Florida For Family Of 3 - October
Discussion
We are looking at booking our holiday for next year shortly, and looking at Florida in October, it's our son's last year of junior school next year so really it's the last time we want to take him out of school and avoid the extra costs involved in going during term time. We are looking at probably going fly/drive with Virgin from Manchester for 10 nights. Never been to Florida before, and unlikely we will be able to afford it again any time soon so we need to make sure we get things right.
We know the flights, accommodation (apartment) and car hire will be around the £1,200 mark each - plus we are working on around £1,000 in total for the parks. What we are struggling on budgeting for is the food and/or other expenses (petrol etc) - now I realise it's a 'how longs a piece of string' type question, but anybody have any ideas what we should be working on for this? After checking trip advisor and other forums estimates vary from £50/person/day to around £200. We don't really drink and don't have any elaborate requirements for food so would be happy with burgers/pasta/BBQ type food in the main and also happy to make an odd meal or breakfast in the apartment.
Does anybody have any other suggestions/comments/input that may help us please?
thanks
We know the flights, accommodation (apartment) and car hire will be around the £1,200 mark each - plus we are working on around £1,000 in total for the parks. What we are struggling on budgeting for is the food and/or other expenses (petrol etc) - now I realise it's a 'how longs a piece of string' type question, but anybody have any ideas what we should be working on for this? After checking trip advisor and other forums estimates vary from £50/person/day to around £200. We don't really drink and don't have any elaborate requirements for food so would be happy with burgers/pasta/BBQ type food in the main and also happy to make an odd meal or breakfast in the apartment.
Does anybody have any other suggestions/comments/input that may help us please?
thanks
We must've been to Florida for getting on for 20 times over the years, at different times of year. We've found the best time to be end of Nov after Thanksgiving (the last Thurs in Nov), as the weather is still in the high 20's - plenty warm enough, without the extreme heat and humidity, and daily thunderstorms that you get in July/Aug. Also, the theme parks are really quiet, with no huge crowds, and they all have the Xmas decorations up. The crowds starts to build again mid-Dec.
Your budget of £1k sounds about right for tickets. If you stay on International Drive, there's loads of restaurants to suit all tastes and budgets. We usually budget on £100/$150 a day spends for 4 of us, but it's very rare we spend that much.
If you booked through somewhere like Travel City Direct for late Nov, you'd be looking at £2k for 3 of you, plus an extra £300-ish for the upgraded car insurance with loss damage protection (yep, you need that, don't go without, as the basic insurance is like 3rd party only, leaving you potentially having to pay for a new car if the unthinkable happens).
Hope that helps!
Edited to add: if you book through Travel City Direct, it's a subsidiary of Virgin, so you fly on Virgin Atlantic (high-spec'd aircraft even in economy, and able to pre-book seats for free), and fly into Orlando International as oppose to Sanford which the majority of other package holiday companies use, and that is only about 10 miles away from International Drive as oppose to nearly 49 miles like Sanford.
Also - if it's your 1st time there, you will struggle to cram it all into 2 weeks and you'll end up getting burned out if not careful. It's only a couple of hundred more quid to stay for an extra week to make it 3 weeks, but obviously you'll need an extra weeks worth of spends.
Your budget of £1k sounds about right for tickets. If you stay on International Drive, there's loads of restaurants to suit all tastes and budgets. We usually budget on £100/$150 a day spends for 4 of us, but it's very rare we spend that much.
If you booked through somewhere like Travel City Direct for late Nov, you'd be looking at £2k for 3 of you, plus an extra £300-ish for the upgraded car insurance with loss damage protection (yep, you need that, don't go without, as the basic insurance is like 3rd party only, leaving you potentially having to pay for a new car if the unthinkable happens).
Hope that helps!
Edited to add: if you book through Travel City Direct, it's a subsidiary of Virgin, so you fly on Virgin Atlantic (high-spec'd aircraft even in economy, and able to pre-book seats for free), and fly into Orlando International as oppose to Sanford which the majority of other package holiday companies use, and that is only about 10 miles away from International Drive as oppose to nearly 49 miles like Sanford.
