Advice on booking for 2015 please!

[brandysticks]

We are in early stages of planning our first trip to florida but I'm struggling to figure out the best way to go around booking it all. Ideally we were after a villa with private pool (have found one we like that already has some bookings for 2015),car hire and preferably direct flights (virgin or ba) from gatwick.

Anyway I can

- book it all through travel company now for around £3800 (charging £776 per direct va flights and £696 per child-is that reasonable?),that's with sharing the cost of the villa with my parents so would be an extra £475 if they didnt come.pay a small deposit this way then balance couple of months before travel.

-book the villa direct paying a small deposit then hope that reasonable flight prices fitting in with those dates are released 11 months prior to travel.

-Wait until April and see what packages are available from the likes of virgin,Travelcity etc-my only worry is the villas all seem to be allocation on arrival?which I find unsettling.maybe there is a hotel suite type accommodation with kitchenette separate bedrooms etc?but won't have own pool of course and my husband says if it's once-in-a-lifetime thing surely we don't want to compromise on anything unless we absolutely have to.I think of all options this would be the cheapest if booked as soon as the packages are released.

Also I have informally chatted with head teacher to check missing a week from school one side of October half term will be ok which he has said it will as long as attendance is good otherwise, but the education website doesn't even have the October half term dates for 2015 available yet! I may just book the last 2 weeks in August instead so I know I'm abiding to the rules which removes that issue.

Any advice? What does everyone else do?Thanks in advance.

 

[brandysticks]

Shameless *bump* I'm afraid!

 

[lolainkent]

I can only comment on a couple things, as I've not been to Florida yet (so useless with hotels et al).

We booked flights today (yay!) direct with Virgin. Adults were £568 and children were £508 (those prices are with taxes included, our total fare includes an infant and was just under £2300). This is for next Feb, but surely Virgin and/or BA will have more sales before your departure dates. When I compared with BA, we could have gotten cheaper flights (£2108 or thereabouts) but only with connections and because we find we spend money in connecting airports, plus the drive to Heathrow is further/more petrol, we chose to spend a bit extra for direct out of Gatwick.

When it comes to term dates, I think the best you can do is make an educated guess. It normally falls right around the same time (for most state schools at least, I think!). Looking at a 2015 calendar, my guess is that it will be Mon 26th to Fri 30th. Tricky one though because it's not 100% certain.

 

[MrRomance]

We are in early stages of planning our first trip to florida but I'm struggling to figure out the best way to go around booking it all. Ideally we were after a villa with private pool (have found one we like that already has some bookings for 2015),car hire and preferably direct flights (virgin or ba) from gatwick.

Anyway I can

- book it all through travel company now for around £3800 (charging £776 per direct va flights and £696 per child-is that reasonable?),that's with sharing the cost of the villa with my parents so would be an extra £475 if they didnt come.pay a small deposit this way then balance couple of months before travel.

-book the villa direct paying a small deposit then hope that reasonable flight prices fitting in with those dates are released 11 months prior to travel.

-Wait until April and see what packages are available from the likes of virgin,Travelcity etc-my only worry is the villas all seem to be allocation on arrival?which I find unsettling.maybe there is a hotel suite type accommodation with kitchenette separate bedrooms etc?but won't have own pool of course and my husband says if it's once-in-a-lifetime thing surely we don't want to compromise on anything unless we absolutely have to.I think of all options this would be the cheapest if booked as soon as the packages are released.

Also I have informally chatted with head teacher to check missing a week from school one side of October half term will be ok which he has said it will as long as attendance is good otherwise, but the education website doesn't even have the October half term dates for 2015 available yet! I may just book the last 2 weeks in August instead so I know I'm abiding to the rules which removes that issue.

Any advice? What does everyone else do?Thanks in advance.

I can only comment on a couple of aspects....

I'm not sure that VA flights for 2015 are released yet. As far as I'm aware their flights are only released 11 months from departure, so you'll be looking at November 2014. I know VA flights can be booked further out with a package deal but even so I think their packages only go up to the end of 2014 right now.

We always book our accommodation first and flights at 11 months (we go for October half term too) and it just happens to coincide with the BA sale.

As for the holiday issue with the school, there is a strong possibility if things go as the Government plan that schools will all be setting their own term times from September 2015 so it could be all change depending on your kid school. Something to think about.

 

[brandysticks]

Thanks for replies guys.I was guessing that October half term would be that week too,hopefully we'll have the info by April next year (when packages for oct 15 released) about whether that's the case or if things have changed completely with the school setting there own dates.I may just book for the last 2 weeks in August if I can't be sure.Mr Romance when you say you book accommodation first is that in a villa?-we were keen to stay in a private villa but worries if booking before flights that cheapest flights won't fit with the days we've booked the villa?! Alternative would be a package with a villa but I guess that way they're allocated on arrival?!however our friend who booked a villa package said they're villa was pleasant and when first released we may find a reasonably priced package so may be worth it.
Travelcity have their packages released up to April of 2015,virgin only goes up to December next year.
Thanks for advising.

 

[MrRomance]

Thanks for replies guys.I was guessing that October half term would be that week too,hopefully we'll have the info by April next year (when packages for oct 15 released) about whether that's the case or if things have changed completely with the school setting there own dates.I may just book for the last 2 weeks in August if I can't be sure.Mr Romance when you say you book accommodation first is that in a villa?-we were keen to stay in a private villa but worries if booking before flights that cheapest flights won't fit with the days we've booked the villa?! Alternative would be a package with a villa but I guess that way they're allocated on arrival?!however our friend who booked a villa package said they're villa was pleasant and when first released we may find a reasonably priced package so may be worth it.
Travelcity have their packages released up to April of 2015,virgin only goes up to December next year.
Thanks for advising.

Sorry I can't really say much as far as private villas go. We always stay in a Disney Villa (Saratoga Springs) so I can't really comment on villas outside of WDW. The WDTC tend to be really good at changing dates if needed for flights. I do have a friend that only ever stays off site in a private villa and she takes a similar approach to us. She books accommodation first then the flights, if need be she adjusts the villa dates as required.

 

[brandysticks]

Thanks mr romance.ss looks great but out of our budget!was hoping to spend no more than £1200 on accommodation if booking separately or £3800 if flights included.maybe I can book a privat villa and tweak the dates of needed once flights available.Either way think I'll wait until after christmas so I can see what disney website and travel co packages have to offer before deciding whether to do a package or DIY.