The British Aren't Coming To Orlando

[paulh]

in summary:


3) 25% reduction in $/£ exch rate = its more expensive when we get there (2008-2010).

from first vist we got $1.11 to £ we look at the average over the 20 years we have been going and $1.60 is the average.with the rate around that i dont thinks its that bad at moment
I feel sorry for those folks who bought into DVC at $2.00per £ thinking it will stay around that
For us its more the 1st 2 points
Paul

 

[crabbie1]

I agree with the above. I think if flights were not so expensive the US would hv a few more uk visitors. I myself would still go but would stay offsite rather than on to reduce the costs for us personally .I dnt smoke , drink buy expensive clothes hv flash cars or go out very often BUT i love to hv something to look foward to as both myself and DB work hard and feel we deserve a nice holiday even if it is only once a year. We both hv trust funds of £75 a month tht go into our daughters accounts towards there education and they go without nothing. Now the US recognise we are struggling as a nation lets hope they offer us some extra special dealsCan but hope hey.

 

[StarWarsJez]

Paul - yeah I agree with you-been going to Disney for 15+ years myself and $1.6/£1 is not bad. However, the point I was making was that the article specifically talked about the last 3 years - and clearly a 25% drop in the exchange rate is going to disincentivise people, especially when combined with the other factors mentioned.

As a matter of interest, can anyone remember how much Disney theme park tickets were a few years back (like the UK 14 day World passes)?

 

[wayneg]

As a matter of interest, can anyone remember how much Disney theme park tickets were a few years back (like the UK 14 day World passes)?

I did a bit of digging a while back and posted but never kept track of it. If I remember rightly the 14 day Ultimate was launched in 1st half of 2005 at around £160-£162(as always deals knocked a few £ off , maybe £156ish)

6 years later £219 working on £156 up £63 or 40%, same year a 1 day ticket was around $58(incl tax) now $87 up $29 or 50% so the UK tickets have increased at a lower rate than US tickets.

 

[Kath2003]

I think this is it: no one expects prices to be the same. But park tickets have increased WAY above people's expectations (and willingness to pay). I haven't done Disney during my last three trips: I like Disney a lot, but I'm not willing to pay their ticket prices.

Same as flights. We looked at last year's flight costs and worked out that we were willing to pay another 15% (including taxes). People keep commenting on the tax rise but they haven't gone up that much - certainly not enough to account for the flight prices this year. For the same dates, with the same airline, as our last trip, the flights were 40% more (and that's when they were on sale ). Needless to say, we are not going to Orlando this year...

Interestingly, we still got a decent deal on flights to New York in the school holidays. Whilst we expect Orlando flights to be more expensive than New York flights, they were over £200 more expensive per person for the same dates

 

[2Tiggies]

I think this is it: no one expects prices to be the same. But park tickets have increased WAY above people's expectations (and willingness to pay). I haven't done Disney during my last three trips: I like Disney a lot, but I'm not willing to pay their ticket prices.

Yes, park tickets have gone up a lot at Disney. I think an adult 14 day ultimate was just under £170 or so in 2008. This year ours cost us £240 a piece. However I have a different perspective on the ticket prices and still think they deliver unbeatable value. Here is the argument behind it for me:

We have a local theme park. The usual deal with the rides, a few coasters, some things for the kids and the dreadful food. It costs an adult £18 pounds for a rider band. This may have gone up as we haven't visited for nearly 2 years. They open at noon and depending on the season, close between 6 and 9 pm. Any shows, games or exhibits incur an additional charge and if you want to watch a movie, you pay for that too.

Our Disney theme park tickets work out at an average cost of under £18 per day. There is a choice of 4 major theme parks plus 2 water parks and we are free to hop and visit all or any at any given time. Now this will not apply to offiste guests, but as we stay onsite, it includes the option of transport to and from the resort as well as between the parks, all rides and shows, parades and really pretty much everything aside from food and souvenirs. Depending on the time of year you visit, parks can operate from as early as 7 am (EMH) and stay open right until midnight with regular hours or even up to 3 am with evening EMH. With that taken into account, I find it hard to justify a visit to our local theme park anymore.

I accept that if you are doing fewer days at Disney this cost per day average suddenly rockets, but for me, this is one area that has retained good value.

As for the flights ..... well that's another story altogether but nothing the Orlando Tourist Board has any control over.

 

[Kath2003]

Our Disney theme park tickets work out at an average cost of under £18 per day. There is a choice of 4 major theme parks plus 2 water parks and we are free to hop and visit all or any at any given time. Now this will not apply to offiste guests, but as we stay onsite, it includes the option of transport to and from the resort as well as between the parks, all rides and shows, parades and really pretty much everything aside from food and souvenirs. Depending on the time of year you visit, parks can operate from as early as 7 am (EMH) and stay open right until midnight with regular hours or even up to 3 am with evening EMH. With that taken into account, I find it hard to justify a visit to our local theme park anymore.

