miss was still on Central time, and woke before 6am Pacific time. Friday was to be a big day – Mr Katie had to finalise some stuff locally, even though it’s been 10yrs since he lived there, we wanted to visit at friend at the Googleplex for lunch, and also hit the outlets at Gilroy. Little Miss wanted to go swimming after breakfast (there was steam rising off the pool water – it was maybe 15C tops, rather cooler than Dallas, but what 3yo cares about temperatures???), we let her swim for a bit, then tricked her out of the pool. Cue 30 min tantrum in our room,:shock: both of us fervently hoping all neighbours had left their rooms, and waiting for CA child protection to knock on the door. So glad she didn’t have a tantie like this on the plane or in the airport. Eventually distracted Little Miss by telling her to get in the car in just undies. Tantrum forgotten, phew.

Once our local jobs were over, and our obligatory Starbucks Lattes collected, we hit the 101 South to Gilroy (we deferred the Googleplex visit for the next week). Shopping, shopping, shopping. One of our quickest ever visits to these outlets, thanks to Little Miss! To help while some time, we’d let her hop in the toy rides, but wouldn’t put money in. To my embarrassment, on two occasions, someone else gave her the money to ride. *blush*
We headed north up the 101, and hit Frys at Sunnyvale. Mr Katie spent a very rushed 45 or so minutes inside browsing, while Little Miss and I stayed in the car – she watched DVDs and I watched people in the car park, and also rang the Hillsdale Apple store to get on the waitlist for a 32GB WiFi iPad. Takeaway Chinese for dinner – Yeeah!



Saturday – Muir Woods and friends

A dear friend picked us all up in his truck mid-morning, with his two sons. We all went to Muir Woods, my first time there. Little Miss was stubbornly wearing her new Disney Princess dress, which grazes the ground – a regal length for a ball, but not a good outfit for hiking. We got to see real, live chipmunks for the first time. Chip ‘n Dale are so big!

Hiking in a Princess dress

We had a mid-afternoon lunch in the city on the way back to the peninsula – La Mediterranee in the Castro. Between the three kids, I think there were about 12 toilet visits – I think partly ‘inspired’ by the walk through the kitchen the rather beautifully decorated unisex toilet. Great lunch, and we picked up some baklava for our dessert that night. Great local spot, our friend had taken me here before years ago.
Back to our friend’s house to let the kids play, run around, and have dinner together. Little Miss had dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets paired with mac & cheese for the first time. We had a great time with our friends, and Little Miss loved playing with kids.

 

[Katie]

Sunday – Mother’s day
I got my two main wishes – a sleep in (the big day on Saturday helped tucker Little Miss out, and get her on Pacific time) and a hot shower. The hotel had fixed our hot water problem. We had thought about going out for breakfast/brunch, but just had the hotel brekky. We met up with our friends again, went to their older son’s Little League game. Afterwards, we decided to go to Armadillo Willy’s for lunch, as we didn’t think there’d be too many people there on Mother’s Day. We were wrong – it wasn’t crowded, but there were a few Moms in tiaras and sashes (“Greatest Mom Ever”, etc) having a yummy BBQ lunch with their family. Only downside here was that I found mould on Little Miss’s burger bun – her full meal was promptly replaced when we point out the mould.


There's parsley in them-thar flower beds!

We went back up to the city and Pier 39 for a wander. It was typical early May in San Francisco – freezing! We saw the sea lions, had cotton candy, donuts, and ice cream, went on the carousel, saw a man with an iguana, wondered at the parsley growing in the flower beds, and eventually went back to San Mateo.

I’d received an email from Apple – my iPad was in-store and had to be collected by 10am the next day. So, off to Hillsdale to pick it up, then a crazy tour of Macys to find deodorant for Mr Katie (Aramis deodorant is around $USD15 there, and $AUD30-40+ here). We tried to go to the Cheesecake Factory in Palo Alto for dinner. We thought a 45 min wait for a table would be too long, and decided to just pick up some pieces of cheesecake to take with us for dessert. The pickup/takeaway order line took so long, that we might as well have waited for a table! Mother’s Day dinner ended up being a not-very-posh bucket of fried chicken from Safeway, with a bottle of Moet. And a 2000cal slice of cheesecake to finish it off ...

