Disney first time trip

[LisaR1809]

We are a family of 4 hoping to go to Disney at Easter 2014 for 2 weeks. I need lots of guidance as it seems such a complicated holiday with so many options. I have lots of random questions.

We would like to stay in a villa with it's own pool. I would like to be close to the parks.

Is it cheaper to book individual flight and accommodation?

How do we get from the villa to the parks?

How soon can we book to get the best deal?

What is a realistic budget?

What else do I need to consider?

Thanks in advance
Lisa

 

[LeaversOnTour]

Hi,

If you really want to utilise a Villa, you are almost definately going to need to Hire a car to get you to and from the Parks. This will need to be factored into your overall costs, as will the cost of parking, fuel etc when budgeting your spending money.

As its your first visit you will probably want to do all of the parks? Are you looking to do Universal and Seaworld as well as Disney?

You maybe better off doing a split stay, somewhere like I-drive and then doing another week at Disney. This will allow you to see everything, but means you wont need a car. This may or may not be more cost effective depending on your Hotel choices, but would certainly be easier if you are worried about driving around in Orlando.

My DH refuses to drive out there, despite having had his DL for 20 years - I have had mine for 2 and would quite happily drive if he would let me - LOL

I assume by family of for you mean 2 Adults and 2 Kids - We recently did a 4 week trip (split stay) and it cost us approx £4.5k - This included food at disney and park tickets. Depending on your childrens ages it could be more costly - over 10's are adults in the eyes of a theme park.

For flights alone your looking at between £1500 and £2000 depending on ages, time of year (we have never flown at Easter), airline and whether you fly direct.

A week at a reasonably modest hotel on i-drive could cost as little as £300 if you all share the same room. (all have 2 dbl beds normally)

Disney, a week including tickets for 2 + 2 (if under 10's) from £1500 + depending on whether you chose Value or Deluxe. You may be lucky and the dining maybe free again during this period.

Saying that - myself and my hubbie - before he was my hubbie - did 2 weeks on I-drive in October for £1500 including flights and accomm - we bought tickets out there (not something i would recommend). This was Pre children - Whilst they are cute and certainly have their uses - they are frankly costly and our little disney trips have tripled in costs over the last 3 years.

2013 - with DD number 3 (due in 3 weeks time ARRGGGHH) we are going again for 4 weeks - is costing over 6K and thats cheap compared to some quotes we got. But as our oldest goes to school next year we thought we would have one last "BIG" disney fest before the school holiday prices really frighten us.

If you want any more advise/help/or for my ranting to stop - please dont hesitate to mention :O)

 

[chmurf]

it seems such a complicated holiday

it's not, you're on the DIS now

We would like to stay in a villa with it's own pool. I would like to be close to the parks.

I'll let that part to DISers who stay at villas, I only stay onsite, so I can't help you

Is it cheaper to book individual flight and accommodation?

Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't.
I know it's not helping much, but deals come and go, you can never be sure what to expect.
You'll need to get quite a few quotes to know what works best (and cheap) for you

How do we get from the villa to the parks?

There is a fairly good chance that you'll need to rent a car.
The chances of finding a villa within reasonable walking distance to a lynx bus stop on a line to DTD are fairly remote.

How soon can we book to get the best deal?

Flights are released 11 months out. If you're going for a package (flight+accomodation) that's how soon you can book.
Now there is no real way to predict when a good deal will pop up.

My advice would be to start saving, and then follow the forum closely, some people here will always post the deals they find.

What is a realistic budget?

rough estimates (base 4 people, I'm guessing 2 adults 2 kids under 9)
flights : £600 per person
villa : £500 per week
car rental : £300
Disney tickets : £900 for the party
parking at disney : $15 per day

you need to add food, restaurants, gaz, souvenirs. £100 per day (very rough estimate)

you'll need to pay for ESTAs ($14 per person)
Don't forget to apply for passports if you don't already have, but it might be a bit early

 

[LisaR1809]

Thanks for the replies. Hubbie says he is happy to drive. When you say all the parks what does that mean? Yes we would want to do Sea World, Universal and Disney.

