We have a change of plan, Stan! *update*

[KiwiMouseGirl]

Welcome everyone to the first update of the Scary and Merry planning adventures! Sit back, grab a snack , and brace yourselves for 10 whole months of Disneyland planning trials and tribulations! Before we get into the first chapter of our story, let me introduce the cast of travelers!


Myself, Cass! Will be 19 years young at the time of travel. Disney obsessor extraordinaire and overly excited trip planner! Has been to Disneyland once!




The best friend, Alicia Will also be 19 years young at the time of travel. Is willing to embrace all the magic that Disneyland can offer. This will be her first trip!





Alrighty, now on with the story!


This trip has been in the pipelines for a good Five or so months now. When we originally started planning, the purpose of the trip was to see Disneyland decked out in all of it's Halloween goodness. Our original travel dates were going to be from the last week of September till around about the Second week in October. We decided back then that we wanted to go for a reasonable amount of time so that we could enjoy this holiday and not feel rushed off our feet. It's now that I will mention that I do competitive dance, and after having a year off last year (Oh my Mickey it's 2013 already, yikes ) I hadn't particularly been planning on dancing this year for the specific reason that I had this trip planned. The National dancing competition is held on Labour day, so I wouldn't be able to have Three weeks off training before the big competition. And there wouldn't be enough time after the competition to enjoy the Halloween overlay at a slower pace. But alas, the dancing gods have spoken and I am currently planning on dancing at Nationals this year. Which brings me to....

Chapter Two! While I am excited to be dancing this year, it put a massive bendy kink in our travel plans! Especially when I realized that I had calculated Labour weekend to be on the 21st of October, when it's actually on the 28th!! Alicia and I sat down for our first serious trip meeting (At McDonalds ) to make some decisions on what we were going to do with our travel dates. It was decided then that we would be jetting out ON Labour day from Auckland airport. Coincidentally, Nationals is being held in Auckland this year. So while it will mean a big weekend for me, I took the fact that I would be right by the airport as a sign that this trip was meant to happen! There will just be LOTS of sleeping happening on the flight!

Chapter Three! It then came to my realization that while we will feel a tad rushed to enjoy the Halloween offerings, going on our trip later will mean that we can catch the beginning of the Christmas season at Disneyland! It has always been my dream to see Disneyland during both of the major overlays, so getting Halloween and Christmas in the one trip will be amazing! After a few emails back and forth with the travel agent, she suggested that we look at booking in February/March. Due to work and other engagements at the end of February we will be booking on my birthday (March 13) as I will have the day off work Which brings us to the present day! It is now January Second where I live. Which gives us 10 weeks to finish saving for our airfare and accommodation deposit.

Unfortunately Alicia works shift work, so can have some pretty unreliable hours to be saving for a trip. She's trying as hard as she can to save the money for the airfare but told me the other day she might not make it quite by March as she didn't realize our flights had to be payed in full 14 days after booking. If she hasn't made it by March, that's not a problem, we will just book in April. I told her from the beginning that I will be here to motivate her with her savings if she's ever finding it difficult. So I am taking it upon myself as Official Disneyland Trip Savings Cheerleader to come up with some savvy savings idea's and payment plans to keep Alicia feeling the magic during her saving I have drawn out a few different savings and payment plans (thanks to the help from my friends over on the Australia board ) The options are basically setting dates to pay for certain things like our accommodation and tickets. Or to have a savings plan and save a certain amount of money a week and pay for everything in one blow at the end. It doesn't affect me in any way, so the decision will be up to her. I think it will be best for her to pay things as we go to make sure that everything is payed for, but we will see what she chooses

I know that 10 months out seems pretty early to start a pre trip report. But all of you other OCD planners will agree with me that there is always something to research and organize! I hope that you all will join me on this pre trip report planning journey and offer your idea's and thoughts on our trip! We have a very rough itinerary drafted so will post that shortly!

- Cass

[KiwiMouseGirl]

Reserved for table of contents

[PrincessInOz]

Can I sub in now?


Looking forward to the next 10 months!

[areweindisneyyet]

Subscribed and looking forward to reading along.

[KiwiMouseGirl]

PrincessInOz and areweindisneyyet, thanks for subscribing and welcome aboard!

As mentioned previously, here is the rough itinerary. Keeping in mind we won't know Halloween party dates until the middle of the year, and we don't know yet weather or not Disneyland will have their Christmas entertainment in a Christmas party, which will affect our itinerary also I'm really excited to finalize our itinerary when the time comes, so any suggestions will be appreciated!

