Massachusetts DVCer's - need help!

[Kathy0529]

My family and I are trying to plan a vacation for next year at Disney. This will be our first time as a family going to Disney and will include 7 adults and 3 children. We are restricted as far as when we go because my brother, his wife and my sister are all teachers in Massachusetts. We are looking at April Vacation, 2005, or the third week of July, 2005.

My questions to people in Massachusetts are:

1. How expensive is the airfare to Orlando during the April Vacation week? How soon would I be able to see pricing from the Airlines?
(Next year I believe April Vacation begins on the 18th.)

2. How is the crowd/weather in April compared to July?

I own at VWL and can begin booking next month and will try to get a 2-bedroom and a studio for all of us to be in the same location. My brohter owns thru II, but I highly doubt their request for in the park will get fulfilled for April Vacation.

Any help/opinions is greatly appreciated!!! Thanks!

 

[pumpkinboy]

Note that Massachusetts and Maine have different spring vacations than the other States. Ours is the week of Patriots' Day (gonna be April 18th in 2005), while most other States use the week around Easter. This creates opportunity for those of us in Maine and Mass, as we are competing with fewer other families for, say, DVC availability at that time.

1. For Airfares: if they buy at 330 days, the earliest the regular airlines open up ressies, they can buy Song tix out of BOS for roughly $210 apiece r-t non-stop (a lovely flight). That rate might go down once JetBlue announces fares for that time (usually 6 to 7 months ahead), and they can always get a credit. Or they could hold out and wait for JetBlue to announce fares and see about taking them, or even wait for SouthWest to announce fares from PVD and MHT. As things go along, the fares go up and up, so in our family, we like to book at 330 days to get the better flights and time locked in, and take any airline credits if and when they ever become available.

2. Crowds are much better in April than July bcs of the aforementioned vacation scheduling anomaly in Mass vs the rest fo the country. Also the weather is better, much less hot & sticky. Added bonus at that time (April) is that you might get in on the Epcot Flower & Garden fest.

As for Bro's II ownership, you may want to just have him rent that out and use the proceeds to rent some extra VWL points. Or you borrow DVC from next yr and go on vacation with them thru II the following yr. I'm sure you can work something out. Plus, you might as well see what he can come up with thru II. Good luck!

 

[goofy4tink]

Yep, I would go along with pumpkinboy's logic. We might actually look at a trip that same time frame also.

 

[pumpkinboy]

but not before i do

 

[Kathy0529]

Thanks for the info Pumpkinboy, especially about the airlines!

Another question regarding the flight prices - is it cheaper to leave on a certain day of the week as opposed to another? Obviously, we would have to make sure that we are back in Boston by the following Sunday, so that would be the absolute last day if needed.

I am in the process of trying to add on points either thru Disney or Resale (already did my Resale question post). I am going to be using banked and borrowed points and will hopefully have my add-on to use, if not, like you said, I will look at renting the needed points.

Thanks again!!

 

[Poorman]

Hi Kathy,

Here is a web site that you can check on prices and flights for all major airlines,except SWA. I would start checking now and see what the pattern is for next year. I always use this site to check availability and then I go to the airline web site and make my ressie. I also check SWA as they really have great prices but sometimes being sure you have the flight when you want it is worth the extra money you spend to have pease of mind.


http://www.itasoftware.com/?

 

[bres@westernMA]

It has been my experience that the flights later in the day are less expensive than those at the crack of dawn. You should fly over a Saturday and weekday-to-weekday flights appear to be cheaper.
We are from Western Mass and, for direct flights, have good luck with Song - out of Bradley or South West – out of Albany NY or Hartford. Song allows you to book at 11 mos (330 days) Southwest at 5 months. Get on the Internet and see what you can do.

 

[Kathy0529]

I will check out Song - have to wait a month to see what's available! They sound like DVC, can't book till the 11th month window

Thanks for all the help to everyone who answered. I think after reading everything, we will try for April, 2005!!!

 

[pumpkinboy]

Originally posted by Kathy0529
...Another question regarding the flight prices - is it cheaper to leave on a certain day of the week as opposed to another? Obviously, we would have to make sure that we are back in Boston by the following Sunday, so that would be the absolute last day if needed....

If you don't mind being super-organized and buying your tix at the 330 day mark, you can be pretty sure that you are gonna get the less expensive ticket, regardless of the day. The reason the late evening flights and the mid-week flights from Boston might be cheaper is the the excessively cautious or hyper-organized folks who don't mind parting with their money at 330 days have already purchased the cheap seats for the good times on the better days. This advice only applies to the discount airlines flying out of Boston, like JetBlue and Song (aka discount Delta, with a whimsical attitude), where the cheap seats sell first, and anything after those becomes pricier; the pricing system on the full-fare stanard airlines is so complex I don't even think they understand it.

