Budget for Florida Holiday?

[BaconAndAvocado]

We're a family of 2 parents and 3 DCs and are planning on an once-in-a-lifetime Florida holiday in 2015..

We'd like to stay at a villa for 2 weeks in Orlando to do,the parks then 1 week somewhere by a beach, Clearwater?

Will have to go in school holidays.......

Any ideas on ball park figure?

Tia

We did it a few years ago, think you're looking at £5-7k

Really? Does that include everything. Tickets etc?

Thought it would be loads more?

I would estimate about 3.5-4k on flights, at least 1k for a villa for 2 weeks, maybe another 500-1k for a week on the beach. Around 1.5k for disney tickets, more if you want to do other parks. Plus food and spends I think you would need around 8-9k as a minimum

Also meant to say Anna Maria island is a really lovely beach option

3 of us just did Florida for 10 days in October HT including flights, hotel, park tickets (inc Discovery Cove).

Travel agent costs for all above plus a few days car hire: £4.5

Spends whilst there for eating out every meal and bits and bobs: £2k

jingle Anna Maria Island looks beautiful. Where is it and how do you get there from Orlando?

We usually hire a car and drive down, takes around two and a half hours but not a bad drive at all. We've had some lovely times there, not too commercialised and a friendly, family feel. You can easily head up to Tampa for the day if you fancy Busch Gardens (quietest park you will encounter by far)

It is on the east coast, just south of Clearwater

Sorry, west!

We went this summer, there were 4 adults, 3 kids. In total for villa and flights we ended up paying £1000 pp. Whilst there as a family of 5 we spent just over £1200 on everyday stuff. We bought a ticket bundle to cover us for full fortnight in all parks, that cost around £3000 for all 7 of us. X

Just booked for 2014 in August

2 adults, two teens and one child. Three weeks in Florida, inc one week in hotel, three weeks car hire

£6000, we have to change at New York for that price

Villa for two weeks is an extra 1k

That does not include tickets, or spends, or food, or souvenirs, or the extra we will spend upgrading the car, or Discovery cove which we are doing again next year (but I am eating and drinking from 8am!!!!!)

I'd say 9 to 10k for everything including flights, accommodation, tickets, food, car hire etc.

Have a look on thedibb.co.uk - good uk disney planning site

Seriously consider flying indirect (1 change) often doesn't take much longer than direct as you clar immigration at the first US airport.

Maybe consider 3 weeks in Orlando area. You will often get a great deal on a villa for 3 weeks. 3 week tickets cost little more than 2 week ones. So you can have rest days at villa pool every few days or waterpark days rather than trying to cram everything into 2 weeks.

The beach can be done as a day trip from Orlando area.

We went this Easter- 3 adults 9k in total.

I also said it would be a once in a lifetime trip......

Booking for next September

We did Orlando last Easter staying in Disney (art of animation) and there were 2 adults and 2 children 12 and 10. We just did Disney and Discovery Cove and Seaworld and had no dining plans. In total we spent over 11k for 2 weeks.

I think the flights and accommodation was about £7300, then just under £2k for the theme parks and the rest was food and spending money, and we're not particularly extravagant!

We hope to go again in 2015 but hope to spend far less, firstly we won't go over Easter as you seem to pay a premium and the parks are soooo busy! Also staying in a villa seems to be much cheaper and being able to cater for yourself and eat outside of Disney will save money. Saying that, for a first trip being on site was so easy, the transportation system is free and efficient.

Prices vary widely, it's probably best to price up various different options at different times of year to get the most accurate approx cost.

We are saving to do the same in Summer 2015. 2 adults, 2 kids, but they will be 12 and 13.

If you change at New York can you book a stop over? I'd love to have a couple of days there too if possible.

I've been looking at art of animation too lass but seemed a lot more expensive than Rosen inn on I drive where we stayed in Easter.

Would love to stay overnight at universal to get the extra hours and the express passes but adds $.

Easter was soooooo busy! We're hoping to do sept 2015

Snap! We are hoping to go with extended family in Aug 2015. There would be 12 of us going! Looking at 7 bedroom villas off the 192 area. I can`t see that we can do it for less than £1500-£2000 each covering everything, flights alone will be around £800+ and I am hoping to eat out a lot more than we have in the past. We last went in 2006 when my trio were 8, they will be 17 by the time we go! Lets keep this thread going to share ideas! Oh and I second Anna Maria Island we spent 5 nights there, fab and a fun trolley to take you round!

We went in 2010 and total for the 4 of us - 2 adults, 2 kids - ( though one of ours was 10 so her park ticket was adult price.. flights don't change til age 12.. ish depending on carrier)

was £7645 for 2 weeks Orlando in a villa including, flights, park tickets (Disney + Universal parks), food, car-hire, fuel, parking, a night in Universal hotel (for the express access) , trip to the coast including Kennedy entrance, an airboat trip and Disney mini golf.

(didn't include in that figure our UK side things... Bus to/from airport, taxi to/from bus and pet boarding)

We went Easter 2007 and Halloween 2012 (October was MUCH better) in terms of heat, crowds and atmosphere- the Easter holiday was quite horrendous in terms of waiting times and crowds.

First time we went we stayed on Disney at Port orleans resort- at that point it was $2 to the £1 so we have good value for money-
In oct 2012 the exchange rate was $1.6 to £1 so overall less value for money.

IN Oct 2012 we stayed in a Sheraton hotel on Int Drive (had a car) and did 10 days in orlando and then drove to the Florida Keys (Hawks Cay resort on Duck key- amazing)

The October holiday with Virgin was 4k. We spent another 3.5k on attraction tickets, clothes, food/drink etc.

Would recommend this company for tickets- they were by far the cheapest-
www.officialticketcenter.com/

We went in 2013, late August and it cost about 9K for 2 weeks.

Direct flights with Virgin were about £3.5 k for the four of us, Disney hotel for once week ( included food and all park tickets to Disney) was another £2k, villa for week 2 about 1k, then car hire, tickets to Busch gardens, discovery cove, etc and self catering food shop easily added in a further 2k.
I think you are probably looking at a minimum of £6-7 k, we did a lot of things, like discovery cove which were once in a life time and though lovely not necessary.

stardust may I ask how much the night at universal was? We're you able to ride any ride as many times as you wanted?

hi - it cost us $220 - but was a HUGE room for 4 of us - with a view over the parks...

we checked in at 7 AM and went straight to early opening of the Harry Potter attraction (one hour before anyone else got it) via free water taxi (fun in itself!!)

and we could ride most rides (not the main HP one or a couple of others we didn't want to do anyhow) as often as we liked with very little queueing... the headline rides often have lines over an hour long at Universal - even in quiet season - so to us it was worth every penny... The mummy, spiderman, nick jr (despicable me now), men in black, Dr Seuss rides etc were lines of around 5 min for express passes ... but 40 min plus for normal ticket holders.

We rode the simpsons ride 4 times - without express passes we would have ridden once..!

We had to pay parking on top - about $12 at the time - but that gave us 2 full days parking - so cheaper than 2 actual days parking at the parks.

That sounds fab! Think might have to bite the bullet.
Do you still pay separately for entrance tickets?

Yep - afraid so.... but we got the multi-park ones with Busch Gardens etc..