September/October 2013 check in

[5ofus]

I jumped on them too. We are going before school holidays so I got our fares for $5026 for the five of us INCLUDING SKYCOUCH! I'm so happy with these fares!!! Now we can start planning for real

 

[Kristin5]

I jumped on them too. We are going before school holidays so I got our fares for $5026 for the five of us INCLUDING SKYCOUCH! I'm so happy with these fares!!! Now we can start planning for real

Yippee! I was hoping you had seen them too!

I really wanted to go with Virgin, but I'm just not sure when their sale fares would come out. Plus Air NZ goes straight to SFO rather than through LAX. The only bummer is we'll have to pay excess baggage, which I have just noticed has increased heaps in price since we travelled with them in 2011 - but if we pre pay it, it'll be a little cheaper.

 

[5ofus]

The baggage is only 23kg each I see. Won't be a problem for us though, we'll struggle to get even get four bags through the airports and we have an allowance of five bags.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Air NZ has just released sale fares for September, so I have grabbed them. Yes, they might come down more later, but then it isn't a sure thing that we can keep our dates, and also the short stopovers in Auckland (last time we were there for 8 hours, when all we wanted to do was get home and be able to sleep!). So for 2 adults and 1 child, Melbourne-San Fran, LAX-Melbourne, it has cost $4300. I am happy with this (almost got impatient and paid $5500 yesterday!).

At a later date, we will add on internal flights (San Fran to Vegas, with probably a day trip to Denver added in).

So our dates are:
12 Sept Fly to San Fran
15 Sept Fly to Vegas (via Denver if the Broncos are playing!)
20 Sept Drive to Anaheim
4 Oct Fly home

Yay, now it is REAL!

Yay, good on you! I love the feeling of knowing that the airfares are booked and it's definitely real.

I just noticed that the price you paid, coverted to NZ dollars, is almost exactly what we paid for 2 adults and a child flying Air NZ (AKL To LAX return). Being that the start of October is school holidays, I think we both got a deal we should be happy with.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

I jumped on them too. We are going before school holidays so I got our fares for $5026 for the five of us INCLUDING SKYCOUCH! I'm so happy with these fares!!! Now we can start planning for real

Yay for you also. Will be interested to hear your feedback on the couch when you get back.

If I've got enough money before we go, I'm going to put in a cheeky online bid for premium economy. But if money's tight, we'll stick with plain old economy.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

I just took the risk of checking my flights to see if they were on special. They have gone up about $100p/p since I booked, so I'm a happy camper at present.

 

[Kristin5]

The baggage is only 23kg each I see. Won't be a problem for us though, we'll struggle to get even get four bags through the airports and we have an allowance of five bags.

Shame we're not on the same flights - I could've used your baggage allowance!

We will only take 3 suitcases over, but after we hit the Vegas and LA outlet malls, we will have at least 1 extra suitcase for the return flight. Well, we might've had more than 1, but now I know the cost, I will have to reign in our spending a bit (or just take over less in the first place - difficult for me as I am a notorious over packer!).

 

[Kristin5]

Yay, good on you! I love the feeling of knowing that the airfares are booked and it's definitely real.

I just noticed that the price you paid, coverted to NZ dollars, is almost exactly what we paid for 2 adults and a child flying Air NZ (AKL To LAX return). Being that the start of October is school holidays, I think we both got a deal we should be happy with.

Yes, very happy with these prices, considering it being the school holidays. My travel agent told me we wouldn't get the $1200 fares, and might not even get the $1500-$1600 fares (she thought we'd be lucky to get them lower than $2000), as in her experience September is a very popular time (lots of school / dancing groups go over during September school holidays).

And now these are booked, the planning can begin in earnest! Next on the agenda will be San Fran hotel (wow, it's expensive there! Does anyone have any good accom suggestions?), Vegas hotel (will be The Signature at MGM) and Anaheim hotel bookings. We have already booked the Grand Californian for the final 4 nights (which includes DS birthday), and I have made a booking at the Fairfield Inn for the previous 10 nights, but my travel agent is looking into Hojos as well - premium room.

I also will book the DL tickets soon, probably the 10 day ticket.

Then we can start looking into various tours (Alcatraz, Grand Canyon, Universal, LA/Hollywood being priority, but maybe also Legoland or Knotts Berry Farm as well).

And I need to look at airport transfers as well. Probably just taxis in Vegas, and the DL Resort Express or Limo from Anaheim to LAX. Have absolutely no idea for San Fran though, as it's been 15 years since I was last there.

Oh, I am on such a high today now

 

[KiwiMouseGirl]

I am really hoping that our travel agent is able to whip out some awesome flight deals. From what I can see online the cheapest return fare out there is $1900 The only thing i'm worried about is that Alicia can't afford her airfare till may so flight's will be getting EXPENSIVE!!!

 

[aussie shaz]

but my travel agent is looking into Hojos as well -

Not sure how you feel about booking direct rather than with a travel agent, but I would suggest looking on the Hojo website for a quote. You can get 15% off using the code LKMS. They also periodically have bigger discounts up to 50% off on certain dates. You can book at the 15% off rate, then if your date comes up on a 50% off day, you can just change your booking to the cheaper rate.
If you need any more info on this, let me know.

 

[Kristin5]

Not sure how you feel about booking direct rather than with a travel agent, but I would suggest looking on the Hojo website for a quote. You can get 15% off using the code LKMS. They also periodically have bigger discounts up to 50% off on certain dates. You can book at the 15% off rate, then if your date comes up on a 50% off day, you can just change your booking to the cheaper rate.
If you need any more info on this, let me know.

