National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! PRE-TRIP AND DURING TRIP REPORT COMPLETED - Page 8 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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That's a lot of hotels! That aspect of the trip I really wouldn't like, but how else can you see everything and cover all that ground? Should we start taking bets now on how many photos you'll take?
You're welcome to start the bets coming and I can let you know when we return...
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"My Frommer’s book on the national parks of the West" - TOTALLY love that book!! That one and the National Geographic Guide to the National Parks!
With all your Hamptons, Homewoods, etc - you will be earning a few extra Hilton Hhonors points. Be sure to sign up for the earn double points reward program they have going on right now - https://www.hiltonhhonors.com/PYO/Do...11Q03,Specials
Sounds like everything fell into place, glad you found lodging at all your stops and I agree about prepaying where you can, many of those city passes are so much cheaper when you purchase online beforehand.
Love reading your PTR. We are planning a road trip from AZ to Seattle next July to celebrate our 25th anniversary on the Wonder. Road trips can be such fun.
With all your Hamptons, Homewoods, etc - you will be earning a few extra Hilton Hhonors points. Be sure to sign up for the earn double points reward program they have going on right now - https://www.hiltonhhonors.com/PYO/Do...11Q03,Specials
Can I still get the points if I didn't book direct through them? I went through other websites, as they were much cheaper than the Hilton and I'm not sure I can claim the points?
Pre-trip report – part seven: the final bits drop into place...
It was about this time that I started to hear from people about possible meets. I’d been hoping to meet up with Debbie (DebiDebiDebi) on the boards, as I knew that she lived in Washington and we started to trade messages on Facebook. At first, it didn’t look likely, but then a Disneyland trip came through for her and she’d be flying back to Seattle on 6 September, the date we’d be driving down there. A few more messages and we’d set up lunch for Ivar’s Acre of Clams.
Even better was to come. Sarah (DopeyGirl) and her family would hopefully be joining us as well. I was delighted to hear that, as it had been far too long since we’d last seen them. With any luck, it would be a wonderful PassPorter lunch.
We also heard from our friends Mari and Raleigh, who live in the Los Angeles area, who we met on the inaugural Mediterranean cruise in 2007, the same cruise as we first met Bruce and Marta. They’d come over to meet us while we were there. It would be lovely to see them again. Add into the mix our friends Carrie and Patrick, who also live in Los Angeles, and suddenly we had a big group of six of us for lunch at the Wine Country Trattoria.
Sadly, initial plans to meet up with Claudine (WDWJAMBA) and her husband Ted just didn’t work out, which is a real shame, especially as it’s probably going to be the first and last time we’ll be flying into their home state of Montana. One day we’ll see you again guys.
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 with us.
I figured that I’d do some scanning and then print out the pages we needed from most of them and settled on taking just two with us – my faithful Frommer’s to cover all the national parks we’d be visiting, along with my trusty PassPorter’s Disney Cruise Line. Even with the latter, I managed to reduce what I was taking, removing all the Caribbean ports of call from my deluxe edition. Of course, by the time I’d finished with all the printing, I had a wad of paper about two inches thick, which still weighed a fair bit, although it would surely be less than all the various guidebooks? By the time I’d finished, I weighed both the pile of paper up and a guidebook and they weighed about the same. Well, that was still a weight saving all the same...
All the time as I’d been planning this trip, ever since we returned from our Walt Disney World and Dream cruise in April, I’d been changing up any spare money I had each week into dollars for our upcoming trip. Sometimes it was cash, other times it was to go on our travel money card, which we can use at an ATM. I have to be honest, here the adage “a little and often” works, as it was lovely to see the money building up bit by bit, week by week.
The most fun part was getting Canadian money. I always get a bit of a thrill whenever I get new money. I was the same with the money we got for Egypt. I’m so used these days to only ever getting US dollars or Euros, as just about every country in Europe, except for us, as we like to be different , uses that currency these days, so anything else is a pleasant change. 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?
By the time the end of July rolled around, I had started to assemble what we needed to take away with us. I won’t call it packing, it was more like pre-packing. It was starting to make sure that we had things together, particularly things that we (hopefully!) wouldn’t need before our vacation, like gloves and hats and also our formal wear, as I doubted that would get an airing prior to our departure. It was also a case of starting to find some of the regular things that you always need, like suntan lotion and the first aid kit. I also like to do that nice and early, in case we’re running low on anything and need to stock up and, as always, we were.
I realised from research and listening to one of the PassPorter podcasts that one thing I was missing was a lightweight coat. All the advice was not to take a winter coat, as it just wouldn’t be cold enough for that, and layers were preferable, but I had nothing else waterproof. I kept my eyes open for something and finally came across exactly what I wanted about a month before we were due to head out. I’m sure you’ll get to see plenty of it in various photos along the way. I’m guessing I’ll probably find use of it at some point along our journey...
I have to be honest, this has probably been the toughest packing challenge EVER. I guess it’s all my own fault for coming up with such an ambitious itinerary, taking in so many different places with so many different climates. I did try and have a look at average temperatures for the time of year that we’d be visiting, but to be honest, they had such variations, that they weren’t much help at all. I figured that I’d just have to check out the actual forecast nearer the time and probably go with bits of all my wardrobe, ranging from vest tops to T-shirts, long sleeved tops, and sweatshirts. Boy, we were going to have a lot to take with us. Would three suitcases really be enough for all this?
This is going to be a packing challenge! Glad so many meets are working out along the way. I'm going to guess 10,000 for the photos. In one of your reports (Egypt?) you mentioned how many you had taken and it was a huge amount, so I'm probably low. Digital cameras are the best invention! Can you imagine the cost of all that film and processing?
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This is going to be a packing challenge! Glad so many meets are working out along the way. I'm going to guess 10,000 for the photos. In one of your reports (Egypt?) you mentioned how many you had taken and it was a huge amount, so I'm probably low. Digital cameras are the best invention! Can you imagine the cost of all that film and processing?
Wow, packing for this trip really does seem like a challenge! We're in a similar situation for our upcoming trip (temps below zero on mountains in Switzerland, temps in the 90s in southern France) but the difference is, we're doing a road trip so we can just stuff everything in our car! Good luck getting everything you need into your three suitcases!
Just catching up on your exciting trip. I so love our national parks, I wish I could see them all.
I have stayed in many Homewood Suites throughout the country. When we traveled as a family of five, they were the best option. We have always been more than satisfied. While they don't usually have huge ornate lobbies, the rooms are nice enough and we always loved having a kitchen. The breakfasts and snacks do vary quite a bit from decent and adequate to really nice. One I used to stop at on my way to picking one of my kids up at school, had the best breakfast, comparable to some buffets. We also would always grab some yogurt and fruit at breakfast to either keep in the room or to take with us on a drive.
You can get Hilton points as long as you didn't book through Priceline or Hotwire. You can also call reservations and see if they will match an online price. I find that the pre-pay rate on the Hilton website can be a dollar or two cheaper than the on line vendors.
Also Hilton lets you double point-you can get both airline and Hilton Honors points, so make sure you preferred airline milage account is noted in your honors account.
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Charlie
Last edited by Huntermom; 08-23-2011 at 06:53 AM..
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It's certainly nice to get some things paid for upfront 
A few more messages and we’d set up lunch for Ivar’s Acre of Clams. 
One day we’ll see you again guys. 
, uses that currency these days, so anything else is a pleasant change. 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? 
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