Aussie Disneyland Planners come on in and lets plan together :)

[queenie82]

I'm VERY jealous of you folks about to visit the mouse....
It is great to dollar is so high!!! Our last holiday was in February 09 when the dollar was in a dire situation.

As for the currency. There are just tinted bills etc. now.
There is no problem with the old stuff which as said is still in wide distribution.

I must say once you get familiar with the colours it makes life a little easier with the new stuff.

 

[aussiegirls]

We are going in 39 days

Just have to buy a few hundred in cash before we leave and we are all good to go

xxx

 

[keptwoman]

5 sleeps to go here!
I'm so glad the dollar is good currently. We are buying our currency on Wednesday.
I don't think I'll do a trip report here, we have a family blog and I will be posting to that regularly via my iPhone www.jumpedtheditch.blogspot.com

 

[jacs1234]

5 sleeps to go how exciting. I'll be following your blog. We want to know every single little detail.

 

[Andona]

5 sleeps to go here![/url]

According to the little Phantim3 counter ticking away on my desktop it's 23 Days, 8 Hours, 21 Mins and 5 Seconds til our plane is due to leave

If you like countdowns ( and who doesn't!) I can highly recommend this cute little piece of software. You can download it for free here http://phantim3.ywing.net

I'll post a picture of how it looks on my desktop.

I've setup a counter for each of our last three trips and I always start my holiday video by zooming in on the counter just before we leave for the airport

You can use any of their standard skins to customise it ( most of the skins seem to relate to movies or video games!) but if you like to play around with Photoshop you can create your own skins.

I've got a Disneyland skin that I'm happy to share with anyone that's interested in using it. It's currently customised for Oct 09 but I don't mind doing one for other months if anyone is interested. I can upload them to Photobucket. Here's Disneyland Oct one.

Andona

 

[becpee]

My DH just went off to the bank and got our travel card, and the lady at the bank told him there is speculation that the bottom is going to fall out of the market again, so we bought at a good time if that is the case.
I wonder who these fortune tellers are....

So we have some cash and our cards and just less than 8 weeks to go

 

[queenie82]

My DH just went off to the bank and got our travel card, and the lady at the bank told him there is speculation that the bottom is going to fall out of the market again, so we bought at a good time if that is the case.
I wonder who these fortune tellers are....

Don't say that!!!!!
I can't cope with another trip with the dollar in the doldrums

Given these people didn't seem to see the last one coming though I have little faith in their predictions.
75% of our accommodation is not affected (DVC) but I like not having to carry TCs and cash to maintain a good exchange rate.


Re tickers...I have a nice Disney widget for my mac.
You can add them to your dashboard
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/travel/disneytripcountdown.html

 

[becpee]

Re tickers...I have a nice Disney widget for my mac.
You can add them to your dashboard
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/travel/disneytripcountdown.html

I'm gonna grab one of those widgets

 

[Czardas]

2 sleeps for us

My last day at work today and tomorrow I will be running around like a chook with it's head cut off but bring it on. Waay too excited to concentrate on anything at work.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

2 sleeps for us

My last day at work today and tomorrow I will be running around like a chook with it's head cut off but bring it on. Waay too excited to concentrate on anything at work.

WOOHOO Czardas. That is just simply wonderful. I am so happy for you. Hope your "furbaby" is doing okay so you can relax and enjoy yourself.

 

[Czardas]

WOOHOO Czardas. That is just simply wonderful. I am so happy for you. Hope your "furbaby" is doing okay so you can relax and enjoy yourself.

Thanks he is so far doing really well and for anyone that is wondering what on earth we are talking about, my chow dog has cancer and he was given 10 weeks to live and guess what- 10 weeks was the same time until we left to go to Disneyland, so it was a very bittersweet thing.

However he is currently a bundle of energy and a really happy dog. Although he probably will go into major sulks when we leave him with the house sitter though.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Thanks he is so far doing really well and for anyone that is wondering what on earth we are talking about, my chow dog has cancer and he was given 10 weeks to live and guess what- 10 weeks was the same time until we left to go to Disneyland, so it was a very bittersweet thing.

However he is currently a bundle of energy and a really happy dog. Although he probably will go into major sulks when we leave him with the house sitter though.

Oh that is wonderful news. Phew what a relief.

I'm looking at all of your tickers underneath you posts and feeling very jealous. Unlike the rest of us, when you get back from this trip, you already have another one to look forward, you lucky thing.

 

[rossip]

Thank you so much Princessmiki and Bob !

