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

[aussiegirls]

Well, I am sitting here at the Hojo, our last night here Moving onto Studio City tomorrow.

I think that if I hadn't pre-paid the next hotel I would be very tempted to stay here at the Hojo and keep doing Disneyland. To be honest I did not for a second think that I would love it and that it would grow on me as much as it has. I came here because I suppose I always wanted to as a kid but mostly because my girls really, really wanted to come, so I brought them. I think that I have gotten much more out of it than they have. Don't get me wrong, they have loooooved it, but I feel somewhat emotionally attached to Disneyland now - does that even make any sense, maybe I am just a complete fruit loop

Anyway, yesterday was my DD's 7th birthday and we went to Ariel's Grotto for breakfast. As I was watching her little face as all these princesses came out to see her I was crying (such a sook). Even though she knew that they were just dressed up, just to see her little eyes become wide and her say things to me like "Mum, look at Aurora, she is sooooooo beautiful" and "It's Belle mummy, I knew she would come, I am so happy to see her." It was just beyond magical.

Rides have been great. Have walked onto almost everything - some multiple times. One absolute stand out has to be the Aladdin show. It was amaaaaazing. I would watch that show every day if I could

ToT party was fun. Got soooooooooooooooooooooo much candy it wasn't funny. Bags were overflowing, and so heavy to carry. The next morning the girls decided to count how many treats they had in their bags. They both came in at over 160, and that was after they had eaten however much they had eaten between the party and the next morning The bag is still full now - 3 days later.

Well, best go. Gotta get bags packed to move on tomorrow. We already don't have enough luggage and we are only half-way through our trip

xxx

 

[melbarkwith]

Sounds like you are having a great time aussiegirls!

If you are a fruit loop, then you're not alone! I think I possibly love DL more than my kids do.

We had better go finish packing - leaving tomorrow. Thanks for the great news about ride waits too. I can stop stressing.

 

[queenie82]

I feel somewhat emotionally attached to Disneyland now - does that even make any sense, maybe I am just a complete fruit loop

Welcome to the club I have been a member my whole life and yes I think now I'm an adult I love it even more than I did as a kid. I think it is just you see so much more in it.

One absolute stand out has to be the Aladdin show. It was amaaaaazing. I would watch that show every day if I could

It is SPECTACULAR!!! It is broadway quality and I LOVE the genie. The person playing him generally has some current topical jokes that fly over some kids heads but hit the adults in the funny bone

Well, best go. Gotta get bags packed to move on tomorrow. We already don't have enough luggage and we are only half-way through our trip

xxx

Has anyone ever booked their Disneyland or Disney World holiday through dreamsunlimitedtravel.com or yourmagicaljourneys.com ?

I am about to book our Disney World trip for next year, dates are confirmed, trip is definate, just waiting to see if the $ goes up a bit more before booking. We are also thinking of squeezing in a Disneyland trip in in Early December or early January. I have all of the brochures from different travel agents and thought that I may get a better deal as the pricings in those brochures are set and they would have been set when the $ was not so good, so it may be cheaper to go through one of the two agents above. I head that magical journeys, when you book will automatically change your booking if say a better deal comes along for your stay (like free dining at WDW), don't know about dreams unlimited though.

So I just thought I would see if any other Aussies had used either of these online disney booking companies.

Thank you in advance

We always book things directly ourselves. We have a local travel agent who we book the flights through just because that is a nice back up person who can keep an eye on any changes the airline makes. But accommodation, car hire etc we all book directly. It is generally cheaper and you have more flexibility.

We certainly don't use brochure prices for anything. We got our agent to see what the best she could do on the 14 day DL ticket and she couldn't even meet Expedia. FC will match it though.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Well, I am sitting here at the Hojo, our last night here Moving onto Studio City tomorrow.

