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Disneyland California and West Coast Trip Planning Disneyland California and West Coast Holiday Planning Questions, Suggestions and Tips. |
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16 Mar 18, 10:09 PM |
#11
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Thread Starter
Imagineer
Join Date: Mar 14
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16 Mar 18, 10:34 PM |
#12
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Imagineer
Join Date: May 17
Location: Midlands UK
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We have Gold Premier access with United so I tend to be tied to them, which makes choices easier as I start with their website, then shop around. I've also done Honolulu 3x so had an idea of the options.
This time we were looking from London Heathrow to Honolulu and I knew we could do Heathrow to San Francisco direct, then onwards to Honolulu all in one day - so left at 11.35, arrived maybe 2pm, then left about 6pm and arrived near 10.30pm in Honolulu (there's actually an earlier flight around 4pm but we had 6 people and checked bags so not worth trying to switch) - our bags, however, took the earlier flight anyway! They were waiting for us on arrival! When I'm looking for options, however, I'll start at kayak.co.uk - that will give me an idea of routes and prices. For instance, I know there's a direct flight from Newark, NJ to Honolulu, so if you fly UK to Newark, you'd have to overnight in NJ/NY before getting the direct flight the next morning. Another alternative is to do UK - New Jersey, Washington DC, Houston, or Denver (all United hubs) and then on to Los Angeles or San Francisco and then onto Honolulu. It comes down to figuring out the best timings for you, the best departure airport, layover times, airline choices and price. For me LHR - SFO - HNL is a no-brainer as it's great only taking one day to get there, but it's a pain in the neck to get to Heathrow. So the previous time we did BHX (Birmingham) to EWR (Newark) - popped into Manhattan for the afternoon/evening - then got the morning direct flight from EWR - HNL - sadly, United stopped flying from Birmingham last October so this Feb it was LHR-SFO-HNL or MAN-EWR-SFO-HNL which was too many stops with too many people Look for flights at kayak.co.uk because it's an easy site to look on, follow this up with skyscanner.net and momundo.com (think these have now merged with kayak so maybe skip this). You will find cheaper flights from 3rd party sellers - have you heard of them? Google reviews for them. Ask here if anyone has used them. And bear in mind flights from a 3rd party are harder to change than directly with the airline (usually). Another good tip is to look at expedia - including at least one night in a hotel (or the entire stay) as the combine prices on expedia can be the same price as just the flight elsewhere. I've previously bought United flights cheaper from expedia than from United as expedia still have some of the lower price inventory while United have sold theirs. Once you've narrowed down a route or two, I'd say always go back and check that airline's website - sometimes the flight is cheaper, sometimes some of the add-ons can be easier (paying for baggage, picking seats, etc) but not always. If the price is the same I say book with the airline direct every time - it'll be easier in the long run if you have to change your plans. Sorry, too much info maybe - if you have any more questions just ask - or if you want information about Oahu, Maui, Kauai or the Big Island I've been to all of them and did so this February - it's a beautiful place - don't just go to Oahu/Waikiki! (Honolulu is more London in the sun, but it's not far to paradise from there!)
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Di Gorton http://www.villasoutherndunes.com Villa Southern DunesModern Disney-themed villa in the Southern Dunes golf community * Private heated west-facing pool * Sleeps 10* Room for all with sofa, dining & poolside seating for 10 * 2 ensuite doubles (king & queen) * 2 Disney-themed twins * 2 Lounges * 7 Flatscreen TVs * Great games room & amazing dressing up rail Click >here< to see our Dibb Advert Email: info@villasoutherndunes.com Florida State License: DWE6312923 |
17 Mar 18, 08:21 AM |
#13
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Thread Starter
Imagineer
Join Date: Mar 14
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Wow we have an expert here ha ha
Thank you so much for all this information So we are going to California this year and whilst planning I know I wont have covered what I want to do so want to go back but I would like to go to Hawaii also so no brainier I thought let’s do both! I would have about 16 days next August to play with so thought a week in both. The scary thing is if I booked it as separate then any problems or delays I would have to sort onward travel. Unless I did a few days California then Hawaii then bk to California it’s a bit messy though! I would prefer to do as you travel on a through ticket in one day then return bk to say San Diego/SFO the week after or vice versa. Do you find United competitive the one time I flew with them I found the great. We would prob need to go from Manchester. What sort of price is ‘reasonable’? Do you always do through fares? Is there only one airport you fly into? You may regret helping with all my questions I’m just trying to get ideas so in Sept when prices come out I will be ready Any advice on areas would be great. Is a week about right(less/more). TIA
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18 Mar 18, 02:58 AM |
#14
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Imagineer
Join Date: May 17
Location: Midlands UK
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I travel a lot - have to get 50,000 miles/year to get Gold status so I force myself to take lots of holidays ... it's a chore ;-)
