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

[arje]

Wow, I need to visit more often to keep up

sounds good arje. Have you already booked your cruise etc for 2010?
can't wait to hear how it goes, always wanted to go to disney for Xmas but scared of the crowds.

Yes the cruise is booked (using vacationstogo.com, saved 55% off RRP), we booked it in January. Best way to handle post xmas depression Will book the rest once they become available and will probably use mousesavers.com if they come back with decent prices, otherwise will do it myself direct with Disney etc.

Crowds at xmas aren't going to worry us too much. That's one reason we're staying for 3 weeks. We'll do just xmas things in that first week and just soak it up, releax and enjoy the festivities, and then focus on the rides and attractions later on when the crowds die down. We were in DL for the week between xmas and NY in 2005, so we've had a little practice as to what this means.

I like using the internet now for bookings. I've used Flight Centre also in the past, and they are great, but I know more now and comparing what I can get with what they can do does make it difficult to go back to an agent.

I found dealing direct with Disney Travel for Disneyland, especially on-site bookings are very easy, and competitive when packaging park tickets with accom. Although the 14 day pass we get here does make this a tough decision. Someone mentioned that they book accomodation over the phone with Disney, this is becasue we're unable to use the internet to book (must be US or Canada based), but by phone is easy and not too expensive phone call. For off site hotels, dealing direct with the hotel can be the best way sometimes for cheap rooms.

 

[platypus67]

Arje you mentioned that you can't book online with Disney. I've booked vacations online with them and found it really easy. I could also log in anytime I wanted to make a part payment. Once I tried to book park tickets only and couldn't get my postcode to work, kept telling me that it was incorrect. I gave up and went back later and it worked fine.

 

[marvel]

sound good arje. great to be able to book that far ahead. friends of ours talked about a trip in 2011, so maybe start looking into that when we get back from this trip in Sept. Always wanted to do a cruise.

I would be suprised if you can't get the wizard card as it exists as a product on its own, I hate having to give the bank 2-3% each purchase on my credit card !!

I am still looking to book a hotel in LA for the start of my stay, and the price does change often on sites like expedia.com.au because of the exchange rate. But generally I have found the hotels direct via their websites to be pretty cheap. Waiting for a few deals to come out for sept. Still tossing up about whether to get our hire car as soon as we land in LA or once we have finished in LA and begin our drive to Vegas.

Any of you getting cars in LA??

Anyone else staying at HOJO read the thread on the pool being too cold to swim in? Can any of you advise if this is likely to be true?

 

[kel77]

Hi everyone,

I was on the Howard Johnson Anaheim website forum and found a link to this site. I was astounded at how many Aussies are planning Disney trips

I will endevour to read through all 31 pages of this topic and I'm sure I'll find some very useful tips.

My Husband was lucky enough to win our holiday so we have done all of our booking through a travel agent - but will make note of all the tips on booking online

We are travelling to Disneyland on August 17th 2009. The countdown is well and truly on.

I just thought I'd say hello before getting down to reading

Talk to you all soon

Kel

(QLD family of 5 - Mum, Dad, Son 9, Son 6 and Daughter 3)

 

[aussiegirls]

Platypus67 I am surprised about the experience you had with Flight Centre. I have found the one near me is not too bad. If they just matched the price I wouldn't bother, but they have been willing to beat all my quotes so it has made it worthwhile, and they have not charged me any booking fees.

So the cheapest way I have found to book my stuff has been to research all the prices myself and find the cheapest. If that happens to be on an Aus site I take it in and get FS to make it even cheaper, if it is on an o/s site then I just book it myself that way.

I have been pleasantly surprised about how much I have actually ended up paying for things as opposed to how much I thought I would pay for things. But as others have said doing all the leg work myself has definately paid off

xxx

 

[gogo65]

Hi everyone,

I was on the Howard Johnson Anaheim website forum and found a link to this site. I was astounded at how many Aussies are planning Disney trips

I will endevour to read through all 31 pages of this topic and I'm sure I'll find some very useful tips.

My Husband was lucky enough to win our holiday so we have done all of our booking through a travel agent - but will make note of all the tips on booking online

We are travelling to Disneyland on August 17th 2009. The countdown is well and truly on.

