$300 Gift Card Promotion for 2012

[nightfire]

Already booked for a Disney Med Cruise for 2011 but was interested in this promotion for 2012.

I was looking to book for 3 Adults for 1st August 2012 for 14 nights at POR to include the 14 Day Ultimate Passes and an upgrade to the Disney Dining Plan.

Option 1

I phoned Virgin and was given a price £7122

Option 2

I phoned Disney and choose the option to include flights which just puts you through to Virgin anyway.

This time I was given a price of £6370

Option 3

The DIY option. I priced up on the Disney website the cost of 14 nights at POR to include the 14 day pass and to upgrade to the Disney Dining Plan which came back as £2734

I then priced up a Flydrive from Manchester for 3 Adults on the Virgin website which came back at £3168.

A total of £5902 but I wouldn't get the $300 Disney Gift Card

Summary

I can't believe the difference in prices but it would seem the $300 Gift Card promotion is not what it seems

Anyone else had a luck with this promotion

 

[micksn]

Thomson and Thomas Cook have now released flight prices, which although expensive are way cheaper than Virgin or Disney flights, I've priced seperately and got it down to about £5000 for 3 for the same dates:it depends where your travelling from! The gift card doesn't seem to compensate - shame it wasn't being offered on a basic package!

 

[wayneg]

Option 4 would be to do same as us this year, book your hotel & tix with Disney.co.uk (or Complete Orlando even cheaper) then flight only rather than flydrive, 3 adult Virgin flights should cost about £2,100-2200

We are flying out economy and retuning Premium economy for £2,600.

Do you have any Virgin airmiles, can save a few £.

Have you checked OKW or SSR instead of POR? this is 3rd August in a row for us at OKw, cheaper than POR as no upgrade DDP to pay for.

 

[nightfire]

Thomson and Thomas Cook have now released flight prices, which although expensive are way cheaper than Virgin or Disney flights, I've priced seperately and got it down to about £5000 for 3 for the same dates:it depends where your travelling from! The gift card doesn't seem to compensate - shame it wasn't being offered on a basic package!

I'll check that out for another comparison

 

[nightfire]

Option 4 would be to do same as us this year, book your hotel & tix with Disney.co.uk (or Complete Orlando even cheaper) then flight only rather than flydrive, 3 adult Virgin flights should cost about £2,100-2200

We are flying out economy and retuning Premium economy for £2,600.

Do you have any Virgin airmiles, can save a few £.

Have you checked OKW or SSR instead of POR? this is 3rd August in a row for us at OKw, cheaper than POR as no upgrade DDP to pay for.

The Virgin Holidays website allows you to book Flydrives for August 2012 but not Flight only.

I tried Virgin Atlantic but they don't have flights up for August 2012 yet.

Anything else I could try?

 

[wayneg]

The Virgin Holidays website allows you to book Flydrives for August 2012 but not Flight only.

I tried Virgin Atlantic but they don't have flights up for August 2012 yet.

Anything else I could try?

No you are correct, flight only will not be available until 11 months from your return date, depends if you want to book now or pay a reasonable price. I won't start looking for next August until Sept this year.
You pay a very high premium for booking so far out.

 

[beth01dog]

I won't start looking for next August until Sept this year.
You pay a very high premium for booking so far out.[/QUOTE]

Wish I could be as laid back as you. I'm worrying that they are only going to go up in price and are through the roof as it is!
We are 2 ad 3 kids (13, 11 and 7) looking for 23 nights from beg Aug 12. As we want to go odd no of nights Thomson and Thomas Cook won't be any good. Virgin flights for next Mar/Apr are v expensive!
Going to have to wait til Sept and look around CA, AA and Delta and hopefully get a better deal!

 

[wayneg]

Wish I could be as laid back as you. I'm worrying that they are only going to go up in price and are through the roof as it is!
We are 2 ad 3 kids (13, 11 and 7) looking for 23 nights from beg Aug 12. As we want to go odd no of nights Thomson and Thomas Cook won't be any good. Virgin flights for next Mar/Apr are v expensive!
Going to have to wait til Sept and look around CA, AA and Delta and hopefully get a better deal!

If you are willing to go indirect then a deal will come up but you have to be patient. The more flexible you are willing to be the more chance of a bargain. For this August I wanted direct flights as we are going with relatives on their 1st visit so I have had to pay a high price, £880pp(returning PE) but Mart(burt) was willing to wait for a deal and go indirect, similar dates he paid £380pp.
The whole travel industry puts pressure on people to book early, they want the high prices. I will be back to indirect next August, no way will I pay £880pp again.

