Aussie Disneyland Planners come on in and lets plan together :)

[gogo65]

Marvel,

Just wondering about the venetian as well- is it central to the strip??
I haven't been able to decide between TI, Mirage and NYNY.

Last time we stayed at the Mandalay Bay and it was great, especially for the kids because of the amazing pools. BUT this year we will be going in winter so the pools aren't a priority, we just want something central particularly for NYE.

Marvel, do you really think the dollar will get to 79c??? I hope so but I'm not counting on it. When we went to the US in 2000 the dollar was 48c then when we were there in 2008 we were lucky with 90c

Ihaveamickeymousekid,
We will be staying at the Carousal in Dec.
Last time we stayed at the Sheraton, which was quite nice, but the carousal came highly recommended from a quite a lot of our friends.
It is a good 3.5 * with one of the best locations, the breakfast is a good continental breakfast, not huge but certainly good for free

 

[BecBennett]

Has anyone stayed in New York? Do you have any recommendations on where to stay?

We stayed at the Doubletree right in times square, it was awesome! I will admit though we didn't pay for it, so I can't comment on whether it was value for money...

One thing to keep in mind is to not compare Anaheim prices with NYC prices. NYC is extremely expensive...

 

[gogo65]

Hi, I'm an Aussie planning a trip to Disneyland too

My name is Aimee, I'm 25 and we will be heading over to the USA in September/October. My fiance won a trip to New York & Las Vegas and we thought that while we are in America we'd do Disneyland too.

So we'll be spending 7 nights in Las Vegas, 7 nights in Anaheim, 3 nights in San Diego & then 7 nights in New York. We'll be paying for our accomodation in Anaheim and San Diego but everthing else is paid for with our prize money

We're not sure where we'll be staying yet in Anaheim. We were going to stay at Hojo but it is booked out for the first two nights of our stay.

This will be our first ever trip to America

Wow how lucky. You will have a fantastic holiday.
I love New York
I lived there for a year in the 80's and loved it, I would love to go back, but we never seem to have enough time.
One week in Vegas will be great Will you do a trip to the Grand Canyon??

 

[Flea]

I phoned Harvey World Travel and they sell the 14 day passes. Adults $349AUD and child (3-9 yrs) $299AUD. They're only $8 more than the 5 days passes also available from HWT. I also phoned Flight Centre but the girl there had no idea what I was talking about.

Hope this helps anyone needing a DL pass.

Its worth it when it's like that For us it means if we have something planned during the day but we want to pop into disneyland for the afternoon/evening we can without wasting a day on our 5day pass

 

[dollarmite]

Dollarmite, we used Dreams Unlimited in January and are using them again for our Sep/Oct trip. It is so much easier using these guys, than going through somewhere local. I love the fact they can do all the ADR's, get tickets to specieal evetns and I'm not up half the night on the phone to Disney.

The other reason we chose to go with them is they can access discounts and other promotions, whereas the travel agents I spoke to here could not. None of them had heard of "free-dining", special discount codes or AP discounts.

I paid my initial deposit today with DU. I've had such a rushed and full on day I don't think the reality of it has hit me yet.

Can't believe I'm finally off to Disney World!!!

When it came time to make your ADR, did they contact you to let you know that the time had come and request an email from you with your preferred times, locations etc?

Is it possible to even make ADR if you haven't purchased the Dining Plan?

 

[Flea]

i am happy to say i have less than 6 weeks till i head over. going over with a mate from work, he has never been and its gonna be a blast

Lucky you - we expect a trip report when you return

 

[gogo65]

I phoned Harvey World Travel and they sell the 14 day passes. Adults $349AUD and child (3-9 yrs) $299AUD. They're only $8 more than the 5 days passes also available from HWT. I also phoned Flight Centre but the girl there had no idea what I was talking about.

Hope this helps anyone needing a DL pass.

Flight centre

Really how difficult would it be to find the cost of a Disney ticket. Flight Centre give travel agents a bad name


Currently Disney are selling hoppers for $194 ($269AUD) for a 6 day pass or $179 ($248AUD) for a 5 day pass. Valid until September.

It is very easy to book online, print your tickets and take them to the window at DL

 

[gogo65]

Is it possible to even make ADR if you haven't purchased the Dining Plan?

Absolutely

So what are ADR's are you planning??

 

[Flea]

Flight centre

Really how difficult would it be to find the cost of a Disney ticket. Flight Centre give travel agents a bad name


Currently Disney are selling hoppers for $194 ($269AUD) for a 6 day pass or $179 ($248AUD) for a 5 day pass. Valid until September.

It is very easy to book online, print your tickets and take them to the window at DL

So at that price it's not much more than a 1 day hopper pass to get 9 extra days access to the park

 

[~ButterflyKisses~]

Wow how lucky. You will have a fantastic holiday.
I love New York
I lived there for a year in the 80's and loved it, I would love to go back, but we never seem to have enough time.
One week in Vegas will be great Will you do a trip to the Grand Canyon??

Yes, we're planning on doing a Grand Canyon trip also. Not sure which one yet though. Any recommendations?

BecBennett, I will check out the Doubletree also. I am so confused! There are so many hotels in New York and alot that have been recommended to me don't even appear in the travel agent books.

Has anyone been to New York & stayed at the Westin, Warwick or Omni Berkshire? I think they are all around the times square area also.

We are wanting to get a California City Pass. Does anyone know where we can get them from that would be the cheapest? We want that pass so we can see the San Diego & LA attractions also. Is it possible to add another Disneyland day to that ticket so we could have 4 park hopper days instead of 3? Does anyone know how much extra that would cost?

