Florida '25 - Planning & Advice

[Davie_GLA]

Afternoon all,

We're no strangers to Florida having been there many times over the last 20 years but we haven't been since 2019 then i guess everything changed.

We are 20 years married next June and are planning on being there for our anniversiary. We've already secured a nice villa and are just waiting on the flight prices releasing for the dates we are looking for and deciding if it's enough of a saving to fly from Manchester (we would be travelling from Glasgow).

We're looking at car hire and compared to 2019 everything is at least 30% more expensive, such is the way of everythingn i guess but wondered if you guys might have some tips n tricks?

We got a great deal the last time we were there on a Navigator. Which was awesome but was enormous. Looking at options from the usual suspects at the moment and for an 'SUV' it's looking like ~£700 for the duration. Better than i thought but i'm not convinced the space will be there for the luggage hoofing from and back to the airport (Which now seems to be Melborne rather than MCO depending on carrier).

Anyone did this recently? Fly-Drive packages are expensive rather than booking separately.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

It's only TUI from Melbourne personally I'd never use it but I won't fly tui again

For me BA from Heathrow or aer Lingus from man at a push virgin as they fly into the now wrong terminal at MCO

Car hire try Alamo Brits
https://www.alamo.co.uk/en/car-hire-deals/brits-re...


We never book a package and always use Alamo 15 nights std suv $923 it's come down about $200 in the last month we always book the pay later rate so it's easy to rebook I've now rebooked this hire 4 times due to price decreases. In my experience it's cheapest between 6 week 2 weeks out from hire date I check every few days


Any questions just ask

Edited by Trustmeimadoctor on Saturday 22 June 14:30

Edited by Trustmeimadoctor on Saturday 22 June 14:36

[Chucklehead]

Car hire prices are gradually falling back towards 2019 levels, but realistically still a good couple years off.

I expect next year will be 15-20% cheaper on a like for like hire.

By all means, book something now with free cancellation and keep checking. You'll see some drops 6 months out, but it'll be within the 90, then 30 day mark that you see bigger changes.

[J210]

Most people on the Disney boards book car hire with free cancelations and cancel and rebook all the time

[Trustmeimadoctor]

Yup it's the best way
I usually then fix at about 4 weeks out to get it even cheaper but as I say I check every few days obviously look at the dollar price not pound as you pay in dollars and the exchange rate varies but the underlying rate doesn't

[ecsrobin]

Another for Alamo brits, don’t under estimate how expensive food has got out there, even from the supermarkets. There is a good thread on here about Orlando that’s pretty recent if you scroll a couple of pages covering that.

[AB]

Turo... used it in January and got a beautiful Corvette for the week cheaper than anything the car hire places had to offer. I was over there playing golf with a mate, we got into an Uber to our villa and the car was delivered the next day. Reverse on the way back. Much easier than queuing at the airport on arrival.

[Davie_GLA]

Thanks all, i'll look into all of these. I didn't know about Turo! That looks v interesting to get something a bit more attractive than the run of the mill white goods SUV type thing.

I'm not affiliated with this at all but looking at some of the Disney forums this site is regularly mentioned; it's referred to as "Andy Discount Florida Car Hire".

https://www.discountfloridacarhire.co.uk/

Seems to offer no deposit booking, free cancellation etc.

My only real world requirements are enough space to get from the airport to the villa with the luggage (6 cases and a couple of ruck sacks) and ferry us to and from the parks, dinner, over to clearwater and over to Kennedy. The Licoln Navigator was amazing, but can't see it listed and if i remember rightly i upgraded to it when i got to the airport for a nominal fee.

[AB]

I've used Andy before following a recommendation from here so can vouch for him.

But give Turo a proper look also - you can pay a small premium for them to meet you at the airport. Once you're set up in the app, handover is easy.

[DodgyGeezer]

Davie_GLA said:

Thanks all, i'll look into all of these. I didn't know about Turo! That looks v interesting to get something a bit more attractive than the run of the mill white goods SUV type thing.

