Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

mintster

johnnyroper wrote: »

i went in march with virgin flying out of gatwick stopped on i-drive total cost was £2500ish i think for 2 adults and a 2 year old for 14 nights.
i have now booked for september next year stopping in a villa for 14 nights for £600 the villa sleeps 4-6 people.
been looking at flights and so far prices are around £1200-1600 for orlando depending on airline thomas cook,thomson,virgin and ba all checked.
although tampa looks like it might come out cheaper with BA than going to orlando.
in the past i have been impressed by the virgin atlantic service but in march it seemed to have gone downhill slightly especially on the man/lgw based fleet and i have it on good authority the BA 777 service out of LGW is a better all round product.
i booked villa through these
http://www.ownersdirect.co.uk/USA-Florida-Orlando-Kissimmee-2bed.htm

another thing to remember is half term week comes at a cost but from what i have seen the villas booked direct seem to vary less in price over school holidays than tour operators.

Have you been able to check the flights for next year? Didn't think they were released yet?

blue_monkey_2

joewa wrote: »

Hi there

We are trying to decide what the best tickets to buy are? We are going to Disney 6 nights, then a villa the next 6? Looking foir the best deal for 6 day disney tickets

I'll reply

You can get a 14 night Ultimate ticket for the price of 7 and then sell the remainder of the ticket once you have finished with them. Go down the 192 and follow the signs for 'Arabian Nights'. There are some little shops there, find the ticket booth next to Levis and they buy them there.

I got mine direct from the Walt Disney World website as there is 3% quidco and you get some extras with it like priority viewing for fireworks, golf, a boat ride and discount at some shops.

blue_monkey_2

stmidwife wrote: »

I know its ages away but I want to save up! Basically Me, hubby and 2 kids (will be 10 and 6 at date of travel) want to go to orlando in Sept 2011. I have a few questions is someone would be kind enough to reply.

1. Are disney hotels worth looking at or are they vastly overpriced?
2. If Disney is a good option what is the dining plan like?
3. Has anyone been to the Doubletree Resort on I drive and if so is it it any good.
4. Should I buy attraction tickets at time of booking holiday?
5. Where would you recommend visiting?

I think that's all at the moment.

TIA.

In September they do the Free Dining Plan, we are staying in a one bed apartment at Disney's Old Key West (one of the luxury villa resorts) so we can Self Cater, it is near Downtown Disney, and we paid just short of £1000 for the apartment and the middle Disney Dining Plan (1 counter, 1 table meal and one snack per day). This would not even get you a room in the other resorts. Here is what OKW is like:

The Disney site is here: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/ Sign up for Special Offers and start saving now. You can book with £50 each deposit on there too when something comes up.

http://wdtc.disneyinternational.com/Special-Offers.asp

This is Old Key West, they seems to always have offers here and on Sartoga Springs, you will not find these in brochures as they have apartments and not rooms like the hotels in the brochures: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdwi/en_GB/resorts/resortLanding?id=OldKeyWestResortLandingPage_en_GB You will however find all the information regarding them at the back of the Walt Disney World brochure you can get in the travel agents.

If you still want to fly with Virgin then go to the Virgin Holidays website and choose the 'Fly Drive' tab down the side and book your 'holiday' (although it is just the flight) without accomodation. If you do not want the car then omit the car and choose 3rd party as this is free, you'll get charged £30 for the car but the discount far outweighs this. This way you can get still get the VH special offers (we got 3 parks for the price of 2 on Bushe/Seaworld/Aquatica and free shuttles for example, plus free breakfast at the Three Broomsticks in Universal).

Please ask if you want any other info on it. We are going in October and got the flights cheaper with VH then we would booking them with Virgin Atlantic.

Also, get the Virgin brochure for Sept 11 as soon as it comes out because if you book with VH then you'll get the freebies they offer too - this year was Free V Room if booking by 31st January so keep an eye on that too.

The time sure flies, we booked in early Feb for Oct and 4 months has gone since we booked, we are going in 19 weeks time or something, sure makes it seem VERY close!!

johnnyroper

mintster wrote: »

Have you been able to check the flights for next year? Didn't think they were released yet?[/QUOT
can check the charters online with charterflights.co.uk. Or airline website up to sept/oct time I have noticed they are going up in price steadily, bhx-sfb return was £556 per adult 2 weeks ago now over £600 for mid sept 2011.
Cannot do scheduled yet but when I rang virgin to enquire the lady said they work 12 months in advance so no official prices but for mid feb flights will be roughly the same as the mid sept I am after do can be used as a guide price.

blue_monkey_2

johnnyroper wrote: »

mintster wrote: »

Have you been able to check the flights for next year? Didn't think they were released yet?[/QUOT
can check the charters online with charterflights.co.uk. Or airline website up to sept/oct time I have noticed they are going up in price steadily, bhx-sfb return was £556 per adult 2 weeks ago now over £600 for mid sept 2011.
Cannot do scheduled yet but when I rang virgin to enquire the lady said they work 12 months in advance so no official prices but for mid feb flights will be roughly the same as the mid sept I am after do can be used as a guide price.

Yes, you can check prices right up until December 2011 with this little loophole!!

http://www.virginholidays.co.uk/

Click on the 'Fly Drive' option on the left of the calendar and you can book until December 2011. All you have to do is omit the car insurance (choose 3rd party) and then do not upgrade the car. This will give you the price of your flight but you'll also get 10% off - you will get charged £30 for the car though you will see that when the price is broken down.

