STA Travel Part 2

Hey all,

So today I returned back to STA travel on campus to pay the deposit for Jen and mine’s flight. Easy said, easy done. Then we discussed about a few things: accommodation, domestic flights within America, travel insurance, transfers from airport to accommodation… It was a very info heavy half an hour.

Accommodation

We discussed accommodation, looked at heaps (there are so many hotels in just the theme park area, it’s insane) and looked at the ones Jen and I have been looking at. We ended up coming back to the three we have been debating about: Quality Inn & Suites in Kissimmee, Doubletree by Hilton Hotels in front of Universal gates and Comfort Suites Maingate East. Pretty much he can’t get them that much cheaper, like $2 or so cheaper since they’re already ‘bargain’ prices as he put it. He said he’s stayed at Quality Inn & Suites when he was over there and was impressed since he was expecting a ‘typical $60 hotel’ but he said it felt like he was paying $100. So I guess that’s good haha. He’s left the choice up to us and when we decide on our top two (since some hotels over there require a 21+ person) to let him know and he’ll see what he can do with prices.

Flights (LA-->Orlando)

Domestic flights within America STA recommended Delta, which is good seeing as that’s the direction Jen and I were looking in. They’d get the flights for about the same price which is $220, however we’d have to pay them upfront due to it being a domestic flight within the US. Not that it really matters, if we were to book it ourselves we’d have to pay it up front anyway. At least with STA travel we can get seats together and not have to spend a trip next to someone who could potentially be annoying (I once had a guy spill his beer all over me on a 22hr plane flight. Was not the highlight of my trip… ).

Travel Insurance

This was probably the most info heavy conversation.

We compared Cover More (he said that it's one of the most reliable once out there) and STA travel's Cover More travel insurance. STA travel gave us two options for each insurance cover. The first figures are based on an excess of $250. Cover More was at: $1543 and STA Travel Cover More Insurance is at $2162, the differences being obviously how much the insurer will pay out. Then there's the one with $0 excess to be paid whenever making a claim. CoverMore: $2023 and STA CoverMore: $2455, with the same differences of how much you get back when you make a claim etc. STA said if you think that you might have the possibility of making a few claims over there, to go with the second option ($0 excess) because it'll end up that you may be spending more anyway with all the excess money. But go with the $250 excess if you think it's unlikely that you'll be making claims. So...I’m sort of lost, but that’s where mum comes into it with all her knowledge of insurance stuff, so I’ll see what she thinks I should go with.

Transfers

Since Jen and I liked the idea of the Disney hotels coming and picking you up from the airport (and taking your suitcases) I asked about what (if any) transfers were available and how much they would be. There’s companies that do transfers and do the whole standing near the arrivals holding up your name (how cool) and take you on over to your hotel. The transfer costs $30 initially, then like $2 more with each zone you enter. It’s looking to be about $32 for the both of us since the hotels fall in about zone 2. I got some figure from the internet about how much a taxi fare is over there, apparently it was a bit outdated... It’s cost around $30+ for the taxi fare from the airport to the hotels. So it works out to be the same. The only real difference is there’s less hassle if we get a transfer and don’t have to spend time with other arrivals trying to grab a taxi.

As you can see I got a fair bit of information today which was good. I also paid my plane flight tickets to LA today after making the deposit. A chunk out of my account, not it looks a bit pathetic, but at least now I don’t have to worry about paying for flights!

Until next time!~

Hotels, Travel Agent and Flights

      Hi all,

So I’m finding it kind of impossible to study at the moment. All I want to do is search for hotels, Google maps the area I’ll be living in, search hotels again, check out Air New Zealand’s features again then probably back to looking at hotels again. And somewhere in there I like to look at the Walmart site as well.

Anyway, we decided we’re going with Air New Zealand. You can’t turn down a price like that! We’d also catch a 22:50 flight with Delta from LAX to Orlando MCO Airport on the 4^th, which would then have us arrive on the 5^th at around 6:30/7am. A good time cos it will give us the whole day to do either Walmart (yes…a day for Walmart, tourists much?) or Universal – hello Harry Potter World! I’m going into STA travel after my Monday exam to put down the deposit for both Jen and I. Good thing is I have over $3000 already saved up, so I can pretty much pay off my flights straight away, which I think I’ll do in case the price changes and so it’s out of the way.

      Hotels~

Looking at hotels is such a great way to use my procrastination time. Much prefer doing that than studying, of course I’ll regret it later, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take. There’s one we both really like the look of. It’s about $100 per night for 2 Queen Beds and it has great reviews – this is Doubletree by Hilton Hotels I’m talking about. Right across from Universal as well. Our problem with the hotels is what will get us to Vista Way quicker, cos I believe that’s where everyone checks in, or so I have heard. Other hotels near Disney are Quality Inn & Suites Kissimmee and Comfort Suites Maingate East, both of which have great reviews also. And a bonus: free breaky! Haha. Oh and free shuttles to Universal and WDW parks, which is good.

Quality Inn & Suites in Kissimmee is the cheapest out of the three at about $60 a night for 2 Queens. Comfort Suites Maingate East is about $90 a night for 2 doubles, but they have a ‘deluxe’ hot and cold breakfast rather than a continental… that could be good. I guess you’re just paying the extra for the food, maybe, because it seems fairly similar to Quality Inn & Suites.

