Anyone booking activities early with the USD rising?

[Hopeful8]

I am thinking of booking our day at Discovery Cove now (for April) since the CAD keeps going lower. Is anyone else booking early to pay for things now to save a bit?

 

[canadiankim]

We are going early August 2015 and have already booked and paid for our flights and our day at Discovery Cove. There are four of us travelling from BUF and by paying in November for DC and December for our flights we have probably saved enough to cover the cost of our rental car!

I wish it wouldn't keep dropping but I think we may still have a ways to go.

 

[Hopeful8]

We are going early August 2015 and have already booked and paid for our flights and our day at Discovery Cove. There are four of us travelling from BUF and by paying in November for DC and December for our flights we have probably saved enough to cover the cost of our rental car!

I wish it wouldn't keep dropping but I think we may still have a ways to go.

Thanks for your reply! I went ahead and booked our day too...don't think the dollar is going to get better anytime soon.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

We have been covering as much as possible.

All of our accommodations for all three trips are already paid in full (May, October and December).

Airfare is purchased for both May and October (Jetblue). Looking at Westjet for Christmas to avoid the added cost of exchange.

Annual passes for Universal were bought in early November, not to be activated until May. It was really my planning OCD that got me moving on that one, but it seems like a genius move now.

Ditto on the PhotoConnect AP.

Food budget for May is 100% accounted for. Working on October's trip now. We have a villa with a full kitchen for each of our trips, so we can dine in to save if necessary.

 

[Hopeful8]

We have been covering as much as possible.

All of our accommodations for all three trips are already paid in full (May, October and December).

Airfare is purchased for both May and October (Jetblue). Looking at Westjet for Christmas to avoid the added cost of exchange.

Annual passes for Universal were bought in early November, not to be activated until May. It was really my planning OCD that got me moving on that one, but it seems like a genius move now.

Ditto on the PhotoConnect AP.

Food budget for May is 100% accounted for. Working on October's trip now. We have a villa with a full kitchen for each of our trips, so we can dine in to save if necessary.

Thanks for your input! I exchanged our money a couple of weeks back and I wish I'd thought of our DC day and booked it then!

I read your trip report on DC and just loved it! Feel a little ill over spending so much on one day but when I read reports like yours, I know it will be a great day!

 

[coastgirl]

Not nearly as thorough in the planning, but we are paying what we can now for our March trip. Glad our rented house is already billed, ditto airfare. Just bought the park tickets this week...could've bought them months ago, but at least they're not going to get any more expensive. Am tempted to prepay the rental car, something we never do because we like the flexibility to keep looking til the last minute.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Am tempted to prepay the rental car, something we never do because we like the flexibility to keep looking til the last minute.

I was mulling over the idea of that as well..... and also thought that I should be checking rental rates on Expedia.ca to see if that option might be cost effective, too.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

I read your trip report on DC and just loved it! Feel a little ill over spending so much on one day but when I read reports like yours, I know it will be a great day!

Discovery Cove is incredible....absolutely worth the cost (and the horrible exchange rate ). I am sure you are going to LOVE it!

 

[canadiankim]

Totally agree with Gina about DC and can't wait for my return trip in August.

I have also been wondering about the car rental. I keep trying Sky Scanner and am getting some really good prices for our visit but don't want to pre-pay in case I can still get it cheaper! Trying to weigh up if the difference in exchange rate will be more or less the difference in the car rental cost! Oh Lordy what to do!

 

[pigletto]

I am trying to book what I can for next month in Canadian funds to offset exchange where possible, and scouring for deals on food and activities.
We upgraded our Buy Two Get One Free passes for Universal on our last trip. Only cost $40 to upgrade to Power Passes, and that makes tickets free for this trip. We're only doing Universal and maybe Aquatica.
I keep waiting to see if they will extend some of the Aquatica deals for our dates but I'm not too hopeful. Most of them end right before we arrive, since our dates are over March Break. I am also debating renting a Cabana. $120 US is high but I really really want one.

Our cell phone carrier is doing a promo where you get a $15 Starbucks card for $10. I am getting a bunch of those. Both of our hotels (Cabana Bay and Portifino Bay) have a Starbucks where we can use the gift cards for breakfast or treats and the free $5 offsets the exchange and gives a little bonus. I hope to have $80 or so on my Starbucks card before we go (got some for Christmas).

I bought a CC's Pizza deal off of Living Social so one night of dinner is covered for cheap.

I bought a Landry's select card for our meal at Bubba Gumps. You get the $25 (US) sign up fee back in credit, and a $25 birthday reward. So there's a nice discount for dinner.

I'll be prepaying the golf and dine deal so we can go mini golfing at Universal one night (dd's requested birthday activity) and have dinner at NBA City.

I'm hoping when car rental rates start to drop that I can book through Costco.ca so that I can pay in Canadian. I have a reservation with codes with the U.S. Alamo site that will cost me about $250 for a week in a standard car. I've never ever paid that much, and we've always gone longer than this trip. So I am really hoping that will come down somewhere in the $150 range.

 

[greenclan67]

Buy two get one free at Universal? Is this an ongoing deal? I booked and PD for our DC day today. Man this is crazy.

 

[pigletto]

Greenclan I got my tickets though Undercover tourist but there's a link on the Universal site too. It's buy two days get one free park to park tickets. I think it's still active.. it was a few weeks ago anyway. We upgraded all four of our tickets on our last day to Power Passes for just under $40 U.S. total.

ETA) Yep .. it's still there. Go to the Universal site under the tickets link and "explore ticket options". You can get them a few dollars cheaper through the Mousesavers Undercover tourist link as well.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

I bought our tickets for the new Orlando Eye, SEA LIFE Aquarium, and Madame Tussaud's for December this morning. We're still 311 days away from that trip, but hey.....the more I can get out of the way now, the less I fret about the exchange rate in the fall .

We thought the price for that trio of attractions was quite good....$35, and we get free parking plus admission into the 4D cinema experience. We are all excited to try something new!

 

[canadiankim]

Gina, is the Orlando Eye a big Ferris wheel like the one in London, England or Niagara Falls or is this something different? The price of $35 is a great price and the kids might like some of these activities when we are there in August - good way to get out of the hot afternoon sun for an hour or two.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Gina, is the Orlando Eye a big Ferris wheel like the one in London, England or Niagara Falls or is this something different? The price of $35 is a great price and the kids might like some of these activities when we are there in August - good way to get out of the hot afternoon sun for an hour or two.

Yep, its similar to the SkyWheel in Niagara....except more than twice the size (400 feet versus the 175 foot Skywheel).

We thought the price was great too...better than we were expecting! I am super excited about the aquarium in particular .

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Orlando Eye:
https://www.officialorlandoeye.com/

SEA LIFE Aquarium:
https://www.visitsealife.com/orlando/

Madame Tussauds:
https://www.madametussauds.com/orlando/

 

[emmamomma]

The canadian dollar is expected to drop to .75 by the summer!