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

[aussiegirls]

I found the cheapest prices I could online which happened to be Expedia, then printed it off and took it into the travel agent. They beat the price and gave me a $20 voucher.

xx

 

[Plumbob]

Hi Jacs1234 , I love your Pluto avatar , did you take it ? I seem to remember seeing it a couple of months ago on another board ( gasp ! )
Are you called " shine photography " or something
I would love to know if you have any other Disney photos to view , mine always turn out baaaad

 

[rossip]

I found the cheapest prices I could online which happened to be Expedia, then printed it off and took it into the travel agent. They beat the price and gave me a $20 voucher.

xx

Great deal looking at doing the same , was it Flight centre ?

 

[Czardas]

Ok confession time..............did anyone else get emotional when they first got to Disneyland?
I did, as it had been my childhood dream to go there, after watching wonderful world of Disney every Sunday night as a kid, I just couldn't believe I was finally there. I made it

I felt like a bit of a goose but DH gave me a huge cuddle and understood.

 

[Andona]

Ok confession time..............did anyone else get emotional when they first got to Disneyland?

Absolutely! I remember walking up to the entrance saying to myself "I don't believe it....I'm in Disneyland"..I'm in Disneyland...I'm in Disneyland!!! with an enormous silly grin on my face. I don't think I was weepy but I was definitely a bit crazy

Andona

 

[LesleyP]

I booked my flight to LA tonight so I'm officially going now!! Flying out the 20th of December and coming back 4th of January!!

I'm so excited!! At this stage I think I'll be doing 6 nights at Disneyland, 4 nights in San Francisco and 4 nights in LA.

Now I just need to do some serious saving and planning!!

 

[kylieh]

Ok confession time..............did anyone else get emotional when they first got to Disneyland?

I cried.

My first time was when we purchased the flights and Qantas emailed the tickets. We were meant to go the year before but this happened, that happened, stuff outside our control, and we couldn't go. It was like we were finally going to go!

The second time was when we actually walked into Disneyland. We were there. We had been to Las Vegas, well I did get a little emotional at the fountains, but this was it. The big exciting part of my trip. What I was really wanting and waiting for.

I don't think DH "got it" at the time, ie why I was teary when we arrived. Why did DL take all that time to see, his comparison had only been Dreamworld/ SeaWorld. But I think now he will be just as emotional when we go back as he was guy-emotional after 10 nights in Anaheim and didn't want to go home.

 

[darren123]

Wow it is really amazing how much we all have in common with relatives and friends not understanding, on our last trip to the USA we got presents for all the family and was not allowed to talk or even show photos about our trip at the next family get together. So when we went to Hong Kong Disneyland earlier this year we did not tell any family and when some of them phoned while we where away there were no questions so I do not talk about our future trips to Disneyland any more to family when ever they have started to talk about there holidays I tell them politely I do not want to know. It is like they look at how you can afford to go overseas I work as much overtime as I can and do not waste our money and we have grown up children who still live at home and stick to a budget. Really everyone once you go to Disneyland and you get back home a feeling of excitement starts to come over you and have to go again, and when you are in Disneyland for the second time it feels like home, almost and you think all the overtime all the hard work and planning you have put in just to get here a second or even third time. It gets easier as you do more trips, at least at work we can talk about our trips as some people I work with are travellers and is good to share just like being in this forum, I think it is great to be able to travel overseas whether it is to Disneyland or not at least you have your own fond memories to have for the rest of your life.

 

[aussiegirls]

rossip, yes it was flight centre. The girl gave me a $20 voucher because I found a cheaper quote. She then offered me the Travelex Cash Passport. I said I was still tossing up between that and the ANZ Travel card. So she told me she could waive all startup fees/commissions etc if I bought the Cash Passport from her and I could also put the $20 voucher on there. I took a brochure and will read it tonight. If the transaction fees are on par with ANZ I think I will go with it, Travelex exchange rate is slightly better than ANZ too

ETA re the crying thing, I have never even been to Disneyland but I was in tears watching the planning DVD

 

[marvel]

Westpac is pretty good for getting just some cash, no fees or commission and you can do it all online. I like that. I got some from the post but you have to go in to book it and then again to pick it up and you have no say in the denominations. I will get some more cash in the next few days, the dollar has gone over 83c heading towards 85c, that's what they are saying.

