Were flying in a day (or 2) early, now what?

[HomeChicken]

Since we are on the west coast we would most likely get a flight that leaves about 12 noon and gets there about 8pm EST
seeing we would be using a full day to travel should we fly in 2 days before ?
and if we do should we stay in a hotel close to the airport to save money??

then on the day we want to go to the resort take a taxi back to the airport to use our mears transfer to get to the resort??

Lots of different ways to figure this in my head..

Or...Should we stay 1 night,, the night we get in at the airport hotel (via taxi) then the next day(back to the airport) use the mears transfer to the resort and add a day to our hotel stay without the theme park passes?

Or..

do we at about 8pm use the mears transfers to the resort and pay for 2 nights (one for the night and one for the recoop from the flight) ??

Or any one have ideas what to do. ??

We want to have a full day of relax since the would not get the full enjoyment form the park we first visit if we only get a few hours sleep.

And what are the hours of mears ??

I've got it all figured out except this!!

 

[hercamore]

Personally,

I would get out of the Airport area and into the LBV/Disney area as soon as I landed.

I would choose a nice offsite hotel in the LBV area or I would use this opportunity to "try out" another Disney resort for two nights if I could get a good rate code.

I would also rent a car instead of using Mears.

Good luck, whatever you choose.


herc.

 

[HomeChicken]

Hummmmm....
whats the lbv area and what hotels are there?

About the mears...we already paid for them to take us to the resort..did we mess up..and what are their hours?

 

[Janell Ebert]

We travel from the West Coast and take the red eye. We don't sleep well the night before any way. So its nice to sleep some of those long hours on the plane. Take pillows and eye covers and ear plugs. We stay at the All Stars but usually have a good rate. We rent a car that is our preferance since we do Sea World each trip and are traveling with four people. Much easier to get to other resorts and Downtown Disney with your own car. Like to take car and stay late for fireworks in Epcot. We also shop at Costco and grocery store before getting to resort. Nothing wrong with the bus did that the first trip. We have stayed at the airport hotel when we took a bump once. Its not a bad place but it is close to the airport as far at noise is concerned. We don't try to get up early, stay on west coast time for meals etc. But we stay out later. We usually are their either Thanksgiving or Christmas so parks are open later. Do the e night if you stay at a Disney resort. Well worth the money. Book your airline as soon as possible. The rates go higher the closer it gets to time for travel same with rental car. You can always cancel hotel and car if your times change.

 

[hercamore]

Hi,

You can find the Mears hours on their website www.mears.com

LBV is the Lake Buena Vista suburb of Orlando in which DisneyWorld is located it's about a 25 min drive to this area from the airport.

You could stay in the downtown disney area hotels of which there are around 6 hotels, I believe. check www.mousesavers.com for info.

Also, www.hotelkingdom.com has ifo and decent rates on LBV hotels.

Are you or your dh a teacher or nurse? Special rates at the Dolphin and Swan (on Disney property, but not owned by Disney).

www.starwood.com for Dolphine and Swan.

herc.

 

[HomeChicken]

Originally posted by hercamore
or I would use this opportunity to "try out" another Disney resort for two nights if I could get a good rate code.

I like this idea. might see if I could get a good rate for all star resort for a couple of nights.
I'm not a teacher or nurse so I couldn't get a discount you found.
Thanks hercamore
--Mister HomeChicken

 

[Janell Ebert]

Have you tried looking at doing seperate park passes and hotel not in a package. Sometimes its cheaper. You can do annual passes or park hoppers etc. You can even do a combination of park hoppers and paying for some things. Depending on what you want to do.

 

[lilsonicfan]

I must also agree with taking a red eye.... we left at 1am and got to our villa by 11:30am or so... it was great to have a full day ahead of us.

 

[shelle94]

We used priceline for air tickets. Since we couldn't pick the times we decided to leave a day early. We stayed at the Hampton Inn right near the airport. It was cheap and very clean. After we picked up our luggage we called them using the courtesy phone. They sent a free shuttle right over to get us. We had to wait maybe 15 minutes. The next day we took the shuttle back to the airport and then used Mears to get to All Star Sports. It worked out great. I would do it that way again. Since we weren't at WDW yet we didn't feel the excitement and we could relax that first night. We walked over and ate at Bennigan's (which was awesome) and hung out at the pool.

 

[prncess674]

Since you will land at 8PM "Disney Time" I think that is plenty early to have time to sleep it off and hit the parks the following day. Packing and unpacking is a pain. Go ahead and head straight to your hotel. If you are on a package get a room only ressie for the night before. Maybe I am just good with plane travel but you will be travelling during times you would be awake anyways so you shouldn't have much trouble with jetlag. Also are you travelling with kiddies. If you land on Friday night (or whatever night) do you really think you can hold your kids off from the theme parks on Saturday morning? I am always working on adrenaline the first few days of vacation. I would plan on hitting the parks the very next morning after landing.

 

[HomeChicken]

Originally posted by shelle94
After we picked up our luggage we called them using the courtesy phone. They sent a free shuttle right over to get us. We had to wait maybe 15 minutes. The next day we took the shuttle back to the airport and then used Mears to get to All Star Sports. It worked out great. I would do it that way again.

