My 2014 WDW, NY, Europe and who knows where else PTR

[Aussie Wendy]

My mind's reeling at the thought of all the organisation to go....I think I am getting old

(and jealous - sounds wonderful.)

 

[Minniemum]

Awesome effort with the FF points and cruise Hopefully your DD's dates firm up soon.

 

[gogo65]

So I haven't really had much to say the last few months, things are slowly being organised bit by bit. But we have had some progress

This week was our 180 days, so we all know that means ADR time.
It is pretty difficult trying to plan, when we still don't have any accommodation booked but the dates are set in stone, so I have been able to book my ADR's, but a very painful process as I can only book day by day

So we have biergarten on 23/4 for 46 people
I thought it would be good for a big group and as the group is both male and female and generally aged over 18, we weren't going to be doing a character meal. So I was very lucky to get a table for 26 at 6.55 and 20 at 7pm

Next up we have the plaza booked for lunch on 24/4, thought it might be nice to sit For a quick simple lunch at magic kingdom, then for dinner we have LE Cellier at 8.30pm, we have dined here before and enjoyed it but our friends ate here after I recommended it to them and said it was one of the best meals they have ever had, so they really wanted to go back, no problem, I can do that!

Then I tossed and turned between CRT and BOG, for 25/4. I spoke to friends today and we decided on BOG, one reason is we may need to cancel, (depending on DD's schedule) and I preferred the idea of not having to pay over $500 upfront.
So we have BOG for 8.30, just the girls this day the boys are going to KSC so they can eat wherever they want.

Competition is the following three days, so we can't plan anything until we are there, just have to wait and see what their schedule is.

In other planning, we have hotels booked pre and post cruise in Miami, hotel in Paris is booked, and flights from Paris to Budapest booked.
Trying to finalize our Croatia section at the moment, but slowly slowly we are getting there.

Oh and next week we are off to ayers rock to celebrate DH's big '50'. Looking forward to our first visit!

 

[gogo65]

Just over three months to go, a few ups and downs in the planning stages, but we are finally progressing.
There were a few issues with the cheer team but that is now sorted and the week before Christmas we found out everything is good, and planning is underway

The main change is now only 10 are going, a smaller team but that's ok.
We have changed our reservation from biergarten to chef mickeys on our first night, as we are saving a day on our park hopper tickets.
As part of the cheer competition we can only get 5day hopper passes, but we are staying 6nights, so we thought best to keep the days and stay out of the park for the first night, check in will be in the arvo around 4pm, so we don't really need to go into a park the first day.

We were going to book our accommodation with the cheer federation, but have been reading about the discount expected to be released on Monday, so we have decided to book our accommodation directly with Disney, it will save $235 pp. we will still get the park hoppers through the cheer federation as the 5 day park hopper with entry into ESpN events is $280USD.
So Disney will be organised This week staying all star sports from April 23-29.
The team arrive the 18/4, so we will arrange accommodation from the 18-23/4 in Orlando somewhere so they can go shopping, visit seaworld, waterparks etc, we will most likely also book at least 1 night at universal.
I will arrive into Orlando after my cruise on the 19/4 and meet the DH and DS in Miami before heading up to Orlando and meeting up with DD and her team.

However things still to be booked
Flight from lax-Miami for DH and me(different dates though, as I'm heading over a week early)
Orlando hotels
Flight from Orlando-NYC
Hotel in NYC
Hotel in Budapest
Hotel in Zagreb
Hotel in Rome
Hotel in Florence /Naples
Train from venice-Florence-Rome-Naples
Train from Budapest-Zagreb
Ferry From rovinj-Venice

Theatre tickets new York,
Private tour of the French battlefields
Colosseum, Vatican, Eiffel tower tickets.

Very excited as we have recently finalized a private tour in Croatia, we will have a private driver and guide for two weeks and although our itinerary is organised each day we are free to stop and see what we want on the way. Expensive but hopefully well worth it.

Just read this back and it is a jumble mess, as is my head at the moment, I will try and post a better itinerary, when I get a chance!
I do have a spreadsheet with all bookings/reference numbers in it, so that is organised just not my head!

 

[PrincessInOz]

That's some list of places and accommodations to sort out.

Glad that the WDW part is falling in place; or at least it seems to be.

Looking forward to seeing your progress in the next update.

 

[gogo65]

Ok here goes....

