DizOz
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2007
- Messages
- 674
I just wanted to share our familys travel experience to WDW in December. This is the first time I have had a chance to sit down and write since we have been back. Let me introduce our family my DW is a 38 teacher and we have two beautiful DD aged 8 and 5. We live in Melbourne Australia which is right at the bottom tip on the east coast of Australia,
When I first brought up the idea of travelling to the USA my DW was a little sceptical about our youngest being OK and enjoying the trip. However a week at the Gold Coast in the far north of Australia convinced her she would be fine. The Gold Coast is the Australian Version of Orlando, similar weather and plenty of theme parks (Just on a smaller scale).
As you can imagine planning a trip from Australia to WDW takes a little bit of organising. For me I am a bit of a planning freak and took my time and still made plenty of mistakes mainly due to my excitement to book things prior to finishing all my research.
My first lesson came when I hade 3 travel agents provide me quotes. Our plans were to fly into LAX stay at Disneyland for 2 nights, then fly to Orlando and stay at WDW for 10 nights then to New York for a night and to Las Vegas for 2 nights then back to LA and back home to Melbourne Australia. I gave each of the travel agents the same instructions and views about where we wanted to stay.
My first lesson is travel agents dont listen, none of them came back with the hotels I had asked for. I specifically said we wanted to stay on site at both DL and WDW. I also told them where in New York I wanted to stay having been there a number of times on business and the type of Vegas hotel. I also wanted direct flights even if it meant spending a little more just because of the 2 DDs I didnt want to be changing flights etc.
Apart from NY they got everything wrong and had us staying off site and having multiple changing flights etc. I asked why they chose them and they said Oh because it will save you money. I told them I wanted the Disney experience for the girls and didnt mind spending the money. Having been to DL and WDW before (On the days off whilst travelling on business) I then gave them the hotel names.
During this time the girls and I had been on the internet and checked out all the WDW and DL hotels
They finally came back with quotes almost the same. Lesson two kicks in when I decide to go direct to Disney and have the rooms quoted. This saved me almost $1500. I went back to the best of the travel agents to enquire about the price he said he would match it and leave it with him for a few days.
Three weeks later I rang him and was finally told he could not match it and to book it direct myself. So I did.
At DL we booked into the Grand Californian and WDW we booked into the Wilderness Lodge. I had stayed at the WL once before when I had a few days off and loved it. I especially loved the Whispering Canyons informal feel and thought the kids would love it. GC was chosen as we saw a travel show featuring the hotel and again the kids (as well as mum and dad) loved the look of the place.
So the time is now April and we now had all our bookings in place.
We were flying Qantas out of Melbourne Australia to LAX at noon on 20th Nov and due to arrive after 15.5 hours at LAX at approx 9am on the 20th Nov. I used points for 2 tickets and paid for the kids. Dont you love the idea that you can arrive before you even fly out due to the time difference.
Staying 2 nights at Grand Californian with a 2 day park hopper for DL. Then flying American direct to Orlando at 8am on the 22nd Nov. Little did I realise this was the day before Thanksgiving and one of the busiest flying days of the year, more on that later.
10 nights at WL with a 6 day park hopper and 2 day pass of Universal. We also had plans to visit Seaworld and travel out to the NASA space centre (Wishful thinking).
It was about this time I got onto DIS Boards, I wish I had found it much earlier. I became a member and started to learn a lot more. Here I thought I knew plenty because I had been to WDW before, wow its amazing how much you dont know.
For one thing the last time I was there which was only a few years ago we did not have any ADRs and just turned up. Now I read you should make them. Thank go we did because we would not have gotten into many of the restaurants we wanted. In the end I left it a bit late and missed out on a few. When we were there walk-ups were being turned away.
The countdown began. During this time the whole family spent time on the internet looking for information to plan our days as much as we could and especially the parks. So happens I start channel surfing on cable and come across a Disney travel show marathon with 6 shows back to back about DL and WDW. As you can imagine these shows were watched quite a bit over the coming months.
When I first brought up the idea of travelling to the USA my DW was a little sceptical about our youngest being OK and enjoying the trip. However a week at the Gold Coast in the far north of Australia convinced her she would be fine. The Gold Coast is the Australian Version of Orlando, similar weather and plenty of theme parks (Just on a smaller scale).
As you can imagine planning a trip from Australia to WDW takes a little bit of organising. For me I am a bit of a planning freak and took my time and still made plenty of mistakes mainly due to my excitement to book things prior to finishing all my research.
My first lesson came when I hade 3 travel agents provide me quotes. Our plans were to fly into LAX stay at Disneyland for 2 nights, then fly to Orlando and stay at WDW for 10 nights then to New York for a night and to Las Vegas for 2 nights then back to LA and back home to Melbourne Australia. I gave each of the travel agents the same instructions and views about where we wanted to stay.
My first lesson is travel agents dont listen, none of them came back with the hotels I had asked for. I specifically said we wanted to stay on site at both DL and WDW. I also told them where in New York I wanted to stay having been there a number of times on business and the type of Vegas hotel. I also wanted direct flights even if it meant spending a little more just because of the 2 DDs I didnt want to be changing flights etc.
Apart from NY they got everything wrong and had us staying off site and having multiple changing flights etc. I asked why they chose them and they said Oh because it will save you money. I told them I wanted the Disney experience for the girls and didnt mind spending the money. Having been to DL and WDW before (On the days off whilst travelling on business) I then gave them the hotel names.
During this time the girls and I had been on the internet and checked out all the WDW and DL hotels
They finally came back with quotes almost the same. Lesson two kicks in when I decide to go direct to Disney and have the rooms quoted. This saved me almost $1500. I went back to the best of the travel agents to enquire about the price he said he would match it and leave it with him for a few days.
Three weeks later I rang him and was finally told he could not match it and to book it direct myself. So I did.
At DL we booked into the Grand Californian and WDW we booked into the Wilderness Lodge. I had stayed at the WL once before when I had a few days off and loved it. I especially loved the Whispering Canyons informal feel and thought the kids would love it. GC was chosen as we saw a travel show featuring the hotel and again the kids (as well as mum and dad) loved the look of the place.
So the time is now April and we now had all our bookings in place.
We were flying Qantas out of Melbourne Australia to LAX at noon on 20th Nov and due to arrive after 15.5 hours at LAX at approx 9am on the 20th Nov. I used points for 2 tickets and paid for the kids. Dont you love the idea that you can arrive before you even fly out due to the time difference.
Staying 2 nights at Grand Californian with a 2 day park hopper for DL. Then flying American direct to Orlando at 8am on the 22nd Nov. Little did I realise this was the day before Thanksgiving and one of the busiest flying days of the year, more on that later.
10 nights at WL with a 6 day park hopper and 2 day pass of Universal. We also had plans to visit Seaworld and travel out to the NASA space centre (Wishful thinking).
It was about this time I got onto DIS Boards, I wish I had found it much earlier. I became a member and started to learn a lot more. Here I thought I knew plenty because I had been to WDW before, wow its amazing how much you dont know.
For one thing the last time I was there which was only a few years ago we did not have any ADRs and just turned up. Now I read you should make them. Thank go we did because we would not have gotten into many of the restaurants we wanted. In the end I left it a bit late and missed out on a few. When we were there walk-ups were being turned away.
The countdown began. During this time the whole family spent time on the internet looking for information to plan our days as much as we could and especially the parks. So happens I start channel surfing on cable and come across a Disney travel show marathon with 6 shows back to back about DL and WDW. As you can imagine these shows were watched quite a bit over the coming months.


really looking forward to reading your trip report and comparisons of DL and wdw.
