Florida On a Budget :0( Please Help

[angel659]

Hi

I am desperately trying to get my dh to book a holiday to Florida October 2006 after coming back this year I am really suffering with the post blues and keep thinking and dreaming being back in the land of mouse.

My husband isnt really having any of it unless I come up with a 2 week holiday in his opinion cheap - how you can do this I dont know. I am desperately trying to come up with prices that would make this holiday cheaper than the last, but so far no luck.

I have searched and searched for cheap fly drives and Virgin funnily enough is the cheapest. These are the prices I have worked out so far.

Leaving on the 9th October for 14 nights. For 2 adults and 3 children 6,2,2

Fly Drive £2218.00
Villa 598.00 - minus the £200 I would of paid for deposit
Car Hire 368.00
14 Day WDW 169.00 Adult
" " " 169.00 Adult
" " " 149.00 Child
Food 502.00 Lunch & Dinner
Spending Mon 840.00 Spending Money
5 Park Flex 93.00 Adult
" " " 93.00 Adult
" " " 75.00
MNSCHP 67.57 Based on this years price and exch 1.7
Garden Grill 42.91
Liberty Tree 48.97
" " " 48.97
Rain Forest Cafe 48.97

Total £5531.39

My husband thinks this is way to much, although he wants to visit WDW and universal and Seaworld. I dont know I am so desperate to go its unbelievable and trying to persuade him at the moment is a nightmare.

If you have any ideas where we could cut back without having a tight and unenjoyable holiday, please advise me. Also my husband wont give up Universal or Islands of Adventure. Seaworld is a maybe. We were dissapointed with Seaworld this year.

Any suggestions will be great.

Thanks

 

[Soprano]

Okay, I'll take a stab at this, but I am more butcher than surgeon!

Drop the villa. Stay in a hotel on I-Drive. Most of my holiday is spent away from the hotel. I just use the place to sleep!

Staying in the Holiday Inn, International Drive for 14 nights 9th October 2006 and car hire included:

Adult Price x 2 £1678.00
Child Price £329.00
Fuel Surcharge £150.00
Infant Price 2 £198.00
Online Booking Discount £-117.75

Total cost: £2237.25

Attraction tickets are about the same.

But if you are there for 14 nights, why do you have 14 days WDW pass AND a 5 day Flexi pass for Universal etc. Surely some days are wasted?? Why not a 7 or 10 day Disney pass? And a 4 day Orlando pass, since Sea World is not so high on the agenda, just drop it.

I don't know what these are:
MNSCHP 67.57 Based on this years price and exch 1.7
Garden Grill 42.91
Liberty Tree 48.97
" " " 48.97

Meals? When my boy was 2 he was very difficult to keep still while waiting for meals etc, so we tended to use buffets in the main as they were quick in and out without waiting for waiter, and you have 2! Very brave!

My ideas should save you £1k easy! But you have to convince yourself staying in a hotel is okay. I have never stayed in a villa as said I am out early and home late and use it for our base/sleeping.

There should be enough Orlando Veterans on here to advise you

 

[angel659]

Hi

They are good prices but we are will still need to pay for the children so it would be £2895.00 instead. We are paying around that for a villa. Also hubby thinks he would save on food if we cook our breakfasts etc...

I looked into the tickets, but I could only see a £10.00 saving so far I managed to save £101.00 on tickets if we did this

WDW £169.00 for 14 nights or its £159.00 for 7 nights ???
169.00
149.00
236.00 If we bought the 2 park universal online you would get a
free child and 4 consecutive days, also included busch
gardens and gatorland

We managed to save some money when i looked online I noticed the flex tickets have risen to £119.00 an adult and £99.00 for a child.

I see what your saying that some park days are wasted, but my husband said well for £10.00 more you get this, he wants to go to Typhoon Lagoon. I said well I dont think its possible to use them to thier advantage, but he just replied its £10.00 more!!!

Thanks I really appreciate it

 

[JohnnySharp2]

It is very difficult to advise , however, if you have to pay for ALL your Disney/Universal tickets it is very hard to do things cheap, especially if you have children.

To a degree staying in a villa can be economical if you are cooking your own meals, however grocery bills can be expensive and it must be cheaper staying in a budget hotel in the I-drive area.

If you are trying to drastically cut down your expense then some of the things you list will have to be missed, if you really MUST go then you will have to consider possibly not going to Universal...and these below would seem to be overheads you cannot accomodate perhaps?

MNSCHP 67.57 Based on this years price and exch 1.7
Garden Grill 42.91
Liberty Tree 48.97
" " " 48.97
Rain Forest Cafe 48.97

..there is nearly £250 worth here, you could use that to go towards your attraction tickets...if you do that and do not go to Universal you would save over £500.
Sorry but it is difficult to stay in a villa/buy all your tickets on a tight budget.....

I am sure this subject has been discussed many times here, so you could try and search for more opinions possibly?

 

[Soprano]

I thought the children would be 2 in October? So would qualify for the infant price of £99 each?

