for the love of mickey - a PTR

[Mum from oz]

For the jet lag I wouldn't be too worried, even if you're not first on the ship you will still make it! Sail away isn't until 4:00pm or something. As well you will have at least one sea day to relax and chill out which is good.

Good luck getting a Palo Brunch Ressie, I am silver CC member and got to book 90 days out and even though I logged in as soon as it opened I couldn't get one. I did get a Palo dinner. I didn't want Remy but there was a lot more availability for Remy than Palo. This is your first cruise isn't it? I think you get 70 days out or something.

We had around 40 families on our FE so we split the group. I ended up spending around $200 for all FE gifts.

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Sounds like you are organised. I was about to chime in with a Candy Cane Inn recommendation but just saw you've booked.

Your trip sounds awesome.

[alicia1506]

Originally Posted by Ms. Shuttergirl

Sounds like you are organised. I was about to chime in with a Candy Cane Inn recommendation but just saw you've booked.

Your trip sounds awesome.

lol. not organised... just a slightly controlled chaos.

i am pretty stressed about our FE gifts though. they're not deciding whether to split or not until october, so we'll only have a month or so to get our stuff together. and i've changed my mind and purchased supplies for 3 x different FE gifts now...

[WAMUMOF4]

Originally Posted by alicia1506

i am pretty stressed about our FE gifts though. they're not deciding whether to split or not until october, so we'll only have a month or so to get our stuff together. and i've changed my mind and purchased supplies for 3 x different FE gifts now...

Just wondering what sort of things are you planning on taking for your FE gifts?

sounds like you a doing a great job paying things of it will be all done before you know it.

[alicia1506]

Originally Posted by WAMUMOF4

Just wondering what sort of things are you planning on taking for your FE gifts?

sounds like you a doing a great job paying things of it will be all done before you know it.

i was originally going to put together small photos of disney & inspirational quotes in a glass frame & rhinestone mickey heads in the corners.

then i was going to create custom notepaper/thank you cards/stationery for each person.

now i'm thinking of making personalised notebooks & pens for each person/family *undecided* as i feel this is the most practical and useful and (another benefit) takes up less space in my luggage.

thoughts?????

so excited to have paid off some stuff... still so much to save/pay/organise

[alicia1506]

just paid off the final amount on the cruise -- so we are definitely going now. was going to preload funds onto the travel money card like we did last year, then just checked the conversion rates... $1 aud = $0.985 USD. umm, say what now??? so i did a $1000.00 deposit on the trip just using my debit card which just uses the funds in my bank account -- only cost us $950.00, so i saved $50.00 - not much but better than paying extra $$ to convert the money onto the travel card at this rate, i might just dump the money on the 28 degrees mastercard and use that (with the no international transaction fees) to access our money

argh!! just to save and save and save to make sure we can afford the rest of the trip

[hjd0411]

You are powering ahead with your plan! I'm with you - I save for my holidays too - I just don't like the idea of a huge credit card bill when I come home!!
Re the jetlag - I'm a shift worker so perhaps it doesn't hit me as much! I try not to nap during the day and stay up as long as possible. I go to bed when I just can't go any more - usually around 7-8pm, then wake up around 6-ish the next day ready to hit the ground running..!!!
I'm interested to hear about your FE gifts - so far there are not too many on our cruise, but I'm not sure what to bring! I'm leaning towards some Aussie stuff - clip on koalas, pens, Tim Tams etc, but I like your idea of personalised note paper/pens.

BobbyRach - definitely good luck with your flights!! I'm sure you will be fine though! I'm just getting old..!!! If I don't have a connecting flight, I'm happy! This time we are flying BNE-LAX and staying in Anaheim, so I can hit Disneyland rather than wait at airports!! Even coming home I overnight in LAX before getting on that long haul back home!!!
Oh - and thanks for the info re HoJo's. I'm really looking forward to staying there! Glad to hear that the walk is that close - I walk as fast as a 3 year old when I'm leaving Disneyland..!!!!

