Florida & Disney

[Trustmeimadoctor]

yes mine didnt so i did it manually to make sure

[Sheepshanks]

Trustmeimadoctor said:

yes mine didnt so i did it manually to make sure

How did you know?

Could be I checked too, I just don't remember looking, but I do recall wondering if it was working OK as I whizzed through toll plazas.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

Sheepshanks said:

How did you know?

Could be I checked too, I just don't remember looking, but I do recall wondering if it was working OK as I whizzed through toll plazas.

im now wondering if i added the reg before id left the garage but i know for sure i did add it

either way id add it manually just in case while your sat in the car getting it all set up for android auto or car play etc

[Sheepshanks]

I just looked back and I got a couple of emails on arrival - one saying the trip was active (I guess when I picked up the tag) and the other saying the plate had been matched.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

long delays getting on the disney holidays website now dining plan is back!

[ThunderSpook]

Trustmeimadoctor said:

long delays getting on the disney holidays website now dining plan is back!

Yeah, queues of over an hour this morning! The deal is valid until July the 2nd so I think it can wait a day or two.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

It took me 5 hours in the queue but got it booked.

[ThunderSpook]

Early booking prices are ridiculous!

This is based on 2 adults and 3 children (12 and over)

2 weeks in August next year is coming out at £12,500 + tickets (VA direct flights are the only option available)
The same 2 weeks in August this year can be done for £7,100 with indirect flights, or £10,100 with direct BA flights. VA pushes it up to £11,500.

I think I'll wait until the other flights become available. The dining plan offer is open until November. I don't mind doing indirect flights if it saves over 5 grand!

[ecsrobin]

ThunderSpook said:

Early booking prices are ridiculous!

This is based on 2 adults and 3 children (12 and over)

2 weeks in August next year is coming out at £12,500 + tickets (VA direct flights are the only option available)
The same 2 weeks in August this year can be done for £7,100 with indirect flights, or £10,100 with direct BA flights. VA pushes it up to £11,500.

I think I'll wait until the other flights become available. The dining plan offer is open until November. I don't mind doing indirect flights if it saves over 5 grand!

We bit the bullet last year for direct flights at Easter as with children in the group decided it wasn’t worth the hassle. Friends have just got back from Easter at Disney who decided it wasn’t worth the extra money. After their 48hrs of travelling after missing a connection and all the associated horror stories of sleeping on airport floors with rats, hire cars to get to different airports and unhappy children they won’t be making that mistake again.

[bakerstreet]

ThunderSpook said:

Early booking prices are ridiculous!

This is based on 2 adults and 3 children (12 and over)

2 weeks in August next year is coming out at £12,500 + tickets (VA direct flights are the only option available)
The same 2 weeks in August this year can be done for £7,100 with indirect flights, or £10,100 with direct BA flights. VA pushes it up to £11,500.

I think I'll wait until the other flights become available. The dining plan offer is open until November. I don't mind doing indirect flights if it saves over 5 grand!

Flights for August 2025 won't be officially on the system until September of this year. Booking any earlier is just using the TA as a bank.

As you say, worth looking at indirect flights as generally speaking this is always cheaper than direct. Also consider looking at flying in to Tampa. Quicker passport control and only an hour and half from Orlando. Connecting flights is stressful though. We were lucky with ours as our gate was right by a McDonalds

Prices will also be inflated due to the opening of Epic Universe which is currently scheduled to open summer 2025 and my guess is they will be aiming for early summer to get the most of the US summer holidays. Worth noting this is probably the biggest change to Orlando Theme Park landscape for over 30 years so as you can imagine people are excited about it.

We will probably go August 2025 so we can have a clear two weeks, but not necessarily targeting Epic Universe as I suspect it will bring the Universal ticket pricing inline with Disney. IE £500 for two weeks. The costs will go up and up.

[Hol]

Sheepshanks said:

Hol said:

Just catching up on the Sunpass comments.

For the last few years Alamo have included toll fees in the hire car price, where it only kicks in on the days that I use the tolls. Has that changed?

It’s not a biggie as I still have a month until the flight out, should I need to sort something else out.

That reads like you got the Toll fees as part of the hire cost, ie they were "free" - you don't mean that, do you?

Not intended that way.

We typically get a fly drive via Virgin and that has historically (including last April) been via Alamo whose cars include the fast pass on the windscreen.
If you use a toll there was a $2.50 daily fee, plus tolls themselves. If you didn’t use a toll there was no daily fee.

My question was more around the need to buy a separate pass though.


