Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

fiveinourhouse_2

Hi Can anyone help. We are a family of five, two adults and three children aged 7, 9 and 11. We would love to go to Disneyland as a family but every time I have looked into it over the past couple of years I have felt completely out of my depth, both with the amount of information available and the financial output.

I keep hearing stories about cheep deals and other people that manage to make it there but wonder just how it is possible. We managed to take the children to Lego land last year and found that having a larger family really pushed the price up as we had to take two hotel rooms.

We have never been abroad with the children before and would love to make this trip a reality.

What sort of budget should we be looking towards raising? and does anyone have any advice on how to cut costs to make this possible or am I only dreaming?

Husband is a teacher so our only limitation would be that it would have to be during the Scottish school holidays. I wish money grew on trees.

Thanks you in advance.

blue_monkey_2

Birdie - click on the kids section of the USA site of RFC, they have 'reward certificates' and you can get a kids meals for 99c with this. We have used them for evening meal and breakfast.

I have heard you can use them in T-Rex as they are the same group but cannot confrm this as it was heaving when we tried to get in. I'd definately recommend booking if you can - if you are tight for time when you get there, you can usually call locally from your hotel (is usually free for local calls) and get the time moved.

blue_monkey_2

fiveinourhouse wrote: »

Hi Can anyone help. We are a family of five, two adults and three children aged 7, 9 and 11. We would love to go to Disneyland as a family but every time I have looked into it over the past couple of years I have felt completely out of my depth, both with the amount of information available and the financial output.

I keep hearing stories about cheep deals and other people that manage to make it there but wonder just how it is possible. We managed to take the children to Lego land last year and found that having a larger family really pushed the price up as we had to take two hotel rooms.

We have never been abroad with the children before and would love to make this trip a reality.

What sort of budget should we be looking towards raising? and does anyone have any advice on how to cut costs to make this possible or am I only dreaming?

Husband is a teacher so our only limitation would be that it would have to be during the Scottish school holidays. I wish money grew on trees.

Thanks you in advance.

For the 5 of you I'd be looking at saving a minimum of £7k for tickets, food and accomodation. A child becomes an adult when they hit 9 so you need to be aware of this for tickets and dining options.

If you can, stay in Disney accomodation when free dining is on. That will save you £1500 on food and, even with days out elsewhere, you can juggle the free meals to get breakfasts, lunches and evening meals. Have a look at Wilderness Lodge as they have cabins that sleep up to 8 and the prices are not too bad with free dining. However, you might only be able to book these with the Walt Disney World website.

Flights, if you want to fly indirect I am sure you can get them at a good enough price. The time of year you go will make a difference, if you can go towards the end of the summer holidays then you'll get it a bit cheaper. We have found Easter for 2012 quite cheap but they have pretty much gone now, maybe aim for Easter 2013. But then you'll not get free dining plan - it is swings and roundabouts.

I would price up holidays for this year and see how much they are and add £500 on for next year to allow for prices going up. Do this and come back with more questions. It is kind of like asking 'how long is a peice of string' with Florida as everyone has different ideals, some want to drive, some do not.

You need to ask the following:

Agent or book seperately?

Flights - indrect or direct? Indirect cheaper but will take much longer (one chap we spoke to said because of storms in Boston, it took him 48 hours and he lost some of his holiday sitting in the airport waiting for his connection).

Do you want to hire a car - find out all of the costs accosiated with it. ight be cheaper to get cabs depending on where you stay and what you want to do. Disney had it's own trasportation system so if staying in Disney you'll not need a car for all of your stay, they even give free transport to and from your hotel from Orlando International (not Sandford - Sandford is much fruther away).

Accomodation - Where do you want to stay? Villa (only if you have a car!!), Hotel, Condo (like an apartment) or at a Disney site (can get free dining). or maybe you want to stay a few different hotels, we use the changeover day as a rest day (or everyone else does! I am packing.unpacking!)

Tickets - what do you want to do? What parks, experiences. How many days you are there, allow at least 1 day for each park - more if there are lots you want to do or if you go at peak times.

To be honest, you could spend hours looking for discounts and bargains, for us, for the sake of saving a few ££ it's not worth the hassle. There are obvious savings but sometimes, to travel different sites to save £5 on a ticket is not worth it for me, I would rather buy from a reputable agency where I know I am going to get my tickets.

