Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

maemaesmummy

don't miss Celebration for some fab free trick or treating...the houses are OMG...must take them weeks to get ready for Halloween

jackieblack

blue_monkey wrote: »

If you are going with Virgin Holidays it is worth giving their concierge service in Orlando an email and they will call you back - see if you can get any freebies and they will price match. We got price match as well as Free 'Kids Eat Free' Cards, Transfer to our hotel (Hotel was booked independantly, we was on fly drive) and was able to get Harry Potter Early Entry invite from the airport too - just for booking Discovery Cove with them instead of DC directly - for the same price. You can collect your tickets and vouchers at the airport.

I agree with this, we had great service from the concierge service when we went.

Miss_Cinnabon

Wish thomsons brochure would come out now :rotfl:eager to book for next year, got a £150 voucher with them after the flights with them last year, keeping fingers crossed all will be ok this time

We are off for 3 weeks next october, villa booked already :jbeen 3 times to florida and never once done anything halloween related, thats on our to do list for next year

Last trip was just awful as i was ill and was stuck in villa for most of the 2 weeks, was lovely lying by the pool though, had a big blanket wrapped round me though :rotfl:

Julie, well done on winning :jwe managed to get travel insurance ( with 2 with pre-existing conditions) for £99, we had went round every company and most were quoting £200 + for us, helps to shop around, i had to visit centracare while there and cost me about $400 plus medication so def worth it as its so expensive there with dr's etc

Set your budget for each day and dont go over that, how much spending money are you taking with you and work from that, we normally budget $200 per day but know people who only do $100-150 per day

Never heard of people with new passports cant travel to usa, thats utter rubbish, you will need esta's for everyone though which they now charge for so thats a cost you will have to consider too

Walmart and publix are great for food, there is also gardengrocer who will deliver to your room, we stock up on bread, milk, loads of fruit and only eat out now and again, olive garden are quite cheap and you can get discount vouchers which helps with meals etc

You will also have to take into consideration tips etc not sure how old kids are but we went when my youngest was 2 and he got on loads of rides, although he was just awful on the flight, screamed the whole way there and back

We do a goody bag for each child for the flight, toys, colouring books and hand them out throughout the flight so they dont get bored etc also we take dsi's, psp's with plenty of games plys there is the seatback tv's with plenty to watch - films, games, tv shows etc all helps with the long flight good luck xx

edit - another tip is to use http://www.restaurant.com as they have 70% off just now (offer ends 8th march) but they always seem to have great deals on

this may help http://www.attraction-tickets-direct.co.uk/attraction-ticket-prices/kids-eat-free.htm

dining on international drive http://www.internationaldriveorlando.com/thingsToDo/dining.asp?intPage=1

Simac

maemaesmummy wrote: »

don't miss Celebration for some fab free trick or treating...the houses are OMG...must take them weeks to get ready for Halloween

What a fantastic idea! I think we might just drive there and look at the houses. Wouldn't be cheeky enough to knock on and trick or treat, but I'd love to see the houses all done up. I just googled for some pictures, and one of the houses had Oogie Boogie outside LOL, DS would love that! Thanks x

JulieJesta wrote: »

We will be travelling as a family, 2 adults, 2 kids. Whst about medical stuff, my partner has to have medication, and how about travel insurance?

May not be much help, but I have pre existing medical conditions and I was quoted £120 for the whole family. I didn't think this was too bad, I'm sure I paid nearly as much when we went to Spain.

Also, I love the Kids eat free card. We ate at Sizzlers, TGI and Mcdonalds on International Drive so the card paid for itself very quickly. Might be worth considering if you are eating on a budget?

blue_monkey_2

Americans LOVE to see kids dressed up - if the house is done up then no, that is why, because they want T or T there.

We saw a house in Celebration still done about 5 days after Halloween and it was just like a pirate ship. It was very strange, it did not even look like a house at all. It was AMAZING. No wonder they did not remove it and have it for just one day. But Taxi driver was a miserable git and would not stop for us to get a proper look.

