A Question for the Travel Experts?

[Uncle Mikey]

Next summer (June/July 2002), I will be bringing a group of 9 or 10 people to WDW. Since we will be staying at "Shades of Green" and everyone will have to check in the same time as the official sponsor (my brother-in-law). My question is how should I coordinate the group coming into MCO all near the same time. We will be coming in from three separate cities (Oakland Ca., Salt Lake City and Phoenix). Is there a good way to do this myself or just put the challenge into the hands of a travel agent? Also how far in advance should we look to book the airfare? Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[TravelSheryl]

You can do the same thing as any travel agent can do by using all the resources available to you on the Internet as to checking flight schedules. The best you can do is plan for everyone to arrive around the same time, but flight delays are out of your control. Maybe your b-i-l should check with Shades of Green and find out how the other family members can check in if their flights are delayed, or have your brother arrive first and check in for everyone, obtaining all keys and then the family members can simply call his room when they arrive and he can bring them the key to their room.

You can sign up for the fare tracker email service from Travelocity and Expedia for each of these routes. It's possible that the lowest available fares may not come available until Southwest begins selling your dates, since these are all Southwest-compete routes, which will likely be around March.