I hope that helps a little. It is a minefield but you want to determine the above and then start looking to see how much it is going to cost.

chaosweddings

fiveinourhouse wrote: »

Hi Can anyone help. We are a family of five, two adults and three children aged 7, 9 and 11. We would love to go to Disneyland as a family but every time I have looked into it over the past couple of years I have felt completely out of my depth, both with the amount of information available and the financial output.



What sort of budget should we be looking towards raising? and does anyone have any advice on how to cut costs to make this possible or am I only dreaming?

We are going next october half term 3 adults and 2 x 13 year olds , our direct flights and condo with virgin in coming in at £5119 plus spends and park tickets is coming in at around £8k, but we have been saving since last year. i put a min of £150 each month and my mum and brother are doing the same, dh will be putting money towards it after his new job probation period is over.

it does sound like a lot of money but seeing the kids faces and how much fun you will have is brilliant

fairy-paige

Hi fiveinourhouse, there are 5 in ours also! And we manged to visit florida for 2weeks last october.
In all we spent £6500. this included, flights for us all (2 adults & 3 squids), villa for 2 weeks, car hire, orlando flex tickets for all (these are a fab deal if u want to do some non disney parks, they include 14 days unlimited use of: both universal parks, seaworld, wet n wild, and aquatica.:D) We also did, 1 day magic kingdom, 1 day hollywood studios. this amount also includes our spending monies and food. we saved money on food by eating at the villa, but also had many lovely meals out, the favourite being logans steak house and a special meal at Rainforest Cafe. We saved loads of money by taking snacks and bottled water into the parks, and by buying souveniers from discount outlets and good old walmart!! Doing seperate bookings for accomadation, flights etc is worth it if u are on a tight budget like us. BEWARE: orlando is addictive!!! :rotfl:we are now desperate to go bck!

LucyLocket

gemnjordsnjades wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. I am thinking the direct flight will be better also, especially as we will have an infant travelling with us. For 100pound extra its worth it. The savings are big compared to a package but what are the downsides? Ive booked a holiday in this way before to greece but im slightly nervous about planning such a big holiday in this way.
We won't be hiring a car as we are only planning on doing disney this time and hope to go again next year to do the other parks. Apparantly there is a bus you can get outside the hotel into the disney parks, does anyone know how much it costs? Can you buy a weekly or longer ticket for it?
Also Ive heard about tickets you can get so that kids eat free per adult meal purchased. Where do you get these and how much do they cost?

Hi,
if you are intending to visit the disney parks only (and I think as you havent been before you will find plenty there to occupy you) can I suggest that you might be better off staying nearer disney perhaps in Lake Buena Vista rather than on idrive ? Otherwise your journey to the parks by public transport could take quite a long time and get quite tiring. HTH

ETA the Clarion Lake Buena Vista is available at bookit.com for about £30 a night. Obviously that's a little more than the econolodge but it is a great deal closer to the parks you are intending to visit and provides free shuttle to the parks. It is also in walking distance of a range of reasonable restaurants and at a push you could also walk into the Downtown Disney area which is great fun, particularly for kids.

Birdie85

blue_monkey wrote: »

Birdie - click on the kids section of the USA site of RFC, they have 'reward certificates' and you can get a kids meals for 99c with this. We have used them for evening meal and breakfast.

I have heard you can use them in T-Rex as they are the same group but cannot confrm this as it was heaving when we tried to get in. I'd definately recommend booking if you can - if you are tight for time when you get there, you can usually call locally from your hotel (is usually free for local calls) and get the time moved.

Thanks for the tip! Going to have a look tonight, sound silly but do you have to have kids with you or can big'uns eat a kids meal?!

Do you know how much it is to join the RFC Safari Club? It says you ahve to do it in store, but not how much it is. Could be worth it as it gives 10% off merchandise and main meals in the group's restaurants and there are a few on the list that we want to visit anyway!

blue_monkey_2

Birdie85 wrote: »

Thanks for the tip! Going to have a look tonight, sound silly but do you have to have kids with you or can big'uns eat a kids meal?!

Do you know how much it is to join the RFC Safari Club? It says you ahve to do it in store, but not how much it is. Could be worth it as it gives 10% off merchandise and main meals in the group's restaurants and there are a few on the list that we want to visit anyway!

Yes, you have to have kids with you, it's under 12s though if you are thinking it is under 9's.

