prices

[simonuk]

i was just curious what kind of prices u guys pay for your holidays to orlando?
i am going in april 25th -9th may
and for me and my girlfriend it cost £1395
that is for flights with virgin from manchester,staying at the quality inn international,insurance,transfers and 2 5 park flexi tickets
i booked through a company called lincoln travel who r part of the tui group lunn polly thompsons etc
i thought it was a very good price?
simon

 

[Melcatfish]

We are teachers so the only time we can go is school holidays - therefore we pay way over the odds.

Our Virgin flights this August are costing £684 per person, villa is £500 per week (for three weeks) between 6 people, we are having 2 hire cars costing £160 per week each but that is will highest available cover and all 4 drivers insured on both cars. Then there are park tickets - about £60 each for universal power passes, about £200 for fun in the sun passes and £160 each for Discovery cove tickets which include Seaworld and Busch Gardens.

Because this is a one off holiday for some of the party we are also going on a Disney cruise for 3 nights - costing approx £280 per person.

Added together it comes to an eye watering £1800 each. Oh to be in a different profession and take advantage of off season deals! To be fair though some things could have been cheaper - e.g. indirect flights could save a bit of money, having one minivan instead of 2 cars etc... but in the end if we are paying all that money to go to orlando I don't want to come home thinking "it would have been nice to have had 2 cars or whatever"

Hope this answers your question!

Regards
Mel

 

[bubblefactory]

Hope you don't mind me asking Mel, where did you find the FITS pass valid for August? We can only find ones valid until end April.

Cheers,

Alec

 

[Melcatfish]

I am just desperately hoping that they release new ones as they have in previous years. Knowing my luck they won't offer them anymore but Rosa at Paramount seemed fairly positive that there would be a new date offered for FITS passes around March time.

Heres hoping!!
Regards
Mel

 

[simonuk]

yeah quite pricey but its the only time u can go
i was just really surprised the price i got i mean under £700 each for flights (virgin),accomodation,transfers,insurance and 2 5 park flexi tickets u cant really go wrong
especially when my mates r paying £505 each to go to zante in july no thanks (ha)
simon

 

[matty624]

Mel, we too are teachers, so are 'forced' to go in August. (it's a hard life!)lol
Where did you get your flights. I thought I'd done quite well with our £715/adult and £545/child from Manchester with Virgin (Virgin Travel Store), you seem to have bettered that. Our villa is costing around £500/week too, but was a bit reduced as we're going for 4 weeks. It's the only perk I can still think of for teachers!
Ian

 

[Melcatfish]

I shopped around for all the bits separately flights, car villa etc but in the end our villa company came back with Virgin price of 684 including tax. We have booked through Florida Villas Direct.

The long holidays are pretty much the only perk left for us teachers, mind you I am only in my second year and I am already taking them for granted and wishing my life away from one holiday to the next. I can't imagine how I survived when I worked in an office and only had 2 weeks holiday a year!

Roll on half term... then easter... then half term again and then finally the summer and DISNEY!

Regards
Mel

 

[matty624]

Dw and I have been teaching 10 years (I'm a head now), and believe me if they ever change the long holiday and introduce 4+ terms, I know now that we won't benefit from cheaper holidays. However, it may cost us alot to get there, but there can be few people in work who can disappear for up to 6 weeks at a time. (it's an unfortunate reality that most teachers work through at least some of the summer however!) So when you think of it like that, it's not quite as bad.
Just out of interest, Dial a flight seem to have a realy good offer on at the moment for luxury cars, 32 days is costing us £767!
Ian

 

[Lisa1976]

Simon, are you going for one week or two??

Myself and boyfriend got a good deal too, think it was about £700 each, but we are staying on international drive, to stay on Disney property its a lot more expensive, alas.

 

[bustersmum]

we pay over the odds i am a childminder so my wage is same holidays or not.We have booked thru tc direct we have a exec villa 2 weeks car hire all our insurances and 4 lots of 10 day passes for 4200 pounds going in august.

 

[simonuk]

i am going for 2 weeks am staying on i drive to at the quality inn international
but yeah i thought for flights with virgin,transfers,insurance,2 5 park flexi tickets and hotel i thought just under £700 each was very very good
simon

 

[Beth__WDW23/6/02]

Hi,
We have paid £3000 with Virgin.
This is for 4 weeks, 2weeks Quality Inn International, 2weeks All Stars Movie Resort leaving on 20th june 04 - 18th july.
Also in this we have our car and insurance for the full 4weeks.
This is for 2adults and one child.
We got 10% off as we are freq flyers,but we think its a good price considering we paid £2700 for last years trip on the 9th july for 2weeks at quality inn plaza.

This is our last hol for a while!! so we want to make the time of it!

We already have passes etc got to book character dining. thats it!!!!! Ohhhh the thought of Makes me smile!!

 

[vernon]

I think you've got a pretty decent deal Simon. It is possible to get slightly better deals if you're flexible on dates, don't mind waiting until the last minute to book flights (running the risk of not getting anything) and booking the hotel on something like hotwire that don't tell you thehotel until after you're committed. It's rare to see flights less than £250 each, but they do sometimes come up, the park tickets are probably £250-300 for the pair, insurance is worth maybe £100, transfers maybe £50 and the hotel for 2 weeks you might get one for less tha £300, but not by much. Adding all that up, if you were lucky ( and winged it) you might be able to trim that down to about £1200, but on the up side, you're booked, you know you're going and you've got a great deal.

 

[simonuk]

yeah i thought it was a cracking deal also i booked it in september so its not like a last minute thing or anything
heres the number for them if any is interested 08000278221 like i say they r part of lunn polly and thompsons etc who r now 1 group called tui so they r a reputable company
simon

 

[rainyUK]

First of all a big "thank you" to everyone who posts on this board, I read everything quite often and with all the tips we have managed to save a few £££ - We 2a + 1c are off on 7 Feb - yippppeee - will be our 6th year running - we keep saying we can't afford it but just as we manage to pay last year's off - we pay the next year's - oh hum!

Booked through Virgin Travelstore who incidentally honoured our Frequent Virgin discount of 10% - I just asked and it was OK.

We paid £2,124 for Premium Economy inc full size car with platinum insurance (we tried PE for the first time last year and in our opinion the extra money is worth it) - we bid on Priceline for our hotel - a great experience in my opinion and managed to get the Rosen Centre on International Drive for £23 per night - £552 for three weeks including tax.

So in total we paid £2,676 - which we probably could have done cheaper if we did not travel PE, but considering when comparing the same PE trip inc hotel & car prices to the Virgin Brochure we saved around an extra £1,000 on their price and we figure that the PE price is OK (£648 adult + 370 child).

The exchange rate is great - we bought ours the other week at $1.79 (I have been tracking the $ rate since last June - I have the figures if anyone is interested and I also used another $ tracking site which made me buy at $1.79 as I saw it was going to drop a few cents, besides my nerve couldn't hold out much longer) can't complain though, compared to the rate last February we are around $500 better off - we usually take 3 cases (+3 inside the other) out and come back with 6 - shopoholic is not the word for me!