The Great 'Disney Cost Cutting' Hunt

mojo1302

Villas are definitely worth looking into. They work out so much cheaper per person AND you get the freedom of your own house (plus pool). Loads of space too. We don't use hotels anymore wherever we go for hols. For Florida try orlandovillas.com, villas2u.com , villas2000.com there are loads to choose from.

ceejaydee23

Hi all, I'm off to Orlando in September, and taking my daughter who will be 7, my man and his 17 year old brother.

We have been checking out www.themeparkticketsdirect.com as they seem to be cheapest so far, as for the most of thing the Universal package seems to be the one we want to go for, and then maybe just purchase a day ticket for my daughter to experience WDW.

is it really worth booking in advance like this? as the last special offer on above mentioned website gave 3 adult and 1 child ticket at £430 (free deleivery and no CC charge)

Edinburghlass_2

At this time of year I'd say no, any offers tend to be in the quiet period between January and Easter so I would keep your money in your bank for a while longer.

Bunnikins69

Hi, there are a few ways to look for discount offers to access the great themes parks in Florida.

1) Go and see a timeshare presentation - DONT BUY - you are usually rewarded with a choice of free / cheap tickets for your group of holiday makers.

2) Check out the individual theme park websites before you leave UK and see when they are offering promotions as many offer a 2nd day free and this is given when you enter the park with your original pruchased ticket. You may also be able to buy promo tickets in advance so keep checking from when you plan your holiday through to when you leave UK.

This is also good to check if there are any space shuttle launches planned from kennedy which is approx. 1 hour from Kissimee. It is amazing to see. Dates will be on their website normally.

3) Take a look at a specialist holiday company websites such as https://www.travelcitydirect.co.uk. They usually offer quite good ticket choices and special prices too.

4) When in Florida, pick up all the free coupon vouchers as some can be quite good money saving options for you on smaller theme parks and dinner shows etc.

5) Lastly this is about holidays to Florida - I have travelled to Florida approx. 10 times and paid as little as £49pp flydrive for 2 weeks. Although I think such good deals on these hols are now a thing of the past, I do believe you can get them reasonably cheaper than booking with some larger well known operators. There are always late deals and if you can be a little bit flexible with days within a few days of a specific departure date, then take a late booking deal which can usually be found by looking on channel 3 teletext page 222 and it should save you alot of money which you can spend at some of the great malls in Florida.

Also, if anyone is planning on buying diamond jewellery, do it in USA as average price will normally be approx. 66% cheaper than same item in UK. My diamond engagement ring was just £850 in USA compared to £2500 in UK and I always receive comments from everyone who sees it. The gold is usually 14ct or maybe 10ct in USA.

Hope you all have a fab time in Florida - it's for kids of all ages so no-one is EVER too old to love it.


:T:j

scotti

Don't forget Universal, book 1 night on-site and you are given front-of-the-line passes for the family for two days.

www.universalorlando.com/hotels.html

If you want to pre-plan a must buy is The Unofficial guide to Disney and take a look at their associated site

www.touringplans.com/tp2/UG2_index.php?PageID=14

For tickets, I can recommend (as I have used) this company

www.mapleleaftickets.com/


HTH scotti

Rose2White_2

This is my first post here so I hope it works ok.

We have been to Florida three times in all (2000, 02 & 08) yes the last time was in Feb this year.

I found the key to getting a good holiday there at a good price is to book as far in advance as you can. We booked Virgin flights and a 4x4 car with all inc. insurance for four adults (kids are 14 & 18 so count as adults) for £1641, that was for a 14 night stay, then I booked a Villa for the same period at a cost of only £600 from floridavillasdirect.co.uk, we thought it wasn't fair for the kids to share a room. The same flights had nearly doubled when I checked two weeks before we went. I'm always checking to see if I still had a bargain.

I looked at using my Tesco vouchers with virgin and found it was better value not to even thou I had £1000+ worth at deal rate.

The tickets were our second biggest expense, but we did use just about every day, we parked hopped from Animal kingdom (closed at 5pm) on day one to Magic kingdom for an evening meal and fireworks, then used our fith disney day between Epcot & Magic covering the things we had either missed or wanted to repeat. I would only buy more days if it was the same price or cheaper than the 5 day premium ticket as it gives you five days hopping across the four big parks and four entrances to the water parks, WWof Sports and disneyquest (well worth a visit to escape either heat or rain) downtown.

