Orlando & Florida - Questions & Answers (Part 1) *CLOSED*

Edinburghlass_2

Disney have extended the free dining plan to UK visitors if you book now for holidays taken from 12 August to 29 September 2007. You must book a five day or more stay onsite at Disney and buy minimum 5 day ticket for Disney Parks.

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdwi/en_GB/special/offerDetail?id=DiningOfferPage

It appears from what I read on www.disboards.com that Virgin and First Choice are adding the free dining plan into their holidays where you stay onsite. Good deal if it fits in with your holiday dates

http://www.virginholidays.co.uk/brochures/florida/info/moredisney/

From what I have read Virgin will adjust your holiday to include this if you have already booked with them

terrierlady

Regarding the car hire insurance with Dollar,Travel city Direct would supply the cars on the fly drive package they say that their platinum deal is the best does this include everything we need or should we take out extra insurance? anyone used them before please.

Murphy_The_Cat

terrierlady wrote:

Regarding the car hire insurance with Dollar,Travel city Direct would supply the cars on the fly drive package they say that their platinum deal is the best does this include everything we need or should we take out extra insurance? anyone used them before please.

Hi terrierlady

I don't know if it's the best, but some people on here have said that it is hugely expensive and very much over priced. One suggestion is to use Travel City Direct for the flight ONLY (i.e say that you are going to do fly DRIVE, but never actually use the car) and book a hire car independantly.

As a rough guide, www,floridavehiclehire.co.uk (via alamo) would charge you £187 for a fortnights rental on a Compact car, inc all insurances, a tank of fuel and 3 insured drivers. Wheras Travelcitydirect could be charging you a great deal more than that for the insurance alone on top of the "free" car.

Just some food for thought for you.

MTC

terrierlady

him in doors already booked so travel city direct/Dollar it is all Im worried about now is the insurance angle but thanks for your suggestion that would have been my choice!!!

Amys

Travel City Direct include the insurance with te proce quoted. The only thing the platinum upgrade does is give you a tank of fuel, so youtake the car out full and bring it back empty and allow for an extra driver of 25. It is between £20 - £40 and may be worth it as they charge well over the odds for petrol.

The tell them you want the car and don't use it trick does not work iwth TCD as tney already charge for the insurance in the price quoted, they do not like to quote without it and if you don't take the car then the price of the flight goes up. If you have booked with TCD you will have full insurance, so do not worry.

This trick does work with Virgin where on the booking form you tell them what insurance y0ou want and have the option to say none.

Backbiter

Amys wrote:

This trick does work with Virgin where on the booking form you tell them what insurance y0ou want and have the option to say none.

I went with Virgin but didn't take their car. I wanted to upgrade to a 7 seater but this would have sent the cost for 18 days from £485 to £710 for platinum cover. I got a quote from Airline Network for a 7 seater (with Dollar, same as Virgin) and it was for £490 (all in - platinum, petrol extra driver etc)for the 7 seater - an astounding saving. I rang Virgin to remove the insurance from the invoice. They were fine about it but did charge £25 amendment fee.

I'm relieved we went for the bigger vehicle for a family of 5 with 3 cases plus hand luggage - it would never have fitted in the car they'd allocated.

Murphy_The_Cat

Amys wrote:

Travel City Direct include the insurance with te proce quoted. The only thing the platinum upgrade does is give you a tank of fuel, so youtake the car out full and bring it back empty and allow for an extra driver of 25. It is between £20 - £40 and may be worth it as they charge well over the odds for petrol.

The tell them you want the car and don't use it trick does not work iwth TCD as tney already charge for the insurance in the price quoted, they do not like to quote without it and if you don't take the car then the price of the flight goes up. If you have booked with TCD you will have full insurance, so do not worry.

This trick does work with Virgin where on the booking form you tell them what insurance y0ou want and have the option to say none.

Hi Amys

I don't think that I was very clear in my earlier reply to terrierlady.

The compact car hire option with Travelcitydirect adds £358 to the price of the flight whereas other operators would only charge you £187. So in effect Travelcitydirect are subsidising the cheapflight by charging alot for the car.
I tried to get onto the TCD website this morning and get the exact figures but the site was down for some reason.
You are correct regarding Virgin though - I was confusing the two different operators.

That being said on the date that I put into the computer £714 for 2 people including a compact car for a fortnight isn't to shabby at all !

terrierlady, back to your origiinal question - yes I would take the platinum insurance upgrade. For the ease of having multiple drivers it's a real Brucie, and if you go for a bigger car that takes 20 gals of fuel you're onto a real winner. Just make sure that you take it back as close to empty as you can.!

MTC

Poppy9

When we went with TCD we took up their offer of upgrading to a family size car from compact with platinum insurance for £40 for two weeks (the offer came with the tickets and info). When we collected car from Dollar we then asked nicely for their best price to upgrade to a people carrier. We paid $110 for two weeks (about £60) - this is much cheaper than TCD upgrade. Also when we asked she did look at what we had pre-ordered and said "Oh you have platinum insurance" so I think it made a difference.

On our second trip we booked everything independently i.e. flight, car, apartment. We paid £376 for 2 weeks for a people carrier with top insurance and full tank of petrol for any driver over 25.

Amys

Yep TCD subsidise the cost of the flight with the car. I was answering terrier lady who was worried about the insurance after already booking with TCD.

If you call TCD and book without a car they add more to the flight. Overall, if does not work out a bad price if you look at the total, but they are not the cheapest and it can work out a lot cheaper booking the components seperately.

Peronsally I do not liek TCD I have used them and would not use them agian, but everyone has different experiences.

terrierlady

Right have checked the ticket site and its down the tel is OK so ordered over that, travel city is now up and running and yes the platinum insurance is what we have ordered as two drivers for each mini van. With the grand children I thought it would best will still argue over who sits where no doubt ,MUST remember to leave the car empty thanks for that tip.all thats left is travel insurance I gather if you bank with Nat west ( I have an old dormant account) upgrade to advantage,free travel insurance is included then you can cancel within 3 months and get funds back.
For the children Insure and Go looks good.Anyone used either?
Travel City Direct were the best price overall with so many going it really counted plus meals included and head sets for the childrens to keep them amused in flight.