General thread - general tips, ideas, comments, whatever

[zaccy]

For those of you interested in books there is a great company in the UK that includes the postage of all your books in the price - so the price you see for the book is all you pay - no additional postage. They also have very good prices, we brought the latest lonely planet USA book form them for half the price you would pay here and their range is HUGE. The place is they also have a US based site which has the same books at slightly different prices some times a little cheaper, some times a little more expensive.

BE WARNED..... it can get very expensive 'looking' at this site

 

[aussietravellers]

1 "Disney Parks: The Secrets, Stories and Magic Behind the Scenes (Six-Pack)"
Mickey Mouse; DVD; $26.49

Oh how exciting! That's what I am going to order too...
I can't wait to hear what you think of it.

Aussietravellers, I haven't heard of those books before? Tell me more....

I haven't read them, but they get very good reviews. From what I can gather, they are about a group of 5 teenagers who are at WDW after dark. I think the first two books are about the Magic Kingdom and the new book that has recently been releasd is about Epcot and Hollywod Studios. I think they sound great, so thought as I would really like the books for my son I may as well order the DVD set also

Here's a little bit about the books
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kingdom_Keepers

.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

.

Damn, now I want to order those too . Since it's my daughters birthday today and presents are already done LOL, I might get them for her for Christmas. She loves to read and she loves everything Disney so it should be a hit.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

I finally got around to having our photos printed from our Sept/Oct 2009 trip. I took around 6000 photos and narrowed it down to approx. 1600 images to print. I could've probably culled it some more but decided that I was just not going to. I of course printed lots of images that would mean nothing to other's but everything to us LOL.

Unfortunately they are all jumbled up and not in the order they should have been printed in so I am drowning in images, trying to put them in order. I may have to pay one of the kids to put them in the 6 photo albums I bought today to hold them .

Anyway, let me know if there are any photos of particular things you want to see, esp Disneyland stuff, I may have lost my mind there, I swear at least 1000 of the photos are of DL.

 

[heidispidi]

Can I ask your opinion on how to best spend a day away from DL? The choices are a day at Universal Studios, or a 1 day tour of LA. Neither myself or my daughter (8) have ever been to LA. We're in LA for 7 nights, excluding the 1 night/day we'll be flying to San Francisco, and will be spending the rest of our time at DL. The way I see it:

Universal
Pros: I'd like to see everything there that I've seen on TV for as long as I can remember - the trolley tour, Jaws, etc.
Cons: Is it just an other theme park?

LA tour
Pros: I'd like to see the sites, and a guided tour I've found takes you past movie star houses, the La Brea tar pits (excuse spelling), Rodeo Drive, and to the Warner Bros studio tour.
Cons: I've been told my girl will get bored on the WB tour. And that driving past movie star homes is like me taking any of you on a tour through my suburb, showing you where my friends live LOL.

What are your thoughts?

 

[aussietravellers]

LA tour
Pros: I'd like to see the sites, and a guided tour I've found takes you past movie star houses, the La Brea tar pits (excuse spelling), Rodeo Drive, and to the Warner Bros studio tour.
Cons: I've been told my girl will get bored on the WB tour. And that driving past movie star homes is like me taking any of you on a tour through my suburb, showing you where my friends live LOL.

We did an LA/Hollywood tour in December. It was with Grayline tours so it picked up at Disneyland (GCH). We loved it. First stop was something like little mexico. We had the best Churro we have ever eaten, it was SO good. We then drove around LA and then the next stop was around the Chinese Theatre and the Kodak theatre it was for about an hour and was exciting as the street was closed off to traffic (not pedestrians) for the Avatar Hollywood premier that night. We saw Ted Dansen and somebody else doing some sort of interview with photographers everywhere. Talk about weird, there are some weirdos in Hollywood I tell you But it was great seeing the stars on the sidewalk. We then were back on the bus for more driving, through Beverley Hills and next stop was The Grove/Farmers Markets for lunch and a shop. I can't remember how long we had there, maybe an hour and a half/two hours (thats where the America Girl shop is).

Back on the bus and off to Santa Monica, had about an hour there. It was lovely, we walked along the pier and had a look at the shops.

Then we stopped at Venice Beach. Well we were off the bus for about 15 minutes then returned. It was just to weird for us and I wasn't that impressed with having my young son there near dark with people selling Marajuana everywhere Yes it is for medicinal purposes they were saying But we got back to the bus and everybody else started to arrive back too, so nobody else was very impressed.

