September 2012

[battymum]

Jumping on this thread even though I have no plans for September 2012 - but we did sail Freedom of the Seas this past September - and it was awesome!!!
Check out my TR link in my signature.!!!

 

[australiankaren]

Thanks for the information, it helps me to see how early we have to leave a hotel/apartment. I'm thinking return the rental at Disneyland and shuttle to the port as I've heard the rental returns can be problematic on Sunday down at the Port.

Freedom of the Seas?!!! Wow, you are doing a trip report right? I'd love to see some pictures of her, she looks amazing.

yep, we sailed freedom in 2010..loved it so much we are going again.....junior suite same location, midship, just a higher deck.

looking forward to it

will do re trip report..

 

[Travel Mum]

Freedom of the Seas?!!! Wow, you are doing a trip report right? I'd love to see some pictures of her, she looks amazing.

Like Battymum, we also cruised on Freedom of the Seas this year - to the Western Caribbean in October. Loved, loved, loved it I did a trip report, with photos, which includes the cruise at the end which I presume you can find by finding posts by me.

 

[australiankaren]

hey
we should start a freedom thread.......
all the hints tips and ideas in short easy bullet points...
ok...I'm off to start one......
waiting to hear from all you FOS fans

also, maybe we should do a roll call of whos going to be where at what time in wdw/ cruises/ DL etc

me first
POP 14-17 sept
BLT 17-23 sept
Freedom of the seas 23-30 sept
POR 30 sept - 3 Oct...


ok...Next!!!

 

[Aust]

I've got a couple of things done this week - bought my AP a few days ago, and today got up at 5am to ring and book the hotel (done then so kids couldn't hear me as we are keeping the trip a surprise from them). We are staying at the Paradise Pier, I haven't stayed there before but have read good reviews, and the rooms are apparently slightly bigger than the Grand Californian, and we'll walk through the GCH lobby every day to get to DL which was my favourite part of staying there anyway.

Am hoping we don't drive each other batty with 5 of us in one room for 2 weeks - I did price a suite but it was almost double a normal room! unfortunately out of the budget. I did splurge a bit though and booked a premium view room with concierge, with 5 of us we should make pretty good use of the breakfast and snacks and drinks, not so much the lunches and dinner but will be handy if we're too tired to go elsewhere or want to save a bit of money.

 

[australiankaren]

I've got a couple of things done this week - bought my AP a few days ago, and today got up at 5am to ring and book the hotel (done then so kids couldn't hear me as we are keeping the trip a surprise from them). We are staying at the Paradise Pier, I haven't stayed there before but have read good reviews, and the rooms are apparently slightly bigger than the Grand Californian, and we'll walk through the GCH lobby every day to get to DL which was my favourite part of staying there anyway.

Am hoping we don't drive each other batty with 5 of us in one room for 2 weeks - I did price a suite but it was almost double a normal room! unfortunately out of the budget. I did splurge a bit though and booked a premium view room with concierge, with 5 of us we should make pretty good use of the breakfast and snacks and drinks, not so much the lunches and dinner but will be handy if we're too tired to go elsewhere or want to save a bit of money.

awesome.......i am now tossing up a few days in Disneyland and paradise pier...with your annual pass did you get a decent discount???? I was thinking maybe getting the premium pass that does wdw & dl...any ideas????

 

[Aust]

The standard AP discount on the room is 10%, which is what I got today. The CM said if/when higher AP discounts of 20-30% come out (usually 2 or 3 months in advance) then I can call them to have the new rate applied to my booking. So it was worth booking now to ensure we get the room we want.

 

[WAMUMOF4]

Now that it is the New Year our kids are really disappointed that they dont have a trip to countdown to and i am having trouble keeping silent especially when they tell me how sad they are they dont have a countdown to look forward to this year
DS14 came to me yesterday when he had seen a VAustralia add on TV to find out if $1164 was cheap and was very disappointed when i told him to add another $500 from here and that it is only till march.
only 195 days to go till i can tell them I am making the right decision to not tell them arent i

 

[australiankaren]

hey

so plans are changing again....

but i booked our airfare syd-lax
air new Zealand and got the choice of seats we wanted
premium economy (we want to try out new space seats)
sept 13 - Oct 7
$302 cheaper than V australia...
staying an extra 2 days to see LA galaxy play (soccer in LA)
scrapping San Fran, going to Vegas for 2 days instead.

so plan
SYD-lax (10 hr lay over)
lax-MCO
Pop 3 nights
BLT 6 nights
MNSSHP/ annual pass
Freedom of the seas 7 nights
POR 3 nights
lax 1 night
Las Vegas 2 nights
lax 2 nights- soccer game
lax-SYD
total days away 27
hubby thinks it`s 22..... creative accounting.....8 days are weekends and 1 public holiday, so i,m under budget

 

[BigDisneyOE]

We are flying Air NZ too Karen - big layover for us as our local airport only flys out three times a day. We are going to take the kids to Butterfly Creek to kill some time during the layover, that will wear them out for the night flight.

I've finally booked some beds - we'll definately be in Anaheim from 16 - 23 Sept. Nice two bedroom condo in walkable distance to Disneyland, so I'm very happy - the kids will have a pool and playground to burn off whatever steam they have left from the day. Easiest booking system too, none of this PayPal stuff. So that's locked in.

