DisneyWorld newbie
Discussion
Robatr0n said:
Where are you renting your car from?
If you rent something from the prestige/adrenaline range from hertz they come with Neverlost pre-installed.
Incidentally, I was there last week but rented from Sixt this time around. Managed to bag a Mercedes E350 for £200 for the week including fuel, drivers, taxes and insurance. They tried to sell us GPS but we're pretty familiar with the area and the car had an inbuilt one anyway!
The only downsides are that they are off-site which means you have to wait for a coach to pick you up from the airport, their car lot is tiny and they claimed I had hired a Nissan Sentra and offered to upgrade me to an E class for only $5 extra a day until I pointed out that I had infact hired an E class so they won't be charging me extra for it.
Oh and they include a deductable (excess) too incase of damage. A little odd really as you can rent a Corvette, Mustang GT, Challenger R/T or Camaro SS from Hertz with NO excess if you have the Loss Damage Waiver.
If I dont take the Thomson package I'll be renting from Alamo. There's (at least) six of us so it will either be a Toyota Sienna or Cadillac Escalade. Price for Escalade seems a reasonable £500 for 10 days.If you rent something from the prestige/adrenaline range from hertz they come with Neverlost pre-installed.
Incidentally, I was there last week but rented from Sixt this time around. Managed to bag a Mercedes E350 for £200 for the week including fuel, drivers, taxes and insurance. They tried to sell us GPS but we're pretty familiar with the area and the car had an inbuilt one anyway!
The only downsides are that they are off-site which means you have to wait for a coach to pick you up from the airport, their car lot is tiny and they claimed I had hired a Nissan Sentra and offered to upgrade me to an E class for only $5 extra a day until I pointed out that I had infact hired an E class so they won't be charging me extra for it.
Oh and they include a deductable (excess) too incase of damage. A little odd really as you can rent a Corvette, Mustang GT, Challenger R/T or Camaro SS from Hertz with NO excess if you have the Loss Damage Waiver.
Robatr0n said:
That's pretty reasonable if you can get your hands on the Escalade. Pretty comfortable they are too.
We rented one a few years back to drive from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale and it was a nice place to be so we tried to rent one from Boston to Rhode Island and from Rhode Island through Conneticut to New York city. But sad;y they only had a Suburban available which left us dissapointed... until we got in the thing. It was practically fully loaded, nice to drive and had a nice throaty V8.
Might be getting confused - that's the rate for a Chevrolet Tahoe "or similar".We rented one a few years back to drive from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale and it was a nice place to be so we tried to rent one from Boston to Rhode Island and from Rhode Island through Conneticut to New York city. But sad;y they only had a Suburban available which left us dissapointed... until we got in the thing. It was practically fully loaded, nice to drive and had a nice throaty V8.
Would an Escalade be classed as "or similar" ?
5potTurbo said:
A Chevy Tahoe "or similar" is likely to be something like a Ford Explorer or Jeep GC - not something costing double.
Escalades, being the U.S. most stolen car, are pricey to hire - unless you're very lucky at the rental co., which is unlikely.
Are the Explorerr & JGC 7-seaters? I though they were 5. ?Escalades, being the U.S. most stolen car, are pricey to hire - unless you're very lucky at the rental co., which is unlikely.
Now at Stage 3 - car hire
There will be at least 6 of us traveling (plus associated paraphernalia as mentioned by FiF. I'm looking at 4 large trunks, plus two smaller suitcases.
Will a Grand Caravan or a Toyota Sienna be sufficient? For UK comparison purposes I'd be OK in a Ford Galaxy with the 7th seat flat,
There will be at least 6 of us traveling (plus associated paraphernalia as mentioned by FiF. I'm looking at 4 large trunks, plus two smaller suitcases.
Will a Grand Caravan or a Toyota Sienna be sufficient? For UK comparison purposes I'd be OK in a Ford Galaxy with the 7th seat flat,
Crafty_ said:
We had a Sienna in 2008, 5 of us with a case each + a 2yr old and associated gear, just about fitted although the journey from/to the airport was pretty chocker. When you have the last row of seats up (which you will) the boot is somewhat cavernous - see: Sienna Boot, erm I mean trunk
Don't know about the others.