We didn't go past any stars home although he would point places out all the time. The driver (Charles I think his name was) was just amazing, knew so much and didn't stop with facts as he was driving around. He pointed out that's where Hugh Grant was caught, thats the nightclub where so and so died, that's where so and so lived for a while....

My son didn't get bored. Mind you he did take his DS with him and one of the other young boys on the bus had his DS too. It was funny, the bus was full of Aussies aside from one US couple.

But it was a fun day. I'm glad we did it.

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

We did an LA/Hollywood tour in December. It was with Grayline tours so it picked up at Disneyland (GCH). We loved it. First stop was something like little mexico. We had the best Churro we have ever eaten, it was SO good. We then drove around LA and then the next stop was around the Chinese Theatre and the Kodak theatre it was for about an hour and was exciting as the street was closed off to traffic (not pedestrians) for the Avatar Hollywood premier that night. We saw Ted Dansen and somebody else doing some sort of interview with photographers everywhere. Talk about weird, there are some weirdos in Hollywood I tell you But it was great seeing the stars on the sidewalk. We then were back on the bus for more driving, through Beverley Hills and next stop was The Grove/Farmers Markets for lunch and a shop. I can't remember how long we had there, maybe an hour and a half/two hours (thats where the America Girl shop is).

Back on the bus and off to Santa Monica, had about an hour there. It was lovely, we walked along the pier and had a look at the shops.

Then we stopped at Venice Beach. Well we were off the bus for about 15 minutes then returned. It was just to weird for us and I wasn't that impressed with having my young son there near dark with people selling Marajuana everywhere Yes it is for medicinal purposes they were saying But we got back to the bus and everybody else started to arrive back too, so nobody else was very impressed.

We didn't go past any stars home although he would point places out all the time. The driver (Charles I think his name was) was just amazing, knew so much and didn't stop with facts as he was driving around. He pointed out that's where Hugh Grant was caught, thats the nightclub where so and so died, that's where so and so lived for a while....

My son didn't get bored. Mind you he did take his DS with him and one of the other young boys on the bus had his DS too. It was funny, the bus was full of Aussies aside from one US couple.

But it was a fun day. I'm glad we did it.

I agree with Aussietravellers. The LA tour idea would be great for you and your daughter. You will already be doing the theme park thing and whilst I had a ball at Universal, if i had to choose between the LA tour and that, I'd definitely go LA tour. Your daughter will forever more be able to say how she saw the Hollywood Walk of Fame and other hotspots. Farmers Market was wonderful and a quick glimpse at Santa Monica and Venice Beach is fun. I totally agree about Venice Beach, blech but glad I saw it once.

 

[GrazingGoat1966]

Grayline also do a half day LA City tour combined with a half day at Universal if you wish. We did it in 2006 as we were short of time. About $92US from memory (at the time). An option to extend your time at Universal is to make your own way back to your hotel afterwards. Will cost more depending upon where you are staying but it allows you to stay until closing rather than 6pm when the bus arrives to pick you up.

Just a thought....

 

[PrincessInOz]

You might like to go on line and have a look at the American Girl Dolls and see if your daughter might like to get herself a doll. If so, then it would definitely be worth heading to the Grove/Farmer's market and spending some time there for her to get a doll.

I would do an LA tour over going to another theme park. This way, you get to see the unique things of LA...that you see in the movies or on TV.

 

[aussiegirls]

I agree with PP's that a tour of LA is the go. There is so much to see and do and seeing as you have an 8 yr old DD you really can't not go to American Girl Place. We spent the bulk of an entire day there and will be doing the same thing this time around.

There is also the La Brea Tar Pits (awesome) and the walk of fame is interesting and the Disney Soda Fountain is across the road from it, which is super fun.

Personally I think the only thing that was worthwhile at Universal was the trolley tour but it was definately not worth the cost of an entire day's entry. I would definately give Universal a miss.

xxx

 

[aussiegirls]

Ok, you know what I did with my photos, I made a gorgeous photo book with Snapfish. The kids and I love, love, love it. One of my DD's took it everywhere with her for about 6 months

The best thing was that you can adjust the sizes of the photos in the book so I didn't have to leave out as many as I thought I would. It took a while to put together (although you can get the site to put it together for you but I wanted to do it) but it is so amazing now. And the cost was probably no more than if I had have printed them all off.

xxx

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Ok, you know what I did with my photos, I made a gorgeous photo book with Snapfish. The kids and I love, love, love it. One of my DD's took it everywhere with her for about 6 months

The best thing was that you can adjust the sizes of the photos in the book so I didn't have to leave out as many as I thought I would. It took a while to put together (although you can get the site to put it together for you but I wanted to do it) but it is so amazing now. And the cost was probably no more than if I had have printed them all off.

xxx

I plan on doing something similar to this, mainly because I want to include journalling. Both the kids and myself kept a travel diary on the trip and I want to incorporate some of our thoughts too. I had of course fully intended to have it done by now but life is too hectic. I must get to this as I know the kids would adore it.

