Is anyone planning (have planned) a trip REALLY far in advance?

[Mainstreetqueen]

We are planning for our Cruise and stay at Disneyland for October 2012. Last night I made my first spreadsheet regarding this trip...there are more to come!

Enjoy the planning!

 

[clancy3]

Are you creating a spreadsheet using excel or are you using a template? My family has a lot of money to save which means I need to begin planning immediately.

Thank you for the advice!

 

[Misskitty3]

Are you creating a spreadsheet using excel or are you using a template? My family has a lot of money to save which means I need to begin planning immediately.

Thank you for the advice!

I use Excel and create a combined expenses/park schedule spreadsheet.

 

[dizneekrazee]

I am a neurotic planner. I can stay up all night planning & researching. I don't just do it for myself either, I do it for my friends if they will let me. I finally decided to enroll in travel courses
Some of my upcoming trips are not too far off now, but I will show you how crazy I can be about it.

August 2011- DLR for DS#2 bday
Sept or Oct 2011 (unconfirmed dates) DLR again just me & my cupcake
Nov 2011- Oahu girls trip
Jan 2012- Costa Rica
May 2012- Belize
August 2012- Big Island for DS#3 bday or DLR if unable to afford Big Island
May 2013- Brazil, Peru, & Argentina
Nov 2013- 1st trip to WDW
Jan-Mar 2014 (unconfirmed dates)- Puerto Rico or South Africa

Nuerotic much? Yes, I know.

 

[Misskitty3]

I am a neurotic planner. I can stay up all night planning & researching. I don't just do it for myself either, I do it for my friends if they will let me. I finally decided to enroll in travel courses
Some of my upcoming trips are not too far off now, but I will show you how crazy I can be about it.

August 2011- DLR for DS#2 bday
Sept or Oct 2011 (unconfirmed dates) DLR again just me & my cupcake
Nov 2011- Oahu girls trip
Jan 2012- Costa Rica
May 2012- Belize
August 2012- Big Island for DS#3 bday or DLR if unable to afford Big Island
May 2013- Brazil, Peru, & Argentina
Nov 2013- 1st trip to WDW
Jan-Mar 2014 (unconfirmed dates)- Puerto Rico or South Africa

Nuerotic much? Yes, I know.

Ohhh .... you have a lot of fun plans in the works! Good for you!

 

[dizneekrazee]

Also, I saw some of you mention a few posts back about not being able to purchase your tickets yet for 2012, but you can. You have 2 options: 1) as another poster mentioned, you can add value to a disney gift card at purchase later whether it be all tickets at once or individually as you save up, or 2) DLR just updated their ticket prices, and while they have promotional prices for now-Oct 1, 2011, the regular ticket options do not expire until December 2012. Now that does not mean that sometime Disney will not up the tickets again, but if you purchase them now, they will still be valid until that date regardless of price changes.

I work for one of my local Disney Stores, so if you have questions regarding the tickets (or anything else), PM me & I can give you the best info I am allowed to give.

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

Oh REALLY! So If I buy my tickets now they'll be ok until the end of 2012?!

 

[dizneekrazee]

Oh REALLY! So If I buy my tickets now they'll be ok until the end of 2012?!

Yes ma'am! Where do you buy your tickets? I know the ones we carry in The Disney Store will have the expiration date in either the front top corner or back top corner of the paper the ticket is attached to. Not sure if Safeway, etc have the same tix or not, but I think they do. Even if you were to purchase them online through the Disneyland website it says "valid now through December 31, 2012"

Happy planning

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

I was looking at GetAwayToday or the disney site. YAY! Maybe I'll buy one at a time for the next few months

 

[dizneekrazee]

I was looking at GetAwayToday or the disney site. YAY! Maybe I'll buy one at a time for the next few months

I've never purchased from GetAwayToday, but I would imagine they would carry the same tix.

And I think that is a great idea for buying one at time. That is exactly how I book my tours when we are going somewhere, one a month.

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

Early December 2012 here!

