Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

A_little_stressed!!

Is there an American style MSE website? Going soon and want to find shopping discounts, restaurant discounts and offers when I'm there! Got computer and printer at hotel, so can print daily.
Any help would be appreciated!

iltisman

Try googling tightwad and a few sites should appear some with useful coupons.

KarenG

FloFlo wrote: »

We are in a studio at SSR, we won't be driving so I was thinking of requesting the springs section so we are near everything. DD loves the look of the water cannons, are they at the Springs part or Grandstand? We have free dining so being near DTD gives us extra options on the odd evening we are back early or have a rest day.
A nice view would be a bonus but as long as its not a noisy spot it won't matter too much.

However DD will be very upset as apparently they don't serve pancakes at the CS at SSR like they do at Pop - I'm not going to tell her until we get there.;)

Oh, LOL... my DDs both far prefer the food court at Pop to any of the DVC ones!

The water cannons are at the Grandstand. The main pool area is right next to the Springs, with the Donald Duck tippy jar (you might have seen photos), main pool and waterslide. Also near to Community Hall, which my DDs love - yours might too?

I think, personally, that the Grandstand may be the best area for you based on what you're saying

karenljay

Hi All,

We just inherited some money and decided that we'd like to take our 3 kids to Orlando for Christmas next year as our eldest son will turn 16 over that period - we have been once before, about 5 years ago.

We are looking to book a villa, flights and car - and I've already got a gazillion villa owners making offers via a website I put a search/request up on.

Is there anything specific that would be helpful to know about/see/do/prebook for the Christmas and New Year period? - we are looking at going 16th Dec to just after New Year. I know some places do Christmas day packages, like Planet Hollywood, are these good value as it is a heckuva lot of money for five of us?

Also, is it best to book flights as soon as they open for bookings (which I believe is a year before your return date?) or later? We'd prefer to fly Virgin as we flew with them the last time and they were fab - even though the kids will be older this time around but any company that provides a relatively comfy flight would be fine

Thanks for reading - I know this is a long time away, but I would like to be fairly savvy and make best use of the money we've got.

johnnyroper

karenljay wrote: »

Hi All,

We just inherited some money and decided that we'd like to take our 3 kids to Orlando for Christmas next year as our eldest son will turn 16 over that period - we have been once before, about 5 years ago.

We are looking to book a villa, flights and car - and I've already got a gazillion villa owners making offers via a website I put a search/request up on.

Is there anything specific that would be helpful to know about/see/do/prebook for the Christmas and New Year period? - we are looking at going 16th Dec to just after New Year. I know some places do Christmas day packages, like Planet Hollywood, are these good value as it is a heckuva lot of money for five of us?

Also, is it best to book flights as soon as they open for bookings (which I believe is a year before your return date?) or later? We'd prefer to fly Virgin as we flew with them the last time and they were fab - even though the kids will be older this time around but any company that provides a relatively comfy flight would be fine

Thanks for reading - I know this is a long time away, but I would like to be fairly savvy and make best use of the money we've got.

my personal opinion is book flights sooner rather than later especially for xmas period as orlando is so popular places are taken very quickly and prices rise just as quick.

i have flown virgin a fair bit over the years and always found them to be very good this year however the standard has dropped considerably,in my opinion they are a full service scheduled operator price wise but charter airline quality these days.
have a search at all available charter and scheduled airlines and go for whoever is the best deal dont restrict yourself to just virgin.

KarenG

karenljay wrote: »

Hi All,

We just inherited some money and decided that we'd like to take our 3 kids to Orlando for Christmas next year as our eldest son will turn 16 over that period - we have been once before, about 5 years ago.

We are looking to book a villa, flights and car - and I've already got a gazillion villa owners making offers via a website I put a search/request up on.

Is there anything specific that would be helpful to know about/see/do/prebook for the Christmas and New Year period? - we are looking at going 16th Dec to just after New Year. I know some places do Christmas day packages, like Planet Hollywood, are these good value as it is a heckuva lot of money for five of us?

