6th August 2016 - Mini Update

[Gill635]

So dear Dibbers, there have been a LOT of updates in this last week.

I don’t know what I have told you, and what I haven’t so please forgive me if I’m repeating myself – I am of a certain age after all!

Park Tickets

Our park hoppers have been booked for Disneyland for a while now. I had a 3 day ticket, whilst mum and dad had 2 day tickets.
After recent discussions around when best to visit Universal (spoiler alert, it will be a day we are in Anaheim, not a day we are in LA as that’s the weekend), I quickly realised that I would not be able to use all 3 days of my ticket.
I spoke to my now very good friend Northern Mary at Attraction Tickets Direct (seriously, I’ve used her for years and she’s the absolute best) who very kindly agreed to downgrade my ticket to a 2 day one instead, saving me £40 in the process. I decided to ask for a price for Universal Hollywood too. We were discussing booking our tickets for Universal this week, but to qualify for a discount when booking direct, you have to purchase your tickets for a specific date. To do this, its $95.99 per ticket, or to have flexibility its $115.99 each. Mary could offer us the anytime tickets for £65 each, provided they’re paid for up front – no brainer really.
The only other things to book now for Anaheim and Hollywood theme parks are the MNSSHP tickets and HHN tickets. I will more than likely do the MNSSHP, especially now I have downgraded my standard ticket.
HHN dates have STILL not been released! Its pretty ridiculous, as we’re obviously trying to plan what days to do what on, and whether we want to actually do a party or not. I suppose park hours could give me a clue here, however LA seem to release everything super duper late compared to Orlando, which is totally not cool!
We still need to decide which (if any) studio tours we are going to do. I will more than likely be doing at least one regardless (you’ve got to while you’re there haven’t you?), but I’ve spent a lot of money this week, and my Dads starting to have palpitations about it so that’ll have to wait.

ESTA / APIS

Apis has been completed for all 3 of us, and Mums gluten free meal has been confirmed.
I came to do our ESTA’s the other day too, and noticed that Mum and Dad’s was still valid until this December, so I have updated there’s and done myself a new one.
Good news – we’re all allowed to board the plane!
There is nothing else to do for the flights now, apart from keep an eye out for changes, and then get up at silly o’clock the day before to check in.
We have not paid for seats together, extra legroom or anything; we’ll just take the chance at check in as we would rather have the money to spend there to be honest. Plus 3 weeks together is already more than enough!

Yosemite
Our single night in Yosemite is turning out to be kind of a thorn in our side.
I’m still looking for a room in the park to make our lives easier, and to maximise our time there. We arrive there from Lake Tahoe, and it’s a pretty big drive of around 4 ½ hours without stops. The following day, we head to Vegas – another mammoth drive of around 6 ½ hours without stops.
We were going to explore the park ourselves in our car, but given all the driving we are already doing, its just not feasible. There is also no way of adding the second night back into the itinerary here.
After looking on the Yosemite website, and taking advice from a West Coast Facebook group I’m in (I believe started by Dibbers, and its brilliant) we decided to book a tour directly with the National Parks Service. Yes, it means leaping from 1 vehicle to the other, but we won’t be driving, we will see all the main points, and it actually then gives us free time.
We booked the 3.00pm – 5.00pm 2 hour guided tour, at a cost of $25 each. We’re hoping for an earlyish sunset to get some fabulous pictures, but if not then its no worries. We will go from here straight to our hotel, which is currently 14 miles away from the south entrance to the park at Oakhurst, and get a good nights sleep in before our big drive the next day.

I think this so far brings us up to speed with the actual holiday.

I need to do some online shopping for our toiletries tonight – something I’m out of the habit of doing as our first night in Orlando always includes a trip to Walmart for such stuff, but being without a car for the first 10 days puts paid to that.
I’ve also just received my Revolut card. I have always been absolutely, completely against currency cards, but the way this one works seems so much better, so I have begun to load some of my spends onto here already – not much so far, but every little helps right ?
Things still to do so far!
• Travel Insurance (just for me as Mum & Dad recently bought a new annual policy)
• Decide on & book studio tour
• Purchase some holiday clothes (I’ve begin trying on my old ones and its not good! A few bits needed here including a proper coat for Seattle)
• Book Halloween party tickets if going
• Book Stalking Seattle tour – I’m tempted to see if this is still available when I’m actually over there, and then book on. As much as I would like to do it, its not essential, and its extra money. My backside is being kicked by the exchange rate, and the fact I need new holiday clothes already at the minute, so I’m a bit loath to spend money that’s not ‘’essential’’ to be honest

There's probably a lot more, but to be honest, I'm that wrapped up in trying to find some new shorts and swimwear that my brain is fogged!

That's it for now, I'm sure I'll be back on with another update soon.

As always, thanks for reading

Gill x

[TinkerBabe]

We have just stayed in Oakhurst and it's a charming little town. We really enjoyed our 2 nights there, and would highly recommend it. It's about 1hr 20mins from Yosemite Village, it's not that far in miles but it's slow winding (and very pretty) roads. We had a fabulous breakfast at Petes diner, and the loveliness of the staff there was so welcoming, I fell in love with the place!
Your plan seems to be coming together nicely. We are halfway through our first west coast trip, and it has been everything I hoped it would be. We are currently in LA for 4 more nights, then we have just Death Valley and Las Vegas left to do before we must head home. It's been wonderful and I'm sure we will come again!