The Happyfingers Family are on Holiday

[HappyFingers]

Is san francisco worth a look ?

we are thinking of flying from orlando to san francisco after universal then driving down to la to fly home

anyone been there ?
do we just hang around orlando for another week or fly off to somewhere else that is in driving distance of la (no more than 8 to 10 hrs driving) ?

cheers

 

[Sugarglider]

Is san francisco worth a look ?

we are thinking of flying from orlando to san francisco after universal then driving down to la to fly home

anyone been there ?
do we just hang around orlando for another week or fly off to somewhere else that is in driving distance of la (no more than 8 to 10 hrs driving) ?

cheers

we did an entire 18 day holiday driving from San Diego to San Fran. The Pacific Coast Highway is quite magnificent and full of things to see and do. If you've got a spare week it could be quite a fab finish to your holiday - and perhaps no more expensive than hanging around the expensive hotels, restaurants and theme parks of orlando - and much much prettier!
Have a look at San Fran (I think of it as very much like Sydney - a good city on a great harbour with a big bridge), then there is Monterey Bay nature reserve with the sea otters, excellent aqaurium, history etc, Carmel, the national parks, Santa Barbara and Solvang (Dutch town in the middle of the Pinot growing area - where Sideways was filmed), San Simeon Hearst House (bizarre!), there are beaches with wild sea lions and elephant seals, the list goes on. Others will continue this list A great area and a trip!
Have you seen 'Soarin' ride yet? That's one big ad for California and sells it in an amazing way!!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Is san francisco worth a look ?

we are thinking of flying from orlando to san francisco after universal then driving down to la to fly home

anyone been there ?
do we just hang around orlando for another week or fly off to somewhere else that is in driving distance of la (no more than 8 to 10 hrs driving) ?

cheers

I love San Francisco. DH's job is based in Silicon Valley, but we choose to live here. He gets about 3 or 4 trips to SV every year. DS and I have been making a point of going at least once every 18 months with him.

This is a compiled thread on SF on the Aussie board.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2451585

And my latest TR includes 2 days in San Francisco and 2 days around Silicon Valley. We also started in LA and drove up the coast to SF. It's posted on the Disneyland PTR/TR section of the Boards.

There are also a couple of other Aussies in the Disneyland PTR/TR section who are also writing up their PTRs/TRs....minnie sue oz and zanzibar....(and there was a teen - I forget her name - but she hasn't posted in a while).....that travelled around the US.


If you prefer to hang around Florida, I recommend that you catch a flight to Miami and/or Key West. The drive down the Florida keys is spectacular. I also enjoyed the Everglades.

I have pictures of the drive down the keys and will post some if you're interested.

 

[Sugarglider]

Just my opinion.

Why did you upgrade to Deluxe Dining?

Regular dining seems to be plenty of food for our family, without being tied to 3ADRs each day.

Hey Battymum
I do Deluxe these days and have dinner every night at a 2TS place. Then I only have to do 1 other meal - usually a character brekkie. That way we have plenty of good quality, fresh meals served in nice surrounds, without it being too much food or too much time. My next trip I want the 2 snack credits / day for the F&W Festival stalls.

Happy fingers: for your Studios day - that is a great day to do rope drop. Toy Story Mania, R&Rcoaster and ToT are big favourites and the crowd pull down the fast passes early. You've got 3 meals scheduled for that day - and the serves of food are BIG - you could skip breakfast (use snack credits) and then do a 2TS in Brown Derby in the park. My personal view - I like Prime Time more than Sci Fi and Mama M.

I am tempted to say to you that you have an extradordinary amount of food in your ADRs because you are doing 3 meals per day. This will also cut deeply into your park time - and some parks like Epcot are huge and I usually take 2 days to that park and 2 days for MK (cause I like to ride everything - sometimes twice). I do recommend reviewing to include a few 2TS credit meals instead of 3 1TS/day - to use up all those credits, decrease the amount of food placed in front of you, increase your park time. PrincessinOz has made a few great restaurant suggestions - and the Yachtsman has been mentioned too. They will cook your wife's steak the way she likes it and it has more simple meals for the kids.

 

[HappyFingers]

ok i got in and then i got this ????????????


The dates on your Resort reservation do not qualify you for extended booking dates. Please try another date or call the Disney Reservation Center at (407) WDW-DINE or (407) 939-3463. Guests under age 18 must have parent or guardian permission to call..



whats going on ?

 

[Sugarglider]

ok i got in and then i got this ????????????


The dates on your Resort reservation do not qualify you for extended booking dates. Please try another date or call the Disney Reservation Center at (407) WDW-DINE or (407) 939-3463. Guests under age 18 must have parent or guardian permission to call..



whats going on ?

is it 180 days or less out from your check in date?

You can check the date with an ADR calendar calculator such as the available here on the disboards: http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/dining/pscalc/dispscalc.html

That's the only thing I can think of

Did you go through the bit where you enter your reservation confirmation number?

 

[HappyFingers]

all done

we got all the adrs we wanted

only bit i got stuck on for a while was the cinderellas castle one

when i put my postcode in it wouldnt accept the 4 digit postcode even though i told it i was in Australia

so after a bit of confusion i just put a 00 in front of the 4 digit postcode and that worked

 

[Travel Mum]

all done

we got all the adrs we wanted

Congratulations - you must be so happy and relieved!!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Congratulations! You must be nearly all set now....just the countdown.

