Disneyland, Florida, 2013

bonar

We went in 2008, it was fantastic, really think about a villa, although we enjoyed the disney parks in particular the water parks, but universal studios, sea world busch gardens were much better. We didnt use a travel agent but booked flights, villa and cars separately. It was sooooooooooo easy, priced holiday to florida through virgin for october this year (not going daughter pregnant again) and they wanted £22,000:eek: to stay in disney remember disney does villas as well not just the hotels. enjoy you will have a fab time

fiveinourhouse_2

Hi we are also a family of five - 2 adults and 3 children - well an 8yr old, 10 yr old and a 12 yr old. We are dreaming of a once in a lifetime holiday to Disney and currently save a small amount saved but not much so looking to go next year.

Quick question we are looking to book a villa, fights and car hire all separately. Are we cheaper to wait until nearer the time to book ie. would flights be cheaper?
Also a bit limited to school holidays as we are both teachers, boohoo!
Any advice as to how to make this as cheap as possible would be welcome as we are hoping to go on a budget of 8 thousand if possible other wise we may have to wait another year.
Thanks Fiveinourhouse

VALM

Hi. As others have said I'd steer clear of I Drive now. We have visited WDW 7 times with our most recent visit being last October. Our first visits were in 1995 and 1996. Both times we stayed at the Quality Inn International and at that time I Drive was a lot better. We have stayed at Disney only once at The Contemporary as we were treating ourselves. My husband would not stay at any of the other hotels as he did not want to stay in a themed hotel - this was only reason for our choice. On our visits we always dine at the hotels and of the ones I've seen I would love to stay at the Yacht and Beach Club.

Nowadays, we stay at Cypress Pointe which is a timeshare in Lake Buena Vista. This area is much nicer than I Drive.

When we were looking to book last time I saw in some brochures that the hotels just outside Downtown Disney (this used to be called Disney Village but I don't know it's name now) were offering free breakfasts and free shuttles to non-Disney parks. May be worth looking at for you?

The other upside of not staying on Disney property is having more choice of where to eat though it may be that the Disney Dining Plan is a good option for your family.

As someone else has said go and subscribe to the Dibb because the people on there are seasoned WDW travellers and will be able to help you loads.

HTH.

hamsterholly

fiveinourhouse wrote: »

Hi we are also a family of five - 2 adults and 3 children - well an 8yr old, 10 yr old and a 12 yr old. We are dreaming of a once in a lifetime holiday to Disney and currently save a small amount saved but not much so looking to go next year.

Quick question we are looking to book a villa, fights and car hire all separately. Are we cheaper to wait until nearer the time to book ie. would flights be cheaper?
Also a bit limited to school holidays as we are both teachers, boohoo!
Any advice as to how to make this as cheap as possible would be welcome as we are hoping to go on a budget of 8 thousand if possible other wise we may have to wait another year.
Thanks Fiveinourhouse

We went on our once in a lifetime Disney holiday last April and we go again in 8 weeks !! I dont know what time of the year you are looking to go. Last year we booked through a TA but this year I have done it all DIY and we go over the May half term. I booked our flights back in September last year when Virgin had a sale on. I then booked 1 week in a Disney hotel with free dining and the 2nd week in a villa. I think you would easy do it for your budget of 8k but 2 of your children would be classed as adults (not much difference in price though for park tickets). Last year we spent 6k (2 adults and 2 children) and this year I am hoping to bring it in under 5k. Thats with spends and the total cost of everything.

[Deleted User]

We stayed in a villa at Sunset Lakes in December/January last year. We had an amazing four weeks. We also go DIY now generally getting our flights direct with virgin atlantic. Going back in November - although as a DVC member we will be staying in Disney villas this time.

hoxtonbabe

I went last year and stayed on I-drive. Not sure why a poster said it was like shameless. I suppose it all depends on where you stay, i initially stayed at a hyatt place, whist I wouldn't quite say it was shameless types, it wasn't your upper classes either, I then moved onto the Peabody, which is very nice with a better crowd. I did not change hotels for this reason but because the original hotel was a bit too basic for my liking, and the air con too loud, lol. But it was super cheap, I went exactly a year ago and paid something silly like £50 per night and they chucked in a microwave for free, the pool was open till 11pm and free wifi.