I just thought I'd say hello before getting down to reading

Talk to you all soon

Kel

(QLD family of 5 - Mum, Dad, Son 9, Son 6 and Daughter 3)

Welcome Kel,

Enjoy your holiday.

Yes there is lots of us from Oz and NZ planning trips.

Are you seeing or doing anything else besides Disney??

Any questions ask away

 

[gogo65]

Platypus67 I am surprised about the experience you had with Flight Centre. I have found the one near me is not too bad.

xxx

Flight centre are normally terrible, most of them have no idea
You always need to double check everything.

I went in yesterday to a flight centre to get a quote for flights from Canada to Honolulu. She gave me a quote for Northwest airlines, I asked her what the price was with Air Canada or Alaskan airlines, she said she forgot about them, her original quote was about 50% more expensive than the quote I got with Alaskan. You really need to know your stuff if you use flight centre

The only reason I go in there is to get a quote on paper that I can take it to my travel agent.(NOT Flight Centre)
I have become good friends with my TA so she prices everything up for me then if I can get it cheaper I book direct otherwise she books for me. (She will always beat a FC quote) Generally I have found her prices for flights are always competitive but hotels vary.

 

[kel77]

Thankyou for the welcome

We are only on a short time-line with this trip and it'll be the first overseas trip for me as an adult and hubby and kids ever.

We are stopping in Fiji for 2 nights then heading to Anaheim for only 4 nights with a 3 day hopper pass. We are then off to Philadelphia to visit my Mum for a week before stopping again in Fiji before heading back to reality

My Husband won a Flight Centre voucher and our agent has been very knowledgable and helpful thank goodness.

I am only up to page 10! :S Kid's needed feeding so I guess I had to take a break

I loved reading about the cash passport/ANZ Visa. We were planning on the Cash Passport but if you can use the ANZ card also as eftpos then I would much prefer that

Well, back reading...................

I hope all that are travelling, travel safely and have a ball

Kel

P.S - Any tips on getting one of those countdown thingys would be appreciated

 

[aussiegirls]

gogo65 I tend to agree with you about needing to know all your stuff before going to FC. Just getting a quote from them will always be more expensive. I remember when I was just thinking of going to Disney and going in there and getting a quote and it was huuuuuuuge!!!! Doing it myself has probably almost halved the cost of our holiday.

The thing I find them handy for is beating the best price I can find by doing my own legwork. They saved me $50 on the best airfare I could find myself, $30 off the cost of my already discounted travel insurance from my health fund. They will now save me about $50 off the Disneyland website price of Park Hoppers. I know it's not huge amounts of money but better in my pocket than someone elses But if I hadn't done my own legwork and just gone to them I would be paying through the nose

I suppose at the end of the day the best way to do it is to research yourself and book it that way but if you can get a discount, I say do it any way that you can

xxx

 

[kel77]

I think I have figured out the ticker - I hope

Am up to page 20 so will finish in the morning

 

[lovintheland]

Nothing of any importance to report, other than I just packed and in 2 hours I can say "We're leaving tomorrow". I'm riduculously excited!

If I don't get back on before we leave (as if. I'm addicted to this site) happy travels and happy planning to everyone.

 

[aussiegirls]

Yay lovintheland!!! Hope you have an amazing time. I am finding the anticipation and planning soooooo much fun but I think the day before I leave I will probably be too excited to even breathe

Enjoy yourself

xxxx

 

[lovintheland]

Thank you so much aussiegirls! I do feel like I can't breathe. I just said to hubby, "it's a shame we have to go to bed tonight", I feel way tooooo excited and I feel like I could stay up all night and do more research. He said "havn't you done enough?". NEVER!!!!!
Enjoy your planning. The anticipation is the best part , well all most as good as the actual thing. I can't belive our trip is here already. Those weeks really do fly by. Lucky I work in Prep because I really think I won't be making tooo much sense tomorrow. Really should have planned to have tomorrow off as well for last minute things. Hopefully the school day will go super fast.

 

[SnowWhite09]

Hi everyone,
What do you do with regard to mobile phones while on holiday. Can you take your mobile phone from home and buy pre-paid sim cards in the US or do you just ring your provider and switch to global roaming?

Thanks for your help everyone - this is a great thread!

Not long to go now!

