Disney Florida - Likely damage
Discussion
r1flyguy1 said:
MGM, now Hollywood studios is not that good anymore, with limited shows and their main attraction an 'American idol' theatre!!!! WTF,. Star tours is still fun though
Toy Story Mania is probably the main attraction there, but the wait will be horrendous good unless you're at the park at opening time.To be honest, I simply wouldn't go at this time of year due to the heat and crowds, and we're going to have to rethink our usual post Easter trips as Disney now aggressively markets to school groups so the place was rammed with kids (who were no trouble, there was just a lot of them).
To be pedantic, Disneyland is the one in California, Disney World is the one in Florida.
Can recommend you get hold of a copy of this :
http://www.amazon.com/Unofficial-Guide-Disney-Worl...
For comparison, we've booked for November in LA - $279 per person ($239 for kids 3-6) which is 3 days of the Disney parks, 1 day Universal and 1 day San Diego Sea World.
Car hire for a full-size is average $35 a day through www.kayak.co.uk (referring on to ebookers) and that is through the major agencies like Alamo, Hertz, Avis.
Not paying the expensive prices for the Disney hotels, staying at properties within walking distance (5-10 mins) of the park and paying $80-100USD - corporate rates for places like Hilton/Sheraton etc. But even without the corporate rates they'd be $150ish so at least $100 cheaper than the Disney resorts.
Can recommend you get hold of a copy of this :
http://www.amazon.com/Unofficial-Guide-Disney-Worl...
For comparison, we've booked for November in LA - $279 per person ($239 for kids 3-6) which is 3 days of the Disney parks, 1 day Universal and 1 day San Diego Sea World.
Car hire for a full-size is average $35 a day through www.kayak.co.uk (referring on to ebookers) and that is through the major agencies like Alamo, Hertz, Avis.
Not paying the expensive prices for the Disney hotels, staying at properties within walking distance (5-10 mins) of the park and paying $80-100USD - corporate rates for places like Hilton/Sheraton etc. But even without the corporate rates they'd be $150ish so at least $100 cheaper than the Disney resorts.
Me and my missus went about 3 years ago. We've been 3 times in total. Last time we went, we booked up about 6 weeks before we were due to fly. We booked and flew with Thomson for 2 weeks, we stayed in fairly cheap accomodation at a quality inn near Buena Vista, we had a car included (PT Cruiser), and also had the Universal ticket included, and got it all for around £750 iirc. I think we spent about £600 - £700 in spending money each.
To be fair, as it was our 3rd time going, we had agreed to do it as cheap as possible. We'd already got lots of pictures of us on rides and some souveniers, we did do a bit of shopping in the second week.
I'd wait until your kids are at least 5 or 6. Perhaps worth having a look at what deals are about now for Sept/Oct as late deals, just to get an idea... Always worth a haggle in the estate agents too...
To be fair, as it was our 3rd time going, we had agreed to do it as cheap as possible. We'd already got lots of pictures of us on rides and some souveniers, we did do a bit of shopping in the second week.
I'd wait until your kids are at least 5 or 6. Perhaps worth having a look at what deals are about now for Sept/Oct as late deals, just to get an idea... Always worth a haggle in the estate agents too...
We are looking to go in about 6 weeks, so far costed as follows:
2 Adults and a 23 month old
- Flights to Miami from Heathrow with Virgin £1100
- Car Hire for 1 week £140 (Hertz Gold Member)
- Liki Tikki Village for 1 week £320 (also get cash back from topcashback with Expedia)
- Car Parking (£90 at Heathrow for Business Plus)
- Tickets 2 x Adult (Seaworld, Aquatica, Discovery Cove and Bush Gardens) £220
- Car park and fuel £70
- Food ($100/day) £450
Total = £2300
To give you an idea we priced up 1 week in Mallorca with a good Thomson resort, came out at £1500 (AI with hire car but no park tickets). I get bored of AI and don't like using a 1 bed apartment for the little one, so when you look at a 2 bed apartment or villa with all the extras you are getting closer to the £2k mark.
Considering the activities in Orlando I think that is well priced, clearly when you have kids over 2 costs mount up on flights, parks and food.