Just humming and haahing about San Diego beds. We are looking at 8 nights down there as DH just wants to get off the plan from AKL and drive to SD... eek.

 

[aussietravellers]

I was thinking maybe getting the premium pass that does wdw & dl...any ideas????

We have the premier passes

We had 2 weeks at DL one trip, then 3 weeks at WDW the next year so we got a lot of use out of them, with room discounts at both DL and WDW, then the merchandise discounts, food discounts at DL and the TIW at WDW. Just the discounts we got paid for the passes

 

[australiankaren]

hey

its 2am, Im sitting here trying to concentrate on holidays but all I can think of is my DS1 who rang me tonight to say he was splitting with his wife...3 kids under 5...i think I am in shock, I honestly didn't see it coming, and by the sounds of it, neither did he.
i cant tell my family or friends as he wants to tell them, so needed to tell someone.:

 

[WAMUMOF4]

hey

its 2am, Im sitting here trying to concentrate on holidays but all I can think of is my DS1 who rang me tonight to say he was splitting with his wife...3 kids under 5...i think I am in shock, I honestly didn't see it coming, and by the sounds of it, neither did he.
i cant tell my family or friends as he wants to tell them, so needed to tell someone.:

 

[aussietravellers]

hey

its 2am, Im sitting here trying to concentrate on holidays but all I can think of is my DS1 who rang me tonight to say he was splitting with his wife...3 kids under 5...i think I am in shock, I honestly didn't see it coming, and by the sounds of it, neither did he.
i cant tell my family or friends as he wants to tell them, so needed to tell someone.:

Oh that is so sad

 

[chrisbris]

Hi All

Adding onto the September 2012 dates we will be at WDW from 20-28 September - and then Universal 28 - 30th

 

[BigDisneyOE]

Oh AustralianKaren that's so very sad. Sounds like your son is going to need a lot of 'mummylove' (that's what our kids call it) in the coming months.


I've finally managed to book all our accomodation for September! Yay, go me - did it all in three days once we'd made out minds up. We took the Aussie DisBoarders advice and will be staying close to LAX the night we arrive (you all remember our very long trip from Brissy Airport to Broadbeach due to fatigue ad a bad map/DH). So it looks like this:

• 1 night Hyatt House El Segundo in a two bedroom suite
• 7 nights Grand Pacific Palisades, Carlsbad in a two bedroom suite. Stoked about this as we picked up a timeshare week for rent cheapily. Awesome for the kids as it's across the road from Legoland, which they are obsessed with and has kids activities and super water area for the kids. Oh and it's spitting distance from the Outlet Mall, which is pure accident.
• 7 nights at a two bed condo across from Disneyland to finish the land part.
• Then we'll catch a shuttle to the Wonder for the Pacific Coast cruise. So looking forward to staying onboard in San Diego after we'll have had a week to spend there - hopefully everyone gets off and we have Mickey to ourselves!
• Then it's off the Wonder, back to LAX hotel to change and rest before flying out that night.

All we have to do now is work out what rental to get. We need something big enough for three weeks luggage but also that the kids can see out of in their carseats. Made the mistake of renting something once the kids couldn't see out of and one kid cried or got carsick & spewed all the way round the South Island. So priority is for mini-me's to see and not spew.

 

[australiankaren]

ahhhhh................
the joys of traveling with little people spewing....brings back memories of DS1, a maccas thickshake and 40 degree day in an un-air con car.....only would happen with young, inexperienced parents

love lax airport hotels, great idea when getting off a long flight ..I find it calms the toddler within my husband nothing like a nice shower, coffee and cake in the foyer and then maybe a nanna nap...

 

[BigDisneyOE]

We are never called young inexperienced parents as we are in our 40's with four year olds... we just get called dumb! We had two changes of clothes and the kid sitting in his third pair of undies in the shell of the carseat in his second hooded towel looking deadful. Turned out being unable to see, car sickness and an unknown ear infection is a bad mix. I now always travel with old hooded towels in the boot, anyone feels sick (including Dad) gets a to put on the spew towel - so much easier to remove!

I think that first afternoon we'll throw them straight in a pool and then take them down to somwhere like Manhattan or Hermosa Beaches to get a bite to eat before they get put in their beds. That's including Daddy...

 

[australiankaren]

hey

you know what also works....those in room dry cleaning bags in hotels, turn them into a poncho....yes that was DS1 again....

anyway, I booked my 2 x air new Zealand premium econ tickets for September last week, and being a planning nut I went back to check prices again .....and they have gone up $600 a person ..so saved ourselves $1200...they are now $500 more than Vaust.....go figure

so I'm happy to save the $$$$$, but still a tad confused......

Oh, and just got off the phone to DVC, I have added 4 nights to Bay lake tower , cancelled POR......I just LOOOVE BLT.......got the room we wanted on the dates we wanted.....so using my points I saved $700 on accom at POR & Pop..

I now have one lonely point left til next year

ok, its 5.30am, i really should go to bed

 

[LizfromOz]

I just noticed this thread and thought I'd pop in and say hello!

We will be in Anaheim from 23rd September - 3rd October, staying at Park Vue Inn. We're hoping to fly to LA from Sydney on 8th September, but haven't booked flights yet, still hoping for a better deal ?!?! I figure the more i save on fares the more i can spend in the parks

Cheers, Liz