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

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

I just found this link in another thread and it's got some discount coupons you can print off for Downtown Disney and Universal studios. Valid until January 2010. Some good discounts in there, definitely worth a look:-

http://www.getawaytoday.com/Maps.aspx

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Hey just a reminder to read this below thread if your kids are keen to have a go at the Jedi training:-

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1478699

My DS is desperate to give it a go and DH is disappointed it's only for kids, he'd love to fight Darth Vadar,

Maybe we could put our heads together and come up with a good "aussie" slogan to put on their sign to help them get picked

 

[staceyinaustralia]

kiwitinkerbell- In las vegas we stayed at the MGM grand.

I booked thru thier website and got a fantastic deal for a bungalow queen suite with 2 buffet tickets for every day we were there, 2 cocktails, $20 pokie credit, tickets to studio 54 for under $700 for 7 nights.
The room was quite big, had 2 tvs, 2 comfy queen beds, 2 sinks, full bath and 2 showers, couch, desk, the major downers was no laundry facilitys (I washed what we needed in the bath ) and no coffee/tea maker. We had an amazing veiw of the New York New York casino.

Its in a great spot, with sky walks to New york New York, and also the Tropicana which is skywalked to Excalibur which has a tram to the Luxor and Mandalay Bay. Also it has the monorail which takes you on stops all the way up the strip. Downstairs is the m&m factory and lots of souvenier shops, and food.

I highly recommend it

 

[kiwitinkerbell]

kiwitinkerbell- In las vegas we stayed at the MGM grand.

I booked thru thier website and got a fantastic deal for a bungalow queen suite with 2 buffet tickets for every day we were there, 2 cocktails, $20 pokie credit, tickets to studio 54 for under $700 for 7 nights.
The room was quite big, had 2 tvs, 2 comfy queen beds, 2 sinks, full bath and 2 showers, couch, desk, the major downers was no laundry facilitys (I washed what we needed in the bath ) and no coffee/tea maker. We had an amazing veiw of the New York New York casino.

Its in a great spot, with sky walks to New york New York, and also the Tropicana which is skywalked to Excalibur which has a tram to the Luxor and Mandalay Bay. Also it has the monorail which takes you on stops all the way up the strip. Downstairs is the m&m factory and lots of souvenier shops, and food.

I highly recommend it

Oh wow - that sounds really great. I will have a look at their website. It sounds like you got a really good deal! Thanks for replying.

Jen

 

[jacs1234]

I just found this link in another thread and it's got some discount coupons you can print off for Downtown Disney and Universal studios. Valid until January 2010. Some good discounts in there, definitely worth a look:-

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

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Hey peeps, let's not let this thread get lost okay.

I want to go back to talking about mobile phones for while we are away. I think we discussed this earlier in the thread. A few of you were planning on buying a couple of cheap prepaid mobiles when you arrived and I have to say, I thought that was perfect. I have since spoken with a friend who travels to the US for work quite a bit and who also lived there for 3 years. He said you need to have a permanent US residence to purchase one of these.

My question is, has anyone bought prepaid mobiles there recently, can you tell me where you got them, what was involved etc?

 

[darren123]

Hey peeps, let's not let this thread get lost okay.

I want to go back to talking about mobile phones for while we are away. I think we discussed this earlier in the thread. A few of you were planning on buying a couple of cheap prepaid mobiles when you arrived and I have to say, I thought that was perfect. I have since spoken with a friend who travels to the US for work quite a bit and who also lived there for 3 years. He said you need to have a permanent US residence to purchase one of these.

My question is, has anyone bought prepaid mobiles there recently, can you tell me where you got them, what was involved etc?

I did not bother with buying a phone in the USA you have to give the number to family back home if you want to call you etc using up credit. I am with optus prepaid and ask them to set my phone to international roaming, check to see if it was ok to use in the USA and had about $50 credit on it before we went. My phone worked well I had to add more credit and just did it over the internet without any trouble. We told our friends and family before we went not to phone unless they had to our daughter would text us daily with an update from home all depends what you want to use phone for to family back home to keep in touch or if you need to make a phone call in the USA just use a pay phone. We did get one call from my son's school telling us he was sick and to come and pick him up a little bit hard when we are in the USA I just phoned my daughter to pick him up and take him to the doctor and texted us later to tell us that he was alright all up we used about $70 credit in our 2 week holiday hope that helps you

 

[marvel]

firstly, well done darren planned trips all the way to 2016 !!

on the phones, i have never heard of having to be a resident to buy a prepaid. Last year we bought ours in wallmart for $15 or $20 including credit and they were great. ALso used the prepaid voucher/cards you get from the servo to call aussie. If you are only away for a week or so, maybe you don't need them, but we used them when we seperated to go shopping etc. they were really handy.
I suppose you may have to put up a seperate thread so we get local advice.

