It's official. We're going to Disneyworld this year!!!!!!!!!!!!! PTR

jacs1234 · Apr 27, 2015

And a day at disneyland. Woohoo I have booked the flights. I'm so excited. It didn't feel real until I spent that $9000 lol Now I'm feeling it. We have booked flights with Virgin that get us to LA at 6:30am and we leave at 10pm at night to go to Orlando. So we are going to do a running trip to disneyland. Our original plan was to leave on the 28th of November but when I just happened to look at the 27th, the flights were cheaper, we got a day in Disneyland and we arrive in Orlando at 5:30 in the morning instead of 5:30 in the afternoon. Winner!!

There are 6 of us on this journey. Hubby and I in our very very early 40's

Ds1 - 15, DS2 - 13, DS3 - 11 and DD - 9. We leave on the 27th of November and leave Orlando on the 18th of December. We have been to Disneyland 6 times (once with just hubby and me and once with just my mum and me) This will be our first trip with just the 6 of us though because my mum is usually with us.

We are staying at the Animation Academy Resort for the first 10 nights in a Nemo room, 3 nights at a resort in Universal which we haven't booked yet and then back to the Animation Academy in a Cars suite for another 8 or so nights. I wish wish wish we could stay at a more expensive resort but it looks like we can't but I really am happy with the look of the rooms and the disney feel.

I'm a bit nervous about booking restaurants and fastpasses. Especially restaurants as I will be booking them next month and I don't know where we want to eat yet.

Hubby was not totally interested so hasn't done any research but now that we've booked the tickets he's starting to read about WDW which is great because he's the reader and researcher out of the two of us and I really need his help.

losfp · Apr 27, 2015

I think you mean Art of Animation

Sounds great!! We are staying at the AOA ourselves in October for 4 nights before switching to the Grand Floridian for 7 nights. Even with 11 nights, we will only see a fraction of the things I want to see and do... but there's always next time

Plus we have a Disney cruise and Disneyland after starting off in Disney World so you have to make choices I guess.

Good luck planning! I have just done our 180 day dining reservations - geez that was a slog to do.

PrincessInOz · Apr 27, 2015

Well done Jacs! Sounds like a great holiday.

Good luck with the planning and I hope DH gets into the research as well so that it helps you out. There is a lot to plan for.

LivingforDisney · Apr 30, 2015

Sounds great, wow better you than me, getting offa flight then going to DL before a over night flight to Orlando.
Hope you guys can sleep on the plane.
Are u hiring a car in LA to get to DL?
I couldn't do what you are doing, first cant sleep on planes. We did a red eye form LA to NY, did stuff us around a bit.
Also I would be worried all day about missing my flight to Orlando.
Enjoy

jacs1234 · May 1, 2015

losfp said:
I think you mean Art of Animation Sounds great!! We are staying at the AOA ourselves in October for 4 nights before switching to the Grand Floridian for 7 nights. Even with 11 nights, we will only see a fraction of the things I want to see and do... but there's always next time Plus we have a Disney cruise and Disneyland after starting off in Disney World so you have to make choices I guess.

Good luck planning! I have just done our 180 day dining reservations - geez that was a slog to do.

Did you get all the reservations you wanted? I'm hoping for a Be Our Guest reservation for dinner but I'm a bit worried about it. Was there plenty of choices with your reservations and did you do all the bookings in one day or did you have to get on every day and book more?

bswift · May 2, 2015

jacs1234 said:
Did you get all the reservations you wanted? I'm hoping for a Be Our Guest reservation for dinner but I'm a bit worried about it. Was there plenty of choices with your reservations and did you do all the bookings in one day or did you have to get on every day and book more?

Sorry to butt in but I had my 180 mark on Tuesday night and managed to get BOG dinner and lunch with no issues. And our dinner is at a normal time (5:50pm) not 4 or 9pm! We booked online and it was really easy. We had mentally prepared ourselves for the fact that we might not get anything for BOG but here we are with 2 ADRs!

SullyD13 · May 3, 2015

When you got the BOG reservations on day 180 was that through the advance booking since you are staying on site? Or were you off site? I didn't know about being able to actually book more than 180 days in advance if your on site and it seems thats the way to go. When I went to book mine it seemed as if everything was already sold out before off site guests even got the chance to book anything!

bswift · May 3, 2015

I'm staying at Sports so I had 180+10. My BOG reservation is at the end of my trip so that probably helped, it's now booked out for that day.

jacs1234 · May 4, 2015

bswift said:
I'm staying at Sports so I had 180+10. My BOG reservation is at the end of my trip so that probably helped, it's now booked out for that day.

