Thinking of a Disney-Orlando holiday- how much

[Eve]

Did a quick google and virgin Atlantic were £2k per person! . For 2 weeks.

What's the best way to book, who with etc ect.

Have 2ds's , 14 and 11, looking at back end of August 2013. Flights (obviously), maybe a week in a Disney hotel then off the park... All tips gratefully received.

It won't be cheap. Sometimes it can be cheaper if you shop around and book separately, ie car, villa/hotel etc.

Direct flights with Virgin and BA will be much more expensive than chartered ones. We go regularly and normally fly BA but when we go in a few weeks we are flying into Tampa which was £1,500 cheaper (for 6 of us) than flying into Orlando International Airport and which is only going to be approx 15 mins drive further to the villa.

You could get a villa from approx £400 pw with private pool (and some have gamesrooms). Have a look at www.loyaltyusa.com

Have a look at getting tickets from somewhere like Kissimmee Guest services www.kgstickets.com/index.php We normally get tickets via them and are just in the process of booking what we want for our trip in a few weeks. Sometimes the queues at Disney can be over an hour just to buy the tickets so its great to get them in advance. You can pick them up from KGS offices in Celebration which is just a few miles from Disney.

Try checking flights on skyscanner to see what the best deals are which may involve staying for 13 or 15 nights rather than 14.
As you are looking to do 2 hotels/locations then you won't be able to price it up online, but worth having a search anyway.

Hi!
I definitely second booking everything separately- have always got a much cheaper deal booking my flights, accommodation and car hire as individual parts. I agree that skyscanner is great for identifying the cheapest flight option.

I would also agree that a villa is your cheapest accommodation option, but you mention staying onsight on a Disney resort..... One option you could investigate is doing a private holiday rental. Lots of people rent out their Disney timeshares for a fraction of what you would pay the hotel. Also, all of the timeshare units are actually 1/2/3 bedroom condos so you get a lot more space than you would in a hotel room plus kitchen facilities, washing machine/ dryer etc.

So you get the buzz of being in one of the Disney Deluxe hotels and use all their facilities but you've paid a lot less despite having more space and amenities within your condo.

But, I know some people are wary about renting from a private owner and like to book direct with hotels, just depends how you feel personally!!

Happy holidays!! :0)

I can understand what you are saying about being wary about renting from a private owner, thats why I'd recommend a company like Loyalty or via Owners Direct as listings will normally say how long they've been adverised on Owners Direct website so you will hopefully have some reassurance that they've been around a while.

In your experience prices have increased a lot over the last couple of years since the first couple of times we went out there.

We have also found that the last twice we have been it has worked out cheaper to do it as a package, even for a villa - unless there are a fair few of you that is. It was never the case previously - but now definitely worth looking at the packages with people like Thomas Cook or Thomsons, etc.

But sadly it is no longer cheap deals in school holidays. Although it is a fab holiday and worth doing imo.

I would look at TravelCityDirect too - they are Virgin without the frills. They often have some good deals.

.

We went in 2011 last week of aug for 2 weeks.
Managed to come in @ £6,000 for 2 adults and 2 children.
Booked it all separately, flights were booked very far in advance for cheapest price from Virgin. Booked a villa from owners direct for one week and a Disney hotel for the second week taking advantage of free dining and transfers.
Prices have definitely increased though, it was the same price to do a shop as in the uk, and eating out was a similar price too,

How do you find a Disney time share?

We booked an apartment on a resort instead of a villa and got a great deal, absolutely huge with beautiful surroundings. Time it right as well, we went just after Spring Break so prices were relatively low, think November is a good time too. Book it all separately as others have said. You can get some good deals on the park tickets too, booking on line etc. I would never book a package deal, ever.

Oh and we booked through a private owner, but the apartment was administered by the resort so we had all the same facilities, cleaning etc. worked our great for us.

ocean-florida is a great website. good luck!

We flew Virgin Atlantic Manchester to Orlando for around £700 a ticket. We hired a villa direct from the owner near to Animal Kingdom for around £1000 for 2 weeks, and got some Alamo car hire for around £250 for 2 weeks. Disney/Universal 14 day tickets from Attraction Tickets Direct were around £400 each. This was in May 2013.

Check carefully where your villa is - some are 30 or more miles from Disney!

if you have the time, waiting and biding your time to book can work (or just getting lucky and checking at the right time!)

we are off in October, having booked last year (probably around November)

we booked with Virgin, and paid £7k for 5 of us for 2 weeks, staying onsite (2 bedroom villa), with dining, car hire, tickets etc all included. so literally just need a bit of money for souvenirs/toys. Not cheap, but better than £2k/person.

Hasnt the cost of plane travel gone up? I was going to go away to New York with my DH who was going to be there on business anyway and he said I could use some of his Air Miles. You cannot use Air Miles for the tax element of the flight and it ended up that the majority of the flight WAS tax. Only £80 was able to be funded using Air Miles so I didnt go...

I have just booked Florida myself for next year for 6 people. I can go away before the school Easter hols start because the boys are at private school and they have loads of holidays and start earlier than the state system. If I had left it a few days later the price would have shot up.

Hear also that US has terrible queues at immigration although I am sure by then they will sort themselves out. Apparently 2 hours is not uncommon but of course it does depend. If you are the only flight landing becasue something else has been delayed you might get through quicker.

The theme parks costs are shocking though. I only want to go to Universal for one day and the boys are really too old for Disney - it will cost £100's!!