General thread - general tips, ideas, comments, whatever

[aussiegirls]

ehsmum, I have not arrived at LAX at that time of the morning, but this would what I would do if I did.

Arriving at LAX at 6.30am would mean that you would likely get to your Anaheim hotel at about 10am maybe. If you could check in early (or at least get the hotel to look after your bags) what about just having a take it easy, sightseeing day and get to bed early. Personally I think that might be better for the old jet lag than having an arvo nap.

If you could just keep going till about 7pm and then get to bed, you might be able to sleep for 12 hrs or so as opposed to having a few hour nap then dragging yourselves up only to go back to bed after only a few more hours. I found that a huge first sleep (about 12 hrs) was magic in ensuring the jet lag stayed well and truly away.

xxx

 

[aussietravellers]

My son wants to go to a Lakers basketball game in Los Angeles, but seeming as the crowd at their games seems to be made up mainly of celebrities, I'm not sure how easy it is to get tickets :lol:.

Who has done the day flight, arriving at LAX at 6.30am? Tell me honestly how much we can expect to do that day? I've requested early check in and am hoping to sleep till around midday and then start our siteseeing. Is that realistic? Or are we just going to crash and be wiped out for the whole day?

We always seem to arrive early wether it be London, Vienna or LAX

Our flight in December was early into LAX, like quarter to 6am. At that hour the Disneyland Express only leaves on the hour, so by the time we got through customs, got our bags, then queued to get through quarantine we must have JUST missed the Disneyland Express and waited almost an hour!!!!!! on the sidewalk!!!!! BORING. I kept thinking, we'd just go and get a taxi but would think, surely it will be here soon.

When we arrived at GCH, we had actually paid for the room from the day before so we could check in straight away. I honestly can't remember what time it was that we got there, but it was still early enough. I wanted to get into the park straight away to get my AP before the line was too long (I had a voucher from buying it online before we left). So we were in the park by about 9am or so. There wasn't anybody in the AP line so we then went and did a few rides as we were there and it was early so not many people were around, we were feeling a little shabby so went back to the hotel and had showers etc and unpacked, grabbed some lunch at white water snacks, went back to the room, then had a very small nap, like an hour, then went to Rainforest Cafe for an early dinner and a wander around DTD then went back for an early night. Woke up next morning as fresh as a daisy for our character breakfast on our first morning!

I have done more early morning arrival flights overseas than I can count and my rule is... to stay awake and have an early night. It is the easiest way to adjust to a different time zone (but LA is not much of a time difference anyway so it's not hard to adjust to it at all). But if you have a big sleep during the day, then you will not have much of a sleep at night and by the middle or afternoon of the next day you may become tired again. So my advise is to try to stay awake, if you must have a very small sleep after lunch (but only about an hour), then have an early night.

 

[DVCAustralia]

Originally Posted by ehsmum
Who has done the day flight, arriving at LAX at 6.30am? Tell me honestly how much we can expect to do that day? I've requested early check in and am hoping to sleep till around midday and then start our siteseeing. Is that realistic? Or are we just going to crash and be wiped out for the whole day?

The advantage of WDW, you may arrive in LA or SFO in the morning but with the extra flight and further change in time zone you are forced to stay awake until late evening Orlando time.
Seriously, to adjust you must stay awake through at least the daylight hours on that first day. It is up to you what you do but you can often get a surprising amount done even if you just do shopping and sight-seeing.

 

[ehsmum]

Thanks for the replies. We're staying in Hollywood the first 2 nights, so my original plan was to stay up all day to do our sightseeing and have an early night, ready for Universal Studios the next day. However, I'm not sure if that's going to be realistic with my kids so that's why I'm now thinking that they (we) might need a nap during the day It struck me when reading kylieh's trip report and she kept saying how tired they all were at the beginning of the trip.

Also, we are coming from Perth so it's a much longer trip for us. We leave Perth at midnight, arrive Sydney at 6am and leave Sydney at 10.15am, arriving LAX at 6.30am. Our time in Los Angeles is limited so I'm really worried about losing a day to jetlag.

 

[queenie82]

Thanks for the replies. We're staying in Hollywood the first 2 nights, so my original plan was to stay up all day to do our sightseeing and have an early night, ready for Universal Studios the next day. However, I'm not sure if that's going to be realistic with my kids so that's why I'm now thinking that they (we) might need a nap during the day It struck me when reading kylieh's trip report and she kept saying how tired they all were at the beginning of the trip.

Also, we are coming from Perth so it's a much longer trip for us. We leave Perth at midnight, arrive Sydney at 6am and leave Sydney at 10.15am, arriving LAX at 6.30am. Our time in Los Angeles is limited so I'm really worried about losing a day to jetlag.

The Perth component does add a bit more complexity to it.
We always fly united from SYD-LAX (or SFO if passing through to NYC or MCO) which takes us from around 3-4pm leaving Syd to arriving at about 7am.

That day is pretty much a relax day and we go to the supermarket, check out a Kmart or Walmart and other shops and then go to bed at a regular time. You really should stay awake.
But as you say adding the perth flight will probably make you more tired.
So if you do want to nap I would do it probably in the morning for a couple hours and then have a "day" until a typical bedtime.
Of course this is tricky because you won't likely get your room until 2pm.