I needed to hire a wheelchair which was straight forward and cheaper at disney if you paid for all the days you needed in one go, about $8 a day for a manual one. This saved loads and gave fast access to some of the rides, not a reason to use one!!

We bought tickets from one web site but when I took them to a friends house to photocopy they were left by misstake and then lost in the return process, (long story) all I will say is they were not covered by any insurance or replaced as I didn't have the serial numbers, (things happened and forgot to copy them) so ended up having to pay for them twice. So when you get your tickets either write the numbers down before they leave the house, then get them copied. This turned the tickets into our biggest expense as we lost all the first ticket money and everything not very MSE

I also photocopied our passports and used the copy as photo ID while there.

Busch gardens has a seperate ticket booth for forces personnal, but didn't notice one at Seaworld (but wasn't looking).

You can buy tickets from booths but they worked out more expensive or the same price and you was never sure if they would be good or expired.

To save money on drink if you have a freezer box in your fridge freeze bottles of water overnight then carry them around on a bottle strap (sold in all parks), they defrost during the day giving you cool water for hours, and you can fill them from the water fountains in Disney.

Plan, research and know your in Orlando when a rest day is shopping!!!

jane.owen37

:beer: My family and I are going to Orlando on Saturday (21st June) and we are staying in Disney's Yacht Club Resort. I was lucky enough to win the flights, transfers, de-luxe hotel and passes to all the Disney Parks courtesy of the Woolworths website. ( I am only putting this bit in because I want to let your subscribers know that not all competitions are scams and "normal" people can win them! I'm not trying to p**** anybody off!)
Anyway we still wanted to do other parks so I spent last Saturday on my trusty laptop researching the best tickets. I looked on the usual travel sites in this country and then decided to go direct to the USA sites which tend to give you more options for your money. eg. Going straight to the Kennedy Space Centre gives different options for the same price - I found a trip that does pick ups around the different resorts but you can choose what you want to do within the package you book like either having lunch with an astranout or having a 40 minute trip through the swamp in an airboat aswell as all the tour options within the Centre! Either variation cost approx £55.00 (just to let you know we chose the airboat ride).
When it comes to Seaworld, Busch Gardens, Discovery Cove and Aquatica booking through their websites is cheaper again and there are offers if you buy certain tickets together. I booked Sea World and Busch Gardens together because by doing this you get a free bus to Busch Gardens (various pick up points again) and I also got $10 off each ticket again by booking on the internet and using the ticket within a certain time frame. The ticket gives unlimited entry in the 2 parks for 14 days from date of first entry. Sea World also did a deal for $19.95 for a 2 course meal including a soft drink in any of the participating restaurants on site between 6pm and closing and you and you can use as many of the reataurants as you want during this time!
As said before you have to print off e-Tickets for entry to the parks or go on trips and you cannot get duplicates from the companies so guard with your life or pay again!!:T
Got to finish my ironing now!

If these trips go to plan you won't hear from me if they don't I'll write another review!!

Edinburghlass_2

The Yacht Club Resort is beautiful as is the whole Boardwalk area, great for people watching in the evenings and jumping on one the boats to Epcot or the Studios, you'll have a great time. My favourite fireworks are the Illuminations at Epcot and they can be seen from the Boardwalk area but just not as good as from the lakeside or indeed one of the boat trips you can hire that go from your resort.

I have always printed out two copies of my Seaworld tickets and packed them in separate cases just in case.

dave747_2

I can recommend lastminutevillas.net having used them on three occassions. You enter your details, when you want to stay, how many nights, which area of Orlando, bedrooms, pool etc. This is then passed to villa owners who email you their best price. It often sparks a bit of a price war and you will get a lot of replies 70-100 is typical. Cheapest price we got for two weeks in February 09 including pool heat was £600 for well located three bedroomed villa.

nialliam

Try www.holidaylettings.co.uk for great villas. At the moment every owner I have contacted via the web site for Kissimmee has offered me amazing deals to book without me even asking -eg free pool heating plus further discounts for early booking. I have always used this web site for booking accommodation abroad and have been delighted with every villa I have stayed in. The amount of photos posted for each villa is very important too and this website give you a very accurate idea of what the villa is like.