Also - if it's your 1st time there, you will struggle to cram it all into 2 weeks and you'll end up getting burned out if not careful. It's only a couple of hundred more quid to stay for an extra week to make it 3 weeks, but obviously you'll need an extra weeks worth of spends.
Edited by damon80 on Monday 28th December 19:01
Edited by damon80 on Monday 28th December 19:46
Just back from 3 weeks in Florida, you can forget petrol costs, it is small change. Food as you would expect covers a huge range of quality, quantity and price. Steak restaurants start around the $20pp and you can go lower for fast food outlets or search on trip advisor for the high end restaurants. So the choice is yours, we had an approx budget of around $70 for us both of us and we ate very well.
What is quite expensive is tipping, the service industries have both hands out constantly, the restaurant bills nearly always print the suggested tip, worked out at 18%, 20% and 25% - it can be a major cost for a holiday. Every time you have a boat trip, bus trip, tour, car parked, suitcases delivered, room cleaned, taxi - the feckers want a small mortgage for their assistance, it gets pretty wearing to be honest.
But it is still a great country and we love it!
What is quite expensive is tipping, the service industries have both hands out constantly, the restaurant bills nearly always print the suggested tip, worked out at 18%, 20% and 25% - it can be a major cost for a holiday. Every time you have a boat trip, bus trip, tour, car parked, suitcases delivered, room cleaned, taxi - the feckers want a small mortgage for their assistance, it gets pretty wearing to be honest.
But it is still a great country and we love it!
I think your top heavy on your apartment, flight and car costs. If it's more than 3 of you definitely so.
Look at travelling from Dublin. That simple short (cheap)hop can save a lot to be spent on upgrades etc.
Assuming that it's just 3 of you....
I reckon flights £425 each
Villa £1k
Car Hire - £350
so £875 each, or even less if it's more than 3.....
Again depends on kids.... We've stayed at Villas and hotels. Hotels are great as there are always other kids for your kids to play with. But it sometimes gets a bit expensive....
Water parks - our daughter (9 now), has always loved Aquatica, which is Seaworlds water park. Never as busy as the Disney waterparks it's always one of the best value tickets that we get. Often we do a day at Aquatica alternating with a day at the other parks.
Look at travelling from Dublin. That simple short (cheap)hop can save a lot to be spent on upgrades etc.
Assuming that it's just 3 of you....
I reckon flights £425 each
Villa £1k
Car Hire - £350
so £875 each, or even less if it's more than 3.....
Again depends on kids.... We've stayed at Villas and hotels. Hotels are great as there are always other kids for your kids to play with. But it sometimes gets a bit expensive....
Water parks - our daughter (9 now), has always loved Aquatica, which is Seaworlds water park. Never as busy as the Disney waterparks it's always one of the best value tickets that we get. Often we do a day at Aquatica alternating with a day at the other parks.
A couple of thoughts
- October : great time to go as weather is good (not extreme), parks traffic is reasonable (probably no longer a 'quiet' month but not horrendous either) and in WDW you have good seasonal events (Halloween in Magic Kingdom and Food&Wine in Epcot). You get quite a lot of Scots heading over this month as they get their 2 week bank holiday.
- As said above you'll find two weeks isn't enough to cover everything. Personally, I wouldn't extend to 3 weeks - you don't know yet if you'll love the place or not. Instead, accept you will need to strike some things out. When we had 2 weeks in October we did
- about 6 days spread across the 4 main Disney parks - Epcot, magic kingdom, animal kingdom and Hollywood Studios (but dipped on-site on other days for the evening)
- 1 day at one of the Disney water parks (typhoon lagoon
- 1 day at Universal Studios and Universal Islands of Adventure
- 1 day at Kennedy space Centre
- 2 Days at Discovery Cove and Seaworld (day each)
- 2 days in the malls
So various places like Busch Gardens, the beaches, etc skipped. Should definitely have made it 2 days for universal and could have foregone a day at Disney or missed Seaworld. All personal choice but do not try to do everything!!