Yes we are a family of 2 adults and 2 children.

So what are the benefits of a hotel instead? Does this mean we wouldn't need a car to get to all the above. We would also like to go to Kennedy Space Centre.

So where do I start looking. I'm even finding this forum huge and don't know what to read first!

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Hi and welcome

We enjoy staying off site (in a Townhome or villa) - there are many communities within a short drive of WDW. We like the ones in the Formosa Garden area, just off the 192, such as Windsor Hills, Emerald Isle or Windsor Palms. There are many others!!

Bear in mind that Easter is one of the busiest times at WDW and you may find that crowds and wait times will be big You may have to factor this in to your plans if you are going for 2 weeks and want to do everything.

At WDW there are 4 parks (Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot and the Studios) as well as 2 water parks and Downtown Disney, Then there is SeaWorld, Aquatica and Discovery Cove as well as Universal (2 parks). Kennedy and Busch gardens as well. Your time will soon fly by

I would read the UK board and perhaps a couple of trip reports to get a feel of things and how other people plan their days.

Enjoy!!

 

[LisaR1809]

Wow that is a lot of parks to cram in. I'm not sure we would want to do so much. When is a better time of year without it being too hot as we aren't used to it. We are restricted to school holidays but may get away with 1 week out of this time.

 

[bazzanoid]

You'll definitely need a car to visit the space centre! most villa communities are about 45 minutes drive from the airport, and as your DH has never driven over there before, check out http://www.kissimmee-us192.com/british/driving.htm for a few helpful pointers!

You've had the best answers above, but just to elaborate slightly on a couple:

ESTAS - you have to register your details with the US government via https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/ a while before you travel. This costs $14 per person, and lasts for two years. This gives you permission to land at a US point of entry, but as with all customs & immigration in any country, it's down to the officer who stamps your passport whether to actually let you in or not. There is a whole thread on this forum for ESTAs, and a sticky at the top. Read the questions carefully on the ESTA site, and if you feel you need to answer YES to any of the questions, come chat to us on here before you do, as answering yes is an immediate need to apply for a full on tourist visa....

Looking at a villa, you'd want to consider pool heating, this is always extra, and averages $100 a week.

You will likely find your best deals by using a private owner for the villa and booking through someone like uscarhire.com for the car, then all you need to worry about is the tickets and flights. Tickets are cheapest bought over here, if you want to hit all the parks then you'll be needed a 14-day Ultimate ticket for Disney, and a 14-day FlexTicket Plus to cover you for Universal's parks, Seaworld, Busch, and Aquatica.

If you want to do Discovery Cove this is totally separate, and in terms of cost if you're doing it it works out best to take their plus package with 14 days access to seaworld and busch and then buy 10 day universal hopper passes instead of the flexticket.... but you wouldn't get aquatica access in that.

Parking is always charged at all of the parks, with Disney if you visit more than one park in a single day you just show your parking ticket from the first park at the booth and they wave you through. Parking is free at Downtown Disney, and you get 3 hours free parking at the Disney hotels if you are visiting them for a nosey or for a meal reservation.

Hope that helps, and keep asking questions!! It doesn't matter if it's been asked before, we don't care and you'll always get a host of answers. Any excuse to talk Disney!

 

[bazzanoid]

Wow that is a lot of parks to cram in. I'm not sure we would want to do so much. When is a better time of year without it being too hot as we aren't used to it. We are restricted to school holidays but may get away with 1 week out of this time.

October - week before half term and half term week. You'd be able to take advantage of Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, the weather is still nice and toasty without feeling like you're a permanent spitroast, and the parks are fairly quiet (although it gets busier towards the end of half term week)

 

[LisaR1809]

He has driven in America before but I doubt that will make a difference to the strop he will have when he takes a wrong turn! I have been a passenger and OMG the road system is mad.