28th October: Depart Auckland airport, arrive LAX. Staying at the Paradise Pier Hotel. Pick up some stuff for breakfast in the room and some small snacks for the parks. Explore Downtown Disney. Dinner reservations at the Rainforest Cafe. Go back to the room and enjoy our custom delivered chocolate cake and watch the fireworks from the roof of the hotel. Maybe have a spa then turn in for our bid day ahead.

29th October: First day at Disneyland. Be at the park for rope drop. Get a first visit badge for Alicia. Steer the Mark Twain Lunch reservations at the Blue Bayou. Hopefully there is a MNSSHP on this night. In which case we would return to the hotel to change into our costumes, and enjoy a night of trick or treating! Seeing the parade and fireworks would be a priority!

30th October: First day at DCA. Avoid Carsland today and start with TOT. Princess lunch at Ariel's Grotto. WOC dinner at Wine Country Trattoria.

31st October: Universal Studios. Be there at opening to ride all of the rides with minimal wait. Do the Studio Tour in the middle of the day and catch some shows. Dinner at the City Walk. Return to Universal for Halloween Horror Night.

1st November: Relax today. Order room service breakfast. Catch a movie in Downtown Disney. Dinner reservations at ??????

2nd November: Disneyland. Late breakfast reservations at Minnie and Friends. Secure spots for Fantasmic! by the POTC bridge. Send a runner for dinner and dessert. Spend the rest of the evening around Adventureland/NOS/Critter Country.

3rd November: DCA. Hit Carsland in the morning. Fastpasses for RSR? Head over to Disneyland to secure spots for Fireworks. Again, send a runner for dinner and dessert. Take turns exploring Mainstreet!

4th November: Relax day. Half day shopping trip to The Outlets at Orange. Spend the rest of the day relaxing.

5th November: Sea World. Dolphin Interaction Program.

6th November: Empty day

7th November: San Diego Zoo. Backstage zoo tour.

8th November: Empty day

9th November: Park hopping. Do all of our favorite rides from earlier in our trip. Catch nighttime entertainment

10th November: Park hopping. Do all of our favorite rides from earlier in our trip. Catch nighttime entertainment

11th November: Relax day. Swimming?

12th November: Hollywood. Hollywood walk of fame. Madame Tussaud's.

13th November: Knott's berry farm

14th November: Empty day

15th November: Departure day

As you can see, lot's of empty days that will be filled up the closer that we get to our trip!!

[alicia1506]

subbing in

sounds like a great itinerary and a great trip.

hope you and alicia are able to save up lots for all of your trip expenses. sounds like you have a series of really nice experiences planned.

[KiwiMouseGirl]

Originally Posted by alicia1506

subbing in

sounds like a great itinerary and a great trip.

hope you and alicia are able to save up lots for all of your trip expenses. sounds like you have a series of really nice experiences planned.

Thank's for subscribing! Maybe we'll see a PTR for your trip soon

[KiwiMouseGirl]

So after a trip meeting over brunch this morning, we have decided to change our hotel. Originally we were planning on staying at the Paradise Pier Hotel for the convenience of Magic Morning, but in order to be a bit more budget friendly are looking into other options. After doing some research I think we might book the Tropicana Inn. Has anyone stayed here before and can offer thought's on this hotel?? We're basically looking at it for proximity and price, as we still want to be able to pop in and out of the parks and DTD at ease.

Ooh, and on a side note. We popped into a few different travel agencies today and one of them offered us 10 day Disneyland tickets. I thought these didn't exist anymore o.o

[cristyhas3]

Originally Posted by KiwiMouseGirl

So after a trip meeting over brunch this morning, we have decided to change our hotel. Originally we were planning on staying at the Paradise Pier Hotel for the convenience of Magic Morning, but in order to be a bit more budget friendly are looking into other options. After doing some research I think we might book the Tropicana Inn. Has anyone stayed here before and can offer thought's on this hotel?? We're basically looking at it for proximity and price, as we still want to be able to pop in and out of the parks and DTD at ease.

Ooh, and on a side note. We popped into a few different travel agencies today and one of them offered us 10 day Disneyland tickets. I thought these didn't exist anymore o.o

Too funny! We're booked for the Tropicana, and I'm thinking of switching to PPH. I haven't stayed at either, though. I've only stayed off property when I've visited DLR in the past. I stayed on property at WDW, once. It was pretty awesome. The energy, magic, customer service, origami towels, all made the experience, well, magical.

