September/October 2013 check in

[ozmum]

my plan in Anaheim is

day 1 - arrive mid morning and go to Disneyland (maybe after a rest just depends on how we feel and whether our room is ready)

day 2 - magic morning at disneyland

day 3 - rope drop at DCA

day 4 - do a tour of santa monica pier, california space centre & la brea tar pits, which i think will take 5 or 6 hours so we will be back mid afternoon.

i was just checking out buying DL tickets and there is a special on orbits.com that if you buy a 3 day pass you get the 4th day free, so now im thinking of going into DL after the tour on day 4 or is that just madness ??
i would hate to be so close to disney and not be able to go.

i would love to hear your thoughts on the above

 

[5ofus]

my plan in Anaheim is

day 1 - arrive mid morning and go to Disneyland (maybe after a rest just depends on how we feel and whether our room is ready)

day 2 - magic morning at disneyland

day 3 - rope drop at DCA

day 4 - do a tour of santa monica pier, california space centre & la brea tar pits, which i think will take 5 or 6 hours so we will be back mid afternoon.

i was just checking out buying DL tickets and there is a special on orbits.com that if you buy a 3 day pass you get the 4th day free, so now im thinking of going into DL after the tour on day 4 or is that just madness ??
i would hate to be so close to disney and not be able to go.

i would love to hear your thoughts on the above

If you're looking for somebody to talk you out of spending extra time at Disney - you've come to the WRONG place I've managed to convince a friend to buy a 10 day pass for Disneyland when they were only originally going for five days, just in case they want to 'pop on over for the fireworks' or something on one of their non-Disney days We're all Disney enablers here

 

[Meemoo]

Thank you all for the wonderful welcome - Forgive the ignorance, but what is 'HOJO's' that many of you are speaking of?

OZMUM - Are you staying at Aulani during your Hawaiian trip?

Great to meet you all - since I found this Aussie thread - at least I know i'm not the only adult obsessed with Disney in Australia

 

[5ofus]

Thank you all for the wonderful welcome - Forgive the ignorance, but what is 'HOJO's' that many of you are speaking of?

HoJo's is the Howard Johnson Hotel You know us Aussies, we love a good abbreviation

 

[ozmum]

meemoo - no unfortunately no Aulani while we are in hawaii.

5ofus - glad to hear im not mad then when i think another afternoon at disneyland would be good !!

 

[ozmum]

5ofus - where are you staying in Vegas ? and what have you got planned ?

i have never been to vegas before so im asking everyone i can for tips.

thanks

 

[WanderlustNZ]

while we are in vegas we are staying at planet hollywood. we really wanted MGM but left it too late and there was no accommodation left, oh well fingers crossed planet hollywood will be ok..

About 7-8 years ago I stayed in a hotel in Vegas called The Aladdin. It was a stunning hotel with the most fabulous indoor shopping mall. But unfortunately the developers had spent too many $ on it and sent themselves bust.
The reason I mention this, is because when the hotel went bust, it became Planet Hollywood. I don't know what Planet Hollywood is like inside, but I can say it's pretty much the best location on the strip. A great mid-strip location with the Venetian, Treasure Island, Mirage etc to your right, and MGM, Mandalay Bay etc to your left. I wasn't a big fan of the MGM the few times I visited. I thought it was a little bit too far down one end of the strip and the slot machines were stingy Plus it seemed to take forever to walk through. The casino floor is huge and it's not ideal to have to walk for ages through and/or around a casino with kids.

If you haven't booked a high floor with a strip/fountains view, seriously consider doing so. Or do what we did and sweet talk your way to a free upgrade. The hotel is across from the Bellagio fountains and next door to Paris, so the view out the window is fabulous.

Are you doing a cirque show? I've seen Ka, O, Zumanity and Mystere. I loved all of them except Zumanity which was a bit 'try hard'. It's not suitable for kids anyway. I'm looking forward to the day I return to Vegas so I can see Love which looks fabulous.

 

[Melbourne5]

Love will be worth the wait. It's so special being in the 'round' and having not just the music but some special footage and audio of the fab 4 is quite spectacular. I was blown away...

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Love will be worth the wait. It's so special being in the 'round' and having not just the music but some special footage and audio of the fab 4 is quite spectacular. I was blown away...

It looks amazing. I love the Beatles and I love Cirque Du Soleil. So it's pretty much a given that I would love LOVE.
I have La Nouba booked while I'm at WDW, so that should be fun. although it doesn't look quite as exciting as some of the Vegas shows. I'll try to reserve judgement until I've seen it.

 

[sarefromoz]

Oh that's super exciting! We all most be getting close to that magical 100 mark now! What date do you leave Oz?

We leave on the 28th August, but we have 9 days in Canada before flying into Vegas on the 8th of September.

Are you doing a cirque show? I've seen Ka, O, Zumanity and Mystere. I loved all of them except Zumanity which was a bit 'try hard'. It's not suitable for kids anyway. I'm looking forward to the day I return to Vegas so I can see Love which looks fabulous.

