April 17, 2011 on the Dream

[jilljill]

I am balking at my flights ending up $260 pp round trip... guess I should just grab it and forget about it. I am spoiled with the November $180-210 round trip. Our flight doesn't leave till 340pm... so I am thinking rent a car and spend a few hours at either DTD or the Space Center. I hear you can get free tickets to the space center by contacting congressmen/senators??? I may try that route and that way if we are only there for a few hours, at least it did not cost me anything extra.

Have you read the thread on KSC free ticket requests? Tickets for April will be hard to come by, so make sure you do your request just before the 6 month mark which is the earliest your congressman's office can request tickets.

 

[bdink921]

Just got that DING

 

[castlegazer]

Woohooo!!!! II did just book Southwest even though I have those amazing tickets n Direct Air for $600 for the 4 of us roundtrip. The Southwest fares are as low as they will get for that week and I was even able to get $118 down there but had to settle for $240 on the way back because it's a Sunday we will be flying.

Now we will have to decide which to pick. But I am very pleased with Southwest's rates today!

 

[castlegazer]

Oh and by the way, I can't get Ding at work, but they put the new info about open dates for booking onto their facebook page so that is where I got the info that it was open for booking. I actually hadn't paid attention to this date opening stuff at all, so I was really happy it came through my feed today!

 

[lildeb724]

Got flights out of Islip for 1600 for the 4 of us. Booked by 7:30 but most of the flights already were sold out of the wanna get away fare. Which is 200 more than I paid 2 years ago for spring break.
We are flying down the 15th, staying at the Renaissance Sea World and doing discovery cove on the 16th. After the cruise we will be staying at AKLV Jambo house with a Savannah view unitl the 25th. Not sure how I convinced my husband to do a 10 day trip - but I did!

 

[jel0511]

Got flights out of Islip for 1600 for the 4 of us. Booked by 7:30 but most of the flights already were sold out of the wanna get away fare. Which is 200 more than I paid 2 years ago for spring break.
We are flying down the 15th, staying at the Renaissance Sea World and doing discovery cove on the 16th. After the cruise we will be staying at AKLV Jambo house with a Savannah view unitl the 25th. Not sure how I convinced my husband to do a 10 day trip - but I did!

We'll be at AKV until the 24th, we'll be at Kidani though.....

 

[svcutler]

You all did better than I did. Southwest was horrible (over $500 out of LGA)

We're going out of LGA on Saturday 4/16 and home on 4/24, Sunday (staying in WDW through weekend!)

Total is $422.80 pp roundtrip. Thank goodness 2 of the tickets were paid for with travel rewards.

Overall, can I just say that this is one expensive trip for 4 people, between airfare, cruise and WDW for a few days.... good thing I have my penny jar!

Speaking of the weekend in WDW, is anyone else doing that? I'm wondering what time we'd get off the boat and off to the parks on Thursday. I'm hoping by 11:00....

Congrats to all the savings out there but for the rest of you NY'ers....good luck!

 

[jel0511]

You all did better than I did. Southwest was horrible (over $500 out of LGA)

We're going out of LGA on Saturday 4/16 and home on 4/24, Sunday (staying in WDW through weekend!)

Total is $422.80 pp roundtrip. Thank goodness 2 of the tickets were paid for with travel rewards.

Overall, can I just say that this is one expensive trip for 4 people, between airfare, cruise and WDW for a few days.... good thing I have my penny jar!

Speaking of the weekend in WDW, is anyone else doing that? I'm wondering what time we'd get off the boat and off to the parks on Thursday. I'm hoping by 11:00....

Congrats to all the savings out there but for the rest of you NY'ers....good luck!

We should be off the boat by 9AM, so at WDW no later than 10. We've picking up a cart at Budget and then heading or to Kidani at AKV. I think the rest of the day will be spent at the pool.....

 

[svcutler]

We should be off the boat by 9AM, so at WDW no later than 10. We've picking up a cart at Budget and then heading or to Kidani at AKV. I think the rest of the day will be spent at the pool.....

Thanks JEL! So after we drop off our bags at our hotel, we can head over to the park and should be able to have a nice 1/2 day.

Couple of things:

1. Budget - you guys think this is the best bang for the buck? I'm not looking for luxury for these last few days, just 4 wheels and cheap.

2. Airport Hotel for Saturday Night, 16th - didn't you guys say there was a great, inexpensive hotel literally in the airport?

3. Getting from airport hotel on Sunday morning to port - best way? I thought www.fltours.com was the least expensive.

Thoughts??

 

[jel0511]

Thanks JEL! So after we drop off our bags at our hotel, we can head over to the park and should be able to have a nice 1/2 day.

Couple of things:

1. Budget - you guys think this is the best bang for the buck? I'm not looking for luxury for these last few days, just 4 wheels and cheap.At the port your really limited in your rental car companies. We've used Budget before and had no problems, so we're going with them again.


2. Airport Hotel for Saturday Night, 16th - didn't you guys say there was a great, inexpensive hotel literally in the airport?I didn't, we're staying at the Comfort Suites at the airport Sat night. I believe we're paying a bit over $80 for the night.