In short I would try and stay awake until nightfall and if you need a nap try and nap such that you still go to bed at such a time you wake up at a typical time to try and get into sync.

 

[kylieh]

Thanks for the replies. We're staying in Hollywood the first 2 nights, so my original plan was to stay up all day to do our sightseeing and have an early night, ready for Universal Studios the next day. However, I'm not sure if that's going to be realistic with my kids so that's why I'm now thinking that they (we) might need a nap during the day It struck me when reading kylieh's trip report and she kept saying how tired they all were at the beginning of the trip.

Also, we are coming from Perth so it's a much longer trip for us. We leave Perth at midnight, arrive Sydney at 6am and leave Sydney at 10.15am, arriving LAX at 6.30am. Our time in Los Angeles is limited so I'm really worried about losing a day to jetlag.

We all had a little nap on the first day, perhaps an hour or so. Definitley not two hours. We were all very tired, and we had the bulkhead on the way over. But yes, tiredness affected us all for the first few days. We were on the 2nd Qantas flight, arriving 10am?, we were at the hotel at noon and the room was fortunately immediatley available.

If your family tires easily (like most of mine do - MIL is late 60s and not in perfect health and DD7 has some problems which means she can't do too much) it's worth not counting the day you arrive. Take that as a bonus day if all goes well.

 

[PrincessInOz]

My son wants to go to a Lakers basketball game in Los Angeles, but seeming as the crowd at their games seems to be made up mainly of celebrities, I'm not sure how easy it is to get tickets :lol:.

Who has done the day flight, arriving at LAX at 6.30am? Tell me honestly how much we can expect to do that day? I've requested early check in and am hoping to sleep till around midday and then start our siteseeing. Is that realistic? Or are we just going to crash and be wiped out for the whole day?

ehsmum - We always catch a flight out of East Coast at around 10 am to noon. This means getting into LAX or SFO at around 7 - 10 am in the morning.
My family travel really well and we've not had any issues with jetlag; so we stay up and can pretty much count on sightseeing/shopping as soon as we land on ground and pick up the car hire. If on the earlier flight, we're usually out and about by 10 am. We pick a spot e.g., Farmers Market/Grove or SoCo plaza or Santa Monica to visit, shop and have lunch. And then we check in to our hotel for showers.

We then head out again somewhere else for another hour or so (usually Frys, Best Buys or Target) and then go for an early dinner. We are back at the hotel by 7 pm and crash till the next day.

If on the later flight, we usually get out of the car hire place by about 12.30 pm. We then head to the hotel, shower and then head out to Frys, Best Buys or Target, early dinner then crash.

Every family is different and even with our travel, we stay as flexible as possible in the event that someone in the family is tired. In which case, we then take it very easy (but still shop ).

I've found that I can even "book" experiences by negotiating directly with the operators directly. E.g., for this trip, I'm tentatively booked into a Gondola Ride at the Naples canal on the day that we land and the company has agreed to leave it flexible and not lock me into the 2 day no cancellation policy. We'll see how we are when we land and call them to confirm or cancel.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Thanks MsShuttergirl . That was my original thought and why I bought tickets for all of us. I thought it would be fun and a great experience. But when my son is watching baseball on tv, I have to occupy myself or leave the room cause I don't have any interest in it at all!

Ehsmum, we arrived at 6am into LAX and were staying in Hollywood. We arrived at our hotel at around 7.20am and had decided to pay for an extra night so we could check in then and there because we were absolutely buggered. The receptionist took one look at us and checked us in immediately , no extra charge. We went to the room and slept for 2 hours, we all got up and showered and headed off for a full day of sightseeing LOL. We were just so excited I guess. We ended up back at the hotel at around 4.30pm. I had read that having a swim on your first day would help with your jetlag. Maybe an inner ear thing or something. So we did just that and I have to say we ate dinner at around 6.30 and went for a little wander and were all in bed by 8.30pm and none of us suffered any real jetlag.

Now once we got home from our holiday, that was a whole different thing. We were all zombies for days when we got back to Oz

 

[lovintheland]

Ms Shuttergirl definately can relate about being zombies on returning home, It was lucky we had to stay at home an extra week because of the whole swine flu quarantine thing because I don't think we could have done school and work for quite a few days.

On our trip last year we booked the room for the night before we arrived as our flight got in at 7.00 am and we wanted to be able to sleep for a couple of hours and then go to target, walmart, in & out burger etc. We all kind of rested but I for one couldn't go to sleep. I was tired but wide awake, just like I was during the night for the first couple of nights for some reason.

On our trip 2 years earlier, we arrived at the same time but couldn't get early check in. It was painful trying to stay awake and the kids felt sick from being so tired. We had a wander around Downtown Disney and had lunch but were really too exhausted to appreciate it. We went back and once our room was ready set the alarm for a two hour sleep. It was really hard to wake the kids after this, I think they could have slept through until the next morning, but we got them up and had a swim and then back to Downtown Disney for dinner etc and then by the next morning we were good to go. I guess everyone is different and can cope with different amounts of sleep. I need mine!