- October : great time to go as weather is good (not extreme), parks traffic is reasonable (probably no longer a 'quiet' month but not horrendous either) and in WDW you have good seasonal events (Halloween in Magic Kingdom and Food&Wine in Epcot). You get quite a lot of Scots heading over this month as they get their 2 week bank holiday.
- As said above you'll find two weeks isn't enough to cover everything. Personally, I wouldn't extend to 3 weeks - you don't know yet if you'll love the place or not. Instead, accept you will need to strike some things out. When we had 2 weeks in October we did
- about 6 days spread across the 4 main Disney parks - Epcot, magic kingdom, animal kingdom and Hollywood Studios (but dipped on-site on other days for the evening)
- 1 day at one of the Disney water parks (typhoon lagoon
- 1 day at Universal Studios and Universal Islands of Adventure
- 1 day at Kennedy space Centre
- 2 Days at Discovery Cove and Seaworld (day each)
- 2 days in the malls
So various places like Busch Gardens, the beaches, etc skipped. Should definitely have made it 2 days for universal and could have foregone a day at Disney or missed Seaworld. All personal choice but do not try to do everything!!
HOGEPH said:
Get over to thedibb.co.uk, lots of advice available there.
ThisWe did exactly the same thing in 2014 (son now in year 7). We went for 2 weeks. Don't forget that in week 1 you should plan to be in the parks as the gates open (jet lag works in your favour) and so early breakfast before you leave but you'll probably be back in the apartment late afternoon so you can cook / eat in. We took packed lunch to the water parks as the food was crap anyway !
As the holiday progresses you'll be more likely to last longer and possibly eat out if you want. We always had breakfast "at home" and probably ate back at the house 50% of the time, although we did get pizza's and a takeaway in that aswell. Week 1, when you are awake at 4 am anyway, can be long days if you are not careful and spoile the holidays. In 2 weeks we had 2 "rest days" when we just dossed around the house ( we had a pool which helped).
On the parks....depends on the "little one". Our lad wasn't interested in Disney....so we did Busch Gardens, the water parks, Sea World, Discovery Cove (it was his birthday when we were out there, expensive but a truly memorable day), Universal & 1 day at NASA
Edited by Steve Campbell on Monday 28th December 22:22
October is a good time of year, we prefer November as it's quieter and the humidity drops usually - although this year the start of November was very hot and humid.
As people have said above, get the highest insurance for the car. If you want to stay out of the disney area, I recommend the Hawthorn Suites. Just on the edge of downtown disney and is a disney partner hotel. Very much a no frills hotel though, breakfast is ok, rooms ok but location is perfect.
If you want to book through virgin, you have to go to them direct now. Flying into orlando is much easier than sanford.
Johnny Rockets is a great place for burgers too
Edit: we went with virgin , had the virgin lounge at Manchester and it was 2 adults and 2 children and it was just over 2600 total.
Food wise, we had breakfast at the hotel, bought food from Walmart to take into the parks for lunch and tea we either went out or again had food from Walmart. We probably spent £250-£300 on food, tops.
As people have said above, get the highest insurance for the car. If you want to stay out of the disney area, I recommend the Hawthorn Suites. Just on the edge of downtown disney and is a disney partner hotel. Very much a no frills hotel though, breakfast is ok, rooms ok but location is perfect.
If you want to book through virgin, you have to go to them direct now. Flying into orlando is much easier than sanford.
Johnny Rockets is a great place for burgers too
Edit: we went with virgin , had the virgin lounge at Manchester and it was 2 adults and 2 children and it was just over 2600 total.
Food wise, we had breakfast at the hotel, bought food from Walmart to take into the parks for lunch and tea we either went out or again had food from Walmart. We probably spent £250-£300 on food, tops.
Edited by Lgfst on Monday 28th December 22:26
Right thanks for all the suggestions, had a good luck and we have come up with the following:
4th October for 10 nights (comments taken on board about even 14 days not being long enough but due to holiday entitlement from work and other commitments this is the longest we can stretch to).
