The American Pye Coast to Coast Adventure – Aug 2015

[SarahJayne]

As you’ve probably guessed from the title we are visiting the east and west coast so I’ll be posting this pre-trippy on the West Coast and General Trip planning boards. For those of you who are only interested in one or the other, please feel free to skip the bits you don’t want to hear about!

Intros!

2015 marks the year that my wonderful DH Adam turns 40 and he and I celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary so we knew we wanted to celebrate big. Not with a party but with a really great holiday.

We both love America and spent almost 3 weeks hitting San Francisco, Las Vegas, LA and Hawaii on our honeymoon. We’ve both been to NYC (Adam has been loads of times without me for work too) and we’ve been to Florida twice with the kids, once in 2011 and then again in 2013 (you can read the complete trip report from that holiday here).



So there was no question that we would be heading anywhere else other than the USA.
The kids have always wanted to go to New York, because ‘that’s where Daddy holidays on his own' and I really wanted to go back to California after loving it so much when we went on our honeymoon. So New York was decided and if we were going over to the west coast it would just be rude not to go to Disneyland plus we all really want to see Walt’s original Disney.

But a few nights in NYC and a few in Disneyland California wasn’t enough to fill two weeks and I read years ago that the best city in America to visit with kids is San Diego. It has all the perks of a city break, as well as the fabulous beaches. Not to mention the Zoo, Seaworld and Legoland. We did a bit more research and realised that it’s only a 1.5-2hr drive from Anaheim and decided that we really liked the look of it so San Diego was thrown in the mix too.

I know a lot of people that do the west coast head to loads of places for a couple of nights but we really didn’t want to pack too much in and so decided on the following:

4 nights NYC

3 nights Disneyland

7 nights San Diego

The plan was born before we’d even left Orlando in 2013 (see the Highs, Lows and Future plans of the last trip report) and once we’d got back from DLP last year the planning really got going! But before all that let’s introduce the Pyes…

The Cast

Me! Sarah, 34 when we travel



Planner of all things, list writer and most organised I love holidays - they are literally what I work for (I’m lucky enough to work part-time and the money I do earn we save in our special holiday pot

I’m a Communications and PR Officer for a social housing organisation and I really enjoy my job but the 18 hours I do a week is more than enough because the rest of the time I look after my fabulous family!
I also love dancing – I did ballet, tap and jazz from when I was little until I was 18 and still take classes now. I’m also a big reader and have a book on the go at all times and massive US tv show fan (especially Castle!) Obviously I love all things American and would love to live there just for a while one day. And Disney does, and always will, hold a very special place in my heart.

I am most looking forward to seeing NYC through the kids eyes, experiencing the magic of the original Disneyland and exploring San Diego (I know that’s all really vague but it’s impossible to pick just one or two specific things!)

DH Adam, 39 (almost 40 when we travel!)

(Couldn't find a good pic of him on his own - he hates them!)


Love of my life and the best man I know. He’s an IT consultant and works super hard to give us all the fantastic life we have. He’s pretty shy and quiet and it would be his worst nightmare to have a surprise party for his 40th, hence the holiday. He’s a big sci-fi fan/fantasy fan and loves Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, he’s also our go-to techy as the geek in our family. Most importantly he’s the best husband and father ever

He’s most looking forward to trying the couple of ‘Diners, Drive-in’s and Dives’ that we’ve picked out for this trip and all of the different rides in Disneyland that they don’t have in Orlando.

DS Jack, 9 when we travel



My darling boy is just like his Dad, shy and quiet but full of energy. He is just the loveliest boy, always polite, chilled out and calm and easy to get along with. He’s really into sport, any sport, he’ll even watch the dullest sport ever (darts!) on tv! He plays badminton for a local club, loves taekwondo and is a really good swimmer. He’s also really into anything historical so loves going to new places and finding out all about them.

He’s most looking forward to visiting the Statue of Liberty, the San Diego Zoo and going on a third Space Mountain and Star Tours

DD Anna, 6



Our beautiful girl is fierce, strong willed and stubborn with just the kindest heart. She has a wicked temper but also the gentlest soul and is a complete contradiction in the best possible way! She can be a bit of a tomboy one minute but be dancing around in a tutu the next and really keeps us on our toes. She loves to dance too and takes classes in ballet, tap, jazz, musical theatre and freestyle every week and since we saw Matilda in London last year she wants to star in a West End show.