I'm not affiliated with this at all but looking at some of the Disney forums this site is regularly mentioned; it's referred to as "Andy Discount Florida Car Hire".

https://www.discountfloridacarhire.co.uk/

Seems to offer no deposit booking, free cancellation etc.

My only real world requirements are enough space to get from the airport to the villa with the luggage (6 cases and a couple of ruck sacks) and ferry us to and from the parks, dinner, over to clearwater and over to Kennedy. The Licoln Navigator was amazing, but can't see it listed and if i remember rightly i upgraded to it when i got to the airport for a nominal fee.

another thumbs up for discountfloridacarhire.co. - the DIBB is a reasonable site to use/view only issue (for me) is that they seem to treat/refer to house of mouse in the same venerated terms as some PHers refer to 911's/BMW's...

As an aside - traffic there these days is horrendous

[Davie_GLA]

DodgyGeezer said:

another thumbs up for discountfloridacarhire.co. - the DIBB is a reasonable site to use/view only issue (for me) is that they seem to treat/refer to house of mouse in the same venerated terms as some PHers refer to 911's/BMW's...

As an aside - traffic there these days is horrendous

Heh, i know exactly what you mean; full confession i do get a bit excited myself when it get's close to MouseHouse.

Do you mean traffic in and out of Magic Kingdom or just in general? We always tend to get a villa just off the 192 and inevitably end up on i4. Getting back into Kissimmee was always a nightmare but the old car show that they do is quite good fun.

[DodgyGeezer]

Davie_GLA said:

Heh, i know exactly what you mean; full confession i do get a bit excited myself when it get's close to MouseHouse.

Do you mean traffic in and out of Magic Kingdom or just in general? We always tend to get a villa just off the 192 and inevitably end up on i4. Getting back into Kissimmee was always a nightmare but the old car show that they do is quite good fun.

We used Encantada in November (Secret Lake Drive iirc just off the 192) and there is a (semi) short-cut to D which avoids a tonne of traffic ((Sherberth Rd)

[Trustmeimadoctor]

Even that road can be horrific but still better than the 192

Especially if your having to cross the 192

[Davie_GLA]

DodgyGeezer said:

We used Encantada in November (Secret Lake Drive iirc just off the 192) and there is a (semi) short-cut to D which avoids a tonne of traffic ((Sherberth Rd)

Can you give me a bit more detail here? I think i know where you mean as we have always talked about some "secret" road that we never did manage to find.

Edit, found it and it is the road i thought. The villa we have is 15 minutes from Sherberth road and if we take it and head north we only need to get onto th3 192 for a short time, off at mile marker 530. Thank you!

Edited by Davie_GLA on Sunday 23 June 15:07

[Trustmeimadoctor]

It can be horrible that route especially leaving that way

[Davie_GLA]

Now we're cookin! I've even deployed chatGPT to build my itenrary! Some duplication and farting about to do but it creates a nice calendar and builds a framework for the holiday. A lot to fit in over 15 nights. Dates aren't set in stone either at the moment.

I'm amazed at how much this is totalling up to!

Edited by Davie_GLA on Sunday 23 June 17:33

[ecsrobin]

Davie_GLA said:

I'm amazed at how much this is totalling up to!

For a family of 4 I’d expect over £15k.

Here’s the other thread that will have a lot more useful information and stuff that’s already covered here.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[Davie_GLA]

Yeah that’s pretty much where I’m at just now. I recon all said and done I’ll be at 17k. Madness.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

Depends what you do, you could do it for way less than that for 4 people 7k wouldn't be too hard (if your not tied to school holidays)

If your doing both it does add up but buy tickets for universal and everything else at black Friday Disney don't discount really but if you can get blue light discount use that

Edited by Trustmeimadoctor on Sunday 23 June 17:43

[Davie_GLA]

We’re just a family of three but as it’s our anniversary (20 years) I’m going all out to the best of my ability / finances.