*****Official February 2015 Thread! Come check in and chat!*****

[Aladora]

We surprised DS a couple of trips ago. We stayed at my mom's overnight since she lives closer to the airport and was going to drop us off for our early flight. We woke him up at 4:30 am and asked him if he could go anywhere in the world, where would he want to go? His answer was "Even Disneyland?" We said "okay, get up and let's go!" He didn't really understand what we were telling him until we actually got to the airport, poor thing was half asleep!

I love the balloon idea, I just have to convince DH that it's a good idea to tell him more than a month before we leave!

 

[jmac323]

We surprised the girls at Christmas in 2012 for a January 2013 trip. We did a scavenger hunt of sorts wrapped in xmas boxes with little Disney toys. We are surprising them at Christmas this year too. I'm not sure how we will tell them this time. The younger one will actually "get it" this time I think. She has randomly been bringing up Disneyland for weeks now. Oh and once it gets closer we make countdown chains out of paper that they get to rip off each day. I can't wait!

 

[MadameRebecca]

Oh my garsh. I'm a full grown man. I don't cry. I swear.

Aww So cute right?!

 

[Satye1]

Bosses approved vacation dates!!!! (have to take when they do)

Booked our flights...thank you Alaska airlines miles for past 2 years. Finalized our decision & reservations for hotel will be at Double Tree Suites with our Hilton Honors points Not a family that flys often, but its amazing what you can do with a little dedication for DISNEY!

With all the savings, we decided to combo our trip with San Diego for a few (4 additional days)...so still more planning to do...:

 

[PoohBearFriends]

Bosses approved vacation dates!!!! (have to take when they do)

Booked our flights...thank you Alaska airlines miles for past 2 years. Finalized our decision & reservations for hotel will be at Double Tree Suites with our Hilton Honors points Not a family that flys often, but its amazing what you can do with a little dedication for DISNEY!

With all the savings, we decided to combo our trip with San Diego for a few (4 additional days)...so still more planning to do...:

Congrats!!! Enjoy the planning!

 

[Aladora]

Bosses approved vacation dates!!!! (have to take when they do)

Booked our flights...thank you Alaska airlines miles for past 2 years. Finalized our decision & reservations for hotel will be at Double Tree Suites with our Hilton Honors points Not a family that flys often, but its amazing what you can do with a little dedication for DISNEY!

With all the savings, we decided to combo our trip with San Diego for a few (4 additional days)...so still more planning to do...:

Sounds like a fantastic trip!

 

[Aladora]

For everyone waiting to buy your DL tickets, Orbitz has extended their buy 3, get 4th day free and buy 4, get 5th day free deal through 2015!

If you use it, go through ebates and you get 3.75% cash back, at least via ebates.ca you do!

There might be a better deal when it gets closer to the dates but this one is not bad!

 

[starjazz]

For everyone waiting to buy your DL tickets, Orbitz has extended their buy 3, get 4th day free and buy 4, get 5th day free deal through 2015!

If you use it, go through ebates and you get 3.75% cash back, at least via ebates.ca you do!

There might be a better deal when it gets closer to the dates but this one is not bad!

Its a flat 3% in the States for using Ebates. If you book your vacation there, its 1% back (but that can add up). We saved $135 just from Ebates this year on our trip.

 

[Aladora]

Its a flat 3% in the States for using Ebates. If you book your vacation there, its 1% back (but that can add up). We saved $135 just from Ebates this year on our trip.

Nice savings! I got $53.60 back for my hotel, our flights were booked using travel rewards so no cash back there!

Being Canadian, our options for buying tickets can get a bit complicated when you try and get the best deal. I've got to factor in not only the current exchange rate but have to guess at when the best time to buy actually is given the variations in rates!

Right now, a Canadian site has our 3 tickets for $952.00 CAD.
Way.com has them for $835.00 US but given an exchange rate of 1.17 that would be $976.95 CAD.
Orbitz through ebates.ca would be $852.00 US but I would get back $31.95, bringing the cost down to $820.05 US which is $959.46 CAD.

So...given our current exchange rate, buying it through the Canadian site would be the best but if our dollar gets better before our trip then a US site would cost less.