I think that if I hadn't pre-paid the next hotel I would be very tempted to stay here at the Hojo and keep doing Disneyland. To be honest I did not for a second think that I would love it and that it would grow on me as much as it has. I came here because I suppose I always wanted to as a kid but mostly because my girls really, really wanted to come, so I brought them. I think that I have gotten much more out of it than they have. Don't get me wrong, they have loooooved it, but I feel somewhat emotionally attached to Disneyland now - does that even make any sense, maybe I am just a complete fruit loop

Anyway, yesterday was my DD's 7th birthday and we went to Ariel's Grotto for breakfast. As I was watching her little face as all these princesses came out to see her I was crying (such a sook). Even though she knew that they were just dressed up, just to see her little eyes become wide and her say things to me like "Mum, look at Aurora, she is sooooooo beautiful" and "It's Belle mummy, I knew she would come, I am so happy to see her." It was just beyond magical.

Rides have been great. Have walked onto almost everything - some multiple times. One absolute stand out has to be the Aladdin show. It was amaaaaazing. I would watch that show every day if I could

ToT party was fun. Got soooooooooooooooooooooo much candy it wasn't funny. Bags were overflowing, and so heavy to carry. The next morning the girls decided to count how many treats they had in their bags. They both came in at over 160, and that was after they had eaten however much they had eaten between the party and the next morning The bag is still full now - 3 days later.

Well, best go. Gotta get bags packed to move on tomorrow. We already don't have enough luggage and we are only half-way through our trip

xxx

I fell in love with Disneyland too. I truly hope I can get back there one day, DH has no plans for it but I do, .

We adored Aladdin as well. That Genie is sooooo funny. Loved everything about it.

We had fun at the TOT party. Some of the costumes were crazy good. It kind of made me wish we celebrated Halloween. I got tons of ideas.

We ended up buying some luggage at Disneyland to bring all the extras back.

Glad you are having a wonderful time.

 

[Andona]

I fell in love with Disneyland too. I truly hope I can get back there one day, DH has no plans for it but I do, .

DH told me today that after 2 trips to Disneyland and one to Disney World he will never go there again - he just doesn't enjoy it as much as I do. :-(

I told him I'd just have to go on my own!

Re the coffee question - we find American coffee appalling :-( We love so many things about the country, but NOT the coffee. If you like your coffee just reconcile yourself to doing without while in the States and look forward to that first coffee when you get home.

Andona

 

[Kalice]

[Re the coffee question - we find American coffee appalling :-( We love so many things about the country, but NOT the coffee. If you like your coffee just reconcile yourself to doing without while in the States and look forward to that first coffee when you get home.

Andona[/QUOTE]

Go without coffee I don't think I'd cope, nor would my family I guess I'll have to pack my coffee and a plunger with my beloved Vegemite.

We'll have to try some of breakfasts I don't want to carry 5 weeks of Weet-bix. We won't be outlaying for cooked everyday, I'd rather same the money for other meals.

 

[keptwoman]

Colour me totally in love with the place too. As we were walking towards Disneyland the first day and I had an enormous grin on my face; DH told the kids that if they thought we were there for THEM they were sadly mistaken :rofl:

Aussiegirls I'm so glad you enjoyed the ToT party. It sounds like the candy has improved as it's gone on. We got less than half a bag each and it felt like we stood in candy lines all night.

 

[Jade+3]

Has anyone ever booked their Disneyland or Disney World holiday through dreamsunlimitedtravel.com or yourmagicaljourneys.com ?

I am at WDW now, and booked it myself as we are staying off-site. We are doing a cruise next week, which I booked using Dreams Unlimited. With the cruise pricing they do adjust the price if it goes down, but I am not sure if it is automatic. I checked our price every week, but it never went down. Send them an email. I have asked them so many questions.

Re the coffee, I am drinking a weird Nescafe instant coffee. It is ok now I am used to it. Our condo has a kettle. I think we will buy a cheapie kettle when we get to HoJo's. We are eating cornflakes for breakfast. Apparently you can buy a version of Weetbix from the health food aisle, but I couldn't find it here in Orlando.

