Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

FloFlo

The free dining plan should be available for Animal kingdom lodge in August though so cost of food wouldn't be important. I quite fancy it for next trip with a few nights at hard rock hotel in universal. I wouldn't want to go if I wasn't staying onsite, I love it.

poet123

Someone with an apartment in Florida has just posted on another thread that if you wait until late August American Airlines have usually have a sale, as US schools go back earlier than ours, so the flights go on sale.

blue_monkey_2

FloFlo wrote: »

The free dining plan should be available for Animal kingdom lodge in August though so cost of food wouldn't be important. I quite fancy it for next trip with a few nights at hard rock hotel in universal. I wouldn't want to go if I wasn't staying onsite, I love it.

True, but you have to book in advance to eat there. When we went the restaurant was full in the evening. However, it is quite easy to get sick of eating the food at Disney. There is a lot of spicy foods at the AKL restaurants so have a look at the Disney Website, choose 'Places to Eat' and download the menus. There was nothing on the menu I or the kids would eat as it is an African menu.

Just so you know when you get there. We are going to self cater when there because the food is just not for us.

if you do get the Dining Plan then make sure you book tables online before you go (it does not cost anything, you book online then hand your card over when you go to eat) but it means you'll be sure of getting a table.

blue_monkey_2

FloFlo wrote: »

The free dining plan should be available for Animal kingdom lodge in August though so cost of food wouldn't be important. I quite fancy it for next trip with a few nights at hard rock hotel in universal. I wouldn't want to go if I wasn't staying onsite, I love it.

I do love staying onsite but it can feel a bit isolating, we are going to 3 different places, anymore than a week is too much and too samey. We spent 14 days in All Stars many years back and had enough after a week and asked to be transferred to another hotel.

We've wanted to stay in AKL since we saw it going up but after spending one night there we know that 14 nights would just be too much, it is just so far away from everything but you really should get a Savannah Room to appreciate it for what it is so please remember this when you book.

lex

Thank you for all your comments re AKL..

We actually went to AKL for two weeks last year and loved it. We had a Savannah room (think we got upgraded) which was lovely, but a pool view would be good too. We hardly spent much time at all in the hotel and that's part of the reason why we'd go back - we never spent much time chilling out round the pool (which was lovely).

I would only stay in a Disney hotel again if I had the dining plan, which if I booked now I would have for free.

We all loved Boma. It was so convenient for us. We didn't book once unless it was a few hours ahead. The self service was fantastic for younger children as no waiting, plus the food was amazing - plus they had simple childrens food if they didn't fancy something more extravagant. The two weeks we went last year (planning same this year if we make it) are just about when American schools go back, so we saw a big reduction in people when we were there. Our children are fairly young so we do eat fairly early as well.

Also, we made the dining plan for 2 adults and 1 child, at 1 snack, 1 counter service and 1 full service per day, last 4 of us the whole 2 weeks. We must have only have bought 2 lunches (offsite) and a few icecreams the whole time we were there. It takes a bit of planning but you can do it and we had two "luxury" meals that took 2 credits each (Jika and Hollywood Derby at MGM I think?). For lunch we would take 2 counter service between 4 of us - the portions tended to be huge! We would try different places most days which was fun. Plus we'd go to Wallmart and stock up on huge volumes of bottles of water really cheaply and put them in the fridge in our room. Oh, and Oreo's of course!

On the other hand - did it bit more cheaply and stayed on I drive 4 years ago. Totally different holiday. If I can get the dining plan - I'll stay on site, if I can't - I'll stay offsite.

However, I'm struggling to find it cheaper by doing it myself. Yet I know all the advice is that it is cheaper.

Mind you - I've rather sadly been tracking the price of this holiday since November 2009 and have a lovely spreadsheet and a graph showing the fluctuation in price over the last year. Gotta love the spreadsheets :rotfl:

Any advice greatly received.

lex

FloFlo

Lol, I'm not quite as advanced I have bits of paper with prices scrawled on here there and everywhere.

At the moment looking on different sites for AKL for 14 nights next August and Virgin is coming out the cheapest as a package - they are offering 10% discount plus if you are a frequent virgin club member you get an extra 5% off.

Certain dates are cheaper to fly next August I found dates on or close to the 4th and 11th were the cheapest by a few hundred pounds.

Virgin are also giving free universal park tickets (14 day) and a planet hollywood meal ticket free with each booking so its tempting - but still expensive.

And hubbys fave restaurant is the brown derby - he goes on and about the steak there.

lex

Thanks FloFlo - I'm actually looking at this August rather than next August!!

Checked out Virgin this morning I thought - but they seemed considerably more than First Choice - will check now...yes it's about £2.5k more.

Maybe I should be booking for next year rather than this ;o)

Actually the price has come down by £70 per person over the last two days...wonder how much further it has to go? Eeek!

lex

blue_monkey_2

LOL, graphs and spreadsheets.... even I am not that bad but I have pieces of aper everywhere with prices on them. I won't book anything til I have the right price.

Have you checked the price of AKL on Expedia, they often have 7 nights for the price of 5 and have cashback on there too. MIght be worth a look. Don't forget to choose Flydrive on the Virgin website but to leave out the accomodation. Book that direct on disney.com and check out the villas too, you might get lucky, they are self catering and are in the new Kidani Village (opened Oct 09). you'll still get free dining plan. We are staying at Old Key West for a week and getting free dining for £900, it's a self catering 1 bed apartment.

Also, if ou like them this much have you thought about timeshare? I am paying a whopping £175 for my week in Kidani as I swapped my timeshare. if this is something you do often then it is seriously worth thinking about.

Also check out ebay.com for DVC (search for DVC or Disney Vacation Club) rentals for that week you want to go and you might pick up an apartment that someone else does not want to use so is selling the week.

blue_monkey_2

lex wrote: »

Thanks FloFlo - I'm actually looking at this August rather than next August!!

Checked out Virgin this morning I thought - but they seemed considerably more than First Choice - will check now...yes it's about £2.5k more.

Maybe I should be booking for next year rather than this ;o)

Actually the price has come down by £70 per person over the last two days...wonder how much further it has to go? Eeek!

lex

Thing is lex, it is how long you leave it and risk the flights being gone. I decided to book in Feb for Oct after watching the prices go up, I looked last week and the flights are now priced at 2k EACH return from MCO so they obviously only have business class left.

johnnyroper

FloFlo wrote: »

Lol, I'm not quite as advanced I have bits of paper with prices scrawled on here there and everywhere.

At the moment looking on different sites for AKL for 14 nights next August and Virgin is coming out the cheapest as a package - they are offering 10% discount plus if you are a frequent virgin club member you get an extra 5% off.

Certain dates are cheaper to fly next August I found dates on or close to the 4th and 11th were the cheapest by a few hundred pounds.

Virgin are also giving free universal park tickets (14 day) and a planet hollywood meal ticket free with each booking so its tempting - but still expensive.

And hubbys fave restaurant is the brown derby - he goes on and about the steak there.

i took advantage of the frequent virgin 15% discount when booking orlando for next year plus free car upgrade,unfortunately the offer finished on june 8th apparently so normal discounts resumed.