1 month and counting - From Down Under

[DizOz]

Oh forgot to mention we finally books our New York accomodation. We booked a suite at The Muse which is just off Times Square. Close enough to enjoy and far enough away to avoid the noise.

The reviews on Trip Adviser seemed good and the photo's of the hotel looked great. I know sometimes they can be decieving. I remember one trip we took. We booked a 4 star hotel for a trip from Melbourne to Adelaide. Our first with our eldest daughter at the time who was 1 and 1/2 (For those not familiar Melbourne to Adelaide is approx a 10 hour drive so we decide to break up the trip with a stop half way). The photo's on the net looked great. When we got there the place was a dump.

We checked in thinking how bad could it be we only had to stay one night. Well the inside was worse than the soutside. The bed looked like it was 50 years old sagging in the middle with grease stays on the linen.

We put our DD on the ground and within 5 minutes she was flithy from the carpet. We washed her off and packed up the car and drove on to adelaide and ended up staying at the Hyatt for the night.

Anyway given the reviews on Trip Adviser I am confident The Muse will be fine. I also remeber seeing it on a Sam Brown special and she gave it a good review as well.

Thnak god that is the last of the accomodation to be booked. All I have to do now is the easy part ADR's and airport transfers.

 

[Tink1964]

Tink are the days going by any slower as you get closer to your departure date??

Good luck on the shuttle launch. I am a big space nut and this time we are heading out to the KSC. I would die to see a shuttle launch, I would settle for seeing the shuttle sitting on the launch pad.

What is the new Hawaii resort??? I have not heard about it. I did hear a few new resorts being uilt at WDW but thought they were non disney resorts?

[/QUOTE]

No days are going past quickly .... I'm not sure about the weather over there this time of year, not really sure what to take. we have always been there in the summer.
We went to KSC in 2007 and loved it finger crossed for the boys to see the launch.

The new Hawaii resort :
heres a link for some info

http://www.yesterland.com/disneykoolina5.html

it looks great and so much closer for a bit of Disney Magic.

 

[DizOz]

Tink are the days going by any slower as you get closer to your departure date??

Good luck on the shuttle launch. I am a big space nut and this time we are heading out to the KSC. I would die to see a shuttle launch, I would settle for seeing the shuttle sitting on the launch pad.

What is the new Hawaii resort??? I have not heard about it. I did hear a few new resorts being uilt at WDW but thought they were non disney resorts?

No days are going past quickly .... I'm not sure about the weather over there this time of year, not really sure what to take. we have always been there in the summer.
We went to KSC in 2007 and loved it finger crossed for the boys to see the launch.

The new Hawaii resort :
heres a link for some info

http://www.yesterland.com/disneykoolina5.html

it looks great and so much closer for a bit of Disney Magic.[/quote]


Tink thanks for the link. Will have to keep it in mind. Our DD have been on me for ages about going to Hawaii and to be honest I would love to go myself.

It great to finally be in the year we travel now the real count down starts. What are significant milestones to the countdown??

For us we started planning early so we have had or will have the following

1 year
9 months
Same year
6 months
3 months
1 month
Then we switch to days.

Last time we went we had a disney calendar I made and the girs marked off each day. Each day had a different disney character so 28 days was Bambi Day, day 14 was Cinderella. Obviously the day we left was Mickey Mouse day. The girls loved it and it became a lit of a ceromonial event each morning over breakfast taking it in turns to mark off the days.

Not sure how to top that one this time or just do the same thing. Anyone have any ideas??

 

[DizOz]

We are having a BBQ this weekend to discuss our ADR's for our trip. For those of you shivering in the US it is a warm 90+ degrees here in Melbourne today and for most of this week.

Our family sat down a few weeks ago and picked out all the must do restaurants and other favourites. This included about 3 or 4 character meals for our 2 DD's.

We are lucky our friends we are treavelling with also have 2 DD the same age as our girls. Makes planning a lot easier.

One thing became apparent I need to upgrade to a DDP.

Got some good feedback on countdown ideas from another post of mine.

If you have any other ideas please let me know.

 

[DizOz]

One more sleep till we book our ADR's.

The lovely Dagny at Dreams Unlimited is doing all the work for us whilst I am fast sleep In Australia.