Monday

Another trip to Stanford Shopping Center and Macys looking for deodorant for Mr Katie. This time Macys was open, but they didn’t have any in stock. We had 30 or so mins to kill before heading to the Googleplex for lunch with my friend. More shopping
Finding the Googleplex was easy, but getting a park near the right building was hard. If only I’d been eligible to use these parks, there were a few empty ones around:

To get a visitor’s badge at Google, which you must wear inside the buildings if not an employee, you have to sign an NDA and agree to not take photos inside the building – not even of the tardis, lego play area, ball pit, cafeteria, or Virigin spaceship. And even if you’re getting a badge for your 3.5 yo, the NDA has to be agreed to – hope Little Miss doesn’t spill any Google secrets!
We had a little tour through, saw many places where Googlers can get free caffeinated beverages, the swimming pool, complete with life guard in attendance (they were huddling under an umbrella and all rugged up – another freezing and rainy day). Lunch in the original cafeteria was impressive, and free for staff – a great variety of food is available. You have to scrape your own plates and sort your rubbish at the end (recyclable, compostable, trash), but that’s pretty darn easy, especially as you can get three meals a day there if you’re a Googler.
Dinner that night was at Chevy’s – mmm, chain restaurant Tex-Mex!

 

[Katie]

I think Qantas have done away with Y+ on the LAX to BNE route which is a shame.

The skybeds are now gone for Y+ on MEL/SYD-LAX. I think this was a GFC thing and those of us lucky enough to score the J seating on Y+ should thank our lucky stars!

I haven't been able to find Y+ BNE-LAX for a tentative trip I have in late Sept.

I am SO very grateful for the three times BNE-LAX I have scored Skybeds for Y+. And especially for this last trip, it made travelling over with Mr Katie with a hurt back and back with a sleepy Little Miss that much more comfortable. I think Little Miss will be a bit disappointed when we go to Europe next year, and we'll 'only' be in regular Y+ seats, unless we score upgrades on points!

 

[Katie]

Nice TR

Note that with these you can (at some of the A/C's) get a "good" coffee or a bottle of water.

Also, once used, you are quite welcome to go back to the service desk and request more.:idea:

Thanks serfty, will keep that in mind! I'd bought Sigg water bottles for Little Miss and me, and filled them up from the water fountain in the A/C after we'd pass security for each flight. But the coffee might have been a good idea on some of our stops.

 

[Katie]

Tuesday 11 May AA SFO-LAX
Spent Monday night packing suitcases with our loot from Gilroy. Unfortunately, OCD Katie came out with the packing, and I packed each person’s clothes into their own bags. In hindsight, I should have just packed everything we all needed for Disneyland in 1-2 bags, and left the others completely packed and untouched while we were at Disney. Two big packing sessions in the one week was not fun. On the way to the airport, we had to navigate through the one-way streets in San Mateo to fill the car, and also stopped by Target for one more suitcase. Oops, bit too much shopping at Gilroy!
We dropped of the car and made our way to the light rail to the airport itself. Lots of work going on at SFO – the light rail trip gave us a great view. IIRC, a whole terminal is being completely renovated. Checkin was a pain – I tried about three different machines, none would scan our passports. Eventually with the help of an AA lady, we were checked in. Priority AAccess boarding passes for all – thanks again AA! We grabbed sandwiches from a cafe for lunch during the flight, and then hung out in the Admiral’s Club. We got some great views of the 101, Candlestick Park, and the airport as the flight left. We banked left before I was able to get some photos of the city itself, which was disappointing, but made sense given we were flying south and all.





I tried to get some pics on arrival at LAX – we landed on the T4 side of LAX, and I saw a Trump plane over on the left side of the airport, where I think I’ve seen some private jets before.


There's a Trump plane there I'm sure ...


We collected our luggage, by now 5 wheelie cases, 1 laptop backpack, 1 wheelie carryon, 1 Dora backpack, Cabbage Patch doll ... somehow we managed to get all of this luggage over to the bus lane outside arrivals without a trolley. We waited for about 20 mins until the Disneyland Resort Express arrived. Great bus ride down to Anaheim, though the sides of the bus (and therefore the windows) had Disney characters all over them, so the view was a bit obstructed, and I couldn’t take any decent photos. Little Miss fell asleep about 15mins before we arrived at our hotel.

As we were only spending 3 full days at Disney and Disney California Adventure (DCA), we decided to splurge and stay at the closest possible hotel – Disney’s Grand Californian. The bus dropped us off out the front of the hotel, and pretty quickly, the bell hops, who were dressed like golf caddies from the 20s or 30s, came to take our luggage for us. The hotel room rates were pretty expensive (USD600/night), but we booked a package through Walt Disney Travel Co. About a month before we left, I noticed that rooms at the Grand Californian were being offered at 40% off. We’d not yet paid in full, but I had paid a $200 deposit. I contacted WDTC, and they altered our booking to match the new special price – awesome!