Apparently the RFC is $15 to join: http://www.passporterboards.com/forums/office-budgeting-reward-programs/122864-rainforest-cafe-safari-club.html

Let us know if you do, fancy that myself, we eat there once for dinner and once for breakfast whenever we go.

I don't think they are as good as what they were when they first opened. The menu seems to have shrunk slowly over the years too.

Paddywack41

fiveinourhouse wrote: »

Hi Can anyone help. We are a family of five, two adults and three children aged 7, 9 and 11. We would love to go to Disneyland as a family but every time I have looked into it over the past couple of years I have felt completely out of my depth, both with the amount of information available and the financial output.

I keep hearing stories about cheep deals and other people that manage to make it there but wonder just how it is possible. We managed to take the children to Lego land last year and found that having a larger family really pushed the price up as we had to take two hotel rooms.

We have never been abroad with the children before and would love to make this trip a reality.

What sort of budget should we be looking towards raising? and does anyone have any advice on how to cut costs to make this possible or am I only dreaming?

Husband is a teacher so our only limitation would be that it would have to be during the Scottish school holidays. I wish money grew on trees.

Thanks you in advance.

The choices in Orlando and the vagouries of flying in Britain make it extremely hard to give hard and fast figures for budgeting. As others have said your choice of where to stay, hiring car etch will have a big impact.

Our example is as follows:

We are 2 Adults and 2 kids (11 and 17) so you might as well say 4 adults. We are flying from Belfast on 10th July (which is normally more expensive than mainland uk) and the costs have been so far:

Flights - £2,000 (Thomas Cook)...I know they are the pits but we can live with it for 9 hours.

Villa - Sunridge Woods 4 Bedroom/Pool-£750 (Homeaway) - We didnt want to crowd into a single room and the cost of hiring either a larger suite or two rooms in a hotel is prohibitive. It also gives you the option of a cheaper day by the pool and cooking a meal in the villa.

Car (Medium Sized) - 278 (Carhire 3000) -If you have a hotel on I Drive you can live without it if you want but if you have a villa you will need a car. (personally I enjoy driving out there so hire a car whether we are in hotel or villa.

Tickets Etc

We havent bought these yet but based on our trip in April:

Universal/IOA £85 Each The Flexiticket as mentioned by others is a good buy if you want sea world etc.

Disney - We have been before so we only bought tickets on the day to Magic Kingdom and Holywood Studios (Approx $89 Each) remember if you do buy individual tickets keep them as they allow you to upgrade at a discount if you go to another Disney Park.

You may well be a family that enjoys things other than the theme parks in which case you can pick and choose and then do something different on other days. There are plenty of lovely places to visit both on each of the coasts and inland and plenty of national parks that are free or inexpensive if you want that sort of thing.

Personnally (and this is only my opinion) i would give a lot of the secondary attractions such as Ripleys, Wonderwork etc a miss. Expensive for what you get and not likely to take more than 2 hours of your time at best.

Food

This is a bit of an unknown as it depends on your likes and dislikes. Like most places you can eat expensive or eat cheap or anywhere inbetween. AS an example you could have a large breakfast and dinner at any of the many buffet style restuarants and for a family of 4 adults it would come to around $70 per day or you could have a single meal in the parks for four adults at around the same price.

So as you can see its pretty much dependent on what you want to do. Certain things are essential so budget them first then decide realistically what you want to do. And then start putting the budget together fully....if it becomes expensive see what you can live without. I think the biggest mistake i ever made going to Orlando was the first time going and trying to do absolutely everything there was to do. There is always another holiday.

Paddywack41

gemnjordsnjades wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. I am thinking the direct flight will be better also, especially as we will have an infant travelling with us. For 100pound extra its worth it. The savings are big compared to a package but what are the downsides? Ive booked a holiday in this way before to greece but im slightly nervous about planning such a big holiday in this way.
We wont be hiring a car as we are only planning on doing disney this time and hope to go again next year to do the other parks. Apparantly there is a bus you can get outside the hotel into the disney parks, does anyone know how much it costs? Can you buy a weekly or longer ticket for it?
Also Ive heard about tickets you can get so that kids eat free per adult meal purchased. Where do you get these and how much do they cost?

I think the direct flights are a wise move. A lot of the hotels do buses to the Disney Parks...they used to be free (apart from a tip) when i used them but I suspect that there is a fee now. Bear in mind that using these you will be limited to the pickup windows both going and coming back. Journey times arent that bad.