That sounds similar to us (3 adults/3 kids / 5 to 6 cases).Don't know about the others.
I'm guessing I will be able to drop seats 7 and 8 if I need to ?
Interesting linky btw
What's the smallest 7 seater anybody's been allocated ?
Yeah - was thinking along the same lines.
Any suggestions as to mobile phones? We will be a large group and, in all likelihood, wanting to split up. It would be useful if we could phone each other if we get separated but I don't fancy paying £1.10pm. Best bet seems to be to get 2 local PAYG handsets?
Any suggestions as to mobile phones? We will be a large group and, in all likelihood, wanting to split up. It would be useful if we could phone each other if we get separated but I don't fancy paying £1.10pm. Best bet seems to be to get 2 local PAYG handsets?
Roger Woods said:
We have F1895 on owners direct - always happy to do a deal for PH'ers
Cheers Roger - that looks very nice (and pretty close to what I think we need IMO). At the moment I'm collecting a list of suitable villas with a view to deciding April-time. Reason for the delay is that I think some other family members might want to tag along, in which case we'll need a bigger place.
Thanks again
Roger Woods said:
No problem, yep we are very close to all the places most people want to visit, if you have not booked your flights yet, dont dismiss flying into Tampa, we 'saved' £1200 on our flights for 6 of us in 2011 and picking up the hire car was so much easier than MCO. if you have any questions please just ask.
Thanks for the offer Roger. Tampa seems a lot further away than Orlando or SFB. Not sure I fancy driving 100 miles plus after a 10 hr flight....RicksAlfas said:
Deva Link said:
Buy a copy of this map http://www.orlandomaps.co.uk befoe you go, it's brilliant
It is indeed very good. If you have an iPhone the Navigon satnav is excellent and doesn't use any data. I think it was about £20 to download BEFORE you go!
Roger Woods said:
We use this place almost every visit now:
http://www.kgstickets.com/
Well worth a look, DONT buy the cheap tickets from anyone standing outside a supermarket etc - They look for the brits!
Thanks - looks likes a massive saving http://www.kgstickets.com/
Well worth a look, DONT buy the cheap tickets from anyone standing outside a supermarket etc - They look for the brits!
How do you use them? Do you pre-order and deliver to UK or drive down and pick them up when you're there ?
Lauryn said:
I went with my other half in July for a fortnight this summer - stayed in a 2 bedroom villa (which actually turned out to be a 3 bed), booked flights with extra luggage, meals etc, that came in at £2300 total, plus the car hire was around £350 from memory, so £2650 just for the holiday itself. We bought our own Tom Tom with international maps for less than £100 instead of paying extra to have one included with the car for a small fortune, plus it's ours to keep and can always be sold for a return.
We put £1k each on one of those Thomas Cook cash cards, and then separate money to buy clothes, shoes, gifts etc.
We came back with £400 on the shared card - so it cost us £1600 on fuel, food (eating out every single night and most lunches as well, plus doughnuts and sweets galore), doing all our activities including going to Disney, Universal Studios, Kennedy Space Centre, airboat tours, shooting ranges, cinema trips, big shops for the villa at Walmart that we didn't even need - after 4 days I had to check what we had left because I thought we would have needed to top it up, I can't believe how cheap Florida is!
So really it was just over £4k for 2 adults spending money like it was going out of fashion and having an excellent holiday.
From my experience, tickets wise there are a LOT of the people offering Disney tickets etc for $50 - those are passes they've bought back from people who didn't use the full allocation, it's a little dodgy because they take your fingerprints when you enter the park, I bought one of them unaware but got in absolutely fine. We were recommended all these places to go to get cheaper tickets but in all honesty, buying them at the parks is fine and not much dearer, plus a lot safer. Maybe I'm just too cautious or lazy but shopping around and getting second hand tickets is just a pain, keep it clean and legit in my opinion. We went to Magic Kingdom which was brilliant, the other parks look great but we spent time doing a lot of other things there. Disney is MUCH better than Universal in my eyes.
I can't wait to go back, brilliant place! Your kids will love it.