Our room had a queen bed, bunk beds + trundle (and a warning on the top bunk that children needed to be 5 or 7 yo to be up there), balcony with a view over DCA. The room felt more spacious than the Hyatt in Dallas, particularly now that we had an extra 1-2 suitcases. We arrived at about 3pm, and the parks were only open til 6-8pm, so we didn’t have park entry. We went down to the pool area for a swim; unfortunately SoCal felt about as warm as NoCal was, but of course that didn’t deter Little Miss. Lots of families in the pools, and in the spas. The pool-side lounges are really quite impressive and comfy.

We checked out Downtown Disney, made a bear at the Build-a-Bear workshop, and had dinner at the Italian restaurant. During this time, Little Miss was meant to get her character phone call (part of our package with WDTC), but I didn’t realise numbers would need to be pressed, etc, so when my cell rang, we tried to find a quiet corner for Little Miss to listen to the call. I didn’t listen, thinking Minnie would be talking, and so didn’t press 1 at the appropriate moment, and the call finished. In the end, we weren’t able to reschedule the call while we were still in the US (it couldn’t be done through our hotel, only with the third-party who does the character calls). I was glad I hadn’t hyped up the character phone call too much!
Back to our room for a good night’s sleep, and a goodnight fairy story on the devoted Disney Princess story channel (which runs the same story for 24 hrs, from 8pm til 8pm, with a new story at pm each night).

 

[Katie]

Wednesday 12 May – Disneyland!




View of DCA from our balcony.


Our day started at the Disney Paradise Pier hotel for breakfast with Mickey and Friends. We had to encourage Little Miss to wake up in time for our breakfast reservation, which was at 8:15 or 8:30 (Disneyalnd wasn’t opening until 10am, so we didn’t need to have breakfast too early). While whatever child price we paid for Little Miss’s buffet was a rip-off, given she barely ate one bowl of froot loops and drank a glass of juice, it was well worth it for character time. We met Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, Pluto, and Stitch, and were able to get photos, autographs, and “chat” with them all. Much better than queuing up at Mickey’s house for 30-60 mins to meet him, which we did later on and shouldn’t have bothered with.
A unique element of the breakfast buffet was the different sweet items made in the shape of the Mickey silhouette – waffled and pancakes! And the banana, peanut butter AND chocolate French toast was just ... well, unique! We weren’t sure if it was meant to be Mickey or Elvis themed!!




Early May is a great time to visit Disneyland – the park is open for fewer hours (e.g. Disneyland 10-8 weekdays, longer on Fri/Sat/Sun, DCA 10-6 or so) and you may not get to see fireworks, but there are fewer crowds. I won’t go into too many details about our days, rides, characters or expenses, but will share some thoughts I had:

• We hired a Disney stroller, $15/day, definitely worth it with a 3.5 yo. So much walking to do! There were name labels you can put in a pocket on top, and I also had a bag of Minties I put in there to help our Disney green stroller stand out from the 20000 other Disney green strollers.

• Use Fast Passes where you can – there’s great info on FastPasses in the Unofficial Guides to Disneyland.
• You can use your (Disney) hotel room key or a Disney gift card instead of a credit card/cash for most payments. We had our tickets and room keys in lanyards around our necks, and it was much easier pulling out a gift card that we’d loaded with money to pay for everything from water to Splash Mountain photos. We found this easier than dealing with cash or pulling out wallets all the time.
• Cast members are incredibly helpful. We had one cast member help us try to find a lost autograph book, and she just went above and beyond for us – though I think it’s regular guest treatment for most cast members! (And, yes, I’ve sent an email to Disney about what the cast member did for us).
• Disney Photo Passes are a great idea – wherever you see an official Disney photographer, the can scan a photo pass card. You can check out the photos online, and either order individual photos to be printed (as photos, magnets, etc) or get all the photos on a CD. If you get multiple Photo Passes, they can be combined into one order. Some character dining will not offer photo passes, if you want the pic of your kid with Mickey or Ariel, you’ll have to buy the offered package, but then there’s a Photo Pass number on the actual photos, so you can add them in to your CD if you order one. Also, Disney Photographers will always gladly take photos with your camera as well as their own.
• If your 3.5yo says yes to going on Splash Mountain twice in a row, either she's an early thrill seeker, or she didn't see how flipping big that drop is the first time round ... we suspect the latter, as after the 2nd time on Splash Mountain, Little Miss did not want to go on it again. (First time round, adults were sitting in front of her blocking view of the drop, second time, I moved to the side so we could see her face in the photo ... and she also then saw the drop)

 

[MelUser]

That is a great TR - the closeness of your hotel to D/Land would have made it so much easier with the kids.

