***Official DLR October 2021 Check-in Thread***

[LaVon]

My husband and I are celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary, so we're basically going on our honeymoon again, which included Disney. We weren't originally going to go to the Parks this year because we didn't want to deal with masks and COVID restrictions. We're both vaccinated and it appears that the parks are going back to some semblance of normal so we decided to re-configure our vacation reservations a little bit and spend some time at Disney. Our first day, we'll be arriving a little late as we'll be heading to the parks straight from the airport; but we plan to stay the whole day until close.

I've already made reservations for the parks for the full 5-days we'll be there. Now I have to wait until the dining reservations open in August. I understand that they're a little cutthroat right now.

I just made these reservations today and I'm already so excited.

We'll be in the parks from 10/17-10/21.

Happy Anniversary!! We also will be spending our Anniversary there (the week before you) its our 19th together and 14th married.. I hope more dining options open up for us ♡

 

[Speedracer5]

Happy Anniversary!! We also will be spending our Anniversary there (the week before you) its our 19th together and 14th married.. I hope more dining options open up for us ♡

Thank you! We've been together 16 years and this is our 10th married. I also hope more dining options and night-time entertainment options are opened for us as well.

 

[magicmountainmama]

We’re (hopefully) coming from the east coast for our first trip to the west coast! October 24-27 at Disneyland. Fingers crossed little kiddos can get the vaccine by then because I don’t think we’ll be comfortable flying cross-country unless we’re a fully-vaxxed family.
We’re booked at the Disneyland hotel & really hoping for some sort of Halloween special event!

 

[straightpast]

Our family will be there Oct.10-11 to celebrate our grandson's 2nd birthday! I'm so excited!

 

[ICMDGO]

Reservation at GC for 10/13, DL on 10/14. 1 day only..........had to cancel 2020 and then 2021 trip to Tokyo Disney so thought we'd at least get a little Disney fix for a day. Rescheduled Tokyo for 2022 !

 

[Speedracer5]

We’re (hopefully) coming from the east coast for our first trip to the west coast! October 24-27 at Disneyland. Fingers crossed little kiddos can get the vaccine by then because I don’t think we’ll be comfortable flying cross-country unless we’re a fully-vaxxed family.
We’re booked at the Disneyland hotel & really hoping for some sort of Halloween special event!

I hope you enjoy your trip to the West Coast. I'm from Oregon, so my flight is only a little over two hours; but we've driven every time prior and a 16-hour drive to LA is exhausting. We're even flying first class because the airline tickets on Alaska were dirt cheap (or at least cheaper than I've ever seen them) and this might be our only chance to fly First Class before the ticket prices go back up. I'm booked offsite, but am too waiting to see if there will be anything for Halloween. Our vacation has evolved into a slightly shortened version of our honeymoon. In addition to Disney, we are also planning on visiting LA to go to Hollywood (I've been there before, but as a Classic film fan I have a couple activities I want to do) and we're planning on a day at Universal Studios (where I haven't been since 1999). We also are going down to San Diego for a few days to stay at the Hotel Del Coronado where I've always wanted to stay.

 

[magicmountainmama]

I hope you enjoy your trip to the West Coast. I'm from Oregon, so my flight is only a little over two hours; but we've driven every time prior and a 16-hour drive to LA is exhausting. We're even flying first class because the airline tickets on Alaska were dirt cheap (or at least cheaper than I've ever seen them) and this might be our only chance to fly First Class before the ticket prices go back up. I'm booked offsite, but am too waiting to see if there will be anything for Halloween. Our vacation has evolved into a slightly shortened version of our honeymoon. In addition to Disney, we are also planning on visiting LA to go to Hollywood (I've been there before, but as a Classic film fan I have a couple activities I want to do) and we're planning on a day at Universal Studios (where I haven't been since 1999). We also are going down to San Diego for a few days to stay at the Hotel Del Coronado where I've always wanted to stay.

Yay for cheaper than usual airfare! That's the reason we're going to California. It's usually so expensive to fly for our family of 5, but I was able to purchase tix during the Southwest 50% off sale. We're flying into San Diego & planning a day or two there as well. The Hotel Del Coronado is on my radar, it's absolutely gorgeous!! Sounds like you have a pretty fantastic trip planned!

 

[heidica]

I hope you enjoy your trip to the West Coast. I'm from Oregon, so my flight is only a little over two hours; but we've driven every time prior and a 16-hour drive to LA is exhausting. We're even flying first class because the airline tickets on Alaska were dirt cheap (or at least cheaper than I've ever seen them) and this might be our only chance to fly First Class before the ticket prices go back up. I'm booked offsite, but am too waiting to see if there will be anything for Halloween. Our vacation has evolved into a slightly shortened version of our honeymoon. In addition to Disney, we are also planning on visiting LA to go to Hollywood (I've been there before, but as a Classic film fan I have a couple activities I want to do) and we're planning on a day at Universal Studios (where I haven't been since 1999). We also are going down to San Diego for a few days to stay at the Hotel Del Coronado where I've always wanted to stay.