2 Adults and a 23 month old
- Flights to Miami from Heathrow with Virgin £1100
- Car Hire for 1 week £140 (Hertz Gold Member)
- Liki Tikki Village for 1 week £320 (also get cash back from topcashback with Expedia)
- Car Parking (£90 at Heathrow for Business Plus)
- Tickets 2 x Adult (Seaworld, Aquatica, Discovery Cove and Bush Gardens) £220
- Car park and fuel £70
- Food ($100/day) £450
Total = £2300
To give you an idea we priced up 1 week in Mallorca with a good Thomson resort, came out at £1500 (AI with hire car but no park tickets). I get bored of AI and don't like using a 1 bed apartment for the little one, so when you look at a 2 bed apartment or villa with all the extras you are getting closer to the £2k mark.
Considering the activities in Orlando I think that is well priced, clearly when you have kids over 2 costs mount up on flights, parks and food.
Yes it's cheaper than flying into Orlando and there are more direct flight offerings. I week is long enough for me in Orlando TBH, we do the stuff we want to do in about 5 days. In the past I used Miami as we also spent a week in the Keys. It's only a 4-5hr drive to Orlando and I find the airport is much easier to get through, I would be swayed if the tickets were much cheaper.
Omg!
I thought I'd have a quick browse although no intention of going, I'm simply amazed by the costs!! Phenomenal!!!
I was taken about 15 years ago for 2 weeks and stayed on the lake think the hotel was the Grand Floridian, can't find a price for it (maybe doesn't exist) but if a non Disney hotel costs as much as folk are saying my parents must of been mental for staying in a hotel which you could see the castle from.... Thank god kids (well kids who are old enough) are many years away still.... I think I'll need 3 saving pots, uni, car and now Disney ha
I thought I'd have a quick browse although no intention of going, I'm simply amazed by the costs!! Phenomenal!!!
I was taken about 15 years ago for 2 weeks and stayed on the lake think the hotel was the Grand Floridian, can't find a price for it (maybe doesn't exist) but if a non Disney hotel costs as much as folk are saying my parents must of been mental for staying in a hotel which you could see the castle from.... Thank god kids (well kids who are old enough) are many years away still.... I think I'll need 3 saving pots, uni, car and now Disney ha
CooperS said:
Omg!
I thought I'd have a quick browse although no intention of going, I'm simply amazed by the costs!! Phenomenal!!!
I was taken about 15 years ago for 2 weeks and stayed on the lake think the hotel was the Grand Floridian, can't find a price for it (maybe doesn't exist) but if a non Disney hotel costs as much as folk are saying my parents must of been mental for staying in a hotel which you could see the castle from.... Thank god kids (well kids who are old enough) are many years away still.... I think I'll need 3 saving pots, uni, car and now Disney ha
I'm not sure if you're serious or not (post on The Dibb - Disney nutter forum - that you stayed in a hotel that you can't remember but it might have been the Grand Floridian and they'll hunt you down and kill you I thought I'd have a quick browse although no intention of going, I'm simply amazed by the costs!! Phenomenal!!!
I was taken about 15 years ago for 2 weeks and stayed on the lake think the hotel was the Grand Floridian, can't find a price for it (maybe doesn't exist) but if a non Disney hotel costs as much as folk are saying my parents must of been mental for staying in a hotel which you could see the castle from.... Thank god kids (well kids who are old enough) are many years away still.... I think I'll need 3 saving pots, uni, car and now Disney ha
) but staying there for a couple of weeks would add about £4000 to the prices people are indicating.Deva Link said:
I'm not sure if you're serious or not (post on The Dibb - Disney nutter forum - that you stayed in a hotel that you can't remember but it might have been the Grand Floridian and they'll hunt you down and kill you ) but staying there for a couple of weeks would add about £4000 to the prices people are indicating.
HA I was 12, I do remember the whole experimce being fantastic and without trying to be sappy truely magical and something that i still remember being very intensly planned about (for a kid of 12) but was the hotel 4k nice..... If I were my parents Im not sure If id justified it. ) but staying there for a couple of weeks would add about £4000 to the prices people are indicating.thehawk said:
To be pedantic, Disneyland is the one in California, Disney World is the one in Florida.
