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

pompeyrich

Vanilla8 and troll, Broadway travel have 14 nights hotel, My Travel flights from from Gatwick on 14th Aug for 2 weeks for 2ads+1ch from £1869 total, need to add car hire and park tickets, insurance etc. Not sure what they are like, good I hope as I have booked a villa with them for a very good price, but it is a start, sure you will get more replys and price guidance soon.

ckerrd

There are 3 of us going in August, MyTravel Premair or whatever it is called. Approx £1900 from Glasgow and a villa for under £800.

Decided on a villa to give us some free space a pool, albeit small, and a place to chill and more control over our eating habits. Not booked car yet but will be doing so this weekend.

Mike_J

Given the followign choices for May 2008 which would people go for
2 weeks staying at renassaince hotel opposite Sea World 2 adults 1 teenager and 1 child NO CAR!

Direct holidays £2800

Virgin Holidays £3150 (after my FVC discount) and then further £60 off the tickets (which at present for SeaWorld are compariable of not little cheaper than buying direct)

Have flown many times with Virgin but is it worth the extra £300ish for couple of extra free meals, flight into Orlando direct, full onboard entertainment, free drinks on flights etc (some of these options are £150 each extra with Direct Holidays but not sure if they would really mount up to that) . Im also +6ft and some have said direct holiday flights are a bit squashed up etc.

Any thoughts?

Mike_J

jarr wrote: »

few questions
1. when is the best weather
2. disney hotel v 'normal' hotel is it worth it?

1. I agree with other post of November but go beginning. Thanksgiving at end of November = more people = more queues

2. We stayed in both and it really depends on what you want to do during your stay. The year we stayed in Disney the kids only wanted to do Disney. This menat we didnt need a car, didnt pay extra insurance, fuel, car parkings etc, which meant the additional cost came down. With young children the advantage of staying in Disney is you feel you can come and go when you want (none of the Ive paid for the day, im here for the day mentallity). Some parks also did early admission for disney hotel guests. The trsanportation is fine so absolutely no need for a car. The downside is you're stuck at Disney! The two weeks we had in Disney Hotel worked out £75 cheaper overall than if we did the same things but stayed at an I DRive hotel and drove to Disney each day (and back after the parks had closed. Now the kids are older (14 & 10) we would never stay at a Disney hotel as they just dont want to do it!

Edinburghlass_2

Mike_J wrote: »

Given the followign choices for May 2008 which would people go for
2 weeks staying at renassaince hotel opposite Sea World 2 adults 1 teenager and 1 child NO CAR!

Direct holidays £2800

Virgin Holidays £3150 (after my FVC discount) and then further £60 off the tickets (which at present for SeaWorld are compariable of not little cheaper than buying direct)

Have flown many times with Virgin but is it worth the extra £300ish for couple of extra free meals, flight into Orlando direct, full onboard entertainment, free drinks on flights etc (some of these options are £150 each extra with Direct Holidays but not sure if they would really mount up to that) . Im also +6ft and some have said direct holiday flights are a bit squashed up etc.

Any thoughts?

I would take the cost of tickets for Seaworld out of the equation as they really are pretty cheap to buy, just bought 2 direct from the Seaworld website with a "code" (always a code/offer to be found for SW) and a one day ticket gives you free entry for 7 days. Cost was £56 for 2 people.

steveo3002

am i hoping fo too much for a last min bargain for florida? do they exist?

where should i look if they ever come up

vanilla8

troll35 wrote: »

Vanilla8 you're in the same boat as us. 2 adults, one 10yr old. We also want to go in August, last two weeks of the summer holiday but don't know where to start. Ideally we would like to do a week of mouse/similar and a week somewhere else....everglades?, keys?, gulf?
From reading some of the advise so far I have gathered that it can be cheaper to book a flydrive but then don't take the car as they charge well over the odds on insurance and if you need a car then book it independently. I'm looking forward to reading some of the responses to your post as they would apply to us too.

Hi Troll,

I have been looking at flydrive on the virgin website but cant find how to get an accurate quote from their site. Obviously flights with virgin would be better than anyone else. We too our looking at only doing one week mouse and then going somewhere else, but are not sure really about the best areas to stay in if we are going to do this.

Am going to look into broadway travel as mentioned by pompeyrich, will let you know what i find

pompeyrich

Thanks for all your help, especially Phillippa and Murphy the Cat, finally managed to book a 3 bedroom villa in Hudson, North of Tampa for £350 for the last week of our Florida holiday in August. Booked it through Holiday Rentals in the end. I particularly liked the site as it has a clickable map, to enable you to search specific areas of the coast, rather than the whole coast. Booked the Orlando part through Broadway travel, 4 beds for 8 nights for the same price, there are so many more villas for rent in the Orlando area that competition is fiercer there and prices less expensive.

Cullumpster

Hi Guys :hello:


Right after all of the huming and ahhing about travelling to the far east we are now going to visit my OH's brother in Utah !!!

Bit of a difference i know, but i have said that if we are going to go to America then i want to 'do' Disney :j

i'm actuall very exited although he's a bit 'whatever'

Anyway my question is: we will be taking my little boy who was one last week is there anything that we would all be able to go on together or is it going to be a switch the baby week ???

I am a rollercoaster fan or anything that scares the poop out of you the better in my opinion, what park would be the best for us we are onl going to stay for a week and then fly over and see his brother..

Thanks

vanilla8

Well we have booked our flights.... a flydrive wih virgin, but are going to rent a seperate car.

We are looking at villas for the first week in orland, to do the theme parks, and then maybe spend the second week around clearwater/tampa.

Does anyone recommend, that seeing as it is our first visit to orlando, that a week is not long enough for the theme parks?