Orlando Plans

[QueenofallIsee]

I would dearly love to take the children to Florida in 2020/2021 but am a bit bamboozled by the masses of options and difference in prices! I am fully IT literate I promise, it’s just there is a lot out there.

We are a blended family with 7 children, 6 school age children will be coming (the 21 yr old preferring the company of her friends and girlfriend for no good reason ). I have been looking in the package holiday sections and could be looking at 16k including parks with Virgin for instance. This seems far far too much money. I think a villa would be best but have read scary reviews of scam bookings and dodgy owners. Any mumsnetters a dab hand at Disney Orlando bookings with recommendations for me?

I would think you’d want a villa for sure. That limits your package options.

I would call Dial a flight for their help with villa, car hire and flights.

Windsor hills is a nice villa site near Disney, but probably 20-30 mins from universal.

Park tickets will be really expensive I’m afraid

Thanks Hermione! I am prepared for it to be spendy, everything with our tribe! I am mostly hoping not to pay over the odds and get ripped off I think and there are so so many websites and horror stories I am hoping to minimise the risk s much as possible. Thanks for the tips

We’ve just priced up for 4 of us to go in the future (for a base cost) and that was coming in at 13k for 2 adults and 2 kids so 16k seems reasonable to me! Clearly I’ve been looking in the wrong place 😊

Be aware it will be crazily busy in 2020 due to star wars land opening this christmas.

as it - due to open this christmas (2019)

Mattie at My Magic Holiday is who you need. Really excellent,( and legit!) travel agent, will get you a great deal and Mattie’s customer service is fab. They are highly recommended on the dibb too. I don’t work for them! They have got me some super quotes on Disney World in the past and we are travelling with them this year too.

13k for two adults and two children is expensive. what time of year was that?

We generally pay about £8k with flights to do ten nights at disney and four nights universal (in October staying on site with free disney dining and staying at loews pacific at universal)

This october we went for 10 nights for just over £5k but got very cheap flights and stayed at all star movies rather than our usual animal kingdom lodge or saratoga springs.

We go to Florida every other year. We already stay in a villa but do at least one night in a universal hotel as it gives you 2 days worth of the express passes - works out cheaper than buying the passes.

A villa is ideal with a bigger family and you can pay as much or as little as your budget suits. We have paid as little as 2k for 2 weeks and as much as 6k for the same period. Much depends on the estate (distance from parks and quality) pool and number of bedrooms.

Our favourite estate is Formosa Gardens - v close to Disney. It is expensive though.

We usually spend at least 10-12k before we land on flights, accommodation and tickets for a family of 4.

You also need to factor in spending money - we allow £400 a day but you can do it for more or less.

As to the concerns about villa ownership - do not send money directly by bank transfer. Pay by cheque. You can also check ownership of the house on the Orlando county specific registry (for example Polk county) which tells you the legal owner of the home and their details. Just a bit of extra peace of mind.

The time of year makes a massive difference to prices.

Thanks so much, these tips are great! Wonderful tip about the Universal hotel and passes. I'll look at the villa you mentioned too

@cloudtree that was July. But it was staying in a Disney resort and not including free dining so I imagine that’s where the amount came from! We won’t be going for a good few years yet so I’ll keep an eye on when is best offers through the year. Do you find the free dining helps costs or does it make the base cost more?

You don't tend to get the same accommodation discount when the free dining is on and you have to book fairly quickly to get the accommodation you want, but it definitely saves money, particularly now that you can have alcohol with your meal (including cocktails) and you get your refillable resort mug. We always fill and take our mugs to the parks

10 is the adult age at disney so the cost of food is more from that point onwards. I think the free dining is a great offer. It saves us a couple of thousand pounds easily. There are some really nice disney restaurants and its also great if you want to do the character meals like chef mickeys and the various princess dining options.

Book flights separately as indirect flights are much cheaper. Usually approx £500 per person less. You can get tickets peak times from around £380 indirect. Then you have accommodation, which is relatively cheap and tickets. Disney tickets are around £500 Pp for 2 weeks.

It's cheapest in Jan and Sept.
People say it is cheaper to book it all separately, but for our needs Virgin as a villa package was cheapest.
We got 4 ad 2 ch for three weeks in 4-bed villa in the resort of our choice, gold plus car insurance, Disney tickets for 3 weeks, premium economy flights, big car, memory maker for £8200 early sept.

Florida tix and attraction tickets direct have cheap deals for attractions.

We also got Orlando tickets from costco.

Have a check on Its Orlando Time Villas on facebook, all legitimate and everyone is very happy to help give you a good deal. Also the Its Orlando Time group is great itself, lots of good tips
Book flights seperate through skyscanner, might have to be done closer to the time though if your not booking as a package

@iforgotwhatiwasgoingtosay thank you so much!

Tired mama. Where do you buy the universal entry tickets? In the UK of Orlando?

Florida tix and Orlando attraction tickets direct are the best websites for universal tickets from the uk. Buying out there at the parks is very expensive.

We did Orlando in October this year with DDs (5 and 8) was amazing.
Would strongly recommend DIbb website for tips. Great advice
We are going 2020 in autumn again

We go to Florida most years (not always Orlando though - not going this year). We start looking at flight prices as soon as they're released (about 11 months before travel dates), and for the last few years have found BA flight + car hire to be very competitive, plus they're direct (although we've flown indirect many times too). Depending on if you only want to stay in Orlando, you could also look at pricing for Miami (about a 4-5 hr drive to Orlando) and Tampa (1.5 hrs drive).

We always stay in villas as I like having our own pool, the quality in Orlando is generally very good. We stayed near Champions Gate last year, but have also stayed at Windsor Hills many times, it's a great location for Disney. The Universal hotel trick for fast passes is great, although for so many of you, could prove very costly.

For villas, I generally start looking on HomeAway (which is the same company as VRBO, OwnersDirect, HolidayRentals etc), but you could also look at AirBNB. I've never used AirBNB, it always makes me a bit nervous, but I've never had any problems with HomeAway, and use them generally twice a year in US and European holidays. There will be thousands of villas, so make sure you filter down (so tick box for private pool, minimum bedrooms, air con etc etc).

I've done Orlando with extended family, and my main tip is don't try to do everything together (this of course may not be practical in your circumstances). Sometimes it's just easier to work out who wants to do what (ahead of time), then split up and meet up at various points for lunch, drinks, parades or whatever.

Good luck with planning, you'll have an amazing time!