35 night stay and flights?

[bex7583]

the package operators dont do flighst for this duration so can anybody reccommend some airlines to look at booking direct flights ? travel agent has said to budget £1000 per person for flight do you think this seems reasonable?

 

[bex7583]

has anybody not made the reservations and just turned up and booked on the night , i am reluctant to plan so much that everything is booked, beause i may realy like a location and want to stay there extra nights etc

also will been a family of 5 make this method harder ? are lots of rooms 4 max occupancy??

 

[wayneg]

£1000pp for flights at any time of year is far too much. Offpeak you want to be looking about £500pp, peak about £650-£700.

You can turn up at any hotel and not have a reservation but expect to pay a lot more than prebooking in the UK, we get heavily discounted rates here. You will usually find availabilty anywhere unless you are travelling around a US holiday. I once stayed at a Homewood Suites near Universal, paid £22 in UK, family at the side of us checking in got a walkup rate of $200/nt(about 5 times what we had paid)

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

I think the price seems expensive per person for a flight - when are you going?

I normally look at Virgin (for direct flights from Manchester) - but check other airlines using sites such as Expedia, Last Minute or Sky Scanner for all other options.

 

[flortlebap]

£1,000 for flights is waaaaay too much.

Honestly, you need to plan. Particularly with 5 of you, or it'll be impossible.

Just curious - why 35 nights? How does that work with work and kids being at school etc? It was difficult enough us planning for 14 days!

 

[wayneg]

Just curious - why 35 nights? How does that work with work and kids being at school etc? It was difficult enough us planning for 14 days!

We find 25 nights in August max we can go without hassle, DS off for 6 weeks, I can close business as long as I want and DW can get it off work without special permission, above 25 nights gets more difficult for us.

 

[bex7583]

we want to go sept 2013 next year was looking to start booking this september.

me and my partner are self employed so work no problem, the original plan was 3 week but seen as the flights are such a huge part of the budget we thought we may aswell just save enough to stay over there a bit longer we want to stay in disney for 14 nights couple nights on i-drive while we do seaworld and universal then camp in the national parks travel down the coast from daytona , sport fishing in the keys then back up the other coast

kids are young so dont really care about pulling them out of school.

oh and total budget is 10,000 ( please feel free to laugh if you think that is totally unrealistic !!

 

[bex7583]

£1000pp for flights at any time of year is far too much. Offpeak you want to be looking about £500pp, peak about £650-£700.

You can turn up at any hotel and not have a reservation but expect to pay a lot more than prebooking in the UK, we get heavily discounted rates here. You will usually find availabilty anywhere unless you are travelling around a US holiday. I once stayed at a Homewood Suites near Universal, paid £22 in UK, family at the side of us checking in got a walkup rate of $200/nt(about 5 times what we had paid)

booo i just dont want to feel we are commited to a plan !! if we like or dislike somewhere we may want to move on quicker , i supose i could book the odd night at places we will definatley stay miami and clearwater but not book so they are back to back then we have a least a days gap between destinations to jiggle plans a little bit

 

[irisheyes123]

I done 31 nights last november/December Went to Las Vegas La and florida 4 adults we done it for under 6000 euro that was just flights accommodation and car hire. Im sure if you look around you will be able to get it all under your budget

 

[Tony Toon]

Did 6 weeks the year DD starting working for Mickey at WDW (July 2009). In my experience I would say £1000 is way too much. We went at the beginning of July and came back 2 days before the Scottish schools started back in August. The usual advice applies - keep checking prices when they are released and when you see a price you're happy with, book. Accommodation will not be a problem.


Mrs TT

 

[bex7583]

just on virgin cant get any sept prices yet but if i move the whole trip to march we can get flighst for £2338.50 for all 5 of !! wow !!! will it be cold in march ? always been in july but i am concious the kids will hate it too hot so thats why original plan was sept !!

 

[Kath2003]

just on virgin cant get any sept prices yet but if i move the whole trip to march we can get flighst for £2338.50 for all 5 of !! wow !!! will it be cold in march ? always been in july but i am concious the kids will hate it too hot so thats why original plan was sept !!

That's standard for Virgin...
Virgin charge inordinate prices.
Try flying indirect.
I've done 32 nights - not just in Florida - and trust me, you need to plan to get good deals. I'd say that's even more important when there's 5 in a room - not all hotels can easily accommodate that.

Out of interest, how are you able to take your children for that long in March/September?

