Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

ElJayco

Thanks for all the advice so far.

I take on board about the price being cheaper in October but the problem is I cannot take the children out of school.

If I do the school will take legal proceedings to get us fined or worse, they are very very strict on that.

Sorry meant to say that the £3500 quote was for flights and villa for 2 weeks and the food was £1500 not $1500 for 2 weeks.

I am just terrified that if I try and do it all seperatly I end up making a mistake, forgetting something and ruining the holiday.

That said I am not rich and if it really can save £1000's going DIY then I should probably seriously consider it.

Hmmm, must sort out my sig

poet123

It is not hard to diy. First get your flights sorted, ( as far in advance as you can) then your villa (make sure you dont pick one miles from the parks which means you get stuck in traffic) There is a shortcut near a lot of the villa developements which saves time. Look in the Sunset lakes, Emerald island areas andyou will be fine. There is a villa map on the Dibb/diss tohelp you avoid being too far out.

Then tickets, decide in advance where you want to go, if you stay onsite at Universal for one night you get front of line access as the rooms for 5 are not that expensive it is sometimes worth it especially in August. We stayed 2 weeks in a villa and 2 nights at Universal, and it worked very well. Next car hire lots of deals out there.

Visit the DIBB boards and the DISS they have everythin you need to know about breakfasts with disney characters, boats to see Wishes (firewrok display) dining options that guarantee you a front row seat for Fantasia etc etc. Plan ahead and read all the info. You will save a forune and get the inside info from Disney veterans who know all there is to know, it is vocation for some on the US site, they know everything about Disney, and love to share.

I can persoanlly reccommend that villa in Sunset Lakes, and it is owned by an English chap who is great to deal with. http://www.villaaloha.co.uk/Villa%20info.htm

SDG31000

It looks like my plan to use Airmiles to get the price of my flights down has failed, due to Airmiles not actually having any flights available for 16 to 30 April 2011. The cheapest flights I've been able to find for 4 adults on these dates are with dialaflight and are £496 each. Can anyone beat this, as if we have to pay £1000 more than we planned, we won't be going anywhere.
Thank you.
Forgot to say that any of the London airports, Birmingham or East Midlands would work.

wanye

ElJayco wrote: »

I am just terrified that if I try and do it all seperatly I end up making a mistake, forgetting something and ruining the holiday.

That said I am not rich and if it really can save £1000's going DIY then I should probably seriously consider it.

as poet123 said, its not difficult. i did it myself for the first time a year and a half ago....

booked flights through broadway travel (£289 per person flying with monarch from gatwick to sanford - wasnt great, but it was half the price of the same virgin flight at the time, and left us with loads of extra cash for the actual holiday)

booked carhire through easycar.com (via quidco.com so got ~10% cashback) - booked the basic car and cost about £180 for two weeks minus about £18 cashback. when we got to sanford, alamo (who easycar went through) was on the airport site, and they tried to sell me an upgrade. said no, and was promptly upgraded by the nice man in the parking lot for free (tip him!) - only extra to this afterwards was the $5/day breakdown insurance, which i didnt know about until i got home and saw it on the credit card! make sure you read all the Ts&Cs!

driving on the wrong side was surprisingly easy. it helped i had a satnav, concentrating on maps would have been a bit stressful, but most of the roads over there are so big, you dont really have fiddly road systems to worry about. if you dont already have a satnav that can handle US maps, dont rent one from the car hire place, buy one from walmart instead, its cheaper, and you get to keep it/sell it on afterwards!

villa was booked through my friend who owns it. cost was £700 for two weeks for a 4 bed villa (2 double beds, 4 single beds). the villa was lovely, and quite easy to get to all the fun stuff. it was near champions gate just off the 192.

most of the cooking was done at the villa. wal mart was great! we got a tray of really nice steaks for $10 - these lasted us 3 meals!

we took frozen bottles of water out with us during the day, so we always had a decent supply of cold fresh water. you can take these into the parks with you.

theme park tickets, we played it by ear (i wasnt massively bothered about themeparks) - we ended up getting a 7-day universal pass, and a couple of single day tickets for disney from walmart (and one set from a stall outside a grocery shop on i-drive) - as it was, we spent 5 days in parks and one night (universal halloween horror) - the rest of the time was spent elsewhere - a roadtrip to georgia, cocoa beach/space centre, and some days just lying by the pool or wandering round the shops

money-wise, we budgeted £100 per day between the two of us, and that worked quite well (we got $1.80 to the pound, and some days we didnt spend anything, which gave us more for other days) - we took £500 in dollars, £500 preloaded onto a fairfx credit card, and the rest was in my nationwide account and on an hsbc credit card.between the two of us, we probably spent about £1700 including food/drink/tickets.

we did get stung on the way home though... overweight luggage for £130! tip - take some luggage scales with you!

oh, and pack light. i bought most of my clothes while i was out there. nice general use work shirts were only $10. when i go this october, ill be taking one change of clothes on the way out. the suitcases will be almost empty! another good thing about the villa was we could wash clothes easily, so didnt need much anyway!

i'm currently booking another 2 weeks for this coming sept/oct. will be doing similar again. flights are looking like £350-400pp this time, and car hire looks around £250, so it has gone up in the last 18 months, but still we should be able to pay for everything inc spending money for two of us at around £3500


hope this helps...

ElJayco

wanye wrote: »

i'm currently booking another 2 weeks for this coming sept/oct. will be doing similar again. flights are looking like £350-400pp this time, and car hire looks around £250, so it has gone up in the last 18 months, but still we should be able to pay for everything inc spending money for two of us at around £3500


hope this helps...

Some useful info however there are 5 of us (3 children) so can I realistically get something like that during the summer holidays?

What is the fine for taking children out of school, (I think £50), is it worth it?