This is exactly what I was thinking I would do. I know this Sounds complicated but you say it woked out fine.
Another way to think about it.
We might look into priceline also since the cheapest round trip airfare right now for the date 10/3-10/16 is $300 per person on contiental airlines. (waiting a few more tuesdays for southwest specials for $99 each way(ont-mco)before I try price line or book contiental)

How was priceline ?? We use them all the time for hotels. would you use them again and did you get a big price cut ? how far out did you get the tickets?

Anyone else

 

[prncess674]

be careful using Priceline for airline ressies. You only get to specify dates and NOT times. You could end up losing 2 days of vacation this way. They can put you on the last flight out the day you want to depart and return on the first flight out the day you want to return. I would use priceline as a last resort for tickets. Hold out till atleast August for fall fare sales before locking yourself into the priceline restrictions.

I love PL for hotels but for air it is a big gamble that I would not take this far out. You also have little options if your plans change. On the majors you can atleast pay the $100 change fee and apply your ticket towards something else. With PL it is one shot deal.

 

[HomeChicken]

Originally posted by prncess674
Since you will land at 8PM "Disney Time" I think that is plenty early to have time to sleep it off and hit the parks the following day.

We did this trip in 2000 and we did the redeye last time. we arrived about 2pm and did the MK that day for as long as we could take it without falling asleep. We are traveling with a 5yr and 1yr olds. I just want to have a full day to relax and not think about the parks. and the night before we do the parks , have time to think about what we will do that next day. I'm tring to leave out the adrenaline this trip

Really would like someones advice on airline tickets to buy within the next month for 10/3-10/16 from ont-mco round trip

 

[HomeChicken]

Originally posted by Janell Ebert
Have you tried looking at doing seperate park passes and hotel not in a package. Sometimes its cheaper. You can do annual passes or park hoppers etc. You can even do a combination of park hoppers and paying for some things. Depending on what you want to do.

We were looking into that but after reading the boards here found the fairyTale package we would get more for our money . So we are doing the fairytale package @ WL and booking the 4night cruise seperate. already have deposits down. now only looking for airfare. Kinda waiting a month to see if southwest has a special $99 each way for ont-mco on 10/3-10/16

 

[HomeChicken]

Originally posted by prncess674
Hold out till atleast August for fall fare sales before locking yourself into the priceline restrictions.

So your saying wait till august before booking airlines? I thought that the longer you wait the more it will cost. I see southwest has no avalible special prices the sooner the fight is to todays date.
I'm worried I will miss the best price.. HELP! WHaaaaaa...

 

[lilsonicfan]

Yeah, i'd kinda wait a bit - it looks like there are some good prices for early Sept, prices will likely go down for Oct sometime as well - maybe hold out for a bit longer. Check all the sites every day too.

 

[prncess674]

There really is not advantage to bidding early on PL. If you can wait you have atleast 2 options for getting to WDW.

1. Book tickets now on CO for $300
2. Wait for SWA fare sale later this summer and hope to find $99 tickets
3. wait and try to book tickets on PL. PL probably doesn't have access to inventory in October yet. So bidding now would probably be futile and could leave you with poor travelling times. Most planes will appear empty because it is too far out for yield management at airlines to determine load factors
4. Lastly since $300 is what you would spend on CO you could always purchase SWA Rapid Reward tickets on Ebay for that same price just a few weeks before your vacation if none of the other options worked out. RR tickets are regularly sold on ebay and they have minimal restrictions and are fully changeable. The only thing needed to use a RR ticket is space on the plane. there are no restrictions on the number of RR tickets on any flight. If you want more info on this let me know.
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[HomeChicken]

Originally posted by lilsonicfan
Yeah, i'd kinda wait a bit - it looks like there are some good prices for early Sept, prices will likely go down for Oct sometime as well - maybe hold out for a bit longer. Check all the sites every day too.

yep thats what mother-in-law said.
I'll wait about a month and maybe no more. I get worried easy I'll mess this seperate booking thing all up...my brain is like a busy freeway!

 

[prncess674]

Originally posted by HomeChicken
So your saying wait till august before booking airlines? I thought that the longer you wait the more it will cost. I see southwest has no avalible special prices the sooner the fight is to todays date.
I'm worried I will miss the best price.. HELP! WHaaaaaa...

SWA has fare sales all the time. They have no idea what loads will look like in October. They haven't released the "cheap seats" yet. You will need to be diligent about checking every week when they list the sales. Also if you look on the day the plane goes on the market it may appear that all the cheap seats have already been sold it just means they haven't put any on the market yet. If you fly SWA regularly you may be better off just booking them at the current price and then getting a credit for the difference when they go on sale. SWA does not charge a change fee.

 

[prncess674]

The fares you are getting on Continental are probably "Q" fares I would almost guarantee that towards the end of the summer they will release "T" and "V" fares which are the cheap seats.

Patience is a virtue and it may cost you dearly for a family of 4 if you lock in when prices are too high,especially on Continental.