Last time we went, we drove from West Hollywood!

 

[Katie]

Friday 14 May Disneyland – LAX - BNE
We checked out of our hotel room really easily – you call a number and leave a message to say at what time you will be vacating the room. The bell hops looked after our luggage for the day, and we made our way to DCA via the Grand Californian guest entrance. We had a great day, grabbed Fastpasses twice for Soaring over California, had lunch with Ariel and the Big Four Princesses (Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Belle) – much better than lining up at the Princesse Faire at Disneyland. Our Soaring over California fastpasses were great for skipping the queue, and also made us feel like that guy from the Gold Class ads.


At about 5 or 6ish, we headed back to the hotel, grabbed our travel clothes & got changed in the loos. We got the Disneyland Express bus to LAX, an uneventful trip, apart from Little Miss once again falling asleep. Dropped off outside T4 departures and we made our way inside to check in. I’d been unable to check in online properly the night before, or even the morning before. Much better security queue than on the morning of our arrival, two weeks earlier. My iPad and Kindle had to be taken away – I’d left them both in my carryon, but sitting on top of each other, and apparently they looked like a laptop, so the TSA agent had to remove them from my bag and re-scan them.
Bit of wandering, shopping, Little Miss had a wee accident (literally) in the newsagent, and we went to the Admiral’s Club. When we got to the second floor, we asked for a shower room straight away, and were lucky enough to get the disabled room. I’ve found the times I’ve showered with Little Miss in tow, they will often give it to me if available. Again, we were very grateful for the kids room in the club, and Little Miss was happy there while we waited for QF16 to be called for boarding. We ended up boarding a bit late, and sat on the tarmac for a while. We had 24D, E, F – J seats again for Y+ - brilliant!


Little Miss knew all the tricks to her seat by now, and was very unimpressed at being told not to recline her seat after 11pm and three solid days of Disney fun (as we hadn't yet taken off). She ended up asleep before takeoff, and we reclined her seat for her as soon as possible. Sue, our Y+ FA noticed that she’d fallen asleep, and didn’t bother heating her dinner/supper, which was fine. She also gave Little Miss both of the available activity packs before we took off, which we greatly appreciated, as she didn’t get an activity pack at all on the way over. I know they’re probably of little value, and I had heaps of other books for her, but it’s nice for a 3yo to receive the advertised activity packs. Sue didn’t really know what activity pack to give her – I guess she’s a Y+/J FA and not used to having too many kids in her cabin??
For supper, I had the Honey Mustard Chicken (will post menu separately below):






I didn’t bother with any sandwiches through the flight, but did have some cheese and crackers. There was a bit of a Y+ and Y spread in the Y galley (next to the stairs on the 2 class 747). At one or two points through the night, I noticed the FA come through the Y+ cabin with the cheese & chocolate snacks on a tray.

Little Miss slept pretty well, although a bit fitfully. I hope she didn’t annoy anyone in the cabin with random wails through the night. She woke at 2am Brisbane time, so had a pretty decent 10ish hours sleep. From 2am, it was inflight entertainment, with Mr Katie helping out. Her IFE touch screen control wasn’t working, so everything had to be controlled by remote, which Mr Katie had to do. Breakfast was a continental or hot choice, and a special kids choice:

(Again, I don't think LIttle Miss actually touched any, as she had snacked on an apple and bikkies from the Y+ snacks after waking up)



Adult hot brekky:




We arrived into BNE about 30-50 mins late – it’s been so long, I can’t remember, but that was mainly due to the delays in LAX. We had duty free to pick up which the guys couldn’t find, which was annoying, as we were in the first group off the aircraft. Got through immigration, etc, without much to-do. Had to go through the Red line, due to the choccies I was bringing home, but once we got to the counter, they decided not to search our bags. Phew. Outside to my SIL and mum – had to call in reinforcements and an extra car to get us home from the airport once we hit that extra suitcase of outlet buys.



I really wanted to write this trip report, mainly about the QF Y+ food and service, as I know there are some differing opinions on AFF, and I didn't think there were too many pics of Y+ meals. Y+ was great, although I am yet to try the Y+ hard product on a QF flight. I do think the food is definitely better than Y, although in one or two aspects it could be nicer (such as the ice block desserts, same as in Y). I can hardly complain, though, especially for getting SkyBeds Mk I for Y+ fares. Sue, our FA LAX-BNE was great, and I’ve sent in a form to QF about how great she was. It barely felt like she went past once without checking that we were OK, checking on Little Miss, and reminding us to let her know if we needed anything. But not in an overbearing way.