Check out the hotels from around the Convention centre down towards seaworld/ the outlet mall, when I go back I will stay around there again as it's nice and peaceful.

gregg1

nw_man wrote: »

Firstly to clarify its DisneyWORLD Florida you want to visit ? Not DisneyLAND California ?

Assuming that is so, the cheapest Disney hotels are the 'value' resorts, All Star Music, All Star Movies, All Star Sports, Pop Century and a new one for next year I believe, Art Of Animation Resort.

I dont know when you could book it, dont think you can do so yet though. Their booking system only goes to the end of 2012.


As for staying at a Disney hotel, that is all down to choice. Personally I would never do it. There is a lot more to the Orlando area than Disney.

Also, if budget really is an issue then you could do a LOT better staying on I-Drive.

Anyway, the choice is yours.

For a lot of great advice and help, try the sticky at the top of this page and also www.thedibb.co.uk

Good luck and happy hunting.

I have always stayed on site at Disney and can't recommend it highly enough. Your park tickets are included for one thing. You get quite a few perks such as free transportation to the various parks, early access to some of the parks before the general public are allowed in, any purchases transported to your hotel so you do not have to leg em around with you all day etc. There are also water taxis between some of the resorts so you can catch a bus to one of those and then get a water taxi. Also, you can visit any of the other hotels around the resort for meals etc.

Another big saver for us was you could buy big plastic drinks cups which, once you had purchased the cup, you could refill your drinks at the hotel free for the remainder of your holiday. Saved us a fortune in soft drinks.

The All Star hotels are the cheapest, never stayed at them but also Caribbean Beach Resort was excellent value for money with the added benefit of being able to get a breakfast from very early in the morning meaning you are not hitting the parks hungry. It also had swimming pools dotted all over the site and man made beaches where you can lounge on hammocks after a hard day at the parks. You could actually do it without hiring a car if you are only interested in the parks.

I have always found when pricing these holidays that it can be false economy staying somewhere like international drive as by the time you have added your ticket prices for a large family, it can be no more expensive to stay on site and it really is an amazing experience.

gregg1

CountingPennies wrote: »

Thanks for clearing that up for me. I honestly thought your passes were included! Imagine i booked up only to find out i couldn't get in when i go there! Lol. International drive it is!

Just realised this is an old thread and I have posted twice - apologies!

sunshinetours

gregg1 wrote: »

I have always stayed on site at Disney and can't recommend it highly enough. Your park tickets are included for one thing. You get quite a few perks such as free transportation to the various parks, early access to some of the parks before the general public are allowed in, any purchases transported to your hotel so you do not have to leg em around with you all day etc. There are also water taxis between some of the resorts so you can catch a bus to one of those and then get a water taxi. Also, you can visit any of the other hotels around the resort for meals etc.

Another big saver for us was you could buy big plastic drinks cups which, once you had purchased the cup, you could refill your drinks at the hotel free for the remainder of your holiday. Saved us a fortune in soft drinks.

The All Star hotels are the cheapest, never stayed at them but also Caribbean Beach Resort was excellent value for money with the added benefit of being able to get a breakfast from very early in the morning meaning you are not hitting the parks hungry. It also had swimming pools dotted all over the site and man made beaches where you can lounge on hammocks after a hard day at the parks. You could actually do it without hiring a car if you are only interested in the parks.

I have always found when pricing these holidays that it can be false economy staying somewhere like international drive as by the time you have added your ticket prices for a large family, it can be no more expensive to stay on site and it really is an amazing experience.

Park tickets aren't included unless you get a special offer. They form part of the price of your holiday! The inclusive dining plans offered good value when these are offered and the extra magic hours can be good.
Personally I like to get away from Disney when not doing the parks and have your own space and do some non Diseny stuff. Some of the villa communities are pretty close so time wise not a huge amount in it probably

florida2008

I would definitely agree with villa every time. Tried staying on I-drive, never again. Usually stay in Kissimmee area and have been lucky with the standard of the villas. We have always booked through a travel agent but have been pricing for June 2013 for 3 weeks and so far seems pretty expensive. Cheapest so far is Travel City Direct at £4916 staying in premier villas for family of 5. Thought this was still a bit pricey as it's a lot more than we've paid in the past. Would appreciate any tips and advice on this. We would even consider bypassing the travel agent if we could get a good deal.

Thanks