Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

LouiseJ

john1964golf wrote: »

Morning all you helpful people,off to orlando on the 24th aug left everything to the last minute.Should I book tickets now or just buy them when we get there.Not bothered for disney just universal really any ideas??THANKS

I would still try and get them here if you can, attractiontickets direct do a Universal/IOA 2 park bonus for a good price £89, you can visit as many times as you want over 14 days, we ended up at each park 3 times during our visit so really saved ££££

Ours were delivered within a week but they will hurry it along if you need them quickly.

mysparrow

Looking for a bit of advice from the experts on here please!
Planning a holiday to Florida next August for 4 adults (Me & partner & his 2 sons 18/20).
Had a look on the disney site & I am torn between 2 weeks on a disney property with the free dining plan or 1 week disney & 1 week somewhere on I-drive (near Universal). We usually hire a car so not worried about getting about.
The price difference is looking at about 1k more for the disney option but, if we do the split option then we will need to pay for food for one of the weeks (IYSWIM!) & that would make the price difference not so much.
Do you think 2 week disney dining will be too much? Not sure I want to be tied down to where we eat so much but I do like the look of the disney properties.
Can you tell I'm confused!

Bykerlass

I presume Attration Tickets Direct are not the same as Theme Park Tickets Direct? Can anyone confirm?

Thanks

atro1

Bykerlass wrote: »

I presume Attration Tickets Direct are not the same as Theme Park Tickets Direct? Can anyone confirm?

Thanks

Different group, No problems with ATD as yet!!!:money:

blue_monkey_2

mysparrow wrote: »

Looking for a bit of advice from the experts on here please!
Planning a holiday to Florida next August for 4 adults (Me & partner & his 2 sons 18/20).
Had a look on the disney site & I am torn between 2 weeks on a disney property with the free dining plan or 1 week disney & 1 week somewhere on I-drive (near Universal). We usually hire a car so not worried about getting about.
The price difference is looking at about 1k more for the disney option but, if we do the split option then we will need to pay for food for one of the weeks (IYSWIM!) & that would make the price difference not so much.
Do you think 2 week disney dining will be too much? Not sure I want to be tied down to where we eat so much but I do like the look of the disney properties.
Can you tell I'm confused!

Where are you looking at staying and on what dining plan?

My opinion - we are having 2 weeks on Disney and one week on I-drive. One week on Disney is Dining plan, the other will be 'ad hoc' and we will go to places like Rainfirest Cafe - to be honest - that is enough Disney food for us. You have to pre-book restaurants for example (In May I booked for Nov and there were few seats left), which is a real pain as you cannot just decide 'lets eat', the whole day has to be planned around the evening meal so you can never go too far from Disney otherwise you miss your evening meal.

You could try to get a table there and then but we have never been lucky, it has always been fully booked in the Disney buffet restaurants. Even the rainforest Cafe that opened at 12.00, when we went to get a tabel at 2.00 we had a 2 hour wait. Then you are tied to that area just waiting for your meal. That is a pain too, to be honest.

We intend to eat on I-drive for week 1, 'wherever' for the middle week and then have lots of character meals booked on week 3. Even eating in the hotel requires pre-booking.

On I-drive there are loads of buffet diners to eat, or other styles of food and no waiting and queuing either so for us, we get a bit of everything then which is what you might prefer.

I'd go to Disney on week 2 though - on what resort are you looking at staying? Have a look at this for I-drive: http://www1.hilton.com/en_US/hi/hotel/ORLSWGV-Hilton-Grand-Vacations-Suites-at-SeaWorld-International-Center-Florida/index.do

Make sure you do the lowest star hotel first as then you will not be disappointed on week 2!!

lex

melja wrote: »

Hi
New to here but seems as though you are all so knowledgable about orlando, so would you mind answering this question - I will have a 4 1/2yr old by the time we get there; we want to hire a car what car seat would we have to get, is a booster seat which we can have over here legal there or would we have to hire a full seat?.:undecided

Oh and another one BA or Virgin, I can get a flight and car for 500 less with BA but have to change once; don't mind as it will be manchester to london then onto orlando. It's a big saving with 5 of us going - the price of our meals for a week and more but just wondered if they are as good as virgin or not.
Many thanks
Melja

Hello

We take both of our car seats with us in the hold on the plane. Last year we weren't challenged either way although I did phone the airline to see if there were additional charges and there weren't. I remember thinking it was expensive to hire the car seat and is actually cheaper to buy one there, but of course you can't leave the airport without one.