Thanks I already have 1 room booked at Hojos, with the 15% discount. But my travel agent can get this same room (standard queen) cheaper. However, I have since been told that the standard queen rooms are all next to the freeway So, would prefer the superior queen rooms (with views of DL resort). If I go onto Hojos site myself, there aren't any queen rooms left at all, so I have to see if my travel agent can get availability (and now, because my friends are coming, i need 2 rooms instead of 1), otherwise I will go with the Fairfield Inn I think.

 

[5ofus]

We're probably going to HoJos. We have to finalize our Vegas dates before I book though. This trip is going to be all booked super quick
Vegas, Disneyland and not much else! DH and I need to renew our passports though, and DS3 needs to get one. Add in insurance and all that boring stuff will probably take longer to do than the fun stuff!

 

[aussie shaz]

Kristin, good idea to ask the travel agent about getting you a room. I used to be a travel agent, and I know that just because the hotel says there are no rooms left, this isn't necessarily the case. The wholesalers have allocations for rooms that they may not have sold yet.

This also works the other way. If you can't get a room anywhere, the wholesalers will hand back their allocations to the hotel, so there's a chance you'll get the room you wanted, but it might be at the last minute.

Good luck in getting the rooms you need.

We're staying in a Kids Suite in May and I'm so glad we booked early. None left now!

 

[Kristin5]

Kristin, good idea to ask the travel agent about getting you a room. I used to be a travel agent, and I know that just because the hotel says there are no rooms left, this isn't necessarily the case. The wholesalers have allocations for rooms that they may not have sold yet.

This also works the other way. If you can't get a room anywhere, the wholesalers will hand back their allocations to the hotel, so there's a chance you'll get the room you wanted, but it might be at the last minute.

Good luck in getting the rooms you need.

We're staying in a Kids Suite in May and I'm so glad we booked early. None left now!

I'm pretty keen to talk to her on Monday to see if she has had any luck getting the superior queen rooms at Hojos, because it looks like a great hotel. Good idea though to keep checking right up until we travel in case something comes available at a later date.

If all else fails though, the Fairfield Inn is good too. We stayed there last time and were very happy with our room and the location.

 

[alicia1506]

if you sign up to the hojo's newsletter/special deals notification, you should be sent a link to their fb page, if you 'like' them, there is a january promotion where every day, a new deal is announced and is only valid for that day only, and you redeem it at the time you make your booking... eg today's deal is 50% off a single transaction at their marketplace - considering their marketplace sells groceries, alcohol, sundries and disney merchandise and souvenirs, if you buy everything you need in 1 transaction, 50% off could be a pretty nice saving, lol.

just another way to get a discounted hojo room. they also offer discounts of up to 50% off room rates throughout the year, so signing up to their email/newsletter notification thingy (brain dead much? lol) may be useful...

 

[5ofus]

if you sign up to the hojo's newsletter/special deals notification, you should be sent a link to their fb page, if you 'like' them, there is a january promotion where every day, a new deal is announced and is only valid for that day only, and you redeem it at the time you make your booking... eg today's deal is 50% off a single transaction at their marketplace - considering their marketplace sells groceries, alcohol, sundries and disney merchandise and souvenirs, if you buy everything you need in 1 transaction, 50% off could be a pretty nice saving, lol.

just another way to get a discounted hojo room. they also offer discounts of up to 50% off room rates throughout the year, so signing up to their email/newsletter notification thingy (brain dead much? lol) may be useful...

Thanks for this Alicia! I hope there s a good room discount one in the next couple of days

 

[5ofus]

I can't stop thinking about our trip! I imagine the kids faces hen they find out we are going to Disneyland, seeing them on some of the rides, meeting Mickey, going into Carsland... It's going to be awesome. Meanwhile with this stupid sinus infection my head feels ready to explode .

 

[jessiegirl84]

Thankyou thankyou for letting us know about the airnz sale!! If we leaving a couple of days earlier its $500 cheaper!
We have now done the ring around to tell our guests about thr special so hopefully they decide to buy as i dont think it will get much cheaper as its school holidays
Im so happy $1550 is pretty good for return to LA during the time only wish the wedding was early september so we could have got the $1100 return but i guess $400 more is not that bad.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

I've just been having a play around with the new WDW website and having a grand old time.

I know there's been a lot of buzz recently on the resort forum about how awful the new site is, but I've gotta say, as someone who's still quite a long way away from her holiday, I LOVE it.

It was exciting being able to see both of my DVC Rental bookings (it lists them more accurately than the old website did and now includes my ME booking) and it puts them into a fun layout where I can go into each day and add the parks (and, closer to the time, restaurants) I want to visit. Sort of like a daily planner.

I was able to update the details of my traveling party (including my son's birthday) and I was able to give us each a Disney Avatar. My son picked Lightening McQueen, my DH, with reluctance to play along, picked Mr Incredible and I picked Russell from Up (my favourite Disney movie). My DS thought that was hilarious "But he's a boy and you're a lady!".

 

[Jade+3]

Thanks to Kristin5 for mentioning the direct Air NZ AKL-SFO flight!! We are now going to fly to San Francisco, stay 2 nights, go to Yosemite, then to LA before heading to Florida. Yay!!!

DH was watching something on TV last night about the Golden Gate Bridge and wanted to know if we were going back to San Francisco. This is his 5th trip and the first time he has ever actually wanted to do something. Personally I would rather be going to NYC, but am excited to be going to Yosemite. I have already booked Yosemite Lodge.

Still have not booked the flights. We can only get the cheaper fare on the first flight. I have realised the date we are coming home is the last weekend of NZ school holidays so probably why that flight is full price. I find airfares stressful, the waiting and the gamble.