Hello neighbor! We are above you in Washington and will be flying out of Sea-Tac. I also bought first class on Alaska. I couldn't believe the price, so there was no way I was going to pass it up! I'm surprising my family. They don't know and this is the first time we have ever flown first class. I'm so excited. Sounds like your mini-honeymoon will be fun!

I wanted to add - for those of you who are considering flying on Alaska Airlines AND have a Costco membership - you can buy a $500 Alaska Airlines gift certificate for $449.99 at Costco.com. I bought 3 of those and that saved me $150 right off the top. It was easy to add the certificates to my Alaska Airlines account wallet and then when purchasing the tickets on Alaska, it automatically applied the gift certificates and I put in my credit card for the remaining balance. In the fine print for Costco, it says you are limited to buy 10 gift certificates and that it may take up to 24 hours to get the email with the gift certificate information. I got my emails in about 12 hours. Also, in the fine print for Alaska Airlines it says you can only use 4 certificates at one time. Gift certificate funds do not expire so if you know you are going to be flying on Alaska a lot in the future, you could buy 10 gift certificates and save yourself quite a bit of money. Just a FYI.

 

[Speedracer5]

Hello neighbor! We are above you in Washington and will be flying out of Sea-Tac. I also bought first class on Alaska. I couldn't believe the price, so there was no way I was going to pass it up! I'm surprising my family. They don't know and this is the first time we have ever flown first class. I'm so excited. Sounds like your mini-honeymoon will be fun!

I wanted to add - for those of you who are considering flying on Alaska Airlines AND have a Costco membership - you can buy a $500 Alaska Airlines gift certificate for $449.99 at Costco.com. I bought 3 of those and that saved me $150 right off the top. It was easy to add the certificates to my Alaska Airlines account wallet and then when purchasing the tickets on Alaska, it automatically applied the gift certificates and I put in my credit card for the remaining balance. In the fine print for Costco, it says you are limited to buy 10 gift certificates and that it may take up to 24 hours to get the email with the gift certificate information. I got my emails in about 12 hours. Also, in the fine print for Alaska Airlines it says you can only use 4 certificates at one time. Gift certificate funds do not expire so if you know you are going to be flying on Alaska a lot in the future, you could buy 10 gift certificates and save yourself quite a bit of money. Just a FYI.

Right now, I have a 10:00am flight out of PDX, which will get us to LA at 12:20pm. Disney wasn't originally part of our plans, but my husband thought it'd be such a shame to be so close to Disney and not go. Lol. He definitely doesn't need to talk me into it. I was on it immediately with re-configuring my reservations to fit in Disney. Our first day at the parks is also the day we arrive. Right now, I'm trying to see if my husband wants me to switch our arrival flight to departing from PDX at 6am, so we'll get to LA at 8:30am. It'll save us $40, but we have to be at the airport at 4am, meaning we'll have to leave at 3:15am at the latest--as we live on the complete opposite end of the Portland Metro Area from the airport. So we'll see. I didn't know about the Costco Alaska deal. I did book my rental car through Coscto-- $518 for a Toyota Corolla-sized vehicle for 10 days. I thought that was a pretty good deal.

 

[Speedracer5]

Yay for cheaper than usual airfare! That's the reason we're going to California. It's usually so expensive to fly for our family of 5, but I was able to purchase tix during the Southwest 50% off sale. We're flying into San Diego & planning a day or two there as well. The Hotel Del Coronado is on my radar, it's absolutely gorgeous!! Sounds like you have a pretty fantastic trip planned!

Yes! I couldn't believe the insane deal on first class airfare. My husband, despite being almost 37 years old, has never flown on an airplane before. And he'll be taking his first trip in First Class. I have a feeling that this will spoil him on flying forever. Lol. I'm also in the middle of trying to get us TSA Precheck certified so we can avoid having to take off our shoes, take everything out of our bags, etc. etc. We already have purchased a giraffe encounter at the San Diego Zoo, which I purchased prior to my husband deciding he wanted to go to Disneyland. So we were committed to going to the San Diego Zoo on 10/22. It took a little finangling, but I shortened my stay at Hotel Del Coronado (I had 6 nights planned, I cut it in half. My dream was only to stay there 2-3 nights, so it was okay), removed a day from LA, and sacrificed half of my "day after the vacation" day that I had and soon, enough time was found for a 5-day Park Hopper. Lol. So now our trip is 5 days at Disney, 4 days in San Diego and 2 days in LA. There were some more things I wanted to do in LA, but I decided that next year, I could easily do a long weekend and fly into LA from PDX--since the flight is so short.