/sigh

It's a good thing I love figuring stuff like this out, spreadsheets are my friend, otherwise I would be like

 

[ClaraOswald]

I went to Orbitz and found the ticket deal. But I can't see any dates listed. So how do I know that this deal will work for 2015 tickets?

 

[Aladora]

I went to Orbitz and found the ticket deal. But I can't see any dates listed. So how do I know that this deal will work for 2015 tickets?

In this photo, on the right hand side of the screen you can see the place to change search, right under that is where you put your start and end date.

 

[StyledSugar]

We surprised our kids with a trip but it wasn't at Christmas, it was for our Halloween trip to DL & Vegas. We told them we were going Halloween costume shopping and said there was a "new costume shop" by the airport. We pulled up to the parking area and when they asked what we were doing, we asked them if they wanted to go on vacation instead. They had NO idea and it was the best surprise every!! So much fun!! They kids were 8 & 13 I think.

So does everyone have everything planned out for their trips yet? I'm looking forward to being able to book our dining reservations and then the real planning begins. I can't wait!

 

[ClaraOswald]

Not much planning to do beyond the initial bookings. We have a general idea of what where we'll spend each day (in the parks or out) and that's about it.

 

[Aladora]

We've only got a few things planned so far for this trip, we don't tend to plan too much, usually just a few meals.

This trip since we are staying at the GCH and can take advantage of Pinocchio's Workshop, DH and I are finally able to go for dinner at Napa Rose and eat at the Chef's Counter.

We were going to do one character meal, likely Storyteller's since we have not been there since DS's first trip in 2011 but now that F! has the dining packages, I think we are going to go to BB if F! is showing while we are there. I'm holding off making that decision until after the dining packages start and people come back and give some feedback on where the reserved spots are. We've only seen F! once this past March and we did the dessert seating which IMO was not really worth doing again although having chairs was nice!

Other than those meals, we always go to the Plaza Inn for their yummy fried chicken and we really enjoyed the Bengal BBQ when we went last trip.

DS and I have never been to the Tiki Room so that is on our list for things to do.

Other than that, I think we are going to just do whatever we feel like!

 

[AZMermaid]

I hadn't realized DCA now did MM on both sun and mon. That is our two full park days. We will likely do partial days Sat afternoon and Tues morning, but that changes our game plan, even if it not developed yet! So right now I'm thinking since on Sun, MM is likely to be at 7am, we might just go to DL for rope drop on Sunday and hit DCA MM on Monday when it should be a little later. My kids are early risers though, so 7:00 might be fine!

We want to see Anna and Elsa one day. I feel like I read they were moving that to DCA soon. If it's still in DL, we will try to do it Sun and if it falls through, we still have Tuesday. It's really frustrating to plan with no good info except guessing based on last year!

 

[ClaraOswald]

We need to pick which day we want to have lunch at Big Thunder BBQ. The problem is there are a couple weekend days that we may not decide if we'll be in the parks or not until that day.

 

[Aladora]

We need to pick which day we want to have lunch at Big Thunder BBQ. The problem is there are a couple weekend days that we may not decide if we'll be in the parks or not until that day.

In February you might be able to get a same day reservation or even just walk up.

 

[lalasmama]

So does everyone have everything planned out for their trips yet? I'm looking forward to being able to book our dining reservations and then the real planning begins. I can't wait!

I've planned my meals, and apart from hotel reservations, that's all the planning I've managed! I don't have an meal reservations to make. I need to decide if I'm doing any tours or not (depends on what the Walk in Walt's Footsteps tour has on the itinerary at that point).

 

[minneylovesmicky]

So does everyone have everything planned out for their trips yet? I'm looking forward to being able to book our dining reservations and then the real planning begins. I can't wait!

We only have the dining to book, I just don't know what/where/when to book. I am considering winging it and just rocking up and hoping for the best, I kinda like the idea of the freedom of eating where we want as opposed to being locked in and maybe not feeling like eating at that particular place that evening.

 

[ClaraOswald]

We've never made a reservation at Disneyland. Even at WDW, we only make 1 or 2. To me, sit-down places are typically a big time suck.