Orlando/Disneyworld Thread (Part 3)

daniel.thomas

hi again guys thanks for all your help, But it looks like we are going to give Orlando a shot and go for a house the year after>

main reason: I just got my credit file :eek: £100 overdraft no chance
100,000 mortgage :rotfl:

ok so we looked at holiday prices this morning and want 21 days(may as well do it right.
but we have been offered the Disney dinning exp. Me and my wife are at grid lock over this.
I want to get the $20 kids eat free card and eat out, I think we will spend less
she thinks the upgrade to a disney hotel with FREE Disney dinning is the better option.


How Disney Dining Plans Work

When booking your holiday, select the Disney Dining Plan that meets your needs and budget. You will receive the Dining Plan's meal/snack allocation for each night of your Resort hotel stay.
While on holiday at Walt Disney World Resort, choose from over 100 select restaurants available.
Present your Key to the World card to your server or cashier prior to ordering. The Key to the World card electronically monitors your party's allocated meals.
Track your meals with the easy-to-read receipt your server will provide you, which displays your remaining meal balance.
Redeem your meals in any order throughout your holiday until each person's meal total is complete.
Benefits of Purchasing a Disney Dining Plan

You'll pay in pounds sterling for much of your holiday dining, so you won't need to exchange as much currency or carry as much cash.
By planning the cost of dining in advance, you may find it easier to stay within your holiday budget.
With the Disney Dining Plan, you can save up to 40% off the cost of meals purchases individually.
Select the Disney Dining Plan that's right for you:

Quick-Service Dining Plan (per night stay)

2 quick (counter)-service meals
2 snacks
1 refillable Resort mug per person

cost with £6400
cost with out £4300

thats for a family of 4 (2A2C) for 21 days
its almost 2k on top of the price, can any one send me in the right direction
what will be better value for money ?

clairey1208

£6400 is a lot of money but its all down to personal choice!

We're a family of 5 so even with the free dining plan, staying onsite at Disney isn't cost effective for us. If you plan on driving Kissimmee is great & really close to Disney or if you need to use buses International Drive is much better. Personally I like to have a villa or apartment with separate rooms so we all get a better nights sleep & can use the kitchen for breakfast & light meals.

Don't forget there's so much more to do as well as Disney & if you go offsite you will need spending money. You may find 3 weeks on site too much & as well as getting a much better deal off site you'll be better placed to visit other parks - Seaworld, Aquatica, Universal & Bush Gardens are in their own ticket group & at 5,7 & 11 my kids enjoyed these parks just as much as Disney.

At 5 & 7 you may find your kids too young to do some of the things they want to do. My 5 year old really wanted to swim with dolphins (as did the rest of us lol) but the minimum age is 6, so we will all be doing that together when we go back in a few years time. (Be aware that Florida is very addictive & I know many people who's once in a lifetime holiday becomes a regular occurance!!!)

For 2 weeks we budget around £1000 each to cover flights, accommodation, car hire, park tickets & food & we don't book till this is realistic! This year we had a really good deal from Charter Travel but previously we have booked everything separately to get the price we wanted.

One last thing if you do want to visit Disneyland Paris go there before Florida because it really doesn't compare!!!

I hope my post doesn't come across too negative I just wanted you to be aware of some of the other options! HTH

pinkzebra

Counter service meals are fine, but the kids may well get fed up with the food options after 3 weeks - burger & fries, Nuggets & fries, mac n cheese etc.

If you stayed offsite it would be loads cheaper. Stay in an apartment, or a hotel which offers free breakfast (like the Hyatt Place or Fairfield Inn). If you eat loads at breakfast, you won't need as much lunch.

The kids eat free card - be aware that you can't use any discount coupons with this card. It often works out cheaper to pick up loads of free discount coupon books (found outside shops etc) and use them instead.

Sign up to restaurants websites before you leave. Ie Cici's, Sweet Tomatoes etc, and they will email you coupons like 'buy 1 meal, get free'.