[aussie shaz]

Originally Posted by KiwiMouseGirl

Ooh, and on a side note. We popped into a few different travel agencies today and one of them offered us 10 day Disneyland tickets. I thought these didn't exist anymore o.o

Did you know how much the 10 day passes were? Was it at a Flight Centre?
They used to be 14 day passes which you now can't get. The 10 day ones are new this year. I think the prices are pretty

[KiwiMouseGirl]

Originally Posted by cristyhas3

Too funny! We're booked for the Tropicana, and I'm thinking of switching to PPH. I haven't stayed at either, though. I've only stayed off property when I've visited DLR in the past. I stayed on property at WDW, once. It was pretty awesome. The energy, magic, customer service, origami towels, all made the experience, well, magical.

Thanks for stopping by! Haha! That is too funny! The reason that I wanted to stay on property was the extra magic feeling that it would bring to our holiday. But it ultimately came down to the fact that if we wanted to stay at the PPH, Alicia couldn't afford it. I was looking at the Tropicana Inn for our last trip and have come back to it again this trip. What are your trip dates? If you go before us i'd love to hear what your thoughts were!

Originally Posted by aussie shaz

Did you know how much the 10 day passes were? Was it at a Flight Centre?
They used to be 14 day passes which you now can't get. The 10 day ones are new this year. I think the prices are pretty

Welcome along! It's pretty funny actually. The guy kept asking us how many days we wanted to spend in Disneyland to which we kept replying with "Well, we're getting annual passes so probably quite a few" ... he legitimately didn't know what an annual pass was. I remember him telling me around $750ish for a 10 day pass. I laughed knowing that a deluxe AP is $566 and going off this year's blackout dates I don't anticipate any days to be blacked out for our trip, so would most definitely be going for an AP. It was United Travel the guy said he would need confirmation by Tuesday as it was a "special deal". I don't know if that was the tickets, accommodation or flights. So if you are interested I would give them a call just to double check that you aren't going to miss out

[KiwiMouseGirl]

Well, not much has happened lately apart from saving saving saving! My group of friends went out to dinner on Thursday night to celebrate two peoples birthdays. One of those was Alicia's!! I wanted to give her something meaningful and trip related, so made her one of these! (this one is actually my one, her one is green and purple)



Inside I put a book of 'travel vouchers' I had made to help Alicia with the trip! The book had vouchers for $100 airline credit, 1 ticket to SeaWorld San Diego, 1 ticket to knots berry farm, 1 ticket to breakfast with Minnie and Friends, 1 ticket for the Happiest Haunts Tour at Disneyland and $25 Disney dollars. She was really happy with it and got super excited about our trip, which was the goal

So for now we will just keep saving hard and counting down until April when we book! ONLY 38 WEEKS, 2 DAYS TO GO!

[PrincessInOz]

Very nice gift....particularly with all those vouchers.

[KiwiMouseGirl]

Well, as the title states we have had a change of plans! After multiple twists and turns an ups and downs, we have had to change the dates for our trip. We are now planning on travelling from the 27th of April till the 11th of May. Aanndd we have an addition! My younger brother Kyle! I remember on my last trip pretty much constantly thinking "Wow, Kyle would LOVE this" and made a spontaneous decision yesterday morning that I would bring him along too! I'm planning on surprising him ON THE DAY that we leave AT the airport! Hopefully he won't see it coming! So, without further adew, I will introduce the NEW case of characters!

Myself, Cassandra. Currently 19 will be 20 when we travel. Lover of all things Disney and official trip planner extraordinaire!



Alicia, the best friend! Currently 19 will be 20 when we travel. Eager to travel and see what Disney has to offer!



Kyle, the younger brother. Currently 16 will be 17 when we travel. Has absolutely NO clue that he is coming on this trip and I plan for it to stay that way!



Our list of places to visit consists of: Disneyland, DCA, Universal Studios, Sea World, San Diego Zoo, Knott's Berry Farm, Six Flags Magic Mountain and Hollywood.

I am SUPER excited for this trip and cannot wait to bring you all along for the ride! Stay tuned for an updated itinerary.

[PrincessInOz]

Fantastic! I was wondering how your plans were going.

And how great to surprise your brother. Looking forward to seeing how that one plays out.

Apr/May is a nice time in California too.

Just once question....is that THIS year (If so, OMG that's in 3 weeks!!!); or next????