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

[marvel]

I bought the Garmin as well prior to our trip last Sept and it was great. Any of the newer models are good. I 'obtained' the USA maps online and it is pretty much a drag and drop into the unit via the PC. Really easy to do and works a dream. The only issue we had was the Garmin telling us "You have arrived at Howard Johnsons Anaheim" but we were still on the highway!!

But well worth it. We paid $300 for it. and if you buy it 30 days prior to trip you can claim back the GST on departure. Makes it worthwhile to buy one, as renting one was going to be over $100 anyhow.

on a completely different topic, anyone stay in Vegas lately with a family and have any hotel advice? Unfortunetly not for me! But I am helping another family with their first trip to the USA.

To everyone leaving soon, have a great trip, I am soooo jealous !!

 

[ehsmum]

marvel - I'm struggling with Las Vegas, there are just so many hotels and it's very overwhelming. I can't find any hotel that will take all of us in one room (2 adults and 3 kids) but I've been told by others who have done it to just book 2 adults 2 kids and they don't care when you show up with an extra. I'd also be interested to hear where others have stayed with kids.

 

[Kalice]

Ehsmum, if you book the signature through homeaway they don't ask for numbers, you just book the suite, apartment, whatever. We stayed in the Mirage, the check-in counters are SOOO busy they would not notice if you had ten in your room. I'm sure lots of younger ones do it. The Dessert Rose has apartments too, although it is off strip. I used hotels.com for lots of working out who would take a family of five. The site allows you to put adults and children numbers in and gives you the options. I booked directly through the hotels though as you often get better deals, and I felt more control over my booking. It doesn' matter too much where you are on the strip as you can't be near everything. Vegas killed my feet, definately worth taking the bus or taxi.

 

[marvel]

that's tricky. what about the orleans? I know it is off strip but has a good rep for families. We have stayed at Caesars, Palazzo, and MGM but only with 4 of us. I am helping out some friends who have never been and want to try and get the latest info. I am leaning towards Flamingo, as that will probably be within their price range and is mid strip.

have you booked all your other hotels ehsmum?

 

[ehsmum]

that's tricky. what about the orleans? I know it is off strip but has a good rep for families. We have stayed at Caesars, Palazzo, and MGM but only with 4 of us. I am helping out some friends who have never been and want to try and get the latest info. I am leaning towards Flamingo, as that will probably be within their price range and is mid strip.

have you booked all your other hotels ehsmum?

MGM says maximum 4 in a room but my friend called them and they said to book for 4 but it's fine to have 5. So I might end up booking them but I just don't know. I think I just have to bite the bullet and book one.

Kalice - I did look at some apartments and they are all off the strip but we definitely want to stay on it.

Yes I've booked all the other hotels. It's just Vegas now, then I have to book our car hire, my Disney tickets and SoCal pass.

We're staying:

Holiday Inn Suites Hollywood Walk of Fame
Days Inn San Diego
Howard Johnson Anaheim
Radio City Apartments NYC
Doubletree Guest Suites Washington DC
The Dolphin Resort WDW
Loew's Royal Pacific Universal Orlando
Radisson at Fisherman's Wharf San Francisco

Oh, on top of Las Vegas, I also need to book a hotel for our last night. We are driving from San Francisco to LAX but haven't decided yet whether to stop along the way (somewhere like Santa Barbara), or go all the way and stay in Los Angeles. I'm leaning towards LA because I think we're going to do Legoland during our first week there which will take away our Hollywood/LA/shopping time.

 

[kylieh]

marvel - I'm struggling with Las Vegas, there are just so many hotels and it's very overwhelming. I can't find any hotel that will take all of us in one room (2 adults and 3 kids) but I've been told by others who have done it to just book 2 adults 2 kids and they don't care when you show up with an extra. I'd also be interested to hear where others have stayed with kids.

