March/April 2014 - Who's Joining Me?

[heidispidi]

I thought I'd start up a specific thread for those of us who are travelling during March/April. There is a 2014 thread but this is a little more specific, a place for us to share our plans.

We will be away over Easter, the full school holidays, flying out of Sydney on the 13th April, and returning 26th April. It will be the 2nd trip to DL for my DD11 and I (we stayed at GCH for a week with my sister in Jan 2011), and a 1st time trip for my DH and his DD15. Our international flights are booked (very cheap flights with V-Aust became available a few months ago), as is all of our accommodation. We're staying 5 nights at PPH in a premium concierge room, followed by 2 days at the Sheraton Universal, 3 nights at the Venetian in Las Vegas in a Rialto Suite (1100 sq ft of luxury!), then return to the DLH for 1 night in a park view room, before flying home the next night.

Besides taking in DL/DCA as much as possible, we'll spend a day at Universal Studios, do a Hollywood tour and take a day trip to the Grand Canyon from Vegas. (Need to book our Vegas flights, waiting on South-West's flights to become available). There are a couple of shows I'm interested in seeing in Vegas, but I'm still working my way through all the info available before making any decisions.

I have our LA transfers booked... and now a few other things have moved up the priority planning list. First is a short 4 night visit to Singapore next month to visit my best friend. Can't wait for that! Second is that we still may be moving from Perth back to Sydney before the school year begins once more in Jan/Feb. My DH's father has been very unwell recently, and I think we should be there to help out more (DH just spent a week over there while his dad was in hpspital). That and I really miss home and want to be close to my family and friends once more. So there's quite a bit of planning involved in that.

So - who else is travelling in March/April 2014? I know there were a few of you posting in the 2014 thread!

 

[gogo65]

Me, me, me
I am booked to leave on the 10th April to LAX, flying to miami on the 11th, cruising on celebrity reflection on the 12th, i am cruising with a girlfriend, our DH's arrive into Miami on the 18th, my DD will be flying with her cheer leading team on 14th straight to Orlando, they will be staying off site until the 23rd then we all head to WDW till the 29th
DH and our friends aren't exactly sure what we will do between the 19/4 and 23/4, we may spend more time around Miami or head to Orlando.
My son will also be meeting up with us, he is Booked to do a contiki tour from the 1/4-17/4 and then will meet us in Miami.

So a family of four all leaving on different days better that way as DH and I will be flying business class and the kids will be down the back in economy, I don't want them on the same flight as me whinging all the way
On the 29/4 we head to New York for 4days then the kids head home together. The kids will be 19 and 21, so we aren't really that mean. DH and our friends then head to Europe

So far all we have booked is flights and the cruise, WDW will be arranged by the cheer federation, so will be a value resort.

I need to book a restaurant for a large group on our first night at WDw, last time we booked rose and crown which was great, any opinions on other options??

 

[heidispidi]

Yay gogo65! It's good to have someone to plan with I've not been to WDW, but many of the other ladies on this forum have - I think a lot of our most active members are over there currently! Sounds like you and your family will be extremely busy. Are you going to Europe with your DH and friends, or is he going without you?

I'm looking at buying some US dollars, if not today then Monday, givent he reasonable exchange rate. I have no idea if it will last or not, so I figure I might as well buy some here and there, as an improved rate becomes available.

 

[gogo65]

Haha I will definetely be joining DH in Europe or a divorce would be on the cards
This is my fourth visit to WDW, although I also love DL

I bought some US dollars when it started to drop a month or two ago, but thinking I might put some more on my aus post card now it is starting to go back up. I bought enough cash, but can always pit in on the card, and if we don't need it can transfer it over to euro's before we hit Europe.

It only 6months away, we all know fast that is going to go. We booked our flights using FF points in April, amazing how quickly the time has gone since we booked them.

 

[heidispidi]

I'm with you, time is flying. I booked - let's see - 3 months ago? Got flights for 3 adults and 1 child (just 11 still!) for $4600 and used a $1000 credit I had with Virgin. Was so excited that I could talk DH into going! He hasn't been overseas in 36 years, when he did a South Pacific cruise as a 12 year old!

My passport arrived this week. I had 7 years left on mine but wanted to travel in my married name. Passport office lost my 1st set of photos, just a minor set-back. DH got his the week before, and DD has hers. Need to sort out my step-daughter's. She's coming to Perth next week so I'll get the ball rolling then.

3 weeks till Singapore, I must put some kind of plan together!

 

[rachaeld]

Me! We leave NZ on 11April, 10 nights Anaheim (in rental house), drive to Las Vegas, 3 nights Signature at the MGM Grand, fly to San Francisco (we are still waiting for southwest to load flights too). 4 nights in holiday home in San Fran, drive back down to San Diego with a night along the way - maybe Santa Barbara. Finally 3 nights in hotel in San Diego.

Traveling with my DH, DD's 7 & 8 and also my SIL, BIL and two nephews 12 & 14.

This is our first disney holiday although DH and his sister (my SIL) did go when they were young.