Did you enjoy O Wanderlust? We've booked our tickets and can't wait to see it, but I've only read reviews and not 'spoke' to anyone who's seen it. From what I've read people said that it's suitable for kids. Did you think that? My kids have been to the theatre a number of times and have been wonderfully behaved, so I'm not worried about them being able to sit and watch. I guess it's too bad if it isn't because II've already booked and paid for them.

5ofus - where are you staying in Vegas ? and what have you got planned ?

i have never been to vegas before so im asking everyone i can for tips.

thanks

Ozmum, we're staying at MGM so no help there. We stayed at the Luxor last time and it was ok. We really wanted to stay at the Mandalay bay because of their pool, but they couldn't cater to our family of 5. I like staying up that end of the strip. We're not gamblers and the walking didn't bother us.

Speaking of Vegas. Has anyone been to see the tournament of the kings show at Excalibur? We're contemplating going to see that, but it would be good to hear of other people's experiences.

We've only got about 5 or 6 weeks until we can make dining reservations at DL.
We arrive at anaheim on the 22nd (late afternoon) so no plans to go to DL.
23rd we're going to do a self tour of the oc beaches. A friend said balboa island was worth seeing. We could do Goofy's kitchen breakfast on this morning or we could have breakfast at Goofy's or Minnie's while we're at DL and DCA between the 23-27th. The 27th is dd's 9th birthday so we are going to dine with the princesses at Ariel's grotto for lunch. 28th is LA tour. 29th is our last day at DL. It's a Sunday, but it can't be helped.
What do you think...have a Disney fix before we hit the parks or wait until we're there? Is Minnie's much better than Goofy's or are they pretty similar? Too many decisions.

 

[Caroline NZ]

It looks amazing. I love the Beatles and I love Cirque Du Soleil. So it's pretty much a given that I would love LOVE.
I have La Nouba booked while I'm at WDW, so that should be fun. although it doesn't look quite as exciting as some of the Vegas shows. I'll try to reserve judgement until I've seen it.

I am trying to decide whether to get tickets for Love when we are there ( children will be aged 11 & 9). I too love the Beatles and grew up with the music.

 

[LeanneDownUnder]

i was just checking out buying DL tickets and there is a special on orbits.com that if you buy a 3 day pass you get the 4th day free, so now im thinking of going into DL after the tour on day 4 or is that just madness ??
i would hate to be so close to disney and not be able to go.

I was also looking these passes on Orbits, is this a valid deal and can we purchase from OZ?

Thanks

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Did you enjoy O Wanderlust? We've booked our tickets and can't wait to see it, but I've only read reviews and not 'spoke' to anyone who's seen it. From what I've read people said that it's suitable for kids. Did you think that? My kids have been to the theatre a number of times and have been wonderfully behaved, so I'm not worried about them being able to sit and watch. I guess it's too bad if it isn't because II've already booked and paid for them.

O was my favourite of the 5 Cirque Du Soleil shows I've seen. There were a few clown bits I didn't like, but I loved the rest. I thought the costumes, acrobatics, and music were stunningly beautiful. They almost had a dream-like quality to them. The show is certainly suitable for kids. I'm not sure they would get out of it what adults do, but if your kids sit fine during theatre performances, I would predict that they'd at least like it, if not love it.

Ka was my husband's favourite. He's an engineer and is more technically-minded than me, and the Ka stage is the most impressive stage we've ever seen in our lives.

Mystere was probably the best value for money of all Cirque shows I've seen, and is probably the one I'd be most inclined to take my son to. It doesn't have the same special effects and impressive stage set up as the others, so relies instead on wonderful performances and costumes. It was probably my second favourite.

With Zumanity I felt that the risque element took precedence over interesting acrobatics and I found myself feeling a tad bored.

 

[5ofus]

5ofus - where are you staying in Vegas ? and what have you got planned ?

i have never been to vegas before so im asking everyone i can for tips.

thanks

We're staying at The Platinum. We're going for a wedding and that's where the wedding will be. It's off-strip and all apartments so it will be good for us and the kids - I hope. As for what we have planned... well, I'd better get started on organising that! We'll be doing quite a bit of wedding-y stuff since DH is in the bridal party, but apart from that...???? The kids are only really little so it's really hard to tell what they'll be up for and how long they'll be able to be on the go.

 

[ozmum]

well i mentioned to DH this morning about doing the extra afternoon in Disneyland and to my shock he was like yeah why not !!

so now i am looking into the orbitz tickets and hopefully buying them today.

 

[5ofus]

We got ourselves a travel card yesterday! Woohoo, things are happening again

 

[WAMUMOF4]

We got ourselves a travel card yesterday! Woohoo, things are happening again

that's great news

 

[australiankaren]

just popping in to say

107 sleeps people

 

[Caroline NZ]

just popping in to say

107 sleeps people

Which means 117 for us

 

[WAMUMOF4]

just popping in to say

107 sleeps people

104 here that means Monday is 100 sleeps day