Share how you booked / planned your holiday.

[WDW-UK]

To assist those who are still at the pre-booking / planning stages, I thought it would be a good idea to share how, what, where, when and why you booked your holiday in the way that you have.

This is my update

We booked our holiday for this Easter way back last April. This was because my wife works in a school so we can only go during school holidays and as Easter is always a clear two weeks break, we had to book early in order to get the flights we wanted.

After much planning we decided to fly from Heathrow into Miami via a Virgin Fly drive. We will then take the long 4 hours / 230 mile drive up to Orlando. This has saved us over £1000 which we have used towards our park tickets. We have done this drive before which although is after a long flight we thought that the savings outweighed the long drive, which will be shared between two dad's. We paid the extra for a 15 seater van and although there are only 7 of us we wanted plenty of room for baggage. (Shopping )

The price for the fly drive for 4 adults 3 children aged 12, 11 & 8 was £5200

We booked an executive villa at the Vista Park Resort direct with the owner for £1300 including pool heating.

We have also booked a one night stay at RPR at Universal so that we get the 2 days FOTL pass which we will need as Easter is a very busy time of the year. As we wanted to see 30 Seconds to Mars at the Universal Mardi Gras we have decided to go back for another day and we've paid for the standard 1 day 2 park express pass.

We have also booked an Illumination Cruise, the Wishes Dessert Party, and Breakfast at the Castle (CRT), Chef Mickey’s, Fantasmic Dinner Package and other various ADR's.

We have the whole two weeks planned. This has been talked between both families so that everyone has had their own say as to what they want to do. Eg water parks, shopping and where they want to eat. This will save any frustrations and time during the holiday.

I hope that my update may help others with their planning.

 

[Kath2003]

Last September, I was just vaguely keeping an eye on flights. Saw American Airlines had a sale on, by shaving 1 day off our holiday to make it 9 nights rather than 10, we managed to get flights for £340 per adult return (connecting in Miami or Dallas) in the Easter holidays.

Booked the same hotel as the year before which also happened to be on sale (3* International Drive).

Booked 7-day 2-park US/IOA passes not much later as I was aware that these would go up once Harry Potter world opened. We got these for £69/person including tax.

A few weeks before we went, we got a 7-day bus pass direct from Lynx (mailed to the UK for free).

We didn't plan or book any meals. The only plan we had was, because we were there for 8 full days but only a 7-day US/IOA pass, we had an easy first day. We went to the Premium Outlets on the first day for some shopping (i.e. trainers to wear for the rest of the trip!), went to Outback for a late lunch and to Publix to stock up for the week (we don't travel with much so we needed suncream, shampoo, toothpaste etc. - plus water and snacks) before hitting the parks early the next day.

We went to the parks every morning, then either pool or shopping or relaxing every afternoon, before dinner and/or parks in the evening. Despite it being the middle of spring break, we never waited more than 5 minutes for a ride.

We ate at the usual fun places: Hard Rock Café, The Cheesecake Factory, Outback, Tony Romas, Margaritaville, Pastamore, Bahama Breeze etc.

The trip was a bargain (flight + hotel + tickets + transport = £600 each); food ran to about another £180 each, insurance £20 so £800 all in for 9-nights. We got cashback on a few bits too, which I think took it down to about £770 per person.

We had a great trip - although unfortunately it was extended by 10 days due to the volcanic eruption grinding the entirety of European airspace to a horrific stop....

 

[Helen B]

As there is just the 2 of us, I tend to look at when we want to go, and usually book 4 or 5 months in advance, we don't have to worry about school holidays.

We went in June last year, and booked it in the January, taking advantage of the Virgin sale and M&M (which was around a £95 saving.) We ended up paying £335 each return for the middle 2 weeks in June, bargain. Just a shame I can't get anywhere near that this year, but I am looking at booking a flydrive package instead, as some seem to be more competitive this year, but it does mean sacrificing the flight into MCO and going to Sanford instead.

I am very fortunate, in that my grandad gave me one of his time shares, which is in Tenerife (I've been once,) so every year I deposit my weeks, and swap them. So luckily for us, my 2 weeks accommodation cost me £250 (as I don't pay the maintenance yet)

We booked the car hire through Expedia* last year, which not only had the added ATOL protection** but we also got Nectar points We went for the economy car at £230 for 2 weeks (2 people using it max 60-90 mins a day,) and although Dollar tried their hardest to make us upgrade, we declined. The car we got was still bigger than what we both drive back home.

*Link to Expedia off of Virgin flying club and you can get air miles as well.

**We almost got stung when XL went bust in 2008, so I now, even for park tickets, check for ATOL protection. Fortunately the company we booked through was protected, but there was a slight change to our agreement, in that we had to return the car with a full tank of gas. On that occasion, the chap behind the desk was so nice, he gave us a free upgrade as well, because there was only the 2 of us, and probably because we didn't get mad or angry.


To spread the cost of things, as I like to pay my CC in full, I'll book the flights and accommodation at the same time, then the following month book park tickets, and then annoy my other half to get the car booked (as he drives while we're away, he has to book it)

I always shop around for park tickets. Last year my 14 day Disney passes were actually cheaper from Disney than anywhere else, and I got our Universal tickets from Travel Republic.


For day to day planning, I will check out the busy day guide, and plan days around that. Aiming for alternating 1 day parks, 1 day relaxing (water parks, shopping etc) I think we ended up with 4 days in the water parks, and 2 days shopping.