 

[hjd0411]

Wow - I thought I was doing a lot of Disney, staying for 3 weeks in Orlando! You take the cake!!!
Your trip sounds great - I was hoping to do a cruise this time, but the dates just didn't tie up at all with other things planned. Perhaps next time...
I'm looking forward to hearing what ADR's you get - I have only made a few - hopefully the crowds in May won't be too bad so we'll be able to make some ADR's while we are there.
Enjoy your planning - I love this bit almost as much as the actual trip!!!
I'll be keeping my eye on your PTR - keep the plans coming.

 

[PrincessInOz]

I'm in.

Congratulations DizOz!! 4 weeks of Disney. I don't know whether to be envious or . Nope. It's definitely envy. The most we've ever done is about 2.5 weeks where we did 2 weeks in Orlando and then followed it up with 3 days in Anaheim. I think breaking it up with a cruise would be just the extra cream on top.

Can't wait to hear about your ADRs and to see what restaurants you've booked into. I too enjoy living vicariously through other people's plans.

You might want to check out the Wishes Dessert Buffet at MK. The news on the boards is that bookings open around 28 Mar. Might be worth booking in for the experience on watching Wishes from a position that you don't have to stake out for 1-2 hours in advance.
Are you going to book a pontoon specialty cruise at Epcot at 8 pm? Weather permitting, it will coincide with Illuminations.

 

[DizOz]

All bar one of our ADR's have been booked by our lovely TA at Dreams Unlimited. Wow what a service they provide .

As we are travelling with another family there is going to be 8 of us dinning most nights. 4 Adults and 4 DD aged around 7 and 11.

Our ADR's are
Day 1
Dinner - Artist Point as we arrive late easy to have dinner at our hotel.

Day 2
Dinner - Fultons Crab House - Loved the ambience of the old padlde boat last time.

Day 3
Lunch - Sci-Fi Theatr -My 2 DD have been bugging me for months to go to this one.
Dinner - Brown Derby (Fantasmic Package) - I Liked it last time although my DW hated it. Went for it again for the Fantasmic.

Day 4
Breakfast - Cinderella's Royal Table. How could you have DD's and not go?
Dinner - Flying Fish Cafe Went last time and food was great and service was so accomodating even though we turned up 1 hour late on Thanksgiving night.

Day 5
Dinner - California Grill in time to see wishes.

Day 6
Dinner - Ohana Last time had breakfast and it was so/so. Wanted to try the BBQ this tiem around.

Day 7
Lunch - Chef de France Love french cruisine and missed out last time. Keep threatening DD's they have to eat snails.
Dinner - Teppan Edo - Had a great time last time better when we fill the table this time.

Day 8
Dinner - Yachtsman Steak House Love my steaks and had a great meal here last time.

Day 9
Breakfast - Chef Mickeys Love Mickey Mouse and missed this one last time.
Dinner - Hoop Dee Doo Last time we did the dinner show at the Polynesian so this time we are doing Hoop Dee Doo

Day 10
Dinner - Whispering Canyon Let the kids go wild for a night.

Day 11
Dinner - We are splitting up her and I am taking DW to V&A for the night. Tried for chef's tabel but missed out so we got the Queen Vic Room. Rest of the group are heading to the Coral Reef

Day 12
Dinner - Le Cellier Could not fit it in last time so we are trying it this time around.

 

[kyl]

Hi there dizoz, we are going to be in WDW on the 21sept-3rd October. We are a family of five plus my mother in law so six going. My self my husband and our three kids. Ages 11,7 and 3. How did you go going through and American travel agent. Were they any cheaper than going through disney direct?
I noticed you are going to stay in the grand californian at disneyland. We stayed there last year and LOVED it. Make sure you do the tressure hunt with your kids. We won a lovely night on the conceirge level for dinner drinks, free food etc. They gave us these ballons and mickey cookies. Oh I love disney. It is so nice to meet other like minded Aussies. There isn't many aroundWe booked a standard room as I noticed you have. Just before we left I sent disney a email explaining our reservation and how special it was for us to be coming all the way over from Australia. Anyway they upgraded our room to a down town disney view!!!It was just magical. We sat on the veranda at night and watched the fireworks while the kids were in their pjsIf you put your tv at the same time on the special channel the music to the fireworks comes on.We loved the grand californian and we are planing on staying there for our last night in USA. We are going to hire a car after we return to LAX on the 3rd October and do yosmite national park etc we will have 10days to fill in just driving around and exploringLets hope it all goes o.k! But I said to my hubby please we have to go back to the grand californian for our last couple of days and he agreed. Just magic

