Advice on getting bk quick!!

[buzz for boys]

Hi guys,
We are looking into trying to get bk to florida next March and was talking to a friend of a friend last night who go to florida all the time. He said we should all easily be able to go for 4 grand.
Now it cost us 6 grand this year and I thought that was the cheapest we could possibley do it for.
Anyone any ideas how he makes out we could cut 2 grand of the price??
We stayed in a villa that was £800 for the fortnight
Flew with virgin which was £2100
Tickets for all the parks were £2500
Car hire was £300
Travel ins was £300
We are a family of 6 - where did I overspend????

 

[Netty]

your travel insurance looks pretty expensive!
what park tickets did you have?? as that looks alot of money to me to spend just on park tickets..

 

[Pegasus928]

The villa cost was very good for a fortnight.
You may be able to shave some off the price of the flights, but a lot of that will depend on whether or not there are any half terms in the time you plan to go.
The only thing I can see you making any savings is on park tickets - but that depends on which parks you can't do without and which you would be prepared to miss out on.
Good luck with what you are trying to do. Hope you can get it down to where you want to be.

 

[buzz for boys]

your travel insurance looks pretty expensive!
what park tickets did you have?? as that looks alot of money to me to spend just on park tickets..

Out travel insurance is expensive because my ds has cancer so believe it or not this was a good price.
park tickets were 3 adults and 3 kids for disney (14 day ultimate) Universal (2 park ticket) seaworld ( 1 day pass)

The villa cost was very good for a fortnight.
You may be able to shave some off the price of the flights, but a lot of that will depend on whether or not there are any half terms in the time you plan to go.
The only thing I can see you making any savings is on park tickets - but that depends on which parks you can't do without and which you would be prepared to miss out on.
Good luck with what you are trying to do. Hope you can get it down to where you want to be.

Thanks pegasus we decided we wouldnt be bothered to lose seaworld but there not much dofference in price on disney tickets from 7 day ticket to a 14 day one saves us about £50 in total.

Ill keep trying on the flights !!

 

[mackay_j]

If you are all over 2 I think your flight prices look quite good. For direct flights £350 is good esp if in school hols time. The only way to cut that down would be to fly indirect, and if you have 4 kids that may noy be worth any saving. More likely you will not find these prices direct for next march if the dates are in school hols as virgins cheepest prices will now have gone. You may be luckly and find free/very cheep kid prices for package fly drives in special offer times. When a free child is obtained the 2nd child price also comes down to the usual 1st child price, so its a double saving. On saying that I have not seen any virgin free child offers out for next year, I usualy get an ad sent out in the post in dec/jan and again in march/april but have not had any this year. Also again their best fly drive prices may have gone already. Always check continetal airways prices (as can sometimes be less, for same flight than virgin).

The villa is not bad, but out of Xmas/easter/4th july there can be better offers this year due to the eccon. We have 2 weeks over Xmas/new year booked for £500 in villa for 8 with pool (pool heating extra £35/week).


The tickets may cheeper on a return visit as you may not need to do all parks, people tend to do this 1st time thinking its a once in a lifetime, how little do they know, we thought that on our fist trip. Now we do either disney or orlando flex tickets and try and add 1 diff unusal thing to each trip (Dicovery cove, the springs, the everglades, the beaches, the last trip we went gaylordplams for diner and then went to ice - a brill way to spend Xmas day away from the masses). so eg only flex would be 6 x £125 = £750 ofcourse if you chose disney it would be about £1120 (7day pluss water park extra days)

Our insurance is only £120 per year and that covers 1 child who is diabetic and another who has syrinx in her spinal colum so £300 sound a lot

You car hire looks about right


So that way at best without finding indirect flights or an amazing flydrive kids deal You could save

1x£180
1x£300
1x£1750

saving max- £2230


But as I said I think you may struggle to get direct tickets for abou £350 if at end of march, If you give me your dates I will have a look on some of the sites I use.

