National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! PRE-TRIP AND DURING TRIP REPORT COMPLETED - Page 10 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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For Alaska - my one piece of advice is LAYER!! Wind breaker, fleece, sweatshirt, light weight t-shirt... with those layers - you should be fine at any of your locations. Some of them are quite high and will be cooler than say.... FLORIDA.
It's getting close! Just a few more days! Definitely plan on hot weather at DLR. Today's going to be quite hot, I can already tell. It'll probably be like this for a few more days...hopefully it will cool off a bit by the time you get here, but plan for it to be at least in the mid to upper 80's, and DLR always feels hotter than the forecast (probably because of all the concrete and steel absorbing the heat all around you!).
I've been keeping an eye on the forecast and it's saying mid 90s for the weekend, so I'm expecting it hot!
I have a scene in my mind of you sitting at a rather large table with what looks like a jigsaw puzzle. At close glance, it's your travel plans. There you are, putting it all together, piece by piece.
Once finished will you glue it together and frame it?? After all that work, you should!
[FONT=Comic Sans MS]At around this time, I started the work of printing out all our itineraries and relevant bits of my various guidebooks. Knowing that we were taking three internal flights, two of them with luggage charges, as well as our flights to and from the States, I didn’t want to take more cases than we had to. Because we were visiting so many different places along the way, if I took all the guidebooks that covered those areas, we’d be taking about ten different ones.
Our Alaska trip was the most difficult to pack for also; I can't imagine packing for that plus all the other traveling you will be doing in one go.....
And I was also suprised to see the Queen on Canada money.... My kids and I were so interested in that set-up we googled about the common wealth and all that; I'm still not sure we completely understand it
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
The most fun part was getting Canadian money. I always get a bit of a thrill whenever I get new money. ......Of course, it shouldn’t have been a surprise to me, bearing in mind that Canada is still part of the UK Commonwealth (remember Kate and William’s recent Royal visit there? ) but somehow I was still amazed to see the Queen’s head on their notes. Surely that was something reserved just for us Brits?
LOL! Isn't our money pretty And yes, the Queen resides on some of our money
__________________
Stacey
Why do these kids look so pathetic?
Find out in: A New Grade, A New House, and A Surprise!Final Thoughts 01/30
I've been keeping an eye on the forecast and it's saying mid 90s for the weekend, so I'm expecting it hot!
Yep, the revised forecast today says the warming trend will go into the weekend with the high on Saturday...we'll see how that holds up. You're right on about the 90s it looks like! I hope you get lucky and it cools off before you get here!
__________________
Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
Our Alaska trip was the most difficult to pack for also; I can't imagine packing for that plus all the other traveling you will be doing in one go.....
And I was also suprised to see the Queen on Canada money.... My kids and I were so interested in that set-up we googled about the common wealth and all that; I'm still not sure we completely understand it
Fortunately we do - although I can understand it can be a bit of an odd concept. The Commonwealth Games, a bit like the Olympics, but for Commonwealth countries, are well worth watching, as we still have a lot of good sporting nations in the Olympics, including ourselves, Canada, Australia and Jamaica.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Yep, the revised forecast today says the warming trend will go into the weekend with the high on Saturday...we'll see how that holds up. You're right on about the 90s it looks like! I hope you get lucky and it cools off before you get here!
I hope so too, but I'm not holding my breath on that.
Pre-trip report – part eight: the last couple of weeks’ planning
Even this close to our vacation, we weren’t 100% done with our plans. I went to start printing out our daily plans at the beginning of August, only to realise that there were some gaps that needed filling in. Mainly, these revolved around where on earth we’d be having breakfast, lunch and dinner on some of our days. Now, I don’t know about you, but I find it very reassuring whenever I’m at WDW, as that’s all taken care of for me. When I’m going to an unfamiliar place, it’s a very different story.
I didn’t want to be constrained by our plans, but equally, I wanted to have an idea of where was good to try in each area we visited. TripAdvisor became a very good friend during this process, quickly showing me which restaurants were highly rated and which weren’t, allowing me to draw up a shortlist for our stops along the way. It was also handy, as I found out, while doing this, that there’s nowhere to eat in Arches National Park, something quite critical to know beforehand, so we would have to find some food that morning and take it with us. Equally, I found that quite a few restaurants in Provo are closed on a Sunday night, and of course, that’s when we’d be visiting, so again, it was good to be aware of all of that and be able to plan accordingly.
