Planning our first holiday...

John259

marcsshell wrote: »

Do we need passports back before we book anywhere?

That would be very wise. Also get your ESTA's sorted before booking.

marcsshell

John259 wrote: »

That would be very wise. Also get your ESTA's sorted before booking.

I've heard ETSAs mentioned before. How do we get them?

PeacefulWaters

marcsshell wrote: »

I've heard ETSAs mentioned before. How do we get them?

https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/

Murphy_The_Cat

marcsshell wrote: »

I've heard ETSAs mentioned before. How do we get them?

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/

you'll only be able to apply for your ESTA once you've got your passport.

duchy

My goodness some people are more intereresd in axe grinding than giving advice.

OP I'd start by looking at the holiday brochures to get a feel for the sort of property you want to stay at - there is a huge range from hotels on property, much cheaper motel style hotels, apartments , suite hotels and even villas.

With children the age yours are a suite hotel might suit you better (Embassy and Homewood are both well known brands) as instead of all in one hotel room you have space to spread out and not all be in each other's way - something to consider as the parks are exhausting and it gives you space to prepare your own meals and drinks without having to eat out (although eating out is very reasonable) and seperate space so if any of the party fall asleep early there's another room (and a second TV) rather than having to stay quiet in a hotel room.

You really do need a car for most locations ideally but American driving is easy . If you REALLY don't want to drive there are both on and off site locations that would suit this but you need to choose carefully.

Once you've identified where you want to stay then compare a package with a tour operator with booking flights, car hire and hotel seperately yourself. With the ages of your children there's no hard and fast rule about which will be cheaper as although usually booking seperately is cheaper often tour operators offer better child reductions .

The main components are Flights, Hotel, Car Hire and Park Passes -the passes being the thing that have the biggest price shock for families

I'd second the advice above to visit thedibb website -it covers everything. If it looks too massive to start wading through- Start with the trip reports and see what other people booked and enjoyed to give you a starting point .

There's plenty in Orlando for a two week holiday (most people don't do a park every single day but have pool/chilling/shopping days as well as the parks are wonderful but exhausting ) and for a first holiday will be enough without needing to see other parts of the USA. Plenty of time for that in the future

Eating out in the parks is expensive -and eating anywhere not in the parks property is usually very cheap so IF you want to stay on Disney property then the free dining can be a good deal but overall you'd get better value money for money staying somewhere near the parks and off property with a car as off property hotels of the same standard are dramatically cheaper. Again a lot depends on if you want to drive or not. It is also possible to compromise - and have one week in the parks with the dining and the second week offsite (and schedule Universal, Seaworld, Busch Gardens etc in the off site week)

marcsshell

Thanks so much Duchy.
My plan of action is to go post office for passport forms and get them sent off end of this month when we get paid again. Once they come back we will apply for the ESTA.
In the meantime we will take on board all the advice and will do some research whilst making sure we carry on with our savings so when we do book we can pay a huge chunk off.
I'm budgeting to save around £600 pm to go into a savings account. This still leaves us with around £300-400 after all bills,fuel and shopping so very manageable especially as we know we are saving towards something.

duchy

You'll have a fantastic time but speaking as someone who has visited many times (and as an ex travel agent having sent thousands of people there over the years ) the best advice is to do your research and plan what you want to do as the people who come back disappointed are the ones who were unprepared and found without an idea of how to fit it all in they missed out or came back utterly exhausted

Check out the dibb for places to buy passes with a bit of a discount too btw

sew_what

marcsshell wrote: »

hi,
We are hoping for last 2 weeks in July.

Have you checked term dates and sounded schools out for missing school? Some schools may fine you for taking students out of school.
Have a great holiday!

duchy

sew_what wrote: »

Have you checked term dates and sounded schools out for missing school? Some schools may fine you for taking students out of school.
Have a great holiday!

Schools break up mid July so it looks like the OP has taken this into account *assuming she isn't in Scotland where they break up even earlier !)

sew_what

duchy wrote: »

Schools break up mid July so it looks like the OP has taken this into account *assuming she isn't in Scotland where they break up even earlier !)

Last day of term is 27th July here.....