You are more than half way to Hawaii in California so it's a good argument - I've done 2 weeks in California and 2 weeks in Hawaii (then lots more!) I've done a return on the in/out of UK, then done internal flights separately as one-ways or returns. I've done a multi-city trip - where you go A to B to C to D. If you go to Hawaii but are only doing Honolulu, you can cover the basics in maybe 4 days - you really should do more islands (and you can do day tours flying to the other islands, but time is restricted) - see grayline.com for an idea of the types of day hops you can do. In Honolulu only you are looking at Pearl Harbour and city; Grand Circle Tour; Polynesian Center; Waikiki Beach (& if you are a Disney nut, a drive over to take a look at -and shop at- Aulani). You can do all these on an organised tour or drive yourself it's not a big island. San Diego needs 4/5 days - Zoo, Safari Park, Air & Space Museum, Old Town, Air Craft Carrier, Hotel Coronado - beautiful place - could easily do a week here San Francisco - 4 days? - Alcatraz, City Tour, (we did a private 3 hour tour from the airport on a layover the other week) but a day wandering the city, Union Square shopping, Napa Valley, Sequoias, baseball game, etc etc...easily do a week If you do SF this time, then do SD next time. If doing United then San Francisco is a great route because as I said before you can do London-San Francisco-Honolulu in a single day - have your time in Honolulu, then return through San Francisco - but for a longer layover you'd need a multicity search. SF is a United Hub so will be easy to layover there. You would search for LHR - HNL, HNL - SFO, SFO - LHR as a multi city. Going from Manchester you can't get direct to San Francisco - with United you'd mostly likely be looking at: MAN-EWR (Newark)-next day HNL (Honolulu direct) or afternoon to LAX or SFO (Los Angeles or San Francisco) then a later flight, possibly next day into HNL If you have to change anyway at Newark to get back to Manchester then if you fly out via San Francisco maybe that would be the time to catch up on your sleep and have a few days...then continue on to Honolulu, but return via San Diego or a different route and back to Newark, then Manchester. It depends on your route and plans for the trip. United are as competitive as any - we would rather pay a little more to fly with them as we get to keep our gold status as well as our TSA Pre-check, but pretty sure Virgin flies to SF too. Several others will too. We have preferred them to any others - seat back TVs, laptop power, beer on board, and occasional upgrades to business class - use of the Club on international itineraries. In November I found a flight to San Francisco on United for £427 but this went up to £600 by the time I came to book it. Sometimes the internal single flights can be much cheaper (so just book start/end flights as return) but other times the hopping around can be lower in price (though they now don't offer the very cheap single fares as part of a multi-city route). I've done Hawaii return for £800, without layovers, but we are tending to leave it later because of work. If you can buy at 11 months out - when scheduled airfares on sale - then you might get in the £500s, depends on the time of year - if summer the airfare would be more expensive than winter, but probably cheaper than getting to Orlando in August owing to the lower popularity. You will get cheaper with the european airlines probably but it annoys me you go the wrong way (UK - France/Germany) BEFORE going to the US. I figure if you start by getting to the US, if there's then a problem and planes are grounded you could rent a car or catch a bus/train - can't do that from Europe (though driving to Honolulu would be tricky too). Too much information this time? I can ramble on about this for hours...
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Di Gorton http://www.villasoutherndunes.com Villa Southern DunesModern Disney-themed villa in the Southern Dunes golf community * Private heated west-facing pool * Sleeps 10* Room for all with sofa, dining & poolside seating for 10 * 2 ensuite doubles (king & queen) * 2 Disney-themed twins * 2 Lounges * 7 Flatscreen TVs * Great games room & amazing dressing up rail Click >here< to see our Dibb Advert Email: info@villasoutherndunes.com Florida State License: DWE6312923 |
18 Mar 18, 01:24 PM |
#15
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Thread Starter
Imagineer
Join Date: Mar 14
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Oo I want to do ur chores lol
Wow that’s great information thank you(and it’s never too much). You sound like me I can ramble on about holidays too so we are very like minded. I have had a little play looking at flights and will dedicate some time to get my bearings on costs ect so will know theres a bargain. It looks like it’s cheaper doing a return to SFO/LAX and doing internal flights separately (I’ve just read that Southwest will be operating flights at the end of the yr so there may be bargains there - you never know!). I’m confident booking whichever way the only thing that makes me nervy is say we were in Honolulu and something happened(like strike ect) and we couldn’t get bk in time to get our return flight to Man(last time we did multi city it was on a through fare) I’m not sure whether insurance pays out if we had to pay for more flights as say the Honolulu part are sep flights. Prob need to spk to insurance. When you said not to just go to Honolulu as paradise is not far what does that mean? A bit nearer the time perhaps (if you don’t mind) I could contact you for advice. Thank you
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Going back to the happy place |
11 Jun 18, 06:30 PM |
#16
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Getting Excited
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hi just reading this thread with interest. we have a return flight to vegas leaving 27th Aug and returning 15 Sept. the plan is to stay in Vegas for about 4 days then fly to hawaii and return to vegas for the last 3to 4 days at the end. what do u recommend for flights. we were looking at vegas hawaii or vegas -la then hawaii or something else. my brain is hurting trying to sort it out! we did Maui + Oahu bout 20yrs ago. any advice would be gratefully accepted🤣
many thanks |
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