Thanks for that info bswift. Now the 180 +10, how does that work. Do I start making reservations 190 days before I go or do I start at the 180 days and it allows me to make reservations for the next 10 days?

jacs1234 · May 4, 2015

bswift said:
Sorry to butt in but I had my 180 mark on Tuesday night and managed to get BOG dinner and lunch with no issues. And our dinner is at a normal time (5:50pm) not 4 or 9pm! We booked online and it was really easy. We had mentally prepared ourselves for the fact that we might not get anything for BOG but here we are with 2 ADRs!

And there is no such thing as butting in here

All advise is appreciated

PrincessInOz · May 4, 2015

jacs1234 said:
Thanks for that info bswift. Now the 180 +10, how does that work. Do I start making reservations 190 days before I go or do I start at the 180 days and it allows me to make reservations for the next 10 days?

If you're staying on site, you can start making reservations 180 days out from your check in day (the first day of your stay). You can then make reservations for the next 10 days. So, if you're interested in BoG, you have a better chance of snagging a reservation later on in your stay rather than closer towards the 180 day mark.

I think that the online reservation system gives you an hour's jump on calling in to WDW dining. It opens at 6 am Eastern US time. If you haven't done so, you need to set up an account on Disneyworld.com so that you can access the online system. You will also need your resort reservation number.
I think the system needs an American contact number. We have a US cellphone that we keep active (DH travels to the US often enough to justify it for us) so we just enter this number when asked. I'm not sure...but I think I've seen some of the Anzacs ask about this from time to time. I'm sure someone will come along and confirm if this is the case or not and how they get around it.

jacs1234 · May 18, 2015

PrincessInOz said:
If you're staying on site, you can start making reservations 180 days out from your check in day (the first day of your stay). You can then make reservations for the next 10 days. So, if you're interested in BoG, you have a better chance of snagging a reservation later on in your stay rather than closer towards the 180 day mark.

I think that the online reservation system gives you an hour's jump on calling in to WDW dining. It opens at 6 am Eastern US time. If you haven't done so, you need to set up an account on Disneyworld.com so that you can access the online system. You will also need your resort reservation number.
I think the system needs an American contact number. We have a US cellphone that we keep active (DH travels to the US often enough to justify it for us) so we just enter this number when asked. I'm not sure...but I think I've seen some of the Anzacs ask about this from time to time. I'm sure someone will come along and confirm if this is the case or not and how they get around it.

Thanks for letting me know about the phone number. That's not very helpful for international visitors. I might see if I can borrow a friends number or something.

LivingforDisney · May 18, 2015

You can just put in the resort where you are staying number, that's what I did

Aussie Wendy · May 18, 2015

We did the same as living for disney and put in the resort phone number. It really was very easy to make all the bookings and manage online through MyDisney account. I just kept checking close to 180 day mark til they opened up - our 1st day opened first etc so I went on a couple of times as our days opened up.

jacs1234 · May 23, 2015

ok Thanks guys. I'll make sure I have the resort number handy.

jacs1234 · May 23, 2015

jacs1234 said:
ok Thanks guys. I'll make sure I have the resort number handy.

Right now I'm trying to decide where to stay for our three nights at universal. Either hard rock hotel in two rooms, loews portifino in a suite or cabana bay suite but purchase the express pass for all of us. Each of these choices are within $400 of each other.

LivingforDisney · May 23, 2015

What are you doing with your suitcases whilst you go to Disneyland? Or are u having one night in Anaheim ?
Are you hiring. Car?

jacs1234 · May 23, 2015

LivingforDisney said:
What are you doing with your suitcases whilst you go to Disneyland? Or are u having one night in Anaheim ?
Are you hiring. Car?

Our suitcases will be going straight through to Florida (I hope) So we will just have to think carefully about what we pack in our carry on luggage. We'll be catching a shuttle into disneyland and probablu just catch a maxi cab back to the airport

zanzibar138 · May 24, 2015

jacs1234 said:
Our suitcases will be going straight through to Florida (I hope) So we will just have to think carefully about what we pack in our carry on luggage. We'll be catching a shuttle into disneyland and probablu just catch a maxi cab back to the airport

You will need to collect your luggage and go through customs on arrival in the US. Hopefully since it's a through ticket, you will be able to re-check your luggage straight away - might be worth checking with your airline, just to be sure. On the plus side, you will have the opportunity to get anything out of your checked luggage that you will need for the day :thumbsup2

jacs1234 · May 25, 2015

zanzibar138 said:
You will need to collect your luggage and go through customs on arrival in the US. Hopefully since it's a through ticket, you will be able to re-check your luggage straight away - might be worth checking with your airline, just to be sure. On the plus side, you will have the opportunity to get anything out of your checked luggage that you will need for the day

I will check on that. Thank you.

It's official. We're going to Disneyworld this year!!!!!!!!!!!!! PTR

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