 

[ehsmum]

I need my sleep too. I haven't booked the hotel for the night before, just requested early check in. Now I'm wondering if I should book an extra night.

New question - tell me about mobile phones. Which one did you buy, where from and what sort of plan?

 

[platypus67]

Who has done the day flight, arriving at LAX at 6.30am? Tell me honestly how much we can expect to do that day? I've requested early check in and am hoping to sleep till around midday and then start our siteseeing. Is that realistic? Or are we just going to crash and be wiped out for the whole day?

We have always arrived in LA at 7am. All but once we have been able to check in immediately, and even that time we were in the room by 10am.
We generally plan to stay awake until late afternoon, early evening, but it never seems to happen. We usually arrive, shower, have breakfast and then head over to DTD. We walk around there until too tired to keep our eyes open and then head back to the room. DH tends to suffer from jetlag more than DD and myself. DD and DH can sleep on the plane, but I have never been able to. We never plan to visit the parks as we know we will most likely only last a short time so DTD is a good way to kick off the holiday without using up a day on our ticket.
In 2008 DD and I went on our own. We arrived and went straight to the hotel. We had a quick bite to eat and then crashed until around 4pm. We had dinner and then headed over to the park for the MNSSHP. We seemed to adjust quicker on that trip than any other.

 

[platypus67]

I am also wondering if we could start a WDW specific thread and a DL specific thread. Let me know and I will start the ball rolling

I think a WDW thread would be great. We are planning our second trip there for December and I think I remember seeing a few other aussies doing the same.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

So does everyone only spend time on Disboards, or are there some other websites and blogs related to Disney that you visit?

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

This is funny:-

http://www.budgettravel.com/bt-dyn/content/article/2010/05/03/AR2010050302649.html?wpisrc=newsletter

 

[kazbar]

That is good. Did you read the comments?

"Please take your children by the throat ..."

 

[heidispidi]

The only 2 places I discuss Disney are here on Disboards, and with my sister (Aust) via email when we should be working

I was after everybody's thoughts re the Aussie dollar (sorry if it's been dicussed elsewhere). If you have a trip planned, I'm sure you've watched the value of the dollar drop over the past couple of weeks. From when I started planning a good 6 - 8 weeks ago, I've seen it go from 93.5 to 88c. I've got $2K stashed away on an ANZ travel card (bought when the dollar was 93.5), have all airfares paid for, as well as our Hawaii accommodation.

What we hadn't paid for yet was our Hojo accom. We'd booked that direct through the Hojo website, and were told that they would not accept payment until we checked out. So, instead of taking the risk of our accom costing way more than it would have when we booked, yesterday, Aust and I decided to cancel our booking with Hojo, and re-booked Hojo through Expedia - for the same price. Which is interesting, given the movement on the dollar - buying in AUD, the price was exactly the same as what we would have paid weeks ago when the dollar was better.

I also bought 14 day parkhopper vouchers through Expedia yesterday. Just another lazy $1500 on the credit card, all up

NOW I just have to pay for our 1 night at the Argonaut (San Francisco), pay the credit card off, and save my money for tours and more spending money (sound easier than it will be!).

Hey - today being the 8th May, there's exactly 8 months till we leave for, and arrive in Anaheim - WOO HOO!

 

[aussiegirls]

I have been watching the dollar too. I know it has gone down and it is slightly concerning but I am really not going to worry about it too much. I have over 6 months to go until we leave and so I am just hoping that it won't have a sustained drop between now and then.

I have booked the Hojo at the Entertainment rate so there is no way that Expedia or any other travel site could possibly match that price.

I told the kids today. They were sooooooooooooo excited. I don't think they can believe it quite yet. So now for the dreaming and planning. That is almost as good as the actual holiday itself

xxx

 

[lovintheland]

Hi Aussiegirls,

how did you tell the kids?????

 

[aussiegirls]

Well, I did a bit of a treasure hunt. The "treasure" was a little certificate I made that said something like "Congratulations, guess where we are going for Christmas". And I attached to it the flight confirmation thingy we got from Flight Centre. It took a few seconds for them to read it and for the penny to drop but then it was screaming and tears and hugs - one of the most amazing moments of my life

We then went to Gloria Jeans to drink coffee and iced chocolate and laugh and plan.

Has been an amazing day

Now just have to start saving for the rest of it

xxx

 

[lovintheland]

Oh that is beautiful!!! We still talk about the treasure hunt our kids did three years ago to find out about their first trip. They will never forget that day. Neither will we for that matter. It was soooo exciting. When they find out about this trip the morning we leave they are going to flip. It will be very hard keeping everything under wraps until then though. I figure they had the surprise of the first trip and then the long 72 sleep wait until we went. Then there was last years trip which we all planned together about 6 months out. so I don't feel too bad about ripping them off with little time to get excited beforhand this time. Often one of us will say something like , "I wish someone would deliver a letter to the door telling us we needed to pack straight away as we are leaving for Disney in x hours. So to actually do that after hubby and I have contained our excitement for many months will be so fun.