 

[beth01dog]

OK - thanks for that - I know I should wait really. Cheapest flights I can get thru Complete Orlando is £4000 with Virgin or £3600 via Miami which is £700-£800 per person!

We can be flexible in as much as we want Aug for free dining and want to be back by end of August so can travel anytime thru first week really.

I presume I won't have a problem booking OKW or SS for 9 days August 12 if I wait til Sept?

Looks like we'll both be busy searching come Sept!

 

[wayneg]

You should have no problem with a room, just need to book before the offer runs out but I expect them to extend it again.

 

[nightfire]

That's us booked

Booked flights with Virgin to fly out on 1st August 2012 for 14 nights

Booked POR, Tickets & DDP direct with Disney

and the countdown starts again

 

[wayneg]

That's us booked

Booked flights with Virgin to fly out on 1st August 2012 for 14 nights

Booked POR, Tickets & DDP direct with Disney

and the countdown starts again

Happy Planning!!!!

 

[gemmybear83]

On the giftcard promotion, how do you know you have it? On the dummy pages it does not come up? Would you get the gift card on check in?

 

[K8T]

Thanks for this thread!

As DCL are not in the Med next year, I have been looking at prices for August next year too.

We plan on doing 6 nights Beach/Yacht Club and then boarding the Dream for five nights.

Thomson are have quote hotel with flights, the $300 offer and free Dining Plan is £5334.00 for three of us. This doesn't include the cruise, which will be around £1,000 if we book on board in August.

Dates 18th - 29th August.

Not having been to WDW for three years (I put it together myself then) I was quite shocked at the cost, but maybe it isn't so bad!

I am going to get a price from Disney direct and Virgin for the flights and see what that does.

Any suggestions?

 

[nightfire]

Thanks for this thread!

As DCL are not in the Med next year, I have been looking at prices for August next year too.

We plan on doing 6 nights Beach/Yacht Club and then boarding the Dream for five nights.

Thomson are have quote hotel with flights, the $300 offer and free Dining Plan is £5334.00 for three of us. This doesn't include the cruise, which will be around £1,000 if we book on board in August.

Dates 18th - 29th August.

Not having been to WDW for three years (I put it together myself then) I was quite shocked at the cost, but maybe it isn't so bad!

I am going to get a price from Disney direct and Virgin for the flights and see what that does.

Any suggestions?

One other thing to consider is to make any booking via Quidco.

I'm getting £82 from Quidco for the Virgin booking and £83 for the Disney booking

 

[micksn]

Are Thomson also offering the $300 gift card? I can't see it on their website. I'm also looking for cheapest option for OKW next August!!

 

[nightfire]

Are Thomson also offering the $300 gift card? I can't see it on their website. I'm also looking for cheapest option for OKW next August!!

I think it's just a Virgin/Disney promotion

 

[wayneg]

Thanks for this thread!

As DCL are not in the Med next year, I have been looking at prices for August next year too.

We plan on doing 6 nights Beach/Yacht Club and then boarding the Dream for five nights.

Thomson are have quote hotel with flights, the $300 offer and free Dining Plan is £5334.00 for three of us. This doesn't include the cruise, which will be around £1,000 if we book on board in August.

Dates 18th - 29th August.

Not having been to WDW for three years (I put it together myself then) I was quite shocked at the cost, but maybe it isn't so bad!

I am going to get a price from Disney direct and Virgin for the flights and see what that does.

Any suggestions?

Is that just your room & flights or including tickets?
You need to get a price from Disney.co.uk & Complete Orlando and break it down
Had a quick look, I don't know your details but searched 2 adults & 1 teen, 6 nights incl 7 day tix & free DDP = £2,025. Take that off your quote of £5,334 and you are paying £1,103pp for an economy flight. I only paid that for Business class with Delta last August. Any quote over £800pp for the flight part is too much for me to be booking so far in advance, I would rather wait til they release flight only.

 

[crabbie1]

I think it's just a Virgin/Disney promotion

Yes and I bet they have factored the $300 into the price already

 

[K8T]

Is that just your room & flights or including tickets?
You need to get a price from Disney.co.uk & Complete Orlando and break it down
Had a quick look, I don't know your details but searched 2 adults & 1 teen, 6 nights incl 7 day tix & free DDP = £2,025. Take that off your quote of £5,334 and you are paying £1,103pp for an economy flight. I only paid that for Business class with Delta last August. Any quote over £800pp for the flight part is too much for me to be booking so far in advance, I would rather wait til they release flight only.

Room and flights only. It is a 7 year old, so probably slightly cheaper than a teen. I will have a lot at that site. Unfortunatley I can't get a price from Virgin as they haven't got their August prices out yet!


Thanks for the info.