She’s most looking forward to watching Aladdin on Broadway, seeing the sunset in San Diego and going on Space Mountain.

The plans…

So we knew where we wanted to go over 2 years ago but once we got back from DLP last May we really started planning how we were going to get there and where we were going to stay.

Flights

After lots of research and lots of dummy bookings back in 2013 by the time we got to the 11 month mark in Sept 2014 we were Skyscanning for all it was worth and each time, no matter which date we switched to in Aug, Thomas Cook were coming out the cheapest.
As most of you will know their new charter route from Manchester to JFK starts in May this year on newly refurbished planes. So on Adam’s 39th birthday back in September we both had the day off so thought we’d pop into our local store to see if they could get it any cheaper than I was getting online, it was coming out at the same price so for £2,212 we booked return flights from MAN – JFK on Thursday 20th August returning on Thursday 3rd September.



After 4 days in NYC we'll be flying to LA with Virgin America. After lots of pricing up the year before and watching the flight prices go up and down on Skyscanner for a couple of months Virgin America were coming out the cheapest so we booked a return flights JFK - LAX with them.

Accommodation

I’d also been checking out the NYC hotels available through Thomas Cook as sometimes you can get it cheaper if you book flights and a hotel with them. It wasn’t cheaper but they did have money off the Lowes Regency Hotel on Park Avenue which brought it down to only slightly above our budget.
loewshotels/regency-hotel/default


I really wanted a nice hotel in New York that was in a fairly quiet area (as quite as you can get in NYC obviously!) and this ticked all boxes. It’s newly refurbished on a relatively quiet street but still close enough to everything and we booked it online about 4 hours after we booked the flights.

We’d originally planned on staying on site at Disneyland but when I realised how close the off-site good neighbour hotels were and how much cheaper they were it was a no-brainer! We’d originally looked at the Howard Johnson because it looked very child-friendly and had a great water park but given that we wouldn’t actually be spending much time at the hotel (we’ll be squeezing every last drop of Disney magic out of the 3.5 days we’re there believe me!) it seemed pointless spending the extra for the waterpark that we wouldn’t use! Plus we won’t have a car at this point and so I wanted a hotel as close to the gates as possible and that’s exactly what we have booked.
camelotinn-anaheim/
The Camelot Inn and Suites is literally across the street, has a lovely roof top pool to view the fireworks from and was super cheap. It has excellent reviews on trip advisor too so I’m really pleased with the bargain it was.



Next up was San Diego. We always prefer to self-cater when we go away and when visiting Florida we stayed in a 2 bed condo in 2011 and a 4 bed villa in 2013. We did consider an AirBnB apartment in New York but didn’t want to take the risk and a hotel room in Disneyland is fine because I’ll be spending more time in the parks than I will anywhere else but for the last week of our hols in San Diego we knew that we will have had our fill of spending nights in 1 room altogether and that we definitely wanted to self-cater. I became a regular on the west coast Dibb boards and thanks to all of the wise Dibbers and the lovely San Diego resident Amy we decided that we would like to stay around the La Jolla area of the city.
Again it ticked all of the boxes, a bit quieter than the rest of the city but also one of the most expensive so our challenge was to find somewhere lovely that didn’t blow the budget! After lots of research and again more advice from Amy we found a fab townhouse in the heart of La Jolla through vrbo.com http://www.vrbo.com/388782#



It’s not huge but we get our own rooms the bathrooms are recently renovated and you can walk to the beach and the lovely La Jolla town which is exactly what we wanted. It’s also less than 30min drive from all of the San Diego attractions we want to visit.

