Warren, New Jersey; Newark, NJ; New York City, NY- Multiple questions about travel experiences

[rainbowgirl]

@rainbowgirl, now that I have found your thread, there is one specific experience that I can share - ESTA's for a family of 4 (done last night). VISA WAIVER PROGRAM TO USA (see from post #550). Use the link that Flashware supplied in post #551 (I did). See my post #559. Do your family all as a "Group", it will save having to give your CC details 4 times and you only have one ID number rather than 4. USD$14 per application, charged as one amount. I entered them all by 11:30pm and by the time I had checked this morning (~9.15am) they were all authorised.

Whilst time consuming, it was mostly as a result of us all being dual passport holders and having different addresses in each of the 3 different areas I was completing. You may only have two to complete.

Hopefully it won't be as complex for us. I'll check the thread you mentioned. Thanks for the info. I guess we will have to get the passports first then do the ESTA. Not sure when we will book tickets as we have to talk to both sides of our family first before booking anything. My husbands side of the family have experience in overseas travel and I need to check some logistics issues from my side of the family before we commit to the dates mentioned.

 

[Denali]

I wouldnt delay getting passports/stress about leaving it too late. August isnt too far away.

Why the delay in booking tickets because of family? I ask because group bookings/plans is like herding kittens. Im more "we'll make our own plans and see you there" type of person.

 

[rainbowgirl]

I wouldnt delay getting passports/stress about leaving it too late. August isnt too far away.

Why the delay in booking tickets because of family? I ask because group bookings/plans is like herding kittens. Im more "we'll make our own plans and see you there" type of person.

I see where you are coming from and I agree with you. I'm a book early type of person. The reasons for the delays are complicated. I still have to convince Mr Rainbow it's a good idea for us to go, at the moment he's only agreed to let me research. I can't reveal all the reasons for the delays as they are too private. They involve both sides of my family here and the circumstances of the Bride's family in New Jersey.

 

[Denali]

Ahhh. Yeah, if Mr Rainbow isnt on board then thats a big factor. Its a long way to go and a lot of $$$ for not much time there (plus other factors that are none of my business).

 

[rainbowgirl]

Still haven't managed to convince Mr Rainbow that we should go to the wedding (and New Jersey, LA and New York). We can raise the capital required but Mr Rainbow sees it as another year he'd have to work before retirement.

Mr Rainbow does want to travel and has grand plans for a trip to the United States and Canada that would take us about a month to do. He's not against spending the cash, but he wants to make it worthwhile (experiences versus airfare costs).

I want to go to a family wedding and catch up with a few other friends I might not get to see again.

I'm now looking at seeing how viable an extra couple of days in Los Angeles would be or an extra day at the end exploring New York. We have about a 16 day time window but would prefer only to use 13 or 14 of those to allow preparation time and recovery time at the end before we go back to work and school.

So now I extend the questions to LA.
Universal Studios (in particular Harry Potter experience)
Paramount Studios (do they still have tours)
Disneyland
3 star accommodation in LA in reasonable distance to above 3 attractions
Public transport or taxi fares to these places.
Transit to and from LAX

We've figured out it will be about AUD$10,000 in airfares/passports/insurance etc so we want to make the rest of the trip worth spending half of it on the airfare. Well, Mr Rainbow does. I'm happy with the experiences I already had lined up.

 

[Denali]

Can you go and enjoy and leave hubby and the kids at home? You might enjoy it more and not spend so much $. Save up to to take the kids to Disneyland next trip.

 

[RooFlyer]

In regard to LA:

The only one of those I've been to is Universal Studios, and its fantastic - And I'm talking about for adults . You can get there on the LA Metro (yes, they do have one)... I once went from LAX (shuttle to the metro station) to Universal on the metro, it was slow (an hour) but cheap and easiest way. Much (?all) above ground, so you get to see some of LA as well. At universal again, there is a shuttle to the park entrance. Buy your tickets on-line to avoid much of the queuing.

Be aware that many of the 'rides' at all those attractions have physical height restrictions as in - if you aren't X high, you can't go on. Depending on the height of your young 'uns, that may be a restricting factor for some rides. I think @drron recently took his grandkids to Disneyland, so hopefully he can chime in more about that and Disneyland logistics. @Atleastonce is doing a TR which is covering Disneyland right now.

