886 days to go! :(

[baylie666]

We can't book anything as it is too far away, we can't plan anything as it is too far away, but heck! I am so excited.....
How can I use all this time I have to plan the trip? Any ideas what I can actually do this far out?

Last year we went and had 18months to plan it and that felt way too long. This time it was/is double that!!

 

[scoobydooby]

Save loads of spending money!

 

[tinkerbells mum]

Lol everyone on this site totally gets the planning years before you can actually do any planning! Are you a trip report reader? It really helps to pass the time and hear about things other people do while they're there. I also like looking at menus and deciding where to eat. Have fun planning xx

 

[baylie666]

Save loads of spending money!

I am doing my best at saving and am hoping I will have the £5000 needed for my part of the trip. Unfortunately due to a minimum wage job and having my hours cut it is a slow process which is worrying me a little.

 

[flortlebap]

You could just bring it forward a year! Lol

 

[baylie666]

Lol everyone on this site totally gets the planning years before you can actually do any planning! Are you a trip report reader? It really helps to pass the time and hear about things other people do while they're there. I also like looking at menus and deciding where to eat. Have fun planning xx

I like to read trip reports and am waiting for some new ones to come up as think ive read most of the ones on here

I just hate the long waits in between holidays, but as they cost so much (£15000 roghly for 3 of us) we need to have at least 3 years in between. We tried to work it out to go after 2 years gap but it just isn't possible.

 

[baylie666]

You could just bring it forward a year! Lol

I would love to but not feasable I am afraid.

 

[wayneg]

I just hate the long waits in between holidays, but as they cost so much (£15000 roghly for 3 of us) we need to have at least 3 years in between. We tried to work it out to go after 2 years gap but it just isn't possible.

Have you considered cutting costs to go sooner? I know everyone holidays their own way but £15k for 3 people is a heck of a lot of money.

This Sept we are doing 14 night Disney cruise & 1 week Orlando for under £5k for all 3 of us. see post #83 http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3112098&page=6

Personally I would get 2 good holidays out of £15k incl spend but I would rather go more often and spend less.

 

[baylie666]

Have you considered cutting costs to go sooner? I know everyone holidays their own way but £15k for 3 people is a heck of a lot of money.

This Sept we are doing 14 night Disney cruise & 1 week Orlando for under £5k for all 3 of us. see post #83 http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3112098&page=6

Personally I would get 2 good holidays out of £15k incl spend but I would rather go more often and spend less.

The cost of our holiday is £5000 each including £1000-£1500 spending money each. So the holiday cost is between £3500 and £4000 depending on what the prices do before we book it.

We fly premium economy, have the V room at Gatwick, will be staying in a cars suite for 3 weeks, have the airport transfer on magic bus, have the QSDP, 21 day hopper ticket, 2 park universal ticket for 14 days, hire of a scooter for the 3 weeks and probably a bunch of other stuff i have forgotten.

We couldn't really take anything off as it is all needed for one reason or another. Like we need the Vroom as my sister has social anxiety disorder and being around less people means she has a calmer experience and then so do I, and for £66 in total it is worth it for us. My mum is disabled so needs the premium economy for the room, plus I am a pooh sized gal and need the extra seat width.

I might be able to get some of the things cheaper but not likely. I think the price will probably rise before 2016!

That said all suggestions are welcome.

 

[wayneg]

The cost of our holiday is £5000 each including £1000-£1500 spending money each. So the holiday cost is between £3500 and £4000 depending on what the prices do before we book it.

We fly premium economy, have the V room at Gatwick, will be staying in a cars suite for 3 weeks, have the airport transfer on magic bus, have the QSDP, 21 day hopper ticket, 2 park universal ticket for 14 days, hire of a scooter for the 3 weeks and probably a bunch of other stuff i have forgotten.

We couldn't really take anything off as it is all needed for one reason or another. Like we need the Vroom as my sister has social anxiety disorder and being around less people means she has a calmer experience and then so do I, and for £66 in total it is worth it for us. My mum is disabled so needs the premium economy for the room, plus I am a pooh sized gal and need the extra seat width.

I might be able to get some of the things cheaper but not likely. I think the price will probably rise before 2016!

That said all suggestions are welcome.

You know what you spend so looks like lots of saving.
Thankfully we don't spend a great deal, offsite meals, drinks snacks etc total around £60/day for 3 of us(using lots of vouchers), so on a 3 week trip our total spend is around £1,500, when we did DDP we only spent around £500 over 21 days and half that was or tips.

 

[baylie666]

You know what you spend so looks like lots of saving.
Thankfully we don't spend a great deal, offsite meals, drinks snacks etc total around £60/day for 3 of us(using lots of vouchers), so on a 3 week trip our total spend is around £1,500, when we did DDP we only spent around £500 over 21 days and half that was or tips.

I wish our holiday was not as expensive as it is but it really is just a case of saving i think. Like I said before and money saving tips are greatly recieved.

We do the dining plan so we don't have to worry about any food and food costs (apart from the 2-3 TS we will may OOP for)
Missing Universal is not an option for the other 2 people in my group. LOL

 

[Elise79]

To get the v-room you either need to fly drive or full package with Virgin
Holidays which means spending top ££££.

There are other lounges at Gatwick which you could consider instead which would mean you aren't tied to VH.

Example our BA flydrive this summer with a 7 seater car and PE flights was £3100.

