My First Trip Report Begins- USA & Canada

[irv]

This is my first attempt at a trip report so if I err, feel free to correct me. So you are aware, we are self funded flyers, we have no lounge access, we have no status, and we generally get no upgrades. We do not seek high end accommodation but wish to be comfortable and spend as little time in our rooms as possible, if you can appreciate this either read on or alternatively move on.

In 2011 we went on our first overseas trip to Canada , there were a few places we wanted to revisit, so we coupled this with a trip to the USA in August 2015. Our trip to the USA included San Francisco, Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Nevadah, Utah , Arizona and Annaheim in California. The Canada leg was concentrated on the east side in Nova Scotia, including Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island.

As a new poster in this part of the forum I will try to make future posts not long winded, but as interesting as possible, I hope you appreciate these from a not to frequent, but want to be, international flyer.

I hope you enjoy our adventure as much as we did.

 

[sausagefingers]

looking forward to the report.

 

[boomy]

I'm in for the ride. Thanks for taking the time to write about your trip.

 

[RooFlyer]

Subscribing

 

[clazman]

Looking forward to it....

 

[irv]

After months of planning the trip commences from our home town of Port Macquarie, departing 5:20pm on Qantaslink and arriving in Sydney around 6:30pm. Accommodation was at the luxurious Ibis Budget Sydney Airport hotel, walking distance to and from the airport and cheap. For a simple overnight stay it wasn’t too bad, must admit better than I had anticipated. Hate to admit it but fast food for tea before retiring for the night.
Up early the next morning for a walk back to the airport and then, caught the train to the International Terminal for our flight on QF11 to LAX at around 10 am. I had reserved seats 36 J & K upstairs on the 380, so we had two seats to ourselves at the very back of the plane.
Boarding was uneventful, seats were pretty good even if adjacent to the Galley, only complaint was the gap between the seat and the window, so if you wanted use the ledge as a pillow support it was a bit difficult. The plane left more or less on time for our 13 hr trip. I am not a great sleeper on flights so I knew it was going to be a long day, next stop LAX, the journey had begun.

 

[UP4014]

After months of planning the trip commences from our home town of Port Macquarie, departing 5:20pm on Qantaslink and arriving in Sydney around 6:30pm. Accommodation was at the luxurious Ibis Budget Sydney Airport hotel, walking distance to and from the airport and cheap. For a simple overnight stay it wasn’t too bad, must admit better than I had anticipated. Hate to admit it but fast food for tea before retiring for the night.
Up early the next morning for a walk back to the airport and then, caught the train to the International Terminal for our flight on QF11 to LAX at around 10 am. I had reserved seats 36 J & K upstairs on the 380, so we had two seats to ourselves at the very back of the plane.
Boarding was uneventful, seats were pretty good even if adjacent to the Galley, only complaint was the gap between the seat and the window, so if you wanted use the ledge as a pillow support it was a bit difficult. The plane left more or less on time for our 13 hr trip. I am not a great sleeper on flights so I knew it was going to be a long day, next stop LAX, the journey had begun.

Fast food serves a purpose, and a good warm to being in the land of the free (and fast food)

Matt

 

[JohnM]

BP scanned.

 

[irv]

This was our second journey on a A380, must admit these seats were much better than having a third person in your row to either climb over/ be climbed over, unfortunately was unable to reserve them for the journey home. Breakfast was served, I think I ate half hoping some of it might be food, but you get what you pay for

We touched down about a half hour ahead of schedule and were off the plane fairly quickly. It had been 4 years since I was last in LAX, must admit the electronic screening was fairly quick and we were done and dusted with Border Control in about 45 minutes. We were transiting to SFO via Delta, tried to use the electronic terminal to book in ourselves and our luggage however it did not want to recognise our Citibank Visa Debit.
After a couple of attempts, and hoping this was a one off we joined the queue for manual check in, lucky we had a couple of hours as the service was pretty slow. No troubles with the card in the EFTPOS terminal so it must have been some glitch in the other terminal.

We got to the Delta Boarding gate, to find utter chaos, the plane before ours had been cancelled due to a mechanical problem and there were people milling everywhere. Apparently Delta’s solution was to request passengers on our flight to give up seats in return for free check in luggage on a later flight, didn’t see too many takers up on this. One lady told me she had just flown for two hours to get here, she for some reason didn’t want to talk further when I told her how long our flight had been.

Our own flight was delayed for around half an hour, by this time the entire crowd was getting restless, finally given permission to board, SFO here we come.

 

[Muppet501st]

following your report. Heading to Canada in 4 weeks time.

 

[irv]

Arrive San Francisco, I have it all planned, hop on the train down to Powell Street, find the Hotel as I did on Google Earth a number of times no problem. Made our way to the train station in the airport, bit different from home, no signs, no people, two platforms, no idea.



had to resort to the trip planner to work out this is the internal loop, that takes you to the change of stations to BART. So when you have been awake for about 21 hours your brain is a bit slow, stood there trying to work out the ticket machine, almost gave up but my better half wandered off to the enquiry counter for assistance, that was given in the format of use the ticket machine (thank you public representative of BART). By pressing the add the dollar buttons, then add the ten cent buttons, then minus the 5c buttons we paid the fare, these people have flown to the moon, how hard is a ticket vending machine. Arrived at Powell Street, Google Earth practice took over as we arrived at our destination the Mosser Hotel which I had booked following a number of recommendations on AFF, thank you to those who provided their recommendations.

Day one plan, organize public transport tickets and a wander around to get our bearings, went to the local tourist centre to make enquiries, whilst I told the lovely lady what we were after, I was met with a blank stare. When my wife, who obviously better enunciates than I took over negotiations whilst trying not to laugh too much we made progress. As the lady said, well your husband does have an accent. Finally made bed that night after 32 hours awake.

 

[stoneman]

I'm in for the ride, thankyou for sharing

 

[drron]

Don't worry,mrsdrron has had to act as my interpreter in the good ole USA.

 

[legroom]

Subscribed

Enjoying the ride

 

[irv]

Day 2 8 hours sleep up and ready to go, an attitude not reciprocated by the other half. I venture out to find decent coffee, may as well be looking for diamonds. Need to almost step over the bodies sleeping rough on the pavement, and vagrants just hanging around, a sad indictment of a prosperous country. Today is exploring the bay area, including the usual tourist spots, Fisherman’s Wharf, Golden Gate, Pier 39 etc. Day doesn’t start well with better half tripping over her feet and part face planting, lucky no real damage apart from pride. A few photos which I think includes Captain Jack Sparrow

 

[irv]

I should also mention when we visit anywhere we are generally distance walkers in the big cities, however she leaves it to me to do the planning. My wife hates hills, but I love them, so when I suggest a walk up Lombard St she has no idea, I will give her dues she made it to the top, just won’t talk about the gratitude For those who haven’t been here, a couple of photos.

 

[irv]

following your report. Heading to Canada in 4 weeks time.

Where are you going, such a great country

 

[Muppet501st]

Where are you going, such a great country

Quebec City and cant wait, though the forecasted -21C will be a shock for us :shock:

 

[irv]

Beautiful city, would be even more picturesque with the snow.

 

[clazman]

Visited Auckland 2 weeks ago and noticed every car parked on a hill had their wheels turned in, but the ones in the photos didn't. Wonder how many cars roll down the hills when hand brakes fail