Orlando Family Holiday

[Fressia123]

We're a family of six (4 kids, 1 under 2 by the time we want to go). I was there about 20 years ago, but no idea where to look for planning advice. We think we can do it for 5-7k. Ideally next year if the virus allows.

I’d not go next year. As someone said above. Thousands of postponed holidays plus the anniversary celebrations.

What are the ages of the other kids. Come 10 they are classed as adults.

Disney tickets will be £2285 alone. Add car hire, villa, flights, visas, spending, food and drinks you won’t have much out of £7k, if anything. £10k is more realistic.

Sorry op, I don’t want to be negative or spoil your excitement but I agree with other posters - I think you will really struggle on that budget to be honest.
Aside from flights, accommodation, park tickets, ESTA’s, transport, and food, you have to think about all the little extras that really add up, like tax and tips and snacks and drinks and merchandise that your kids will no doubtably beg you for.
It’s such a big, exciting holiday and things are really expensive, you don’t want to be having to watch every penny all the time.
Plus next year will be crazy busy as it’s the 50th anniversary.
Why not look at 2022 when your youngest will be a bit older and you have more time to save?

Last year for 3 of us we spent £6k flights car tickets and spends. We didn't pay for the villa it was covered by parents. Parks are seriously expensive to eat in. Tickets for the 3 of us for Disney and universal were £1700 that was with my agent discount.

I think for our own particular reasons, 2022 could be more complicated. Baby would.pay for plane ticket and the eldest would be in year 9. I think the older he is, the least he'd be on with skipping one week of school. It's also our wedding in present from us to them so to speak.

Looks like you can get there and back, have somewhere to stay and get around for ~£4000.

If you want those Disney tickets and assuming the youngest doesn’t needs one, that’s another £2800 ( I’m rounding up ).

That leaves you £200 for everything else for two weeks.

Do you think it’s possible OP, where could you make changes to keep under £7000?

So of those £200 I can add at least £250 as there would be no grocery shopping.

So maybe £8k would be realistic. I'm going back to work with extra hours so that's at least £4k we can add to our budget (I wouldn't want to anyways but would mean we can stretch to £10k)

Remember when you are eating or shopping in Florida, the ticket price isn’t what you pay. You’ll have taxes to add. May be look at 10 days rather than 14.

We've just rescheduled for August 2021.

Things not looking good at all in Florida at the moment even though Disney reopened yesterday.

Keeping fingers crossed things will be back to pre Covid normal- I don't think I could comfortably wear a mask in that heat!

The anniversary celebrations start in October 2021.

@Strawberrypancakes I'd be tipping 15-20% voluntarily no matter what the party size anyway in most of the US, I don't think Florida is different in that regard.

Parking at Disney parks was $22 a day last time we went

Eating in the parks isn’t prohibitive but isn’t cheap either. Snacks are really part of the Disney experience now, it would be a shame to go all that way and then not be able to afford a few treats. Eating out other places is good value and groceries are weirdly expensive ($5 for a bag of bagels in Walmart!)

Hermione yes we thought the prices were high for basic stuff compared to the UK.

You’ll need a rental car, petrol, food, those flights don’t include luggage, park tickets, airport car parking in the UK or transport yo and from the airport, ESTAs, I saw 2 days of shopping mentioned (not sure why - anything we have here you can get in the UK and can’t imagine the children will enjoy it) and do you will need to pay duty if you take more than £390 goods into the UK. A pound is only getting $1.30 or so now so things are not that cheap for visitors. The cost of living in general is already higher here than in the UK.

Have always used the Dibb website for my Orlando holidays.

Think about flying to Tampa. Can be cheaper and car hire is definitely cheaper. It's about a 90 minute easy drive to Orlando. It's a quiet airport and you will be through immigration super quick.

We flew this way two years ago and got to our accommodation in Orlando before friends we met at Gatwick were out of the airport at Orlando (we took off at the same time!).

Also handy if you want to start/end with some beach time.

I would suggest that you join the Disney Information Bulletin Board. Its free to join, just sort out a user name. It is a site full of Disney fans including some who will help you to plan your holiday because they are enthralled by the place and everything that it has to offer. You can also access a load of other people's trip reports which will give you more information of how and when to do things like booking flights, cars, villa etc. As a rule of thumb for my costings I start at flights @ £500 per head. Villa @ approx $600 per week with pool. Look at Discount Florida Car Hire prices for the dates that you have got in mind, they are one of the most reasonable. Alamo Brits is one that I regularly use. Theme park tickets today on one site are $469 Adult and £449 Child for 14 days, do no jump in straight away because they do have sales. Parking in Disney Parks is now $25 per day, you can leave and return later or transfer to another park. It may sound a lot but some people spend over 12 hours inside the parks during the day. It will be cheaper to do a Walmart shop rather than dine out every meal. Disney will allow you to take a cooler box in. This holiday needs a lot of homework if you are going to do it on a budget but it will pay off in the end. There are a lot of "eateries" that give money off but you need to know when and how to do it. If you want some direction/help pm me ad I will assist if I can.