September/October 2013 check in

[areweindisneyyet]

Originally Posted by 5ofus

We are booked in to Grand Californian for our first night in Anaheim!!! Yay!

Very exciting

[5ofus]

Does anybody know any information about the Limited Time Magic offerings in Sept/Oct? I know they are having the Villians/Friday the 13th thing on while we are there. I think I read it's a dance party?!?! Totally NOT our thing! It'll be fun if we are in the park until 1am, but I think that will be unlikely too...

[Jade+3]

Originally Posted by shushh

Jade I feel your pain. We ended up getting the Chevrolet suburban which fit all 7 of us and the suitcases fine. I was nervous because coming to LA our car was the much smaller Toyota Siena and we managed to squeeze everyone in! Alright so there were small carryons on laps et its Ok if just for a transfer say from airport to hotel but not too good if luggage has to in car for most of the time eg road trip

I have been looking for a Suburban or Escalade at a reasonable price but no luck so far. Did find a 12 seater van though??

We have had a Sienna before, which I think was the same as the Caravan but a bench seat rather than the 2 captains chairs in the middle row. That is looking like the best option at this stage. If we have too much luggage, the IL's will have to take the bus to the airport.

Our first car will be a road trip - San Francisco to LA via Yosemite. That will be pre-shopping so hoping we will only have 3-4 suitcases. Cabin bags will be a bare minimum. Heres hoping the kids are happy watching TV on the plane as I am sick of lugging bags of toys that don't get played with.

[shushh]

Originally Posted by Jade+3

I have been looking for a Suburban or Escalade at a reasonable price but no luck so far. Did find a 12 seater van though??

We have had a Sienna before, which I think was the same as the Caravan but a bench seat rather than the 2 captains chairs in the middle row. That is looking like the best option at this stage. If we have too much luggage, the IL's will have to take the bus to the airport.

Our first car will be a road trip - San Francisco to LA via Yosemite. That will be pre-shopping so hoping we will only have 3-4 suitcases. Cabin bags will be a bare minimum. Heres hoping the kids are happy watching TV on the plane as I am sick of lugging bags of toys that don't get played with.

We tried to look for a 12 seater van but for some reason it wasn't available?!? We could only get 15 seaters! In the end we went for the suburban for 4WD function as we were going off road for some parts and going through mountainous areas with good chance of snow.

[5ofus]

200 days until we leave!!!!

So far so good on the secret-keeping - for both secrets. If I can just keep my mouth shut for 200 more days it'll all be good. Should be easy - right?

[KiwiMouseGirl]

Not too much going on with our trip planning. I've planned as much as possible until we book. Im thinking that the Tropicanna Inn will be our best choice for accomodation, and I really like the fact that it is just across the road. it will be so conveniant being able to pop back to the hotel to get changed when it cools down and to not have to get up 15 munites earlier to allow for walking to the parks in the morning to get there for rope drop, which makes for an early morning start. But if we have to spread the butter a bit thinner, we will most likley go for the Best Western Plus Pavillions. My nan and myself stayed here on our trip in April. We loved the hotel! the staff were always more than helpful, the same with room service and maintanance. We found the little supperette right next door to be really handy for things like cereal, milk, juice, fizzy and snacks for while we were at the park. I would more than happily stay here again, the only thing that I hesitate about is the location. It is on West Katella and a solid 10-15 minute walk dependig on your pace. We found it fine to walk in the morning, but just meant that we had to wake up 15 mins earlier to account for the time it took to walk to the parks. Walking back to the hotel at night was pretty much not an option for our sore tired feet, so we caught the ART which had a stop right outside the hotel. .... I am torn! Do we stay somewhere close and more expensive, or futher away but cheaper. Decisions decisions. At the moment BWPP is only about $300 cheaper than the Tropicanna. Which to me isnt enough of a difference to constitute loosing the ease of access we would get at the Tropicanna. So we will see what deals the travel agent can do for us.

In the mean time we will make like Dory and just keep swimming, just keep swimming!
Or in our case, just keep saving, just keep saving!

Every day we get closer I get a little more excited! I'm already starting to mentally plan my scrapbook. ... Is that weird

[coco392]

we're in me, dw, ds and mum

sept 21-30th

pop century, or maybe a moderate if big discounts

hopefully free dining

taking the little bloke out of school for a week

also doing la, NYC and sfo

I have a ? of we make reservations now and they then offer deals is it right we just call and have them applied?

thanks

[5ofus]

Originally Posted by coco392

we're in me, dw, ds and mum

sept 21-30th

pop century, or maybe a moderate if big discounts

hopefully free dining

taking the little bloke out of school for a week

also doing la, NYC and sfo

I have a ? of we make reservations now and they then offer deals is it right we just call and have them applied?

thanks

Welcome! How old is your little guy?

I think that that is right with the discounts. I know TAs can call and have discounts applied, so don't see why 'normal' people can't?

[5ofus]

Today I organised and paid for our travel insurance

And my boss verbally approved my leave. Hooray!

[Busy Busy]

Hi Coco, in October 2010 we booked WDW for September 2011. We just booked a normal room at Port Orleans Riverside, no park hoppers or water parks. By the time that we actually flew out of Australia, we had changed to the Wilderness Lodge, had added free dining and about a zillion ADR's, had park hoppers and the water park option - thankyou Disboards!!

