Thinking about Florida, never been on a longhaul flight. How to do it as cheap as we can?

[HarryPottersMagicWand]

We have a bit of money, I don't want to spend it all but I've always wanted to go to Florida and the DCs are desperate to go abroad and have mentioned Disney Land although we have always said we could never afford it.

I have been looking and a villa seems like a great price. I don't want to do Disney the whole time, Universal, Legoland and the Space Centre would all be on our list as well as Disney, Plus Sea World, but I also want chill out time, pool, beach etc as I have a chronic illness and will need to pace myself and a friend said having a day to chill in between parks is the best thing to do.

We would need to hire a car, which scares the crap out of us tbh, but it would be a necessity. The flights we saw were £550 but didn't go to the main airport, is this an issue?

Basically I feel very overwhelmed, to the point it seems too much and think forget it, but I've ALWAYS wanted to go and don't know if we could afford to again.

I would only fly direct, I know having a stop off is much cheaper but DH doesn't want to change, the DCs would get very very fed up and it would knacker me out even more.

What's the best time of year? DH hates the heat so it can't be too hot but I want a nice sunny holiday (without too much rain). I was thinking Easter next year although I've read it is one of the busiest times but having school ago DC, we can't help that and the summer holidays would be too hot.

Harrypotter, that sounds like a great price for accom/flights if it also includes all those park tickets.

Can I reccommend Grayline again for excursions, they were great and v cost effective

Unfortunately the park tickets combo is only for 2017 and there is no guarantee they will do the same offer next year so that may cost us more. But I still want to do it so may have to suck up the cost of more expensive park tickets and just enjoy the fact we should be able to get cheap flights and decent accommodation for a good price.

Thanks flutterby. Will have a look.

Just think really carefully about the car, the first 6 weeks or so that we lived there we didn't have a car and it was a bit of a nightmare! Virtually everybody does have a car so it's not geared up very well for those who don't, there's not even many pavements outside of Disney as people drive literally everywhere! It's a touch scary at first but you get used to it very quickly and it would be much much easier for you xx

Also, a lot of the parks are really nice in the evening (and a bit cooler) with loads of fireworks/places to eat etc so you may change about from your normal routine for this holiday, oh I'm so jealous, you'll LOVE it!!

We went for Easter a few years ago and the weather is perfect. We got flights through Charter Travel - they found the cheapest option for us.

I was worried about the fact that we opted for indirect flights to save money but now I think that's the way I would actually prefer to go.

The queues at immigration at Orlando Intl at Easter can be hours long but we missed those by flying via New York and passing through immigration there. We had enough time on the ground to have something to eat and then we boarded the flight from New York to Orlando.

If you book a villa there is a company called Park on the Drive who will collect you from the airport in a limo and drive you to your villa where your hire car will be waiting on the drive for you. This way you avoid the horrible queues and the hard sell for upgrades at the rental desk. It also means that you can opt for a smaller car because you don't have to worry about fitting all of your luggage in it. They then drive you back to the airport at the end of the holiday.

There is a crowd predictor which we found through the Dibb.this enabled us to plan our days at the parks around the less busy days.

Pre booking a restaurant in the theme park half way through the day really helped us to pace ourselves.

Animal Kingdom is a great first park to visit as it's a bit less full on than Epcot and The Magic Kingdom.

Getting to the theme parks early and then doing a water park in the afternoon also helps to make it more relaxing.

You can manage without a car by using the shuttle buses but it does restrict your freedom a bit as our friends found when the went without hiring a car.

That car hire company is called Car on the Drive not Park on the Drive - sorry .

Thanks, that's some great advice. Will have a look at everything properly once I can book our flights. Dates still not available yet, only goes up to about 3rd week of March and I need very end until 3rd week of April looking at next years Easter dates.

Do they only do that car thing if you have a villa as we have pretty much decided it's going to be a no to a villa now? Will be a town house close by or a hotel suite.

The additional issue with hiring a car is the parking charges, which are pretty steep. Add this to tolls, gas and the hire charges, it all adds up which is why I was leaning to Uber as we wouldn't be going out every single day and if we stay near International Drive, Uber fares wouldn't be much to get to the other places we want to go.

Looks like they will deliver the car to any resort