Virgin holidays package or booking separately through Disney

[tinkandonaldfans]

We often book through Virgin holidays but for 2024 they are quoting us £8k for two weeks at Pop for me, my husband and 6 year old. This figure seems mental as just before covid we stayed at the wilderness lodge with free dining for all 3 of us for about £5k
When I price up our holiday minus flights (as it’s too far out) through Disney there is about a £5k difference! Those are some expensive virgin flights - not even looking at premium or anything either!
Wondering whether to secure the early booker deal via Disney and cross our fingers that flights aren’t that expensive???

Is that too risky/are we going to regret not doing a package?

 

[Ruttangel]

You’d have to be insane to book a package with Virgin these days. I booked in 2011 and prices were pretty reasonable but not anymore.

We are flying in mid August from EDI with Virgin as it happens, £1.5k for 2 people and then £1k tickets for 14 days, luckily we own DVC so the accommodation is very cheap.

Not sure where you are flying from but I always found BA indirect flights to be very cheap.

 

[starry_solo]

How long will you be there for? Do you want to stay on property?

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

I’d book the Disney package and then do flights separately. We always book this way and it’s never a problem getting fights plus if you really want to you can add the Virgin flights to your Disney package when they are released though personally we’ve found cheaper flights with other airlines. I love flying Virgin but their package trips are insanely expensive these days!

 

[Jangles]

Book the room through a U.S. travel agent which gets you flexibly without a penalty. Then look at flights the first couple of days that they are released.

 

[ScotScroogeMcDuck]

I’ve been pricing for next year and Virgin are way high. BA have some decent prices though for July. For the first time I’m thinking of not staying in a Disney resort as the prices are much higher than offsite (even Bonney creek) and not sure the value is there.

 

[MattH2O]

Ive never found the virgin package deals to be competitive. Even when weve traveled with virgin, we have booked through virgin Atlantic and found the costs were lower. We always book with Disney as soon as packages are released, then look at what flights we can get later. You can adjust your disney booking to suit once you know what flights you have. This locks in the deal even if you want to change hotel or dates. We normally budget around £4k for flights for four of us, last year they were more, this year they were less.

If you don’t find flights you want, you can change dates around June time to push the holiday back to the following year with no penalty. So we don’t really see this as a risk.

 

[Rookester]

we usually book via TUI (esp to fly to Melbourne!) but we booked via Virgin this time on a whim as we had a poor experience with Tui last time. However Virgin have not been great! Ive not be able to link my tickets yet which sounds like an issue had by sooo many with virgin! have to call disney and they don't open till 9am eastern so thats 2pm here! its just a faf I could do without! Ive seen some amazing deals with tui for this may!

 

[Lashed34]

We booked a 15 night Virgin Holiday for this December at Royal Pacific at Universal, with park passes, Premium upgrade, private transfers and airport lounge and it was £7000 - same holiday is nearly £10,000 now, so it depends when you book to be fair, we feel like we got an absolute bargain.

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

We booked a 15 night Virgin Holiday for this December at Royal Pacific at Universal, with park passes, Premium upgrade, private transfers and airport lounge and it was £7000 - same holiday is nearly £10,000 now, so it depends when you book to be fair, we feel like we got an absolute bargain.

Did you book during their sale or 11 months out? You got a great price

 

[Ruttangel]

We booked a 15 night Virgin Holiday for this December at Royal Pacific at Universal, with park passes, Premium upgrade, private transfers and airport lounge and it was £7000 - same holiday is nearly £10,000 now, so it depends when you book to be fair, we feel like we got an absolute bargain.

Is that for 4? Going Dec is going to increase flexibility in looking for a deal, I’m stuck with summer school holidays.
Royal pacific was my favourite Universal resort, haven’t been for years though, not as much repeatability as WDW for me

 

[Lashed34]

Is that for 4? Going Dec is going to increase flexibility in looking for a deal, I’m stuck with summer school holidays.
Royal pacific was my favourite Universal resort, haven’t been for years though, not as much repeatability as WDW for me

Sorry, for 2 people.

 

[Lashed34]

Did you book during their sale or 11 months out? You got a great price

No, we booked it July last year for 2 people, no sale price.