 

[HappyFingers]

have booked and paid for the flight from melb to la
have booked and paid for the flight from la to ft lauderdale

the ship is paid for
wdw is paid for a adr's complete
universal is paid for

just some spending money to go now (Have some already, both cash and travel card)

as well as all the bits and pieces like hotels before and after the above, car hire, meals and the flight back to la or san francisco

so yes we are close but still some saving to do

throw in a 1k car repair bill (not budgeted for) and the wifes visit to the dentist for an extraction and cash is a little tight at the moment but we will find a way

cheers Ladies and Gents

 

[HappyFingers]

just booked our accommodation in san diego for 3 nights
we went with the budget option (about 40 bucks a night) the reviews seemed quite good for what it was

booked one of our shore excursions today and couldnt do any more as the royal carribean website went on the blink whilst i was using it (but after i confirmed our shore excursion

havnt booked las vegas yet but we are staying at trump towers

waiting, waiting, waiting

 

[HappyFingers]

104 days to go

 

[Travel Mum]

booked one of our shore excursions today and couldnt do any more as the royal carribean website went on the blink whilst i was using it (but after i confirmed our shore excursion

Happy Fingers, reading this prompted me to try and log on to see if I can book our shore excursions yet but I got this response about the RCL website:

"It will be unavailable from 12 a.m. EST, 15-May-2011 to 6 a.m. EST, 15-May-2011."

I'm a bit confused because I just tried to get on and today is May 22! Sure it's May 21 in the U.S. but we are well past 15 May!???

 

[HappyFingers]

We've pretty much decided to stay at nickelodeon in Orlando after we finish up at universal

It looks like a lot of fun and we will then fly back to la for the final few days

 

[WAMUMOF4]

We've pretty much decided to stay at nickelodeon in Orlando after we finish up at universal

It looks like a lot of fun and we will then fly back to la for the final few days

We are staying there for 2 nights before DW it does look great for the kids.

 

[HappyFingers]

thread title updated

finally we get to the 100 day countdown

everything is almost paid for
only return orlando to la airfare to go
car hire (to be booked closer to our departure date)
1 week in nickleodeon to be booked and paid for
and about another 5 grand to save for spending money

we gots some currency in the safe (us)
we got some currency in the travel card
we got some currency in the bank (AUS)

tax time is coming so hoping for a decent tax return

have to contact the banks at about 1 week out to let them know we are traveling and not to lock up the accounts when the overseas purchases start coming in

the missus is being head hunted by a auditing firm to come and work for them
they offered her 100k as a starting point and she knocked it back
shes on 80k at the moment so that would be a significant step up
she is still negotiating with them, she doesnt like the idea of being an auditor because everyone hates auditors


do you think i should book nicelodeon now or wait to see if the prices come down, september/october is their slow time so i was thinking they would offer some discounts to fill the rooms as the date got closer ? otherwise i can just lock it in now as the funds are sitting there

we have saved for a long, long time now for this trip, we have gone without so many times just to keep holiday savings safe, and i have taken so much crap for it from the missus, we get paid fortnightly and almost every second week i have not had a dollar to my name, my kids have more spending money than me at the moment, yes for sure we are taking a lot of cash with us to spend and yes we are staying at the best hotels and the biggest cruise ship in the world and yes we are doing it in style

but i honestly belive we deserve it and have sacrificed for months/years now to be able to do it the way we want to do it

with magical style

i fully understand their are those that travel to disney world on a very tight budget and i fully understand their are those that travel to disney world with a very loose budget

i guess we are just somewhere in the middle

Looking forward to a great trip

 

[WAMUMOF4]

Well done on all your plans and payments!
I am so over paying for our trip at the moment feels like we have been doing it forever
With Nick resort i would book now l thought i would wait 3 days when they had this deal last time and it was gone we ended up paying $60 a night more here is the link to their hot deal i don't know if you already have it. I actually ended up booking it on Expedia/Aus because once the special was gone it was cheaper than direct i did ring Nick resort and they told me to take the cheaper booking youd think they would have it the same price but was an "international deal"
http://www.nickhotel.com/html/orlando-promotions-pkg.asp

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

Good on you HappyFingers. It will be so worth all of the sacrifices once you are there and your wife and family will thank you so much for assisting them in being frugal for such a wonderful payoff.

Let the pixie dust wash away all thoughts of sacrifice haha

 

[HappyFingers]

Well done on all your plans and payments!
I am so over paying for our trip at the moment feels like we have been doing it forever
With Nick resort i would book now l thought i would wait 3 days when they had this deal last time and it was gone we ended up paying $60 a night more here is the link to their hot deal i don't know if you already have it. I actually ended up booking it on Expedia/Aus because once the special was gone it was cheaper than direct i did ring Nick resort and they told me to take the cheaper booking youd think they would have it the same price but was an "international deal"
http://www.nickhotel.com/html/orlando-promotions-pkg.asp

oasis or lagoon do you think ?

 

[battymum]

I hear ya, happyfingers!

We have paid for all of our holiday (but I panicked after the Japanese earthquake and pulled money out of our mortgage to cover everything) Hoping a healthy tax return can pay that back.

I think we have most things covered, so hoping our annual leave pay and loading will cover our spending.


BUT IT WILL BE WORTH IT!!