Edit. This year Virgin seems to have teamed up with Hertz. Which might mean a different model.
I guess I will find out and take it from there.

[Matt Harper]

ecsrobin said:

ThunderSpook said:

Early booking prices are ridiculous!

This is based on 2 adults and 3 children (12 and over)

2 weeks in August next year is coming out at £12,500 + tickets (VA direct flights are the only option available)
The same 2 weeks in August this year can be done for £7,100 with indirect flights, or £10,100 with direct BA flights. VA pushes it up to £11,500.

I think I'll wait until the other flights become available. The dining plan offer is open until November. I don't mind doing indirect flights if it saves over 5 grand!

We bit the bullet last year for direct flights at Easter as with children in the group decided it wasn’t worth the hassle. Friends have just got back from Easter at Disney who decided it wasn’t worth the extra money. After their 48hrs of travelling after missing a connection and all the associated horror stories of sleeping on airport floors with rats, hire cars to get to different airports and unhappy children they won’t be making that mistake again.

I live in Orlando. My wife's sister is visiting with us right now. She used Norse Atlantic, Gatwick to MCO for GBP350 return.
No frills 787, had to buy food/drink - but direct for that money is pretty competitive...

[Trustmeimadoctor]

Thd problem is time of year
You can get return BC flights for less than 1k with aer Lingus but that's in like Nov-march

[J210]

ThunderSpook said:

Early booking prices are ridiculous!

This is based on 2 adults and 3 children (12 and over)

2 weeks in August next year is coming out at £12,500 + tickets (VA direct flights are the only option available)
The same 2 weeks in August this year can be done for £7,100 with indirect flights, or £10,100 with direct BA flights. VA pushes it up to £11,500.

I think I'll wait until the other flights become available. The dining plan offer is open until November. I don't mind doing indirect flights if it saves over 5 grand!

You do save an extra £200 if you book before June I think it is.

Only thing that really will affect the hotel side of prices is arability might find the basic rooms gone so will have to pay a premium for slightly better room.


Also note for all.

Also with the free DDP you need to do the maths. For our week before a cruise next year it's cheaper to rent DVC (for a deluxe hotel) and add on the dinning plan than it is to get the free version. (obvs not atol protected this way) Some go crazy for certain room types at art of animation so they sell out quickly.

We are looking at buying DVC so not in a rush to book yet.

Edited by J210 on Friday 19th April 14:21

[Sheepshanks]

bakerstreet said:

Flights for August 2025 won't be officially on the system until September of this year. Booking any earlier is just using the TA as a bank.

If you book as a package then you don't pay until much nearer departure time.

Daughter's just booked for her little family of four for 2 weeks in Aug in POFQ and she said it was £5800 without flights - she said pricing is the same as before the free dining offer, so they haven't bumped the prices.

She said flights were about the same, so she's passed on that, and said she'd prefer to book them directly so she can be in control of the flight booking and not have to go through Disney Travel.

[ThunderSpook]

Can you get the dining if you don’t book flights?

[Trustmeimadoctor]

Yes you can just get extra discount if you book flights too 300 Vs 200 iirc

[Sheepshanks]

J210 said:

Also note for all.

Also with the free DDP you need to do the maths. For our week before a cruise next year it's cheaper to rent DVC (for a deluxe hotel) and add on the dinning plan than it is to get the free version. (obvs not atol protected this way) Some go crazy for certain room types at art of animation so they sell out quickly.

We are looking at buying DVC so not in a rush to book yet.

In all the times I've been I've never figured out renting using bought DVC points. Isn't there a very tight booking window?

[ThunderSpook]

Just done a search without flights. The hotel is still £900 more for the same weeks next year compared to this. Ok with the extra £200 this comes down to £700 difference, but it's still a huge jump. Maybe the free dining option is not so free.

[Sheepshanks]

ThunderSpook said:

Just done a search without flights. The hotel is still £900 more for the same weeks next year compared to this. Ok with the extra £200 this comes down to £700 difference, but it's still a huge jump. Maybe the free dining option is not so free.

Is the 24 price with discount? I looked at a couple of hotels - POR and AKL, POR was discounted 20% and AKL 25%, and there were further discounts at AKL for some room types if you added park tickets.

I know from past free dining trips one thing to look at is, it can be worth upgrading the hotel to get a higher level dining plan, rather than paying to upgrade the plan in a lower level hotel. Just depends on what's on offer - sometimes the pricing doesn't make sense, or can you grab a "glitch" price.