Disneyland florida

[Mama1980]

Hi I am thinking of taking my 3 children to Disneyland later this year autumn probably. Dd 15, ds5 and ds who will be 9/10 months. At the moment its only a idea ds2 and I are still in hospital but I want to treat them all after a hellish few months. Does anyone have any tips/recommendations? We would want the whole experience and I have about 6000£ to spend, does that sound doable? I've never been myself. Anything I should book or look out for? Tia

Hi, sorry to hear about your awful few months.
Main thing you need to decide is whether you want to go to a hotel (ie disney hotel) or other or whether you want to go for the villa option which gives you more privacy/space but you'd need a car.

If you are hiring a car, please read my other thread in this section about a warning that you MUST have an international driving licence now, this is a recent change that many do not know about.

If you decide on the villa route, have a look at www.loyaltyusa.com a company owned and run by an english lady who lives in Orlando and only manages luxury properties within 4 miles of Disney. This is one of her homes: www.ownersdirect.co.uk/usa/f1895.htm which you could probably get from around £425 pw week if off peak (sep - Nov excl school hols)

Flights are expensive but you can save money by going chartered or flying into Tampa instead of Orlando international airport.

Definitely doable for 6k if you shop around

Hi thanks for replying. I would definitely want a hotel not a villa. Does anyone know which are good? Is it worth doing a Disney package or everything separately?

Personally I've not booked a disney package but I know a lot of people have. Many people recommend a board called the DIBB. (Disney information bulletin board I think) might be worth a look. I think at certain times of years Disney do free dining plans but I've never looked at it.

Thanks i'll have a look :)
The hotels look great on the website. Does anyone know a good one? I was thinking maybe the animal kingdom with savannah view but wouldn't be worth it?
Thanks

Definitely doable on 6K. I'd also recommend the Dibb, very helpful site. I've stayed at The Animal Kingdom Lodge and it is amazing. Really fantastic. We're going to Florida again in 17 days (eek!) but are staying at Port Orleans French Quarter this time which has some really good reviews on the Dibb.

Get yourself on the Disboards and the Dibb.

We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside twice which is fab for disneyworld and if its your first visit staying onsite will help with extra magic hours and disney transport. You may want to get the disney dining plan for eating.

We're staying off site this time in a Villa as the children are older and we want to explore parts we've not done before.

As a quick guide - just priced up on Virgin holidays, for 10 days in October, based on your family's ages, staying in a family suite at the new Art of Animation resort (no idea what you would prefer but had to pick something), with tickets and Dining plan (you get all meals included for the duration of your stay; we have found it to be really good, and you can eg book character meals which are brilliant) would be £6,500.

that is the first one I priced up, and there are savings to be made, depending on what level resort you want to stay in/how much space you want, etc.

we stayed at Old Key West last time - a villa/self catering resort, which is what we needed. It was fabulous, and really spacious - we had a one bedroom apartment, which was fine for us (me, dh, 2 dds then aged 6 and 4). we are off again in October, this time staying in a 2 bed OKW apartment (now have a ds as well, so a bit of extra space welcome!)

I haven't any idea what price it is for the autumn, but I can thoroughly recommend Saratoga Springs. We had a brilliant time there last summer in a 2 bed villa, including the dining package.

Having the buses to get around on made the whole thing so much more relaxed and enjoyable (have previously done villa/car-hire route, nothing like as easy). We hired a town car to pick us up from and drop us back to the airport.

I'm sorry about your hellish time- I hope everything works out ok. Disneyworld will definitely raise your spirits.

I recently booked our first holiday to Florida over the October half term. Following a tip-off on here (thanks to whoever it was), I found I could save £1500 on flights by going BA direct to Tampa instead of Orlando. A friend who works for an American airline has often done this route and says the airport is much more manageable and quicker to get through.

We are staying at a Disney resort to get the whole experience. I priced up OKW and Port Orleans Riverside as they both looked great, but found I could save £1000 by going to Port Orleans. Our holiday for 4 of us will cost about £4700, including direct BA flights, car hire, hotel, disney quick dining plan and 14 day disney tickets. I booked the flights and car hire via Expedia and the accommodation and tickets via Charter Travel. Was much much cheaper than the quote I got from Virgin holidays.

Agree about using the Dibb website for tips, although I would say some of the people on there are pretty obsessive about their trip!

might have been me. I'm always telling people to try Tampa, we saved £1,200 last year (for 6 of us) Airport is much easier to get through than Orlando and not much further a drive, around an extra 20 mins for us.

Make sure you get your international driving permit that is now a legal requirement.

My friend flies to Tampa as they go to Sarasota, then fly from Miami as they go to the Breakers. Prices are much cheaper than Sanford or Orlando.