I see your point. It obviously works for you. For us, it doesn't because:
a) we don't stay for 14 nights, so the cost per day is significantly higher
b) we stay offsite
c) my partner isn't particularly big on the water parks
For us, it would be NUTS to spend almost £500 on doing Disney, when we can do 3 parks + 2 waterparks (US/IOA/SW/Aq/WnW) for £140 less, or 2 parks (US/IOA) for £320 less...

That said, we don't do UK theme parks either, because we consider them to be a rip off

 

[2Tiggies]

That said, we don't do UK theme parks either, because we consider them to be a rip off

Lol, we definitely agree on that one.

I saw your point too.

 

[~Piglet~]

I haven't really been following flight / hotel prices as we're not planning on going again until the end of 2012. Out of interest though I put in the same hotel dates for 2011 that we had last year - what a difference a year makes!

2010 at the Pop = £62 per night
2011 at the Pop = £106 per night - £44 extra per night

2010 at POR = £93 per night
2011 at POR = £99 per night - £6 extra per night

2010 (total hotel cost) = £1271
2011 (total hotel cost) = £1753 - £482 extra

Flights 2010 = £1251 with VA
Flights 2011 = £1959 with VA - £708 extra

Without costing for park tickets etc thats already £1190 more than we paid last year. Yes, you expect a reasonable price increase each year but £44 a night at the Pop is ridiculous! (as much as I love the Pop ).

 

[wayneg]

What dates is Pop at £106/night? only paying that for OKW with free dining. last time I looked the values could be booked under £50/night for dates I checked.

 

[paulh]

we buy our park tickets to last we usually get the 10+10 option think that worked out £15 per day (we bought at $2) and they will last us 3-4 years,
As been going for many years were not park every day, water-parks and pool days more for us(the dvc resorts are getting better for that)
Also to compare old tickets with new can be a bit harder as over the years more parks have been added and in the existing ones more things have been added.
But when they removed the automatic non expiry option that made it a lot dearer
Paul

 

[mcarthur205]

We're off to Florida again in June for three weeks, we first went in 1991 and have made many trips since then. However, we're flying into Miami this year as the flight prices were cheaper than Orlando. We're staying offsite because SSR was three times more expensive than Floridays. No free dining in June anyway, so we'll eat almost all our meals offsite too. We don't need to buy Disney tickets either as we have passes with days left on them from 2008/2009. We're not going to Universal as we went there last year and I don't feel the need to revisit so soon. We're going to Sea World but we can get in there free as DH is military, and we're also going to KSC as the very last shuttle is due to launch while we're there and we don't want to miss that!

We'll spend the first ten days of our holiday in Orlando and then we'll head down to Key West and spend the remainder of our time there.

We'll be taking a break from Florida after this year, the prices are just getting too high to go every year and I think I'd rather wait until the expansion at MK is finished before visiting again. I found it a little disappointing in Fantasyland last year with all the work going on and I'm expecting it to be worse this year now that Toontown is closed.

Time for something different for us I think, we'll see how the offers are but after this year we likely won't be back until at least 2014.

 

[~Piglet~]

What dates is Pop at £106/night? only paying that for OKW with free dining. last time I looked the values could be booked under £50/night for dates I checked.

Hi Wayne, the dates are 29th April to 9th May for the Pop - coming up at £1060 for 10 nights through Disney UK (who we used last year). ASMu at £89 and ASMo at £118 for the same dates

£44 per night is quite an increase for a value hotel compared to POR's increase of £6 per night for the same period as last year. I don't know whether there is some kind of special event happening this year to push the prices up that much?

 

[wayneg]

Hi Wayne, the dates are 29th April to 9th May for the Pop - coming up at £1060 for 10 nights through Disney UK (who we used last year). ASMu at £89 and ASMo at £118 for the same dates

£44 per night is quite an increase for a value hotel compared to POR's increase of £6 per night for the same period as last year. I don't know whether there is some kind of special event happening this year to push the prices up that much?