As for cooking, well, you may save some money, but there are plenty of buffet places to eat on I-Drive. Loved by some, hated by others with equal passion. But if you are on holiday, you (well, I) don't want to be food shopping/cooking. A big buffet breakfast would see you through to dinner, without the need for anything for lunch, and I'm a big eater! I found food shopping more expensive than expected.

One idea Johnny Sharp2 mentioned was to buy Disney non-expiry passes. Whichever days you don't use, they can be saved for your next trip! Ideal for us, as we think Disney is great, but there is more to do in Orlando than just WDW.

 

[Neoshoegal]

Try Expedia. We booked a 9 night stay in March. We're staying at the Palms Suites in Kissimmee. For this we're paying only £867 (includes breakfast), flying from Manchester with Virgin. The place where we're staying has full kitchen in every room and they have bigger rooms (small flats on 2 levels and I do think they have 2 bathrooms). Look up The Palms Suites Lakeside on Expedia or google.

HTH

 

[Neoshoegal]

had a quick look on Expedia for the time you want to go. The hotel we're staying at but with the 2 level suite would be £2545.26. this includes the flights from london & hotel for 2 weeks .

 

[angel659]

Hi

The boys were 2 this November, sorry to confuse you. They will be 3 in November.

My husband is being a pain all he wants to do is stay in a villa or apartment where he can let the kids loose as he hated the fact we were in a hotel room. I am not fussed to be honest as long as I can get it cheaper to persuade him.

Thanks for your help really appreciate it. I must admit I thought the groceries were cheaper than buying food, I can definately see your point. Hmmm will look more into this.

Thanks again

 

[Merylj]

Between late Aug and early Oct this year WDW had the free dining which was an incredible offer. Me and DD had 10 nights at POP for £550 which was for dining and accomodation for both of us. We have AP`s so we did`nt need tickets though the price included 1 day park tickets for both of us, we`ll keep these for another time. We spent very little money on top of that.
I don`t know if such a good offer will happen again but there do seem to be offers on the go with all WDW packages.
We like staying on site, and not having a car is a great saving.
Good luck, the need for a trip to WDW is hard to fight off.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

As for cooking, well, you may save some money, but there are plenty of buffet places to eat on I-Drive. Loved by some, hated by others with equal passion. But if you are on holiday, you (well, I) don't want to be food shopping/cooking. A big buffet breakfast would see you through to dinner, without the need for anything for lunch, and I'm a big eater! I found food shopping more expensive than expected.

One idea Johnny Sharp2 mentioned was to buy Disney non-expiry passes. Whichever days you don't use, they can be saved for your next trip! Ideal for us, as we think Disney is great, but there is more to do in Orlando than just WDW.

I do agree regarding the cooking/eating - we do not always cook but we like to have the option..we actually stay in a villa for many other reasons, mainly for Joshua's benefit..the buffet breakfasts could last you all day if you are hungry enough.
Buying groceries is not necessarily cheap either I agree.

Agree again about the Disney tickets and feel ours will last us a few holidays, especially as we do not spend an excessive amount of time at the WDW parks ( we have APs for Universal).

 

[angel659]

My husband has just suggested we spend a day going to look at time share properties as they offer universal tickets cheaper like $60 I think he said when we looked last time we went, not sure if I want to waste a day looking around. Hmmm I dont know I will have to look into that as well if it does save us it maybe worth it.

 

[Miffy2003]

Only my opinion Angel ... but I wouldn't want to waste any of my holiday being pressured by timeshare salespeople!

If you want to save money, why not give SeaWorld & Universal miss this time (or give Disney a miss)?

You could do MNSSHP anyway which is already in your budget which would give you a taste of Disney without having to stump up for a park ticket.

It is a lot of money, isn't it? I can see your hubby's point of view (though of course, I would say spend the money anyway LOL)

 

[loadsapixiedust]

I have also had the post holiday blues like you and agree the only way to get over that is to book another trip!

My take on things was a little different. We wanted to stay onsite, we want to enjoy all the Disney dining, MNSSHP etc without watching the pennies too much.

How can you do this? We will save as much as we can for the rest of the year so we can afford to enjoy the things we want while we are on holiday. We have DDE cards which give us 20% off all our food and beverage bills, so we can still afford onsite dining. Every meal out we do without at home is another one we can enjoy at WDW. Money we would have spent on gifts for each other is put towards MNSSHP tickets or park passes and we put aside enough cash every month to pay off the flights and accommodation when due. Every little saving on groceries or bills is a little more spending money and it really does mount up over the months.

We eat only 2 meals a day, a big buffet breakfast and a nice dinner or late lunch. We snack during the day when we are in the parks on fruit, chips and cookies brought with us from our supermarket shop and the occasional ice cream. We share meals. We also carry our own drinks to the parks or refill water bottles. It's amazing how much a few sodas add up.

I shopped around for a good price for flights and ended up getting a package at ASMo for less than I could have booked it myself direct. The savings are there if you look very hard. We always book car hire independently, this is usually a significant saving.