Hard Rock Universal Hotel, standard room only.
Orlando Flexi Ticket Plus (2 adults, 1 child)
Decent enough Virgin flights from Manchester,
Price £4,100
Now the price we have at the moment is from Travel City Direct (£4,400+ direct with Virgin) and includes car hire. We are thinking of knocking this off and getting about on the transfer bus and taxi, saves us the hassle of driving and extra/over cost of insurance. Does anybody have any thoughts on these please?
Going to do some proper shopping round to nail the price down now we have a good idea of what we want.
4th October for 10 nights (comments taken on board about even 14 days not being long enough but due to holiday entitlement from work and other commitments this is the longest we can stretch to).
Hard Rock Universal Hotel, standard room only.
Orlando Flexi Ticket Plus (2 adults, 1 child)
Decent enough Virgin flights from Manchester,
Price £4,100
Now the price we have at the moment is from Travel City Direct (£4,400+ direct with Virgin) and includes car hire. We are thinking of knocking this off and getting about on the transfer bus and taxi, saves us the hassle of driving and extra/over cost of insurance. Does anybody have any thoughts on these please?
Going to do some proper shopping round to nail the price down now we have a good idea of what we want.
I travel to Florida twice a year and would always recommend getting a car; I find driving in FL really easy and it will give you so much more flexibility. You really do need a car to go anywhere!
I arrived here on Christmas Eve and was delighted to find the hire car was a Ford Mustang with only 30 miles on it
I arrived here on Christmas Eve and was delighted to find the hire car was a Ford Mustang with only 30 miles on it
Matt Harper said:
Don't come here for a holiday and then totally compromise the whole experience by having to rely on s
tty public transport. Driving here is way easier/more relaxed than in UK.
^WHStty public transport. Driving here is way easier/more relaxed than in UK.We'd rather walk than take public transport in the USA it is truly grim unless it's in somewhere like NY
Driving USA is so easy
Same holiday with BA is about £3k (in sale). Flights are awkward, in that it's a flight to Heathrow, then a bus to Gatwick. Same holiday direct from Gatwick is £3,200.
For about £3k you can connect in JFK, or somewhere else US side. We've done connections with a nine year old, and they view it as exciting!
Car Hire from Hertz is between £250 and £300.... Cheaper alternatives probably available. PS don't use the bus in Florida...
For about £3k you can connect in JFK, or somewhere else US side. We've done connections with a nine year old, and they view it as exciting!
Car Hire from Hertz is between £250 and £300.... Cheaper alternatives probably available. PS don't use the bus in Florida...
We have just booked Florida for October this year. We used flight centre for the flights and they matched uscarhire.com (or similar) for the car hire. It was cheaper than Fly drives from either BA and Virgin. We are flying Virgin.
I personally wouldn't stay in an apartment when the villas are plentiful and excellent value for money. We are paying for £495 for ours and you can go cheaper than that if you want. However I understand why people want t stay in the hotels.
Definitely do Kennedy Space Centre. It is a fantastic day out and I still rate it as the best attraction in Florida for adults. However, it does help if you are interested in the technology and the engineering.
SeaWorld would be a no for me. OP might want to watch the Black Fish Documentary...
Bush Gardens is still a good zoo before you have even speed on any of the roller coasters. We paid to feed some giraffes there and that was good fun.
I'm also looking into a Daytona track visit, but that is subject to their availability. As a PHer, you should be looking into that too. Think it's an hour from Orlando.
Driving in Florida is a doddle, so I scho other people's statements about avoiding public transport. Fuel is also really cheap.
Think my wife and I have done Florida 15 times between us and I expect the trip in October won't be our last.
I personally wouldn't stay in an apartment when the villas are plentiful and excellent value for money. We are paying for £495 for ours and you can go cheaper than that if you want. However I understand why people want t stay in the hotels.
Definitely do Kennedy Space Centre. It is a fantastic day out and I still rate it as the best attraction in Florida for adults. However, it does help if you are interested in the technology and the engineering.
