Disneyworld 2014: The first leg - Part 01

End of year family holiday bash that I planned for sometime is something special for me and my wife. After 18 years since our last visit as a couple, we are going back to Disneyworld Orlando, Florida with three kids in tow.

At first I was apprehensive about the traveling cost but purchases via the internet allowed us to grab good bargains for plane tickets, resort accommodation and park tickets.

Emirates Airlines gives the best value-for-money when it comes to traveling to Florida from Kuala Lumpur. Using the Atlantic route, you only need to change carrier once in New York (Delta Airways).

On the day of departure (28 November 2014) we packed three suitcases to be put in cargo and three carry-on-luggage. To be safe, we packed our warm clothing (New York reported zero degree Celsius) as well.

We started our journey at KL Sentral Station. Emirates Airlines has a check-in counter which allows us to get our boarding pass and deposit our bags all the way to Orlando, Florida.

There was no queue and it saves a lot of time and energy lugging the bags to KLIA. Moreover, with five people, using a taxi would be much more expensive since we would have to take the bigger van taxi to carry of of us plus the bags.

At least the kids were in high spirit and quite excited to get the journey started. On the right is my number two and number three with their designated carry-on-luggage.

Once we got our tickets we waiting for just a couple of minutes for the ERL train to arrive. My son talking to my wife about what he wants to get and do when we arrived in Orlando.

It started to rain while we were waiting for the ERL train. The weather was cool and the kids had their jackets on.

The train departed at 4:15 pm. The trip took longer than the 28 minutes that was advertised. Just after Putrajaya, the train slowed down considerable as the downpour caused a slight flooding on the track. We were lucky that the train can continue the journey albeit slowly.

I guess this was the precursor of the massive flooding in a number of states in Malaysia. 

Train was not full when we departed from KL Sentral. This was a surprise as I was made to understand since the opening of KLIA2, the number of passenger traffic on the ERL train increased tremendously. Despite the higher cost of transport compared to the bus service, in terms of convenience, the ERL wins every time.  

Group selfie with my number two and number three.

The gang was told that the whole trip will take 31 hours. Three hours in KLIA, seven hour flight to Dubai, three hour layover in Dubai, 13 hour flight to New York, three hour layover in New York and finally, a 2 hour flight to Orlando, Florida.

Not sure whether they will be this cheerful after the 31 hours. Only time will tell.



Once we arrived at KLIA, we got a trolley to carry all our carry-on-luggage and headed straight to the international departure hall.

After going through a simple security check, we came to the main immigration hall. Although our passports are equipped to go through the electronic lane, it is actually faster to go through a manual counter if you are part of a family.

Once through, we went through a more detail security check before boarding an transit train to the main flight terminal. On the way to catch the train we saw a lot of model planes with various airline markings that use KLIA.

We made a pit-stop at the prayer-room. Saw this notice on the the wall. Check out the warning on the bottom middle row. Everything else appears grammatically correct except for that particular sign. Funny.

Although we had a lot of time to kill before our flight, we weren't interested to wonder in and out of the many stores in the terminal. Apart from the stores, there are also a lot of restaurants to cater for practically anyone. One common trend though is the price. Very expensive!

We just set around the terminal looking at people while waiting for the time to board the plane. After a half hour of waiting, the kids got hungry (what else!).

Got something from Burger King and spent slightly over an hour in the outlet before the announcement for boarding was made. We took the EK0347 which departed KLIA at 7:30 pm. The plane was a Boeing 777-300ER.

To be continued.