Canadian needs WDW travel help!

[atlantis804]

Being a newbie to the Disney planning, I'm overwhelmed with all the options and not sure where to start. Here's what I'm thinking so far:
travel dates somewhere between Jan 13-Feb 16 2007 (one week) don't know best time to go (help?), Group of 4, 2 kids, ages 12 & 16, want to fly(depart Toronto) and stay on-site (Pop Century), need the best deal as is possible.

Should I book air & trip together? Should I get room & park tickets direct with Disney? What options do I have?

 

[Mickey1Fan]

Hi atlantis and welcome. You have come to the right place to be further confused.

Here is my two cents.

I book my flight through a travel agent, expedia.ca or travelocity depending on who can give me the best price. Lots of Canadians in the T.O. area fly out of Buffalo. For me it was not worth having to get to Buffalo and back, it is more convenient to fly out of T.O.

Hotel and tickets I book through Disney. Check out the room rates and ticket options at disney.com You want to decide on tickets - base, hopper, etc. Pop Century is a lot of fun, I stayed there in May.

Disney Stores have tickets as well with good prices.

Ask lots of questions, we are all here to help you have a magical trip.

 

[FayeW]

Being a newbie to the Disney planning, I'm overwhelmed with all the options and not sure where to start. Here's what I'm thinking so far:
travel dates somewhere between Jan 13-Feb 16 2007 (one week) don't know best time to go (help?), Group of 4, 2 kids, ages 12 & 16, want to fly(depart Toronto) and stay on-site (Pop Century), need the best deal as is possible.

Should I book air & trip together? Should I get room & park tickets direct with Disney? What options do I have?

You almost always get a better deal booking the components separately. If you want to get a quote for the hotel/tickets as a package, try the link at the top of the page for our sponsor, dreamsunlimited. I have gotten quotes from them several times, although I never ended up booking throught them as I always get a better deal staying offsite and booking everything myself. They do have great rates, and excellent customer service, though.

Sunwing has just started flights from Toronto to Orlando, so check them out, but be prepared to pay (literally) double what you could pay flying out of Buffalo. The good news is that you are travelling at a slow time so you may get a decent fare (i.e something you can live with) out of Toronto.

Personally, we stay offsite in a 2 bdrm condo through skyauction.com. We have never paid more than $265 US FOR THE ENTIRE WEEK!

We also buy our tickets from a discounted seller (ticketmania last time, this time it will be undercover tourist). There is a significant savings buying from them vs Disney, and they both have excellent service, and both are highly regarded on the Dis! Sign up for the newsletter from mousesavers.com. The email newsletter is sent out on the 15th of every month, and inside are links to both of the sellers I mentioned, with special prices for mousesavers readers. Using the mousesavers link, and buying from undercovertourist, will save my famil $188. USD, or about $220 CDN.

Happy planning, and welcome to the DIS!

 

[SnowWhite]

Welcome Atlantis804,

I agree sign up immediately for your mousesavers newsletter at the link in the above reply. Also sign up at the southwest airlines website for DING, you will then recieve 'DING fares" which are discounted fares on southwest airlines that have time expiry. This means you might snag a fare to and from orlando for say $39.00 each way but it requires that you purchase within a certain amount of time usually a couple hours. This could save you hundreds of dollars in flying!! Of course you would have to fly out of buffalo or another US airport close to you that southwest flies out of. Usually the fees that you pay just for the airport taxes in Toronto are more expensive than your round trip airfare from Buffalo. Something to think about anyways. Tickets as mentioned by another poster you should check out undercovertourist using the mousesavers link in the newsletter. If you want to take advantage of the "Extra Magic Hours" then DON'T stay off site as you will be only able to squish your nose up to the gate and watch as the rest of us enjoy the rides after normal parks hours because we stay on property. It all kinda depends on your budget and what you want out of your trip. Just my opinion.......

Rob (Snowwhite's DH)

 

[atlantis804]

How did you find the commute to Disney? How did you do it?

Did you fly out of the States?

How do you find a place to stay that's nice, clean & safe?

 

[drag n' fly]

We are going on our first trip to WDW. I got a bunch of books from the library, scoured the Dis boards for info and then went with Dreams Unlimited. If you are going the first time it is best to book a package (Dreams Unlimited, CAA travel agent etc) if you are a seasoned WDW traveller then wing it and do it yourself.