 

[DizOz]

Hi there dizoz, we are going to be in WDW on the 21sept-3rd October. We are a family of five plus my mother in law so six going. My self my husband and our three kids. Ages 11,7 and 3. How did you go going through and American travel agent. Were they any cheaper than going through disney direct?
I noticed you are going to stay in the grand californian at disneyland. We stayed there last year and LOVED it. Make sure you do the tressure hunt with your kids. We won a lovely night on the conceirge level for dinner drinks, free food etc. They gave us these ballons and mickey cookies. Oh I love disney. It is so nice to meet other like minded Aussies. There isn't many aroundWe booked a standard room as I noticed you have. Just before we left I sent disney a email explaining our reservation and how special it was for us to be coming all the way over from Australia. Anyway they upgraded our room to a down town disney view!!!It was just magical. We sat on the veranda at night and watched the fireworks while the kids were in their pjsIf you put your tv at the same time on the special channel the music to the fireworks comes on.We loved the grand californian and we are planing on staying there for our last night in USA. We are going to hire a car after we return to LAX on the 3rd October and do yosmite national park etc we will have 10days to fill in just driving around and exploringLets hope it all goes o.k! But I said to my hubby please we have to go back to the grand californian for our last couple of days and he agreed. Just magic

Kyl,

Must agree we stayed at the Grand Cal last time but ay to short (2 nights) on our way to WDW. This time much longer.

Thanks for the tip on the email and treasure hunt, will try that this time. What email address did you use?

We have found the Amercian TA to be excellent. The price is the same as doing it with Disney direct with the added benefit of them looking for discounts and applying for them automatically when they become available. Also they are doing all our dining reservations all for the same price.

We priced this and our last trip with Australian TA and the cost was over $1000 more expensive.

Hope you have a great time on your trip.

 

[AlyssinWonderland]

Wow your trip is going to be the bomb! Sounds like your planning is going well! I look forward to hearing the rest!

 

[DizOz]

Wow your trip is going to be the bomb! Sounds like your planning is going well! I look forward to hearing the rest!

Thanks Alyss the days are going so fast now coming up to four months this week.

We had some good and bad news last week.

Firstly the bad, our TA Dagny at Dreams Unlimited quit. Unfortunate as Dagny has been wonderful with erevything she has done for us. Any waywe now have Kelsie and she has started with a bang.

Now the good news Kelsie managed to get us this week 2 discounts. The first was for our stay at GCH at DL we saved $860 and then we got the free dining for our stay at WL at WDW so we saved $1650. Not bad, a $2500 saving in a week.

Also we booked tickets to MNSHP for the 30 September.

 

[DizOz]

MNSHP tickets arrived the other day. DD were really excited and wanted to pick their tickets based on the characters. A little bit disappointed when I told them no and I locked them away in our planning folder.

Anyway I got more good news yesterday. I was a bit concerned I had not had a confirmation email of our reservation at Portofino. This dispite emailing them twice and ringing them once still nothing. So I went on their website yesterday and saw there was a login.

I thought I would chance it so input my email address and usually password and our reservation poped up. The big surprise was the price had gone down $560+.

So our discounts since booking everything is $3,000. What chance do we have getting one with DCL or our NY accomodation. I'm not holding my breath.

Countdown is now less then 4 months, wow time is flying by.

 

[4forWDW]

Countdown is now less then 4 months, wow time is flying by.

Time does fly!!
I wanted to thank you for giving the information on how vacation is earned "down under". That seems like it was such a long time ago - which it was, I guess
In the US (from what I have experienced) you are doing well if you get 4 weeks per year - total.
We loved MNSSHP - It was so much fun. We really enjoyed the special parade and fireworks.
Thanks for posting - I really enjoy the updates and congrats on the discounts

 

[DizOz]

Time does fly!!
I wanted to thank you for giving the information on how vacation is earned "down under". That seems like it was such a long time ago - which it was, I guess
In the US (from what I have experienced) you are doing well if you get 4 weeks per year - total.
We loved MNSSHP - It was so much fun. We really enjoyed the special parade and fireworks.
Thanks for posting - I really enjoy the updates and congrats on the discounts

4forWDW, Thanks for the reply. I think we forget how lucky we are sometimes compared to others.