For 3 weeks next September booking with WDTC a AoA suite with QSDP will costs £6898 for 3 adults with 21 day tickets. However you could get OKW one bed and DDP for £5661.

Universal tickets will only be about £400 for the 3 of you.

That only £10398 for AoA or £9161 for OKW. Compare that to the same through VH who want £11969 for AoA which is an extra £1580 or £527 each

 

[baylie666]

To get the v-room you either need to fly drive or full package with Virgin
Holidays which means spending top ££££.

There are other lounges at Gatwick which you could consider instead which would mean you aren't tied to VH.

Example our BA flydrive this summer with a 7 seater car and PE flights was £3100.

For 3 weeks next September booking with WDTC a AoA suite with QSDP will costs £6898 for 3 adults with 21 day tickets. However you could get OKW one bed and DDP for £5661.

Universal tickets will only be about £400 for the 3 of you.

That only £10398 for AoA or £9161 for OKW. Compare that to the same through VH who want £11969 for AoA which is an extra £1580 or £527 each

I admit we do do virgin package holidays but whenever we have worked it out seperately it is not any/much cheaper. But I guess a lot of my excuses are because I am a Virgin fan and have always booked with them.
We are going October 1st 2016 and staying for 21 nights.

I might go and take a look at some other options though as from what you have said there are some big savings to be had.

I guess for me it isn't so much the horrendous money I need to save as much as the filling the time between now and then with useful planning.

Thanks for the workout you did as it has opened my eyes to try again at other options.

 

[scoobydooby]

Hi. I also always fly with Virgin but not fly drives or packages. Booking with VA if you price watch will almost always save you money, especially if you can flex your dates a bit. You are planning on paying over the odds. You just need to pay for your flights in full with VA so need to save that money first. I strongly advise you to do some more research. It's your money of course, but you're technically planning to waste some of it. Please know I am trying to be helpful

 

[wayneg]

I admit we do do virgin package holidays but whenever we have worked it out seperately it is not any/much cheaper. But I guess a lot of my excuses are because I am a Virgin fan and have always booked with them.
We are going October 1st 2016 and staying for 21 nights.

All depends how much time and effort you want to put in. About 3 years ago I got a quote for a Virgin package, they wanted over £12,000, I did exactly the same, PE flights VA,3 weeks OKW free DDP, Same car etc for £6,000 booking all myself.
To me its worth spend hours and hours of my time for those kind of savings.

Early Oct should be easy to save money.

 

[crabbie1]

Hi. I also always fly with Virgin but not fly drives or packages. Booking with VA if you price watch will almost always save you money, especially if you can flex your dates a bit. You are planning on paying over the odds. You just need to pay for your flights in full with VA so need to save that money first. I strongly advise you to do some more research. It's your money of course, but you're technically planning to waste some of it. Please know I am trying to be helpful

I agree. Always used VH till I realised I could book direct with VA for much less and then book wdw seperate . It all comes with lots of looking and coming out of our comfort zones. Its fun planning

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[baylie666]

I think half of my problem is the great unknown. I just feel safer booking the whole thing as a package.
I guess I am worried I'll mess it up.
And I have done a price check for this year and the prices are really not much different by booking seperately. What am I doing wrong?

The Universal tickets would cost us a small fortune as we go more than once and tend to get the 14 day ticket with the package holiday.

Edited to say - Just worked it out and we can save quite a bit if we book it all seperately. I guess I just need a list of what to book and work my way through it. It is just scary doing it when it is more on my head. EEK!!

 

[wayneg]

I think half of my problem is the great unknown. I just feel safer booking the whole thing as a package.
I guess I am worried I'll mess it up.
And I have done a price check for this year and the prices are really not much different by booking seperately. What am I doing wrong?

The Universal tickets would cost us a small fortune as we go more than once and tend to get the 14 day ticket with the package holiday.

I hear so many having problems with package holidays I trust myself more than a TA.

Maybe in Oct you can find a good deal with a package, maybe not. You can't just decide one day you want to book and do it, DIY holidays take lots of time and research. I waited months to buy my flights for this year, searching 4,5 or 6 times a day eventually booked at just over £600pp, before that and after they are/were around £850pp, you have to be ready to buy on the right day, sometimes maybe only available at low prices for a matter of hours. I saved over £700 on the flights, to me worth the hours upon hours I spent looking for them, to others not and they would rather pay more for a package.

 

[scoobydooby]

I think half of my problem is the great unknown. I just feel safer booking the whole thing as a package. I guess I am worried I'll mess it up. And I have done a price check for this year and the prices are really not much different by booking seperately. What am I doing wrong? The Universal tickets would cost us a small fortune as we go more than once and tend to get the 14 day ticket with the package holiday.[/QUOTE

There are lots of places to get your tickets as cheap or cheaper than with Virgin. Try Undercover Tourist.

You have to check flight prices obsessively. Daily. Use scraper websites. Don't think a great price will be there tomorrow. They can change 100's of £ in the blink of an eye.

 

[baylie666]

We will only fly with Virgin so it looks like i've got to stalk the site and check flights as soon as 11 months hits then.

As for the universal tickets they work out quite a bit more than virgin package ones as we get 14 days with virgin for £380 for all 3 of us and for 4 days it is £350! We don't do consecutive days as we go one day out of each of the 3 weeks.
Is there a magical site I am missing here?

I am loving all the advice I am getting here. Thanks guys