for the love of mickey - a PTR

[alicia1506]

just paid off the final amount on the cruise -- so we are definitely going now. was going to preload funds onto the travel money card like we did last year, then just checked the conversion rates... $1 aud = $0.985 USD. umm, say what now??? so i did a $1000.00 deposit on the trip just using my debit card which just uses the funds in my bank account -- only cost us $950.00, so i saved $50.00 - not much but better than paying extra $$ to convert the money onto the travel card at this rate, i might just dump the money on the 28 degrees mastercard and use that (with the no international transaction fees) to access our money

argh!! just to save and save and save to make sure we can afford the rest of the trip

 

[hjd0411]

You are powering ahead with your plan! I'm with you - I save for my holidays too - I just don't like the idea of a huge credit card bill when I come home!!
Re the jetlag - I'm a shift worker so perhaps it doesn't hit me as much! I try not to nap during the day and stay up as long as possible. I go to bed when I just can't go any more - usually around 7-8pm, then wake up around 6-ish the next day ready to hit the ground running..!!!
I'm interested to hear about your FE gifts - so far there are not too many on our cruise, but I'm not sure what to bring! I'm leaning towards some Aussie stuff - clip on koalas, pens, Tim Tams etc, but I like your idea of personalised note paper/pens.

BobbyRach - definitely good luck with your flights!! I'm sure you will be fine though! I'm just getting old..!!! If I don't have a connecting flight, I'm happy! This time we are flying BNE-LAX and staying in Anaheim, so I can hit Disneyland rather than wait at airports!! Even coming home I overnight in LAX before getting on that long haul back home!!!
Oh - and thanks for the info re HoJo's. I'm really looking forward to staying there! Glad to hear that the walk is that close - I walk as fast as a 3 year old when I'm leaving Disneyland..!!!!

 

[BecBennett]

I have to do a stop over at LAX too, mainly because I know if we can't book into our hotel until 3pm or something like that then it's going to be a long grumpy day, as most flights arrive at MCO at around 6am.

So we spend the night at a LAX hotel, spend a bit of time shopping or site seeing on the red trolley tour that gets around, get dinner and head to bed around 6pm, and generally am completely refreshed for the 2nd leg of the trip. I may not get to MCO until late afternoon, early evening, but it's just in time for dinner and plenty of time to look around get excited for the following days!

However the cruise probably works differently then booking into a hotel, so you might be able to crash nice and early once you get on board.

 

[alicia1506]

see, our flights work really well with the timezones.

our bne - lax flight departs brisvegas at 10.20am and arrives lax at 6am. then the southwest flight departs lax at 10.30am and arrives MCO at 8pm. this means that aside from the 4 hr layover in lax where we HAVE TO stay awake, we'll not need a hotel room there, and can just check straight into the MCO hyatt (which is conveniently in the airport) when our flight lands. our plan is to stay awake or only doze during the flights so that when we finally get to MCO we'll just crash... well, we have dinner, then crash and wake up at 6am the next morning ready to jump on the magical express (or whatever they call the disney transport to take us to the port).

then we board, get totally drunk on DOTD's and check into our stateroom around 1-2pm, then just chillax, explore and eat for the first night, maybe catch a movie/show/sail away party etc. we have second dining, so we'll try and stay up for that, but on the first night, we might just do room service or some sort of buffet, then go to bed early. then be totally ready to rock from day 2 onwards

 

[alicia1506]

omg. i just checked my bank account and i was like.. where has all my money gone...

our massive payoff for the cruise and our APs and our accomodation to take advantage of the awesome USD vs AUD rate... yeah, i got stung with international transaction fees which brought my savings up to 0... i got exactly dollar for dollar once those fees hit my account.

happy that i didn't lose money on the transaction but man.... thinking about transferring a whole truck load of cash onto my 28 degrees card now as they don't have the transaction fees.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

omg. i just checked my bank account and i was like.. where has all my money gone...

our massive payoff for the cruise and our APs and our accomodation to take advantage of the awesome USD vs AUD rate... yeah, i got stung with international transaction fees which brought my savings up to 0... i got exactly dollar for dollar once those fees hit my account.

happy that i didn't lose money on the transaction but man.... thinking about transferring a whole truck load of cash onto my 28 degrees card now as they don't have the transaction fees.

Oh no , bummer about your bank account.

 

[alicia1506]

Oh no , bummer about your bank account.

omg i know ... unhappy with the bank right now

 

[BecBennett]

Ouch. That sucks...

But the way your flights work are perfect!

 

[alicia1506]

so i didn't win lotto last night.



stupid online entries, being all not-winning.

lol. i don't know what i'd do with myself if i did win... that kind of money is crazy.

but i do kinda have a deal going with myself right now... if i manage to save up the extra $$ or get a really good tax return, i'm going to treat carlo and i to PE flights for the bne-lax return leg of the trip. i wanna try it at least once and i figure what better trip than this one where we're alone together & it's going to be this big romantic trip

so i just have to keep it a surprise from him if it happens now

 

[Travel Mum]

Hey, we flew all the way through in one go too so that was Wellington - Auckland - L.A. - Orlando. We arrived into Orlando at about 6pm. We got to POR, had a quick dinner and crashed into bed. That was the morning that I did not want to use an alarm clock as I wanted everyone to have that day to catch up on their sleep. I really didn't know what time we'd wake up as our time clocks were very confused (I know we wake up very early in the morning in the first few days on a West Coast holiday) however was shocked when I woke to look at the clock and it said 1pm!! I had never imagined it would be that late! That meant that we didn't leave our room and go to Downtown Disney until 2pm but meant we'd all woken up naturally which was good.