Anyway, another update:

Our DD's put together their coutdown chain over the weekend. It is a paper chain with dixney trivia on each link. There are 72 links so I hav to calculate the start date of the count down, pretty easy using excel.

We got it from a fellow DISer a few months back. I printed it out and the girls cut them all out and then stapled the links together. Once it was done we then had to figure out where to put it. It was over 10 meters long. In then end I drpaed it out the surround sound speakers on the wall in the back lounge room.

The girls marked it in the diary and the wait begins to start the countdown.

A few week back I was tempted to pay for the holiday but decided not to. Now I wish I had. The Australian dollar fell over 10% last week so just about all my discounts have evaporated. Anyway I will wait now and hope the dollar comes back up. If the EU ever gets it's act in gear we should be OK, I have a few months before I have to pay. Lesson is to never second guess your instincts.

 

[DizOz]

Just passed the 100 day mark.

Time is really flying by and I have so much work to do before we leave. I think I will be working 7 days a week till then just to get it done.

 

[PrincessInOz]

for the 100 day mark and counting down!

Here's hoping for an increase in the Aussie Dollar!

 

[DizOz]

Thanks Princess.

Have finger, toes and everything else crossed for the Aussie Dollar. Sadly I think it is heading down further. Just goes to show that economics makes no sense when we have one of the strongest economies in the world right now bar China. Anyway no use worry about things I can not control.

 

[tpholland]

Your trip sounds so wonderful!! We will be at the Poly Sept. 17-26. We can't wait.

We've gone every Sept. for years now. It's just DH (48) & myself (47)these days. Has been for 3 years now. We have a delightful time, as WDW is how we choose to celebrate our anniversary (22nd this year). I don't know where the time goes, but it has surely flown by.

I wanted to ask if you all had checked into the room only discount as opposed to free dining? We saved quite a bit more with the room discount. However, I realize there are only 2 of us & there are 4 of you. I must say, you are my kind of shopper. I try to make it a practice to never get anything that isn't at a great rate!

I wish you luck with the Aussie dollar. I myself am trying not to pay for our vacation just yet. I have the money now, but am hoping for a credit card bonus for travel. Every dollar counts . So, for now, I have tucked my savings away until I absolutely have to pay it. Even then I'll get the 1% back on my card, but hoping for more.

Have a lovely vacation, & maybe we'll bump into you in FL.

 

[DizOz]

Your trip sounds so wonderful!! We will be at the Poly Sept. 17-26. We can't wait.

We've gone every Sept. for years now. It's just DH (48) & myself (47)these days. Has been for 3 years now. We have a delightful time, as WDW is how we choose to celebrate our anniversary (22nd this year). I don't know where the time goes, but it has surely flown by.

I wanted to ask if you all had checked into the room only discount as opposed to free dining? We saved quite a bit more with the room discount. However, I realize there are only 2 of us & there are 4 of you. I must say, you are my kind of shopper. I try to make it a practice to never get anything that isn't at a great rate!

I wish you luck with the Aussie dollar. I myself am trying not to pay for our vacation just yet. I have the money now, but am hoping for a credit card bonus for travel. Every dollar counts . So, for now, I have tucked my savings away until I absolutely have to pay it. Even then I'll get the 1% back on my card, but hoping for more.

Have a lovely vacation, & maybe we'll bump into you in FL.

Tammy,

Thanks for your reply.

Hope you have a great trip and a happy 22nd anniversary. I couldn't think of a better place to celebrate such a lovely event.

I can not take any credit on the savings. All down to our TA she has been great. We ended up getting the Free Dining Discount even though we had already a DDP.

I think our dollar is heading down. Saw reports today it is likely to setlle at mid to high 70's. A far cry from the mid 90's a few weeks back. All because of the EU, I wish they would get their act together.

Some more good news yesterday. As you know we are heading to NY for a few days and my youngest DD is mad about the statue of liberty. We ran into our friends over the weekend who we are meeting up with on our trip and we started talkng about NY. So I got online and checked tickets to go up to the crown of the statue and they only had one timeslot left for the entire period we are there so I booked them straight away.

Got home last night and youngest DD was a little tired and emotional so I told her about the tickets. She went from tears to jumping around with a great big cheesey smile in less than a second.