 

[lovintheland]

We intended on buying a couple of prepaids for our trip after advice on tripadvisor. We priced them at Target on our first day there and wanted to wait and see what price Walmart had them for. By the time we got to Walmart a few days later we decided we didn't really need them. Hubby and I both had our mobiles on roaming and we told family not to ring us unless necessary. (It was his birthday while we were there and he's one of 9 in his family and they never miss a birthday call. We made sure to tell them not to ring. Can you imagine our phone bill. LOL!) We messaged each other a couple of times when we went separate ways but didn't really need the other phones. Just a word of warning though, hubby asked me if I'd sent photos on my phone while we were away, yes I'd sent three. They cost us $20 according to our latest phone account. Yikes!!! seemed like a good idea at the time to brag to my niece at home about being at the baseball with our big foam fingers and big beers.

I guess at the end of the day it depends on what your needs are. Phone cards to call home are probably a good idea.

 

[arje]

Phone cards to call home are probably a good idea.

I agree with this. They're cheap and easy to use and easy to top up as well.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

The problem with putting our phones on roaming is that I run my own business and my mobile number is my main business number, and my husband is the general manager of a business and his mobile is often the contact for many of the businesses big clients, so you see our dilemma. We can't tell people not to ring us, so we'd prefer not to use our phones.

So maybe I just need to do a bit more research on trip advisor etc to make double sure, but I guess if you did it not long ago Marvel, then I should be right.

We definitely want mobiles with us so we can contact each other in the park and at our other destinations.

Thanks everyone for chiming in.

 

[darren123]

The problem with putting our phones on roaming is that I run my own business and my mobile number is my main business number, and my husband is the general manager of a business and his mobile is often the contact for many of the businesses big clients, so you see our dilemma. We can't tell people not to ring us, so we'd prefer not to use our phones.

So maybe I just need to do a bit more research on trip advisor etc to make double sure, but I guess if you did it not long ago Marvel, then I should be right.

We definitely want mobiles with us so we can contact each other in the park and at our other destinations.

Thanks everyone for chiming in.

I understand then not a good idea to take your own phone then a cheap prepaid from
Target they have a TracFone LG 410 Prepaid Cell Phone - Black/Silver for $19.99 Features
Phone Type: Flip Phone
Service Provider: TracFone
Calling Features: Call Waiting
Telecommunication Features: Caller ID, Voice Mail
Talk Time: 3 hours
Standby Time: 300 hours
Built-In Digital Camera: No
Text Messaging: Yes
Instant Messaging: No
Internet/Email Capable: No
MMS Enabled: Yes
GPS Enabled: No
Frequency/Band: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
Wireless Technology: GSM
Dimensions: Length: 3.46 "; Width: 3.46 "; Depth: 0.73 "
Product Weight: 2.85 Oz.
Warranty Description: 1 Year Limited Manufacturer Warranty

And others up to $49.99

www.target.com or Kmart and walmart all have simlar deals
Hope this helps

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

I understand then not a good idea to take your own phone then a cheap prepaid from
Target they have a TracFone LG 410 Prepaid Cell Phone - Black/Silver for $19.99 Features
Phone Type: Flip Phone
Service Provider: TracFone
Calling Features: Call Waiting
Telecommunication Features: Caller ID, Voice Mail
Talk Time: 3 hours
Standby Time: 300 hours
Built-In Digital Camera: No
Text Messaging: Yes
Instant Messaging: No
Internet/Email Capable: No
MMS Enabled: Yes
GPS Enabled: No
Frequency/Band: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
Wireless Technology: GSM
Dimensions: Length: 3.46 "; Width: 3.46 "; Depth: 0.73 "
Product Weight: 2.85 Oz.
Warranty Description: 1 Year Limited Manufacturer Warranty

And others up to $49.99

www.target.com or Kmart and walmart all have simlar deals
Hope this helps

Darren, you are a legend, thanks so much for finding that info for me. I definitely think this is the go for us.

DH and I both have iphones, I wonder if we could take the sim card out of the prepaid and put it in our iphones?