 

[Disneynutinlondon]

In truth I don't think you will be able to do everything you want to do in 1 trip ....... why do you think we all keep going back Seriously if you're going for 2 weeks you really need to have a bit of "down time" everyday. This is why we've always stayed onsite at Disney. That way we can take advantage of EMH (extra magic hours) which allows Disney resort guests to get into the parks early. We normally hit the parks early and then head back to the resort after lunch. Then we spend some time by the pool before going back into the parks for dinner and the night time activities.

We also hire a car and that allows us to go shopping (v.v. important ) and KSC and Seaworld. We have found that you need 1 day each for them but we don't do aquatica.

Staying at a Disney resort property also means we've been able to take advantage of the free food offer which has certainly helped keep the costs down.

I hope that this has helped a bit but as PP have said don't be afraid to ask a million questions. Going to Disney/Orlando is one holiday where you can NEVER do enough planning

 

[bazzanoid]

He has driven in America before but I doubt that will make a difference to the strop he will have when he takes a wrong turn! I have been a passenger and OMG the road system is mad.

Once you get used to it, the road system is actually better thought out than this country in my opinion! How often do you get stuck behind a poodler in the fast lane on the motorway and can't do anything about it... loving being able to undertake on the US freeways, just have to be more observant with the mirrors!

 

[LisaR1809]

Thank you for all the great replies. Really given us some things to think about.

I am already considering going in October and completely get the reason to stay on site to get that down time.

 

[~Piglet~]

Wow that is a lot of parks to cram in

You're right! Depending on the age range in your family I would consider scaling down the parks you wish to visit. For example last trip our DD was 3 1/2 so we decided to focus more on the Disney Parks and didn't go to Universal / IoA. This trip we will be giving Seaworld a miss and looking forward to taking DD to Universal / IoA now that she is a bit older.

Trying to do it all in 14 days will leave you worn out - and it's a good reason to go back again in the future

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Wow that is a lot of parks to cram in. I'm not sure we would want to do so much. When is a better time of year without it being too hot as we aren't used to it. We are restricted to school holidays but may get away with 1 week out of this time.

I agree that October is a nice time to iand you can tag a week onto the school holiday. We tag on to the Christmas holidays but again, Christmas is really busy too and not always that warm

 

[brer rabbit 28]

We were there last October and loved it. The parks were quieter than I imagine they would be at Easter and all the Halloween theming was great fun.

We stayed in a villa in Kissimmee so we could have our own pool and because were were there for 3 weeks, however we did do a lot more driving than we would if we'd stayed in Disney or Lake Buena Vista.

The trick is to read lots! If you are interested in a book you can dip into the I recommend Brits Guide. This helped me plan before I discovered this wonderful site!

 

[LauraDaveCharlie]

In your situation I would definitely stay onsite at WDW. It is impossible to understand the scale of all the attractions in Orlando. Not sure how old your children are but, to be honest (unless they are teenagers) I would just do the two weeks in Disney. You have more than enough to keep you busy and get lots of relaxation in there too so you don't feel like you need a holiday when you get back! You could book and get the free dining (someone said it was extended to booking up until 10th July??) which is worth a lot of money and again makes life simple. Love the Port Orleans French Quarter and would highly recommend it as a beautiful resort in Disney with a classy Disney feel!
If you do that you can get free Magical Express Transport to and from the international airport to your WDW hotel - again easy! Booking at Disney now gives you your hotel, food, tickets and transport to and from the hotel sorted out to help simplify things. Only have your flight and small amount of spending money to sort out then!

If you really do want to visit elsewhere (Kennedy, Universal) then Disney have a car care centre onsite. You can book car hire by the day at the front desk (or ahead of time on National or Alamo websites). They will come and collect you from your hotel and then take you back when you drop the car off. We have done it a few times and it is so easy.

If I were you I would read the Unofficial Guide to WDW to give you more idea of the scale and scope of what you are heading for!

 

[LauraDaveCharlie]

Sorry - just realised you are thinking about 2014 not 2013. Everything apart from booking on website now applies though!