Disney 2011 (school summer hols) tips/recommendations pls?

[Li-sa]

Hi all,

I'm hoping that we might be able to afford a holiday to Disney & Universal (Orlando), next summer (have to go in school summer hols). Our kids will be 10 and 12 by then.

I've had quick price up on a few of the major tour ops websites, and realise that this won't be a cheap holiday! Can anyone give me any tips/recommendations on who to book through and where to stay (we're happy to stay somewhere fairly cheap/basic, but it would need to have a pool).
I quite like the idea of a villa/or apartment...would that be cheaper than staying at a Disney hotel?

I'm not keen on driving over there, is it essential or can you rely on the shuttle buses?

How much roughly does it cost to eat out (both in the parks, and out and about)?

Any other tips on what to see and what to miss?

Thanks.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

If you are staying in a villa you MUST have a car, generally there is nothing within reasonable walking distance.
The cost can vary depending on the size of the home, and is difficult to compare directly with on-site Disney accomodation because there are so many different prices you can pay to stay at WDW hotels. For the more upmarket deluxe properties then staying in a villa would definitely be cheaper.

Eating out at off site restaurants generally is good value for money, breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets can be as little as $10 per person, again it depends on where you eat really, can be cheaper or more expensive.
Eating at the theme parks and on-siite restaurants tends to be more pricey, you could buy a decent breakfast off site for the same cost as a muffin and orange juice inside the parks.

The best advice in the summer though is not to try and cram too much into the holiday, parks can be busy and weather is extremely hot. So pacing yourselves is a good idea, best to see some or most of what Orlando has to offer at a leisurely relaxed pace than rush around trying to see everything.

 

[fuse04]

HI, its will be probably be cheaper staying off site but that depends on what deals are around we, like many, are staying at on site at OKW this August with 42% off room and free DDP.

There are several benefits of staying on site such as not needing a car as you can use the Disney transport system for free (Bus, Monorail or boat)

We use to do tour operators but with the help of the folk on here we now DIY and usually save over £2k per trip. However if you can take the kids out of school thats the easiest way to save £. Eating on site will cost you more than off site, here is some idea of menu and costs

http://allears.net/menu/menus.htm

 

[fuse04]

The best advice in the summer though is not to try and cram too much into the holiday, parks can be busy and weather is extremely hot. So pacing yourselves is a good idea, best to see some or most of what Orlando has to offer at a leisurely relaxed pace than rush around trying to see everything.

Good advice we wnet for almost three weeks last year May/June and crammed so much it it was less enjoyable, this time round taking things much easier

 

[howlongtillsummer?]

Any predictions for Disney deals next year - free dining again? What do you think?

 

[2Tiggies]

You said you have to go in the school holidays - does it have to be the Summer holidays? Not sure what your circumstances are but have you considered Easter instead? The schools get two weeks over Easter so the kids wouldn't miss any (unless you want three weeks, in which case this is no help to you). I did this last year and it was cheaper, weather was bearable (actually beautiful) and although it was as busy as Summer season, we had the crowds without the extreme heat and humidity but still the extended park hours.

Edit: Just to add, I don't drive so we always stay onsite. Never done Universal though, only Disney. Tranportation onsite is great if you don't have any special considerations (e.g. baby, very young children, disability, etc) but for us it is great.

 

[Li-sa]

Thanks for all the great replies so far...pls keep them coming!

We have to stick to school hols, I'm afraid, as I work in a school.

I hadn't considered Easter before, as I assumed it would be more expensive. Will definitely consider travelling at Easter too.

I'm looking at budget-moderate accommodation btw and flights from the Midlands or Manchester.

Thanks for the tip about not cramming too much in (after 2 very busy, short trips to DLP, I know what you mean!). I think we would just do Disney and Universal parks and have some non-park day/half days to chill out!