For us it was cheaper to book the flights, freebies and V-room on Virgin Holidays than it was for just the flight on Virgin Atlantic so it is a pretty good indication of prices of flights.

Ignore the 'only lasts 6 days' banner as they have been offering 10% off since we started looking to book in January!! You can also get 4% cashback if you go via Quidco.

Obviously if you want accomodation and a car then add them on but booking your flights this way means you get a pretty good deal on them.

Plus you can also book tickets if they have them on offer. They are not always shown as being on offer in the brochure or on the site but they are when the option for booking additions to your package comes in on the screen near the end.

johnnyroper

Blue_monkey that is a good idea never thought to try that,will have a look as I get 15% discount as got frequent virgin card plus flying club miles.

stmidwife

blue_monkey wrote: »

In September they do the Free Dining Plan, we are staying in a one bed apartment at Disney's Old Key West (one of the luxury villa resorts) so we can Self Cater, it is near Downtown Disney, and we paid just short of £1000 for the apartment and the middle Disney Dining Plan (1 counter, 1 table meal and one snack per day). This would not even get you a room in the other resorts. Here is what OKW is like:

The Disney site is here: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/ Sign up for Special Offers and start saving now. You can book with £50 each deposit on there too when something comes up.

http://wdtc.disneyinternational.com/Special-Offers.asp

This is Old Key West, they seems to always have offers here and on Sartoga Springs, you will not find these in brochures as they have apartments and not rooms like the hotels in the brochures: http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdwi/en_GB/resorts/resortLanding?id=OldKeyWestResortLandingPage_en_GB You will however find all the information regarding them at the back of the Walt Disney World brochure you can get in the travel agents.

If you still want to fly with Virgin then go to the Virgin Holidays website and choose the 'Fly Drive' tab down the side and book your 'holiday' (although it is just the flight) without accomodation. If you do not want the car then omit the car and choose 3rd party as this is free, you'll get charged £30 for the car but the discount far outweighs this. This way you can get still get the VH special offers (we got 3 parks for the price of 2 on Bushe/Seaworld/Aquatica and free shuttles for example, plus free breakfast at the Three Broomsticks in Universal).

Please ask if you want any other info on it. We are going in October and got the flights cheaper with VH then we would booking them with Virgin Atlantic.

Also, get the Virgin brochure for Sept 11 as soon as it comes out because if you book with VH then you'll get the freebies they offer too - this year was Free V Room if booking by 31st January so keep an eye on that too.

The time sure flies, we booked in early Feb for Oct and 4 months has gone since we booked, we are going in 19 weeks time or something, sure makes it seem VERY close!!

Thanks so much for all the info but how did you get the 1 bed apartment as I can't see it on there. I can see the villa but that is over £3000!!! Looking at VH, I can get flights and a 3 park ticket for £2450 - does that seem about right??

blue_monkey_2

stmidwife wrote: »

Thanks so much for all the info but how did you get the 1 bed apartment as I can't see it on there. I can see the villa but that is over £3000!!! Looking at VH, I can get flights and a 3 park ticket for £2450 - does that seem about right??

Probably because the offers for next Sept are not on there yet. That is how much we have saved as it is usually around £3,000 to stay there brochure price. They call them 'villas' but they are apartments within the villas, rather than them being hotel rooms. We paid £956 and got free dining in a 1 bed villa apartment. I have just checked, a 1 bed villa for this year is still £995 for a week in Sept 10.

Basically, if people do not use their Disney Vacation Club apartments they will put them up on the site cheaper - there are some places that you'll never get cheaper such as Beach Club Villas and Animal Kingdom Villas. There seems to be a lot available at Saratoga Springs and OKW but I'd say the offers will not come up until January time as this is when they know how many they have left for the year. This is why you need to sign up for the newsletter to get the best deals.

In regard to the price on Virgin. Yes, this is roughly what we paid, on VA website flights were £630+ each for us (2 ad 2 kids) but you get the extras with the holiday site and of course, the price you have put there includes some park tickets so it is a better deal. Unless of course you wait and chance the prices going down. For us the prices were only going up and up so this is why we decided that it was now or never in trying to get a better deal. In fact I just checked and the prices have gone up even more since we booked, the date we are going they are £2122 per person :eek: and the day after £707. We are flying on the Sunday of half term week - it was half the price of Friday/Saturday.

blue_monkey_2

Also, do not be put off that it is Disney Vacation Club - this is Disney Timeshare, 'regular holidaymakers' can stay there too but it costs a lot, you will not get bombarded with Timeshare stuff but you do get a much better quality of unit when you go to a Timeshare resort (IMO). There are a couple of MSErs that post on here that have points for OKW and go at least once a year so they will verify this for you.

This is the gumf about the resort: http://allears.net/acc/faq_okw.htm

Here are the pictures - watch and fall in Love: http://allears.net/acc/okwss.htm

I've got Boardwalk Villas and Beach Club on my list for next year and we are going to Animal Kingdom Villas this year too.

Where did you want to stay for your 2nd week? I cannot remember.

PS. They have 2 bathrooms in those apartments. 2 bathrooms....... HEAVEN!! And Whirlpool tubs and washer driers. I always end up sitting in the laundry room of a hotel for a few hours so this will be very welcome for me. I don't think i am going to want to leave!!

blue_monkey_2

johnnyroper wrote: »

Blue_monkey that is a good idea never thought to try that,will have a look as I get 15% discount as got frequent virgin card plus flying club miles.

Great stuff, glad that was of use then. 15%, lucky you!! That certainly helps as you'll get 15% off the price of the tickets you buy too, that is an absolute bargain!!