Flights and Flydrives from UK

[LisaStockman]

Hi everyone,
We are Paul and Lisa and have just returned from our holiday to Walt Disney World this year having stayed at POR.
We were very interested in the Vacation club and went on a Open House visit to Saratoga Springs. It was just fantastic. We love the location and the accomodations.
So we've signed up just over a week ago and have now returned home and have loads of questions.
I must say it is nice to see so many UK members.
My first question is about flights and flydrives.
Please could you give me advice on which companies you use and any tips for booking a good deal?
Are you all pleased with the club and what are the pros and cons of being a DVC member?
Thanks very much
Lisa

 

[Hilary]

Hi Lisa and welcome to the UK DVC board

I'm off to work now, so won't launch into an answer at the moment, just wanted to welcome you. Hopefully, someone else will be along soon with lots of answers.

 

[jjpenguin]

Hi Lisa,

Welcome Home

very happy DVC owners over here. Don't have many cons at the moment, except that there's a DVC owners cruise planned so that's yet another disney vacation. Thankfully we'll have used our 2006 points for that one so 2006 should be our first Disney-free year since buying in.

I'm off for a week's solo trip in 2 weeks and I never would have done it if we hadn't had DVC.


Con: don't try a 1 br. You will be totally hooked! our 1br at OKW was bigger than the appartment I was living in at the time and it had a family size jacuzzi!!!

Where's your home resort?

JJPenguin

 

[vernon]

Hi Lisa,
For flights I look at Expedia, BA's (direct service), ebookers/flight bookers and keep an eye in the papers for any specials. I also check out the TV travel shop.

The more you keep a check on the prices the better your grasp of when is a good deal for a particular time of year. Obviously it's a bit of a balancing act between getting the best price and the comfort that knowing you've booked your flights brings.

I can't think of any cons from being a member, the high points cost of weekends means you feel obliged occassionally/often/always to avoid them whenever possible which can be a little frustrating at times, but the system would not work, IMHO, if that costing was much closer to weekday costs.

 

[KayleeUK]

Welcome Lisa

You will just DVC..I do For flights we tend to look at Expedia and Airline Network for the best deal.

 

[trpscooby]

Hi Lisa
Welcome Home!
We usually fly with Virgin because we're Flying Club members. We don't normally go for a fly drive because we usually stay on-site. Although we've been to WDW several times (and DL lots since I was a kid!) we'll be going 'home' in a couple of months for the first time! We haven't had any experience of any cons yet. We are just sooooo excited to be going 'home' soon!
Rox

 

[Mickey_UK]

Hi Lisa
We have been going home to OKW for 10 years now and always book flights or flydrive...like vernon said just keep shopping around for prices...we try the online companies like expedia and airline network but somtimes you can get a price from them and then go to your local travel agent, they will somtimes beat their price as the local co-op travel store did for us last year

 

[LisaStockman]

Thanks Mickey

It's nice to hear that so many DVC members are from the UK.
You obviously love OKW.
We popped in there a couple of times when we were there this month and thought it was beautiful. So peaceful. I think I read somewhere that the rooms are larger than the other vacation club resorts....is that right? Do you stay in a particular building or is there a particular building that you would recommend.
Have you any tips on requesting a building when you book?
Thanks again for the advice

 

[Hilary]

Lisa, when you make a DVC reservation you can (and should) make any requests about your room then.

The general opinion is that you should list requests in order of importance to you. So, if a non-smoking room is your priority, then mention that first. Then you could add a location request (such as 'near Hospitality House' for OKW, for example), or even a specific building. However, it has been said that the more requests you list, the more likely you are to be disappointed!

Another request tip is to only include positive requests (i.e. 'near Hospitality House', rather than 'not near the elevator') as the room assigners sometimes focus on the other words and miss the 'not' part!

 

[Mickey_UK]

Hi Lisa
Yes the rooms at OKW are the largest in all of DVC...We like the area around old turtle pond building 35 is one of our favourites but as Hilary say's somtimes you can request to much and then be disappointed....if we are staying for any length of time like 10 days or more we try to get to OKW as early as possible on the day even though the rooms may not be ready until 4pm as this seems to have the result of getting more of our requests.....I know it has been a big debate in the past.. if it is first come first served or is it based on when you book...(but lets not go there) I have never had a bad room and that is why we continue to enjoy it soooooo much
And only 15 more days to go yiiiippppeeee

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

It depends on what your requirements are.
we use Virgin for flights only and book on the Virgin Atlantic web site (i.e. £1400 each for UC in January) (Fly drive's are more expensive than DIY, the price of the car is not normally inclusive of taxes, and is not per car but per person's flight ticket) as with a small child, the shorter the flight the better, plus as we fly UC, the cabin is better than the BA. TCD do not allow children in Sunshine First so as a matter of principal we would never use them. Have a look at fly Blu who are starting from Birmingham to Sandford next year. http://www.flyblu.co.uk/
We have used American and Continental before, both OK, but longer flights.

For the car, we like Holiday autos http://www.holidayautos.co.uk/GBR/index.html
but again, it all depends on what you want. All car hire firms have different prices for different sizes of cars. For us, we go for a premium car, they come out great, but it is worth checking a few hire firms depending upon your car size needs.

 

[spm23]

Somebody posted on another site about Aer Lingus being cheap from Dublin and getting a cheap flight out from England with a low cost airline.

Prefer to go direct myself and avoid the hassle, its worth that bit extra.

 

[PhilUK]

http://www.bon-voyage.co.uk/

We like Bon Voyage. They have an excellent flight search facility and can usually do a good deal on Car Hire via Alamo.
Another tip - Flights into Tampa are sometimes a few pounds cheaper. We find we get through customs quicker and the traffic coming the other way up I-4 is less busy so we actually get "home"quicker. If it's of any interest Alamo let you pick your own car from their lot at Tampa.

Phil, Julia & Kyle

 

[gilld]

We almost always fly Virgin because of the direct flights. I'm sure we could get there cheaper but for us the comfort of the flight is more imortant than the few pounds saved. When you think of the cost of the whole holiday, a bit extra isn't so much.