There's a squirrel in my head! My first PTR for WDW and beyond...

[zanzibar138]

I've only just subbed in so sorry for my lateness. Just wanted to say that I would fly out of NYC on 23 Dec if possible, rather than 24 Dec. That way if there are any weather delays (which happen often), you would have an extra day up your sleeve to get to Montana. Plus Christmas Eve at the airports would be a complete nightmare.

Good point I just don't think of these things coming from a country where it's always hot over Christmas! But Christmas Eve is definitely a nightmare at airports everywhere

I would love to have the option of a house/pet-sitter! Only if it's someone you trust though. We're lucky that our SIL minds our cats for us and DH's aunty minds our dogs. So the pets always go visiting while we're away.

 

[Marlea98]

A housesitter for the animals would be great if you knew you could trust them, if not I would be nervous.

I've only just subbed in so sorry for my lateness. Just wanted to say that I would fly out of NYC on 23 Dec if possible, rather than 24 Dec. That way if there are any weather delays (which happen often), you would have an extra day up your sleeve to get to Montana. Plus Christmas Eve at the airports would be a complete nightmare.

Hi MsShuttergirl

Yes, I'm thinking of 23rd more because it will give me time to help get food and the house ready plus get some last minute shopping done if I need to. But it didn't cross my mind about possible delays

 

[Marlea98]

Good point I just don't think of these things coming from a country where it's always hot over Christmas! But Christmas Eve is definitely a nightmare at airports everywhere

I would love to have the option of a house/pet-sitter! Only if it's someone you trust though. We're lucky that our SIL minds our cats for us and DH's aunty minds our dogs. So the pets always go visiting while we're away.

My dogs can be quite naughty as they're rather spoilt My red girl frets when I'm away so I'm thinking if she stays at home it might lessen her anxiety. But the house sitter thing is still just an idea.

We've had almost 200mm of rain in the 24hrs to 6.30 tonight, and there's more on the way

 

[Marlea98]

Just want to say I'll be MIA for a couple of days. I've got some things to do for work, baking for school snacks for next week plus I'm keeping an eye on our weather and checking our paddocks as we've got do much rain. I'm also working on cutting out most of the sugar in our diets (why didn't I think of this weeks ago?!) and I expect to be having withdrawal symptoms for the next couple of days while my body gets used to it. I bet tonight I'll be dreaming of Dairy Milk...

 

[PrincessInOz]

Take care Marlea.

 

[Marlea98]

Got TA prices on flights today. Home to Orlando (via all the stops) and LA to Home (via all the stops) comes in around $2800. Surely not? That's so expensive. That doesn't include any other internal flights we need to take either, it's just the bare basics.

Those prices have put me in a bit of a blah mood now. What a time to have given up sugar I could really use a family block of Dairy Milk right now

Oh well, see what other prices come out.

 

[PrincessInOz]

OUCH!!! Here's to sale pricing.

 

[Marlea98]

Well, I've been searching around and discussing it with some friends and it seems the TA hasn't used flexible dates. By shifting my flight to America back by one day I can get a Qantas flight for just over $1800. What a saving. I don't know why she didn't look at that, especially when I told her we were checking in to our Orlando accomodation on the 30th November; she had us arriving in Orlando at almost midnight on the 30th!

So I will probably fly into LAX on the 28th and overnight there since our flights get in at 6am. Then we'll fly to Orlando on the 29th mid-morning. If we can't get an extra day at Kingstown Reef (we've booked a week at our timeshare) then we'll just book in somewhere cheap for that night and do some shopping and look around. Even with paying two extra nights of accomodation we are still way out in front compared to the quote the TA gave us.

BestFlights.com.au had the same itinerary as Qantas but was slightly cheaper. I'm waiting for Virgin to come out with their flights so I can have a look at those. Our return to Australia date is 21/1/14 so it's too early for Virgin yet. I have to wait rather impatiently now

After months of trying to join up DH and the kids with Delta's SkyMiles I finally managed to succeed! It turns out DH was already signed up (I vaguely remember doing that over the phone and I thought I'd done the kids too but the lady obviously didn't) but I can't print off a copy of the card. I've also signed us up for American Airlines Advantage card. I went to look at JetBlue (or whatever it's called) but their flights aren't open for the dates I'm looking at for NYC so I'll leave that until a bit later.