I'm a big Classic Hollywood fan, so the Hotel Del Coronado was on my list because that's where "Some Like it Hot" was filmed. When we were on our honeymoon, we went to the Hotel, but we didn't stay there. In LA, we are planning on Universal Studios, because my husband wants to go. I last went in 1999. I have dinner reservations at the famous Hollywood restaurant, Musso & Franks where the old Hollywood stars used to dine. I requested the Charlie Chaplin booth, so we'll see what happens.

 

[Speedracer5]

Yay for cheaper than usual airfare! That's the reason we're going to California. It's usually so expensive to fly for our family of 5, but I was able to purchase tix during the Southwest 50% off sale. We're flying into San Diego & planning a day or two there as well. The Hotel Del Coronado is on my radar, it's absolutely gorgeous!! Sounds like you have a pretty fantastic trip planned!

The cheap airfare was insane. When first class is usually close to $1k which is really hard to swallow for a flight that isn't even 2.5 hrs (PDX to LAX), when it's less than $200, I have to take advantage. My husband, despite being almost 37 years old, has never flown before. I'm afraid that him having his first flight in First Class will spoil him forever for all future flights. I'm also working on getting us TSA Precheck certified so we can avoid the whole mess at security. I have 4 days planned in San Diego. One of the days, we're going to the San Diego Zoo. I've already purchased tickets to a giraffe encounter. The giraffes are my #1 favorite animal at the zoo, followed by the flamingos.

 

[GenGen22]

We will be there Oct 1-3 and staying at Paradise Pier. Hoping for a Halloween party

 

[Speedracer5]

We will be there Oct 1-3 and staying at Paradise Pier. Hoping for a Halloween party

I’m waiting for news about Halloween as well, or even confirmation as to whether Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain will have their overlays.

My husband and I will be at the parks from October 17-21 and are staying at Best Western Stovalls—where we’ve stayed multiple times.

 

[abent]

I was finally able to purchase my ticket and make my park plans today! 120 days seems so far, yet I feel so much better having it! Right before my October trip I will need to purchase my December tickets. I miss my AP!

 

[kikismom]

Gosh so many new people to the thread! Welcome and I'll get you all added shortly. We are selling our house and it's limiting my time I get to spend on here haha.

I saw there's some people from WA and OR in here. Hope you are staying safe in the heat. It's going to be 108 where I am today and we have no AC. Heading out to a friend's house for the day to cool off as our house is already over 90 inside and it's only 9 am.

 

[Speedracer5]

Gosh so many new people to the thread! Welcome and I'll get you all added shortly. We are selling our house and it's limiting my time I get to spend on here haha.

I saw there's some people from WA and OR in here. Hope you are staying safe in the heat. It's going to be 108 where I am today and we have no AC. Heading out to a friend's house for the day to cool off as our house is already over 90 inside and it's only 9 am.

Yes. It’s 104 right now. I don’t have central air, but I have two wall units, and a large floor unit. So we’re able to stay cool. I also have movie tickets that I’d already purchased a month prior to the heat wave.

 

[LaVon]

Yes. It’s 104 right now. I don’t have central air, but I have two wall units, and a large floor unit. So we’re able to stay cool. I also have movie tickets that I’d already purchased a month prior to the heat wave.

It was a hot one.. I loaded up my family and drove 3 hours to the ocean for the day.. 67 degrees lol

 

[jolinda]

Add another Oregonian to the list! My sister is flying out to visit from Atlanta, then we're flying down to LA first thing in the morning Oct 12. We're planning to spend that day in LA, maybe booking a private guide for a walking tour. We are staying at the Hotel Lulu, Oct 12-16. It's my sister's first Disneyland visit though she's been going to Disney World since she was a baby in the 70's.

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

We hit 111 yesterday outside of Portland… I always flip to Anaheim on my weather app to see what it looks like there, and was so jealous of their low 80s temps!

 

[nicole88s]

We'll be in Orange County the 19-23. The flights to Long Beach were a good price and we had two companion certificates to use, so it was a pretty good deal. We're staying at a hotel in South OC near the inlaws, since technically this is a trip to visit them. However, I am waiting not so patiently for Disneyland to announce something about Halloween!! We really, really want to hit a party, but if they're not having them we'll probably do a day ticket. Is anyone else waiting for Halloween announcements? It's almost July, so I hope they will announce something soon.