September/October 2013 check in

[Kristin5]

We got a Queen Deluxe or Superior... I can't remember now. Our dates seem to be in a slow period, all room types were available.

Ooh, I feel another seat swap coming on! I might change our seats on the flights to and from NZ (refrained from using AKL abbreviation to avoid confusion! ) I won't tell DH though, he already thinks I'm nuts!

LOL at all the seat changes! I finally figured it out for my friends - so ours is all done.

I checked Hojos and still no availability for our dates I have just spoken with my travel agent and she said her wholesalers just give her generic rooms (eg no differentiation between standard/superior/etc), so she will look into it a bit more later. We really just want to avoid a freeway view! I understand that you can see the fireworks from the pool area anyway? So maybe we should request just a different building to be away from the freeway, and leave it at that?

She is booking The Signature in Las Vegas for us (no resort fees for Australians!)

And she will look into the Courtyard by Marriott San Fran downtown, as this looks like the best option to me (not too cheap and nasty, but not ridiculously over priced either, and still close enough to things without being in a seedy area - from what I gather from reviews online anyway).

It's all coming together - but once it's all booked, what will I do with all my spare time?!

 

[5ofus]

It's all coming together - but once it's all booked, what will I do with all my spare time?!

You still ave to figure out what to eat, where to go each day, how to save money.... Don't worry, well keep you busy!

 

[Lewdannie]

My Air New Zealand flights that I want have gone in sale. Woo woo woo woo! Now to see what the travel agent can conjure up with accommodation getting a little bit excited...

Man...thanks for the heads up...I wonder if QANTAS will follow soon.

$1250 for my preferred dates IS tempting though

 

[KiwiMouseGirl]

Man...thanks for the heads up...I wonder if QANTAS will follow soon.

$1250 for my preferred dates IS tempting though

Hopefully Qantas follow suit! From what i've been seeing their flights are alot cheaper and stop overs pretty reasonable times.

Even on sale our tickets will be a huge $1700. And that's with $200 off! When it comes down to it, while I would prefer to fly direct, I can handle a 1 hour stopover in Melbourne if it means saving $450 off normal prices.

$1250 sounds like a steal to me! What are your travel dates?

 

[Lewdannie]

$1250 sounds like a steal to me! What are your travel dates?

mid-sept for 10 days (hopefully)

Checked with DW...she is prepared to pay more for a non-stop flight...will hold my nerve

 

[alicia1506]

ugh i have to fly vaustralia as we had to cancel our flights last year, we have $2400 sitting with vaustralia in credit we have to book before may or lose it altogether.

i am so hoping that vaustralia comes out with some good sale fares soon, especially for our dates (20th sept - 8th oct) as otherwise, i will be very, very displeased.

right now, our fares are looking around $2500 pp return.

 

[Jade+3]

I haven't stayed at either but the Radisson and Holiday Inn are usually the ones that people stay at when at FW.

I've stayed at the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero. It's easy to get to using the BART (if you're thinking of catching it from the airport).

I had a great morning at the WD Family museum at the Presidio on the last trip. There is just so much memorabilia there!

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express at FW, but oh my the prices. Been thinking of trying Priceline. I have never used it before.

Haha, I wasn't sure if I could change us either, but it wasn't a problem

I booked HoJo's last night Still hoping for a bigger discount because it's a bit more than we want to pay per night, but it's in for now

I have just booked HoJo's too I used the Mousesavers code. In the past we have used the Entertainment Rate, which was about $60 a night. I don't think they have that these days.

Great stuff! So were you able to get a queen room or something other than a King room? A king room is the only available option for our dates (last time I checked, anyway).

Also, when doing the seat selection now (which I have stuffed up again, would you believe?!), you can change between block selection or individual selection.

I tried to change to individual selection but it won't let me. I can for the IL's booking but not ours.

ugh i have to fly vaustralia as we had to cancel our flights last year, we have $2400 sitting with vaustralia in credit we have to book before may or lose it altogether.

i am so hoping that vaustralia comes out with some good sale fares soon, especially for our dates (20th sept - 8th oct) as otherwise, i will be very, very displeased.

right now, our fares are looking around $2500 pp return.

Fingers crossed for you Alicia.

 

[Jade+3]

I need to change the departure date on my ticker, but then Donald will have to go back to the start.

 

[BecBennett]

Anyone else finding cheap flights? I'm trying to look at VAustralia, but they seem to be having some technical problems...

 

[Kristin5]

Anyone else finding cheap flights? I'm trying to look at VAustralia, but they seem to be having some technical problems...

I have problems with multi stop on their page (not sure if it's because I am on an ipad or not ). I could see normal return airfares between Mel and SFO (over $2600pp for my dates still). That's why I bit the bullet and grabbed Air NZ sale fares.

 

[Kristin5]

ugh i have to fly vaustralia as we had to cancel our flights last year, we have $2400 sitting with vaustralia in credit we have to book before may or lose it altogether.

i am so hoping that vaustralia comes out with some good sale fares soon, especially for our dates (20th sept - 8th oct) as otherwise, i will be very, very displeased.

right now, our fares are looking around $2500 pp return.