 

[Vixster]

That is a good deal for flights i wouldnt budet £1000 for flights we are a family of 5 and have paid £1000 each for disney hotel disney tickets and free dining for 14 nights with virgin

I think march can be a busy time to go

Can I ask how old the kids are as they must be at a nice school for them to be able to leave for 35 days

 

[bex7583]

the kids will be 6 , 5 and 4 years old and tbh the school isnt going to have much choice in it , i have been saving 2 year for this trip already its going to be a once only trip ( thats why i decided to extend it from 3 to 5 week )

i will be making sure we do more than just theme parks, and am sure the national parks and the space centre wil be very educational , my 5 year old is currently in charge of the budget chart each month he adds what we have saved that month then totals it on to our big saving chart we made

2016 trip will be a extended trip to china and thailand

i was really pleased with the virgin flight price i just found in march , the virgin holidays website when i have looked at packages was bringing up crazy prices £7,000++

 

[flortlebap]

If you want help on crowds, touring plans is a great site for planning. Some of march is busy, but I love Sept/Oct time.

I personally would go over Summer to avoid disputing the kids... Five weeks is a LOT of work to catch up on, even for young kids. I'd also be worried an absence of that length would incur fines and a visit from a child services officer (in our region, any absence level under 95% is a cause for concern). Just something I thought I'd warn you of if that's your plan (PS I'm not judging, we're taking our kids out five days as that's all we could really get away with!)

 

[bex7583]

definatley can not do summer may to sept is my busiest time to work !! and its way more expensive so even if we have to pay a fine it will be considerably cheaper!! the youngest will not be in full time school only the pre school and there attendance is not counted

the school are pretty good each term has a wow topic so im thinking if i just tie that in to what we are doing and was thinking about getting him some sort of journal /scrap book that we will work on. the age he is at its so much topic based work and improving the reading/handwriting that im sure we can do various activities while away the he wont get too far behind

my middle child will be only in year one all they seem to do is paint/playdoh and write there name

if we were doing nothing more than lazing on the beach and riding roller coasters i would feel it inappropriate to take them out but considering our lans and there ages im not worried about it xx

 

[zippy99]

Different education authorities and schools have different policies on the matter. Some are much kinder than others.

We took DD & DS (9&7) out for 2 weeks in Jan 2008, then again for 2 weeks in Sep 2009 (11&9). Our last two trips have been in October 2010 & 2011 so one week in half term and one in term time and again never encountered a problem and during that time we have sought permission from a first school, middle school and two different high schools - so not like it was one kind head teacher. Infact, in one school year DS had 10 days for Florida and 4 additional days throughout the year to watch Tennis at O2, Eastbourne, Queens & Wimbledon.

My sister on the other hand requested two days for her 6 year old and it was refused - despite 100% attendance from her DD.

Normally I am busiest over Easter so that is a no go for me and DH is busy in Summer Hols and Christmas so trying to get 2 weeks has always been hard. This year, after some negotiation he was actually able to get the time off in August so we are doing our first trip with no school absence required - which is now just as well as DD starts year 10 in Sept so at GCSE time - then as soon as she has finished DS will start his.

I am sure you know your school and quite easy to hear on the grapevine if others have had difficulty getting absence approved - I have found they will only approve 10 consecutive school days so you will have the rest marked as un-authourised but with their young ages I am sure it won't be a major problem for you.

 

[london75]

If you want to stay flexible booking hotels, just make sure you have an internet capable device, sit outside the hotel (or in a coffee shop for free wifi) and book it back in the UK on the internet then walk in!

We do this all the time in the UK to get better rates etc. Not all places allow you to book online under 24 hours in advance but should help with some places.

 

[Lisa x]

If you want to stay flexible booking hotels, just make sure you have an internet capable device, sit outside the hotel (or in a coffee shop for free wifi) and book it back in the UK on the internet then walk in!

We do this all the time in the UK to get better rates etc. Not all places allow you to book online under 24 hours in advance but should help with some places.

That's what we did last year, we took the iPad and booked while we were there when we knew where we were going next! Worked out fine for us and as we had already checked the prices beforehand of the places we kinda more or less decided on, we knew what it would cost and it didn't cost anymore! We never walked up without a reservation though!

We went to Florida in March 2007 and the weather was lovely, always around the 80's, it was the end of March though!

Great Virgin price for the 5 of you!

 

[bex7583]

so book it through a uk based website but while over there what a good idea !! im somebody who got told by a 5 year old that my phone even had a radio so may have to look into uPgrading or at east learning how to use my existing phone !!