I finally feel like I'm making some more progress on my plans. All I've got to do is get some more work to pay for the whole thing! Only one day of work so far since the school term started C'mon job gods, call me

 

[gogo65]

Might be time to find a travel agent who works for their clients
Always worth it to do your homework though, hopefully virgin end up with some good deals, particularly since you will be flying out of peak period dates

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Well, I've been searching around and discussing it with some friends and it seems the TA hasn't used flexible dates. By shifting my flight to America back by one day I can get a Qantas flight for just over $1800. What a saving. I don't know why she didn't look at that, especially when I told her we were checking in to our Orlando accomodation on the 30th November; she had us arriving in Orlando at almost midnight on the 30th!

I one asked a TA to find me a few cheap options for flying to London. I was open to trying any route, on any airline, on any day of a week long period, as long as the flight included at least a two night stopover for me to explore a new city. You would think I had asked her to explain the meaning of life. The conversation went something like this:

Her: "I need to know exactly where you want to stop over"
Me: "I'm flexible. It depends on price"
Her: "No, you need to give me a city or airline so I can put it into my system"
Me: "Okay, let's try Singapore"
Her: "On what date?"
Me: "Whatever is cheapest between this day and that day'"
Her: (Becoming visually frustrated) "No mam, you need to pick a date."

It was such an annoying conversation and the last time I ever intended on using a TA. However, after some thought, I realised I was probably the one being unreasonable. I don't imagine any TA out there earns enough commission to spend hours scanning through multiple airlines and multiple days just to get me the best fare. Really the only person happy to spend time doing this is me. And that moment, right there, is what can forever be blamed for the birth of an obsessive travel planner

 

[OziJo]

I know I'm late but I'm subbing in! I'm just waiting for the official go ahead before I start seriously researching for our third trip of a lifetime. So I'll follow your journey in the meantime

 

[Marlea98]

I know I'm late but I'm subbing in! I'm just waiting for the official go ahead before I start seriously researching for our third trip of a lifetime. So I'll follow your journey in the meantime

Thank you and welcome

This will be our second trip of a life time And there will be bound to be more 'life times' to come

 

[Marlea98]

Well, last night I ended up booking my flights.

I'd spent days looking through so many different search engines, airline websites, reading other people's planning threads and comments and so much more. I looked at flight routes and looked at different ways to get to Orlando. I researched costs of overnight stays to break up the flights or to get cheaper fares. I asked friends to check on flights for me to make sure I was doing things right and hadn't missed something along the way. I have spent so long looking for flights I was dreaming about them!

I found the Qantas flights for just over $1800 and wanted to fly VAustralia as we had such lovely service last time. But they haven't opened our return dates yet. So I played around with their latest dates to get an idea. They had their cheapest flights based on code share with Delta. So, I've heard many negative things about Delta through the Dis so I did some searches on many different reviews and flyer forums and decided I didn't want to fly Delta internationally. That led to the 'do I want to wait another week for the return dates to come available and see what's available?' thoughts. In the end, DH and I discussed it and I decided the answer was no. So I booked Qantas. I was hesitating - I'm always the one thinking "should I or shouldn't I?" to the point I miss the boat So I asked some friends for advice (because that's what friends do!) and it was decided - GO FOR IT! Knowing my luck the prices will fall or there'll be a sale on but them's the breaks baby

So the plans are now:

28/11 - Leave home and fly to LA around 6am or some ridiculous hour. Overnight in LA at an airport hotel
29/11 - depart LA and fly to Orlando arriving by midday. Pick up hire car (another thing on my list of things to do) and do some shopping and some general sightseeing. If I can't get an extra night at our timeshare I'll just book in somewhere nearby for the night.