Now I can sleep easy , but there was some truth in it I guess

Hope you have a great trip Czardas - less than 2 weeks for us now too , bought Front of LIne for Universal today , did the price beat thing again at Flight Centre

 

[aussiegirls]

For those that are going to the ToT party, who is dressing up?

We have just decided on our costumes. We are going as Coraline - all of us. So there will be a small, a medium and a large Coraline. Costume is easy but fun and I think we will probably look somewhat amusing

xxx

 

[queenie82]

For those that are going to the ToT party, who is dressing up?

We have just decided on our costumes. We are going as Coraline - all of us. So there will be a small, a medium and a large Coraline. Costume is easy but fun and I think we will probably look somewhat amusing

xxx

Some people are pretty serious about the dressing up at the Mickey's Not so scary Halloween party at WDW....
these guys are AWESOME. They made these costumes of the hitchhiking ghosts themselves

 

[soak01]

We've (2 Adults and 1 Child) booked to stay at the Doubletree Guest Suites direct through their online site and got a great rate using the AAA reciprical arrangement with the RAA here in SA. It means we will pay when we check out. I was just going to use my VISA card to pay, but the talk of a drop in the Aussie has been worried.

If I get a quantity of US Travellers Cheques, should I be able to use these as payment.

Also how much in US cash are people taking to have on hand. We are only going to be in the US for 6 nights before flying on to Canada and will use our VISA card to pay for any major purchases and sightseeing etc. DL tickets and transfers are already paid for, so we are thiniking of initially only having $500 to $700 on hand to cover tips, snacks and meals etc. Obviously, if I can avoid having to worry about using an ATM that will be great.

 

[melbarkwith]

It means we will pay when we check out. I was just going to use my VISA card to pay, but the talk of a drop in the Aussie has been worried.

If I get a quantity of US Travellers Cheques, should I be able to use these as payment.

You'll probably need to check with your hotel, but that's what we have done. I got some travellers cheques a while back to cover the amount of our accommodation (and I also did this last time we went with no problems). Of course, as soon as I did that, the dollar went up

 

[marvel]

2 sleeps for us as well.

hard to say about the dollar, loving it going to 86c just before we leave. you just can't tell. Yesterday they said it should go to 87c by end of year and then 91c by june, but they are all guessing.

I think anything over 80c is a bargain.

still feel a bit unprepared for the trip. anyone else have these nerves before they travel?

hey andona, the natural bridge that is in your countdown was on Stephen Fry's USA show the other day.

stupid question but is the only USA entry stuff you have to fill out on the one ESTA page? there isn't something I am missing is there??

 

[Andona]

I was just going to use my VISA card to pay, but the talk of a drop in the Aussie has been worried.....
Also how much in US cash are people taking to have on hand.

The Sydney Morning herald today has an article about expected continued growth in the Dollar. http://business.smh.com.au/business...ctations-firm-of-rate-rise-20090907-fefv.html

It's always a gamble of course but we're happy to hold out and pay for our accommodation etc using our credit card - we like the Frequent Flyer points! Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose - last year we did badly, hit the USA the day that the dollar really started to dive. Luckily we had prepaid about half of our accommodation.

This time around we've prepaid about a quarter of it but I have a gut feeling ( probably stupid!) that the dollar isn't likely to dive the way it did last year.

We only take about $1000 cash with us ( three week trip) and then top up at ATM's while we're there. We really only use cash for smaller purchases and tipping - credit card for restaurants and accommodation and larger shopping bills, basically the same that we would do here.

The ATM's are abundant and just as easy to use as our own.

Andona

 

[Andona]

2 sleeps for us as well.

...
still feel a bit unprepared for the trip. anyone else have these nerves before they travel?

2 sleeps! How exciting!! I wish I could swap with you

I tend to get a feeling like I'm on a roller coaster that's run away from me There always seems to be last minute things that hit you! We spend months planning these trips and then you get this sense of unreality when the day finally arrives - I usually have to pinch myself on the way to the airport

hey andona, the natural bridge that is in your countdown was on Stephen Fry's USA show the other day.

Was it?! I keep missing that show - I think I'll have to get the DVD. That's in Arches National park in Utah - can't wait to see it

stupid question but is the only USA entry stuff you have to fill out on the one ESTA page? there isn't something I am missing is there??

Yes that's all you have to do ahead of time, you'll just have to fill in the immigration card on the plane as well ( OR - have they done away with that since the ESTA stuff came in? Anyone know ? We traveled last year on the old system)

Andona