Got flights booked for next year

[rpbert1]

Booked my flights today with British Airways.
Flying from Dublin to Gatwick then Orlando [and back unfortunatley
got them for 613 euros each works out less than £400 apparently, which i am more than happy with.
Fly out Mon 30th June 08 return 21st July 08]

 

[bubba's mom]

Booked my flights today with British Airways.
Flying from Dublin to Gatwick then Orlando [and back unfortunatley
got them for 613 euros each works out less than £400 apparently, which i am more than happy with.
Fly out Mon 30th June 08 return 21st July 08]

How exciting!!! Congratulations! Will probably hook up w/ you in Universal, as we will be there in early July for sure!



Tell your DW I will bring her all the Essie she wants! (no shipping charge!)

 

[rpbert1]

Thats a Date Barb.
Just need to arrange car hire , and hotel.

 

[wicket2005]

We will be there too from 9th July for 14 nights. We are staying at HRH this time, are you intending to go back to RPR? I loved that hotel. One of our countdowns must be wrong, they are the same barring a day. I will give mine a check when I have a moment.

 

[kellymonaghan]

Spend lots of money while you're here. We really need the foreign exchange.

 

[rpbert1]

We will be there too from 9th July for 14 nights. We are staying at HRH this time, are you intending to go back to RPR? I loved that hotel. One of our countdowns must be wrong, they are the same barring a day. I will give mine a check when I have a moment.

no wicket2005, mine is wrong, i was planning on going on the 8th ,and had my countdown set, so will need to change it

 

[wicket2005]

no wicket2005, mine is wrong, i was planning on going on the 8th ,and had my countdown set, so will need to change it

Thanks saved me a job.

Last 3 years booked up with TA but thinking of doing it myself next year for 2009. I can see you have had a lot of experience doing this, so I hope you don't mind me asking a few questions.

How early can you book rooms onsite at Universal for 2009?

Is it cheaper to book direct with the hotel?

Who do you use for car hire and car insurance?

How early can you book flights?

We enjoyed our Virgin flight this year and would like to go with them but realise they are not the cheapest.

I appreciate any guidance you can give.

Ordered APs today. Well chuffed. Just feel like going over to collect them now (pouring down and grey over here).

 

[rpbert1]

Hi Bev, this is the first time i have booked everything myself.
2 years ago i booked a package with Virgin, this year i booked flights and car hire with Virgin , mainly because i got £10 flights to Gatwick, which would normally cost us £350.
If you have airmiles with Virgin give them a call, flights are available upto about 21st July 08. I would have booked with Virgin but they could not get me connections.
Most flights come out about 330 days before return date, but was just looking about i.e Travelsupermarket etc, and BA kept coming up, so went into their site , and like i said i gave them a call.I said if i saw flights for around £400 i would book them, so cannot complain as i paid £2200 this year with Virgin Flights and carhire[compact car] so reckon i will save myself about £800 next year ,which is quite a saving.

Last year ,i booked my room on the 26th August, usually Damo ,Bubbas Mom or other regulars on here post when the rooms are opened up.
If you have a Loews First card, and you book with a TA or one of the hotel search engines will not count towards your Loews First although my first booking with Virgin they counted, think it may depend who you checkin with.
Loews advertise on their site somewhere if you find a room at their resorts cheaper they will match it,and all the searches i done ,never found them cheaper. so book with Loews or Universal direct. Ths year i got the AAA rate for our 3 week stay, and hopefully will get around the same rates for next year.
Have been looking on some sites for reports on rental companies, there apparently codes available but probably to early for next summer, so will keep watching. I checked National ,and their prices seemed OK.
Did you get the 2 year pass for the price of 1 year, i got these this year, so hopefully will get at least 3 trips out of them.

 

[rpbert1]

for some reason the countdown on my sig is not working.

 

[wicket2005]

Thank you so much for that reply, given me some things to think about. I usually like to get things booked up as soon as they come available anywhere, once I know where and when I am going. Last two year's booked with Thomas Cook Signature because you got 7.5% discount with my hubbie's company and they have been able to book packages up from Feb/March time.

Just with reading all the special rates you can get, may make more sense to book everything up myself and see if I can get it cheaper than the Virgin price. Still would like to fly with Virgin though. We had a 4 1/2 hour delay coming back on Wednesday but because we used Downtown Disney check in, we knew about it a 9 am and then had the rest of the day back at Universal which was fantastic.

Yes bought the 2 year deal, cannot lose at that price. Just want to be back at the Royal Pacific using them now.

 

[rpbert1]

Most definetly , book it all your self.

Was Just checking on Universal site for rooms, and they have just become available for next year.
Booked from 30th June to 21st July standard room $244 +tax up to $259 at weekends [fri -sat]Free upgrade as i have a Loews Platinum to King Suite. Triple A rates probably come out over the next few months , and just call and get the rate Applied to my booking. last year i think the rate changed about 3 times.

 

[bubba's mom]

Okay, since this has turned into an "overseas" thread, let me give you guys some advice. Book your rental car as far in advance as you can. Reason being, it's cheaper. The closer you come to your trip, the demand for rental cars go up and not many left...therefore, they raise the rental cost. I have always found good rates at w.rentalcarmomma dot com. It's never too early to book your rental car. AND, i had our rental this year booked thru them for quite a few months. Closer to our trip (appx. 3 weeks) I got an email from Southwest airlines (I'm on the email list for specials) and I got an email and one of the promos was rental car (thru Budget). To make a long story short, I copied and pasted the code from the SW site into rentalcarmomma's site and saved about $35...when the good price I HAD would have been about that much MORE had I just been booking it (instead of booking it way early like I did). Usually you don't need to "hold" your ressie w/ a credit card either...... You can check the Transportation section of the DIS for codes and such too

 

[wicket2005]

If you have a Loews First card, and you book with a TA or one of the hotel search engines will not count towards your Loews First although my first booking with Virgin they counted, think it may depend who you checkin with.
.

I have got the card. When did you know whether your stay had counted or not? We booked with a TA so didn't expect it to count but I did show it to the checking in lady because I wasn't sure. We did get two welcome gifts which I thought was good and newspapers. Also loved the little free gifts the maid left in the second week, the youngest liked looking for them when we returned from the parks.

 

[rpbert1]

Bev, i returned 4th Aug ,and got my new card last Saturday i think.

Thanks for that site Barb going to have a look at it, and will watch for codes.

 

[wicket2005]

Thanks for that. I was hoping my visit would count but 99% sure it won't. So I can presume if I don't get a new card in the next few weeks it hasn't. Not to worry was chuffed with free wine and nuts, got the kids (18 and 16) milk and cookies .

 

[bubba's mom]

I believe our new Loews card came about 3-4 weeks after we checked out (checked out July 1st)

 

[wicket2005]

Thanks Bubbasmom, just will have to wait and see. It is a shame the website doesn't give more info about points made.

 

[bubba's mom]

Thanks Bubbasmom, just will have to wait and see. It is a shame the website doesn't give more info about points made.

Yep....that would be nice....have to keep track of "stays" ourselves....

 

[rpbert1]

w.rentalcarmomma dot com.

Checked it out Barb, but we need to get LDW and SLI and this puts prices up quite a bit.
I eventually got, a car booked on USrentacar.co.uk, all ins and taxes included and through Dollar, and worked we quite a bit cheaper than going through Dollar.