Two go wild and go west! THREAD ONE COMPLETE About This Page:

[chezp]

Welcome to my trip report for our Vegas and California trip! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zwavin.gif[/img]

As this will cover a number of different places, I'm going to post the Vegas, Lake Havasu City and San Francisco parts here in the Globetrotting forum. The San Diego and Disneyland / Los Angeles parts will go into the Disneyland trip report forum.

The pre-trip report starts here. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[chezp]

Pre-trip report – part one: from one vacation to the next!

They say the best way to conclude a Disney vacation is by having the next one planned. I have always had to do things differently, so I decided that the best way to start our Disney vacation was by planning the next one.

But first, we need to back track a bit to how this vacation started. I think, if I’m honest, this trip has been about three years in the making. Originally, 2005 was to be the year of our big three week vacation for Mark’s 40th birthday, taking in Boston to go whale watching, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon, Los Angeles and Disneyland’s 50th celebrations, San Francisco or San Diego and Washington DC. He was particularly keen to see the Grand Canyon and Vegas and I couldn’t miss Disneyland. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] It soon became apparent that getting three weeks off work in the fall of 2005 was going to be like mission impossible, so we amended our plans. We’d still do everything we planned – just in two separate vacations and we could take in a trip to Disney World as well. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img]

So we booked our MouseFest trip, which started in Boston and ended in DC and then decided that we’d head to the West Coast in spring 2006 for two weeks. I spent ages playing with dates for flights, different combinations of itineraries, flights between each stop, driving between each stop and eventually what emerged was that the cheapest day to fly out was on Good Friday. I debated between flying into San Francisco or Las Vegas and then plugged in some dates for accommodation and wouldn’t you know it? The rates around Easter were the cheapest that I found throughout March, April or May. That was decided then – start with Vegas.

I had a vague idea in my mind to try and take in San Diego, then Los Angeles and finally San Francisco, so I worked out which day we’d be flying back home and at least the first part of the puzzle was falling into place.

It was Thursday 24 November, otherwise known as Thanksgiving for many of you, but for me, it was known as “the day before we headed off to Boston, Disney and DC”. I spent my lunch hour on the phone to a travel agent, booking those flights for our California and Vegas trip, having cleared the time off the day before. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/woot.gif[/img] Why the rush you wonder? Couldn’t I have just sorted it all out when I got back? Well, yes, but I was planning on using our DVC points to pay for most of our stay and I figured that if I booked the flights before we left, then at least I could sort out the accommodation while we were in Disney and the call wouldn’t cost anything. Smart, eh? [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img] And hey, at least I’d have something to look forward when we got back to the UK…

Fast forward to ten days into our vacation and I was calling Member Services from our room at the Beach Club Villas [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/thewave.gif[/img] and booking our accommodation for most of the trip. First, the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego for two nights, then the Disneyland Hotel for five nights, then the Fairmont in San Francisco for four nights. Sorted… or was it?

It was only when we’d been home for a few days and I got all the confirmations and compared them to our flight details that I realised we had a problem. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img] It seems that we were booked to stay in San Francisco from 26 – 30 April and according to the travel details for our flights, we were coming home on 29 April. Uh-oh… something isn’t right here. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/whistling2.gif[/img] I guess the lesson here is to take the details of your flights to Florida with you so that you’ve got them when you’re calling Member Services. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/blushing.gif[/img]

A quick call to Member Services and we changed our San Francisco dates to 25 – 29 April, unfortunately having to shell out another $75 to change the reservation in the process. That was a lesson learnt the hard way. If you’re using your DVC points to pay for a hotel in the Concierge Collection, get the dates right! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img] Any chance will incur a $75 fee. I cut a night off our stay at the Disneyland Hotel and fortunately there wasn’t a fee for doing that.

I did also enquire about upgrading to the Grand Californian, as there was a new deal, meaning it wouldn’t cost as many points to stay there that I hadn’t known about when I made the original booking. That was a no-go. There was availability over the weekend, but nothing on the Friday or Monday, so I guess they were full with conference goers.

All this before Christmas as well. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img] Well, as we know, Christmas is always an expensive time of the year – and it proved to be the case for us, but mainly because I kept purchasing additional extras for this trip! The first extra was the tickets for Disneyland. I happened to be on the official website, checking out how much we’d have to budget for our tickets, when I saw an offer that ran until 27 April – everyone plays for the kids’ price. It meant that adults could get their tickets for the price of the kids’ tickets, so I didn’t need to do any more thinking about how many days worth of park admission we wanted, I just went for the five day option. It cost us $149 for each ticket, a total saving for the two of us of $140! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img]

You have to understand that over Christmas, we had snow and I was bored, but on the same day, I also started looking at Cirque du Soleil’s website and discovered that, three and a half months out, most of the decent tickets for their “O” show (the under and above water one) had already gone. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img] I really hadn’t expected that, so it was panic stations – we needed to buy tickets for the night we wanted and quickly, before the thing sold out. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img] I asked some questions on the boards about which were good seats, got some great advice [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/thanx.gif[/img] and phoned up to try and get the seats I wanted. While I was on the phone, I also asked about Zumanity (the show for over 18’s only), as I knew from the website that there were still front row seats available for that. I wasn’t going to miss out on those [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502no_prv.gif[/img] so I booked those on the same phone call. I half expected the card to be refused, it had received such a bashing in about 48 hours, but it all went through fine. Now just how to pay for all this, as I wasn’t planning on buying any of this for another month or two… [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/whistling2.gif[/img]

A quick visit to the Southwest website, a good fare on offer for flights from Los Angeles (Santa Ana, not LAX [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img] ) and that was booked as well, so we were sorted on how we’d get from there to San Francisco. I didn’t fancy the idea of driving, but until someone told me that you can only get flights with Southwest through their website and not through a travel agent, I was despairing, as the prices with other airlines were crazy, so many [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/thanx.gif[/img] to whoever it was who tipped me off about that. You saved us a lot of heartache there. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img]

Next: a cheaper way to stay in Vegas! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[lauren-roxy]

I am so excited!!!!!! Another Cheryl trip report!!!!!!! Great start!!! Can't wait for more!!!!

[crystalloubear]

Yipee!! Can't wait to here more. Oh wait, first you have to go on the trip. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] Won't be much longer now!

[simbarel]

Ha! I know all about those credit card bash-fests. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img] This is great, Chez, I'm looking forward to your Las Vegas experience, and what you think of Zumanity!

[MickeyMAC]

I'm so glad you started your trip report. I love reading your reports.

[DrDolphin]

Yeah!!! I have been waiting for this TR to start!! I can not wait to read all about it - especially the shows in Vegas!!!

[TroianRae]

Wow, what a beginning already, and it's only pre-trip report. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/woot.gif[/img] [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/woot.gif[/img]

[ariel14]

Great start! It sounds like such a wonderful trip!

[Cam22]

So exciting to read about your planning adventures! Can't wait for Vegas!

[statelady01]

Yay, it's kinda cool reading about a trip report one knows she might make her way into!!

Great start and cant wait to see ya soon!

[chezp]

[ QUOTE ]
Yay, it's kinda cool reading about a trip report one knows she might make her way into!!

[/ QUOTE ]

might make her way into - if we're spending three days together, I don't know how you're going to avoid being in it! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif[/img]

[mattnkatsmum]

I'm sure you'll have an amazing trip - can't wait to read more!!!

[Colexis Mom]

What a great start Cheryl [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zwavin.gif[/img] More please [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[DrDolphin]

Great beginning to what sounds like a great trip!!