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

[keptwoman]

Thats interesting dollarmite. Which travelcard was it? ANZ CBA Travelex?

Any other experience actually using them?

Well done on the savings. Flipping heck! Thats some saving!!

 

[dollarmite]

keptwoman, the card was a Visa Travelex cash passport. I purchased it at the airport and was able to use it instantly. I think I had to pay a fee of about $11. To close the account off would cost $10. Withdrawls from an ATM in NZ cost NZ$4 (would have cost $US2.50 in the US). Using it as an EFTPOS card was free. If I'd topped it up via BPay there would have been a 1% (I think) charge of that total (what a rip off ).

I left Oz on a Sunday and only got round to going to an ANZ bank at 3pm on the Friday to apply for a card (thought it would be instant). Unfortunately I'd left it too late as it takes up to 5 hours to activate the card and being a Friday the activation paperwork might not have been looked at till Monday morning.

If we go with a travelcard to the US I will get my act together a bit sooner, lol.

Yes, the savings for WDW were fantastic! I think my friend in NZ with whom I was staying thought I had gone crazy when I became so excited at the email from the Dreams Unlimited TA telling me about the free dining.

 

[kel77]

Go Kel

I remember chatting with you oh 6 or more months ago on another BB and it seemed so far off back then !!

Here we are !

Have a great time and can't wait for your trip report

I know!!!! It feels like only yesterday I was getting excited because of the 6 months to go mark

We bought a new bed on Saturday and I couldn't wait to get into it and have an amazing nights sleep (our old bed was truly past it's used by date!!) The problem is I haven't been able to sleep properly since we got to the "week to go" mark!

 

[Andona]

Yes, the savings for WDW were fantastic! I think my friend in NZ with whom I was staying thought I had gone crazy when I became so excited at the email from the Dreams Unlimited TA telling me about the free dining.

Hi Dollarmite,
You probably already know this but you'll need to make Priority Seating reservations well in advance during the Free Dining period. ( particularly for Character meals)

The less popular restaurants won't get booked too fast but I'd still reserve well out to get the times that suit you.

I can recommend the San Angel Inn at Epcot - the food is just average Mexican but the atmosphere was wonderful. Also the Sci-Fi Dine Inn at Hollywood Studios was great fun - the food is just burgers etc but the whole drive-in movie theme was great fun. My son loved it

I hope you have a fantastic trip - we just loved WDW

Andona

 

[marvel]

how is the weather in sept in disneyworld? thinking of doing the free dining in the next few years. Is Sept good crowd wise as well? I thought it's a rainy season.

I have used the ANZ travel card, no problems. I just used atm's to get cash.

 

[dollarmite]

Hi Dollarmite,
You probably already know this but you'll need to make Priority Seating reservations well in advance during the Free Dining period. ( particularly for Character meals)

The less popular restaurants won't get booked too fast but I'd still reserve well out to get the times that suit you.

I can recommend the San Angel Inn at Epcot - the food is just average Mexican but the atmosphere was wonderful. Also the Sci-Fi Dine Inn at Hollywood Studios was great fun - the food is just burgers etc but the whole drive-in movie theme was great fun. My son loved it


Our DU TA has been great and made all our reservations for us, including one for Sci-Fi - it looks like a lot of fun!

The thought of having to call WDW from Australia to make reservations did not appeal to me at all. Thank heavens for the new online reservations system - it'll save people heaps of time and money in phone calls.

Andona, how long did you spend at WDW and did you stay on-site?

 

[~ButterflyKisses~]

What PS's is everyone making? We weren't going to make any PS reservations at all but I read that unless you make PS's you could be waiting hours for a table!

We're thinking of making reservations for;

Blue Bayou - dinner
Goofy's Kitchen - breakfast
Rainforest Cafe - dinner
EPSN Zone - dinner
Hook's Pointe - dinner

Has anyone eaten at these before? Do you have any other suggestions? Where is good for breakfast? We were thinking of just making PS's for breakfast & dinner and then just grabbing something from the counter service/snack stand places for lunch.

I figure if we decide not to go to all our reservations it doesn't really matter if we don't show up.

