Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

LadyfromVenice

elsie52 wrote: »

Hi

We stayed at this hotel 5 years ago, and it was perfectly ok. Linen and towels were clean and changed regularly. Coffee maker, iron, ironing board. Laundrette was ok, small but there if needed, Pools were clean, as was resturant, which we only used once, there are so many other places to eat. Room was fine, not luxurious but you are only sleeping in it, to be honest you spend more time out of the room than in it. I am very fussy, but I am going to stay here again, some times Tripadvisor can put you off needlessly

Which hotel did you mean? Johnnyroper was replying to my query about the Orlando Continental Plaza but also mentions the Quality Inn International and another hotel.

Oh, how I wish I'd seen this thread before I booked. I had a look at OKW Blue_Monkey. It would have cost us £8800 for when we are going (27 Oct 11 - 15 Nov 11). Our hol is costing us £5800 ish but then we don't have meals included and are booked into a 2 star plus hotel :eek:(which I am going to change). Gutted, yes I really am.

I didn't know we would be there for the xmas parade as well as halloween so we will definitely be checking that out.

Never having been on holiday before we just didn't have a clue...........well, you live and learn. I've now subscribed to this thread for further tips..........too late to change our hol now but at least I can work out what I will be doing when I get there!

chocolateteddy

Beware about holiday half term dates in february we have discovered to our cost monday 14th is not the beginning of half term but 21st is in our local authority as easter is so late they have moved feb 1/2 term a week later. Whoops kids now need 13 days off school instead of 8 as we were due to return at end of 1/2 term week!!! Even travel agents I spoke to thought week beginning 14th was 1/2 term. oh well will have to deal with wrath of headmaster when they return in september.!!!!!!

blue_monkey_2

Ooh, my son will have his birthday at school. First time ever. He'll be happy as he gets to wear the birthday hat, LOL. That is a surprise. I did realise that it was a long term after Xmas though as Easter is at the end of the month.

blue_monkey_2

LadyfromVenice wrote: »

Which hotel did you mean? Johnnyroper was replying to my query about the Orlando Continental Plaza but also mentions the Quality Inn International and another hotel.

Oh, how I wish I'd seen this thread before I booked. I had a look at OKW Blue_Monkey. It would have cost us £8800 for when we are going (27 Oct 11 - 15 Nov 11). Our hol is costing us £5800 ish but then we don't have meals included and are booked into a 2 star plus hotel :eek:(which I am going to change). Gutted, yes I really am.

I didn't know we would be there for the xmas parade as well as halloween so we will definitely be checking that out.

Never having been on holiday before we just didn't have a clue...........well, you live and learn. I've now subscribed to this thread for further tips..........too late to change our hol now but at least I can work out what I will be doing when I get there!

Lady, it is too far in Advance to book OKW at these prices. Bear in mind for the future and sign up for offers. We are there til 13th Nov and this is the day Free Dining runs out in 2010.

It might be cheaper to change your 'holiday' to a fly drive. Who have you booked with? How much deposit have you put down? how much have you 'paid' for your accomodation? If you are with Virgin can you call them and ask to switch to Fly Drive as someone has offered you share of a villa and cancel off the accomodation? Can you post the breakdown, maybe we can help you more?

If you did this and OKW was not available then you'll be able to book a hotel for a good price on Expedia and you'll pay less than you are going through an agent so you might actually be better off.

OKW is a DVC resort and so the apartment availability will not be known this far in advance, try again 9 months before you travel. DVC is Disneys version of timeshare (don't be scared of this word they do not harass you like in Spain, you get more harrassment in Downtown Disney from the people on the DVC stands!!) but they will not know what apartments are going to be free until people have paid and booked for their year which is usually at the end of 2011. Once they know what they have left they seem to be selling them off for silly money. We paid £926 for an apartment this November - we booked in February and this is when the offer started as I got the email.

Dining will be on for the most of the time you are there and you might be able to do one week Saratoga Springs and another at OKW deluxe villa resorts - they were both on offer when we booked but we decided on OKW. if in doubt though, post back, someone will have some advice to help you.

You are right though, i feel that the money we paid for the apartment is a little more than we would have paid for food. Tbh, we are having character dinners that we would otherwise not be having.

Oh, and if anyone wants afternoon tea with Winnie the Pooh at the Crystal Palace, I booked 6 months in advance and there was just one space left!! It is very popular.

Goldust

Hi again,

Can anyone tell me what price I should aim for for 2 weeks departing 3rd September from Manchester, returning 17 September? I also want a hire car for the 2 weeks. We didn't want a package as we don't want to stay in the same place and would like to travel a fair bit.

The cheapest direct flight I could find was around £500 or we could do the fly drive with Virgin which was around £770 each for a mid range car with the insurance.

Any other ideas? I know it's getting late to book now and would like to sort it by this weekend unless I can gain anything from waiting until closer to the time.

Thanks!

johnnyroper

blue_monkey wrote: »

I know it is legit but the prices it was coming up with when we booked were the same as their flights on the Virgin Atlantic website - but we was able to get 10& discount - the 10% has now ended and it is 5%.