Activities

Between us there was obviously a huge list of places we wanted to visit and things we wanted to see in each place so here’s the big list of plans…

NEW YORK CITY


Statue of Liberty (booked pedestal access as none of us faced the crown access climb!)
911 memorial and museum (close to mine and Adam’s hearts and important for us to share with the kids)
One World Trade Centre (the new observatory opens next month and after being at the top of the old twin towers the Sept before 9/11 we can’t wait to be a part of how they’ve rebuilt the Manhattan skyline)
Empire State Building
Times Square and Juniors for cheesecake!
Central Park
FAO Schwartz
Bus Tour
Ellen’s Stardust Diner
Aladdin (tickets all booked! Anna and I are particularly excited about this one! )

DISNEYLAND CALIFORNIA


PCH Grill Character Breakfast
Disneyland Park (plus special 60th Anniversary fireworks and parade!)
California Adventure (with World of Colour – cannot wait to see this!)
Carnation Cafe
Downtown Disney
Ralph Brenann’s Jazz Kitchen
Cheesecake Factory
IHOP (because this has to be done at some point!)

SAN DIEGO

The beaches!
San Diego Zoo
Old Town and trolley tour
Seaworld
Mission Bay and beach area
Crest Café (from ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and it does Crème Brule French Toast for breakfast! )
We’ve left quite a bit uplanned for San Diego too because I just want to see where the city takes me and explore what we like the look of when we get there )

Other bits and pieces

We’ve booked the Premier Inn North again at Manchester for the night before – anything to get the holiday started a day earlier I say! Plus our New York flight is at 9:45am and even though we’re only 45mins away from the airport I hate the thought of having to get there the day of my flight. An airport hotel the night before makes for a much more relaxing start I think. Plus it was a bargain £38 in the January sale for a family room!

Speaking of bargains…a few weeks ago my friend Claire (Erial on here) mentioned to me about checking her Thomas Cook upgrade prices online (she’s flying to Orlando with them in Oct) and asked if I’d checked mine. I hadn’t but she said that a few people on the Dibb had gotten upgrades to Premium Economy for a really good price. I logged on when I got home for a quick look and found that going out to NYC was £79.50 each and coming back was £69.50 each. A pretty good price but when you total it all up for 4 of us we decided that we’d rather spend the money on the holiday rather than just an upgrade but I thought I’d keep checking just incase they changed.

Fast forward to 2 weeks later and one Saturday night after we’d vegged infront of a DVD for a couple of hours I grabbed my ipad and logged onto the flights to see if the prices had changed and low and behold our return flight had and was showing as £8.50 EACH! Yes, you read that right £8.50 each! I showed Adam in a mass state of hysteria and shock and he yelled ‘CLICK IT! DO IT! ’
So I clicked through, half expecting it to come up with the original amount of £69.50 but no, it let us re-book our seats (row 5&6 PE if you’re interested ) and took us through to payment and then confirmed that for our return journey from JFK to MAN we would be in Premium Economy! I couldn’t have been more excited! Extra leg room, better food, full IFE, complementary drinks, priority boarding and bag collection and wait for it Dibbers…46KG of luggage EACH!
Me and the kids have only ever flown economy before (Adam flies Business Class with BA when he goes for work!) so we are very excited about sitting in the posh seats, plus it will give me something to look forward to at the end of our holiday and make that horrible flight home a bit more bearable

We’ve also booked parking at the airport and fast track security because we hate waiting in that queue (there always seems to be one at Manchester no matter what time or day you fly!)

We still need to book the car service from JFK to Manhattan and reserve seats on the Disney Express from LAX to Anaheim. Oh and we are doing the ESTA’s this weekend now that the kids passports have been renewed.

So there we are, loads done but still plenty to do and as we head into spring and hit 100 days the excitement is really building now.
But I have to keep reminding myself that there is lots to get through between now and when we go! The kids are really busy at school. Jack has a badminton tournament in May and we’re going to Centerparcs with my Mum and Dad at half term. Anna is in her performing arts show for 5 performances at our local theatre for a week in June and I will be a backstage chaperone. It’s also Jack’s birthday and my birthday in June. Jack and I have tickets for Court 2 at Wimbledon on the 30th June and Adam and I are going to see Idina Menzel in concert in Manchester. Plus all the extra school stuff that happens during the summer term and I will be really busy at work because I’m having 3.5 weeks off in August!

Wow! Lots to look forward to and loads still to plan.