 

[Northstar]

Hi, atlantis804! About when to go Jan 13 - Feb 16... things are pretty uncrowded in January, start to get more crowded in February with spring breaks beginning. If you can go any time and any week in there, I'd look for midweek travel for lower airfare and in late January for great weather and low crowds.

 

[FayeW]

We are going on our first trip to WDW. I got a bunch of books from the library, scoured the Dis boards for info and then went with Dreams Unlimited. If you are going the first time it is best to book a package (Dreams Unlimited, CAA travel agent etc) if you are a seasoned WDW traveller then wing it and do it yourself.

I respectfully disagree.

We would have booked our first trip through Dreams, but then I found skyauction, and mousesavers, and ticketmania! I found it to be a relatively easy process.

ATLANTIS804, We fly out of Syracuse, NY which is a 3.25 hour drive from our home in Ottawa. Even making the drive, and staying overnight before the flight (park & fly rate of $115) we are saving about $1000. for our family of 4.

The first 2 times, we stayed in Lake Buena Vista which is where you will find one of the main entrances to WDW property. It was ridiculously easy for us to find our way around, and there are several excellent timeshare condo's in the area (Sheraton Vistana Resort, Embassy at Grand Beach,etc). We stayed at Cypress Pointe Grande Villas the first time (no longer available on skyauction but you can book a 2 bdrm there for $93. at www.hotelkindgom.com). We LOVED it, and it gets great reviews on the board. WE also stayed at Bryan's Spanish Cove,which was OK, but not great.
This time, we are staying at the other end of Disney, Orbit One in Kissimee. I don't know that area at all, but the property is a favourite of some very respected Dis'ers on the "Orlando Hotels and Attractions" board, and rumour has it that it is 2 mins to Animal Kingdom, so I'm sure it will be fine.

I recommend you go to www.skyauction.com and select "search" from the taskbar. When the window opens, type in keyword "Ready"; that will bring you to the Ready, Set, Go auctions that I use. Select any one of the auctions that come up (should only be 2 or 3. They are all the same, just the auction closing soonest will be at the top!), After selecting an auction, about 1/3 of the way down the page you will see a highlight "click here to see where your next vacation will be". Just select Florida (under Eastern US/Canada heading), plug in your dates and the size of accomodations you want. IF you win an auction, it doesn't matter how much you paid, you can select ANY size of accomodation that they have available. Keep in mind that $210 will be added to the auction amount for the total price. I won two auctions for $52 each, so my total was $262! For my $262 I could select from hotels all the way up to 3 bdrms, if they had them available.

Check and see if/what they have available for the dates you are looking at. If you find something you are interested in, come back here and ask for opinions or go over to the Orlando hotels board and we will all be happy to help you out. You can also get reviews of almost any property at www.tripadvisor.com

Faye

ETA: I checked skyauction, and they have a 2 bdrm available at Orbit One for check in Jan 13, for 7 days. As I said, we chose it this time because of the good reviews I read here. You can check it out at www.islandone.com

Incase you are nervous, the rate through skyauction DOES NOT require a timeshare tour, although they may ask you if you'd like to do one. We chose to take the tour at Cypress Pointe, and got 4 one day WDW tickets for about $80 (althought that was 3 yrs ago).

 

[drag n' fly]

If you are trying to keep the costs as low as possible and don't mind being your own travel agent and doing the legwork, I highly recommend what FayeW said. I found for us personally being first time travellers to WDW it just simplified our planning process and greatly reduced any potential stress levels. We really wanted to stay onsite to take advantage of the Disney perks also. Hope that helps

 

[pollioni]

Being a newbie to the Disney planning, I'm overwhelmed with all the options and not sure where to start.

I understand how all this can get really complex and confusing, but we do have a resident Canadian here Madonna31 who is an excellent agent who can take the most complex situations and make them simple. She will also keep a watch out for any discounts that your reservation may be available for.