 

[2Tiggies]

OUr flights were cheaper over Easter, which pulled down the package price compared with August. Also, as the US Spring Break ended about a week after Easter last year, the accommodation prices dropped for our last 8 days as the UK school holidays ran from the Easter weekend and then 2 weeks beyond, which helped. You do need to shop around though. I had originally got a quote for May thinking I would take DD out of school, but decided against it and went back for an easter quote and would you believe it, for the 2 of us the Easter quote came in £250 or so cheaper!!! You can't really apply too much logic when looking around.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

Unfortunatley as we have found over the years school holiday restrictions does make planning holidays harder.
The prices are more expensive being the main reason, also neither Easter or July/August are the ideal times to go.

Easter has 3 or 4 days that are extremely busy and it can also be hard just about doing a 2 week holiday, the kid's and the parents can take at least a couple of days once back home to recover and get sleeping patterns back in sync so even if you go for 14 nights you may have to skip school for a few days. The upside is weather is ideal in April, low 80's and often the occasional breeze.

July is busy with extreme high temperatures, the worst time to go in my opinion. August gets slightly less crowds from the middle of the month when the US schools return, but it's still very very hot.
Upside is with the 6 week break you have more time to plan the holiday and choose your exact dates, plus you could have a few days or even longer rest before the kids go back to school after your holiday.

We have been both times and had great holidays though in an ideal world we would choose another month.

 

[Li-sa]

Thanks for that JohnnySharp2...some good points to consider.
The kids wouldn't be able to have any extra days off school to rest, as I would be back at work. Come to think of it, we also sometimes have slightly different school holidays dates, so that would limit it to 10 nights at Easter or 14 in the summer.

 

[darthtatty]

when i saw you post this i was hoping people would be a lot more enthausastic as we plan to go then too
we're planned to go every 5 years in May, went this year so wasnt expecting to go for a while. Weve all had an awful time with sons school, some weeks its been ok but most of the time its constant stress. Anyway we're going to celebrate him leaving primary school with an extra trip. so for us, we will def go in August. he starts secondary school so wont take him out during the school hols.
we plan to stay on site.
I would say to you if you want to stay off site include the extra you would spend each day on travelling, compared to staying onsite. If there isnt much difference think of the extra time/hassle youd save by using the free Disney transport.
I know the past few years in August it has been free dining, so fingers crossed we get that again next year. Im not sure when they start to do this though. we think we may leave booking until they do a few offers. May even DIY rather than just do the virgin route again this time. Might even book with Disney direct.
I cant wait, good luck with your planning.xx

 

[iwrbnd]

It is really expensive to do both Universal and Disney in one trip. Your tickets are cheaper the longer you stay. It would be better to do one trip Universal and one trip Disney. For ex: a 3 day ticket is almost the same price as 7 days. So, unless you're staying for weeks at a time you end up overpaying for tickets. I hope that makes sense!

 

[Li-sa]

Thanks for the further replies.

darthtatty: As we have 2 kids I'm not sure if we'd all get a bit cramped staying in one room for 2 weeks...are the Disney basic/moderate rooms spacious?
Is the free dining plan any good, or are you quite limited with where you can eat?
Do you know what a good/average flight price is like for August?

iwrbnd: This is probably a once in a lifetime trip for us, as by the time we've saved up enough again, the kids will have left home!
Do you think one week at disney and one week at universal would work?

 

[fuse04]

Free DP is free is great partly because it is free but there is a large and good selection of restaurants where it can be used

http://www.wdwinfo.com/disney-dining-plan.htm#restaurants2010

We would have stayed on site even without free DDP but the free DDP has saved us a good £1400. We have previously paid for the DDP.

Whether the rorom will be crowded will depnd upon how much time you stay in the rorom, for our furst couple of trips we just slept in the room so not a porblem for us (only stayed in moderate or deluxe, not sure about value resorts). This time we are planning on using the rorom more os have gone for a 1 bed villa.

 

[darthtatty]

I agree with Fuse, all we do with our room is sleep there.
Esp without a car its a lot harder to keep popping back to your room.