 

[lovintheland]

we have international roaming on our phones but last time but calls/texts are pretty expensive. This time we are also going to go to target over there tomorrow (how cool does that sound) and buy 2 Tracfones which I have learnt from the Tripadvisor forum are only about $20 and come with credit.

Hope this helps.

1 more sleep for us the excitment song & dance

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Thanks for all of the info on booking online versus booking with a travel agent. I did get a quote from a FC and about fell off my chair. I found expedia and was relieved, hahaha.

Great to hear that you can just book online, print out the booking info and get tickets there.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

What about transfers from airports? Do you go on shuttles? Book a limo? Would love to hear what you all do.

And do you book these online as well. Any recommendations would be great.

 

[arje]

Marvel, the new ships come online in 2011 and 2012, so perhaps you might be able to grab a cruise on one of them. Or perhaps on the Wonder when it's repositioned to the West coast. Disney cruises are offering more options soon, I don't think this will be our last one

Arje you mentioned that you can't book online with Disney. I've booked vacations online with them and found it really easy. I could also log in anytime I wanted to make a part payment. Once I tried to book park tickets only and couldn't get my postcode to work, kept telling me that it was incorrect. I gave up and went back later and it worked fine.

We've stayed at an onsite twice (DLH and PP hotels) and both times I tried to make the booking online. Everything goes OK until they ask for the "zip" code and location in the details and payment section. They won't accept the post codes and only offer US and Canada locations and won't let me go any further. I'm hoping for better luck on the WDW side of things, but that's just what I experienced for DL when booking through them for an onsite hotel. Mind you, last time I booked something was 2005, so hopefully things have changed.

On the phones question, I never take a mobile phone on international roaming. Way too expensive for both ends of the call and text. In the past I've used pre-paid calling cards which can be topped up. You dial a 1800 free call number to activate and then dial the number you want, and topping up is easy and cost effective. I use Telstra, but I assume other carriers have them too. Next trip though, we'll be taking a laptop computer and using Skype only. I can call home to relos for free because they too have Skype and other calls are cheap too. McDonalds have free wifi as do some hotels, but buying internet can also be cost effective too.

Super shuttle from the airport works well, but I also hear the Disney express is also a good option.

 

[AlyssaCameronsDad]

We are only on a short time-line with this trip and it'll be the first overseas trip for me as an adult and hubby and kids ever.

We are stopping in Fiji for 2 nights then heading to Anaheim for only 4 nights with a 3 day hopper pass. We are then off to Philadelphia to visit my Mum for a week before stopping again in Fiji before heading back to reality

Kel, Welcome to the DisBoards! I'm sure you'll love it. Alot busier than the Hojo boards

We left Philly 8 years ago, with only one visit 3 years back. So when you go back, you'll have to have a cheesteak, tastykake and yuengling for me - the meal of champions . Although, you're probably to young to have had the yuengling, if you haven't been there as an adult. Your husband may like it, as it's one of the few American beers with a flavour.

I'm sure you'll enjoy Fiji - it will be a nice relaxation after the total excitment of DLR.

-Brian

 

[emum]

Welcome to the board, Kel How fantastic to have won such a great prize !

Lovintheland - have a fabulous time !!

With regards to TAs versus online - I've done the vast majority of our bookings online for 13 years now (we went backpacking around the world in '96, and it was SO thrilling to be able to book things like Youth Hostels over the internet ! ). I research fares / prices ad infinitum, and think I have it down to a pretty fine art. BUT.... since we are now a large family (by most people's definitions), when it comes to Disney, I can't recommend Dreams Unlimited highly enough. My experience with them to date has been superb. Everything from finding accomm. at the DLH when there was none left on the www, to booking PS reservations, to, well, everything. I will continue using them for all our Disney requirements from here in (which I'm hoping will be every couple of years or so).

As for flights and everything else travel-related - I'm more than happy to keep doing that online myself. It's part of the whole "excitement package".

Roaming - VERY expensive. I wouldn't do it unless it was for business, or an emergency.

Super Shuttle - we used them for all our airport transfers (so 4 times) - there were very efficient, but we will always book a shuttle just for our family from here in. We took a shared shuttle for the first trasnfer, and had to endure 3 other drop-offs before reaching our hotel (we were the last drop-off). The kids were less than impressed....

Cheers,
Sally