Ok so what exactly is a GOOD price to pay for flight tickets to Orlando?

[Polgara2]

Have been looking at Virgin website and they are £700 for end of March/beg April. This is going to to work out expensive for 4 of us.

Am undecided between Easter hols and summer hols and the price may be the deciding factor!

triplets - not sure if you remember me, but I was just going to ask how your DH was.

If you fly indirect you go through immigration and customs at your first stop in the US. Worth checking out relative size of airports as some of the airports you would only need a 2 hour transfer and/or there are multiple internal flights down to MCO so you would be put on the next plane that day. When you get to MCO you are arriving internally so no need to clear immigration and customs, and therefore only wait for baggage and then get car.

The flight change is a hassle, but is saving us over £1,200 so is worthwhile imo. We're travelling out with 2 other families (so saving over £3,600 between us), and view that the kids will be easier en mass.

We get two weeks holiday in October.

I've been with American airlines but had to change in Chicago.I didn't have children at that time though.

Last time we went with the children and we flew Virgin airlines, they were amazing and would definitely fly them again, but the only problem with them is that they only fly form London so we have to get down to London first, we're in Scotland. It means that we can't take as much luggage as we get a smaller allowance on the internal flight down to London and back again.

I wish we had the money to go back, but we had a big holiday to Canada last year, plus we're waiting until dd2 is older so she can get on all the rides.

Hi Bellavita............yes I think I do.........he got a clear ct scan after 18 months of treatment, that was end of July. As its a stage 4 it can come back, but for now its brill, so Florida is our dream for next year. He has another op to have prob before Christmas to reverse the ileostomy after the initial bowel op. Thank you for remembering x

Serious re the queues - in July/August they have not been bad at all; definitely no where near as bad as at Disney Paris. We have just come back a couple of weeks ago and the queues were fine. Got to ride everything there, used fast pass a bit fpr the newer rides, but for the rest - 20 min or so at most. Universal's Islands of Adventure was the wrst as no free fastpass system, but Disney loads better.

triplets I have just taken a look at that companies T&C's. Don't get caught out by their high credit AND debit card charges @ 3.5% on the full value of your booking. They really shouldn't charge for debit cards, that's a bit off. That could be another £100 on your booking.

Hope your Dh is feeling better soon.

If you say that you are a member of The Dibb then you don't get charged the 3.5% on debit cards.

My Mum we've just payed way, way over £8000

I have done a charter to Orlando and it stopped for refuelling but you didnt have to get off so not really an inconvenience.

We went for just under a month at Easter 2008. We went 15th March until 12th April. At that time our kids were 9 and 6.

We found the weather fine, just right imo. We did have 1 whole wet day and 1 week of frequent showers (usually afternoon). Cant say it effected our days though tbh. Evenings were warm enough, some I needed a cardi but I was never cold an the kids never complained of feeling chilly still in their shorts at 10pm.

First week the parks were empty. No one can belive how empty the parks are in our pics! LOL. It did get alot busier in weeks 2 and 3. The final week got quieter but not as quiet as the 1st week.

We flew with Continental from Heathrow to Houston. Had a 3 hour stop over there before flying onto Orlando. Returning we travelled via Newark, again with a 3 or 4 hour stopover.

Kids coped fine with it and all 4 flights came in around £1000 as opposed to Direct flights more than double that.

We also saved money by staying in a luxury condo as opposed to a villa. We still had the 2 jacuzzi bathrooms, full kitchen , washer dryer, huge living area, dining space, huge balcony with views of Epcot Fireworks! etc etc. Just had a communal pool as opposed to our own. But at Easter if you have a villa you really need pool heat which is about £100 to £125 per week. Well on a 4 week break that £400 to £500 ontop. So Condo it was. I have to say even being there the month we only ever spent 2 half days "in" besides the pool and maybe the odd hour or two on an odd afternoon around the pool! SO glad I didnt spend £100s on that.

If money was no object I prolly would fly direct but tbh, our kids enjoyed the break off the plane and we had no problems with them when we connected each time. The amount of money we saved made it worth while.