Can recommend you get hold of a copy of this :
http://www.amazon.com/Unofficial-Guide-Disney-Worl...
For comparison, we've booked for November in LA - $279 per person ($239 for kids 3-6) which is 3 days of the Disney parks, 1 day Universal and 1 day San Diego Sea World.
Car hire for a full-size is average $35 a day through www.kayak.co.uk (referring on to ebookers) and that is through the major agencies like Alamo, Hertz, Avis.
Not paying the expensive prices for the Disney hotels, staying at properties within walking distance (5-10 mins) of the park and paying $80-100USD - corporate rates for places like Hilton/Sheraton etc. But even without the corporate rates they'd be $150ish so at least $100 cheaper than the Disney resorts.
When we were in the part of the US we stayed here first time round.Can recommend you get hold of a copy of this :
http://www.amazon.com/Unofficial-Guide-Disney-Worl...
For comparison, we've booked for November in LA - $279 per person ($239 for kids 3-6) which is 3 days of the Disney parks, 1 day Universal and 1 day San Diego Sea World.
Car hire for a full-size is average $35 a day through www.kayak.co.uk (referring on to ebookers) and that is through the major agencies like Alamo, Hertz, Avis.
Not paying the expensive prices for the Disney hotels, staying at properties within walking distance (5-10 mins) of the park and paying $80-100USD - corporate rates for places like Hilton/Sheraton etc. But even without the corporate rates they'd be $150ish so at least $100 cheaper than the Disney resorts.
http://embassysuites3.hilton.com/en/hotels/califor...
There's a shuttle bus that takes you to the park for a couple of dollars. The driver of which pointed out the shopping arcade opposite the entrance and suggested going there for food and drink as it's considerably cheaper than eating in the park.
Scary prices!
My ma and pa took me and my sister to Disneyland in LA in 1990. We went for 3weeks and did all of the parks plus San Diego and Las Vegas - including my old man getting a plane to fly us over the Grand Canyon. All the hotels we stayed at were good hotels, we had a great big car (well it was to me at the time- a Chevrolet Lumina I think) and flew with Virgin Atlantic.
We went with friends who had little cars and stayed in cheap hotels (they'd all been before but this was our first time). IIRC they spent about 2500 - my mum and dad spent 5k and I think had to remortgage their house.
Reading this post has just made me realise how much my mum and dad gave up to give us an experience like this- no wonder my dad used to work 90hour weeks and I only used to see him when I walked past his study....
Edited to add:- it was also 2dollars to the pound then so food and shopping was very cheap- I think the flights and car and first 3 days accommodation were about 2.5k. When u think of what 5k would have bought you in 1990 I suppose the 10k figures people are saying now don't seem so major...
My ma and pa took me and my sister to Disneyland in LA in 1990. We went for 3weeks and did all of the parks plus San Diego and Las Vegas - including my old man getting a plane to fly us over the Grand Canyon. All the hotels we stayed at were good hotels, we had a great big car (well it was to me at the time- a Chevrolet Lumina I think) and flew with Virgin Atlantic.
We went with friends who had little cars and stayed in cheap hotels (they'd all been before but this was our first time). IIRC they spent about 2500 - my mum and dad spent 5k and I think had to remortgage their house.
Reading this post has just made me realise how much my mum and dad gave up to give us an experience like this- no wonder my dad used to work 90hour weeks and I only used to see him when I walked past his study....
Edited to add:- it was also 2dollars to the pound then so food and shopping was very cheap- I think the flights and car and first 3 days accommodation were about 2.5k. When u think of what 5k would have bought you in 1990 I suppose the 10k figures people are saying now don't seem so major...
Edited by dasherdiablo1 on Sunday 12th August 12:05
There's my Disney MAgic dream shattered :<Just back a few weeks ago. We booked last August and flew out at the start of July. It was our 5th time there so we didn't bother with parks (been there, done that). There were 4 adults, staying in a 2 bed suite in Floridays on iDrive (#1 on tripadvisor), and no car hire, the cost of the flights and acc was around £3,500. Park tickets would probably add £1k. Spending money is about as much as you want to make it. Talking about $100 for a meal in an average restaurant out there. Anyone notice it's got more expensive out there? Groceries have gotten very expensive especially fruit etc.