 

[FayeW]

If you are trying to keep the costs as low as possible and don't mind being your own travel agent and doing the legwork, I highly recommend what FayeW said. I found for us personally being first time travellers to WDW it just simplified our planning process and greatly reduced any potential stress levels. We really wanted to stay onsite to take advantage of the Disney perks also. Hope that helps

Thanks for the kind words drag n' fly!

I would probably stay onsite too, if I didn't enjoy the "how cheap can I do it" game so much (and if both my husband and son weren't Olympic class snore machines)

 

[phabric]

If you are only doing Disney, stay onsite and use Disney's Magical Express bus (transportion from airport to resort) and save on renting a car. Staying in one of the Value resorts is just as cheap as offsite. They are resorts not just a hotel room with a pool. Staying onsite you have the extra hours.

Check out SunWing for flights and prices. I booked Toronto - Orlando( direct) Aug 19-26/07 for $292.37/pp. I am using Madonna31 (christine@fairytaledestinations.com) for my Disney portion. She is great. She will book, watch for any codes and book any dining reservations.

 

[FayeW]

If you are only doing Disney, stay onsite and use Disney's Magical Express bus (transportion from airport to resort) and save on renting a car. Staying in one of the Value resorts is just as cheap as offsite. QUOTE]

Not even close! Consider a 1 week rental for a 2bdrm condo through skyauction at $265 USD, and 1 week rental car for $200 (I'm actually paying $208 for an intermediate for 9 days + 2 extra hours, so 7 days should be in the 175 range MAX).That's $465! You would have to be getting the Value resort for $66.43 TAX INCLUDED to just break even!

Remember, the OP has 2 children. (1 teenager/1 preteen) the extra space of the the 2 bdrm, & the extra bathroom will be very welcome, I'm sure! Take into consideration the full kitchen to have snacks and drinks available, the flexibility of having the rental car to be able to pick up a few groceries for breakfasts in room, and the options of some of the (much) less expensive offsite dining options (Golden Corral, Cici's Pizza, etc) and the OP will save a considerable amount of money staying offsite (and I personally have never felt that we were missing any Magic!). Most condo's have a washer/dryer right in the unit, and with a family of 4, not having to bring home dirty clothes and spend the days after your vacation doing laundry is the icing on the cake!

 

[cdnmickeylover]

We have gotten the value for less than $66 tax included Canadian so it is possible.

The debate of whether to stay onsite or offsite is really one of personal preference I think.

Since there are just the two of us traveling we prefer to stay onsite with the benefits of Magical Express, Disney transportation, extra magic hours and the intangible of being there 24/7. The size of the room is really irrelevant - we aren't in it that much and there are only 2 of us. We also sometimes take advantage of the dining plan which is not available to people staying offsite.

Staying offsite can have advantages too - bigger room for sometimes less $$ but you would almost certainly have to rent a car and pay for parking and then there's the distance to travel to/from the parks.

For us, right now, staying onsite makes sense but if I was traveling with teenagers I might consider the offsite condo option.

I would suggest to the OP to look at all the options and decide what's right for their particular situation.

Fiona

 

[FayeW]

We have gotten the value for less than $66 tax included Canadian so it is possible.

The debate of whether to stay onsite or offsite is really one of personal preference I think.

Since there are just the two of us traveling we prefer to stay onsite with the benefits of Magical Express, Disney transportation, extra magic hours and the intangible of being there 24/7. The size of the room is really irrelevant - we aren't in it that much and there are only 2 of us. We also sometimes take advantage of the dining plan which is not available to people staying offsite.

Staying offsite can have advantages too - bigger room for sometimes less $$ but you would almost certainly have to rent a car and pay for parking and then there's the distance to travel to/from the parks.

For us, right now, staying onsite makes sense but if I was traveling with teenagers I might consider the offsite condo option.

I would suggest to the OP to look at all the options and decide what's right for their particular situation.

Fiona

Hey, if it was just the two of us I would be planting my butt in a studio at Boardwalk Villas (Boardwalk view, no less)!

I can only handle so much togetherness

 

[i*heart*villains]

We've only been to WDW once, but for us the whole point of going is the magic of disney. We gladly paid a little extra $ to be surrounded by the magic 24 hours a day for the week. We like to stay at the value resorts just as much for the theming as the price. I like that even when we go back to the room at the end of a long day, the magic is still there, sore feet and all.