Flydrive - prebook hotels or not

[henrydog]

We've got a flydrive booked with TCD for 28/08/04 - 11/09/04 family of 4.
We're flying into Sanford & intend spending some time on Miami beach, along the Keys, upto Naples, St Petes then back to Orlando.
Would you recommend pre-booking hotels or just driving around til we find somewhere, will it be easy enough to find fairly cheap accomodation at that time of year ?
What sort of prices should we expect to pay for a family room ?

Many thanks

 

[kazzie]

HenryDog,

I'm not sure of the prices but I would definitley pre-bok your hotels

Although it is the end of August i'm sure it will still be busy over there.I wouldn't chance waiting until we got there.A friend of mine did this one October nad couldn't find a decent room in any of the hotels she tried!There were 6 of them though!

 

[ALBA]

Hi,

I'm sure that I read somewhere that with the increase in security measures that you needed to have at least the first night of your stay arranged.

Apparently it's always been something that is suggested on the visa waiver form, but something that they have never enforced.

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

Alba

 

[kazzie]

Good Point! You do have to write down where you are staying.

Leading on from that, when I booked my Virgin flights for next February,the travel agent asked me where I was staying in Orlando!

A new system is starting where the airlines (I guess it's the airlines) will want to know in advance so the information is collected before people travel.Not sure how this will work,perhaps the US Government will look at lists of people who are travelling in advance of turning up at the airport to assess likely terrorists?

 

[jubileegirl]

henrydog, we are in the middle of booking a DIY Flydrive to Florida for the beginning of August. We thought long and hard about whether to book beforehand or whether to be 'free spirits' (it's us two and our youngest daughter who's 15)
In the end we decided to do a bit of both. We booked a hotel for the night we arrive (Miami) but then have a free night so we can choose to drive up to Orlando via the Everglades and west coast, or up the east coast via Palm Beach. If we find somewhere we really like the look of then we'll stay there. There are so many motels along the main roads, plus you can often pick up magazines with discount vouchers at restaurants, gas stations etc. Plus the internet is a good resource to find places.
We booked our Orlando accommodation, 4 nights very near the entrance to WDW, then 2 nights in a Universal hotel so we can use the 'front of the line' perk.
We've then got another free night before we arrive in Key West where we've booked 4 nights in a Bed and Breakfast in the Old Town (that was found after hours of looking on the Internet!)
Then it's another couple of free nights before we fly home.
This way we know we've got some decent places to stay plus a bit of freedom to be a bit adventurous!
I guess it depends on how old your children are and how they would cope with possibly spending some of your holiday time trying to find a bed!
Incidentally, all our accommodation has been secured with a credit card but we can cancel up to 24 hours before our expected arrival with no penalty, so although we've made these bookings we can always cancel if we find another option en route (although I don't expect we will)
As for prices, how long is a piece of string?!? It depends what kind of place you want! As a guide, our hotel near WDW is $35 a night (it was a 'special'), the Universal hotel is $164 (and that was discounted!), the B&B in Key West is $99 and our Miami airport hotel is $55. They were all good rates for that particular place.
(It also helps that I'm 'obsessive compulsive' about planning holidays and have spent HOURS on the internet.)
Re. having an address for immigration, I read in the Rough Guide that this is a first night address. I hadn't heard that it was for the whole trip (but may be wrong!)

Whatever you do, enjoy yourselves!!

 

[signtalker]

Personally I wouldnt risk it, but then thats me

Theres cheap, and cheap!!, and belive me, you dont want to go there, I think you can expect to pay for a double room, $50+ to get anything halfway clean, and desirable!!!.

Peronally start loooking on the net, and book now, you only pay your first night as deposit.

 

[henrydog]

Thankyou all for the replies, I think we will probably book the first night in Orlando & maybe a few other nights then just tour around & see what we find.

Does anyone know for sure, is it sufficient just to put your first nights address on the visa waiver form, surely they don't expect you to list your location for each night of a flydrive holiday do they ?

Jubileegirl could you please let me know the B & B you have booked in Key West, as we will be looking for somewhere reasonably priced to stay here, by the way our kids are 13 & 17 so hopefully won't be moaning too much when we are driving around (and probably getting lost ) looking for accomodation.

 

[yourwelcome]

Hello Henrydog,

I would look at booking accomodation for when you are in and around Orlando. However as you get to the gulf of mexico rooms should be easy to find. August is classed as off season here as november - april is their peak.

As for Key west be careful about going "cheap".

the cheaper rooms tend to be further away from the main areas such as Duval street. When we went we stayed in the follwing link and it was out of this world. (not that I remember much, sloppy joes,margaritaville etc) currymansion.com/curry/index.html

This is one town everyone should experience, even if it is just for the drive there. Wonderful!

regards

Brian

 

[yourwelcome]

sorry that link failed to appear. try again

http://currymansion.com/curry/index.html

looks better

brian

 

[henrydog]

Thanks for that Brian, havn't had a chance to look yet because i'm supposed to be working
I know this isn't strictly Disney related but if anyone has any other hotel recommendations for Miami Beach or Key West I would appreciate it.