      Travel Agent

So, as I have said, I’ll be hitting up the travel agent to pay the deposits and I’ll also ask about the LAX-MCO flight with Delta and see if it’s possible to book that through them and maybe ask them about Universal and hotels. I’m sure they have a better idea than I do!

Before I leave, just gonna shout out and say a Happy Birthday to my friend Emily! She’s 20 today and I’ve known her for about 19 years of those, impressive, yes?

Until next time!

Flights

Flights have been more troublesome than ever, but I think we've found our winner. Jen went to Flight Centre yesterday to get a quote, but we decided that we’d rather fly V Australian rather than Air Pacific as we’d know that they’re a good airline. The cheapest direct flight from Sydney to LA that we could find online was $2984 (excluding the flight from Bris to Syd and the flight from LA to Orlando). We were both happy with this, but since I had an exam at Uni today I thought there would be no harm in getting another quote from STA travel on the University campus. They’re a great travel agent, I’ve gone to the before for my trip to London and Paris, so if they had reasonable priced tickets I’d be comfortable booking it through them.

I got a quote through STA Travel from the airline Air New Zealand for $4398.46 (2 Passengers, $2196.73 ea) and that was for a return ticket that can be booked 18 months in advance. STA travel also said that there is a $85 fee for changing the return date, however if the change was made 3+ months in advance to departure from LA, STA travel would be able to do it for free, which I don’t think we’d be able to find anywhere else! Initially I wanted just a direct flight to LA; this one does have a stopover in New Zealand. It’s for 4hrs, which does seem long, but from what I found out when I went to London & Paris, most of that time is taken up by getting out of the plane, finding your way back to the gate in which you go through a security check, again, and then wait for everyone to check-in, then you board. Sounds like a quick process, no? My stopover in London from Paris was 3hrs and it went by quick, so that’s good.

This would be our itinerary if we decide to go with STA Travel and Air New Zealand:

4^th January 2012

Depart Brisbane at 11:15

Arrive in Auckland at 17:25

Depart Auckland at 22:45

Arrive in LA at 14:00

So if we decide to fly with Air New Zealand we make a $50ea deposit to book the flights, and then have about 3 months I think it was to pay off the flights. I now realise I forgot to ask what their prices that they could find for accommodation were and whether they have Universal packages or something, but I can always ask that on Monday when I have my next exam…

A Dream Come True

I'm not going to lie - I've wanted to work at a Disney theme park for years. Probably when I started high school around 8/9th grade I became a little obsessed with Disney theme parks. I'd look up pictures of the parks, study their maps and of course look at pictures of the characters. Yes, I wanted to be a Disney Princess at Disneyland, that's as far as my dreams got in high school and all I talked about in Art class. I'm sure my small class can remember me talking about it, no doubt got sick of it, but it wasn't like I cared.

Towards the end of high school I kind of realised that working at a Disney theme park full stop was not going to happen, let alone being a Disneyland princess (I doubt they'd want an Australian speaking Belle or something). So when school ended I had no idea what to do with my life. Literally a few days before we had to submit our final preferences for Universities I sat down at a friend’s house and searched through pages and pages of numerous degrees wondering what I was going to do. I always wanted to work on films, partly thanks to dad who's in the industry, but I have to have an artistic talent, so that was a dead end. Anyway, frustrated I decided on Event Management. It sounded interesting enough and it'd keep me busy for the next 3 years. Plus the fact I'd spoken to a few ladies working on a TV show whilst I was on work experience and they said they had to take a Bachelor of Business in Event Management to get where they were now.

Fast-forward to my second semester, second year at Uni and I receive an email from the department who send out job opportunities for our industry. Usually I ignore these, but one caught my eye: Disney International Program. Still being the obsessed Disney fan that I still was/am I opened the email. And it said that there were interviews and a presentation down at the Gold Coast. So when that date came I dragged along a friend from work and we went to the presentation - because I honestly had no idea what it was about, therefore did not go for the interview afterwards. That was September 2010. Months past and I kept thinking about the presentation, about how great the opportunity was and that I was stupid for not going for an interview. Why? Because, one of the possible jobs that you could potentially have was: Character Performer. Yes, I know it didn’t mean Princesses/Face Characters, but I’d be ecstatic to be a Head/Fur Character – it’s a Disney character, I wouldn’t be upset.

January this year I had made my decision. I was going to apply. I emailed the Uni asking if Disney would be coming back this year, but they had no idea as of yet. So I went online to the Disney International Program website and applied. I spoke to STB for a while and filled out all the required forms and decided to wait for the interview process in May instead of doing a Skype interview. The interview came and went, the following weeks dragged. I wanted to see if I was in. The first week of June was my ‘judgement’ day, and I received an acceptance email to be a part of the Walt Disney World International Program. I cried, then tried to calm myself to tell mum, then cried again. I was extremely happy. As I said, it’s been a dream of mine for YEARS.

January 7, 2012 is the day I start. I received the positions of Character Performer and Operations. The two I wanted the most (especially Character Performer!) and I will have auditions for whether I can portray a character well enough for Disney (which will be challenging, but I am up for a challenge!) or not, then what character I will be ‘friends’ with. I think I’ll be disappointed if I get over there and I’m not character material, seeing as it’d be so close in my reach, my only opportunity really, but I know that if that disappointment occurs, I’m sure to forget it quickly. After all I’ll be working at the Happiest Place on Earth :)