 

[PoohBear1988]

The problem with putting our phones on roaming is that I run my own business and my mobile number is my main business number, and my husband is the general manager of a business and his mobile is often the contact for many of the businesses big clients, so you see our dilemma. We can't tell people not to ring us, so we'd prefer not to use our phones.QUOTE]

What will be happening to any calls that you and your husband would normally be getting? Is someone at home going to be taking the calls in your place, or will they still be going unanswered? (or to voicemail?)

When we went overseas, we put the phone on roaming so we could text each other and back home, but put call divert on our phones so any calls when straight to voice mail and we just changed our voice mail messages to say we were currently overseas but would be back on whatever date and we would get back to them then, or if they wanted to send a text message.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

The problem with putting our phones on roaming is that I run my own business and my mobile number is my main business number, and my husband is the general manager of a business and his mobile is often the contact for many of the businesses big clients, so you see our dilemma. We can't tell people not to ring us, so we'd prefer not to use our phones.QUOTE]

What will be happening to any calls that you and your husband would normally be getting? Is someone at home going to be taking the calls in your place, or will they still be going unanswered? (or to voicemail?)

When we went overseas, we put the phone on roaming so we could text each other and back home, but put call divert on our phones so any calls when straight to voice mail and we just changed our voice mail messages to say we were currently overseas but would be back on whatever date and we would get back to them then, or if they wanted to send a text message.

I was thinking about just changing our messages to say that we were on holidays and for them to leave a message and we would get back to them upon our return.

 

[marvel]

If you can get someone to man your iphone for you, that way the phone can get answered and they can then email you or sms you any urgent details. So that way you won't miss out on business. Roaming sounds good, but every single phone call you receive will cost you a bundle. SMS I think only costs 50c so not too bad.

 

[aussietravellers]

The problem with putting our phones on roaming is that I run my own business and my mobile number is my main business number, and my husband is the general manager of a business and his mobile is often the contact for many of the businesses big clients, so you see our dilemma. We can't tell people not to ring us, so we'd prefer not to use our phones.

So maybe I just need to do a bit more research on trip advisor etc to make double sure, but I guess if you did it not long ago Marvel, then I should be right.

We definitely want mobiles with us so we can contact each other in the park and at our other destinations.

Thanks everyone for chiming in.

That is the same with us, we use our phones for business and it's not just that. I had the lawn mower man call at 2am whilst in Europe in December not knowing we were away, forgot to put the phone on silent overnight so it's great to be able to turn off the home mobile and escape . It is VERY handy having a local phone whilst away and being a business number also, its great to be able to put an away message on. Whilst in the UK this last December we just got a UK prepaid sim and took an old mobile from home and put that sim in. It was not just handy to call each other, but if you want to call a local restaurant or a store, you can call locally rather than using the hotel phone also, we lost some gloves whilst away and had that number to leave at the lost property if they were handed in.

We will be each be getting prepaid mobiles whilst in the US later this year, even our DS so if we are seperated we can contact him (we lost our DS at Disneyland Paris in December, walking along, next thing he wasn't with us, we were frantic (as was he), he was missing for an hour (at night, during the parade, near closing time in a foreign country and didn't speak the language), we had to report him missing and wasnt found for half an hour after the park closed!) Had he had a mobile with him we could have called and asked him where he was. So after that experience, he will always have a cheap prepaid mobile with him when we are away and so will we, it was so great having them last trip.

 

[darren123]

firstly, well done darren planned trips all the way to 2016 !!

Thank you marvel I just like planning ahead. We were looking at a short trip in Jan and then a trip in Sept, As the in law's now want to go we thought Nov/Dec would be good as it is Christmas time in Disneyland and fits in well with everyone going.

 

[aussietravellers]

You can get prepaid sim's in the US also. So if you have an old mobile at home (make sure it's triband and not locked to a network) the you can just take that and put a sim card in it. The prepaid sim comes with a phone number, that's what we did in the UK last trip and will do in the US. You can even buy them through amazon before you go. If you google prepaid sim usa you will get heaps of info, but here are a couple that I found on amazon.com (not saying to buy through them, just wanted to show you what I was meaning), don't know if you can get these at target or walmart though.

http://www.amazon.com/T-mobile-USA-Prepaid-Card-Credit/dp/B001B4VV70

http://www.amazon.com/AT-3G-Card-Prepaid-activation/dp/B000YHCEQM/ref=pd_sim_e_1

Just another idea for those wanting to buy a prepaid phone and have an old phone at home.

 

[BecBennett]

Just popping in to say hello!

I haven't been on this side of the board much lately, I've been over in the weddings and honeymoons section