Planning a suprise trip for my family! advice please

[Benvo]

Hey,
Firstly i will say another hello, and i hope that this is the right forum for posting this in. As the title says im planning along with the help of my mum taking our family of 8 (mum, dad and six kids) to Orlando Florida for two weeks holiday. I've been working on the dates 17th june and return 1st july, as it fits within important dates on calendar.

I sent mum and dad to hong kong in November and they flown with virgin. And from there experience virgin was amazing, and would like to fly with them again, as i know it would be more expensive that alternatives, but do i pay more for the service. I will have to pay for 5 adults and 3 children. Which comes to £2921.20 (i think that was amount). So i personally see that as affordable for what i think im getting, what do you think?

Next ive looked at villas as there being 8 of us, works out better to self cater in a villa. I have found a 5 bedroom villa, with private pool and spa, games room etc... Priced for the two weeks at £933, which i think is quite good for what you get, again what is your advice on this?

Car rental, i will obviously need a 8 seater, and found with virgin, they do a 8 seater with sat nav for £476 for the two weeks. Every where else i have looked are similar prices if not more. Is this a good price for car rental?

My last problem (That i can think of lol) is the attraction tickets, the ages of people going will be 53,48,19,18,12,11,11,10. i know everyone classed as adults but hopefully that also helps in an idea of what attractions will be suitable. I am stuck between the 14 day ultimate disney ticket, price ive found of £231. Or the Orlando Flex Ticket plus at £181.

The problem i have is my mum has said and i agree, how can we go to Florida and not visit disney world lol. I have thought maybe getting the flex ticket and then looking at day or couple day passes into disney world, but again i dont really know where to start, as my googling brings me back to the flex ticket and ultimate ticket lol.

So what would people advise on your recommendations where to go, and what may be the best for my needs. Sorry for the long post, but ive tried to include as much detail as possible to help. Many Thanks for any advice and help.

Benvo

 

[Netty]

your villa is a good price for the 2 weeks, now the 8 str car I dont think will be big enough, as there will be no room for all your luggage, so you probably be better off going for a bigger one.
the ultimate will give you alot more freedom to come and go to wdw, not sure about the flexi ticket as i have never bought one! a 1 day disney pass can only be bought at wdw itself, and if you wanted more days say 2-3 you may find it would cost nearly the price of an ultimate that lasts for 2 weeks!
your flight prices are good seeing as theres 8 of you going!!

 

[Claire L]

Everything sounds good but do get the Ultimate ticket as if the weather turns and you elave early you can go back another day without feeling as if you ahve wasted a day on your ticket. For the flex ticket I would get a seperate ticket for Universal and SeaWorld as they often have good offers.

Also maybe for WDW let your Mum or Dad get an annual pass as then you can get the discounts such as free parking, 10% off at World of Disney (Big shop at DTD) and also maybe even the TIW (Tables in Wonderland card) for 20% off at table service restaurants, the $60 is soon recouped even with the 18% grauity added, which would be added anyway due to the size of your group. Plus loads of other discounts with the AP for shopping.

Claire

 

[wicket2005]

Have a look on the Travel City Direct site and price their holidays. This company is now owned by Virgin and uses exactly the same planes/flights as Virgin Holidays. I know they were cheaper than Virgin Holidays for my June 2010 holiday.

Secondly you must visit all of the Disney parks, Universal, Islands and Sea World. My sons 20 and 18 love the Universal/Islands parks the best. Before we had AP we bought the Ultimate ticket and the Flex Ticket. The latter ticket at the time was the same as buying a one day admission to SW, US and IoA but lasted for 14 days. I have not priced them up lately to see if this is still the case.

 

[Orlando Planner]

Regarding tickets I think you first need to consider what you will be visiting.

The Disney Ulimate will cover the four main parks, two water parks, Disney Quest, park hopping and a few other bits.

The Flex Plus will give you both Universals, Busch Gardens, SeaWorld and two more water parks.

Narrow down what you want. You could (just about) do everything on the list, but if thats your aim it may be worth considering a third week. Only your accomodation and spending money should significantly increase (plus a bit on car rental). It will make minimal difference to your park ticket costs.

Bear in mind that a day at Disney is approx £50, two days £100 and three days £150. And thats without park hopping, so you couldn't even visit all four parks. You can then see what great value the Ultimate Ticket is.

Regarding the Orlando Flex Plus. If you aren't doing Busch then drop the Plus. Also if you don't want SeaWorld either then I'd suggest the Universal Unlimited. You won't get the Water Parks but then the two on your Disney Ulimate should more than suffice. For about £60 you get unlimited seven-day access to both Universal parks. For your party that's a whopping saving of just short of £1,000.

By the way your flight/accomodation prices look pretty good considering the size of your party.

Good Luck

 

[Benvo]

Firstly thanks for all your replys. Villa's just gone down to 875 too hehe! Yeh the thing is im struggling with is the tickets, i can only really afford one or the other tickets, thats why im struggling with my decision, i personally like the idea of sea world so im bit bias, but if i think about buying day ticket, thing is i would have to buy 8 lol!

I know its going to be hard to make the choice between the two, hopefully booking today or early next week. So guess im going to have a think and just go with one lol! Alot of people who have been recommend the flex ticket for value for money.

Oh and i looked on travel holiday site, and cheapest was 8k.

Benvo

 

[wicket2005]

It would be a shame for you to miss any of the parks so I would urge you to go when you can do all the parks. If you have to do only one set I would suggest Disney purely because you get 4 parks plus the 2 water parks with the Ultimate ticket.

 

[Benvo]

I think after a few weeks of looking and debating we may be going with the orlando flext ticket, still not defo yet tho. I've hit a snag and the villa i wanted to book is not available anymore, so i have got to start my search for another one, ive got a headache from the amount ive searched through.

Benvo

 

[Tinks1984]

I think after a few weeks of looking and debating we may be going with the orlando flext ticket, still not defo yet tho. I've hit a snag and the villa i wanted to book is not available anymore, so i have got to start my search for another one, ive got a headache from the amount ive searched through.

Benvo

Such a shame about the villa, hope you come across another one which is similar shortly. Can be a nightmare when looking at so many for specific dates!

I see you have a wide range of ages on this trip and both the Flex Ticket and the Ultimate Disney would suit for different reasons. If you're older teenagers are into their thrill rides, I can see why you'd want the Flex. I do think your younger ones would still enjoy US and IoA, but I also think they'd get massive enjoyment out of going to Disney - as would your older teens too I imagine.

I (me personally) believe that Disney has a more rounded amount of attractions which would better fit your age ranges. There's still a couple of thrill rides there (granted, the coasters are nowhere near as big as US & IoA) but there's Tower of Terror, Rock & Rollercoaster, Everest, Misson Space, Splash Mountain and Test Track which Disney offer which would suit everyone, inc. the older teens. And then there's plenty more for ALL the age ranges to enjoy, including shows, smaller rides and attractions.

You could possibly look into a one day Sea World pass. I've just had a quick look at a site and they're offering SeaWorld and Aquatica (14 consecutive days once activated) for £62 per adult. That way you could possibly get in Sea World and a different water park during your trip.

 

[Yoga Deb]

I would suggest that for tickets you look at a "Fun in the Sun" package. No doubt the Disney Ultimate is good value if you are mainly sticking to Disney but in your case this package would probably be better value. Look here the package has 5 Disney days, 2 Seaworld and 7 consecutive Universal for £256.44. The company is US based so the price fluctuates but at the moment with the improving pound the price may come down. They also have some good deals on Disney only tickets 5 days for the price of 3 for example.