I also have a DH that doesn't get the whole Disney thing. I plan to be back in a couple of years, with or without him!

 

[Oz-kateer]

Has anyone ever booked their Disneyland or Disney World holiday through dreamsunlimitedtravel.com or yourmagicaljourneys.com ?

I am about to book our Disney World trip for next year, dates are confirmed, trip is definate, just waiting to see if the $ goes up a bit more before booking. We are also thinking of squeezing in a Disneyland trip in in Early December or early January. I have all of the brochures from different travel agents and thought that I may get a better deal as the pricings in those brochures are set and they would have been set when the $ was not so good, so it may be cheaper to go through one of the two agents above. I head that magical journeys, when you book will automatically change your booking if say a better deal comes along for your stay (like free dining at WDW), don't know about dreams unlimited though.

So I just thought I would see if any other Aussies had used either of these online disney booking companies.

Thank you in advance

Yes - have just returned from a trip to WDW using Dreams Unlimited and was **very** happy with the service. Happy to recommend my specific agent to you - if you PM me I will give you her name and contact details.

They quote the prices in USD. You only have to pay USD$200 upon booking as a holding deposit, balance to be paid 45 days out from arrival, so you can book now and hold out for the dollar going up, paying by instalments as we did (a few hundred a month for about 8 months via Visa Debit Card and it was all paid off relatively painlessly). If you need to cancel your trip completely the deposit can be refunded if it's more than 45 days until you arrive.

Dreams Unlimited will continue to look for better deals for you even after you book, if prices go down you can get the cheaper price - the happened to us. And if prices go up you can still hold the lower price, you win both ways.

 

[aussietravellers]

I am at WDW now, and booked it myself as we are staying off-site. We are doing a cruise next week, which I booked using Dreams Unlimited. With the cruise pricing they do adjust the price if it goes down, but I am not sure if it is automatic. I checked our price every week, but it never went down. Send them an email. I have asked them so many questions.

Yes - have just returned from a trip to WDW using Dreams Unlimited and was **very** happy with the service. Happy to recommend my specific agent to you - if you PM me I will give you her name and contact details.

They quote the prices in USD. You only have to pay USD$200 upon booking as a holding deposit, balance to be paid 45 days out from arrival, so you can book now and hold out for the dollar going up, paying by instalments as we did (a few hundred a month for about 8 months via Visa Debit Card and it was all paid off relatively painlessly). If you need to cancel your trip completely the deposit can be refunded if it's more than 45 days until you arrive.

Dreams Unlimited will continue to look for better deals for you even after you book, if prices go down you can get the cheaper price - the happened to us. And if prices go up you can still hold the lower price, you win both ways.

Thank you both so much. I have heard good reports of both Dreams Unlimited and Magical Journeys and another Small World I think it's called and with going next September, I really like the idea of them looking for better deals, particularly free dining.
Just didn't know if they were just for US residents or if Australians could book through them also.

 

[jacs1234]

Well, I am sitting here at the Hojo, our last night here Moving onto Studio City tomorrow.

I think that if I hadn't pre-paid the next hotel I would be very tempted to stay here at the Hojo and keep doing Disneyland. To be honest I did not for a second think that I would love it and that it would grow on me as much as it has. I came here because I suppose I always wanted to as a kid but mostly because my girls really, really wanted to come, so I brought them. I think that I have gotten much more out of it than they have. Don't get me wrong, they have loooooved it, but I feel somewhat emotionally attached to Disneyland now - does that even make any sense, maybe I am just a complete fruit loop

Anyway, yesterday was my DD's 7th birthday and we went to Ariel's Grotto for breakfast. As I was watching her little face as all these princesses came out to see her I was crying (such a sook). Even though she knew that they were just dressed up, just to see her little eyes become wide and her say things to me like "Mum, look at Aurora, she is sooooooo beautiful" and "It's Belle mummy, I knew she would come, I am so happy to see her." It was just beyond magical.

