Just booked flights, with 2 weeks to go!!!

[matty624]

It's hard to believe, as we usually book 6-12 months ahead of time, but we've just booked our flights for early August! THIS August!!!!!
Just need to find a house (or failing that, a condo), car, tickets for parks etc.... aaaarrrggggghhhhhhhh...
Any great ideas for car (SUV), and for that matter, cheap, non hotel lodgings? Ds and dd are determined not to share this year, so 3 beds will be the way to go if possible.
Thanks,
Matt

 

[disneyholic family]

you could try the sheraton vistana and see if they have anything available:
http://www.dreamsunlimitedtravel.com/Sheraton/Villages/svv-res.cfm

 

[crabbie1]

Or bonnet creek or blue heron. Dont forget ur casbk through quidco as well. OOI how much were ur flights

 

[Portugal1000]

We love Bonnet Creek (next door to Caribbean Beach. Closest non Disney Property (I think). Anyway have stayed 3 times always booking through Ken Price at www.vacationupgrades.com. Highly recommend. Huge thread on Offsite hotels forum with loads of recommendations for Ken. They have everything from 1 bed to 4 bed. The rooms are huge and the resort is great. Were there in December and had view of Epcot and MK fireworks every night. We are going to Saratoga Spring on 3rd August for 3 weeks but to be honest, would liked to have stayed here again. Just that with free dining, it was a better deal this time.

 

[matty624]

Thanks for that everyone. I'll have a look at the off site threads.... We think we may not do Disney at all this year (we've never not done Disney!) concentrating on Universal etc, and saving some money. So will look at the resorts closer to that.
The flights were quite good Crabbie, ended up using some airmiles via Virgin Atlantic, booked direct with them. Less than £750/adult, Man - MCO, not bad for direct flights completely within the school holidays... At one point we were looking at very indirect flights which were costing much much more than that!
Now going to search for a 7 seater van or SUV for the best price possible, for 25 days.... hmmmm...

 

[2Tiggies]

Wow, most of us on here wait about a year for out tickers to announce that we have reached the two week mark..... and you just go and get one, just like that

I have no experience with offsite or hire cars so no helpful advice for you. Just make sure you get those park tickets sorted, especially if you are having hard tickets delivered. Looks like you have a busy 2 weeks ahead of you

 

[matty624]

Wow, most of us on here wait about a year for out tickers to announce that we have reached the two week mark..... and you just go and get one, just like that

I have no experience with offsite or hire cars so no helpful advice for you. Just make sure you get those park tickets sorted, especially if you are having hard tickets delivered. Looks like you have a busy 2 weeks ahead of you

lol, we dont usually book so late, but due to jobs, money etc, it was a last minute thing!
We may end up with annual passes, so wont have to worry about hard tickets... still, have to sort it out soon!

 

[2Tiggies]

lol, we dont usually book so late, but due to jobs, money etc, it was a last minute thing!
We may end up with annual passes, so wont have to worry about hard tickets... still, have to sort it out soon!

Well I can see by your signature that you've done one or two trips in the past so you know what you're doing I don't think I would be able to sit still if I suddenly had an upcoming trip in a few weeks

 

[wayneg]

Great news, if you post your dates and best prices you find for car hire I will have a look around and see if I can see any cheaper if you like.

 

[dixonsontour]

Have you tried ebay for a villa - cancellations/unlet weeks are sometimes advertised very resonably.

We hired a villa in 2009 off ebay at fairly short notice and were happy.

Floridays condo resort on I drive has 3 beds - thomas cook online have had a sale on so some good pricing - not sure if still on.

Are you looking to stay in one place or have some time at the beach?

 

[matty624]

Thanks for that dixonsontour, we are yet to make our mind up about whether we spend the whole time in Orlando, or split it between there and the beach. To save money, we may end up in the one place, ie. Orlando area.

Our dates are 7th - 31st August Wayneg. I had a quick look at various Quidco companies last night, but had spent so long sorting the flights out, didn't really look for long!!!! I did notice that netflights still had the strange upgrade option, which reduces the overall price quite significantly!!!

And you're right 2Tiggies, finding it very hard to sit still. Frantically emailing villa owners, trying to find the perfect, but still available, and cheap enough villa! Quite some task....

 

[wayneg]

Yes there are some strange prices on Netflights, I started a thread about it a few month back, they still have not corrected them.
7 seater for our first 14 days (5th-19th Aug) shows at £449.08 but then knocks off £62 if you add platinum. Best thing is cashback for netflights usually goes thru on the price before adding platinum so in this case 5% on £449.08.
I think you will struggle to beat those prices. We have our 2nd car booked with them from 19th-28th Aug.

 

[matty624]

Thanks Wayneg. Will go and have a look at Netflights again. Got bogged down looking for the villa, surprisingly, quite a bit of choice left, despite the lateness....

Oh, am I right in thinking that you can only choose the car from a row when with Alamo, I seem to remember that last year we had a choice (Alamo). I wonder if Dollar do similar, or if they still allocate the car inside before you head off into the heat!!!!?

 

[wayneg]

From just before Easter 2010 Dollar changed to choosing from a row(same as Thrifty, same company) we were one of the 1st to use the new system Easter 2010 trip. Only problem was we booked a large SUV, for some reason they allocated that for us rather than choosing our own.

I collected a full size 7 seater SUV from Alamo in Feb, choice of 2 cars so not always as good as it sounds. Be prepared for hard sell, they tried getting $40/day out of me to upgrade to a Chevy Tahoe, saying there was very little choice for me, eventually I got the paperwork, one of the cars to choose was a Chevy Tahoe, just tried getting $280 out of me for a car I was getting anyway.

 

[matty624]

From just before Easter 2010 Dollar changed to choosing from a row(same as Thrifty, same company) we were one of the 1st to use the new system Easter 2010 trip. Only problem was we booked a large SUV, for some reason they allocated that for us rather than choosing our own.

I collected a full size 7 seater SUV from Alamo in Feb, choice of 2 cars so not always as good as it sounds. Be prepared for hard sell, they tried getting $40/day out of me to upgrade to a Chevy Tahoe, saying there was very little choice for me, eventually I got the paperwork, one of the cars to choose was a Chevy Tahoe, just tried getting $280 out of me for a car I was getting anyway.

More than a bit sneaky that! I never (well, almost never!) fall for the hard sell. Last year we were lucky with the choice, had booked a 7 seater van, got directed to a particular line, which was full of poor, big mileage vans (one had 40000+ miles on the clock!), but happened to notice a van parked incorrectly in another row. Checked it out, had 4 miles on the clock. Made my holiday (apart from getting a puncture when I ran over a bottle after 4 days!)

 

[wayneg]

We have a couple of DISmeets planned in August if you get chance to call in at either http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2621880

 

[matty624]

We have a couple of DISmeets planned in August if you get chance to call in at either http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2621880

Thanks, I'll have a look and see what we're up to on those dates. As you'll guess, not entirely sure as yet.... got to love doing things on the last minute!

 

[dixonsontour]

thedibb.co.uk has a villa rentals section - with villa offers - a few people have availability for August due to cancellations

eg one is available 11/8 til 2/9

Hope you get sorted

 

[matty624]

thedibb.co.uk has a villa rentals section - with villa offers - a few people have availability for August due to cancellations

eg one is available 11/8 til 2/9

Hope you get sorted

Thanks. Still looking, seems to be a tricky choice this year....