Also, is it best to book flights as soon as they open for bookings (which I believe is a year before your return date?) or later? We'd prefer to fly Virgin as we flew with them the last time and they were fab - even though the kids will be older this time around but any company that provides a relatively comfy flight would be fine

Thanks for reading - I know this is a long time away, but I would like to be fairly savvy and make best use of the money we've got.

My main piece of advice would be, if you can go at a different time, then do. Christmas is THE worst time of year, even worse than Easter and the US summer holidays.

The parks will be extremely busy, with large waits for rides and Fastpasses running out - and for Christmas week itself, the parks themselves have the potential to close if you don't arrive early in the morning (due to capacity). Actually, being in the parks themselves when they are at capacity isn't always that much fun either!

If you have to go at this time then there are ways to plan and get the best out of it - but if you can go in other holidays (assuming you are tied to school ones?) then it would be better

blue_monkey_2

We have been on 30th before and the queues all went on the 2nd so the other side of the school holiday is better.

I am guessing the OP is doing this because of her kids being in school and with her son being 16, he will be sitting his GCSE's.

I do not know about the other things to be honest as for NYE we went to Discovery Cove during the day and Epcot in the evening.

What is it you want from the holiday as we could tell you 100 things tha WE like doing but they might not all be to your taste. How old are your children?

karenljay

Hi All,

Thanks for your thoughts - certainly given me something to think about!

At the time of our planned trip, the boys will be 13 and 16 (while we're there) and daughter will be 11. When we went last time they were 6, 8 and 10 so it was all queueing for character autographs and parades, this time round they will want the thrill rides, kennedy, busch gardens, shopping. We are tied to school holidays really, as someone said, our eldest will be in the runup to his GCSEs, we wanted to avoid Easter because of exams, and to avoid the summer holidays because of the heat/humidity mainly, our eldest is ginger (the shame!!!) and doesn't cope with heat at all well. We stayed in a villa last time and enjoyed the freedom and having our own pool/hottub and the privacy and space in comparison with a hotel room, and husband is more than happy to drive over there, we stayed in kissimee last time and had no problem finding our way around.

We are looking at this holiday as a last big family holiday as the eldest will be heading off for college and uni - my sensible head says 'save the money as they will all want to go to uni' , but the imp on my shoulder tells me that we'll never have a lump of money to do something like this again and it will give the kids (and us!) fantastic memories

blue_monkey_2

Well, RCI have had a 'shake up' while we have been away and now we are giving 'credits' to use and as we have a 'high power' red, 2 bed week we can pretty much book anything on exchange for a whopping £175 for a week. Any 'credits' left can goes towards other higher class accomodation or a 2nd week. As we would choose a 1 bed we would have credit spare anyway.

Question is, next time do we go for Beach Club Villas, Wilderness Lodge Villas, Bay Lake Tower, Boardwalk Villas? AKV we have done, SSR and OKW are available for the cheap rate so would not 'waste' credits on these. Question is - which one - or two - do we go for.....? What are your thoughts. I love the thought of watching Fireworks from the balcony and being walking distance from MK. Or being able to hop on the boat and be 5 mins from HS or walking disatnce from Epcot. I love the idea of Wilderness Lodge but a bit remote surely, has anyone stayed there at all?

Descisions, descisions for 2012. Time to start saving again. We found people having a pop about us going on a nice holiday but the same people think nothing of spending £100 each weekend on alcohol and take outs/or eating out - if they saved that money they could have the same holiday - madness isn't it? I know what I would rather do and so the saving starts again. We have even talked about forgoing our usual summer Butlins break this year and saving the cash so we can go back.

KarenG

BM - I would choose two. BLT and BCV or BWV. I would slightly choose BCV over BWV because from BCV you get access to the fabulous swimming at Stormalong Bay, but you are still close to the Boardwalk itself. Epcot is a quick walk, and you can also walk to HS along the canal.

BLT will give you proximity to MK - I don't know if you will be able to use the fireworks viewing lounge, unless the policy changes, as it is intended to be for DVC members staying on points at BLT only. They were enforcing this very rigidly when I stayed in August but that might have been relaxed by then.