Hope they come down for you soon; it's no fun, waiting!

 

[BecBennett]

They have fixed it now, but looking at their facebook page it looks like it's a bit of a common occurance.

 

[PrincessInOz]

ugh i have to fly vaustralia as we had to cancel our flights last year, we have $2400 sitting with vaustralia in credit we have to book before may or lose it altogether.

i am so hoping that vaustralia comes out with some good sale fares soon, especially for our dates (20th sept - 8th oct) as otherwise, i will be very, very displeased.

right now, our fares are looking around $2500 pp return.

I'm kinda looking at those dates and $$$ as well, Alicia. Hopefully someone will have a deal soon.

 

[WickedDreamer]

Hope everyones travel planning is going well!!! Since the last time I have checked in we have celebrated my sisters birthday, we got our local bakery to make a cake themed with Beauty and the Beast.

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Our cruise planning guide arrived in the mail!!! We didn't even know it was coming so it was a nice surprise for the both us when we opened it as we thought it was probably going to be advertising.

We have started trying to find prices for accommodation before the cruise and for out three week stay at WDW. Prices are very high at the moment for where we are looking at staying other at a DTD hotel or maybe a Disney Hotel if we can get a good price for the stay. Has anyone noticed that most hotels are now charging a $22 resort fee??

As for flights we are currently looking at leaving on the 18th October and flying back around the 20th-23rd. We are averaging on paying about $3000 each. Has anyone found any decent pricing for flights around that time??



Shannon

PS, hope everyone is safe and cool after todays heat wave!! sending cool thoughts to everyone!!

 

[5ofus]

HoJos daily deal today is for 25% off all room bookings for 2013 that are longer than 4 nights. Code is SR6!

 

[Jade+3]

Just been on the phone to Air NZ to change our seat selection. What a process! Took 25 minutes.

 

[australiankaren]

we are now looking at
sept 7 syd-lax via AKL..onight LA

sept 8 lax-mco
sept 8-15 BVW 1 bedroom villa 5 nights @ wdw,BCV studio 2 nights @ wdw
sept 15-29 Freedom of the seas back to back cruise
sept 29 mco-lax
sept 30 lax-syd
oct 2 arr syd

so 26 days away....10 days shorter than I would like, but with us cutting the 10 days we save aprox $2400......not staying at universal (accom, tickets car), extra nights at WDW, and extra nights in LA.....and DH didnt want to be away for more than 28 days...

but nothing is ever set in stone until tickets are issued

 

[sarefromoz]

Hi an I join too?

We're leaving Melbourne on the 28th August for Vancouver. We have 9 days in Canada (going to Whistler and Victoria too) before flying to Vegas for 6 nights. we're then driving to the Grand Canyon (2 nights), driving to San Diego for 5 nights (with a stopover somewhere). Then we drive to Anaheim on the 22nd of Sept for 8 nights. It'll be me, dh, dd8 (who turns 9 while we are at Anaheim...she's so excited about a Disneyland birthday), dd6 and ds4.

We're almost all planned and booked. We booked our flights early Nov with Qantas. We got flights for $6500 for the 5 of us. We budgeted $7500, so when we saw that sale we went booked it straight away. We fly MEL-LAX-YVR and then LAX - MEL. We haven't looked into seat allocations yet though. I think that you have to pay for them with Qantas. I do know that we are flying to/from LA on the A380.

We went on a booking frenzy a few weeks ago and have booked all of our accommodation except for a night in Vancouver (we want to stay near the airport for an early flight to Las Vegas the next morning) and San Diego. Still got lots to organise, but I can't wait.

 

[BecBennett]

Welcome to the boards!

Flight sales have appeared up to the end of August, so hopefully it won't be much longer and we'll be seeing them for Sept and Oct!

 

[5ofus]

Hi an I join too?

We're leaving Melbourne on the 28th August for Vancouver. We have 9 days in Canada (going to Whistler and Victoria too) before flying to Vegas for 6 nights. we're then driving to the Grand Canyon (2 nights), driving to San Diego for 5 nights (with a stopover somewhere). Then we drive to Anaheim on the 22nd of Sept for 8 nights. It'll be me, dh, dd8 (who turns 9 while we are at Anaheim...she's so excited about a Disneyland birthday), dd6 and ds4.

We're almost all planned and booked. We booked our flights early Nov with Qantas. We got flights for $6500 for the 5 of us. We budgeted $7500, so when we saw that sale we went booked it straight away. We fly MEL-LAX-YVR and then LAX - MEL. We haven't looked into seat allocations yet though. I think that you have to pay for them with Qantas. I do know that we are flying to/from LA on the A380.

We went on a booking frenzy a few weeks ago and have booked all of our accommodation except for a night in Vancouver (we want to stay near the airport for an early flight to Las Vegas the next morning) and San Diego. Still got lots to organise, but I can't wait.

Welcome Sare! I think we will be in Vegas at the same

Bec some flights are on sale for Sept, so don't forget to check your dates