Flying from YVR to MCO

[Momrow]

Do the costs for these flights ever go down? For the dates I am looking at in late August 2011, the cost for my family of 4 is $3572 on air canada. On expedia, and westjet, I can only look ahead to August 16, so I should be able to look at my dates in a few weeks. But when I look at late July - early August, it's still at least $700/person.

I really don't want to fly out of SEA or BLI (adding extra days to the trip, our car is in its last days so we'd either have to rent a car or take the shuttle, landing in the evening only to have to check into a hotel or drive home) but if I can't get airfare for $3000 or less we may have to consider. We've gone to Disneyland the past 2 summers, so I'd really like to show my kids WDW.

Thanks for your help!

 

[coastgirl]

Sorry, I don't have anything encouraging to offer...we used to live in Victoria and chose Seattle, as did my sister (Victoria) a couple of years ago when they went to Disney. We are in NS now, and drive 10 hours to NH (yep, even in winter) to avoid paying Cdn prices. I hope someone has better news for you.

 

[visitingapril09]

Seriously consider flying from Seattle. I booked 6 flights, nice times, direct flights for spring break on Alaska airlines $1800 CAn. for 6 flights. The hotel we are spending the night at the night before is $210 for 6 of us for the night and they will keep our van for 2 weeks. You simply can't compare, cost wise, to the ridiculous price of flying from Vancouver. ....even with our lovely Premiers announcement of dropping a flight tax today!

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

Have you ever thought about looking at US carriers rather than AC or WJ? We fly out of YEG twice a year and have found that the US carriers often have cheaper flights than AC or WJ. Flying out of YVR, you should have several options for US carriers ...

 

[fraservalleymom]

I just booked our flights out of Seattle because there was no justification for doubling the price flying out of YVR! The sickening part of flying out of YVR is that most of them make a stop of 2-3 hours in Seattle!We are going to fly out at night so we can sleep on the plane and relax during the day we arrive then go to bed at decent hour before heading to the park the next morning. I was really happy, we paid 276 return on AA. Even though many hotels around the airport do free parking with a stay, the park and fly is only $11/night and saves another night away.

Good luck!

 

[Sue M]

Sorry, I fly out of Seattle too. I can usually get fares between $250 - $ 325 RT incl. tax per person. I've flown AA, United, Delta, Continental, & SW.
We try to get the 6AM flights out, so we arrive late afternoon in Florida.
Even with staying overnight before and after- we still come out ahead. We too found a Marriott in Kent that allows us to leave our car free, and they have airport shuttle bus. We can stay for around $80/ night using Ent. Book coupon or CAA.
Maybe you can try Bellingham? I haven't looked at that yet but may be an option.

 

[squirrel]

I fly out of SEA now. Much cheaper. I got a direct flight for my niece and I for $505 CAN return. I prefer the red-eye flights and that gets us into Orlando in the morning. We hang out at the resort/DTD and relax that first day and get to bed early. Makes it easier for us to get use to the time change. We did the early morning flight in 2008 and I figure we got about the same amount of sleep on the plane as we did at the park n' fly, but we arrived much earlier in Orlando and could swim at the resort and do something before going to bed.

 

[c&m]

Another family here who flies out of Seattle. There's no way we'd pay the $3000+ to fly to MCO. Also, as another poster has mentioned already, the flight sometimes stops over in Seattle!

We've paid as little as $650 round trip for the 4 of us (using Alaska Air points for 50% off) and as much as $1400. Compared to flying out of YVR at $3000, you can see the savings are huge.

You mentioned that your car is not in the best shape to drive out to Seattle. Why don't you just rent a car, park it at Master Park in Seattle, and then have it to drive home when you return from your flight?

We're hoping to go again too in late August 2011. We did it last year in late August and found crowd levels low with some of the U.S. kids back in school already. Hope you get to give your kids the trip to WDW! It is amazing fun!!!

 

[Momrow]

Thank you everyone! If the flights from Seattle are $1500 or less for all of us vs. $3000 out of YVR, it really is tempting. Even if we rented a car for 2 weeks (planning a 15 day trip to make it worth it given the air is so expensive!) to drive it to Seattle and park it there (meanwhile renting another car in orlando, this is so funny to me!) we would likely still come out ahead. I am hoping that something can work out of BLI, as we live in Van and SEA is very far.

I priced out tix to Hawaii for the same dates and they are cheaper than Orlando! And also tempted to go back to DL on the $99 each way to LAX.