Rides have been great. Have walked onto almost everything - some multiple times. One absolute stand out has to be the Aladdin show. It was amaaaaazing. I would watch that show every day if I could

ToT party was fun. Got soooooooooooooooooooooo much candy it wasn't funny. Bags were overflowing, and so heavy to carry. The next morning the girls decided to count how many treats they had in their bags. They both came in at over 160, and that was after they had eaten however much they had eaten between the party and the next morning The bag is still full now - 3 days later.

Well, best go. Gotta get bags packed to move on tomorrow. We already don't have enough luggage and we are only half-way through our trip

xxx

That sounds so brilliant. I'm so glad you had such a great time at Disneyland. It's hard to top it but I hope the rest of your trip is fun too.

 

[Jade+3]

Just an update about the Delta guy at LAX who wouldn't give me any info unless I paid him - I sent Delta an email and they sent us a $50 credit voucher.

jacs1234, every time I see your ticker it is a reminder of how many days we have left.

 

[platypus67]

Hi everyone. Arrived back in Brissy last Monday. Have been really busy catching up on all my work so haven't had a chance to read from where I left off while in Canada. I was going to do a trip report but I think that will have to wait til next time. Just a brief summary for this one.

Arrived LAX from Toronto at 9pm Tuesday Oct 14th. Walked out and got onto the Super Shuttle straight away. Ride to DLR seemed a little longer this time as we were in the van with a number of locals who were being dropped off at their homes. Had no idea where I was most of the time so probably why the journey seemed so long.
Checked in to Hojos in the drizzle. Our room was on the first floor of building 5. I was aware the freeway was just behind but for the most part just sounded like it was really windy outside.
Room was spacious and clean. Was happy to see a real coffee machine, as I had avoided coffee for most of the trip. Was able to get Gloria Jean's coffee from the gift shop. Wasn't as good as my Nespresso coffee but was drinkable
Day one at Disney was very good. Went to the park after breakfast at Mimi's There was drizzle most of the day so crowd levels were low. Managed to ride everything we wanted including nemo with only 15 min wait. Snow White broke down 1/2 way through. They gave us a pass to return, but we didn't get back to it. We had a late lunch at Blue Bayou. Requested waterside seating and were seated in around 15 mins. We ordered a Monte Cristo split plate. We were charged 12.95 for the split plate but I was happy to pay as we received a full serve of veggies and salad with the 1/2 sandwich. Returned to hotel around 3pm. DD had a swim and then we went back to the park for the fireworks. Didn't manage to last until 9:30 as we were pretty tired so gave the fireworks a miss and returned to the hotel.
Day two we went to Target and a couple of outlet shops. Spent the afternoon at the pool as it was warm enought to swim.
Attended the ToT that evening. My dd was Snow White and I was Sally from NBC. We enjoyed it but felt it wasn't as good as last year. We stayed for three hours and then headed back to the hotel.
Day three we went to Disneyland park earlyish. Went on a number of rides and then left mid afternoon. We had a late lunch/early dinner at Denny's and then after a rest we returned to the park for the fireworks. So happy we did. The halloween fireworks were awesome. I think it was my favourite next only to the 50th Remember fireworks. After the fireworks we went on a couple of rides and then went back to the hotel.
Day four was our last day. We were at California Adventure for opening. Went straight to Sorin. After about a 15 min wait we boarded the ride, only to experience technical difficulties so didn't get to ride. Got a fast pass but never did get back to it. Did a few more rides. Got soaked on GRR. Dd went on Screamin and Mulholland. Had lunch (fish and chips) at the "farmers market?". Not sure if that is the correct name from memory. Was ok, but not something I would rush back for. We did a couple more rides and some shopping then returned to the hotel to rest for our flight.
Checked out at 7:15pm to wait our shuttle. Arrived at the airport 3 hours befor the flight.
Although we didn't do everything we had planned it was a great trip. I think we were exhausted from our 3 1/2 weeks in Canada that were non stop.
I guess missing out on a few things gives us a good excuse to start planning for the next visit.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Sounds like you had an amaing time Playtpus67.