Im not sure i agree with the 1 week at universal and 1 week at Disney-youre going to need more time at Disney. We struggle to spend 2 days at Universal. We usually do 1 day at Universal and 1 day at Islands of adventure. Im sure you could buy day tickets for each park or a 2 park ticket for 2 days (we usually do something like this)

 

[janeyb]

We have always stayed on-site but last April/May we took a last minute trip out to Orlando. As we had only been 4 months before we were trying to keep the cost down so booked Lake Buena Vista Resort and Village. I absolutely LOVED it. Fantastic place...much more room than staying at Disney (Even in DVC villas). It was HUGE and much cheaper than a villa. There was also a fab pool with a pirate ship and zero entry. Fabulous kitchen equipped with everthing you'd ever need, washer and dryer, 2 huge bedrooms (ours was bigger than square footage of any of the disney rooms we've stayed in, and that's including the bathroom)..Our room had a HUGE jacuzzi bath, seperate double shower, walk in closet, my daughters also had there own large room and bathroom. It's next to an outlet centre so great if I wanted to 'escape' the children for a while at the end of a day in the parks and look around the shops. It was a few minutes walk from leaving our room to arriving at outlet centre.
You can book direct from website for around $100 per night, also on owners direct website which is sometimes less. That's for a 2 bed huge apartment.
We hired a car and it was SO close to Disney but I know there were shutte buses.
Worth a look anyway, we would definately go back if staying off site again. Just be careful that you look at BV resort and village and not BV suites which may come up on a goggle search.

 

[team harris]

Our last two trips have been in August - staying onsite with the free DDP.
Suffered a bit in the heat Aug 2007, but had no problem 2009 - only advice is to take on plenty of water and then some more! As said before - stick to the second half of August as the US children have generally all gone back to school. Our boys have not had a problem with one or two days rest before school.

We all love the food and the convenience of eating onsite (more time in the parks!) Although not a problem for us, you would have to make use of the ADR system if going in August, to avoid disappointment. Some people find it hard being tied to times and places for dinner. If not in Disney for the day we book a late ADR for the hotel or a park (possibly getting the parade or fireworks in again!) or use two tokens for a dinner show and eat out of Disney for a change.

We always visit both Disney and Universal and then throw in non Theme park day like the beach or Space Kennedy Centre. Very happy using Disney transport altho hire a car to get off site.

Staying offsite, you would probably need a car which will also mean paying to park at the Disney theme parks - free to onsiters.

 

[Li-sa]

Some more good tips - thanks.

I'm pricing up using this August's dates as next year's flights aren't available yet (any idea when you can book for next Aug?).

I like the look of Lake Buena Vista Resort, but after discussions with the family (and pricing up) a moderate hotel with DPP looks the most economical way to go - is that right? Any hotel recommendations or are all the moderates pretty similar? Where can I find details of the DDP and where we could eat? Is it easy to find vegetarian options on the DDP? What's the ADR?

How easy is it to get to Universal from Disney without a car? We want to visit Harry Potter!

What's the cheapest way to book park tickets?

Sorry for the further questions!

 

[fuse04]

For flightd only, they will not be available untill 11 months out; cheapest way for tickets is just to shop around on net when yo are ready to buy, sometimes disney have offers on tickets.

It is easy to get to Universal, cabs are readiliy available and Mears operate a shuttle service for $18 pp return.

As far moderate is concerned we have only stayed at Port orleans Riverside and really liked that.

DDP - http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/benefits/disney-dining-plan/

try also (will need to scrool down page)

http://www.dreamsunlimitedtravel.com/packages/2010-packages.htm#mypd

Some more good tips - thanks.

I'm pricing up using this August's dates as next year's flights aren't available yet (any idea when you can book for next Aug?).

I like the look of Lake Buena Vista Resort, but after discussions with the family (and pricing up) a moderate hotel with DPP looks the most economical way to go - is that right? Any hotel recommendations or are all the moderates pretty similar? Where can I find details of the DDP and where we could eat? Is it easy to find vegetarian options on the DDP? What's the ADR?

How easy is it to get to Universal from Disney without a car? We want to visit Harry Potter!

What's the cheapest way to book park tickets?

Sorry for the further questions!