Florida flight prices have floored me!

[Abouttimemum]

Just priced up Florida for next year, cheapest flights are £3,500 or thereabouts for 4 adults and one child.

Care hire is £1500.

Complete with villa and tickets it’s going to be about £11k.

pre covid we probably paid about £7-8k and £500 quid ish and less each for flights.

I mean I feel like you only live once but I’ll be stopping in for a year to save ha!

Also to add, we booked with Aer Lingus for the first time.
@Figmentofimagination how was the Aer Lingus flight??

So expensive!

For this reason we have booked a year in advance in order to pay for it bit by bit.
we are up to £7k so far. Villa & flights for 3 adults one child.
No car hire yet, no park passes and parking at the parks and no spends or eating yet!

But it’s the last time we will ever go there, it’s the family’s favourite holiday destination ( it’s Hell on earth for me).
Usually go every 4-5 years and has never cost so much.

Deep breaths, deep breaths.

@HollyDayDream we’ve stayed at the Rosen Inn before (albeit many years ago) and it was spot on and right in the middle of everything. You’ll not go wrong. Like others said I’d buy your tickets and book your park days in advance.

@Wobblyjob that sounds about right and what we’re getting back as well.

Re car hire, you can get a good deal with the highly recommended And Uk based Discount Florida Car Hire, which on looking for us is £1400 all in for a 7 seater mini van, GPS and car seat etc so worth a look. It was cheaper than Alamo even with a 10% discount with them.

@Figmentofimagination also keen to hear about Aer Linghus

@NashvilleQueen that seems to be the info I’m seeing too, 11 months

We have booked for next year, summer holidays but at the back end. Best deal with Tui and not flying at weekends. Staying in Universal so no car hire. Just over 5k.

We're pleased with that. We have budgeted 1.5k for tickets and at least 2k spends. There are cheaper hotels but we wanted the early entry.

Maybe consider somewhere else and look on the emperors new clothes holiday thread. Most of us agree Disney Florida isn’t great.
Do you have to go now? Could you wait a couple of years +?

I've just tried a random bunch of dates

1-8 May LHR to Orlando return 9hour flight £2125

17-25 April LGW to Orlando 9 hours out 10 hours back £1,600

Manchester and Glasgow a lot more expensive so cheaper to get connections to London separately

@HollyDayDream not only have the free fast passes disappeared you now need to pay for Genie + per person per day and that will only get the original tier 2 rides. If you want the prime rides you pay AGAIN for this privilege unless you are willing to queue. Times are a changing. We have sacked off Disney (been several times) due to this. Also instead of booking 60 days out etc the "fastpass" genie+ system opens every morning at 7am, ah so any ideas of a lie in have now gone.

Genie is just Disney's free app that shows you wait times for rides.

OP what you need to do is mess around with dates if you are able to, we have done 15 days or 17 days so as not to hit the typical 14 days. We also fly out of Dublin as it is much cheaper than the standard Manchester or London. These are international hubs and cost more plus flying from the UK adds to the cost. Flights wise I think we have always booked around the 9-10 month mark, watching TheDibb closely for any deals people see.

It has always been expensive but for us the lack of free dining (the dining credit doesn't cut it) and now the Genie system means we probably won't go back. We have some incredible memories from it and loved it.

I don't think those prices are too bad actually. We fly to the US regularly and have noticed that flight prices have increased massively over the past few years, and particularly since the start of the pandemic. We paid a lot more than that for two adults and two DC to California last summer.

Thank you! I love that thread! Like I’ve said, it’s really now or never with my parents to be honest. And I’ve been to Orlando and it’s my favourite holiday so far (being a theme park obsessive), so I know what I’m letting myself in for 😂

Have a look at excaret in Mexico

That's just not true. We booked almost a year in advance for Florida and got a great deal. We do this every year

But May is high season for Americans

January 2023, 7 nights on a Disney Property, 3 nights at Universal, Disney tickets, prem Ec on Virgin, 3 adults £7800

If anyone has a two week half term in October, it was a lovely time to visit Disney. Warm but not scorching and not too crowded.