I can't wait for our next trip, and if it ends up being Y+ hard product, then hopefully the service, food, and beverages will be just as nice.

 

[Katie]

LAX-BNE Y+ menu (code W12_16_94_LAX-AUS_Mar10)

Supper
Green Leaf salad with olives and cucumber
Main courses
Honey mustard glazed chicken with parsley mash and vegetable ragout
Seared salmon with sweet barbecue sauce, garlic rise, and sugar snaps
Dessert (not in my pic above, was served in a wee box on its own)
Orange mediterranean cake

Grinders coffee, dilmah tea

Refreshment - available any time - slightly different to BNE-LAX menu
Toasted panini with gruyere, char grilled vegetables, artichokes, and spinach
Toasted baguette with roast chicken, asiago cheese, char grilled zucchini and mayonnaise
or Create your own from:
Panini or Sourdough baguette with
Roast chicken
Asiago cheese
Gruyere
Char grilled zucchini
Char grilled eggplant
Marinated artichokes
Mayonnaise
Baby Spinach leaves

Fresh whole fruit, Nutmeg and Orange shortbread, Cheese & biscuits, Chocolate bars

Breakfast
Continental
Orange juice
Cereal
Croissant
Seasonal sliced fruit

Hot
Orange juice
Fruit salad
Bacon and potato frittata with mushrooms and slow cooked tomato
Croissant
Grinders coffee, dilmah tea

(NB: Coffee and tea were made up in plungers, which I think is like J??)

Beverages
Champagne - Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve
Spirits - Bacardi white rum, Bundaberg dark rum, Campari, Chivas Regal 12yo scotch, Plymoth gin, Glenlivet 12yo Malt whiskey, Wild Turkey 86.8deg bourbon, Wyborow vodka
Beers - Hahn premium light, Heineken, James Squire golden ale, VB
Liquers -Baileys, Cointreau, Martell VSOP Cognac
Fortified dessert wine - brand not listed, didn't have any, so don't know what it was.

 

[MAX_1]

Sensational TR.
I am planning a trip for my family ( wife, 2 daughter and husbands , and 3 grandchildren aged 5-8 ) to one of the Disneylands, Hong Kong,Japan or Anaheim.
At this stage I am leaning towards HK , due to the proximity to great shopping in Shenzhen and HK.
Don't think Y+ goes from Brisbane .

 

[straitman]

Sensational TR.
I am planning a trip for my family ( wife, 2 daughter and husbands , and 3 grandchildren aged 5-8 ) to one of the Disneylands, Hong Kong,Japan or Anaheim.
At this stage I am leaning towards HK , due to the proximity to great shopping in Shenzhen and HK.
Don't think Y+ goes from Brisbane .

MAX_1,

I do not know about Japan but remember that Disneyland HK is very small compared to the others and that Disney World in Orlando has many parts beyond the Magic Kingdom.




Sent from my iPhone using AustFreqFly

 

[Katie]

Max_1, I'd hop on the Disney website (.com.au) and register for the free trip planner DVD/CD.
I've not been to any other Disneyland, but I believe HK Disneyland is smaller than Anaheim, and all/98% of the rides can be ridden by kids (very small number of rides with height restrictions).
Tokyo Disney has recently opened up something called Disney Sea or similar - I'm not sure if it's like a Sea World style attraction, but it is unique to Tokyo.
Disneyland Anaheim is the classic one, and I'm sure there's some good SoCal shopping in the area. Depending on opening hours, I'd plan on spending at *least* three days at Disneyland/DCA with three 5-8yos, and more if any of those days are over the weekend, as so many locals head to Disneyland on the weekend.
And as straitman said, Disneyworld in Florida is the biggest, as there's the Magic Kingdom and the other parks nearby. I'd plan on spending even more time there than for Anaheim, if you consider Florida.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Thanks serfty, will keep that in mind! I

'd bought Sigg water bottles for Little Miss and me, and filled them up from the water fountain in the A/C after we'd pass security for each flight

. But the coffee might have been a good idea on some of our stops.

Katie, are you allowed empty containers that hold more than 100ml past security in and to the states?

good idea nonetheless.


Cheers

SPRUCE

 

[Katie]

Katie, are you allowed empty containers that hold more than 100ml past security in and to the states?

Based on our experience, yes. Little Miss's bottle was about 300mL (fitted perfectly in the bottle holder slot in the Sky Bed MkI), and mine is 600mL. No queries at all, they were always packed into our carryon, not scanned separately, and not stored somewhere visible like in the side pockets of Mr Katie's Targus backpack.
I can drink up to 3-4L of water a day, so I like having water with me.