Heres a site to estimate taxi fares ... but don't forget to add the tip! Again, drron and others will have recent experience at getting around.

 

[drron]

For a lot more info on New Jersey the NJ tourism Bureau will send you a book on New Jersey for free.They do send it seamail so will take a month to arrive.Here is how to get it.
Request or Download Free Travel Guides (Intl.)
If you dont want to wait for the hard copy you can download it.Most US states have a brochure but some now wont send it to an international address.
It will have by area a list of hotels.
Again I personally would rent a car.Picking it up at JFK would be no problem as you skirt to the south of Manhattan and go through Staten Island.It just gives you flexibility.The US apart from Manhattan is really designed for car use.Staying in New Jersey you can easily drive to Philly for the history-Liberty Bell etc,to the atlantic coast or even to Delaware for tax free shopping.As well as get to several Factory outlets.
You can find any outlet in the US using this site so you can see how far they are away.It would for example be an easy drive up to Woodbury Commons for example.
OutletBound.

We did indeed take the grandkids to Disney but Disneyworld in Florida.Trip report with Disney starting at post 153.
Drron's Do Disney.

One day we had a VIP tour arranged for us-a group of 9 with one in a wheelchair-it cost $US900 for 4.5 hours though we got an extra hour.It was so worth it as doing this really means you can spend one day less in the park which saves you the cost of the tour.For your group you would have 1 guide so should be around $US450.The official Disney VIP tours cost $360-$500 an hour.You can enquire here-
Contact
And here is my totally unbiased TA review.There are now 266 TA reviews and 265 are 5 stars.
Disneyland 18th Birthday - Stone VIPS, Orlando Traveller Reviews - TripAdvisor

 

[rainbowgirl]

Can you go and enjoy and leave hubby and the kids at home? You might enjoy it more and not spend so much $. Save up to to take the kids to Disneyland next trip.

We considered this idea but my husband wants to keep the whole family together so it's either going to be all of us or none of us. I was prepared to go on my own or along with my brother's family for some of the trip.

 

[Peter D]

Your questions and plans have generated a flood of very good suggestions. This is AFF at its best.

For planning routes I often use an Australian site called Rome2rio. It will give you alternate routes between any two place in the world however short or long. Planes, trains, buses, taxis, uber, driving and even walking between modes. All shown on a map with cost estimates. As your mouse hovers over an option the map changes accordingly.

I also use google earth when selecting hotels for an aerial view and then zoom into the street views. Also great for seeing what it’s like to walk from train to bus stop, etc

Another thing to beware of is jetlag, everyone has a theory, I just stay up out of doors in the daylight for as long as possible and try to survive until the local bedtime. I find traveling from west to east is worst then east to west. Personally I would keep any immediate driving to an easy short journey.

Breaking the journey with an enjoyable day in the sunshine at Disneyland maybe good..

 

[rainbowgirl]

Thank you for your suggestions. I am working on an itinerary which will hopefully tick some of Mr Rainbow's boxes and make it worthwhile for him to spend the money on airfares in order to see the attractions and the wedding. I have someone working on costings so we can get a feeling for the budget. I have a couple of overall figures in mind but don't know if they are realistic.

My brother appreciates the fact that we are looking into coming to the wedding. He said that he understands if we can't make it but is touched that we are going to all the trouble that we have so far. We are a close family, even if some of us are now thousands of miles apart. We had a gathering of the extended family today and spoke to my nephew and his fiance and their dog via facetime. They were all excited even though it was the middle of the night where they were.

 

[QF WP]

@rainbowgirl, I'm taking my family to LAX in 10 days, transiting (using Disneyland Resort Express Shuttle) to a hotel near Disneyland (Hyatt Place) and doing a 4 days Disney pass; so look out for the TR - don't think it will be fully in real time, as my wife and kids might be unhappy that I am spending too much time doing it and not enough time with them

Also happy to send to you a tome produced by a friend about what to do and how to get around in Disneyland - she's a Disneyholic and goes once or twice a year.

 

[rainbowgirl]

Just out of curiosity, how do I calculate how many QFF points I would earn on flights? One of the flight options I have found for the itinerary is with Qantas with one leg being with Alaska but on a Qantas number. We have a wedding next year in Sydney which we were planning to drive to but wondering now whether we'd have enough points to fly. I'm also wondering whether each person in the family would earn more than 5000 points for the 4 flights. This would allow me to transfer all the points into my account so I could use them for other purposes. If you need the $ figure to do the points calculations, the Qantas quote came in just below $7500 for 4 people. I don't know what charges we would have to pay on top of this. Do you still have to pay for headphones for the in flight entertainment? I used the multi flights calculator on the Qantas website.