Other plans - fly to NYC 18 or 19/12 depending on flights yet to be booked.
Fly to Montana 23/12 - flights yet to be booked.
Sometime around 6/1/14 fly to either Vancouver or Seattle to begin road trip back to LA
Arrive LA 14/1 for a week at booked time share accomodation. Spend weekdays at DLR/DCA before MLK weekend and the planned marathon. Hopefully over the MLK weekend we will have tickets for SuperCross.
Sightsee around LA and avoiding the theme park crowds.

21/1/14 - Depart LA for home.

So that's the latest. One more thing ticked off my list of things to do.

I still have to investigate rental cars, Cape Canaveral accom post cruise for the night, any shuttle transfers we'll need, NYC/Montana/Vancouver or Seattle flights, NYC and other accom, AMA supercross tickets, WDW and DLR tickets, Universal tickets...

And we have a house sitter so we save thousands on dog kennel fees, too We used a dedicated house sitter website and found an older couple who seem to fit the bill. We're now corresponding with them and I'm feeling less hesitant about having strangers take over my house. The best thing? We really have nothing to steal of any real value and they're familiar with our area so they won't be useless if a cyclone happens to come this way

 

[cola]

So the plans are now:
28/11 - Leave home and fly to LA around 6am or some ridiculous hour. Overnight in LA at an airport hotel
29/11 - depart LA and fly to Orlando arriving by midday. Pick up hire car (another thing on my list of things to do) and do some shopping and some general sightseeing. If I can't get an extra night at our timeshare I'll just book in somewhere nearby for the night.

erm arriving in Orlando by midday? that is extremely difficult with the time zones plus a 5hr flight - leaving at 8am only gets you there at 4pm-ish

Timeshare - change your entire booking over to a '2 Bedroom Fractional' rather than just '2 Bedroom', fractionals are usually a larger and/or a higher standard fit out. There is fractional availability

 

[Marlea98]

erm arriving in Orlando by midday? that is extremely difficult with the time zones plus a 5hr flight - leaving at 8am only gets you there at 4pm-ish

Timeshare - change your entire booking over to a '2 Bedroom Fractional' rather than just '2 Bedroom', fractionals are usually a larger and/or a higher standard fit out. There is fractional availability

Thanks, Cola. You're right, we're arriving in Orlando after 4pm. We leave Brisbane by midday

I shall call WM tomorrow and see what I can get. I know when I booked ages ago there wasn't fractional available so maybe someone's cancelled?

 

[PrincessInOz]

Hope it works out Marlea.

 

[Marlea98]

Thanks to Cola's advice, I changed our booking at Kingstown Reef to include another night so we now check in on the 29/11. I tried to change the room from a 2 bedroom to a 2 bedroom fractional online but for some reason the system wouldn't accept my post code.

I called WorldMark and they couldn't work out why as the system was set up with our correct address so it was just one of those inter-webby mysteries! We got it finished, the lady credited back my housekeeping credits (I'd cancelled my old booking when I should have adjusted it - silly me) and I didn't have to pay the new booking fee because I'd already paid it before

I've never had a bad customer service moment with WorldMark. No matter what I've called about, their staff have always been positive, helpful and cheery. I did send an email to their customer feedback site to say how happy I am with their travel staff.

On a ouch-y note, I stepped on a nail or screw or something a couple of weeks ago. I had a tetanus injection and some antibiotics but there seemed to be something still left in my foot. I went back today and the doctor took it out under local anaesthetic using this little apple-corer type device. I admit, I squealed a little when I got the injection

 

[WAMUMOF4]

for the booking and for your foot hope it heals quickly.

 

[Marlea98]

for the booking and for your foot hope it heals quickly.

I'll milk it for the sympathy factor. It is still sore and there's blood so I can get away with it at least until tomorrow

 

[Aussie Wendy]

for trip organisation and house sitters-glad you have found people who seem right for you-I think that's my DH concern-what happens if the water pump or sewerage system breaks down or a tree falls on the drive and we have people not used to dealing with that stuff here. Hope that foot heals soon - sounds yucky.