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

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

keptwoman I think the best prices for character meals can be found on ARES travel website. They sell pre-paid vouchers that are significantly cheaper than paying for the meals at the time. I am going to buy my vouchers in the next day or so.

xxx

Hey cool, I haven't heard of this site. Off to check it out.

 

[SnowWhite09]

Thanks so much for that. I really want to go to build a bear this time and with 4 kids, every saving counts.

Build a bear is so much fun - even for adults! The hardest part is deciding which one to choose.

Have fun!

 

[kylieh]

It was around this time last year I was ringing for my PS for last years trip. I wanted to ensure I got the first sitting and first time slot for Ariel's at lunch - 11.30am. So I set my alarm for 12.55am to ring at 1am. That gave me 5 minutes to whinge appropriately and annoy DH about "Do you know what time it is?" I did have a few which I absolutley had to have for a certain time so I repeated this process a few times over a week.

When you ring, especially if you do it in the middle of the night, make sure you know your mobile phone number with the international dialling code (ie tell them + 61 then mobile number 4xxxxxxxx drop the 0 on the number) and the name of where you are staying written down. They did ask me and the second time I rang I was prepared Well it's hard to know that info in the middle of the night.

The whole process only took a couple of minutes, I wasn't on hold for very long at all.

LA is in daylight savings time. So 1am here is 8am LA time the day before.

 

[platypus67]

I'm thinking of making my PS reservations in the next few days. I'm pretty sure I am close to the 60 day window to make them. I was going to wait until we arrive in Canada but may as well have it all organised before we leave. I only made my PS for the Blue Bayou about three weeks in advance last year and had no problem, but you never know. I'd hate to miss out or have to wait even longer on the day.
I've always called from oz and never had a problem with long waits. Call is generally under $4.00.
At this stage we are planning on the Blue Bayou for a late lunch maybe around 1:30 and possibly The Rainforest Cafe as well. Will have to discuss it with DD and see what we want to do.

 

[aussiegirls]

I just wanted to share I bought our Cirque tickets today. Got section 201 (which is the first tier) front row centre. Price was pretty good and I am now officially excited. I best tickets I could get were on our last night in the US so I think it will be a great ending to our trip!!!

Just have to figure out how to get to Santa Monica from Universal area by public transport. I have a town car picking us up and taking us back after it has finished because I thought I didn't want to be catching a taxi at that time of night and the town car worked out to be almost the same as the cost of a taxi

ETA : I just received my etickets and on them they have a special code for Cirque shows in Las Vegas (excluding O I think) where you can get a second ticket for $25. If anyone is interested just let me know and I will give you the code.

Getting excited

xxx

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

I just wanted to share I bought our Cirque tickets today. Got section 201 (which is the first tier) front row centre. Price was pretty good and I am now officially excited. I best tickets I could get were on our last night in the US so I think it will be a great ending to our trip!!!

Just have to figure out how to get to Santa Monica from Universal area by public transport. I have a town car picking us up and taking us back after it has finished because I thought I didn't want to be catching a taxi at that time of night and the town car worked out to be almost the same as the cost of a taxi

ETA : I just received my etickets and on them they have a special code for Cirque shows in Las Vegas (excluding O I think) where you can get a second ticket for $25. If anyone is interested just let me know and I will give you the code.

Getting excited

xxx

That's great. You will have such a great time and you will be glad you got those centre tickets.

We have organised town cars for 80% of our transfers throughout our trip. The prices were so comparable, I thought it was worth the extra money, except for Vegas, we'll just cab it there.

Bummer I already have my Vegas Cirque tickets, but I know Marvel hasn't gotten his yet, hopefully he sees this.

 

[rossip]

Oh O Looking like the dollar is on a bit of a slide - lost 2 cents in 2 days - what to do ??

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Oh O Looking like the dollar is on a bit of a slide - lost 2 cents in 2 days - what to do ??

Glad I did all of my money in the past few weeks

 

[rossip]

Glad I did all of my money in the past few weeks

We got some a few weeks ago but call me a worry wart or panicker ( and after watching the business channel on Fox ) I just raced up to the bank and grabbed some more

 

[aussiegirls]

I am very glad that I got my travel card already - I put every single dollar I had on in Still plan on getting a few hundred in cash just before we go but that is not as big of a deal as the travel card. I figure that anything over 0.80c is pretty good really

xxx

 

[rossip]

Duplicate post somehow ???? Sorry

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

I am very glad that I got my travel card already - I put every single dollar I had on in Still plan on getting a few hundred in cash just before we go but that is not as big of a deal as the travel card. I figure that anything over 0.80c is pretty good really

xxx

I'm going to organise my cash tomorrow I think, just in case. And it will be good to cross another thing off my list anyway.

