Orlando Florida - February 2007 - HELP

troubled_buyer

My wife and I are stressing about a holiday to Florida, due to kids ages & school we need to go this year or next, ideally February or April.

After going around in circles we have decided to try for Sun 18 or Mon 19 for 2 weeks. Flying from manchester with 2 adults and 2 children - 8 and 11

Now were panicing..........

Can anybody help with prices and information on the following.
1) Flights from Manchester
2) Advice on hire cars, most offer a free car but we have heard it may be cheaper to either not take it and arrange a better car cheaper or should we pay the upgrade in orlando and tryfor a better car at the desk
3) Accomodation, ideally we want a suite or big room on/near international drive - Hawthorn Suites?
4) What is best way for tickets, we want to go to Disney (all parks and water parks) Universal (both parks and seaworld)

Thanks in advance.

OrlandoMan

You are probably better off asking these questions on a dedicated Orlado site like https://www.thedibb.co.uk but I'll try and answer some of the questions for you.

2. Although you get a FREE car hire, this isn't worth anything really as you still need the insurances.
If you are booking a package holiday then you will almost certainly get the car hire/insurances cheaper by purchasing it independant of your holiday, there are some advertisers on the above site that give excellent rates like US Rent A Car and ALL States Car Hire

Very often you will get an upgrade for nothing if you sweet talk the desk clerk when you go to pick up the car. If not just negotiate with them and usually they will give you a goood upgrade deal.

3. There is a massive choice of accommodation on I-Drive, for Hawthorn Suites there are some recent REVIEWS HERE.
They type of hotel really depends on what you like as a family and it's hard to give advice as what is good for one may not be so for others.

4. For Disney tickets I would suggest going with the 14 Day Ultimate, this gives you unlimited access to:

Magic Kingdom Park
Epcot
Disney MGM-Studios.
Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park.
Disney's Blizzard Beach Water Park
Disney's Typhoon Lagoon Water Park
Downtown Disney Pleasure Island
Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex
DisneyQuest Indoor Interactive Theme Park

For Universal I would suggest the four Park Flex Ticket,
This gives 14 days unlimited access to

Universal Studios
Islands of Adventure
Seaworld
Wet n Wild

The above gives you all round flexibility to come and go as you please without the stress of being forced to go to a certain park on a certain day.
If you are on a tight budget then you could go with one of the many deals on offer at the moment, most of the upto date deals ate listed on theDIBB. For example Universal are doing FREE Child tickets with each Adult ticket purchased.

Also if you buy a one day ticket for seaworld then seaworld will give you a free return ticket.

ukbill69

This is the best car rental place, they have a car park full of brand new cars. http://www.dollar.com/ Book online, save money that way. Best is to rent a house, they are like £500 per week, but makes your holiday so great. Tickets can be pre-booked to save, otherwise there are ways of buying used tickets everywhere for less money. We just paid to get into the places when we wanted, worked well for us. Also good places to go. Dixie Stampied, Arabian Nights, Wet n wild, Wonderworks, seaworld, also a must night thing to is going to gators by night, think virgin thing. Miami, don't bother, waste of a day.

ukbill69

Also dont bother with all the outlets, just go to the premium one, that the best and is very big. A good day out mall at millenia, big shopping centre, good for the wife.

Mike_J

Item 3 - We stayed at Holiday Inn on IDrive (me, wife and 13 &9 kids). Rooms were plenty big enough. In fact most US hotels have big rooms. As we spent most of day out (gettin back late) it wasnt a problem the kids sleeping whilst we watched telly coz within half an hour we were all asleep.

satan666wayne

ukbill69 wrote:

This is the best car rental place, they have a car park full of brand new cars. http://www.dollar.com/ Book online, save money that way.

Don't book direct with dollar use book a dollar car via http://www.airline-network.co.uk/ much cheaper.

Full size car for 2 weeks via dollar 288.35 GBP

Same dollar car via airlinenet £260.00

pompeyrich

Had a quick look, Man-Orlando 19th feb-5th March £1212 non-stop with Virgin, £275 for full size car all insurances, tax and even a tank of petrol. Both of these from Airline Network HERE. They also have private villas with pool from £532 for the 2 weeks so around £2,000 for flights, car and villa, Hotels will be cheaper.
I'm not saying these are the best deals but will give you some idea of prices for comparison.

Check with dollar.co.uk not .com as this is the UK site and includes more insurance than the US one

oldbill1969

Have a look at the Homewood Suites by Hilton, there are two on international drive, large suites, well rated and free breakfast and Managers evening buffet

mustbemoreorganised

Stayed at the Best Western International one year and requested a ground floor poolside room,when got there we realised all the ground floor rooms were for disabled guests and therefore massive, also it had a bedroom/kitchen then another separate double bedrooom which gave us some privacy from the kids. Went to Orlando twice and stayed on international drive and managed quite easily without a car. Have a good time

kiki21

A quick search on Travelcitydirect website came up with a few options.Not the exact date you wanted but shows the kind of prices for that time.
The car is with dollar and includes all insurances and a tank of fuel.
There is also the option of a flydrive if you wanted to book the hotel yourself

17 Feb 07 13:45/17:45 Flight (XLA130) MANCHESTER INTL - SANFORD INT'L
MAIN CABIN 747
03 Mar 07 04 Mar 07 Flight (XLA131) SANFORD INT'L - MANCHESTER INTL
20:00 / 09:00

Accom DISNEY AREA STD AOA EXCL P/H (ORLANDO) 3 BEDROOM HOME WITH POOL
17 Feb 07-03 Mar 07 Car INTERMEDIATE 4 DOOR
LDW/SLI/UMP/TAXES
PLATINUM INSURANCE

Total £ 1794.00


17 Feb 07 13:45/17:45 Flight (XLA130) MANCHESTER INTL - SANFORD INT'L
MAIN CABIN 747
03 Mar 07 04 Mar 07 Flight (XLA131) SANFORD INT'L - MANCHESTER INTL
20:00 / 09:00

Accom CLARION HOTEL UNIVERSAL (INTERNATIONAL DRIVE)STANDARD ROOM (x 1)

17 Feb 07-03 Mar 07 Car INTERMEDIATE 4 DOOR
LDW/SLI/UMP/TAXES
PLATINUM INSURANCE

Total £ 1626.00

Flydrive price £1094

Returned from Florida myself on saturday
hope you have a great time