 

[rainbowgirl]

@rainbowgirl, I'm taking my family to LAX in 10 days, transiting (using Disneyland Resort Express Shuttle) to a hotel near Disneyland (Hyatt Place) and doing a 4 days Disney pass; so look out for the TR - don't think it will be fully in real time, as my wife and kids might be unhappy that I am spending too much time doing it and not enough time with them

Also happy to send to you a tome produced by a friend about what to do and how to get around in Disneyland - she's a Disneyholic and goes once or twice a year.

I'd love to spend 4 days in Disneyland but with time restraints, the most we could do is 2 days.

A tome on Disneyland? Wow. Sounds very interesting.

 

[Ausbt]

It's a shame you con't do the solo thing or with a bestie. Having spent a day at Universal solo myself last year, I can highly recommend the somewhat indulgent 'Front of Line' pass. I think I managed 25 rides/attractions in one day with zero waiting time. Took the Harry Potter ride twice, was very enjoyable.

 

[v1nce007]

Just out of curiosity, how do I calculate how many QFF points I would earn on flights? One of the flight options I have found for the itinerary is with Qantas with one leg being with Alaska but on a Qantas number. We have a wedding next year in Sydney which we were planning to drive to but wondering now whether we'd have enough points to fly. I'm also wondering whether each person in the family would earn more than 5000 points for the 4 flights. This would allow me to transfer all the points into my account so I could use them for other purposes. If you need the $ figure to do the points calculations, the Qantas quote came in just below $7500 for 4 people. I don't know what charges we would have to pay on top of this. Do you still have to pay for headphones for the in flight entertainment? I used the multi flights calculator on the Qantas website.

Qantas points-earn calculator here:
Frequent Flyer - Flying Qantas & Partner Airlines - Points Calculators - Earning Points

 

[rainbowgirl]

Qantas points-earn calculator here:
Frequent Flyer - Flying Qantas & Partner Airlines - Points Calculators - Earning Points

Oh Wow, thank you for that.

I put in the flight details from yesterdays estimates and came up with 24800 QFF points and 280 Status Credits. I don't know whether the LAX to Newark EWR flight on Alaska Airlines would earn the same amount as a Qantas flight.

One of the return options from LAX to MEL on the Qantas multi flight options gave us a route which took us via SYD. It was about $120 cheaper to go via SYD. That would have been 26000 QFF points and 300 status credits. I see what you all mean about status runs and why go direct when you can connect philosophy.

Of course, for a family of 4, we will be much better off going direct to Melbourne given the logistics of the long flights home and the problems with changing terminals at Sydney. If I was on my own I'd probably do the Sydney run for the fun of it.

I was looking at my QFF account last night. I thought I saw something about 300 Status credits being the amount I needed to get to Silver. If we were desperate for Status we'd probably do the Sydney run.

I believe that the points would give us enough to pay for our flights to and from Sydney next year if we wanted to fly but I don't know about availability around the time we want. I think we'll actually drive to Sydney as it will be useful to have a car and I don't want to hire one. We might be able to use the points for accommodation for one or two nights. We are hoping to stay with friends in Sydney but we might stay at a hotel for one night during the trip.

 

[rainbowgirl]

Okay, I just figured out how to change the LAX EWR flight to Alaska Airlines and saw the amended totals. We get less QFF points and no status credits according to the calculator. 23,000 points and 230 status credits. The Alaska flight has a QF designation so not sure how this one gets calculated but at least I now have an estimate.

 

[QF WP]

Or if you wanted to use Virgin and its partner Delta, then you could use family pooling and linking a child to each of you and Mr rainbowgirl, both of you could have between 90 to 95% towards Gold status, or link all of you to either you or Mr Rainbowgirl to almost achieve Platinum status... you'd need to do a small status run (or include SYD as you were looking to do with Qantas)

There are negatives with Virgin - no lifetime status and I'm not sure about a soft landing in status tiers...(never had to worry about it)

 

[Denali]

Did you take into account the Fare rules/type on the points earn?