Soon, most of the daily plans were printed off, signifying that they were finalised at long last. It seemed like it had taken a long time to get to this stage!
There were still some bits that were up in the area, and ironically, the last section of the trip to be sorted out was also the first, our time in Disneyland. I was in contact with Jeannie (Dlandmom2) over her trip to Hawai’i and we started to talk about meeting up at Disneyland. She also very kindly agreed to take delivery of my (rather humungous) Scrap Your Trip order that I wanted to put through. The original plan had been for Sue to bring it with her, but as she had a flight to deal with and weight constraints, somehow asking her to take 60 + pages of 12 x 12 paper didn’t seem very fair on her. : Jeannie stepped straight in and agreed to do it for me and we set up a meeting for the Sunday afternoon, just before we head off from Disneyland. It’ll give us a chance to explore Downtown Disney and see the changes that they’ve made at the Disneyland Hotel since our last visit.
On the Saturday, the plan was to get a World of Color dining package, so that we could then see the show that night. We wanted to go to the Wine Country Trattoria, having heard positive reviews of it on the boards, and our friends Mari, Raleigh, Carrie and Patrick would also be joining us. The plan was to get it for lunch, so that we’d have a snack for breakfast and a snack for dinner, but it didn’t work out that way. All Mari was able to get for us was 4:10pm, which was far from ideal, but as that was it, she rightly took it. Can I just say here very much to Jeannie for posting all those photos of the viewing area of World of Color? They were a great help and very much appreciated!
Mari then suggested doing Breakfast in the Park that morning. I have to be honest, I really had no idea what she was talking about. Surely most people who visit a park do breakfast in the park? Well, the clue was in the title, it’s a character meal with Minnie and Friends at the Plaza Inn, although I do have to admit that I had to go and look that one up, my knowledge of Disneyland not being what it should be. Well, at least that would be a new experience to try – and hopefully a fun one.
I think, at this point, I should also say something about our Disneyland tickets, as I just realised that, in all this planning talk, I never once mentioned those. We have a friend who works at our local Disney Store that we’ve got to know through many years of being regular visits there. She said to us about a year ago that, if ever we needed any tickets to Disney parks, to let her know, as she gets a set amount each year, and this year, she just wouldn’t be able to use them. She offered us some for our WDW trip in April, but we were set with Annual Passes. I did mention to her then that I might take her up on her kind offer for Disneyland... and we did.
We met up one night and she gave us our tickets, for one-day park passes for each of us for both days. We were absolutely delighted with that and immediately took her out to dinner to thank her for those, as that had just saved us a huge amount of money. She really is a great friend.
I will say here that I have no real idea how it’s going to work. I’m guessing that we go to the ticket booths outside the parks and they trade them up into “real” tickets. I have to be honest that does worry me a little bit, but then again, I’m never happy unless I have something to worry about. I keep panicking that someone will tell me they’re not valid or I shouldn’t have them, so think good thoughts that it’s all Ok.
Congrats on the tickets! That sure does save you quite a bit! I haven't done Breakfast in the Park as we usually just breakfast at home before we head to the parks.
If you're getting a GAC, just fyi on the DCA side, it's now after you enter the park and immediately on the left. On the DL side, I believe it's still at City Hall on Main Street on your left.
__________________
Huge Disney Fan...Always Have Been...Always Will Be!
Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration TR here!
2013 WDW trip here!
2011 trip to Hawaii here!
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What a great idea! 
......Of course, it shouldn’t have been a surprise to me, bearing in mind that Canada is still part of the UK Commonwealth (remember Kate and William’s recent Royal visit there? 
so we would have to find some food that morning and take it with us. Equally, I found that quite a few restaurants in Provo are closed on a Sunday night, and of course, that’s when we’d be visiting, 
: Jeannie stepped straight in and agreed to do it for me 
and we set up a meeting for the Sunday afternoon, just before we head off from Disneyland. It’ll give us a chance to explore Downtown Disney and see the changes that they’ve made at the Disneyland Hotel since our last visit. 
Well, at least that would be a new experience to try – and hopefully a fun one. 
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