We're staying at Marriot Grand Chatteau in Las Vegas. It's normally a time-share apartment property that makes the rooms available as normal hotel rooms. It's about 300 meters off strip and directly across from Planet Hollywood. They have rooms that sleep up to 10. http://www.marriott.com.au/hotels/hotel-rooms/lasvg-marriotts-grand-chateau-1-and-2 or review with heaps of pics at http://www.oyster.com/las-vegas/hotels/marriotts-grand-chateau-a-marriott-vacation-club-resort/

 

[PrincessInOz]

Hi all. Anyone ever stay in a hotel in Long Beach?
I am hoping to go to Catalina Island and because of an early flight cannot meet the 2 night minimum stay criteria on Catalina Island hotels over a weekend.

 

[SnowWhite09]

I bought the Garmin as well prior to our trip last Sept and it was great. Any of the newer models are good. I 'obtained' the USA maps online and it is pretty much a drag and drop into the unit via the PC. Really easy to do and works a dream. The only issue we had was the Garmin telling us "You have arrived at Howard Johnsons Anaheim" but we were still on the highway!!

But well worth it. We paid $300 for it. and if you buy it 30 days prior to trip you can claim back the GST on departure. Makes it worthwhile to buy one, as renting one was going to be over $100 anyhow.

on a completely different topic, anyone stay in Vegas lately with a family and have any hotel advice? Unfortunetly not for me! But I am helping another family with their first trip to the USA.

To everyone leaving soon, have a great trip, I am soooo jealous !!

Thanks Marvel - I'm looking into buying one here because with hiring with the car for 3 weeks is going to cost $180 US anyway.

With regards to Vegas, what I can say is that we stayed at Circus Circus on our last trip and we would not stay there again, so I wouldn't recommend that hotel to your friend.

 

[Kalice]

Ehsmum,WOW looks like your itinerary is almost the same as ours. We stayed:

Howard Johnson Anaheim
Omni San Diego
El Tovar Grand Canyon
Mirage Las Vegas
Fishermans Wharf Suites San Francisco
Affinia Eastgate New York
Omni Sherbourne DC
and finally Beach Club in WDW
with a one night final day in Hollywalk of fame Holiday Inn.

It was awesome. I'll have to get back onto my long winded trip report!

 

[ehsmum]

That's such a coincidence, Kalice! We decided to skip the Grand Canyon and go visit my relatives in North Carolina for a few days, otherwise we would have done the exact same destinations! We're planning a daytrip to the GC from Vegas, just trying to decide whether we'll treat ourselves and do the flight/helicopter tour or drive it. I'd love to read your trip report if you get time to write it!

kylieh - thanks for the info on the Marriott, it looks good from the website. I'll add it to my list and show it to my husband. I'm thinking I might just let him pick the Vegas hotel as I'm going round and round in circles with it!

 

[marvel]

we stayed at the MGM last year and thought it was good for the price and pretty easy to get to everywhere. Happy to stay there again.

Hey Kalice, how was the Beach Club at WDW? It looks and sounds great, but it pretty expensive. What did you think of it? Oh, and how was the Mirage? thought about staying there a few trips ago, but heard some so so reports.

Your trip sounds great Ehsmum, we are hoping to go somewhere in 2011, we are going to Hawaii in May just to get a USA fix, got ridiculous cheap airfares.
But hoping to do NY,FLorida etc again in 2011.

 

[CairnsGirl]

This post had been going for nearly a year now, so I thought I would bump us back up to page one!!

So who is traveling this year or in 2011.

I am going in September 2010 for nearly four weeks to Las Vegas then Disneyworld. We have also just added a three day Disney Cruise and this will be my first cruise ever!!

So what is everyones plans for 2010/2011 ??

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

This post had been going for nearly a year now, so I thought I would bump us back up to page one!!

So who is traveling this year or in 2011.

I am going in September 2010 for nearly four weeks to Las Vegas then Disneyworld. We have also just added a three day Disney Cruise and this will be my first cruise ever!!

So what is everyones plans for 2010/2011 ??

Hey Cairns girl, head on over to the new Australia section:-

http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=177

That's where most of the aussies hang out now.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

MGM says maximum 4 in a room but my friend called them and they said to book for 4 but it's fine to have 5. So I might end up booking them but I just don't know. I think I just have to bite the bullet and book one.