By the way, way to plan ahead! Getting ready now for a trip more than a year off really is the best way to do it at the best price with a minimum of hassles on the days that you want it. Yeah, it's nice if you are flexible, but if you are not, you had better plan ahead.

Good luck!

PS. in another thread here, it is looking like OnTheRocks is gonna have some VWL points for rent soon (see thread titled: "How Often can you transfer Points?"). Just a thought.

 

[Pa@okw95]

Just like DVC you can get flights at 11 months out. Flying out of Logan I believe the flights are cheaper on Saturday. My daughter flies out of there to Orlando and always leaves on Saturday. The weather is a lot nicer in April but the crowds are about the same, maybe a little less especially toward the end of April. You should be able to get non-stop if you call close to the 11 month window.
Don't wait to long that is a popular time to go to WDW and the non-stop flights fill up quick. Coming back you might get a better price if you fly on Friday.

 

[Kathy0529]

Yes, I do tend to be super-organized and also like to research whenever I can. This is going to be a special trip and hopefully a great one!

I spoke w/my salesperson at DVC about my add-on for points, if that doesn't go through I will definitely contact OnTheRocks to rent some points if they are still available at the time. If not, more research!!!

Thanks again!

 

[Connears]

We live in Natick and drive down all the time. We arrive Sunday and leave friday(5 nights sun-thurs). We have thedrive down to a science we have done it so many times. Just like having our car and not having the airport hassle or enpense.
we were there Easter week 1998 and MK was worse than Christmas or NY(which we have also done). People were wall to wall and very grumpy at the parade..we left after the 4 pm parade and just went back to OKW to relax. That was Easter Sunday but the week was crowded. It was warm enough to swim and parks were open late. I have been 3 times around the 3rd week of June and it was great..late nights , afternoon swims and weather was hot but not oppressive. Have not been in July or August.
Connears

 

[mmmcq]

We have used our DVC points both over April vacation and last yr in the 3rd week in July. We've also stayed offsite and at CB not on points over April vacation. We're headed back to Pop Century and BWV for a total of 10 days starting next Wed....so I'd say April is definitely our favorite time frame.

April tends to be more crowded and the weather can be variable -hot vs cool, but our experience has been that there's less "wet" weather in April. It rained a lot last July and quite a bit on our August trip the previous year. And ironically, even though the park is much more crowded over the April vacation period, the park are open longer than in either July or August. We found this to be limiting on both our summer trips. We LOVE going to the Magic Kingdom till 11pm in April. That's when my kids know we're really on vacation....when Mom and Dad are riding Buzz Light Year at 10:45pm and giggling like crazy! When we were at WDW last summer - most of the parks closed at 7 or 7:30. We were back in our rooms by 9:30 and bored....so we'd go swimming till 10-11pm in the quiet pools.

And this year the MA vacations are off kilter with Easter.....so we got a bonus with points (saved 100 for the week stay in a 2BR) because we're going the week after Easter. And we'll still be able to take advantage of longer hours in the parks for our first 4-5 days - then things start to close a little earlier.

As for airfare. I booked the April vacation with DVC the first day I could last May, but didn't buy my airfare until January when Jet Blue fares went online. We got 5 seats for $225 ea including taxes on a direct flight. I didn't want to wait that long, but I refused to pay the ridiculous fares offered by Delta and US Air, etc.

Last year we flew Southwest out of Providence and had a $200 fare, but we had a bad experience with their checkin and I'm not in a hurry to use them again. We had flown earlier in June to Tuscon on SW without incident, but on the July flight on a Sunday am we waited 1.5 hours curbside to check the baggage and barely made the flight, had to sit in 5 different locations on the plane(because they don't pre-assign seats) (and I have 3 kids) and our luggage didn't make the flight. I was NOT happy.

We've used US Air in the past, but they have few direct flights these days and I hate transferring just to get down to Orlando. It wastes too much of a WDW park day, so I look for direct flights.

So I'd go with April, and check airfares constantly on the airline websites until you find something you can afford and then go for it. Best of luck.

 

[twotoohappy]

Originally posted by Kathy0529
Thanks for all the help to everyone who answered. I think after reading everything, we will try for April, 2005!!!

See you there! We'll be there the same time. We'll be staying at VWL and BCV. I also work in a school so I try to keep one of my vacations to April vacation. (I'm sneeking away for Halloween ) We spend a lot of the time at the pool during April vacation and just being at Disney is better than staying in MA for vacation.

 

[goofy4tink]

So much for my bright idea. Just found out last night that RI is having their spring break the same time MA is. Wonder if this is going to include a lot of states.