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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be horrified at the cost?

71 replies

cannotbelievehowexpensive · 26/12/2012 10:25

Hi, I know this is not AIBU but just for traffic...
We've been promising our dcs for a few years now that we'll go to Disney world this year.
Anyway I'm only now just looking properly into costs - I'd had a quick look a few times before but assumed I'd be able to get deals nearer the time.
I am actually almost in tears, I don't know how we are going to be able to afford it! I can't believe the costs - even on the websites that advertise themselves as cheap Florida holidays the lowest price I've been able to find is just under £5000. For a weeks holiday and not including spending money! I must have been very naive, I envisaged the whole thing including spending coming to 4 grand at the very most. How do people afford to go there? Am I missing something?
Please don't flame me for promising something and not checking the costs.... I thought I had a rough idea, but was totally wrong.... we've been promising this for so long I don't know how we can go back on it now. Any advice would be very very appreciated.

OP posts:
EuroShagmore · 26/12/2012 10:28

Have you thought about Euro Disney?

StickEmWithThePointyEnd · 26/12/2012 10:29

I second Euro Disney.

Original poster
cannotbelievehowexpensive · 26/12/2012 10:31

Thanks for replies.I have but they are really sold on the whole Florida thing, universal studios, water parks, etc. I know it would still be a good holiday but they would be disappointed and I would feel we had let them down.....it is a fall back though.

OP posts:
PotteringAlong · 26/12/2012 10:31

How old are your DC's; how many and when do you want to go?

MotherAbigail · 26/12/2012 10:32

I second euro Disney, the deals are much more affordable, flights are loads cheaper and it is a great place. I did the same as you looking at Florida, totally out of reach price wise

Original poster
cannotbelievehowexpensive · 26/12/2012 10:32

they are 3,7, 12 and 15 and we were planning to go october 12-19 which is school holiday in Scotland.

OP posts:
Merrylegs · 26/12/2012 10:34

You need to book everything separately. Go to ebookers for the flights and expedia for the accommodation. Or Kenwood holidays are cheaper if you want a package.

Adversecalendar · 26/12/2012 10:37

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Groovee · 26/12/2012 10:39

We paid less than £4k with Barrhead travel. You'll need longer than a week. We're going for 2 weeks in June/July but booked with 11 months notice. Tickets will cost us another £2k and then we're aiming for £3k sending money.

Flights are very expensive now.

Andthentherewere5 · 26/12/2012 10:40

I can recommend a very lovely house for rent that has 4 bedrooms and its own small pool if it helps. Was cheaper than a hotel for the 3 of us even though we didn't need 4 bedrooms (and 3 bathrooms!). It is owned by the friend of a friend who lives over here.
We went for 2 weeks on Oct and to be honest the biggest cost is the flights. To get the best flight deals for an Oct trip you are really already to late. There were only 5 seats left on the direct flight we went on. Flights can be much cheaper if you are prepared to use a non-direct route. We couldn't as it was me, my 10yo and my mum who was 72 - keeping it simple was v.important. For the 2 weeks (inc spending money) it cost about £5k. We did have to compromise on what we were going to do as 1) the cost for full access to Disney, Seaworld, and Uni Studios for the whole of the trip was just silly!
The temp was 83-90 for the whole 2 weeks which is a bit hotter than usual but still lovely.
Best of luck!

whistlestopcafe · 26/12/2012 10:46

The idea of a holiday centred around theme parks makes me feel exhausted just thinking of it!

How about 10 days in LA with a trip to the theme parks there, they have Disney Land, Universal Studios and a new Disney Pixar World (not sure of the exact name) but it has Lightening McQueen and Toy Story rides. You can visit each of the theme parks once and spend the rest of the time at the beach.

We stayed at the Travelodge in Santa Monica about a 20 minute walk from the beach. It is approx £100 per night for a family room.

In my opinion LA is more fun than Orlando because you have Venice Beach, Malibu and Santa Monica beaches on your doorstep. Only a short drive to Hollywood too.

Original poster
cannotbelievehowexpensive · 26/12/2012 10:49

god I've just checked out park tickets, going to be another grand....think we will definitely have to reconsider. LA is a good idea, or maybe a week in New York....

OP posts:
FatimaLovesBread · 26/12/2012 10:58

New York would probably be too expensive, their hotels are v expensive.
Could you not save a bit more and go the year after? Or will renting a house and booking everything separately work out cheaper?