If you are very savvy, you can eat out at Sweet Tomatoes for less than $20 for the 4 of you.

jjmack

Planning a trip to Disney in Oct (last 2 weeks) .... what a minefield!

Weather in Oct says its still likely to be 70 deg, but I hadn't factored in the risk of hurricanes - is this likely? Is Oct a rubbish time to go?

Looking for a villa- should I book direct with american owners, or via english sites or go package.

i have absolutely no idea where to start HELP!!!!!!!

consumermonkey

Hiya. I havent been on this forum for a while, but here is my humble opinion on Orlando.

I am 41 this year. In 2009 my Mother had her 60th birthday and my present to her was a holiday of her choosing. Her first option was Bennidorm. We got prices and discoverd one week all inclusve there was only a little less than TWO weeks in a cheap hotel in I-Drive. OK, so that was just flights, transfers and accomodation. Meals, tickets etc were of course extra, however my budget at the time allowed for that.

WE HAD THE BEST HOLIDAY EVER!

Earlier this year I visited Orlando solo for 8 nights to "do" the Harry Potter bit at Universal Orlando and again loved it.

Both of these holidays were done "on the cheap" via expedia for the latest one and the very lowest deal I could get in the travel agents for the first (Benidorm was priced at £490, Orlando was £515 each at the time)

We have just booked another Orlando holiday for early next year. We are not a family with money. We work very hard for our pennies, but have found that although the cost is more than a wet weekend in Barry Island, you also get much more bang for your buck too. We all STILL, three years after the first Orlando holiday refer back to the memories and we are all adults. I cannot imagine the memories when travelling with children.

Do your homework. Check out forums. Get at least one up to date guide book (I reccomend the ones by Unofficial Guides) and Plan, Plan, Plan. It makes the holiday much better and for me it is just as enjoyable as the holiday itself.

Clearly, if its the decission of paying the mortgage, the car or the holiday, of course give the holiday the elbow, but if you look around, you can get some great prices and compare how much your other holidays cost in the past too.

lush1

jjmack wrote: »

Planning a trip to Disney in Oct (last 2 weeks) .... what a minefield!

Weather in Oct says its still likely to be 70 deg, but I hadn't factored in the risk of hurricanes - is this likely? Is Oct a rubbish time to go?

Looking for a villa- should I book direct with american owners, or via english sites or go package.

i have absolutely no idea where to start HELP!!!!!!!

Hi, october is a good time to go, especially late october early november, the last week of october is usually half term in the uk so as such there are usually quite a few brits out there although not as many as at easter time, i have been in april, october and november, april was very busy long queues at rides and very warm, october was busy but not too packed and loved the fact that we could do all the halloween stuff (especially in universal) the weather is still warm 70-80 with occasional showers in afternoon but nothing too heavy and because its warm it dries out quick, november as long as you avoid thanksgiving week is the best time to go in my opinion, the parks are so much quieter, there is less rainfall and the temprature is usually still in the 70's, this is usually the cheapest time to go too, check out some quotes and see for yourself. Can recomend 'cypress pointe' its in lake beuna vista so not far from downtown disney, nearer than international drive and kissimie, there apartments are well maintained spacious and have all the home comforts, however you will need to hire a car if you stop here as there is no scheduled transport to the parks, however if you can afford it 'animal kingdom with a savannah view room' was the nuts :j

holidaysforme

consumermonkey wrote: »

Hiya. I havent been on this forum for a while, but here is my humble opinion on Orlando.

I am 41 this year. In 2009 my Mother had her 60th birthday and my present to her was a holiday of her choosing. Her first option was Bennidorm. We got prices and discoverd one week all inclusve there was only a little less than TWO weeks in a cheap hotel in I-Drive. OK, so that was just flights, transfers and accomodation. Meals, tickets etc were of course extra, however my budget at the time allowed for that.

WE HAD THE BEST HOLIDAY EVER!

Earlier this year I visited Orlando solo for 8 nights to "do" the Harry Potter bit at Universal Orlando and again loved it.