 

[glara]

Snapfish is great, I've made a couple of books for my Mum, and each year I do a calendar for the relatives for Christmas, featuring my DS - each month has photos from the corresponding month of the last year, so they can see how he's changed in 12 months.

Have also got a bit carried away in the last few days...not only did I get those books mentioned earlier, but we realised we have only one suitcase between us and whilst we can borrow a couple, we're still short - so managed to get one in the long weekend sale yesterday, it's great - really light so at least we're not using precious kg on a hefty set of luggage!

Then I ordered the Entertainment book, hoping that HoJo's will open up our dates closer to the time - hey, if they don't then no great loss as we'll make use of plenty of the vouchers in the book anyway.

And I've made a growth chart which shows what height DS (4 at the end of next month) needs to be to go on the rides with height limits - he's got 2cm to grow in 11 months to be able to go on Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, etc.

Was also interested to read your comments about Universal - I went when I was 5 so don't remember it and was thinking of skipping it as I don't think DS would be into it, he won't quite be 5 when we go. I thought I could send DH on his own if he is keen. Coach tour sounds good though.

 

[heidispidi]

Off topic, is anyone doing anything good this long weekend? (Not sure if it's a country-wide thing or not?). We're driving to Dubbo, visiting Western Plains Zoo and the old Gaol, etc. A 5 hour drive from Sydney, I'm guessing it will be a decent precursor to a 12 hr 40 min flight to LA in January! I haven't been there in over 20 years, so I'm really looking forward to it.

I've printed off plenty of games from the net for the drive, and written my list of things we need to pack tonight...it all helps to take my mind off our DL trip for a couple of days! I know my sister is having a similar issue, where all you can think about when you're not working hard or tending to the kids etc is your trip. I'm sure we're not alone! It's like when you're getting married, or pregnant LOL.

 

[shushh]

heidispidi, that sounds nice! Dubbo and the zoo is on our long to do list. Unfortunately, DH is on call for most of the next 7 days...

Oh well, I guess someone has to earn the money to pay for our Disney holidays!

We're finally going to get to see Melbourne though. Going for 5 days in the July school holidays. DH has been twice and both times only got to see the college building where he sat his exams before flying back home!

Staying at the Swanston Hotel. Hope its good as we got the rooms half price so can't complain!

 

[aussiegirls]

I think half of Australia is coming up the mountains here. The tourist traffic on the way home from work was a shocker

xxx

 

[PrincessInOz]

A quiet weekend at home relaxing and lots of . I have a trip report to try to complete...
And I might be watching the soccer.

 

[queenie82]

A quiet weekend at home relaxing and lots of . I have a trip report to try to complete...

Minus the trip report that's my plan

And I might be watching the soccer.

Soccer???? Pardon???? Do you mean football?

sigh....the world cup
Yes we did a sweep/draw at the office because the boss is a HUGE football fan. I got North Korea and Mexico
So I won't be watching it...but I will watch the highlights of the first match tomorrow to see how quickly Mexico go down

I hope people have a nice long weekend

 

[PrincessInOz]

Minus the trip report that's my plan


Soccer???? Pardon???? Do you mean football?

sigh....the world cup
Yes we did a sweep/draw at the office because the boss is a HUGE football fan. I got North Korea and Mexico
So I won't be watching it...but I will watch the highlights of the first match tomorrow to see how quickly Mexico go down

I hope people have a nice long weekend

For us Melbournians, football is that blood sport played all weekend masquerading as a game. Soccer is that game played with the round ball that some French players think that they need to hit with their hands.

North Korea is an outside chance; so don't throw away your ticket just yet.

Have a good weekend.

 

[areweindisneyyet]

When we were in San Francisco my husband and son went to watch a San Fran Giants baseball game. They absolutely LOVED it. For the rest of the trip he watched the baseball whenever we were in the room.

Since returning home same thing. The US baseball season has recently started again and he is obsessed. Funny how just going once has created an obsession with him.

If only it couldn've been about Disneyland and not baseball, I'd be set. Then I would get all the trips i want

I have the ice hockey bug - I take someone new every trip so that it becomes infectious. Go Canucks!