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

[~ButterflyKisses~]

6 weeks to go!! I am so excited!

We just bought a camera backpack to carry around our digital SLR camera when we're in the US. It has a zippered section at the bottom to store our camera, lenses and video camera. At the top is a seperate section to carry our wallet/purse, mobiles, room keys, bottle of water & a jumper etc. I thought it would be great to carry our stuff around at DL, seaworld & the zoo.

We also booked our tickets to see the Lion King on Broadway when we're in New York. We've also got tickets to see the Angels vs Yankees baseball games when we're in Anaheim. Just need to book our cirque du solei tickets, grand canyon tour, LA/Hollywood tour, universal studios tour & dine with shamu tickets.

We also purchased an ANZ cash card and some extra US money in cash. We got $200 in $1 notes. I wasn't sure how much $1s we needed but I figure we'd need a few as we'll be in the US for almost 4 weeks.

I still can't get my head around tipping either. I think i read somewhere that you need to tip between 10-15%. Someone also suggested looking at the receipt at restaurants and tipping whatever it said for GST. So if the GST was $16.50 you'd tip another $16.50. I have no idea though?

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

6 weeks to go!! I am so excited!

We just bought a camera backpack to carry around our digital SLR camera when we're in the US. It has a zippered section at the bottom to store our camera, lenses and video camera. At the top is a seperate section to carry our wallet/purse, mobiles, room keys, bottle of water & a jumper etc. I thought it would be great to carry our stuff around at DL, seaworld & the zoo.

We also booked our tickets to see the Lion King on Broadway when we're in New York. We've also got tickets to see the Angels vs Yankees baseball games when we're in Anaheim. Just need to book our cirque du solei tickets, grand canyon tour, LA/Hollywood tour, universal studios tour & dine with shamu tickets.

We also purchased an ANZ cash card and some extra US money in cash. We got $200 in $1 notes. I wasn't sure how much $1s we needed but I figure we'd need a few as we'll be in the US for almost 4 weeks.

I still can't get my head around tipping either. I think i read somewhere that you need to tip between 10-15%. Someone also suggested looking at the receipt at restaurants and tipping whatever it said for GST. So if the GST was $16.50 you'd tip another $16.50. I have no idea though?

Hehe we were tossing up between Lion King and Mary Poppins but ended up choosing Mary Poppins, bought the tickets last night.

We've already booked our Cirque De Soleil tickets and our grand canyon tour. I booked our LA/Hollywood tour yesterday after a ridiculous amount of agonising who to go with, thank goodness that's done.

Is $200 in $1 notes a thick pile? I was originally thinking $100 worth but may need to revisit it.

I did some serious googling this morning on the tipping thing and everywhere I read it was between 15-20% for tips. Not sure how accurate that is though.

Sounds like you are nearly all ready to go, woohoo

 

[keptwoman]

I'm still pondering Broadway. Where did you guys get your tickets from?
Ms Shuttergirl... did you know Mary Poppins is coming to Melbourne?

 

[~ButterflyKisses~]

Hehe we were tossing up between Lion King and Mary Poppins but ended up choosing Mary Poppins, bought the tickets last night.

We've already booked our Cirque De Soleil tickets and our grand canyon tour. I booked our LA/Hollywood tour yesterday after a ridiculous amount of agonising who to go with, thank goodness that's done.

Is $200 in $1 notes a thick pile? I was originally thinking $100 worth but may need to revisit it.

I did some serious googling this morning on the tipping thing and everywhere I read it was between 15-20% for tips. Not sure how accurate that is though.

Sounds like you are nearly all ready to go, woohoo

Which Cirque show are you seeing and which seats did you get? I think we will have to ring to book our cirque tickets as when I had a look online for the "O" show it said the best available tickets were wet seats and I definately don't want to sit in wet seats. It won't let me pick any other seats on the website so I'll just call them directly I think.

Not sure if $200 in $1 notes would be a think pile but I imagine it would be I guess. We haven't picked up our cash yet as they had to order it in. Should be in on Monday.

What grand canyon tour are you doing? I'm just about to book that online too but need to check with my fiance first. I think we are going to do the Grand Deluxe tour plus helicopter with papillion.

What did you decide with your LA/Hollywood tour? Who are you going with? I think we're just going to go with Grayline. As there is only the two of us, it costs a lot more to do a private limo tour and I don't want the hassle of driving ourselves.

We also want to book the Universal Studios front of the line tour with Grayline but can't do that online either. You can only book the regular tour online and not the FOL pass one.

Still waiting for dine with Shamu tickets to be released and for the show times to be on the seaworld website.

 

[~ButterflyKisses~]

I'm still pondering Broadway. Where did you guys get your tickets from?
Ms Shuttergirl... did you know Mary Poppins is coming to Melbourne?

We bought our tickets online at ticketmaster.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

I'm still pondering Broadway. Where did you guys get your tickets from?
Ms Shuttergirl... did you know Mary Poppins is coming to Melbourne?

Yes we did hear that Keptwoman. We had narrowed it down to Lion King and Mary Poppins, my son was leaning towards Lion King (he's 7) but then he watched Mary Poppins DVD again and thought that would be fine. My 11 year old daughter is a dancer, and a really traditional stage show really appeals to her.

We looked around at the other ones that were kid friendly and this one just felt right for us. Can't wait.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Which Cirque show are you seeing and which seats did you get? I think we will have to ring to book our cirque tickets as when I had a look online for the "O" show it said the best available tickets were wet seats and I definately don't want to sit in wet seats. It won't let me pick any other seats on the website so I'll just call them directly I think.

Not sure if $200 in $1 notes would be a think pile but I imagine it would be I guess. We haven't picked up our cash yet as they had to order it in. Should be in on Monday.