I take the large size car seat (for a 2-3 year old) plus a high backed booster (5-10 year old). I know I don't need one for the older one, but if it's law to have it in this country, I figure I'd rather she be safe when abroad. We bought car seat carry bags on Amazon for ease and they were very handy for bringing back extras on the way home :T

Hope this helps

lex

looking4adeal

Hi,

I'm just starting to plan a 14 night trip to Orlando for next May and could do with some help after spending hours looking through websites and forums!!

I think I'm planning to arrange it all seperatly as I don't seem to be able to get a decent price from Virgin with the dates I was thinking of (it keeps saying no flights and offering 7 or 21 days) when virgin atlantic says they do have flights - are only certain seats available to virgin holidays?

We want Virgin flights from Manchester as they appear to be the only ones with decent flight times coming back. Cashback sites don't seem to give very much for just a flight, I have an amex and read somewhere there may be a discount for using that to buy flights but I can only find reference to booking a full holiday on their site, then I read I should probably book via a travel agents to ensure I get extra protection (would this mean I didn't need to use my credit card and not get charged the %)?. Already very confused and I've only got as far as looking at flights!! if anyone can offer any suggestions on getting the best price with the most protection it would be much appriciated.

Or should I be looking at a fly drive price? or does flight plus booking car at a seperate place usually work out cheaper?

mysparrow

hi bluemonkey,
Thanks for the great reply! We're looking at old key west 2 bed villas. I really like the idea of the boat to downtown disney & it also means the boys can get about with out us if they want to. They like the sound of disneyquest & I don't (useless at computer games!).
I didn't realise the table service would get booked up so fast & we're not the type to arrange the day around food! Can the table credits be used for counter service?
Sounds more like 1 week in each place will be better for us. Thanks for the hotel link I will go check it out now...

blue_monkey_2

looking4adeal wrote: »

Hi,

I'm just starting to plan a 14 night trip to Orlando for next May and could do with some help after spending hours looking through websites and forums!!

I think I'm planning to arrange it all seperatly as I don't seem to be able to get a decent price from Virgin with the dates I was thinking of (it keeps saying no flights and offering 7 or 21 days) when virgin atlantic says they do have flights - are only certain seats available to virgin holidays?

We want Virgin flights from Manchester as they appear to be the only ones with decent flight times coming back. Cashback sites don't seem to give very much for just a flight, I have an amex and read somewhere there may be a discount for using that to buy flights but I can only find reference to booking a full holiday on their site, then I read I should probably book via a travel agents to ensure I get extra protection (would this mean I didn't need to use my credit card and not get charged the %)?. Already very confused and I've only got as far as looking at flights!! if anyone can offer any suggestions on getting the best price with the most protection it would be much appriciated.

Or should I be looking at a fly drive price? or does flight plus booking car at a seperate place usually work out cheaper?

Yes, Virgin Holidays only get a set number of seats on the flight - this is how they can book anything up to 23 months in advance, on a flight you can only book 12 months. IYSWIM.

Have you tried playing with dates, if you are looking to book on holiday times then it is probably already booked up to be honest, people are looking to book with reliable companies now if they can afford to. Have you tried playing with dates, flying on Thurs arriving back in the UK on Fri? Have you looked at Travelcitydirect to see if the flights you want are there?

looking4adeal

Hi, thanks, yes been playing with dates ALL day!! I've got it down the best Virgin flight and also included flythomascook as an option as some of their flights come back at a decent time in the morning.

I now just need to consider who would be the best to fly with? Virgin or Thomas cook - I'm slightly concerned at the thought of a 29" seat pitch on that one though!

and find out if I can get either of the these any cheaper by booking via a travel agent/cashback site/credit card discount etc?