SeaWorld would be a no for me. OP might want to watch the Black Fish Documentary...
Bush Gardens is still a good zoo before you have even speed on any of the roller coasters. We paid to feed some giraffes there and that was good fun.
I'm also looking into a Daytona track visit, but that is subject to their availability. As a PHer, you should be looking into that too. Think it's an hour from Orlando.
Driving in Florida is a doddle, so I scho other people's statements about avoiding public transport. Fuel is also really cheap.
Think my wife and I have done Florida 15 times between us and I expect the trip in October won't be our last.
HOGEPH said:
Get over to thedibb.co.uk, lots of advice available there.
Meh, they seem to peddle staying in Villa's on that site in my experience. Total waste of time - out of all the times we've been there over the years, stayed in a villa once and said never again.- day out at the theme parks and fancy a beer round the pool? Nope, cos someone has to drive to a restaurant for your tea.
- fancy brekkie in bed one day? Nope, unless one of you get up to cook it.
- eat all the meals in the villa? Nope, the price of meat etc makes it uneconomical (even if you're a Costco member - membership is valid over there btw), you couldn't make a meal for the price the restaurants charge).
We enjoy walking , but the yanks don't. Didn't realise how much that was the case still we stayed in a villa just off the 192. It was like "The Trueman Show"! Whereas on I-drive, there's a load of choice of restaurants, plenty of tat shops to keep the kids amused, and some nice walking.
Apologies if my assumption is incorrect about thedibb, but that was our experience when reading throu the threads there.
Muskythedog said:
Right thanks for all the suggestions, had a good luck and we have come up with the following:
4th October for 10 nights (comments taken on board about even 14 days not being long enough but due to holiday entitlement from work and other commitments this is the longest we can stretch to).
Hard Rock Universal Hotel, standard room only.
Orlando Flexi Ticket Plus (2 adults, 1 child)
Decent enough Virgin flights from Manchester,
Price £4,100
Now the price we have at the moment is from Travel City Direct (£4,400+ direct with Virgin) and includes car hire. We are thinking of knocking this off and getting about on the transfer bus and taxi, saves us the hassle of driving and extra/over cost of insurance. Does anybody have any thoughts on these please?
Going to do some proper shopping round to nail the price down now we have a good idea of what we want.
Oh my lord, that's dear! You're obviously more of a powerfully-built business man than me! 4th October for 10 nights (comments taken on board about even 14 days not being long enough but due to holiday entitlement from work and other commitments this is the longest we can stretch to).
Hard Rock Universal Hotel, standard room only.
Orlando Flexi Ticket Plus (2 adults, 1 child)
Decent enough Virgin flights from Manchester,
Price £4,100
Now the price we have at the moment is from Travel City Direct (£4,400+ direct with Virgin) and includes car hire. We are thinking of knocking this off and getting about on the transfer bus and taxi, saves us the hassle of driving and extra/over cost of insurance. Does anybody have any thoughts on these please?
Going to do some proper shopping round to nail the price down now we have a good idea of what we want.
Trust me, after a day, you will be sick of hotel shuttles. In fact, I'm not entirely convinced that Universal hotels even have shuttles to Disnet properties. Just get a car - you're on Pistonheads FFS, and upgrade it to summut big and obnoxious
You must get the upgraded car insurance. It isn't a rip-off, and is cheaper booking over here than in the States. For the sake of £300, it isn't worth the risk (if you prang the car, you have to pay - at their rates. What looks like a small scratch that'd t-cut out suddenly turns into a new panel and full respray being needed. Not worth the aggro).
damon80 said:
Well, f**k it, we've put our money where my mouth is, and booked it! Fly out end of Nov for 2 weeks.
A whisker over £2k for us, flying with Virgin (booked through TCD), straight into MCO as oppose to SFD. Staying on I-drive.
Counting down the days already!
Please get yourself a car. its a massive mistake not to have one out there.A whisker over £2k for us, flying with Virgin (booked through TCD), straight into MCO as oppose to SFD. Staying on I-drive.
Counting down the days already!
Enjoy your holiday.
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