How to book a budget trip- Any tips?

[Charlie'sTravels]

Hi guys and girls

We are a party of two, looking for a 2 week break at the cheapest time of the year. We want to spend time at Disney and Universal, and would like to stay at one of the Disney partner hotels in Lake Beuna Vista. I'd love to stay at a Disney hotel maybe for a couple of nights as well.

We're not concerned about travelling to the parks by bus, as we haven't in Disney itself before, we really have nothing to compare it to so can't complain!

I was wondering if you have any tips on booking a trip on a budget.

What are your preferred ways of booking on budget?

So far I found booking everything separately to be the best option but wondered if you have any secret tips.

Thanks!

 

[disneyholic family]

hopefully, Wayne will respond as he's the king of finding hotel bargains...

 

[MrsIncredible1974]

I wish I could help but my husband would tell you that I apparently don't understand the concept of budget
He's wrong of course, but not when it comes to Disney. I've been surprised and disappointed at prices this visit. The bargain flights of yesteryear seem very few and far between.

 

[1andrea]

If you look hard enough you will find flight bargains. Look 3 times a day and when you find a price you're happy with book! You have to be committed to searching!

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

November is a pretty cheap time to go, I have been looking at flights for this year and you can get them under £400 for indirect. What kind of budget are you looking at?

 

[Diz22]

Sometimes sites such as Expedia will throw up a bargain if you book a flight and hotel package. Last summer we had economy flights and 3 nights at royal Pacific US for less than I'd been quoted for flight only.
Would recommend the RP, it's gorgeous and convenient. Express pass is a bonus too!

 

[Jon84]

Sometimes sites such as Expedia will throw up a bargain if you book a flight and hotel package. Last summer we had economy flights and 3 nights at royal Pacific US for less than I'd been quoted for flight only.
Would recommend the RP, it's gorgeous and convenient. Express pass is a bonus too!

This

I once booked at Suite at B Hotel in LBV, 5 nights for £100, thats right £100! The downside was they the sites let you book even if all the rooms at that price have been taken. My booking was cancelled in the end as I was too slow

 

[Si C]

I'm not sure if it'll help but here is what I found saved us money while booking everything for our trip:

1. Don't book as a package deal with a travel agent.

We were originally going to book a flight/hotel package with Virgin Holidays (no car hire or park tickets as I already knew I could get these cheaper elsewhere) and found that we could save a couple hundred by booking the hotel and flight separately via Virgin Atlantic for the fight and Virgin Holidays for the hotel. The only thing we wouldn't get doing this that we would get with a package was a rep. But with the wealth of information available online is that rep worth the extra £200 when google can tell you the exact same thing?
​

2. Keep an eye on your car hire provider.

In our case this was Alamo Brits, which I found fluctuate their prices every so often, so if you keep an eye on the price you can pick up a good deal. Plus don't be afraid of booking and still checking for a better deal as with Alamo you can cancel your booking at no extra charge and then rebook at the cheaper price!​

3. FloridaTix.

While this one didn't really save us money what it did do is made paying for everything easier. With FloridaTix you can pay a £10 deposit per ticket and pay the rest off at a later date, this allowed us to get pre-brexit ticket prices without having to pay the full cost of tickets at the time of booking.​

 

[Scillycruisers]

We don't specifically book the cheapest we can and have fairly fixed dates because of work and school, but I always try and get the cheapest possible flights (direct). I check sites at least once a day from the earliest date I can for the airline. This year I got them for about £400 each which was actually the cheapest for several years - I usually expect them to be just under £500 each. We travel to include the Feb half term.

 

[pickers1982]

Just looking for cheaper flights at the moment as spur of moment looking for August, not much around for decent price.

 

[Lyricallie]

We went in May last year and got a really good flight deal with Norwegian. It's not as luxurious as the others but it was a new Dreamliner and if you're like me I'm just going to sleep so not that fussed about fancy planes. We paid less than £500 return each for our flights from London.

We ended up staying on Disney property in a value resort as we weren't planning on using the hotel amenities. I really think they get a bad rep it was clean and Disney. However if I was doing it again I'd stay off site and drive. Mainly because the restaurants on I drive are better value and we've done a lot of the Disney ones we wanted to do.

However I will say. Next time we're splurging on Ohana!

 

[pickers1982]

We went in May last year and got a really good flight deal with Norwegian. It's not as luxurious as the others but it was a new Dreamliner and if you're like me I'm just going to sleep so not that fussed about fancy planes. We paid less than £500 return each for our flights from London.

We ended up staying on Disney property in a value resort as we weren't planning on using the hotel amenities. I really think they get a bad rep it was clean and Disney. However if I was doing it again I'd stay off site and drive. Mainly because the restaurants on I drive are better value and we've done a lot of the Disney ones we wanted to do.

However I will say. Next time we're splurging on Ohana!

Been looking in Norwegian. Does it have seat back in flight entertainment and if so can you control it yourself or is it centrally controlled? Trying to find out the same for aer lingus

 

[Lyricallie]

Been looking in Norwegian. Does it have seat back in flight entertainment and if so can you control it yourself or is it centrally controlled? Trying to find out the same for aer lingus

It was back of the chair and you could pick the movies/shows. They even had games! There wasn't a ton of movies but there was enough. I watched the intern and I think the hobbit.

 

[Jon84]

Been looking in Norwegian. Does it have seat back in flight entertainment and if so can you control it yourself or is it centrally controlled? Trying to find out the same for aer lingus

From what I've read you get to choose, but it's limited selection unless you pay more.

Thomas Cook Eco is exactly like this now too.

 

[Lyricallie]

From what I've read you get to choose, but it's limited selection unless you pay more.

Thomas Cook Eco is exactly like this now too.

It's definitely limited, but I didn't see the option to pay more with Norwegian. However I could have just missed it.

 

[Diz22]

This

I once booked at Suite at B Hotel in LBV, 5 nights for £100, thats right £100! The downside was they the sites let you book even if all the rooms at that price have been taken. My booking was cancelled in the end as I was too slow

Not sure how that was a problem if you were too slow!
Past few years we have travelled in the summer months, flight prices from Manchester have been high, until recently options were Virgin direct, indirect with various options or travel to London, since there is now no direct flight from MAN to LGW it has become a trek and false economy. Tried Aer Lingus last year. Cleared immigration in Dublin which was cool but apart from that it was the worst experience ever. Poor facilities, rude and lazy crew, etc etc ......
We usually start with a few days at US, this is where the hotel and flight package, usually Expedia , come into there own. Never had a problem.
Maybe I'm just lucky

 

[london75]

Thomson are great for last minute prices, although they've gone up again today, they had easter flights direct from Manchester for £326 pp yesterday. I think there are dates in May for £263 pp.

Tip 2, book it yourself separately, there has never been an occasion in the last 15 years we've been going that a package has been cheaper than DIY, never, and I check pretty much daily if not more frequently.

Trivago is good for hotels but you need to really shop all over the place, as an example, we actually find Virgin Holidays are the cheapest for car rental oddly

 

[london75]

In fact, just checked and 14 nights from Manchester direct to Sanford is £263 on a couple of dates from the 13th April!

 

[Jon84]

Not sure how that was a problem if you were too slow!

Because they have the listing on their site, and the deal is only available for a certain amount of customers. Once the limit is reached, the site still lets you make a purchase, then they cancel your booking after you've paid them the money because you're not within the limit of people who have booked.