I'm going to have to make an educated guess eventually and just pick some days, and hope that it isn't all cast-party nights when we are there... tentatively thinking Wednesday, November 28th - Monday, December 3rd
or Wednesday, December 5th - Monday, December 10th. Anyone want to help me pick?

I have started buying gift cards, to use to pay for my package (I've done both costco and WDTC), I know you can save money by doing it all separate, but this way I can do a payment plan, and they have been awesome about honoring specials for me in the past.

I started a PTR awhile back, because I am a little ocd about this planning:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2622245

 

[sophies*mom]

Even if you were to purchase them online through the Disneyland website it says "valid now through December 31, 2012"

Really? I kept reading that the ones for sale now expired December 31, 2011. Nice! I don't know that I'll start buying any now, but that's still good to know!

I have tons of tshirt designs saved in one of the many folders on my desktop! lol. I have all kinds of tshirt ideas in mind. It'll be fun when I can finally make them! And my DH agreed to wear a Disney themed hat if I made him one. That's saying a lot!

 

[sophies*mom]

Okay, so I made a late night trip to the grocery store (I'm a nice wife--bought my hubby some energy drinks for the morning) and I stopped at the gift card kiosk to look at the Disneyland tickets. They are good through 12-31-12!

 

[ChristineandLiv]

We are in the process of planning a trip to Disneyland for January!

 

[Misskitty3]

Okay, so I made a late night trip to the grocery store (I'm a nice wife--bought my hubby some energy drinks for the morning) and I stopped at the gift card kiosk to look at the Disneyland tickets. They are good through 12-31-12!

Do most grocery stores sell multi-day ticket/gift cards? I was at Safeway yesterday and saw they were selling 3 day passes for $189 or $198 (can't remember which it was). But what if you want a 4 or 5 day pass - can you get those at grocery stores too?

Also, once you buy the card at the store, do you have to do anything special with it at DL? Or is that really what you use to get into the park?

 

[livndisney]

We are "planning" a trip once the Cars area is done, so I am guessing late summer next year. Planning has started, I keep changing my mind on hotels (onsite/offsite) and other area attractions.

 

[knitster]

I've never seen any sort of Disney tickets or GCs at our grocery stores, but I'm in west Texas, so we're quite far from both DL and WDW.

 

[dizneekrazee]

Do most grocery stores sell multi-day ticket/gift cards? I was at Safeway yesterday and saw they were selling 3 day passes for $189 or $198 (can't remember which it was). But what if you want a 4 or 5 day pass - can you get those at grocery stores too?

Also, once you buy the card at the store, do you have to do anything special with it at DL? Or is that really what you use to get into the park?

It might depend on your location for ticket availability at grocery stores. Do you have a local Disney Store? They will have them for sure. The ticket prices you saw sound like the 3 day promotional tickets that are only good until Oct 1, 2011. The tickets that are good until Dec 31, 2012 have a price of $214 for kids & adults ages 10+ for 3 days, and children ages 3-9 are $198, both of those are approximately $15 more than the promotional tickets.

If you buy the ticket card at the store, then yes, that is what you use to enter the park. No need to go to the ticket booth and get an actual ticket. (I cannot say that is true for online orders as I have never done that, but I would imagine you need to visit the ticket booth for those).

 

[Minnie Loves Mickey]

I bought tickets online 2 summers ago and you just printed the ticket up at home and went to the entrance gates at Disney and they changed it for a hard ticket right there. No need to go to the ticket booths.

 

[sophies*mom]

Do most grocery stores sell multi-day ticket/gift cards? I was at Safeway yesterday and saw they were selling 3 day passes for $189 or $198 (can't remember which it was). But what if you want a 4 or 5 day pass - can you get those at grocery stores too?

Also, once you buy the card at the store, do you have to do anything special with it at DL? Or is that really what you use to get into the park?

At the grocery stores around here, I've never seen more than a 3 day park hopper but as PP said, you can absolutely buy them at the Disney store.

I used to work for Safeway and when you buy a gift card or park ticket, it activates right there after your payment goes through. A little slip prints out confirming it was activated. It should be good to go from there!

So when you buy your ticket online and take it to the turnstiles to enter the park, do they give you a paper ticket? Or a hard plastic one?