Jan 2005

[alisonbestford]

Hi there,
Can anyone just help put my mind at rest here please
We're (DH, DD age 6 and myself) hoping to go to WDW next Jan for 14 days.
I was all set to take a deep breath and book with Virgin for All Star Movies this morning (£2,700 or £1,125 for FlyDrive), until I got thinking...... bad idea
I'm wondering how much I might be able to save by booking everything at a later date, probably separately and maybe buying an Annual pass for discounts.
This will be the 3rd time we have visited so sort of know our way around to some extent.
The only thing that has to be definite is a Sat flight as DD will have to take time off school.
Am I likely to pick up a car cheaper by booking direct, rather than paying for ins on a 'free' Virgin car?
Sorry for bombarding everyone. I get the Mousesaver newsletter but wondered whether anyone in the UK had actually accessed the discount codes successfully.
Thanks for your help.
Alison

 

[alisonbestford]

Sorry, forgot to say that the hotel price included Ultimate passes.
Alison

 

[liferiley]

HI ALISON im intending to go in feb 05 and im waiting until i get a good price on my flights.im going for 21 days hopefully but i intend to spend around £1300 for flights and hotel,this year cost me £1700 for 2 weeks in a low buget hotel but a friend got his holiday for around £1300 in january through travel city direct.we both booked for 2 adults and 1 child excluding park tickets.i intend getting my accomadation through HOTWIRE.COM.

so my advice is to wait until you get a better deal.

 

[Celestine]

Do you actually need the UPH? This really bumps up the price & by the time you've factored in a days shopping plus possibility of other non disney parks, the 10 day world or other park hopper passes are often a better bet. Just my two pennies worth!

 

[alisonbestford]

No, we probably don't need the UPH
I actually got round to considering buying an annual pass for the hotel discounts or, as you say, a 10 day or hopper pass.
We are all fans of Universal and have friends in Florida so the UPH are probably a waste of money
I think I'm going to book the Virgin Fly Drives though.
It's important that we get a Sat flight for Eve taking time off school and feel it's worth that little extra to fly Virgin - we flew with Thomson last year and, by the time we'd bought drinks, snacks etc we wished we'd paid the extra for Virgin.
I've contacted Dreams Unlimited but will have a look at Hotwire when the Disney rates come out for next year.
Alison

 

[Sian]

I would hang fire on buying passes. Nothing is certain but there might well be good discounts in January as it is a slow time. Very often the 'open to everyone' discounts are as good as the AP discounts, or very close. The other thing to remember is that you don't need the Annual Pass when you book (unless things have changed recently) only when you check in, so you could jump on a good AP rate when it comes out and buy the pass later.

 

[DisneyBB]

The flydrive prices for Virgin in January work out about £865 for the three of you. We are going in Feb and if you book your flydrive before the end of April you get £100 off plus you get 10% off by booking on line. The works out quite a bit cheaper than you thought. Check it out through Virgin holidays web site.

 

[alisonbestford]

Hi,
Thanks for the info.
The total price for the 3 flydrives I gave included the Virgin car insurance (£322) and takes in to account the £100 discount and 10% online discount. I went into Thomas Cook today and double checked - they didn't offer the online discount before I asked for it and then, lo and behold ......
I'm definitely going to 'go for it' and then I know it's going to happen . The agent brought up some other fly drives and they were £1,200 before adding car insurance!
I'm leaving the passes and hotel until later. I've been online with Small world Travel and think I'm going to book something with them when Jan rates come out and let them monitor, and apply, the discounts as and when they appear
Alison

 

[DisneyBB]

To save extra money why don't you buy Natwest care insurance. I buy it by using the Natwest credit card for £75, but I have heard that if you don't have the card you can buy it for £99 for a year. Let me know if you want the phone number. Or for less than £300 you can get an annual travel insurance from amex that includes care insurance. Every penny counts.

 

[alisonbestford]

How does that work with the car tax and insurance?
I thought that would just cover you for personal travel insurance?
I'd hate to pay out a chunk before we go and then get hit with more money to pay when I pick the car up?
Thanks for your help.
Alison

 

[DisneyBB]

We have used both Amex and NAtwest. The Amex is personal and you pay a top up to get the car hire insurance. It is a really good policy and I paid £284 for annual personal family insurance and north american car hire insurance. I get the Natwest now for £75 (card holders) and £99 for non card holders. This is just for North american car hire insurance. I then shop around and get the best annual insurance policy. There are lots around and vary vastly in price. We got ours via Marks and Spencer last time as the limits were good. It cost a little more about £125, than other companies, but we found the limits were higher.

With both car insurance policy's we had to pay airport tax and some other tax that amounted to about $100. That is paid when you pick up the car. It will still work out cheaper and you get the policy for the whole year.

When you pick the car up they will try to sell more insurance, but you won't need it if you buy one of the policy's. They will take an authorsation on your card for about $1500, this is standard and we have had no problems with it.

 

[alisonbestford]

Well, as you say, every little helps
If you could please let me have the numbers to call re: the policies and the exact names of what I'm asking for I'll give them a call.
Alternatively, do they have web addresses?
Thanks.
Alison

 

[DisneyBB]

The american express site is -

http://www10.americanexpress.com/sif/cda/page/0,1641,20617,00.asp?

If that doesn't work, www.amex.co.uk and it is under the travel section. They ask you to ring up for details 0870 600 1090

The natwest is "Strategic Claims Management Ltd" 0845 458 9644. I havne't asked them myself for the £99 non card holders price, but others have and posted it here.

The Marks and Spencer, is under their

http://www6.marksandspencer.com/pages/default.asp?PageId=Home&Product=TI

I hope this helps.

 

[alisonbestford]

Thanks