10/4 Syd-lax (business class) my friend and I , need to book hotel
11/4 lax-Miami, need to book flight, hotel booked: holiday inn port of Miami
12/4 celebrity reflection cruise, Eastern Caribbean, recently upgraded to aqua class for free and have free unlimited alcohol seven nights
18/4 DD Syd-Orlando with her team
19/4 cruise finishes meet up with DH and DS in Miami and head to Orlando
19-23/4 somewhere in Orlando TBC definitely at least one night at universal
23-29/4 WDW all star sports: to be booked Monday when discounts released
ADR's booked
23/4 chef mickeys 7pm
24/4 plaza for lunch 12:50
24/4 le cellier dinner 8:30pm
25/4 be our guest dinner 8.30pm
26-27/4 DD competes, no plans at all, as we won't know her competition times till the week before
28/4 sci-fi for dinner 7:10pm ( I think)

29/4 Orlando- NYC
29/4-2/5 New York City: hotel not booked
2/5 DD and DS fly home NYC-SYD, DD must be back by the 4/5 for uni so our time in New York had to be cut short
2/5 DH, myself and our friends fly NYC-Paris (business class)
2/5-7/5 Paris:hotel booked citadenes Saint Germaine
7/5 Paris-Budapest
7/5-9/5 Budapest : hotel to be booked
9/5 train to Zagreb :hotel to be booked
9/5 private tour starts(have a tour guide here just for one day)
10/5 fly to Dubrovnik (pick up our driver and tour guide)
9/5-21/5 private tour from Dubrovnik up to Rovinj with stops all along the way.
21/5 ferry Rovinj to Venice
21-23/5 Venice hotel booked:hotel becher
23/5-24/5 we will be catching the train to Naples our friends will be going to Florence just for one night.
24-27/5 Rome hotel to be booked
27/5 Rome-Syd (business class again, gotta love ff points)
So Thats it guys....7 weeks

PS my DS is leaving on the 31/3 and doing two contiki tours prior to meeting up with us on the 18/4(his 21st present)

 

[gogo65]

That's some list of places and accommodations to sort out.

Glad that the WDW part is falling in place; or at least it seems to be.

Looking forward to seeing your progress in the next update.

Slowly but surely

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Wow - the private trip up through Croatia etc will be amazing! An amazing amount of organisation there! and you are nearly done. exciting!

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Wow, that is some trip.
I am particularly jealous of the Celebrity cruise as their newer ships look awesome. I saw their promotion the other day that included the drink package; it's great that you were able to add it to your reservation.

 

[gogo65]

Wow - the private trip up through Croatia etc will be amazing! An amazing amount of organisation there! and you are nearly done. exciting!

Thanks Wendy, really looking forward to Croatia, that was the top of my bucket list
It was one of those places where we thought we were best to spend the time and effort getting it right. Having a driver means we can stop anywhere along the way in little towns etc for a quick coffee or a photo stop etc originally we were looking at a small group tour but they were either to short to long, ended in the wrong city, didn't have enough time in certain places......then we looked at using public transport, but it would mean staying in places an extra night because we couldn't catch a ferry or a bus at the time that suited us, if we had another week that would have worked well.

I just wish I had more time there!!

 

[gogo65]

Wow, that is some trip.
I am particularly jealous of the Celebrity cruise as their newer ships look awesome. I saw their promotion the other day that included the drink package; it's great that you were able to add it to your reservation.

Thanks wanderlust,the celebrity ships certainly seem to get it right, they look awesome, food is good and free alcohol! Looking forward to my balcony cabin, glass of wine in hand, sailing through the Caribbean, someone has to do it

 

[gogo65]

Feeling like I have made some progress this week,
I have booked DD and DS's flights for the whole trip and DH is now on a flight from LAX to Orlando

I have also booked WDW for us and four other friends, whoa what a nightmare that was, WDW don't make it easy
Originally we could only get the first two nights at ASSp with a discount in a standard room, then had to book the next four nights in a preferred room at normal price, no standard rooms available(probably because it has been booked out by the cheer federation). Then I realised I could get the next four nights at a discount if I booked for 6 nights(adding on the extra two nights at the end, then dropping them after I had made the booking) so spoke with Disney and did this but still had the first two nights in a standard room then the next six nights in preferred room(and I still need to drop the last two nights) then another phone call later to WDW and we realised we could book it all on one booking, so they then amended the reservations again
So now I have four rooms booked from 23/4-1/5 in a preferred room all at a discount, still need to drop the last two nights, was it worth it, spending nearly four hours of my life on the phone to a Disney rep....absolutelywe were able to save $515 per room, booking it this way under the spring discount instead of booking through the cheer federation, so a savings of $1030 for our family(two rooms, DS has his own room, DD will be staying at ASMu with her team), so phew that's done
I have also added a few more ADR's to our plans, we will be staying in the downtown Disney area from 18/4-21/4 before heading to universal, so have booked Raglan road on the 20th for dinner, figured we could head to downtown Disney for a bit of shopping and dinner as I don't know if we will get another chance to get to downtown Disney.
I have also added a lunch at yak and yeti on 26/4, not sure if we can make this one as we don't know what time Dd is competing but figured it was easy to cancel once we get her schedule, Waldo booked teppan edo on Sunday 27/4, also don't know if we can make it, but will cancel if need be.
So our final ADR's are:
20/4 raglan road- dinner(staying offsite)
23/4 chef mickeys-dinner(team dinner, reservation for 24)
24/4 the plaza-lunch
24/4 le cellier dinner
25/4 BOG-dinner
26/4 Yak and Yeti-lunch
27/4 Teppan Edo-dinner
28/4 sci-fi-dinner
If we weren't so restricted with DD I would have probably picked different restaurants but happy with what we have got. The only one I'm not sure about is Teppan Edo so may rethink that one.