Simac

OK I've just been on the Seaworld website looking at Spooktacular. It's included in the park ticket, and they have a Count Von Count show, how awesome is that :rotfl:

I am ridiculously over excited at the prospect of going at Halloween. Must stop reading guidebooks (and this forum LOL).

xxx

blue_monkey_2

Simac wrote: »

Hi Bluemonkey,

I know this wasn't the main point of your post, but free sweets caught my attention :T! Do Seaworld do this all through October or just on specific dates? We are hoping to take in the Disney Not too scary halloween party (Definately not the Universal horror night as our DS would be terrified!), but i didn't even realise that Seaworld did this. We :heart2: Halloween so it would be brilliant to go trick or treating there too. We are all big kids :rotfl:

Oh and congratulation Julie, that is a fab prize!

LOL, free sweets.

The SeaWorld one is the last 2 weekends before Halloween and then, when we went, it was on 29th, 30th and 31st Oct. We went on 29th.

It is during the day so the costumes not so good unlike Disney's evening do where Dressing Up is almost a must.

But it was VERY hot and the kids could only wear their costumes for having the pictures taken, they were absolutely sweltering. Sods law I got them full costuumes instead of tabards. I almost cut the arms and legs off but the kids would not let me.

Can someone tell me how to post pictures on here (how do I not know this after this long) and I'll put some pics up of us and also of the huge amount of sweets we got. We put them in a bag and weighed it with our case scales and it came to 6kgs of sweets..... :eek: We still have some left.

blue_monkey_2

Simac wrote: »

OK I've just been on the Seaworld website looking at Spooktacular. It's included in the park ticket, and they have a Count Von Count show, how awesome is that :rotfl:

I am ridiculously over excited at the prospect of going at Halloween. Must stop reading guidebooks (and this forum LOL).

xxx

LOL, you couldn't wait could you??

Yes, it is free, you just need your usual park ticket and it starts at 12pm til 8pm. They have a nice show around 7.45 on the lake, but this is not advertised on the leaflets and we only caught the end. Don't miss it.

Tell me how to post pics, I'll show you how we dressed for MNSSHP.

Simac

blue_monkey wrote: »

LOL, you couldn't wait could you??

Yes, it is free, you just need your usual park ticket and it starts at 12pm til 8pm. They have a nice show around 7.45 on the lake, but this is not advertised on the leaflets and we only caught the end. Don't miss it.

Tell me how to post pics, I'll show you how we dressed for MNSSHP.

Ha ha, sorry Blue Monkey, I did warn you that I was getting a little bit over excited . I was googling Celebration and it got me looking at Seaworld. I didn’t know the dates and about the heat so thank you very much xxxx. I shall make sure I get DS a lightweight costume.

This thread is brilliant, so many fab ideas :T

Do you think I can justify buying the 2011 guide books? I’ve still got the 2009 ones and I’m wound up enough, should I risk it. I guess with Harry Potter and hopefully Legoland there will be new things in the books. Any recommendations for the best guide book?

With regards to posting photos on here, I think last time I used photobucket. If I remember rightly, when you have uploaded them to the photobucket site it gives you a link that you can copy and paste into here. I think I clicked on the icon that looks like a mountain (insert image) and pasted the link into there. The image should then appear in your post. Hopefully somebody will be able to explain it a bit better than me, I’m not very technical as you can tell :rotfl:

I’d love to see your piccies though. I looked on youtube for the Boo to you parade last week and me and DS are still singing the song now LOL. It’s very catchy.

blue_monkey_2

Whoooooooo....... thanks Del.

Off again next year. Virgin are doing a Free Kids ticket if you buy 2 adult ultimate tickets, plus platinum insurance gets you free booster seats and a tank of petrol/

We are hiring a convertible, LOL!!! Pictures of us with the top down, flying along the freeway (while the kids complain in the back) LOL.

Anyway, May 2012, 2 ad, 2 kids, flight, v-room, Disney tickets for 2 weeks and a convertible car for a week was under £3,700 with Virgin. Accomodation will be £175 a week even for disney properties, will book them come May/June time and then we will know where we are staying as they are not released until then. There will always be somewhere to stay though so we are not worried about this for now.