3. Getting from airport hotel on Sunday morning to port - best way? I thought www.fltours.com was the least expensive. We again renting a car from Budget. We're picking it up on Sat, using it to get to the hotel, go out for dinner and drive it to the port the next day.

Thoughts??

Answers above

 

[jilljill]

We should be off the boat by 9AM, so at WDW no later than 10. We've picking up a cart at Budget and then heading or to Kidani at AKV. I think the rest of the day will be spent at the pool.....

It will be much faster for you to get to WDW if you pick up a car instead of a cart.

Sorry had to do it.

 

[jilljill]

Thanks JEL! So after we drop off our bags at our hotel, we can head over to the park and should be able to have a nice 1/2 day.

Couple of things:

1. Budget - you guys think this is the best bang for the buck? I'm not looking for luxury for these last few days, just 4 wheels and cheap.

2. Airport Hotel for Saturday Night, 16th - didn't you guys say there was a great, inexpensive hotel literally in the airport?

3. Getting from airport hotel on Sunday morning to port - best way? I thought www.fltours.com was the least expensive.

Thoughts??

Check rental car codes on mousesavers for possible discounts. There's a link in the FAQ sticky on the main cruise boards.

The hotel in the airport is the Hyatt which is only cheap when gotten via Priceline.

Car rental is the cheapest option for getting to the port. You can always book a hotel in the port area for the night, cheaper than staying at the airport.
There's a couple of threads on getting hotels on Priceline on the main boards, you will just have to search for them as I'm sure they are pretty far back in the pages.

 

[bdink921]

I've been checking car rental rates for awhile and now that air is booked I looked again today. No surprise they were $$$$. I checked mousesavers and got a code for Budget Y937800 and it worked great for us. We're renting a car (intermediate) 4/15-4/17 for Universal and then to the port for $111 and then a 1 day rental on 4/21 to the airport for $39.54. This was by far the best prices I have seen for car rentals so far and is cheaper than using transfers. We don't mind the drive to/from the port and our return flight isn't until 2p so it's not like we have to rush to the airport.

Is anyone staying at the port before the cruise? We're only staying at Universal for one night. I'm looking at Country Inn & Suites or the Residence Inn. We stayed last year at the Radisson -- it was ok, nice pool.

 

[jilljill]

Those are great rates for that time of year for a car rental. Don't give up, keep checking rates to see if you can get a lower one. I've changed discount codes many times on the same car rental reservation with no problems.


My brother stayed at the CI&S earlier this year before his cruise and really like it. He's pretty picky about where he stays so it must have been clean and nice. He liked the pool and bar too.

 

[jel0511]

I've been checking car rental rates for awhile and now that air is booked I looked again today. No surprise they were $$$$. I checked mousesavers and got a code for Budget Y937800 and it worked great for us. We're renting a car (intermediate) 4/15-4/17 for Universal and then to the port for $111 and then a 1 day rental on 4/21 to the airport for $39.54. This was by far the best prices I have seen for car rentals so far and is cheaper than using transfers. We don't mind the drive to/from the port and our return flight isn't until 2p so it's not like we have to rush to the airport.

Is anyone staying at the port before the cruise? We're only staying at Universal for one night. I'm looking at Country Inn & Suites or the Residence Inn. We stayed last year at the Radisson -- it was ok, nice pool.

Thanks for the code!!! I was using the costco code and this code cut my rates in HALF!!!!

 

[pershing]

If you are a member of USAA, they usually have one of the best rates:

Y126501

Priceline is really good for car rentals. Alamo was pretty low a couple of months ago.

 

[jilljill]

Gotta ask, what is USAA?

 

[jel0511]

I'm not a member of USAA, though I did check the rates and they were higher than the code from Mousesavers. Jill I googled USAA, it looks like a financial services company for the military or government employees.

 

[jilljill]

I'm not a member of USAA, though I did check the rates and they were higher than the code from Mousesavers. Jill I googled USAA, it looks like a financial services company for the military or government employees.

Now that you mention that I was just reading something about it. I think some services are open to everyone and some you have to be a member of. I hadn't heard of it until a couple of weeks ago.

 

[ydrj]

I've been checking car rental rates for awhile and now that air is booked I looked again today. No surprise they were $$$$. I checked mousesavers and got a code for Budget Y937800 and it worked great for us. We're renting a car (intermediate) 4/15-4/17 for Universal and then to the port for $111 and then a 1 day rental on 4/21 to the airport for $39.54. This was by far the best prices I have seen for car rentals so far and is cheaper than using transfers. We don't mind the drive to/from the port and our return flight isn't until 2p so it's not like we have to rush to the airport.

Is anyone staying at the port before the cruise? We're only staying at Universal for one night. I'm looking at Country Inn & Suites or the Residence Inn. We stayed last year at the Radisson -- it was ok, nice pool.

bdink921, thanks so much for the code! I just got my rental for before the cruise and after and the rates were the best I got in a long time. Great discount code from Mousesavers, I always use their codes also - sometimes it's all about timing with Budget. But I wasn't even thinking about car rental yet, had air fare on my mind all day today. You rock!