 

[jubileegirl]

Hi henrydog!

Our B&B in Key West is called the Angelina. It's slightly away from Duval Street but only a block or two. It used to be a bordello apparently!! If you look it up on Trip Advisor you can read some (mainly excellent) reviews. We wanted to be near the action, but as we have our 15 year old with us we didn't have to be too near to all the nightlife. Also the Angelina isn't quite as up-market as some of the other B&B's looked (although they did look beautiful!) and again we wanted somewhere a bit more 'homely' for our daughter. The owners of the Angelina e-mailed us to confirm our booking and told Chloe that they had reserved a hammock by the pool for her, and the cats were looking forward to her company!! I think it's on the outskirts of 'Bahama Village' which seems to be more like the old original Key West, yet only a stone's throw from the touristy area, cruise ship passengers etc.
Oh, and it was significantly cheaper than all the other B&B's we investigated.
Here's a link (if I can get it to work!)
http://www.angelinaguesthouse.com/

Hope this helps!

 

[jubileegirl]

..and here's a link to the reviews on trip advisor!

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUser...uest_House-Key_West_Florida_Keys_Florida.html

How's that for service???

 

[jubileegirl]

Oops, link didn't work, but you can easily find the reviews under 'the Angelina, Key West'.

 

[henrydog]

Thanks for that Jubileegirl, decided we're gonna book this one for 3 nights. It does look like its in an ideal location, all the reasonable hotels we've found have been about 3 or 4 miles from the tourist stuff & we don't like it too quiet.

All we need to sort out now is a reasonable hotel on Miami beach for a couple of nights, somewhere around Naples area for easy access to the Gulf coast & possibly an airboat ride and somewhere in the St Petes area, if anyone has any suggestions. Then we're back to Orlando for 3 nights and a visit to universal, possibly in a universal hotel, even though we said we would not do any parks as we did them all last time

 

[vernon]

I've used http://www.hotwire.com a lot when in these situations. I've got some great deals in Orlando, Miami and the Keys using them. The only potential problem you may have in Miami (south beach) is some of the hotels (usually the "boutique" ones) only have one bed in them. On the codes you'll see a large letter B to denote boutique hotels If you keep to the larger "chains" you shouldn't have a problem. I've found the best deals on here are if you leave it to a week or so out from arrival, but it's worth checking up on a regular basis and if you see a rate that you think acceptable it's worth booking and saving the worry of having to check again.

I just checked the dates 8-11 of Sept for South Beach Miami for example and they had a 4 * hotel for $73 a night , that would appear to be a great deal IMHO

 

[Tiggernut_jadie]

WE've done the 'book when you arrive' bit several times now - both in Florida and in California/Nevada - and had no really bad experiences. We often used the 'Exit Guides' that you pick up from McDonalds etc and the prices were really cheap - but the rooms we chose weren't (if you get my drift!). WE always book the first nights hotel - usually as near to the airport as possible - as you don't want to be searching around when you first arrive. We also book in places such as Orlando and Key West but other than that, we use the exit guides and get the best deals we could - we've had some really lovely hotels - right on the beach at Treasure Island (St Petes), close to the Pier at Naples etc and paid well under the 'rack' price!

It really depends how tied to certain places at certain times you want to be - if you want more freedom then I say go for it!!!!

 

[jubileegirl]

We'll be at the Angelina at the beginning of August - if it's a dive we'll let you know!! Otherwise we'll put your name on a hammock! We can't wait! I've been to Orlando, Fort Myers, Clearwater but have always wanted to visit Key West, so this is a dream come true!

 

[jubileegirl]

henrydog, just had a thought - do you know how to get a discounted rate at the Universal hotels? Don't pay full price, whatever you do! Let me know if you want some tips !

 

[henrydog]

jubileegirl we're new to diy holidays, its been all in packages up to now, so the more tips the better please, on universal hotel rates & anything else.
Yeah, we can't wait either now, the Angelina does look nice, is it easy enough booking it online?
Only stayed in Orlando previous years & done all the usual Disney/Universal stuff, but this time we said we'll see some of the real Florida with no parks.
Well nearly no parks, after finding we could get a 7 day Universal pass for £55 each i've been pursuaded to go again for the last 3 days.

 

[jubileegirl]

yes, we booked the Angelina by e-mailing them direct. We asked about availability and when they replied we made a booking with our details (name, address, credit card details etc) They won't charge anything before we get there and we have up until 24 hours before our arrival when we can cancel without any penalty (I think) If we don't turn up and haven't cancelled they will charge our card - fair enough!

Re Universal, we booked 2 nights at the Royal Pacific through the Loews hotels website using the code FAN. That gave us a discounted price of $164 a night as opposed to $200 plus. You will need a Fanclub card at check-in. Here's the link from these boards explaining how we got one!
http://130.94.75.33/showthread.php?s=&threadid=265772&perpage=15&pagenumber=1