Good luck with your planning.

 

[heatherbelle]

Did you price your fly drive with Virgin directly? If you did, try one of the numbers on teletext. We managed to get flights and car for 1600 for 2 adults and 1 child. It was cheaper than booking direct. You also still qualify for your virgin points.

have you joined the flying club? Worth considering. You save points then trade them in for either reduced price flights or free flights. I phoned them yesterday, and the flight I had earlier this year, has been added to my points.

Hubby likes the thought of getting a free flight next time. Of course it does depend on the time of year when you travel.

Another way to save money, is of course to stay in a hotel. We stayed in LBV in May
We paid 400.00 for 2 weeks, with a free breakfast. It was cheap, clean and cheerful. As there are 5 of you, for a few $'sss more, you could have a suite.

Tickets, as you have been before, I would agree with the other posts and drop some of the park tickets. Spend a day in the resort hotels. Have a look around and have a light lunch there. Take a trip on the I trolley, my son loved this.

Ride the monorail for an afternoon. Take a boat over to the MK, you don't have to go in.

Watch the fireworks from the Grand Floridian. All for free.

For our next trip, we are going for 3 weeks, and I am going to get the 21 day disney ticket. It costs around £9.00 per day. But at least we can go when we want, and come away after a few hours. Last time we had 5 day hopper passes, and we felt we had to stay in the park forever to get our monies worth, plus we only had 5 days for the Disney parks.

Another top tip, is to put £1.00 in a jar every day. After a year you will have £365.00. Give the kids sandwiches instead of school lunch. Put the money in a jar saving £6.00 per child possibly 12.00 per week, if you have 2 at school.

Also, if you work, take sandwiches. Put your sandwich money in a jar.

I did this for 2 months, I saved over £200.00.

Happy saving, and I hope you get to go soon. Keep nagging, keep checking the prices, and make him think he's got a bargin, he'll soon give in. Mine did.

 

[jns]

I booked with My travel and got 1 free kid place plus free car ( which we will not be taken as it is cheaper to get one on the net ) go figurer
try your local travel agent
never add up everything or i would have a heart attact

 

[lynnmci]

try the prices online on Christams day with Virgin. i booked then last year and got 15% off. I changed my booking a few times and the 15% stayed. For example I changed my hotel and my airport for Manchester to gatwick. I even added regional flights and still got 15 % off. They also had it on Boxing Day and New years Day

 

[Halo]

Hi

236.00 If we bought the 2 park universal online you would get a
free child and 4 consecutive days, also included busch
gardens and gatorland

I would ditch Busch Gardens and instead get the 2-day 2 park (US & IOA) tickets from Universal. As you say, the present offer is 4 consecutive days + free child tickets. So you would get 4-days at US for $212 - say £130 for all 5 of you.

Your max time at Disney would then be 10 days.
You can buy 10 day tickets from Disney for $208 for adults, $167 for children.
Add $35 for park hop privileges.
Add $45 for Water Park Fun & More.
Deduct $11 for advance purchase.
So... your Disney Tickets would cost $600-$880 incl tax - say £345-475 for all 5 of you.

For car hire use www.usrentacar.co.uk who have a special offer with Budget for a 7-seater for £150.00 a week all inclusive, so car hire would be £300.

For a good quote for Virgin flights and villa try Funway, a Virgin consolidator. Phone them on 0870 444 0770.

Happy holidays

 

[traycie2201]

09 Oct MANCHESTER INTL - SANFORD INT'L
3 BEDROOM HOME WITH POOL (x 1)
Car INTERMEDIATE 4 DOOR 2 3 0
LDW/SLI/UMP/TAXES
FULLY INCLUSIVE INSURANCE
23 Oct 06 24 Oct 06 Flight (5ATBA) SANFORD INT'L - MANCHESTER INTL 2 3 0


with travel city direct your flights, villa , car hire with insurance comes to £2593.00 flying from manchester directly, best prices for disney tickets i've usually found is keith prowse. Hope you get to go soon.

 

[fizz13]

Just wanted to 2nd the opinion on usrentacar, they are good. The best prices I've found for theme park tickets was mercury travel . Prices at the moment are:

14 day ultimate disney: ADULT £158, CHILD £138

4 park flex ticket (Universal/ Seaworld): ADULT £97, CHILD £80

I think buffets are the way to go for food. Fill up on a huge buffet breakfast that should last you till dinner, just snack during the day.Good luck with all the planning and I hope you get there. I'm out there next october, so maybe I'll see you there,

Claire xx

 

[angel659]

Hi

Thanks for the advice. Well I am so excited. My husband has agreed to book a holiday after xmas to Florida in November.

The flights are cheaper and the villas are cheaper. We will also see the lights, which will be another experience.

I am so excited I just cant wait till after xmas and new year and book it all. Then it really feels like we are going. I can have my count down clock ticking LOL!

Thanks for the advice it has really helped and all the nagging I have done I managed to persuade him.

Michelle