I'll give the DIY thing a look see and see how it works out.

One thing I've seen is that it's cheaper and supposedly a little quieter the last couple of weeks of August as that's when the US kids go back to school, does anyone have any experience of that?

I am looking at August 2012, when could I realistically start looking at flights?

Mikepcon

ElJayco wrote: »

I am starting early on planning our first (but hopefully not last) family trip to Florida and the amount of advice out there (and on here) is overwhelming.

There are 5 of us, 2 adults and 3 kids will be 15,13 and 8 in Aug 2012 when we plan to go.

I have budgeted for £6000.

Playing around with various dates and websites it seems that because there is 5 of us the best deal will be a Villa which to be honest is what I think we would prefer anyway.

As this is our first trip and we may not get to go again for a while is it worth trying to make savings?

It looks like I can get a villa in Kissimmee for £3500 aprox for 2 weeks with carhire, then £1000 approx for 14 day tickets which leaves us $1500 for food and spending money for 2 weeks.

We normally spend £100 a week here in the UK for our groceries.

The holiday is with Thomson Cook.

I don't mind paying this price as it's the first time and would like as little hassle as possible.

Does this sound like a plan?

I am with you on the going in August. This year will be our third time and I always refuse to let the kids miss school to save a few quid.
First time we went (2007) it was 2 adults and 2 kids (9 and 12). We went for a package and stayed in Disney Pop Century for 3.5k. It would have been a little cheaper but we wanted two rooms. Didnt bother with the "free" car - rented one ourselves.
We went again last year and I was a bit more confident so booked it all seperately. Floridays (condo) £1300, Virgin flights £2700. So didnt save any money but had better flights and accomodation.
This time the kids voted for going to a condo again. We have gone for World Quest £1200 and US airways flights £2800. Pretty straightforward really - especially if you are hiring a car.

I would definately recommend a Condo as you can get 3 bedrooms - two with 2 beds in them. Often have a sofa bed also if needed. You have loads of living space also. I like having other people around, especially for my youngest. You wouldnt get that in a villa.

Also ignore any 'free' carhire as it never is.

Cade_Foster

wickedsistah wrote: »

Not sure if this is okay to post. We are going to Florida for 2 weeks in August. As we are buying our tickets (Disneyworld 14 days, Universal Studios and Discovery Cove which includes 14 consecutive days entry as well), we intend to buy the tickets on different dates which means we'll end up with a lot of unused days on our tickets, especially Seaworld and Busch Gardens)

My husband has been to Orlando before and was able to sell his unused tickets which still had plenty of days left on it and we're planning to do the same. If anyone is interested in buying the remaining days on the tickets and going on holiday same time or after first week of September, please feel free to send me a message.

I would rather know if someone can use it here before we sell it off there when we go. It's just an idea. Tickets will be for 2 adults and 1 child.

When I went to Discovery Cove the ticket for seaworld was your ID tag for Discovery Cove which had your photo on so not sure if you would be able to sell that.

r.mac_2

My husband is really keen to go to Orlando for a holiday - he's never been, although I've been 4 times over the last 20yrs or so. We have a 16month old daughter and while I appreciate she'll have no 'memories' if we go this year, or next, we would be going as much for the adults as for her and I know that she will love the buzz, colurs and sights of Disney even at this age! We are currently debating going in October 2010 or March 2011. The plus of October is that she'll still be under 2, the plus for March is that she'll be a bit older.

I know October is a quiet time at disney and a lovely temperate for us so I'm keen on that idea. I thought about week in a villa or SC apartment somewhere on the coast around clearwater or sarasota and about 4-7 days in Orlando doing the most young child-friendly parks, malls and soaking in the atmosphere.

Can anyone give me some guidance on the best time of year to go (we aren't fixed to dates and can be super flexible) and how much is going to be accessible/participatory/fun for an 2year old?

I'm also wondering about the best companies to book through, and whether its worth us staying at a disney resort hotel at all? Or would a house/sc apart be best on both locations?

basically any help/comment is appreciated!

bugbabe

hi could you help going orlando in 25 days first time abroad ,i need to buy orlando flexi plus tickets can anyone reccomend somewhere ,also do they send you tickets or do you have to collect when you are there help please feeling very stressed

maemaesmummy

r.mac wrote: »

My husband is really keen to go to Orlando for a holiday - he's never been, although I've been 4 times over the last 20yrs or so. We have a 16month old daughter and while I appreciate she'll have no 'memories' if we go this year, or next, we would be going as much for the adults as for her and I know that she will love the buzz, colurs and sights of Disney even at this age! We are currently debating going in October 2010 or March 2011. The plus of October is that she'll still be under 2, the plus for March is that she'll be a bit older.

I know October is a quiet time at disney and a lovely temperate for us so I'm keen on that idea. I thought about week in a villa or SC apartment somewhere on the coast around clearwater or sarasota and about 4-7 days in Orlando doing the most young child-friendly parks, malls and soaking in the atmosphere.

Can anyone give me some guidance on the best time of year to go (we aren't fixed to dates and can be super flexible) and how much is going to be accessible/participatory/fun for an 2year old?

I'm also wondering about the best companies to book through, and whether its worth us staying at a disney resort hotel at all? Or would a house/sc apart be best on both locations?

basically any help/comment is appreciated!

we 1st visited in Dec 2088 when ds was just over 2... he was scared of the characters, screamed in most of the shows etc... in hindsight really should have waited... that said we went Dec 2009 and it was so different.. he loved it..

this year we go August and December and he cant wait!

Each time we have stayed in a villa as the thought of being in a hotel room with the kids is just too much to cope with for 3 weeks...the villas have been great we usually go for a 5 bed which gives space for the kids at the end/start of the day.