If we had booked just flights on the VA website it was £2400 but I was charged £2165.50 with a car ( butno Ins) and discount by going through VH instead. I checked earlier and it is coming up with more supplements so I think there might have been a glitch when we booked - hence getting it so cheap.

not a glitch it will be because availability was good when you booked,vhols are allocated a% of seats on board aircraft way before the flights are generally released (i booked for sept 11 in may VS website only went to april 11) so they can be more flexible with pricing.the reason for supplements will be because flight is fully booked/nearly full in economy and cannot accomodate your party so seats in premium or upper will have been allocated for either a leg or whole of journey.I had it a few years ago when going to NYC could not understand why flight was so expensive but when you get further in to booking process it gives a breakdown of price that showed premium seats.
i booked it same way as you when they were giving 10% but managed to get 15% as i am FVC member so worked out good price,although it is back to standard 5% online discount again now and 10% for FVC.

johnnyroper

mattarmy wrote: »

Hi again,

Can anyone tell me what price I should aim for for 2 weeks departing 3rd September from Manchester, returning 17 September? I also want a hire car for the 2 weeks. We didn't want a package as we don't want to stay in the same place and would like to travel a fair bit.

The cheapest direct flight I could find was around £500 or we could do the fly drive with Virgin which was around £770 each for a mid range car with the insurance.

Any other ideas? I know it's getting late to book now and would like to sort it by this weekend unless I can gain anything from waiting until closer to the time.

Thanks!

the orlando route is so busy and being this close i think you will struggle to get much cheaper than that,have you thought about going indirect that may work out cheaper?
have a search on skyscanner it will bring up direct and indirect prices so you can compare.

blue_monkey_2

johnnyroper wrote: »

not a glitch it will be because availability was good when you booked,vhols are allocated a% of seats on board aircraft way before the flights are generally released (i booked for sept 11 in may VS website only went to april 11) so they can be more flexible with pricing.the reason for supplements will be because flight is fully booked/nearly full in economy and cannot accomodate your party so seats in premium or upper will have been allocated for either a leg or whole of journey.I had it a few years ago when going to NYC could not understand why flight was so expensive but when you get further in to booking process it gives a breakdown of price that showed premium seats.
i booked it same way as you when they were giving 10% but managed to get 15% as i am FVC member so worked out good price,although it is back to standard 5% online discount again now and 10% for FVC.

We'll have to agree to disagree then jonny, I priced up seats recently (because we want to go again next year) on VA and they were under £2000 yet to do a fly drive, no car, for the same date was £2900 - quite a substantial difference I am sure you'll agree. When I was looking to book back in Feb, booking on VH was the same price for all dates I tried and the discount made it come out at much less.

Every date I looked at was substantially more expensive on VH fly drive option now - even 10% off would not make any difference. I reckon they changed it because people could get flights cheaper on VH.

Now it's not an option. I am going to try and save CC vouchers for next years holiday and book the lowest of the low hotel and just not use it.

johnnyroper

blue_monkey wrote: »

We'll have to agree to disagree then jonny, I priced up seats recently (because we want to go again next year) on VA and they were under £2000 yet to do a fly drive, no car, for the same date was £2900 - quite a substantial difference I am sure you'll agree. When I was looking to book back in Feb, booking on VH was the same price for all dates I tried and the discount made it come out at much less.

Every date I looked at was substantially more expensive on VH fly drive option now - even 10% off would not make any difference. I reckon they changed it because people could get flights cheaper on VH.

Now it's not an option. I am going to try and save CC vouchers for next years holiday and book the lowest of the low hotel and just not use it.

You misunderstand me I am not trying to argue with you sorry if I gave that impression.
I just thought I was explaining why there is different prices between vs direct and vhols flydrive.as you say prices have gone up for next maybe they have decided to increase it as many people do the same thing?probably got a lot of money to claw back after the volcano fiasco.
I still don't think it was a glitch when we booked as it had always been like that just they have changed the system we got booked just in time it would seem.

Goldust

OK - flight is booked!!!

This is my proposed itinerary, flying out the 3rd September and flying back on the 17th.

Day 1 - Land Sanford, pick up hire car and drive to somewhere in Tampa/Clearwater area
Day 2 - Busch Gardens
Day 3 - Drive to Sanibel spend 1 night there
Day 4 - Drive to Miami via Route 41
Day 5 to 7 - say at South Beach for 3 nights. Do the Everglades airboat tour.
Day 8 - Drive to Orlando. Maybe do the Kennedy Space centre on the way (I know it's a long drive this day but I can handle it!)
Day 9 - 14 Stay at Orlando. Do Discovery Cove and Universal. Not sure whether to do 2 different hotels or stay at the same one.
Day 15 - Drive to Sanford and Fly home

The additional days in Miami/Orlando will be days to relax, we don't mind not doing something every day. Please feel free to make and suggestions or tear it to shreds!