We where there in October last year which was our 10th time, I noticed that it had gotten a lot more expensive and we also notice a lot of places had closed down on International Drive. We have headed out every but I think it will be a few years before we head back again, still love the place but a need a good break from it now to get that "buzz" back that we use to get on our first four or five trips.
dasherdiablo1 said:
...I think the flights and car and first 3 days accommodation were about 2.5k.
I was going to say that I don't think a California tour would be massively more expensive now. We did it a couple of times in the 90's - I honestly can't remember how much it cost but I reckon even today you wouldn't be far out with flights, car and initial accommodation for £2.5K.The only thing price-wise that sticks in my mind was that Vegas hotels were very cheap - on one of the trips we stayed at the MGM-Grand in a suite for $99.
With DisneyWorld (Florida) it's staying 'on-site' and the cost of Theme park tickets which bumps up the price.
Odhran said:
It was our 5th time there so we didn't bother with parks (been there, done that). There were 4 adults, staying in a 2 bed suite in Floridays on iDrive (#1 on tripadvisor), and no car hire,
Each to their own and all that, but I'm interested to know why go to Orlando (never mind iDrive) if you're not going to visit the theme parks? And I know some people don't like to drive while they're on holiday (my brother is a sales rep and he refuses to) but it's got to be tremendously limiting in Orlando, unless you spent a fortune on cabs?We went last April and booked with Virgin
Myself,wife and 14yr old daughter
Flights, apartment, hire car came to just over £3100, + we got free universal tickets as part of the deal.
We also got a 14 day pass for Disney parks + tickets for the space centre From floridatix for a little over £700 for the 3 of us . This together with insurance and spending money ( took about $1600 in dollars and used a credit card for the rest due to getting a better exchange rate), gave us a total spend of about £6500.00 without skimping On anything other than hire car which was the economy version and bloody awful.
Biggest cost by far was the flights which came to nearly £2000,
other than that nothing really struck me as expensive.
Food in the parks is steep, but we were having a big breakfast every day, and not being big eaters as such never really felt the need to eat again till the evening.
Having the ultimate pass tickets meant we could visit the parks whenever we felt the urge and just had to pay the daily parking charge ( can't remember how much exactly, about $10 I think).
We were lucky enough to have a large apartment with everything in it, so a few nights when we felt too tired from all the walking we just stayed in and ordered a pizza From the pizza hut on site or just ate the junk food we stocked up on from the nearby Walmart.
If you stay on site at Disney or Universal the cost goes up a lot but tbh considering how easy it is to get around and the standard of the offsite accommodation I wouldn't bother , but to make the most of your stay you really do need a car.
Before we went I spent a fair bit of time on Dibb checking out all the tips and asking questions which probably helped save some money and is well worth a look
Myself,wife and 14yr old daughter
Flights, apartment, hire car came to just over £3100, + we got free universal tickets as part of the deal.
We also got a 14 day pass for Disney parks + tickets for the space centre From floridatix for a little over £700 for the 3 of us . This together with insurance and spending money ( took about $1600 in dollars and used a credit card for the rest due to getting a better exchange rate), gave us a total spend of about £6500.00 without skimping On anything other than hire car which was the economy version and bloody awful.
Biggest cost by far was the flights which came to nearly £2000,
other than that nothing really struck me as expensive.
Food in the parks is steep, but we were having a big breakfast every day, and not being big eaters as such never really felt the need to eat again till the evening.
Having the ultimate pass tickets meant we could visit the parks whenever we felt the urge and just had to pay the daily parking charge ( can't remember how much exactly, about $10 I think).
We were lucky enough to have a large apartment with everything in it, so a few nights when we felt too tired from all the walking we just stayed in and ordered a pizza From the pizza hut on site or just ate the junk food we stocked up on from the nearby Walmart.
If you stay on site at Disney or Universal the cost goes up a lot but tbh considering how easy it is to get around and the standard of the offsite accommodation I wouldn't bother , but to make the most of your stay you really do need a car.
Before we went I spent a fair bit of time on Dibb checking out all the tips and asking questions which probably helped save some money and is well worth a look
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