just not sure what to do

[TandCmum]

our original plan had been to go for 21 nights next september/october staying in a villa for 2 weeks and onsite for one week, but I'm not sure what to do now. I can't help worrying about how much it will all cost and not sure if we should plan to stay at allstars for the 3 weeks which would be much cheaper (and possibly get free dining of they do it again), or maybe even just go for 14 nights.

Unfortunatly we are not loaded and it will take some serious saving for our trip and is basically reliant upon me getting bank nursing shifts to pay for it.

any suggestions?

 

[kkymmy]

isn't it cruel how all the best laid plans never seem to be achieveable.

I can't advise on your particular situation because obviously only you know your budget and how much you are prepared to stretch but I can offer my sympathy. I'm a student just going into my second year of study (and debt) and we are off to Orlando and WDW for two weeks next June. This is the beginning og the summer season, the american kids are off school so it'll be quite busy and it'll be hot. but it was the only time me and my friends could go and I am saving so so hard to make sure i can pay for it all myself.

We are staying at all stars for two weeks. of course we'd love to stay at a mod or a deluxe, and of course we would love to go for longer, but we looked at what we could all realistically pay in the time frame we've got and booked accordingly. As it turns out if I put £111 away each month (from now, with the £322 i've already put towards it) I can pay for the holiday, 14 day park passes and DDP in the next 9 months which is the dealine for the holiday payment, and the latest I am prepared to book things to make sure they arrive. I'm only just going to be able to do it, and if I get ANY extra money it will be going into the pot, but this also means I have to rely on birthday and Xmas money for spends. but i'm grateful that i'm going at all, as I know how expensive it is and I know that I'm fortunate to even have the option at the same time as being a student.

You really have to sit down and do the maths with the others you will be travelling with and work to your budget....there's no point booking something that you'll only be able to pay for if you work all the hours under the sun because by the time you get there, you'll be too exhausted to enjoy what you've saved too hard for.

It's all well and good booking lovely holidays, but you have to remember there's life before, after and outside Disney too, and that costs money as well.

 

[TandCmum]

thanks for your help, just out of interest who have you booked your package with. I would like to do the DDp also if staying onsite and at the moment the most cost effective way of doing it seems to be to book with first choice either for the 14 or 21 nights.

I am swaying towards the 2 weeks, i just think if we can pay for it comfortably we might be able to go back sooner

 

[kkymmy]

that was our mentality exactly.....do what you can afford and you can do it more often....why spend ages paying off loans when you could have had two holidays and have afforded them both without outside financial help.

We used travel city direct. There are some people on here who like them and some who dont, I found the operator we spoke to extremely helpful (and I was a pain, asked for about 4 different hotels for 20 different dates) and last time we went we didn't experience any delays or problems.

If you want to ring them and price it up it might be an idea, if you can ask to speak to richard, he was very helpful and explained everything to me clearly because its the first time i've ever booked a holiday for myself.

We haven't booked our tickets/dining plan yet on his advice...due to me being a novice in the holiday booking world he's sorting me out one step at a time

 

[arieliwish]

Hi,

just to let you know we couldn't add free dining on to our first choice booking with DDP last year, I think its only available when booked with disney usa, like direct with them or through somewhere like dreams unlimited - I'm sure someone will put me right if I'm mistaken.

We went with TCD 2 years ago and first choice last year - yes TCD cheaper than most, but first choice was cheaper for certain dates last year - we were flexible so booked on cheapest dates, and their planes and service was excellent.

We're in planning stage at the moment and our dilema is tour operator or dreams/fly drive, onsite or villa, school hols or school term, dining plan or not!!!!

So you're not alone!
Happy booking!

Lynn

 

[TandCmum]

Thaks for your message lynn, i know we wouldn't get free dining if we went with first choice or any other tour operator but looking at prices 2 or 3 weeks at all stars with first choice and paying for the dining plan and tickets with them is definatly in our budget and we can fly from glasgow. I have looked at TCD too, does anyone know how much they charge for dining plan??

Question is do we go for 2 or 3 weeks. an extra week would cost us about £1000 more i reckon so not much in the whole scheme of things.

 

[Miffy2003]

JMHO..... but I think if you go and stay at ASMo you have every chance of having the best possible holiday at much less cost. We loved our stay at ASMo; it was magial from start to finish.

 

[DebIreland]

I can relate the the money worries. I've had some nightmares about this trip's budget. If you book it yourself i.e. not go through a tour operator, you could do a happy medium and go for 17 or 18 nights or so. That's what we're doing - booked the flights through Continental (indirect Shannon to NY to Orlando, cause it was cheap), booked All Stars with AA discount through Disney (5 nights), renting points from a DVC member for the Boardwalk Villas (9 nights) and booked a Cocoa Beach hotel on the net for 2 nights.

Renting points something you could look into. Just to break things up a bit. Maybe 10 nights at All Stars and the rest at a studio or 1 bdr at a DVC resort on rented points (points are rented from between 10 to 13 dollars each and the amount of points you need per night for a studio varies between 8 and 12 - no resort tax and Dining Plan is available for DVC members/renters at this time).

We're not doing the dining plan as we plan on doing some cooking in the BWV (not too much but some). With a 2 year old, it's gonna be hard to do a lot of table service meals - we have some booked but not as many as last time.

Try to price everything out separately (DIY) and then price it all as a package (Virgin holidays etc.) and compare costs. It's nice to have control when you do it yourself. Each to his own. This happens to work for us.

Good luck!