We have been looking at going again and the price difference is not quite as much as it was. I live in hope I will find a ood enough deal to persuade OH to go again though.

Can I join in?! We're thinking of going for 10 nights next christmas (2010). Has anybody been over christmas? Are the parks still open every day? What's the weather like? And how much would flights cost? (roughly)

Were considering only booking direct flights as have heard horror stories of delays and probs with indirect flights but wonder now if the £££ saving would make it worth the hassle?

Our DC's will be 4.5 and 7 by christmas 2010.

TIA

The dibb or disboards are great for info about Florida and Disney.

We have booked for next August-flights with BA 2adults and 2 children £2400 and Saratoga Springs disney hotel £2800. That price includes 14 day ultimate tickets and free disney dining (1 snack, 1 counter service meal, 1 table service meal for us all each day ) Also we chose a 1 bed apartment so we dont all have to be in the same room, the kids are on a sofa bed in the living room. We get a full kitchen, balcony, washer drier etc. Cant wait ! The hotel was booked direct with disney.

Probably should have said thats for 14 nights

We have been to Florida at Easter for the last three years and have found that the cheapest flights are with the American airlines, ie Delta, American, Continental, through an agent such as justtheflight.co.uk. You will need to change planes, depending on where their "hub" is - Atlanta, Houston, Detroit etc, usually there is about a 2-3 hour stopover, a bit of an inconvenience but we saved about £800 by doing it this way. An even cheaper way is to start your transatlantic flight from either Paris or Amsterdam and get a really cheap flight to Europe (ironically, BA was the cheapest!) Again, this saved us another £500 - but it is a lot of hassle!

We have only once had a problem with delays and that was last year when Gatwick was closed due to snow. We thought we were going to miss our connecting flight, but they held it over (not just for us, there were around 50 others catching the same flight).

Weatherwise, Easter is a great time to go - the temperatures are pleasant (25-28 deg) without being unbearably hot and humid - much more comfortable for small children. This year we had one showery afternoon and one thunderstorm at night; last year we had no rain at all. The evening temperatures were OK, we were only cold when we went into buildings where the aircon was on high! The downside is that the parks can get very busy, depending on when Easter falls and when the American kids have their spring break (different states have different dates). If Easter falls early, as it did last year, it is quite quiet. We found Busch Gardens to be the least crowded park.

As slummymummy says, there are further savings to be made by renting a condo - probably about half the price of a villa. We rent a 3 bedroom condo with a shared pool, (you don't have to pay extra for pool-heating!), which the kids like because they can make friends.

We are looking at going next September/Oct for around 5 weeks (have been saving holiday days and £ for a while) but are a bit unsure about booking.
We normally go BA but are concerned due to their threatened strikes. Current rumours are that first strikes will be between xmas and new year and we have booked already to fly with them on the 27th December so a bit anxious about that.
Anyone else risking booking with BA?
Anyone flown Virgin recently and can recommend them?

we're just back from orlando yesterday. we live in NE scotland so no chance of a direct flight. we paid £1100 for 2 adults 1 child, but that was Aberdeen-Amsterdam-Detroit-Orlando. great on price but very tiring. connections were very easy, no hassles.

weather wise i would recommend october. very hot when we left, 85-90 most days (although that was above average for time of year). parks still pretty busy, reckon july/august would be madness.

we had a lovely time, but very busy holiday.

We too have just got back, and it was very hot wasn't it tllcc! Saturday at Kennedy Space Centre was sizzling hot.

October is a great time to go, no queues apart from 20-45 mins in Magic Kingdom on the Friday, but for Universal, Aquatica, Island of Adventures and Seaworld we just whizzed round various rides several times!

We flew with Virgin, they were fine, hostesses were lovely. Felt it was quite an old plane though. Ds couldn't use his headphones for the movies as it was broken, but they had a portable one.

Can really recommend www.attractionticketsdirect.com, to buy your tickets before you go, excellent prices and service. They have something called a Flex Tickets which was great value.

Also a friend lent me The Brits Guide to Florida book which was really really useful, both in helping to plan and whilst we were there.