 

[AussieMumma]

Oh pick me
We fly Bris-LA on March 30th. Stay 4 nights in Anaheim at the Camelot. We then fly to Miami on the 3rd, stay overnight before doing back to back cruises on the Disney Wonder 5 night Caribbean and 4 night Bahamas. Then on the 13th we fly from Miami to Chicago and have four nights there, I have family about an hour out of the city that we will visit as well as seeing the sights we missed last time we visited. Then on the 17th we fly back to LA and spend a night at the Marriott LAX, most likely hire a car and spend the day on the 18th at Citadel Outlets before our 11:55pm flight home! Gotta love those flight times

There's me, dh and our four kids will be 15, 13, 8 & 5.

We booked our flights in June for $1153 per adult and $1025 per child. We weren't going to book until around this time of year but we couldn't pass up on those prices.

We put some US dollars on our cards a couple of weeks ago when it was 90c and just loaded some more today since it was looking so good, I think it was 93c. I was worried there for a while when it dropped under 90!

gogo65 Wow you're family is all over the place on your trip! How big of a group will you have for dinner?

 

[gogo65]

gogo65 Wow you're family is all over the place on your trip! How big of a group will you have for dinner?

Aussie momma, we will be a group of around 40
My daughters team plus some extras like us going.
When we went last year we booked under 3 names all within 15minutes for groups of 8, this worked well, however booking for 40 or so might be more difficult, wondering if we should head to DTD restaurant rather than a park??

 

[AussieMumma]

Aussie momma, we will be a group of around 40
My daughters team plus some extras like us going.
When we went last year we booked under 3 names all within 15minutes for groups of 8, this worked well, however booking for 40 or so might be more difficult, wondering if we should head to DTD restaurant rather than a park??

Wow 40 Hmm you almost need a separate function room or half a restaurant all to yourselves! Maybe ring Disney Dining and just ask them if they have any ideas? Maybe you could book a whole floor at Fultens Crab House in Downtown Disney?!

 

[rachaeld]

How is everyone's planning going?

We have our accommodation all booked, apart from one night along PCH somewhere probably Santa Barbara.
We have our rental cars booked (rentalcars.com) just waiting on them to confirm.
Airfares were booked a few months ago, they have just gone on special, but not saving enough to pay the penalty to change them.
Getting ready to buy our 10 day vacation pass from the travel agent.

 

[gogo65]

Our planning is happening slowly but surely,
I booked our ADR's this week.
I got two tables for our group dinner, one table of 26the other for 20, five minutes apart, at biergarten, so very happy with that.
Also booked the plaza for lunch, LE cellier dinner, BOG dinner

Would still like to book sci-fi but don't know what day I can do it, so far I have dinner booked for our first three nights, but the next three are up in the air depending on DD.
Think I might just book it for a day, and cancel if need be.
Don't know why I want to go to sci-fi but it looks fun, and I haven't been there.
Don't want any more Epcot meals as I'm not an Epcot fan,
Might also book Boma in....decisions.

Other than that we are waiting till end of November to finalize everything.
Working on our Europe portion of the trip at the moment

Oh and we are off to ayers rock tomorrow, never been, so looking forward to that

 

[heidispidi]

Sounds like we're all making progress!

I still need to book our flights from LAX to LAS. Just waiting a week or 2 for that. My SIL has put together pricing for our 10 day park hoppers, Universal Studios and Knotsberry Farm tix and an LA tour. I have downgraded our PPH room to a std room, and have canned DLH for our last night and have replaced it with a night at Hojo. Purely a money saving exercise, as we should be buying a house in the next month or 2, and I've realised I can't have EVERYTHING!

Can't book our dining for a few months still, but I'm busy reading through the 2014 Unofficial Guide to see what's changed since I was there in 2011.

We went to Universal Studios Singapore 2 weeks ago while visiting my best school friend over there. It introduced my DH to waiting in queues and roller coasters, something he's only experienced at the Gold Coast theme parks. He seemed to go ok with it, but was happy when I reminded him that he could walk back to our room at PPH if the going got too rough for him at DL or DCA!

 

[AussieMumma]

We've changed our plans a little bit.
We're now just doing the first 5 night Disney cruise then driving up to Savannah GA, stopping over night in Daytona Beach on the way.
My second cousin's dh is in the military and this is where they will be living in April, she isn't able to fly out to Chicago at the same time we will be there so we thought we'd take the opportunity to visit her in Savannah instead.
In May they move to South Carolina, so we'll have somewhere different to visit next trip also!
I've got two hotels booked in Anaheim now, the Camelot and the BW Park Place. We are trying to decide between smaller room with a better breakfast (BW) over a larger room with dodgy breakfast (C). We're only there for four nights and will be in the parks the majority of the time so I'm leaning towards BW as it will save us time in the morning to be able to grab some food from the hotel plus it's that bit closer to the gates
We have a hotel booked for Chicago, just need to book a night in Miami for before the cruise, and now the Daytona Beach and Savannah hotels.
We have three domestic flights to book also, I'm not sure whether to just book them now or wait to see if the prices go down?
Hmm when I write it all down it seems like I still have a lot to do! If only work didn't exist so I had more time to surf the net