I meant to mention BLUE BAYOU to you all. We had dinner there and I must admit I was a little nervous because the reviews on the DISboards are often mixed.

Well it was our favourite meal by far. DH had the Surf and Turf, I had the Crab cakes and my daughter had the chicken. We fed DS before we went. The prices are high, but I thought the food and service, plus the ambience, were excellent and worth the money.

Ralph Brennan's wasn't that great, Rainforest Cafe is yum, and they do a really reasonably priced breakfast, Cafe Orleans, had hte Pommes Frites and the Monte Cristo, liked them both, but very very rich. Carnation Cafe, had the loaded baked potato soup, it was nice, but again, ridiculously rich.

Had a tigger tail, yum.

WEnt to the Billy Hill and the Hillbillies show and I have to say it was excellent and funny and the chicken nuggets and chips are nice. Everyone should make the time to see this, had to line up for half an hour before the show to get in there though.

Aladdin - AMAZING

TOT party was fun but not sure whether it was worth the price of admission.

OH and Czardas, your rubbish bin trick for the parades was priceless. We used it twice and snagged ourselves great seats. And those bins are so clean, I had no problem leaning on them, hehehe

 

[Tink91]

We just came back in September from DL and are planning to go back in Jan!!! I didn't follow this thread last time but I will this time, my name is Caitlin btw.

 

[platypus67]

Sounds like you had an amaing time Playtpus67.

I meant to mention BLUE BAYOU to you all. We had dinner there and I must admit I was a little nervous because the reviews on the DISboards are often mixed.

Well it was our favourite meal by far. DH had the Surf and Turf, I had the Crab cakes and my daughter had the chicken. We fed DS before we went. The prices are high, but I thought the food and service, plus the ambience, were excellent and worth the money.

Ralph Brennan's wasn't that great, Rainforest Cafe is yum, and they do a really reasonably priced breakfast, Cafe Orleans, had hte Pommes Frites and the Monte Cristo, liked them both, but very very rich. Carnation Cafe, had the loaded baked potato soup, it was nice, but again, ridiculously rich.

Had a tigger tail, yum.

WEnt to the Billy Hill and the Hillbillies show and I have to say it was excellent and funny and the chicken nuggets and chips are nice. Everyone should make the time to see this, had to line up for half an hour before the show to get in there though.

Aladdin - AMAZING

TOT party was fun but not sure whether it was worth the price of admission.

OH and Czardas, your rubbish bin trick for the parades was priceless. We used it twice and snagged ourselves great seats. And those bins are so clean, I had no problem leaning on them, hehehe

We did have a great trip. Already looking forward to the next. Hubby will be with us so that will be nice. He missed out on the last two trips due to work.

We love Blue Bayou, and will be returning next time we visit DLR.

Missed out on Tigger Tails and Aladdin yet again. Oh well there is always next time

ToT this year was no comparison to what we experienced last year. Quite possibly the construction had something to do with this. There were fewer treat stations as well so crowds were more concentrated.

 

[becpee]

Not many of us left now, this thread is going to get very very quiet

 

[kylieh]

True, this is getting quiet. The new Australian section is going quite quicky - roughly 20 threads with almost 200 posts!!!

 

[jacs1234]

We're still here. I thought I had three and a half weeks to go but I was wrong. Now I don't have enough time to get ready

 

[LesleyP]

I'm still here too. I've got 7 weeks left to go!! Some days that feels like forever!!

I rang Disneyland yesterday to book my dining reservations, which was exciting! I'm having breakfast with Lilo and Stitch and Christmas Day dinner at Goofy's Kitchen!! I was considering breakfast with Minnie and Friends too but decided that might be overdoing things!!