I think the ANZ travel card is slightly better, but now I cannot remember why, but if they are offering to waive all fees, sounds good, does it also work as a debit credit card like the ANZ card??
I am actually thinking of getting another card and putting some more money there for future trips as protection if the dollar decides to go back to 49c in the next few years!! if they wave all fees on the travelex may get one of those as a back up if its free.

I think i am going to risk it and not book at meals at all, and book when we get there. I think Sept is not that busy and really, there isn't any restaurant other than maybe the blue bayou that I would be upset about not eating at. I am guessing all you guys are booking all the character meals etc??

 

[keptwoman]

oops double post

 

[keptwoman]

We aren't doing any character meals. Pirates of the Caribbean is closed while we are there so I suppose the Blue Bayou will be too so I won't be bothering to worry about that either.
We will eat at Rainforest Cafe on the first night we are there for C's birthday and other than that we will be eating on the cheap.

I'm back to the will-I-won't-I about buying cash now. Hard to know when is the best time.

And yes. I cried the first time we went too. I've grown up listening to my Nana talk about Disneyland so finally getting there was pretty special

 

[aussiegirls]

marvel I was reading the Travelex website only yesterday and I was under the impression that it could only be used at ATM's and not POS transactions. When the TA asked me about it I told her that was one of my problems and a reason I was leaning towards the ANZ card. She said that Travelex now have 2 types of cards, the one I was reading about and also a debit one - which from what I gather is the same as the ANZ one. She gave me a few brochures about the Travelex debit and i have to say it sounds alright. No fees on POS transactions and $2.20 for ATM trans (I think that is the same as ANZ). So if she waives all startup fees for me I might grab it.

I think I have to sleep on it tonight though. I don't trust travel agents a great deal, don't want to get sucked into something

xxx

 

[marvel]

I just checked the travelex website and its rate for US is .7967 compared to .8018 for the Anz travel card. Pretty sure you then have to subtract 1% from both of these rates. All the other fees are pretty similiar i think. Travelex is $2.25US for ATM withdrawal.

I am sure you all know this, but if you use these cards for the hotel or car hire, the actually take out the deposit sometimes 20% of the total and it can take 7 days to get it put back on your card.

 

[aussiegirls]

Are you sure marvel? I just looked up the exchange rate and it is 0.8020 with Travelex

 

[marvel]

if you go to travelex.com.au it does say .8020 but that is for cash, if you click on the cashpassport banner on the right of that page it takes you to the cashpassport website where the rate then becomes .7967. I think that rate counts the 1% commission but instead of saying commission it just gives you a lower rate. The anz rate does show .8018 but then you have to take of 1.1% which probably makes it the same as travelex. If the agent will wave any start up cost, (the anz card is $11), then probably a good deal.

 

[becpee]

Well guys, I have a problem!

I can't find my passport, had it a couple of weeks ago when I picked up my DS's passport and now it's lost.

With getting a new passport do I need to pay the full passport fee + the 1 lost passport OR is it just a 1 lost passport fee.

I am freaking out, at least I have more than 3 months to go.....



ETA thank God!! I just found it....

 

[aussiegirls]

oh ok thanks marvel. Makes a lot more sense now

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Not long now until our trip, 62 sleeps I believe, a bit longer until we actually arrive at DL though since it is at the end of our trip.

Starting to think about which character meals. We think we have decided on Goofy's Kitchen and Ariel's Grotto.

Think Goofy's kitchen for a breakfast but I'm not sure about Ariel's Grotto, maybe a lunch???

I also need to decide other places we want to eat so I can make some PS's.

Where are you all planning on eating????

 

[aussiemickeys]

Marvel (& everyone else thinking about getting the ANZ visa debit card).

I think this is a great idea & actually got one the other day. However - please be aware that the cards have expiry dates on them. I thought I had done every bit of research on them before hand & totally missed this. I put a heap extra on for future trips & now will have to be extra careful not to lose out when it gets close to expiry date. They do have various options in place for getting your money back of course, but you can't simply roll it over onto another card. Not a huge drama - I will just make sure to withdraw everything left at the end of this trip. Oh yeh, also my sister & I were in the bank at the same time & purchased one each & one cards expiry date is a full 9 months longer than the other.

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up on this.