[BecBennett]

I have to do a stop over at LAX too, mainly because I know if we can't book into our hotel until 3pm or something like that then it's going to be a long grumpy day, as most flights arrive at MCO at around 6am.

So we spend the night at a LAX hotel, spend a bit of time shopping or site seeing on the red trolley tour that gets around, get dinner and head to bed around 6pm, and generally am completely refreshed for the 2nd leg of the trip. I may not get to MCO until late afternoon, early evening, but it's just in time for dinner and plenty of time to look around get excited for the following days!

However the cruise probably works differently then booking into a hotel, so you might be able to crash nice and early once you get on board.

[alicia1506]

see, our flights work really well with the timezones.

our bne - lax flight departs brisvegas at 10.20am and arrives lax at 6am. then the southwest flight departs lax at 10.30am and arrives MCO at 8pm. this means that aside from the 4 hr layover in lax where we HAVE TO stay awake, we'll not need a hotel room there, and can just check straight into the MCO hyatt (which is conveniently in the airport) when our flight lands. our plan is to stay awake or only doze during the flights so that when we finally get to MCO we'll just crash... well, we have dinner, then crash and wake up at 6am the next morning ready to jump on the magical express (or whatever they call the disney transport to take us to the port).

then we board, get totally drunk on DOTD's and check into our stateroom around 1-2pm, then just chillax, explore and eat for the first night, maybe catch a movie/show/sail away party etc. we have second dining, so we'll try and stay up for that, but on the first night, we might just do room service or some sort of buffet, then go to bed early. then be totally ready to rock from day 2 onwards

[alicia1506]

omg. i just checked my bank account and i was like.. where has all my money gone...

our massive payoff for the cruise and our APs and our accomodation to take advantage of the awesome USD vs AUD rate... yeah, i got stung with international transaction fees which brought my savings up to 0... i got exactly dollar for dollar once those fees hit my account.

happy that i didn't lose money on the transaction but man.... thinking about transferring a whole truck load of cash onto my 28 degrees card now as they don't have the transaction fees.

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Originally Posted by alicia1506

omg. i just checked my bank account and i was like.. where has all my money gone...

our massive payoff for the cruise and our APs and our accomodation to take advantage of the awesome USD vs AUD rate... yeah, i got stung with international transaction fees which brought my savings up to 0... i got exactly dollar for dollar once those fees hit my account.

happy that i didn't lose money on the transaction but man.... thinking about transferring a whole truck load of cash onto my 28 degrees card now as they don't have the transaction fees.

Oh no , bummer about your bank account.

[alicia1506]

Originally Posted by Ms. Shuttergirl

Oh no , bummer about your bank account.

omg i know ... unhappy with the bank right now

[BecBennett]

Ouch. That sucks...

But the way your flights work are perfect!

[alicia1506]

so i didn't win lotto last night.



stupid online entries, being all not-winning.

lol. i don't know what i'd do with myself if i did win... that kind of money is crazy.

but i do kinda have a deal going with myself right now... if i manage to save up the extra $$ or get a really good tax return, i'm going to treat carlo and i to PE flights for the bne-lax return leg of the trip. i wanna try it at least once and i figure what better trip than this one where we're alone together & it's going to be this big romantic trip

so i just have to keep it a surprise from him if it happens now

[Travel Mum]

Hey, we flew all the way through in one go too so that was Wellington - Auckland - L.A. - Orlando. We arrived into Orlando at about 6pm. We got to POR, had a quick dinner and crashed into bed. That was the morning that I did not want to use an alarm clock as I wanted everyone to have that day to catch up on their sleep. I really didn't know what time we'd wake up as our time clocks were very confused (I know we wake up very early in the morning in the first few days on a West Coast holiday) however was shocked when I woke to look at the clock and it said 1pm!! I had never imagined it would be that late! That meant that we didn't leave our room and go to Downtown Disney until 2pm but meant we'd all woken up naturally which was good.

So, yes, certainly take your multiple alarm clocks if you hope to wake up at 6am!!!!!