Just looked on Disney.com, £828 on there for same dates with no discount, one of the problems is the 1st weekend it falls within the Easter rates(17th-30th Apr 2011)

Fri, Apr 29 $ 154.00
Sat, Apr 30 $ 154.00
Sun, May 01 $ 105.00
Mon, May 02 $ 105.00
Tue, May 03 $ 105.00
Wed, May 04 $ 105.00
Thu, May 05 $ 105.00
Fri, May 06 $ 120.00
Sat, May 07 $ 120.00
Sun, May 08 $ 105.00

Discounts are available for these dates but not at Pop
Discounts from 28th April 2011
* Save 15% at All Star Movies
* Save 20% at select Disney Value Resorts and Port Orleans French Quarter
* Save 25% select Disney Moderate Resorts, Animal Kingdom Lodge and Polynesian Resort
* Save 30% at select Disney Deluxe Resorts
* Save 35% at select Disney Deluxe Villa Resorts

Before posting I just did a quick search of UK agents, Octopus travel has it for these dates for £669.90 less 6% Quidco = £629.71 = exactly the price you paid last time.
Just shows everyone needs to shop around the deals are there if you search and don't take the 1st price seen.

Personally I think certain things have risen drastically like packages in school hols, Virgin Atlantic prices in school hols but book at the right time, be patient, spend a lot of time searching and the deals are there albeit a lot harder to find.
It is also easier for people who are willing to be flexible, fly indirect, don't be set on 1 hotel etc. This week I helped Mart(burt) get August flights for £380pp, not his perfect flights but a great price.

 

[WiganTony]

Thought of the Day!!

Just going back to the cost of flights, another issue seems to be that whenever the cost of oil rises, the airlines seem to be very quick to increase the fuel supplements.

However, I recall several years ago when the price of oil dropped dramatically, the airlines were all saying that as they "hedged" fuel costs (i.e. bought up to 2 years in advance), the cost of fuel was actually based on a price that was fixed and they would be making a loss if they reduced prices to match.

Now if my memory was correct with this, should the airlines not already have the cost of a substantial percentage of their fuel already fixed for this year and next year, thereby making oil price changes and hence any additional fuel surcharges/supplements irrelevant?

 

[disneyholic family]

it's not rocket science - the cost of flights has gone through the roof and the cost of disney has gone even higher than that...

we're still deciding whether to go in august...

but just the entry tickets to WDW will cost a king's ransom...

completely ridiculous to spend that sort of money just to visit the mouse....

especially given the deterioration in value for money once you get there...

as it happens, i had begun a campaign to convince the family to go to japan in august rather than orlando...
not sure what the possibility of that is now, but i'm more and more against an orlando trip....i'm just so annoyed by disney at this point....the cost of 6 entry tickets costs a fortune...not even a small fortune....a serious fortune...

 

[~Piglet~]

one of the problems is the 1st weekend it falls within the Easter rates(17th-30th Apr 2011)

Easter! I hadn't realised it was later this year

Before posting I just did a quick search of UK agents, Octopus travel has it for these dates for £669.90 less 6% Quidco = £629.71 = exactly the price you paid last time.
Just shows everyone needs to shop around the deals are there if you search and don't take the 1st price seen

Thanks for the research Wayne, I didn't realise UK agents would do deals cheaper than Disney themselves, i'll definitely explore all angles when the time comes

I didn't shop around when I did my price comparison as I wanted to use the same companies that I had used last year, to get an idea of their increases. It's good to know that you can still shop around and get a more realistic price, at the prices I had costed I was starting to worry that 2012 was going to be impossible. I feel a bit more positive now

 

[paulh]

Easter! I hadn't realised it was later this year

Blame the moon for that
Paul

 

[Lizzybear]

I really wanted to make an Orlando/US in general holiday happen this year but I looked into Europa Park in Germany (i'm a theme park nut in general ) and the flights, accomodation and car hire for a week in the black forest region are costing as much as flights to the US would be so that is where me and the bf will be headed in September! I think my days of annual holidays to the US are over (increased cost of living, saving for a house, thinking about getting married and starting a family in the not too distant future etc!!) and i'm sure i'm not alone.

 

[Beep]

We've been very lucky this year and are going for 2 x 14 night trips, May and October. There's just the two of us.

We had vouchers from Continental so the flights worked out at approx 4 for the price of 3
We negotiated a superb rate for the villa (4 bed, pool etc at Rolling Hills) which worked out at £10 per night more than a room at the Quality Inn International on I-Drive
We renewed our Disney AP's
Saved with SeaWorld AP's
Saved a little with US/IOA AP's
Great rate on hire car

Each 14 night trip is costing us around £2800, plus spending money. We don't shop much so most of our money is spent on food. We aren't eating at Disney apart from lunch at GFC and the rest of the meals will be at places like Perkins.

I calculated that we saved around £500 with the AP's alone, taking into account not buying separate tickets, parking, park discounts etc.

DH lost his job a couple of weeks ago and unless something happens on the job front very soon we definitely won't be returning next year.

The costs certainly have increased over the years but we would return to Florida whilst we could afford it. We also spend time away from the parks and visit other places like Miami so for us it isn't always about the parks. We just love the place.