What's the best time for breakfast and dinner? What time should we book dinner if we are planning on seeing the 9.25pm fireworks show?

 

[Andona]

The thought of having to call WDW from Australia to make reservations did not appeal to me at all. Thank heavens for the new online reservations system - it'll save people heaps of time and money in phone calls.

Andona, how long did you spend at WDW and did you stay on-site?

I wish they'd had online Priority Seating last year - I made a couple of phone calls to Orlando to organise ours. It wasn't too bad - the girls on the end of the line were lovely .

We had 6 nights and 6 days in Orlando. ( Our stay in Florida was a lovely part of a three week trip) We had time to visit the Magic Kingdom twice, Epcot once ( for a loooong day), Hollywood Studios twice and the Animal Kingdom once. We also had a day where we drove out to the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral - that was well worth a visit if you're at all interested in the Space race etc. Also spent an evening shopping and dining at Downtown Disney.

After a lot of discussion, we decided to stay offsite - we booked a wonderful 2 bedroom apartment at the Staybrdge Suites Lake Buena Vista for less than the cost of a standard hotel room at one of the basic Disney All Star resorts. The Lake Buena Vista area is very close to the parks but you still need to use a car or shuttle to get to them ( of course, you need to use a car or shuttle to get to the WDW parks from most of the Disney properties too) I'd love to be able to have stayed at the Grand Floridian or the Polynesian but they were outside our budget and we preferred the idea of having the space of an apartment.

However, I'm really looking forward to going back to Disneyland where you can just walk to the parks from your hotel

The weather in October was wonderful - sunny and warm but not excessively hot. I don't know if September will be much hotter or wetter though.

Andona

 

[kel77]

We are doing Goofy's Kitchen and maybe breakfast with Minnie.

Not sure yet if Goofy's will be brunch or dinner

We haven't organised PS yet. I don't know whether to do it before we leave or when we get there

 

[aussiegirls]

I am PSing Minnie's breakfast and Ariel's breakfast. Also probably Rainforest Cafe for DD's birthday. Not sure of the others. I will prob make a few more than that but not sure which ones though. Won't be doing Blue Bayou or Napa Rose or any of the high end places (just not my scene). Maybe ESPN and Carnation Cafe or something like that, and definately can't forget PCH Grill to get the Kitchen Sink

ETA only 66 more days (and 2 pays ) to go until we leave

xxx

 

[melbarkwith]

We are making PS reservations for breakfast with Minnie, breakfast at Ariel's Grotto, Rainforest Cafe, Carnation Cafe and probably more...just need to figure it out before the end of this month!

11 weeks to go

 

[dollarmite]

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.

 

[aussiegirls]

dollarmite if I were you I would call now. As you have said it may be super busy because it is Thanksgiving and you don't want him to miss out because you didn't book in time. You don't need to pay (i think) when you book the character meals so you are not locked in if you were to change your mind or something, but better to be safe than sorry

If you are worried about the phone call cost I bought an international calling card that I have been using to make all my ressies etc (not PS yet). It cost me $10 and had something like 1200 mins of talk time on it so I still haven't used the whole thing up. It just makes it easier for me to call the US whenever I need to (and not worry about being on hold) and not have the stress of expensive phone calls

xxx

 

[keptwoman]

The only place we are eating is Rainforest Cafe and I'm going to ring in the next few days.
I'm sorta kinda tempted with the character breakfasts, need to check prices.

 

[aussiegirls]

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

 

[keptwoman]

Thanks! I'll check them out.

 

[keptwoman]

Aw man. Their disney passes are $5pp cheaper. Could have saved $25. Oh well.

 

[melbarkwith]

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.

I would call now too. On our last trip we decided 3 weeks before we went that we'd like to go to Ariel's - and could not get in for any one of the 9 days we spent in the park...and that was in May (supposedly low season)

I've learned my lesson and I'll be calling at the 60 day mark.

 

[marvel]

you guys have the dining reservations number, being a bit lazy with my ps bookings

 

[kel77]

I emailed them and got prices for the different character dining options and this number was in the email:

(714) 781 DINE - (714) 781 3463 7am - 9pm PST