Thanks We put £1k each on one of those Thomas Cook cash cards, and then separate money to buy clothes, shoes, gifts etc.
We came back with £400 on the shared card - so it cost us £1600 on fuel, food (eating out every single night and most lunches as well, plus doughnuts and sweets galore), doing all our activities including going to Disney, Universal Studios, Kennedy Space Centre, airboat tours, shooting ranges, cinema trips, big shops for the villa at Walmart that we didn't even need - after 4 days I had to check what we had left because I thought we would have needed to top it up, I can't believe how cheap Florida is!
So really it was just over £4k for 2 adults spending money like it was going out of fashion and having an excellent holiday.
From my experience, tickets wise there are a LOT of the people offering Disney tickets etc for $50 - those are passes they've bought back from people who didn't use the full allocation, it's a little dodgy because they take your fingerprints when you enter the park, I bought one of them unaware but got in absolutely fine. We were recommended all these places to go to get cheaper tickets but in all honesty, buying them at the parks is fine and not much dearer, plus a lot safer. Maybe I'm just too cautious or lazy but shopping around and getting second hand tickets is just a pain, keep it clean and legit in my opinion. We went to Magic Kingdom which was brilliant, the other parks look great but we spent time doing a lot of other things there. Disney is MUCH better than Universal in my eyes.
I can't wait to go back, brilliant place! Your kids will love it.
Edited by Lauryn on Friday 26th October 12:28
Yes - I'm budgeting along similar lines (about £2k-£2.5k per head). Don't think my youngest two will be the problem but my wife and eldest daughter Do like to shop
Not sure if I'll be able to go back within 3-5 years so I'm intending on making it "one to remember" :smile:RicksAlfas said:
Countdown said:
How does Navigon compare with Navfree? I'll be buying a TomTom so this will just be a backup....
I don't know as I've never used Navfree. The Navigon did the whole "proper" sat nav thing. Turn by turn, street names, speed warnings and so on. I took it instead of a TomTom as I didn't want to be forking out for one I'd only use for two weeks and it worked brilliantly. If you're buying a TomTom you don't need this as well, but you could use this instead of a TomTom. You're not going to remote jungle country, you're going to the most sign posted place known to man!
). At the moment the plan isTomTom USA
NavFree on IPhone
Hard copy "Orlando Map" thingy as referred to by an earlier poster.
Deva Link said:
Which do you think are a lot cheaper? Bear in mind those prices are plus tax.
The 7-day "Magic Your way" are coming out at $1710, which is roughly £1,200 at current exchange rates? AFAICS similar tickets through Thomson/Virgin are £1,700 sterling. Thats £275 for 5 adults (>9) and 1 child.For anyone who is having a mainly Disney focussed holiday I always suggest just biting the bullet and buying the Ultimate tickets which are only available in the UK.
Deva Link said:
You really don't want a limited numer of days ticket, only to arrive at a park and it's rammed for some reason, or the weather's crap, or one of you is having an off day. With an Ultimate ticket you can chop and change your arrangments without it being a financial disaster, and you can go for a few hours, perhaps in an evening, without feeling that you've wasted a day of the ticket.
Fair point. Tickets will be the last thing I get as there doesn't seem to be the same level of advance purcahse required.Deva Link said:
That $1710 will be plus tax, which I think is 6.5%.
I suppose looking at 7 days distorts it a bit - for years Disney has sold the 14 day Ultimate pass for the same price as 7. Their current price (on WDW UK) is £252 for adults and £232 for kids. That does also include water park admission and park hopper which you may or may not find useful.
So you're really looking at a difference of £200, which across 6 people and 2 weeks would be an absolute no-brainer to me. But YMMV.
Will be having another look as we are now going for 14 days rather than 10. I suppose looking at 7 days distorts it a bit - for years Disney has sold the 14 day Ultimate pass for the same price as 7. Their current price (on WDW UK) is £252 for adults and £232 for kids. That does also include water park admission and park hopper which you may or may not find useful.
So you're really looking at a difference of £200, which across 6 people and 2 weeks would be an absolute no-brainer to me. But YMMV.
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