Kalice - I did look at some apartments and they are all off the strip but we definitely want to stay on it.

Yes I've booked all the other hotels. It's just Vegas now, then I have to book our car hire, my Disney tickets and SoCal pass.

We're staying:

Holiday Inn Suites Hollywood Walk of Fame
Days Inn San Diego
Howard Johnson Anaheim
Radio City Apartments NYC
Doubletree Guest Suites Washington DC
The Dolphin Resort WDW
Loew's Royal Pacific Universal Orlando
Radisson at Fisherman's Wharf San Francisco

Oh, on top of Las Vegas, I also need to book a hotel for our last night. We are driving from San Francisco to LAX but haven't decided yet whether to stop along the way (somewhere like Santa Barbara), or go all the way and stay in Los Angeles. I'm leaning towards LA because I think we're going to do Legoland during our first week there which will take away our Hollywood/LA/shopping time.

Ehsmum - would love to hear your thoughts on Radio City Apartments and the Washington DC accom when you get back.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Gosh I'm having the craziest Disney withdrawals

Just took my son who is home sick to the DVD shop and came home with what he wanted plus Dumbo and LIttle Mermaid and I'm so excited that Snow White is on Disney channel on Foxtel on Saturday night.

I think I have a problem,

 

[aussiegirls]

You definately don't have a problem, you are just as "normal" as the rest of us on here

xxx

 

[ehsmum]

We're on the 100 day countdown as of today! :woo:

I ended up booking the MGM Grand in Vegas as it was the only one on the strip that would take 5 of us in one room. I also booked the Calmar Suites in Santa Monica for our last night. It looks pretty dated but it's a good location as we want to spend our last day checking out Santa Monica, Venice Beach and shopping .

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

We're on the 100 day countdown as of today! :woo:

I ended up booking the MGM Grand in Vegas as it was the only one on the strip that would take 5 of us in one room. I also booked the Calmar Suites in Santa Monica for our last night. It looks pretty dated but it's a good location as we want to spend our last day checking out Santa Monica, Venice Beach and shopping .

That will go so quick. We decided to go on our 2009 trip 106 days out and told our kids 101 days out, so we counted down from then and the time just flew. It was so much fun. I really do think the planning is almost as much fun as the actual trip, well almost

 

[platypus67]

This post had been going for nearly a year now, so I thought I would bump us back up to page one!!

So who is traveling this year or in 2011.

I am going in September 2010 for nearly four weeks to Las Vegas then Disneyworld. We have also just added a three day Disney Cruise and this will be my first cruise ever!!

So what is everyones plans for 2010/2011 ??

We are off to US/Canada for Christmas.
I've just got off the phone with Qantas making our final FF booking for our Dec trip. Looks like it is WDW this year instead of DLR.
We've so far booked our LA to Orlando flights for Nov 30th and our Syracuse to LA for Jan 5th.
We will be at WDW staying on property from Nov 30 Until Dec 12th. Most likely at All Star Music this time. Will book that very soon as I can always make changes down the track if any good specials come up.
I still need to book flights from Orlando to Syracuse as well as our flights to America. I've looked at Jet Blue to get us to Syracuse but can't book that far ahead as yet. I'll wait for a bit longer to book the international flight as i'm hoping for a better fare than is available at the moment.

 

[kylieh]

So what is everyones plans for 2010/2011 ??

Well, we leave in just under 5 weeks, LA for 3 nights, LV for 4 nights, then back to DL for a week. So just over 2 weeks in total. DD will miss the first week of term 2 (she's in year 2.) Teacher is providing us with "work" which is basically spelling list for the week, her reader for the week, plus they are doing a transport module so she has been asked to present a detailed recount of the transport methods we used. So pretty easy really.

Then in our very rough pipeline, December 2011, New York for a week or so before Christmas. DD won't spend Christmas away from home, so it depends on the date for her dancing concert, but just as important, $$$$$$. Plus it's a long time away yet...