We did all of the reservations ourselves on the internet and made our changes directly with Disney over the phone and the whole trip was perfect!! (AND free dining was fabulous - we will definitely miss not having it this time).

So, don't worry about changes - they actually helped to make the 11 months between booking and leaving bearable!!

[coco392]

Originally Posted by 5ofus

Welcome! How old is your little guy?

I think that that is right with the discounts. I know TAs can call and have discounts applied, so don't see why 'normal' people can't?

thanks 5ofus - he is 6. he ran around like a little crazy man when we told him. he doesn't care what we do as long as we can build a droid at dhs

[coco392]

Originally Posted by Busy Busy

Hi Coco, in October 2010 we booked WDW for September 2011. We just booked a normal room at Port Orleans Riverside, no park hoppers or water parks. By the time that we actually flew out of Australia, we had changed to the Wilderness Lodge, had added free dining and about a zillion ADR's, had park hoppers and the water park option - thankyou Disboards!!

We did all of the reservations ourselves on the internet and made our changes directly with Disney over the phone and the whole trip was perfect!! (AND free dining was fabulous - we will definitely miss not having it this time).

So, don't worry about changes - they actually helped to make the 11 months between booking and leaving bearable!!

thanks disboards alright- I have been three times before but before finding disboards had no idea about the discounts and free dining

[KiwiMouseGirl]

Well, unfortunately our trip has hit a rather large bump in the road (or should we say, mountain?)

My trip partner Alicia got a phone call on Monday about a car she had sold two and a half years ago. The people she sold it to never completed their half of the change of ownership, so it was never taken out of her name. Long story short she was made to pay $500 in registration and traffic fines, or they were going to take her to court. Out of fear she payed it. She is currently talking to her boyfriends Mum who happens to be a lawyer to see if there is any action that she can take. But her chances aren't looking good at this stage.

Which brings be onto the next problem.

My friend and dance partner Glenn (or Glennis as I call him) had said that if Alicia couldn't make it that he would come with me. Well I sent him a txt message on Monday night to tell hime that Alicia wasn't coming and would he still come with me, and got no reply. I txt him yesterday morning to ask if he had recieved my message, and he replied later on that night saying yes he had, and could we talk about it when he get's back (he's in Auckland for managers conference until today) which makes me think a few different senarios...

A. He doesn't want to come anymore... Which is fine. But my way of thinking is the sooner he let's me know the sooner I can TRY to fond someone else to come with me.

B. He want's to bring his new girlfriend with hime....Which I am not keen on. I refuse to be a third wheel...

C. He wants to bring his two daughters with him....Which I would have to think about. I babysit his two girls and love them to bits. But they are still quite young (5 and 3) and while the older one is very tall for her age, she wouldn't be able to ride everything. I know that there are ways that we could make it work, such as child swap, but I would have to make sure that they are sacrifices that I could be willing to make. The whole point of going on this trip with someone my age was to have someone to experiance the bigger attractions with and not to have to ride by myself. But I would most definately be riding by myself doing child swap. We would most definately have to go back to the hotel during the day for a rest so the kids don't get cranky, and would have to stop all the time for characters as they wouldn't understand that we had planned time later in the day for photos!

Argh, I don't know what to do. All I know is that this trip is turning into the biggest flop ever....

[teddykins]

Originally Posted by WanderlustNZ

No need to apologise or justify your love of the BSB. It sounds like you are booked on something you are going to love.

It's certainly going to be a crazy 3 days with 2000 other BSB fans to deal with (some of which can be rather rude/annoying when the boys are around) but I'm so pumped regardless. 243 days to go until we leave and Qantas changed our flight to leave and land 15 mins earlier, my friend is slightly annoyed as we're getting a connecting flight to Miami for 9am but I told her at least we wont be rushed through customs and can maybe have a coffee and a bite to eat before we board the Miami flight? Positives in everything

I was wondering if anyone has purchased glass products from the Disney store online? My bestie is getting married in Sept and I wanted to get her the glass Cinderella & Prince Charming flutes but they don't ship internationally so I was going to get them shipped to a friend in the US who will then ship them to me - would this be ok to do? Obviously I realise they could easily break but I really want her and her partner to have them for their reception and I know any breakages isn't Disney's fault at all but wasn't sure if they were some how restricted to US only and wouldn't be allowed into aust for some (silly) reason..

Any good recommendations for the restaurants? I want to do at least one character dining that has Donald, my friend wants Chip & Dale though and she'd also like to have some steak. I was also looking at Be Our Guest which looks like it could be a great dining experience too.. We don't have the DDP as couldn't justify the extra $300 for it so any restaurants will be OOP however we're including them in our total spending budget and only want to do one or two at this stage. There's so many choices, its so confusing

That's horrible KiwiMouse, I hope he can go as you planned or you can find someone else to take their spot. Talk about added pressure you don't need

[Caroline NZ]

Kiwimouse girl, I'm sorry to hear your plans are in turmoil. Is your original travel mate not coming just because of the $500 fines?