Booking a vacation need some advice

[daystar]

Hi,
Looking for some help on making a budget trip to disney world....We are a family of four(dh, myself, ds7 and ds14)......We went to WDW in 2003 for christmas...Now i would love to take my family back for christmas of 2005....Last time we went i paid a travel agent to do my package and i've read on here you can get prices cheaper by doing if yourself....So i need your help......
I was looking into staying at the POR for six nights during the christmas holiday....We are flying in from Buffalo NY to Orlando....Last time we used a shuttle which i prefer not to do again because we had to wait two hours to catch one...A friend of mine told me that she had a townecar and they were there when she got off the plane....I really don't think that we need a car since we are only staying on WDW site and not going off....I'm fine with their bus system never had a problem with the bus last time...I would like park tickets that included DQ because my boys really like to go there and play their games...
How would you book this trip???If you do them all seperate where would i call for a townecar???Can i still get any discounts even though i'm going at the holidays???Do you book everything all at once or do it over time???I probbly forgot some questions to ask so if anyone else could think of something else please share it...........Thanks

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

If you already know what your dates will be, go ahead and book your room-only reservation. It will only cost you the equivalent of one night's stay to hold the reservation and it is fully refundable if you cancel 5 days prior to your first night.

Since there are no discount for the holidays right now (aside from AAA), you will be quoted the rack rate for your room. Holiday season begins on 12/20/2005. If you can check in on 12/19/2005, your entire stay will be billed at the Value Season rate. That's a difference of about $50/night at the moderate resorts. It's something worth considering, if you can do it.

I would also recommend booking your room-only ressie using Dreams Unlimited , once they've booked your room, they will continue to look for any discounts that can be applied to your stay. They will then make the adjustments if they can. They also will make PSs for you, which will save you both time and long distance fees.

If you're not going to rent a car, then a limo or towncar service is your next best option. You can try FL Tours or Tiffany Towncars to compare rates. There's also a new complimentary service that Disney is offering called Magical Express . However, they will be using Mears Transportation and the shuttle will be transporting a number of WDW guests and, in all likelihood, will be stopping at various WDW resorts along the way.

For airfare, I would wait unless I was using frequent flier miles to book the flights. The prices can go up and down several times before your dates. Right now, you will probably see some of the highest rates for next winter. Get an idea of what they cost for this year and then be on the alert for good rates all year. Once you find an airfare that you can live with, book it. If you hesitate, you may lose out. To reduce the costs, consider flying out of an alternate airport.

If visiting DQ during your stay is important to you, consider this: A 5-day MYW base ticket is $193/$148 (adult/child; before taxes). To add hopping to the pass, it is an additional $35 per pass. To add 3 "pluses" (waterparks, PI, WWoS or DQ) to those passes, it will cost an additional $45 each. You can purchase DQ passes for as little as $21/$19 each. Unless you plan to make 3 visits to any of those "pluses" in your 6 days, you would be better off just purchasing the number of DQ passes that you anticipate needing for this visit from another source. Right now, the MYW passes are not available. Disney will begin selling them on 1/2. There is no information as to how the various ticketbrokers will handle the sale of MYW passes.

Good luck planning! I spend so much less $$$$ by doing it all by myself (with the help of DU). You're sure to save yourself quite a few bucks in return for the time you invest in your planning.

 

[daystar]

Hi,
Thanks for your reply...I think the date for our trip will be the 23 to the 30 of Dec....I would love to go earlier but i don't know if my dh he take those extra days off...I will make sure that i will bring this up to dh to see what he can do, if i'm going to save that much money you bet i'm going to try for that date...
As for the transportation thanks for letting me know who to contact...Mears is the shuttle service that we used last time and waited over 2 hours for just the shuttle bus to pick us up at the airport....It wouldn't be so bad if it were just my dh and i but the kids were becoming very impatient...After a five hour trip from flight to flight and now waiting for the shuttle on top of all that, they really wanted to just get to WDW....

 

[daystar]

Hi,
Another question....When you book through dreamunlimited do you pay for it all at once or like the travel agents where you put down a deposit and then by a date pay for the whole thing....Thanks