Advance Australians Fair!

[MarmiteOnToast]

Any other Australians been to WDW (or planning to)?

Resources (such as DISboards) are fantastic, but not come across much info specifically for us - disney.com.au doesn't even mention WDW!

We're coming from Perth hopefully for 2 weeks end Sept/beginning Oct 07.

Mighty, mighty long way - I thought going to UK was bad! Any flight planning info gratefully received.

Got the Unofficial Guide by Bob Sehlinger, good lord it's a bit bigger than my other copy - 1994! Have used up a pack of hi-lighters on it so far.

Still - at least we'll be used to the sunshine.

Cheers.

 

[aussiedaisy]

Hello fellow Aussie diser!!! I live in Melbourne and myself and my twin sister are awaiting our second trip to WDW in May this year!!! We are huge WDW fans and have many tips on planning a trip from this end of the world!! If you need any info or ideas or planning help just give me a pm and I would be more than happy to help you with any questions. It is quite difficult planning a trip to WDW from Australia as there isn't much information at all and a lot of the travel agents don't have a clue about things such as how to go about booking the magical express or even what the magical express IS!!! It is also not explained by the Aussie travel agents how to make dining reservations, what number to call and when to call (we had to time it to call at 2am which was around 8am in Orlando). There are a lot of things we probably would miss out on due to the lack of info. Luckily, being WDW fans we have really researched EVERYTHING and pretty much have it down pat regarding what we need to do, take and organise. So pm me with any questions you have.

 

[erinstar]

Hello Fellow Aussie!

I'm planing atrip myself in Sept... As aussiedaisy said, make sure you do as much research as you can before you go to a travel agent, if you are going to bookthru them. I was booking accomodation yesterday and they wanted to charge us $46 (Aust) return for Airport transfers from Orlando airport to the resort, I had to tell the Travel agent it should be free, and she confeered with the "wholesaler" she was speaking to on thephone and the "wholesaler" said it was only from the resort to the themeparks, I ened up having to explain everything to them to enusre we got the right deals.
The other tip I have to just to asks as many questions here as you need answered because at least one person will know the answer and everyon loves helping each other out!

Good luck with the trip planning!

 

[MarmiteOnToast]

Hi Aussiedaisy and Erinstar

Thanks so much for your posts. Any suggestions on the flights? I'm coming from Perth so that makes it more interesting.

Also I've just found an Aussie disney site dudisneyana (.com.au I think) - that's pretty cool too!

Will think up some more nice questions for you.

Cheers

 

[Marion]

I'm not an Aussie but here's a link for a trip report you might be interested in

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1386357

 

[erinstar]

No worries, umm for flights, I don't know how much help I'll be with that as I'm actually going to LA, and NY for a few nights before heading to Orlando and then having a few nights in Vegas on the way home.
However our travel agent said we would be better off just getting Melb-LAX-Melb tix as a start and getting our internal flights seperatly to that, as no matter what flight u take from Aust even thou it says 'direct flight' to NY or whatever u end up having a stop over in LA anyways..
We are flying From Melb to Auckland then on to La and the reverse on our return.
I guess it depends when u are going, how long u are going to go for, if u r only going to Orlando, and how flexible u are with dates etc...

I hope that helps.

Thanks Marion for the trip thread link, I've only read the first post soo far but its great to hear from the Aussies!

 

[PrincessBelle39]

Hi everyone
I'm in Melbourne and have booked for late November 2007. We are travelling with QF because we are travelling with 4 frequent flyers who have booked on points and because we are also coming back through London.
We leave on 28November and are staying 4weeks, renting a house in Windsor Hills which looks fantastic. We thought about staying onsite but because we are staying so long and there are so many of us (11) it suited us much better.
For tickets we will all get annual passes. Flights are booked and paid for, deposit for the accommodation is paid. Just waiting for tickets to be available for MVMCP later this year and will order our annual passes as well.
I agree, do as much research yourself, even if booking through an agent. I do this everytrip and basically go in and tell the agent what I want. I usually only book flights through them and do the rest myself.
Suzanne

 

[Harrop]

sup my fellow aussies!

my family just got back from about 3 weeks at wdw

we went syd-LA-orlando

it was our first time at wdw and we tried to plan (buying books etc).... but when we arirved all of the planning pretty much went out of the door!!

just make sure u have something to do on the plane... 15hrs is a long time (from syd anyway)

also we arrived in LA at about 6:30am and after sitting on the plane for 15hours, we were told by the captain that we could not be let off the plane till 8am which is when customs opened

so a 15 hour flight turned into a 17 hour flight... and u can only imagine 400 people on a qantas 747 trying to stretch there legs at the same time

finally when we were let off (commence appluasing) they only had 3 customs booths open!!!

and of course we were in economy about 10 rows form the back of the aircraft so we were pretty much the last 2 get through customs which took about 2 hours! funnily enough why we were all lined up about another 3 aircraft landed and they all started lining up too.... still with only 3 customs booths opened

quite pathetic really.... you would think they would know that there would be a lot of people due in.. and put more than 3 customes officers on!

sigh! i guess it is hard to compare when we get it so good in australia (well in sydney anyway)!!

have fun!!!