What grand canyon tour are you doing? I'm just about to book that online too but need to check with my fiance first. I think we are going to do the Grand Deluxe tour plus helicopter with papillion.

What did you decide with your LA/Hollywood tour? Who are you going with? I think we're just going to go with Grayline. As there is only the two of us, it costs a lot more to do a private limo tour and I don't want the hassle of driving ourselves.

We also want to book the Universal Studios front of the line tour with Grayline but can't do that online either. You can only book the regular tour online and not the FOL pass one.

Still waiting for dine with Shamu tickets to be released and for the show times to be on the seaworld website.

This is the Grand Canyon tour we are doing:- http://www.grandcanyontourcompany.com/bussouth.html We weren't keen for a helicopter ride, our family so does not do heights,

I rang directly to book our tickets for Cirque because you got a discount for the children of 50% or something if you did. We definitely wanted to see O however it isn't playing the 3 days were are there, bummer. So we are seeing Mystere. We could've gotten front row but chose to go 7 rows back, front row is too low to the stage as a rule so I wanted to be back a little so we are more at eye level.

This is who we are doing our Hollywood tour with:- http://www.deluxelimousine.com/tours.htm

We really wanted to do the limo thing rather than a tour bus for this tour.

Hope that helps

 

[~ButterflyKisses~]

How much is the limo tour costing you and how long is your tour? Where do you get picked up from?

 

[melbarkwith]

Mel , we had to wait a few hours while they checked it with head office or something to verify they could beat expedia but it was worth it believe me. The price the FC quoted us was $1230 , Expedia was 974.00 we paid 973.00 and got $40.00 vouchers to use on something else.

The Expedia price I got was $901 (1 adult, 3 kids), and the first price flight centre gave me was $1190 ish. The travel agent didn't bother to call me today (she said 24 hours), so I'm just going to buy them online from Expedia.

I'm sitting here waiting for 5pm to tick over to see if the Halloween tickets go on sale at midnight Anaheim time...might as well do something while I wait

 

[keptwoman]

Yes we did hear that Keptwoman. We had narrowed it down to Lion King and Mary Poppins, my son was leaning towards Lion King (he's 7) but then he watched Mary Poppins DVD again and thought that would be fine. My 11 year old daughter is a dancer, and a really traditional stage show really appeals to her.

We looked around at the other ones that were kid friendly and this one just felt right for us. Can't wait.

It was top of my list too
But now since we can see it at home I think we would go for something else. Not sure what yet. I'm thinking we might chance it at the 1/2 price booths.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

How much is the limo tour costing you and how long is your tour? Where do you get picked up from?

Butterflykisses - it is $234 for 3 hours. We asked if we could drop a few of the things that were suggest for that tour and include a couple that were in the 4 hour tour. The guy said that was fine, we could choose whatever we wanted to make up our tour. They are picking us up at our hotel in Hollywood.

I'm not sure whether the price is worth it for just 2 people but for 4 of us, plus lets not forget the excitement factor for my two kiddos, it was definitely worth the cost.

I contacted tons of companies, this is the best price I could find where the company actually seemed to know what they were talking about. Who knows how good it will be, hehe? It's so hard to really be sure. I decided to stop going backwards and forwards and just choose someone in the end. It will be fine I'm sure.

 

[melbarkwith]

I just got my Halloween Party tickets for Oct 29th!

That's all

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

I just got my Halloween Party tickets for Oct 29th!

That's all

Thanks for the heads up Mel. Just got mine for the 15th, yay (I think ) I hope it's going to be good.

 

[melbarkwith]

Thanks for the heads up Mel. Just got mine for the 15th, yay (I think ) I hope it's going to be good.

No problem. I had to double check the dates on mine too!

 

[aussiegirls]

OMG OMG OMG I got our ToT party tickets. I am soooooooo excited. We are going on Wed the 21st. I was pretty sure that the date wouldn't sell out before general release but you never can be sure, so I am relieved that I finally have them in my hot little hands.

Girls will be so excited when I tell them in the morning

xxx

 

[melbarkwith]

OMG OMG OMG I got our ToT party tickets. I am soooooooo excited.

Glad to hear that I wasn't the only one dancing around the house today

 

[Czardas]

We definitely wanted to see O however it isn't playing the 3 days were are there, bummer. So we are seeing Mystere.

Oh what a shame you couldn't see O, I am an Cirque fanatic and I chose O when we went to Vegas as I knew it was a show that would never tour to Australia due to the water aspect.

Really no matter what show you see of Cique it will always be sensational.

I remember looking at tickets months before we left and was shocked at the prices, then I found a site that had great prices, I will try and see if I can find the details for everyone. We had great seats also.

 

[keptwoman]

Glad to hear that I wasn't the only one dancing around the house today

Add me to the list!!
I'm in bed with the flu but I went downstairs and did a wee happy dance when I got them. So I bought our ToT tickets and our 5 for 3 tickets.

 

[melbarkwith]

Add me to the list!!
I'm in bed with the flu but I went downstairs and did a wee happy dance when I got them. So I bought our ToT tickets and our 5 for 3 tickets.

My almost 8YO DD was packing her bags to move out (because we are all so mean to her ), until she realised I was in the middle of buying TOT tickets! Funnily enough, she decided to stay...

Hope you're feeling better soon.

 

[keptwoman]

ROFL!! A friend was just saying to me that I'm going to be the best Mum ever for a solid 6 weeks after the trip. Then it will wear off and I'll be back to boring old Mum who makes you do maths.

Oh and we are booked for 2 October. So we Aussies run the gamut of dates.... 2/15/21/29