Are you all booking everything through travel agents or are you booking things yourself online?

 

[dollarmite]

Flight centre

Really how difficult would it be to find the cost of a Disney ticket. Flight Centre give travel agents a bad name

Tell me about it. This is the same company that booked DH and me into a hotel room in London that contained 2 single beds. Despite the fact that we told the TA a million times that we were going to be on our honeymoon.

I used 3 separate FC before booking online became common and each one of them managed to muck the booking up somehow. Nothing too serious, but not very professional to say the least.

I like the independent TA but sadly they are becoming few and far between.

 

[kylieh]

Anyone who used the ANZ travel card did it take long to set up? I am just wondering how far in advance we need to get it organised

Took around 15 minutes at the local ANZ bank - they issue the cards on the spot. They don't have your name on them. As we weren't ANZ customers we needed to do the 100 point ID check (passport + medicare + something else I think.)

We logged on to the website at home to change the pins.

 

[dollarmite]

Absolutely

So what are ADR's are you planning??

Not too sure really what ADR's to book at WDW.

I'm really only concerned with the character meals - the rest of the time I imagine counter meals will be fine. I'm not sure that my DH and 2 boys will want to attend a princess CM, but I/we would like to attend a few Mickey/Goofy/Donald ones if possible.

I'll ask the DU rep. to try and get us in to any CM he can.

My birthday falls during our trip so I want to make sure I definitely do a CM that day!

DS will be turning 9 whilst we're at DL and wants to do a Lilo and Stitch meal on that day so I'm going to do my best to make that happen.

 

[Flea]

My birthday falls during our trip so I want to make sure I definitely do a CM that day!

DS will be turning 9 whilst we're at DL and wants to do a Lilo and Stitch meal on that day so I'm going to do my best to make that happen.

That's cool to be celebrating 2 birthday's whilst you are away. We will be celebrating DH's 30th while we are away but not sure yet what to do - we were going to medieval times since he's wanted to do it ever since he saw it on the Osbournes one night years ago

 

[kylieh]

dollarmite - you can get 14 day passes http://www.disney.com.au/disneyland/disneyland_resort.html - we ordered ours through our friend in NZ who's a travel agent. I have heard that people get them online somewhere but I'm unsure where. You should be able to just buy the passes only through an agent without having to book anything else.

Thanks Flea for the link for DL's Australian site. Through that I was able to order the Disneyland Planning DVD, something which I hadn't been able to do through their US site. Here is the link for anyone interested:

http://www.disney.com.au/disneyland/disneyland_dvd.html

 

[BecBennett]

Yes, we're planning on doing a Grand Canyon trip also. Not sure which one yet though. Any recommendations?

BecBennett, I will check out the Doubletree also. I am so confused! There are so many hotels in New York and alot that have been recommended to me don't even appear in the travel agent books.

Has anyone been to New York & stayed at the Westin, Warwick or Omni Berkshire? I think they are all around the times square area also.

We are wanting to get a California City Pass. Does anyone know where we can get them from that would be the cheapest? We want that pass so we can see the San Diego & LA attractions also. Is it possible to add another Disneyland day to that ticket so we could have 4 park hopper days instead of 3? Does anyone know how much extra that would cost?

Are you all booking everything through travel agents or are you booking things yourself online?

Have you had a look at tripadvisor.com ?? There are a heap of reviews from regular people about their experiences at different hotels, it's really handy to work out a rough opinion.

Also, try getawaytoday.com for the California pass, you can use the code "funtrip" to get $20 off.

 

[dollarmite]

Took around 15 minutes at the local ANZ bank - they issue the cards on the spot. They don't have your name on them. As we weren't ANZ customers we needed to do the 100 point ID check (passport + medicare + something else I think.)

We logged on to the website at home to change the pins.

Is the ANZ travel card the same as the cash passport (I think that's what they're called)? I saw a brochure about a cash passport(?) in my local Bank of Qld and wonder if this is the same thing?

 

[kylieh]

Is the ANZ travel card the same as the cash passport (I think that's what they're called)? I saw a brochure about a cash passport(?) in my local Bank of Qld and wonder if this is the same thing?

ANZ has their own version - http://anz.com.au/aus/promo/Dont-Get-Robbed-Overseas/default.asp

My understanding of the Cash Passport was that it was Travellex, and for cash withdrawals only.

 

[gogo65]

Not too sure really what ADR's to book at WDW.

I'm really only concerned with the character meals - the rest of the time I imagine counter meals will be fine. I'm not sure that my DH and 2 boys will want to attend a princess CM, but I/we would like to attend a few Mickey/Goofy/Donald ones if possible.

I'll ask the DU rep. to try and get us in to any CM he can.

My birthday falls during our trip so I want to make sure I definitely do a CM that day!

DS will be turning 9 whilst we're at DL and wants to do a Lilo and Stitch meal on that day so I'm going to do my best to make that happen.

We did Chef Mickeys and really enjoyed it. The food was OK BUt hey we weren't really there for the food.
We also did Crystal Palace in MK, my daughter is a big Pooh fan so that was a must, I think the food was better there than at CM.
One thing with CP is if you do breakfast early you can get in the park before it opens and get some great photos without the crowds.

Prime time was a lot of fun and not very expensive, Sci-fi is also meant to be good especially if you have boys.

Are you doing DL and WDW in one trip??

 

[BecBennett]

With cashpassport you can only withdraw money from ATMs, you can't make purchases with it or get money from eftpos machines.

The ANZ travel card is like a prepaid Visa, so you can use it anywhere you'd use a credit card.