If you’re still with me at this point – thanks for reading and I hope you’ve enjoyed it I’ll be updating as and when we book more and plan more so until then…

Much love. Sarah xx

[SuzyM]

Wow - this all sounds amazing. Looking forward to the trip report!

We're there the same time as you although I think we decided we don't overlap at all - we are doing San Francisco, Yosemite, LA, San Diego (also staying in La Jolla) and finishing in Anaheim (also staying at the Camelot Inn and Suites). So excited.

We actually were going to do New York before going across to LA but on reading all the info here - we decided to do San Francisco and Yosemite instead (as we have never been to either of those places before) and save New York for another time.

Anyway you trip looks amazing - looking forward to hearing more

Suzy

[SarahJayne]

Originally Posted by SuzyM

Wow - this all sounds amazing. Looking forward to the trip report!

We're there the same time as you although I think we decided we don't overlap at all - we are doing San Francisco, Yosemite, LA, San Diego (also staying in La Jolla) and finishing in Anaheim (also staying at the Camelot Inn and Suites). So excited.

We actually were going to do New York before going across to LA but on reading all the info here - we decided to do San Francisco and Yosemite instead (as we have never been to either of those places before) and save New York for another time.

Anyway you trip looks amazing - looking forward to hearing more

Suzy

See more...

Yes! I can remember chatting about the Camelot Inn. I think it was from your post that we booked so thanks for that

You'll have a wonderful time in Sa Francisco, we loved it there. And Yosemite looks amazing. It's on our list for next time

[SuzyM]

Originally Posted by Floopy

Yes! I can remember chatting about the Camelot Inn. I think it was from your post that we booked so thanks for that

You'll have a wonderful time in Sa Francisco, we loved it there. And Yosemite looks amazing. It's on our list for next time

See more...

ooh I hope the Camelot Inn lives up to expectations then!

Yes can't wait for our trip. I love the idea of mixing up stuff we haven't done before, with a Disney fix too!

Have a great time!

[Erial]

It all sounds amazing! I'd love to take the kids to Disneyland to see where it all started...maybe one day!

I'm still gutted that I can't get a cheap upgrade to PE but so glad you managed to make the most of my 'top tip' instead!

Looking forward to reading more.
Claire
X

[SarahJayne]

Originally Posted by SuzyM

ooh I hope the Camelot Inn lives up to expectations then!

Yes can't wait for our trip. I love the idea of mixing up stuff we haven't done before, with a Disney fix too!

Have a great time!

See more...

I'm sure it will - either way, we're across the street from Disneyland so who cares right?

I'm really enjoying planning loads of stuff we haven't done before too. It's great to have new adventures

Originally Posted by Erial

It all sounds amazing! I'd love to take the kids to Disneyland to see where it all started...maybe one day!

I'm still gutted that I can't get a cheap upgrade to PE but so glad you managed to make the most of my 'top tip' instead!

Looking forward to reading more.
Claire
X

See more...

Never say never, I bet you make it to California one day

And yes, so glad you mentioned the upgrade to me I will be eternally grateful! Our outbound prices have gone up to £150 each now though so no chance of a two-way PE bargain

[Aims]

Wow, looks like a fun trip! I'm looking forward to following your trip report and hearing all about it, Sarah. The townhouse in La Jolla looks wonderful- and what a fabulous location! You're going to love staying in that area.

[SarahJayne]

Originally Posted by Aims

Wow, looks like a fun trip! I'm looking forward to following your trip report and hearing all about it, Sarah. The townhouse in La Jolla looks wonderful- and what a fabulous location! You're going to love staying in that area.

See more...

I know, it looks beautiful doesn't it? I really can't wait to stay in La Jolla, keep hearing the best things about the place. And I'm so glad we've decided to stay the whole week in San Diego. I really want to explore and have the chance to enjoy it all

[smedley]

Lovely pre-trip sounds like a fab holiday, looking forward to reading about it afterwards

[sandshal]

Ha, you've started! All sounds fabulous. Don't bother booking a transfer from JFK to Manhatten, a taxis the best way to go just book something with Dial 7 for the return journey leaving yourself plenty of time.

Two weeks until I'm off to Houston

Sharon xxx