Oh dear another essay

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Great work with all those extra bookings and your persistence on the phone. There's nothing better than feeling like you got a really good deal. You're missing my favourite ADR - 50's Primetime Cafe (our waiter had us in hysterics the whole time and the Chocolate, Peanut Butter, and Jelly Shake was to die for). But I'm pleased to see you've got Yak and Yeti on your list. Food wise, it was probably our favourite of the 12 or so table service places we ate at in WDW. But that might be because they were one of few places where we could get the South East Asian inspired meals that we love. Their seafood curry was a huge hit with DH.

 

[gogo65]

Great work with all those extra bookings and your persistence on the phone. There's nothing better than feeling like you got a really good deal. You're missing my favourite ADR - 50's Primetime Cafe (our waiter had us in hysterics the whole time and the Chocolate, Peanut Butter, and Jelly Shake was to die for). But I'm pleased to see you've got Yak and Yeti on your list. Food wise, it was probably our favourite of the 12 or so table service places we ate at in WDW. But that might be because they were one of few places where we could get the South East Asian inspired meals that we love. Their seafood curry was a huge hit with DH.

We have done 50's prime time before, and it was a hoot, my DS was soooo embarrassed, still love the photos of him, bright red from embarrassment decided to do sci-fi this time as our friends really enjoyed it.
We actually had yak and yeti booked in 2008 and cancelled it as we were running out of time, it had only just opened then and was getting great reviews, so hopefully we won't have to cancel this time. I chose Teppan Edo because we also like Asian food and figured it would be a good break from the takeaway food we would be eating throughout the holidays

 

[gogo65]

So I have a dilemma on my hands, so coming to the dis to get an opinion.
(Mind you I'm pretty certain what the answer will be!)
We arrive at 6.40 am on the 10/4, my friend already has her flight booked on the 11/4 to Miami to start our cruise on the 12th. However I still haven't booked my flight to Miami, so I now have two options, fly out on the 10/4 at 1030 and go straight to Miami and spend one and half days in Miami, or fly out of LAX on the 11/4 and spend another day in LA area. Definitely don't want to do LA itself again but we could plan a day trip to Disneyland or knots berry farm.

As we are flying business class with qantas we get a free limo transfer within 40miles when we arrive, so getting there will be cheap and we can get a shuttle back the next day.
So do I spend the extra day in Miami or visit disneyland(haven't been for 4 years) or knots berry farm(loved it when we went in 2008)

 

[WanderlustNZ]

So I have a dilemma on my hands, so coming to the dis to get an opinion. (Mind you I'm pretty certain what the answer will be!) We arrive at 6.40 am on the 10/4, my friend already has her flight booked on the 11/4 to Miami to start our cruise on the 12th. However I still haven't booked my flight to Miami, so I now have two options, fly out on the 10/4 at 1030 and go straight to Miami and spend one and half days in Miami, or fly out of LAX on the 11/4 and spend another day in LA area. Definitely don't want to do LA itself again but we could plan a day trip to Disneyland or knots berry farm. As we are flying business class with qantas we get a free limo transfer within 40miles when we arrive, so getting there will be cheap and we can get a shuttle back the next day. So do I spend the extra day in Miami or visit disneyland(haven't been for 4 years) or knots berry farm(loved it when we went in 2008)

Have you been to Miami before? If not, I'd take the chance to do some sightseeing there. Perhaps a day trip to Key West. The good thing is that the business class flight won't have tired you out too much, so jumping straight onto another flight shouldn't be too hard.

In saying that, it will be nice to follow the same itinerary as your friend, so in that case, a day in LA probably makes more sense. It just wouldn't be my preferred option. Getting back to Miami to explore will be much harder, so I'm a firm believer in making hay while the sun shines.

 

[PrincessInOz]

I'm with Wanderlust. If you haven't seen Miami, then this could be the perfect opportunity to take a look. It could be worth you spending the extra time there and leaving DLR for another trip.

 

[Zosha]

Wow! Your organisational skills are spectacular!!! Sounds great.

 

[gogo65]

Wanderlust and PIO I finally made the decision, as much as I really wanted to spend the extra day in Miami, my friend who hasn't travelled by herself was a bit upset and since I am travelling with her for 7 weeks I didn't want to get off on the wrong footbut I did have a small win, I decided to fly into Fort Lauderdale with Virgin in main cabin select, so even with a taxi or a shuttle to my hotel in Miami I still end up saving money, I would much prefer to fly with virgin than American, and it is only a 40minute transfer, I arrive about 40minutes before my friend so we should end up at the hotel at a similar time.

So now I have a day in LA to plan, I think we will do a day in Disneyland which might be fun to compare the rides at DL and WDW
Besides booking my (last) flight today, I also booked hotels in Rome, Budapest, Zagreb and NYC. so it's all starting to come together

 

[gogo65]

Wow! Your organisational skills are spectacular!!! Sounds great.

Thank you Zosha, I've certainly felt a bit overwhelmed at times, which I don't normally, but there was just so many things to plan, but feeling on top of it now