 

[~ButterflyKisses~]

Are the people who are making PS at DL calling DL directly (from Australia/NZ) to make theses reservations?

We'll be in Anaheim for 15 days - 11 days off site and 4 days hopefully at the DL hotel.

DS celebrates his birthday on the 12th day of our stay and really wants to have the Lilo and Stitch meal. Bearing in mind that his birthday is the day after Thanksgving, and likely to be very busy, should I call now or wait until we get to Anaheim?

I'd hate for him to miss out.

A lovely lady from Texas on the DIS boards offered to ring and make my PS reservations for me so I didn't have to call from Australia. She booked them for us today and we got almost all the times we wanted. The ones we didn't get were only 10-20 minutes in time difference to the ones we requested so I'm very happy

We've booked dinner at EPSN Zone, Rainforest Cafe, Blue Bayou, Hooke's Point & Storyteller's cafe, lunch at Carnation Cafe & Ariel's Grotto, and breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen.

Our Cirque du Solei tickets are in section 203 about 6 rows back, dead on centre.

 

[dollarmite]

A lovely lady from Texas on the DIS boards offered to ring and make my PS reservations for me so I didn't have to call from Australia. She booked them for us today and we got almost all the times we wanted. The ones we didn't get were only 10-20 minutes in time difference to the ones we requested so I'm very happy

We've booked dinner at EPSN Zone, Rainforest Cafe, Blue Bayou, Hooke's Point & Storyteller's cafe, lunch at Carnation Cafe & Ariel's Grotto, and breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen.

What a lovely thing for that Texan DISer to do.

Well, I took the plunge and booked 4 nights at the Disneyland Hotel, through Dreams Unlimited. One of the services includes the DU TA making the PS for us, so that is a relief. (Can't believe I am paying over $400 a night for a hotel room!! ).

I'm also going to book the Pat E Cake birthday "party"/gathering thingy and hopefully the TA can book that as well.

 

[dollarmite]

Oh O Looking like the dollar is on a bit of a slide - lost 2 cents in 2 days - what to do ??

I could kick myself for not ordering some cash via the Westpac site. I was all set to do so the other night but decided to hang out in case I got a better deal...

I checked the site just now and it'll cost an extra $100 to order the cash amount I want. Better do it anyway in case it drops even further.

 

[aussiegirls]

Just in case anyone is interested I thought I would share. I found on the California Pizza Kitchen website that you can sign your kids up to their birthday club. They will email a voucher that is good for the entire month of their birthday for a free meal. Hey, every dollar saved is another dollar for Disney (or for shopping ).

xxx

 

[kel77]

When Hubby and I bought our travel money card we were uuuummmmming and aaahhhhhing to do it then or not. We were so worried thet it would sky rocket after we bought and were to scared to watch the finance report (even though I still watched - couldn't help myself ). I am happy we bought when we did

Hopefully it starts to rise again

 

[marvel]

hey everyone, dollar back up a little today, you can get cash for around .8118 at westpac no fees, i got some at .82 last week. Anything around .80c is good.

I would love the cirque 'O' code, we have been tossing up between that and Mystere in vegas, O was much dearer so that may sway us. We also plan to do Lion King there and all in all these shows eat up the cash.

What's this other cirque you are all going to? Is in in Santa Monica? Where did you guys book tickets through?

Oh, we love California Pizza Kitchen. I just cannot understand why we don't have places similar here. Their variety of meals and desserts is just unreal and they are so family friendly. Last year I think we ate there 3 times during 1 week in Hawaii. Ooh, getting excited, only a few weeks to go.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

hey everyone, dollar back up a little today, you can get cash for around .8118 at westpac no fees, i got some at .82 last week. Anything around .80c is good.

I would love the cirque 'O' code, we have been tossing up between that and Mystere in vegas, O was much dearer so that may sway us. We also plan to do Lion King there and all in all these shows eat up the cash.

What's this other cirque you are all going to? Is in in Santa Monica? Where did you guys book tickets through?

Oh, we love California Pizza Kitchen. I just cannot understand why we don't have places similar here. Their variety of meals and desserts is just unreal and they are so family friendly. Last year I think we ate there 3 times during 1 week in Hawaii. Ooh, getting excited, only a few weeks to go.

I was just thinking about you today Marvel, wondering if you say the post about the code. Glad you saw it in time.

I was just thinking today about all of the show tickets we've bought, all the tours we've booked, etc. The mind boggles at how much it must all add up to but man o man, I won't be adding it up

I really don't wanna know

 

[aussiegirls]

The Cirque show we are going to is Kooza on Santa Monica pier. We booked our tickets directly through Cirque website, prices were significantly cheaper than on any other site I found.

marvel, have PM'd you with the Cirque discount code info

xxx