That isnt true
generally cheapest when 1st released the rise and drop slightly but best thing is the BA/Virgin etc match each other in sales

Buying 3 months out at the moment is exorbitant and lost of USA flights are fully booked

@declutteringmymind I’ve been and it was excellent, although this was 15 years ago!

I've been to Disneyworld a good few times but it's over for me since they started charging for fast passes and massively reduced things like the free dining offers. It used to be great - albeit needing military planning - but not anymore. They've ruined it!

But absolutely go to Florida - the Keys, the Gulf Coast 😍 I had a much better holiday going to those places!

Can't comment on anything but the flights, but friends just booked RT nonstop London <> Orlando for £458 pp THIS summer - going mid June returning mid July. Which seems cheap for transatlantic in the summer. The airline was Virgin Atlantic. They're actually going to see family but found the chapest flights into Orlando and Tampa, Miami quite a bit more expensive.

Just got back from Florida. Booked flights a month before, return ticket with American airlines was £650, via phily, as can't get direct flight to jacksonville (st augustine).
£3500 between 4 is only £875 each, a couple of hundred extra too much I'd say. But booking long in advance is usually more expensive . £875 is nearly west coast price.

Sorry not been back to respond sooner @Abouttimemum and @florenceandthemac. Don't know if others have responded about this as not caught up yet.
Aer Lingus is a standard airline. No frills. But apart from them not having my DS's children's on the flight home I can't fault them. Staff were lovely and attentive.
We flew from Manchester to Dublin. Took about 45mins. Landed around 9am. Flight was basic. No tv in the headrest, a snack and a drink and that was it. Wouldn't expect much more for a short flight though.
Then we had a 4 hour wait in Dublin. So we took our time and had an early lunch at Burger King (been up since 3am). When our flight was called to go through pre clearance we sauntered down, quick and easy through security and customs. At our gate within 30 mins.
Flight from Dublin to Orlando was great. Good choice of movies and tv shows and music. Water was always available to ask for but we brought bottles. Alcohol costs extra. We had a snack and a drink first, then our main meal, then a quick bite, then ice cream. We were sat near the back and the flight attendants always came to chat to us, and gave my DS extra ice creams. Plane was clean, apart from turbulence there was no issues. We got off the flight at the departure lounge instead of arrivals, walked straight onto the trams to the main concourse and then straight to baggage claim.
No having to go through customs hell, pick up the bags, drop them back off again, onto the tram and then pick them up a second time.
Flight home was delayed due to the storms in Feb delaying the flight to Orlando. But that meant we had the storm behind us which actually landed earlier than was originally planned. Again staff were lovely, gave us extra chocolate puddings because they didn't have the kids meal. It was a snack, then main meal, then a breakfast wrap. Even when a lady fainted next to me and staff had to look after her everyone else was still taken care off with drinks etc.
I would definitely fly with aer lingus again. A lot cheaper for 2 adults and 1 child compared to my parents direct flight the same day with Virgin. Would also go via Dublin again to avoid customs in Orlando.

Thanks @Figmentofimagination

Yes thank you @Figmentofimagination that’s really helpful!

If you can book last minute that would help we paid £800 for 3 of us flying with car hire included with tui only staying a week ,hotel a basic but very clean with pool cost £250.

We booked in January to fly in May. This year. £2,500 for 2 adults an 8 and 11yo. Direct flights. Paid extra to go from our nearby airport rather than cheaper from London.

Oh I should mention we flew aer longus and it was great. Good choice of food and drink and TV and games and films. Staff were lovely. Rest of family flew virgin.

I recommend a trip to universal but disney is not really worth it. My friend went at the same time and paid £1,800 for 4 for a universal (2 parks and a water park), seaworld (Inc a water park) and the Kennedy space centre so 6 parks. We paid £3,200 for disney and universal which was 9 parks.

I loved animal Kingdom and hollywood studios, epcot is better than I remember and magic kingdom is awful apart from the fireworks which were amazing.

Might be worth considering legoland instead. It's an hour south of disney and you can get a 2 day pass for $88pp