Both of these holidays were done "on the cheap" via expedia for the latest one and the very lowest deal I could get in the travel agents for the first (Benidorm was priced at £490, Orlando was £515 each at the time)

We have just booked another Orlando holiday for early next year. We are not a family with money. We work very hard for our pennies, but have found that although the cost is more than a wet weekend in Barry Island, you also get much more bang for your buck too. We all STILL, three years after the first Orlando holiday refer back to the memories and we are all adults. I cannot imagine the memories when travelling with children.

Do your homework. Check out forums. Get at least one up to date guide book (I reccomend the ones by Unofficial Guides) and Plan, Plan, Plan. It makes the holiday much better and for me it is just as enjoyable as the holiday itself.

Clearly, if its the decission of paying the mortgage, the car or the holiday, of course give the holiday the elbow, but if you look around, you can get some great prices and compare how much your other holidays cost in the past too.

Hi. Your post has inspired me. I am seriously
thinking of going to florida in 2014. We would be going for two weeks,-two adult sand 1 13 year old at easter time. I am at the very early stages of thinking/planning and really have no idea where to start. This thread will be a good start though.
I will read it all the way through and try and digest all of the information on here before i start to plan properly
I have no idea whether to go for a package or try and book it all seperetly. I've looked at packages with virgin and cosmos for next easter march/april to get an idea of price, and there is a huge variation in price,- some eye wateringly expensive:eek:
I was wondering what kind of money i'm looking at spending. Would i for example be able to get flights and accom (two weeks in a villa near the parks) for areound £2,500 if i booked everything early. Is this a realistic amount, of would i need to spend a lot more. Also what about spending money? Would £1,500 be enough spending money for a two week visit, (so around £4,000 in all)or am i way off the mark?? I'm just trying to get an idea of what is realistic money wise at the moment. I have started a seperete savings holiday fund , and would want to have enough by this time next year to at least book flights if doing it all seperately or enough to book a full on package.
Any advive would be great, or some deas about where and when to start planning, and most importantly of all whether i am on the right track regarding cost.
Any help or advice gratefully recieved. Xx

lush1

holidaysforme wrote: »

Hi. Your post has inspired me. I am seriously
thinking of going to florida in 2014. We would be going for two weeks,-two adult sand 1 13 year old at easter time. I am at the very early stages of thinking/planning and really have no idea where to start. This thread will be a good start though.
I will read it all the way through and try and digest all of the information on here before i start to plan properly
I have no idea whether to go for a package or try and book it all seperetly. I've looked at packages with virgin and cosmos for next easter march/april to get an idea of price, and there is a huge variation in price,- some eye wateringly expensive:eek:
I was wondering what kind of money i'm looking at spending. Would i for example be able to get flights and accom (two weeks in a villa near the parks) for areound £2,500 if i booked everything early. Is this a realistic amount, of would i need to spend a lot more. Also what about spending money? Would £1,500 be enough spending money for a two week visit, (so around £4,000 in all)or am i way off the mark?? I'm just trying to get an idea of what is realistic money wise at the moment. I have started a seperete savings holiday fund , and would want to have enough by this time next year to at least book flights if doing it all seperately or enough to book a full on package.
Any advive would be great, or some deas about where and when to start planning, and most importantly of all whether i am on the right track regarding cost.
Any help or advice gratefully recieved. Xx

Hi, check out travelcitydirect.....they are owned by virgin but i usually find our quotes for party of 3 have been at least £500 cheaper than with virgin.

Crispy_Ambulance

Don't forget the cost of the park tickets - that will bump up your costs considerably.

holidaysforme

Thanks both. As i say i am just at the very early stages of planning,- in fact i still have to convince hubby who would much rather do a road trip across the states for a month in an rv:D i want to do do both, but that's not going to happen anytime soon unless we win the lottery.:eek:
Anyway, i will start researching travel costs parks, car hire and flights, etc and read through the many forums which seem to abound regarding orlando and disney. Just really wanted to see if my budget was realistic before we set the wheels in motion.

We will set ourselves a budget and work around that rather than theother way Round, as we still want to go on holiday next year although we will scale back a fair bit.