Need some questions answered about my trip! Please!

[TweedleMe]

OK, let me give you some info first...
Me and 7 friends are planning on going to Disney World in August 2011.
We plan on booking a place at the Orange Lake Resort in the next month.
Currently we are set on buying a 7 Day Magic Your Way w/ Water Parks and More on Undercovertourist.com plus a Universal/Islands 1 day park to park on the same site.
We haven't looked into booking our flight yet but we do plan on leaving from either Philadelphia Airport or Atlantic City Airport.
Since we are at a resort we figured we would do some grocery shopping when we get down there to save money on food, but obviously we plan on going out to eat sometimes.

Some questions...

1. Is there any other cheaper way to get WDW tickets or Universal tickets? (It seems to me UndercoverTourist is the cheapest option)

2. How should I go about getting the cheapest airfare? Which websites are good to do this and when is the best time to book it?

3. If you have ever stayed at the Orange Lake Resort, do you know what kind of Disney discounts they give, how much the buses cost to disney parks.. and did you enjoy your overall stay?

4. I've heard you need to book the vacation package to get the Disney Dining plan... Is there any other way I could find a loophole and get the disney dining plan? If not, what would you recommend would be the best way we could save money on food? Is grocery shopping our best option and going out on only some nights?




Thanks to any responses I get! Me and my friend are the main planners and I am really trying to get things going even if it is more then a year away! I appreciate any feedback!

 

[TweedleMe]

 

[PoohsFan1]

OK, let me give you some info first...
Me and 7 friends are planning on going to Disney World in August 2011.
We plan on booking a place at the Orange Lake Resort in the next month.
Currently we are set on buying a 7 Day Magic Your Way w/ Water Parks and More on Undercovertourist.com plus a Universal/Islands 1 day park to park on the same site.
We haven't looked into booking our flight yet but we do plan on leaving from either Philadelphia Airport or Atlantic City Airport.
Since we are at a resort we figured we would do some grocery shopping when we get down there to save money on food, but obviously we plan on going out to eat sometimes.

Some questions...

1. Is there any other cheaper way to get WDW tickets or Universal tickets? (It seems to me UndercoverTourist is the cheapest option)

2. How should I go about getting the cheapest airfare? Which websites are good to do this and when is the best time to book it?

3. If you have ever stayed at the Orange Lake Resort, do you know what kind of Disney discounts they give, how much the buses cost to disney parks.. and did you enjoy your overall stay?

4. I've heard you need to book the vacation package to get the Disney Dining plan... Is there any other way I could find a loophole and get the disney dining plan? If not, what would you recommend would be the best way we could save money on food? Is grocery shopping our best option and going out on only some nights?




Thanks to any responses I get! Me and my friend are the main planners and I am really trying to get things going even if it is more then a year away! I appreciate any feedback!

I can't answer all of your questions, but here is what I do know....

- Question #1--We never buy our tickets through any other website than
Disney, but I know that Undercovertourist.com is highly rated and is recommended by everyone that uses them, my best suggestion is to shop and compare which will help you decide what is the better deal for everyone.

- Question #2--As for Airfare, we have found it not necessarily has to do with the cheapest website for better airfare, (sure some carriers are cheaper than others) but the time of year and what day your flights depart and come back. Historically it is much cheaper to purchase airfare with a departure day of Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, and also returning on one of those days. Our schedules always consists leaving on one of these days and then returning on one of these days as well. We have tried out Cheapoair.com for our Airtran tickets once before and found that we hated dealing with the middle man. If Airtran changed their flight schedule (which they do A LOT) we never received an email from them (Cheapoair.com didn't care to email us with the changes so I was constantly on Airtran's website looking if there were any changes or not), after that one time we decided to book directly with the airline.

- Question #4--there is unfortunately no loophole in getting the Disney Dining plan, it is strictly for Disney guests only (one of the perks for being an onsite guest). The best way to save money on food is to have breakfast in your resort, snack through lunch, and then either have dinner at the resort or eat out if you want to splurge. Your best bet is to eat somewhere that is not on either US/IoA or Disney properties because they can get really expensive....of course the occasional splurge for one of the restaurants is fine, but not every day.

Hope this helps some and have a wonderful trip.