FatimaLovesBread · 26/12/2012 11:08

With thomson it would cost £4300 for flights, accommodation and car hire. You'd need park tickets and food on top, is that do able?

roughtyping · 26/12/2012 11:12

It's going to be dear with 4 kids. :(

where are you looking at flying from? We went this summer (me, DP and DS who was 8). We flew from Manchester as to fly from Glasgow would've adde about £1k onto holiday Shock. When I went when I was younger my parents always booked it all seperately as it was cheaper for the 5 of us.

Our holiday (flew end of June, 11 days at hotel on International Drive) cost approx £2.3k, plus £1.5k spending money. Disney & Universal tickets for the three of us came to just under £800. Your 12 and 15 year olds will be classed as adults for park tix. We got ours from Undercover Tourist. Flights & hotel booked as package with Thomson.

roughtyping · 26/12/2012 11:13

Oh - and we came back with spending money btw. Ate out for every meal, got taxis as didn't hire a car - spent just over £1k.

ohforfoxsake · 26/12/2012 11:14

House-swap. You'll probably get a car thrown in too and for nothing except a couple of weeks work getting your place sorted.

Have a look on Geenee.com - we found out Sydney house swap and it was fab. Would do it again for sure. Mumsnet also has a house-swap site (dont be put off if you think their house is too grand, or yours isnt grand enough people swap for all different reasons).

PTA · 26/12/2012 11:17

If you do want to do Florida, you will need more than a week. Do the kids also have in-service days? Look at traveling either side of the week so the kids are out of school a few days before the school holidays and a few days after as it will be easier than taking a whole week off.

Also, consider flying from anywhere outside of Scotland, the cost can be considerably lower, especially if it's English term-time. (I say this a someone who lives 20mins away from an international airport but have just been priced out of the flights from there).

We have now travelled from Manchester and Leeds/Bradford. Even taking into account the petrol/car parking and even an overnight stay it has been considerably cheaper than flying from Scotland. I do only have 2 ds's aged 9 and 6 but the 6 yrs old has ASN and I used to just look at flying from Scotland as it was less hassle. It still is obviously much less hassle than a 4hr drive but we just can't afford it. We saved nearly £700 on a week's European holiday least October by doing this.

Lastly, check out "the dibb".(Someone will have the website). It has a lot of Florida Disney info on it.

HTH

HoHoHokeyCokeyPigInAPokey · 26/12/2012 11:20

We go as a family of four at the start of the summer holidays.

Next year we are flying into Miami and getting a connecting flight to Orlando, this saved us £1000.00

Shop around for villas, you can get a luxury 4 bed villa for about £550 a week if not cheaper.

Shop around for cars too.

For two weeks will all park tickets, flights, spending ect we probably look at about £7000.00 for the four of us.

Groovee · 26/12/2012 11:21

www.thedibb.co.uk

www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=47

Also get hold of a brits guide to orlando.

WeWilsonAMerryChristmas · 26/12/2012 11:24

Book everything separately, not through a travel agent. If you can get down to England to fly that will probably save you money. And a villa rather than a hotel, definitely.

flow4 · 26/12/2012 11:29

SO much money! :(
We did Euro Disney and a week in Paris and loads of other treats for under a grand... :)

  • Return flights to Paris £300
  • Nice budget hotel accommodation in central Paris for 6 nights booked through www.hostelworld.com/ for about £220
  • Less than £200 into Euro Disney (about £40/head)
  • Plus we went to Parc Asterix too, which is better than Disney IMO, and has shorter queues and lots of water rides Grin, and cost about £100-120 for the four of us
  • We also went to Cité des Sciences, the big Science park/museum, which the kids loved too, and which costs 3-8 euros each, plus another 10E if you want to see the 3D films in the Geode; and the kids just liked Paris generally (esp. Notre Dame, Montmartre, the Eifel tower...) :)
msrisotto · 26/12/2012 11:30

I've found dialaflight really good, I haven't used them to book a Disney holiday but a US multicentre holiday and they did it far cheaper than I could have.mits worth giving them a call for a quote.

forevergreek · 26/12/2012 11:36

The thing is that's 4 adult and 2 childrens flights from uk to Florida. An adults cheap ticket for flights alone is about £500 each, so together than min £2500 on flights. The rest is the holiday so sounds reasonable. Hence why Paris would be cheaper as you could drive for about £200 in ferry and petrol, whih is £2300 saving instantly.