I will definitely look at other carriers, just waiting for the fly.com and expedia searches to be able to look for my actual dates, not just random dates in July-August.

I really don't want to shell out $850 for my 5 year old only to have her ask me "are we there yet??" 5000 times

 

[aristocat65]

We also usually fly out of SEA to MCO - SO much cheaper. We really like Alaska Airlines as they have a non stop to MCO from SEA. I will say that in 2009 I DID see fares as low as $425 out of YVR to MCO (on Alaska with a change in SEA of course). This was in about mid April when I was looking for late Aug flights.

Best advice is just keep checking the fares. They tend to change (up or down) on Tues eves/Wed mornings. At least time is on your side.

 

[visitingapril09]

One of the trouble with YVR is the ridiculous amount of taxes and fees. Even when I get an alert of $400 or so per person, it ends up at $750 plus with all the taxes and fees. We priced our flight from Seattle and from Vancouver. The only add on really is the one hour flight from YVR to Sea. The flight more than doubles in price just to add that one hour flight. Another thought for you in terms of not driving your car down. There are airport buses that run from the Vancouver area down to the airport area in Seattle. One leaves from near the Truck Crossing here. Also, look into amtrak. Lovely train ride right down the coast from Bellingham to Seattle is about $40 I think. Parking is $5 a day in the long term lot at the Bellingham train station. Bellingham airport has no reasonable flights to Orlando as most stop in Seattle anyhow.

Just a note about Seattle being far......it really isn't that bad. I am in the White Rock area and it is 2 hours to SEATAC from my home if the border isn't silly busy and I am not trying to pass through Seattle in rush hour.

 

[wee-haggis]

Thank you everyone! If the flights from Seattle are $1500 or less for all of us vs. $3000 out of YVR, it really is tempting. Even if we rented a car for 2 weeks (planning a 15 day trip to make it worth it given the air is so expensive!) to drive it to Seattle and park it there (meanwhile renting another car in orlando, this is so funny to me!) we would likely still come out ahead. I am hoping that something can work out of BLI, as we live in Van and SEA is very far.

I priced out tix to Hawaii for the same dates and they are cheaper than Orlando! And also tempted to go back to DL on the $99 each way to LAX.

I will definitely look at other carriers, just waiting for the fly.com and expedia searches to be able to look for my actual dates, not just random dates in July-August.

I really don't want to shell out $850 for my 5 year old only to have her ask me "are we there yet??" 5000 times

If your car is not dependable enough to get you to Seattle,have you considered the Quick Shuttle bus.
I haven't personellused them but it might be worth considering.
They go every day ,several times a day from various Vancouver locations (including the airport) and take you to Seattle Airport.
Not sure about your time of the year, but at the moment its about $95 return per person and takes about 4 hours.
maybe someone elso has used this service that can comment ?

 

[Sue M]

If your car is not dependable enough to get you to Seattle,have you considered the Quick Shuttle bus.
I haven't personellused them but it might be worth considering.
They go every day ,several times a day from various Vancouver locations (including the airport) and take you to Seattle Airport.
Not sure about your time of the year, but at the moment its about $95 return per person and takes about 4 hours.
maybe someone elso has used this service that can comment ?

My daughter used the Shuttle, she couldn't leave as early as we did due to work, so I booked her a flight a couple of week later, to join us and booked her on the shuttle. The student rate was maybe $30 one way, from YVR to Seatac.
It worked quite well. They also stop at various downtown locations before YVR pick up, and as mentioned stops close to the boarder too.

 

[ado121]

Seriously consider flying from Seattle. I booked 6 flights, nice times, direct flights for spring break on Alaska airlines $1800 CAn. for 6 flights. The hotel we are spending the night at the night before is $210 for 6 of us for the night and they will keep our van for 2 weeks. You simply can't compare, cost wise, to the ridiculous price of flying from Vancouver. ....even with our lovely Premiers announcement of dropping a flight tax today!

what hotel did you stay at that fit 6 people? im having a hard time finding one that can accomodate us.

 

[squirrel]

what hotel did you stay at that fit 6 people? im having a hard time finding one that can accomodate us.

We stayed at the Skyway Inn in 2008. It was not very good. I would not recommend it. I booked it as it was supose to be cheaper than 2 rooms (about $20). We travelled together and only had one vehicle. Someone messed up and booked us the large room that sleeps 6 but didn't include the free 2 weeks of parking. The room was not as it was discribed either. There were 3 beds but no sofa bed. Also was missing a microwave. I thought it would be worth the $20 savings as the neighbours kids could each have their own bed-one on the sofa.