 

[mackay_j]

sorry about the insurance prices now I understand how the price is so high. You could maybe try Go travel that's who we use, and they cover my Daughter includding her insulin pump which would cost about £4000 if it was to get broken or stolen (this is a worry at water parks/ rides as she has to take it off an puts in locker). They also covered my younger daughter & when the syrinx in her spine was first diagnosed they were unsure if it was malignant or not, it took over 1 yr to fully rule this out. Go did not charge us any extra during this time, all they asked was that we kept them informed of all scan results as we got them (every 3 months). I hope your child keeps well, I understand how somewhere like disney is so important to you, I would spend the extra on the wdw tickets if your children are younger, we did every year for a while as the doc could not rule out paralysis for my younger girl, but mine are older now so (and younger gril seems so good we have been discharged for the neurosurgical doc, who cannot understand why she is unaffected by this as it runs all the way down her spine from T4-T9, they have now after 5 years just said contact us at any time things change, but they now hope they may never change, we now have the confidence in the futute to do the parks turn about. I hope that your next visit is as magical as your last and that one and that things work as well as they possibly can for you, good and best wishes.


Who cares about the money- it's only papper!!!

 

[Shooby doo]

I think if your friend can save you £2000,give them the £4000 & tell them to carry on! Looking at current ticket prices with ATD you would be looking at £2100 for passes:7 Day Premium (only £3 dearer than the 5 at the minute),2 park Universal & Seaworld/Aquatica but that's based on all the kids being 9 or under otherwise it's full Adult price.You might be able to shave a little off of the flight price,if you like Virgin then try Jetsave (they use Virgin) as we have used them in the past as their childs price was better.Your car hire price looks ok but try www.usrentacar.com for comparison. The insurance is a sore one & I have no idea if that's reasonable,DW had a brain haemorraghe 5 years ago but our insurance excludes that condition from the policy which suits us.
HTH SD

 

[Dimplenose]

My first thought is has your friend included the park passes in her estimate?

 

[buzz for boys]

Thanks guys you have all said what I thought - Im going o challenge him to explain to me where he would get better prices from.
Mackay - I totally agree with you about indirect flights and money - it really is only paper and the memories we have is worth more than any peice of paper.
We are looking at going from 1st March to 15th march and if you can have a quick look at places you use or give me the links id be very grateful!!
Louise x

 

[paulh]

we have indirect flights for £380,accomadation if onsite £48 per night per room with conecting doors at pop suite at allstars simalar (were there 6nights then dvc AKL on points for your case will do 14 nights)now for tickets as we go a lot we buy 10day with waterpark non expirey and use over 3 holidays but will do flex adult £ 244 child £213
No need for taxi from airport as use ME stay onsite no need for hire car but if you want one get for a week
I get onsite for £5000

 

[buzz for boys]

we have indirect flights for £380,accomadation if onsite £48 per night per room with conecting doors at pop suite at allstars simalar (were there 6nights then dvc AKL on points for your case will do 14 nights)now for tickets as we go a lot we buy 10day with waterpark non expirey and use over 3 holidays but will do flex adult £ 244 child £213
No need for taxi from airport as use ME stay onsite no need for hire car but if you want one get for a week
I get onsite for £5000

How many people is that for Paul???

 

[mackay_j]

what airport do you fly from man or gatwick

 

[mackay_j]

the cheepest I can find is with 1 stop is £374 adult from man and £345 form gat child prices £314.

virgin flydrive on virginholidays site 3a and 3 children man - £2495.55 , gat £2495.55 car hire add on/full insurance is £306 (careful here on web have to select a diff car to offered one as offered one is £450 add on) total -£2786 then join ff club on virgin web to get 5% off (I get 10% but I think new members are only getting 5%) total about £2647.


Check mousesaver link undercovertourist for tickets as you can choose the amerian tickets - get fewer days but may be cheeper