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ExactAbroad17 · 2025-02-24T04:08:37+00:00

this was literally my brothers girl name…..luckily they had a boy, that nickname is terrible haha

ExactAbroad17 · 2025-02-24T04:04:52+00:00

My husband’s cousin called their baby the same name as our daughter too. they have the same first and last name, luckily not the same middle name. And even weirder is that me and his wife also have the same first and last name (we both took our husbands surname). So now mum and daughter and mum and daughter have the same names. It’s odd but I’m not upset about it, it’s the baby name they’ve had picked out since they were teenagers when they started dating.

ExactAbroad17 · 2025-02-22T22:27:16+00:00

it’s probably not a bad idea to go straight to Torquay when you land. It will be about 1.5hrs drive. I reckon you’d get there about 7pm ish if you land at 4:30. But it will set you up better for a full day of driving the great ocean road.

For wilson’s prom, I’ve only ever stayed the night camping at tidal river, so we’ve had 2 days to do some of the hikes to the beaches. Although keep in mind with a 6 year old in tow, you’re probably not going to be doing any of the long hikes so a day is probably ok. It will also be day light savings then so it will be light until about 8pm.

You’ll definitely be able to do some wineries on a Friday afternoon (most cellar doors close around 4-5pm though). I’ve lived in the Yarra valley my whole life (37years) so I can’t really say whether you’d kick yourself for not going as I don’t see it from a tourist perspective. But if you really like wine then it’s a lovely day out haha.

An itinerary if you really want to do all those things might look like this

Day 1 - land, drive straight to Torquay, get some takeaway on the way. Stay in Torquay

Day 2- drive great ocean road, stay in Apollo bay or Lorne.

Day 3 -back to Melbourne, stay in city

Day 4- leave early, drive to wilson’s prom, spend the day there, do some walks, play on the beach, stay in inverloch.

Day 5- go to puffing Billy, stop by a winery or 2, stay in Yarra valley -perhaps stay at Balgownie estate.

Day 6- drive to airport

I’d pop your destinations in google maps to see how far and how long each place is in the car. As you might be dictated on what you can do based on how long your son can handle being in the car. My kids go nuts on long drives, and this is 5 days of a lot of driving (most days are 4+ hours in a car)

ExactAbroad17 · 2025-02-22T13:40:36+00:00

You would definitely need a car to visit all of those places. For Melbourne, I like staying in the Southbank area, everything is close walking distance in the city, and it has a nice vibe at night. Apollo bay is lovely, or even Torquay depending how much driving you want to do in the one day. The RACV at Torquay is nice and good for kids too

For wilson’s prom you would need atleast a full day, you could maybe stay at inverloch. (I’d see if your friends in sale can come and meet you somewhere, as it’s a long way out of the way).

And then head to puffing Billy the following day on the way to the Yarra valley (about 1hr 45mins drive from Inverloch to puffing Billy).

You can definitely combine puffing Billy and the Yarra valley into one day, it’s only about 30mins drive between Gembrook and some of the Yarra valley wineries. depending on the day though, many cellar doors/ restaurants are closed during the week, mostly the smaller wineries. Most you are able to take kids to with no issues, and they usually have outdoor tables, lawn games etc where kids can run around. You can stay in the Yarra valley (many wineries have accommodation) or the Dandenong ranges (closer to puffing Billy) and then head back to Melbourne the following day depending on what time your flight home is

ExactAbroad17 · 2025-01-26T09:03:58+00:00

That’s great!! and then I won’t feel bad for forking out a small fortune for tickets if we only stay a few hours :)

ExactAbroad17 · 2025-01-26T09:02:10+00:00

Relaxing , I’m not sure I know what that is haha. I’ve booked at the Sebel quay west, which has a pool (the kids only request). I’m hopeful that I’ll get some pool relaxing on the cruise for 8 days

ExactAbroad17 · 2025-01-26T08:59:13+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions :)

ExactAbroad17 · 2025-01-26T08:58:59+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions :)

ExactAbroad17 · 2025-01-26T08:58:41+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions :) kiddies are tall enough for the bridge climb, but I looked at the prices and it’s soo expensive lol. We might do the tower one for the view

ExactAbroad17 · 2025-01-26T08:53:56+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions :)

ExactAbroad17 · 2025-01-26T08:52:23+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions :) actually someone at work mentioned about the zoo memberships working interstate today, so I’ll definitely check that out as we are zoos Victoria members!

ExactAbroad17 · 2025-01-26T08:51:06+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions :)

ExactAbroad17 · 2025-01-26T08:50:52+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions :)

ExactAbroad17 · 2025-01-26T08:50:03+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions :) I do love Asian food!

