Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

Birdie85

Thank you for your replies!

I think I'll give Florida Tix a call (it never occured to me to call any of these companies to get a price match!) as I'd prefer having hard tickets and freebies are always a good thing!

Only 14 weeks to go!

polzovatel

Birdie85 wrote: »

Thank you for your replies!

I think I'll give Florida Tix a call (it never occured to me to call any of these companies to get a price match!) as I'd prefer having hard tickets and freebies are always a good thing!

Only 14 weeks to go!

Are you going in October ?
Who did you get your tickets/ hotels with ?
Thanks

Birdie85

polzovatel wrote: »

Are you going in October ?
Who did you get your tickets/ hotels with ?
Thanks

We're going at the end of September. We've got the holiday with Thomas Cook (which wasn't exactly 1st choice and I'm dreading the flights but needs must), we're staying here. I can't remember exactly what it cost (booked it before Christmas and we've had a wedding abroad since then which kind of knocked all of the info regarding this holiday out of my head!) but I think it was just over £1000pp as the travel agent knocked extra discount off.

At the time we got talked into getting 'The One' ticket which was just shy of £1000 for the 2 of us, and as you can see from my previous post, it is possible to get tickets for a heck of a lot less than that by buying separately! The manager in the Thomas Cook shop got a bit shirty with me when I went in and asked to have the tickets taken off our booking, she didn't believe me when I said I could save hundreds by booking everything myself... she was a right snotty cow actually!

nuttyp

If your flying with thomas cook, buy some drinks in the airport before you get on board, They were well expensive for additional drinks on board the plane. You got a drink with your meal and 1 more inbetween. And the cornetto was a tiny snack size one, that was rather melted!!

There flights are cheap, were trying monarch next with a £99 upgrade. Might be good, who knows ??? Hope you have a great time out there, am so envious. We dont go until sept 2012.

Birdie85

Thanks for the tip Nuttyp! We flew with TC in February but we went Premium Economy, assuming it to be the same as Thomsons but it was dreadful in comparison (although still free drinks all flight, if you could catch someone to serve you...) but by then we'd already booked Florida so it was too late! And now they tell us that they're removing PE and just extending leg room for all seats so no more free drinks and whatever else they claim to give you in PE! I think they're removing the seat back TVs too, not that the entertainment on board was any good! After this holiday we're not planning on using TC again, we'll pay the extra to go with Virgin!

polzovatel

Birdie85 wrote: »

Thanks for the tip Nuttyp! We flew with TC in February but we went Premium Economy, assuming it to be the same as Thomsons but it was dreadful in comparison (although still free drinks all flight, if you could catch someone to serve you...) but by then we'd already booked Florida so it was too late! And now they tell us that they're removing PE and just extending leg room for all seats so no more free drinks and whatever else they claim to give you in PE! I think they're removing the seat back TVs too, not that the entertainment on board was any good! After this holiday we're not planning on using TC again, we'll pay the extra to go with Virgin!

I would like to go from Manchester so Virgin and Continental are the only every day option . Do they have sales at some point? Do the prices go down significantly in their sale? Is there any chance that the prices will drop closer to the date ( last minute?)
Is this hotel any good
Hotel Sonesta Orlando Downtown - about £40 a night for a 4(?) star , the stars seems to be different on different sites,.
Is it to far from the parks?
Do 3 star hotels in Orlando have an air con?
Thanks

vyle

Just got back from my 7 day holiday in orlando. Flew with Thomson who were really good -- except for the girl at the check in on the outbound flight who first asked where we were flying (despite her being in front of the big sign saying "Sandford Orlando Checkins") and didn't accept Sanford or Orlando as answers, then wanted to know the name, zipcode and address of where we were staying, even though tomson themselves only provided us with the name and address, no zip.

Her colleague then told her not to be so pedantic. I'm a bit surprised they didn't have a disney resort reference sheet to hand. I've never been asked the zip code of my hotel before.

Anyway, we were flying premium economy (my partner's 6ft5 so we needed leg room) and the flight was very good. They offered free drinks throughout the flight, which seemed to include alcohol as well, but I only had water and lemonade. There were a few good things to watch on the entertainment system, but I had my netbook and DS so I didn't use that much. The food, for airline food, was really nice and the staff were friendly.

We managed to do all four disney parks in 3 days (my partner did also get heat exhaustion, but hey, 3 days is cheaper than doing a full day or more for each lol), with three days rest in between at the hotel/playing minigolf/visiting downtown disney.

The food on the resorts is more expensive than last time I was there, so if you drive (which we don't) i recommend going offsite to golden corral which charges something like 10.99 for all you can eat. As we don't drive, factoring in taxi costs would make it as expensive as eating in disney anyway.

However, there are various takeaways that deliver onto disney property, such as flippers pizza, who do delicious pizzas, and the smallest they do (12") is big enough for most couples to share.

Mrs_Egg

Birdie85 wrote: »

Can anyone tell me if the park tickets from Travel Republic are actual tickets or vouchers to be redeemed on arrival? And the tickets from the official WDW Site? I have a feeling that the Disney tickets are a print out to then be collected from a booth, where are the booths located and how awkward is it to collect? I suppose it won't be the end of the world if we have to go to Downtown Disney on our first day there, will be a good way of breaking OH into the magic!

I think I've found the cheapest deal for tickets but can you confirm or point me in the direction of better deals?

I'm planning on getting:
Disney's 14-Day Ultimate ticket WDW Offical site £220
Universal 2-Park Bonus 14 Day Ticket Travel Republic £85
Seaworld, Aquatica & Busch Gardens Travel Republic £73

TIA

We brought our disney and universal tickets from travel republic a couple of weeks ago and confirm they are tickets rather than anything you need to exchange when you arrive. The delievery was really quick too, came in a couple of days, needs to be signed for though.

Birdie85

Mrs_Egg wrote: »

We brought our disney and universal tickets from travel republic a couple of weeks ago and confirm they are tickets rather than anything you need to exchange when you arrive. The delievery was really quick too, came in a couple of days, needs to be signed for though.

That's great to know, thank you!

I keep forgetting to actually order the darn tickets, must do it this weekend so I know they're sorted and I can relax knowing that we're all good to go! I've printed out an itinerary and filled it in with all the parks we're going to and I'm starting to write in the restaurants I want to eat in too, OH thinks I've gone mad but I don't want to miss anything!

Mrs_Egg

polzovatel wrote: »

Can anyone recommend a decent, inexpensive, 3 star hotel in Orlando ?

Can you recommend any of these:
Champions World Resort
Ramada Gateway Hotel and Inn
The Orlando Metropolitan Express
Destiny Palms Hotel Maingate West

Thanks

I've stayed at the Ramada Gateway Hotel and Inn at Kissimee before, the hotel was pretty basic, had 2 double beds, tv, hair dryer and safe but no fridge or anything like that. The hotel itself was a typical american hotel nothing fancy. The pool was clean but may be a little small and there is a small gym on site. For the money it was good value as it was more of a place to crash. We don't have kids or anything just the two of us so it was all we needed. Wasn't a charge for car park and its just off the 192 so about 10 minutes to disney 25 minutes to universal if your driving i would say and lots of restaurants around you. Aslong as you are not expecting too much its not a bad hotel for the price. It has aircon too forgot to say. We went there in 2008.

We have chosen to go somewhere else when we go next week as we wanted to try another location and have seperate living/sleep accomodation.

I Hope thats of some help!