So, yes, certainly take your multiple alarm clocks if you hope to wake up at 6am!!!!!

 

[alicia1506]

Hey, we flew all the way through in one go too so that was Wellington - Auckland - L.A. - Orlando. We arrived into Orlando at about 6pm. We got to POR, had a quick dinner and crashed into bed. That was the morning that I did not want to use an alarm clock as I wanted everyone to have that day to catch up on their sleep. I really didn't know what time we'd wake up as our time clocks were very confused (I know we wake up very early in the morning in the first few days on a West Coast holiday) however was shocked when I woke to look at the clock and it said 1pm!! I had never imagined it would be that late! That meant that we didn't leave our room and go to Downtown Disney until 2pm but meant we'd all woken up naturally which was good.

So, yes, certainly take your multiple alarm clocks if you hope to wake up at 6am!!!!!

omg!!!!! maybe i'll also ask the hotel for a wake up call as well

that is exactly what i was afraid of, that we'd end up sleeping well past our deadline and missing our port connection

 

[australiankaren]

so i didn't win lotto last night.



stupid online entries, being all not-winning.

lol. i don't know what i'd do with myself if i did win... that kind of money is crazy.

but i do kinda have a deal going with myself right now... if i manage to save up the extra $$ or get a really good tax return, i'm going to treat carlo and i to PE flights for the bne-lax return leg of the trip. i wanna try it at least once and i figure what better trip than this one where we're alone together & it's going to be this big romantic trip

so i just have to keep it a surprise from him if it happens now

once you do PE you cant go back....

the dollar is $1.01 now...so sad..I havent paid off my cruise yet or bought my $$$$$....bugger!

 

[alicia1506]

paid off our cruise in total now, and paid for our shuttle transfers on the disney resort express bus today.

have contacted disney today to request an AP discount for our accomodation and an updated quote for the accomodation. also asked for quotes for our tour.

also, just had my new camera arrive in the mail, so very, very happy today

 

[BecBennett]

I love getting new stuff! I have enough cameras, but in the back of my mind I'm still thinking of purchasing a P&S with RAW capabilities...

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

I love getting new stuff! I have enough cameras, but in the back of my mind I'm still thinking of purchasing a P&S with RAW capabilities...

The Canon S95 has raw capabilities and is a great little camera

 

[alicia1506]

ok... so unwrapped the camera last night, read the manual, then started playing...

put the battery in & went to charge it... no indicator light. uh oh

i really, really, really wanted this camera.

checked the power was on at the wall. check. ok. maybe i'll try charging it through my laptop. nope. no indicator light. still won't turn on. ok. maybe i'll try my other camera's power cord. nope. still nothing.

very, very unhappy leesha right now.

very unhappy.

tried my phone's power cord. nothing.

ok. checked all the cables with my electrical meter (my dad's an electrician, so i have all the good tools -- no idea what it's called though, an amp-meter??? ) they all work fine when plugged into other things. yay. except...

ok. back to the drawing board.

unplug everything. take out sd card. take out battery. put battery back in wrong way round. hrmm. battery works. camera works.


only freaking camera in the world where the battery fits in both ways.

you'd think they would include that in the manual that came with it?? nope. not in there. it's in the online manual though



so that was 4 hours of my night spent stressing.. and all cause the stupid manufacturer made a reversible battery that only works if you put it in a certain way

 

[BecBennett]

lol... Weird...

But yay! It works! That's the main thing!

 

[alicia1506]

ok, so today i discovered that we can fly with vaustralia directly bne - lax, but for the return leg we have to fly back through sydney, do a 2 hr layover, then do syd - bne via virgin blue/whatever they're calling themselves now.

ugh.

i prefer that at the end of a 14 hour flight is a cab, a hot shower and my bed, not more connections.

i just paid off the disneyland hotel portion of our trip but i am contemplating adding another day so that we can fly back direct.

qantas has direct flights both ways, and on our original check out date, but our FF points are with virgin, and we just prefer the virgin experience.

so, would you do it? add one more disney day? the only increase in cost would be an extra night at the disneyland hotel. our entry passes would still be valid and i'd need to change the shuttle pick up for the next day... but that would be fine...

it would mean that we'd be in anaheim from dec 1 - 13, with one day out for the san diego zoo and 1 day out for shopping, and we don't actually arrive on the 1st until dinner time, so it would mean 10 whole days to dedicate to disneyland, california adventure, lazy days in the pool, people watching etc.

what would you do?

 

[aussietravellers]

lazy days in the pool
if you have a wetsuit

what would you do?

I would add another day

 

[WAMUMOF4]

Defiantly add another day especially if the only cost is accommodation