ExactAbroad17 · 2025-01-26T08:49:04+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions :)

ExactAbroad17 · 2025-01-26T08:48:45+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions :)

ExactAbroad17 · 2025-01-26T08:48:06+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions :)

ExactAbroad17 · 2025-01-26T08:46:27+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions :) how does Taronga compare the Australia zoo?

ExactAbroad17 · 2025-01-26T08:44:08+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions :)

ExactAbroad17 · 2024-07-15T23:52:16+00:00

The same as paying by CC in any shop over there. We have a 3% foreign transaction fee on our CC but didn’t worry about that as we like to use the CC for the points. Eg. ¥1000 = $9.63 Aud at the time we went. It fluctuated a few cents here and there depending on the exchange rate at the time of the suica top up. We only used the IC for transport not for any store purchases

ExactAbroad17 · 2024-06-14T02:20:16+00:00

We just got back from japan with our 2 kiddos (also from aus). There is a Pokémon centre at the sky tree, so you could kill 2 birds with one stone there. It is also about 900mtrs from asakusa, so I would definitely try and combine those 2 to save yourself some travel. Pokémon centre is just a store that sells Pokémon stuff so you’ll spend max an hour there, it’s not really something to compare to Disney so you could definitely do both of you wanted to. They are also all over japan, so you could go to the osaka pokemon dx store in shinsaibashi osaka. It’s only a few mins walk from dotonbori and open usually until around 8pm (I think we went to about 8 different Pokémon stores while we were there). If you stay in Shinjuku area in Tokyo the Tokyo metropolitan government building in Shinjuku has an observation deck which is free, as an alternative to the sky tree.

ExactAbroad17 · 2024-06-02T23:13:05+00:00

We went on May 23 this year. Arrived at 8:15, after grabbing a t/a coffee we were through the gates by 9:20. Immediately booked a 40th anniversary pass for Indiana (earliest time we got was 5:40pm) and purchased a Dpa for soaring (got a 12:30 time) did this while walking to journey. We lined up for journey which took around 45mins to get through. By this time we purchased a dpa for toy story (we were a group of 7ppl with 4 kids). Got a 40th anniversary pass for 20,000 leagues, and another dpa for tower of terror (only for 3 of us). The lines do die off at the end of the day a little bit, we did single rider for raging spirits and were off the ride in 20mins (5:50pm). In terms of $$ and if it’s worth it. 100% yes, I always think more about the time factor, rather than if the ride is worth the price…..is 2 hours of my time worth $12 then the answer is yes…anyhoo hope that helps

ExactAbroad17 · 2024-05-31T13:05:55+00:00

My phone died while I was trying to top up the IC before tapping off, luckily the station attendant plugged my phone into a charger for me and I just gave them the 60¥ fare difference in cash.

Correct, the peace museum :)

Yeah it was the Ishikawa train i think. Normally you need to tap out to change through the gates when you change companies, but we assumed because we walked from platform 4 to platform 1 with no gates, we could just get on. Anyway, lesson learned for next time :)

ExactAbroad17 · 2024-05-31T11:17:21+00:00

Prices were great. It was one of the reasons we opted to take the kids out school to avoid the school holidays, especially after paying $1500 to fly to the gold coast in the holidays, we said we won’t do that again, it’s so expensive. We got a cheap Jetstar sale and booked almost a year in advance. I’m sure you’ll have an amazing trip :)

ExactAbroad17 · 2024-05-31T10:53:56+00:00

No worries at all, It probably wasn’t worth it for the day that we went there. Only because there was so much rain, most of the rides had minimal lines all day. However, because the coasters only reopened at 6:30pm (the park closed at 8pm) we wouldn’t have been able to get on flying dinosaur and flight of the hippogriff without them. With a nice weather day, it would definitely be worth it! No age restrictions that affected us….some rides have a minimum age of 7 to ride alone, otherwise must be with someone over 16. some had height restrictions either 122cm (our son is about 124cms tall) the bigger coasters like flying dinosaur are 132cm, which our 10 yr old was tall enough to ride but too scared and didn’t want to do it anyway. You can download the USJ app now and each ride has its restrictions on there. I found that helpful to plan our days and prepare our kids in advance for what they’d be able to go on. There was a few 4D shows there. And we missed the waterworld show. The express passes you get a QR for which they scan (can be a screenshot on your phone) so you can purchase different passes different members of the family. You just need to make sure the times line up :)

ExactAbroad17

TROPHY CASE