Can you experts help me!

[Diamonds74]

Hi everyone,

I've heard that you all are the experts in all things Disney! We are wanting to travel next August with our kids and looking for a great trip - but working out prices with Virgin holidays for example has us frightened! I know it wont be cheap, by any means, but looking for any help you may have to get the best deals.

We are looking for the best places to buy and best price for:

1) cheapest flights to Orlando from London (direct, MCO or Sandford) 2 adults and 5 kids (8-14yrs)
2) 4 bed villa with south facing pool, max 15 mins from Disney for 2 weeks (under £1,000)
3) Disney tickets for 4 days in parks and 2 days in water parks
4) 2 days Universal pass
5) cheapest car rental for a minivan.

If you guys have any tips where we can get any costs down that would be amazing. Thanks all....

 

[Diamonds74]

And one question you guys may be able to answer - we have friends who live in Florida, they said they can buy our kids tickets over there on Florida Residents prices and just give them to us, and we buy our own tickets. Does that work, is it allowed? Also - are WDW tickets cheaper to buy for US residents? Do we buying them through UK sites etc pay more?

 

[2Tiggies]

And one question you guys may be able to answer - we have friends who live in Florida, they said they can buy our kids tickets over there on Florida Residents prices and just give them to us, and we buy our own tickets. Does that work, is it allowed? Also - are WDW tickets cheaper to buy for US residents? Do we buying them through UK sites etc pay more?

I guess it depends on the Cast Member when you buy the tickets, but they had us bring two forms of ID for each of us getting FL Resident discounts, including DD to buy the FL Resident AP's. I am not sure if they always check though. I guess they could try and see what happens. It's not the ID of the person paying. It's proof of residence for each of the pass/ticket holders that they wanted.

For longer stay tickets, the UK deals work out better than the US deals for park tickets. The UK actually has great prices on 14/21 day park tickets and they include park hopping and waterpark access for their duration, both of which are add-ons at an additional cost per ticket in the US.

The folks on here will be able to help you get a better deal than going through VH.

 

[peachiepie]

We are looking for the best places to buy and best price for:

1) cheapest flights to Orlando from London (direct, MCO or Sandford) 2 adults and 5 kids (8-14yrs)
2) 4 bed villa with south facing pool, max 15 mins from Disney for 2 weeks (under £1,000)
3) Disney tickets for 4 days in parks and 2 days in water parks
4) 2 days Universal pass
5) cheapest car rental for a minivan.

For flights I'd suggest frequent checks on Skyscanner. The flights will be released 11 months before you travel and it is worth keep checking Skyscanner. The prices will go up and down, but it's just a case of keep checking until you find a price you're okay with.

For the tickets it could be worth having a look at attractionticketdirect - they generally seem to have good prices.

 

[P800aul]

Hi

We've never been in the summer however I would guess August is going to be one of the more expensive months. Our experience of going October for the last 6 years may help (me with DW - DD x 2 now 14 and 12) as while we don't skimp on spending I don't think we waste money.

You don't say if this is your first trip, if it is then I would say you need to look at your timings 4 days at Disney is not a lot of time and 2 days at the water parks maybe too much time. We've been 6 years on the bounce for 2 weeks at a time and spend almost all of our time at Disney parks and maybe half a day at a water park. The 14/7 day ultimate tickets (all parks, water parks and mini golf included) are the same price and as far as I can see the best deal by far for a UK Family. Universal is a different matter the UK tickets are good value when compared to the gate or discount prices elsewhere however we struggled to spend more than 2 days there, its down to the individual family i guess.

We stay at Windsor Hills in a two bed condo and in Oct pay around £700 for the two week stay, clearly not the size you need however there are lots of villas there so should be something for you. It's about 15 mins from Disney, you need to choose well as they are all different and some offer more than others.

We fly from Manchester via Philadelphia with American Air and I book 11 months in advance, I don't know if this is a good strategy however prices always seem to go up not down and to be honest once I've bought I rarely check the price again. Flying indirect saves us around £1,000 over direct prices this year we paid around £2,500 for the 4 of us. I get the good times so our total journey time is down to around 12 hours (around 3 hours more that direct) . It's not a big deal changing jets at Philadelphia we have a 2 hour window to do it and by the time you've gone through immigration etc there's just enough time for a McDonald's before boarding the flight to Orlando.

Car hire i use Expedia or Rentalcars.com and because of the chaos at Orlando (even in October) I try to book Alamo as they offer online check in, which means you just walk straight out of the airport and pick up your car without having to join the long line at the airport desk, even if it's a bit more expensive.

Not a direct correlation to the trip you want to do but I hope it helps

Regards

Paul

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

And one question you guys may be able to answer - we have friends who live in Florida, they said they can buy our kids tickets over there on Florida Residents prices and just give them to us, and we buy our own tickets. Does that work, is it allowed? Also - are WDW tickets cheaper to buy for US residents? Do we buying them through UK sites etc pay more?

NO he can not buy Florida Residence tickets for you because you have to produce a Florida ID with your picture on it in order to use the tickets. Yes they will check. They will ask to see your Florida ID and then scan the fingerprint of you index finger which becomes permanently linked to the ticket. Then each time you use the ticket you have to scan your finger.

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

For car hire I would also try Virgin Atlantic car hire and Alamo Brits.

We went in July/ August last year and if I went again I would try and go later in August as then the American schools start going back.

As for flights, you just need to keep checking. Do you have a price in mind? Direct flights will be more expensive but easier with your children in tow.

As another poster mentioned, Windsor a Hills is near WDW (we are staying there at Christmas) but I would be surprised if you got a 4 br villa there for under £1000 for 2 weeks. Other communities I have stayed at are Emerald Island and Windsor Palms.

Have you found anything yet?

 

[SianBeau]

We have always flown Virgin (well for the last 5 years or so) from Gatwick, however, BA are now a lot cheaper booking for next summer so I would have a look at them if your wanting to fly direct, we've just got a deal for 2 adults, 2 kids Gatwick direct to MCO for £4100 premium economy with a car for 3 weeks.

Cheapest car rental for us booking separately has always been direct from Virgin holidays though.

We always just buy our park tickets through the disney world site in ££