Holiday/Villa in Florida (O/T)

[StonehamPark]

Options for a 10 day holiday to Florida for family of 4.
Looking for a villa, hire car and maybe park tickets.

Is it best to book a package deal via a travel agency or are there better (cheaper) options?

 

[Worthingite]

[MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION] will be your man on this, failing that I can ask the father in law when he gets back from Kissimee next week

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

Don't touch a package unless it really suits you for delayed payments, convenience, etc.

Virgin, BA and Norwegian all have direct flights to Orlando from Gatwick depending on your budget and tastes. Norwegian can be cheapest but watch out for the add ons.

I don't know where you plan to stay or what you plan to do but if you want to stay in Walt Disney World but without the cost of a Disney Resort, I would highly recommend Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort. We've stayed there a few times and it is located within the boundaries of Walt Disney World, so close to EPCOT you can watch the fireworks from your balcony. It is only a few minutes off of the main I4 so you can quickly get to SeaWorld, Universal, the shopping outlets, etc.

You don't get Disney transport and some of the other benefits of staying in a Disney hotel but you get a huge apartment for the same price as the cheapest room in Disney. We book the two bedroom deluxe which has one king sized bed in a room with spa bath, en-suite bathroom, a large lounge area, fully fitted kitchen with both a breakfast bar and a large dining table. There is a second bathroom next to the second bedroom which has two queen sized beds. It is a large vacation club complex so has a few places to eat, mini-golf, volleyball, seven pools including one with pirate ship for the kids to play on.

It gets really good reviews on the Disney forums and I buy my room via a company called Vacations Upgrades. The owners are very good and send you through a proper legal contract for the 'rent' of their apartments. If you are interested, please PM me and I can give more information and put you in contact with the owners.

As for car hire, if you are booking BA, always check the prices with car hire included as on my last two visits, it reduces the price of the flights so much, the fully insured car is free. If not, www.carhire3000.com are great and are now part of Rentalcars.com and usually have the best deals around for on airport hire.

 

[AndyH]

Don't go for a package. Book each element on their own. Aer Lingus is quite a good bet - although you have to do a stopover in Dublin, they do all US entry checks there so avoiding the long queues at Orlando. For villas, I have used Debbie's Villas - a UK company that is very reasonable. Enjoy��

 

[dazzer6666]

Have booked several times using this site. Always been fantastic - direct contact with owners to ask questions before booking etc and properties always as described. Huge choice.

https://www.homeaway.co.uk/?k_click...ffKCfB_aDb5qCADK6fvLz_7haiuWBORsy-xoCULPw_wcB

 

[Bedsex]

We're looking at doing exactly the same thing next Summer, but probably staying for 3 weeks to make the most of it. I found flights with BA for about £4K, villas and apartments on Airbnb for about £2k, car hire for around £500. I left my wife to cost up the various park tickets. She came back with a price of £3.5k!!!

 

[Giraffe]

Done it several times now and it is really down your personal preferences, budget and what you want to do.

Last two trips we have hired a villa, car and booked the flights completely independently from each other.

If you are looking for a full on Disney experience, and particularly if you have younger children there is a lot of merit in staying in one of the hotels on Disney, but that comes at a cost.

Personally I preferred being able to go back to the villa and our own pool in the afternoons, but we have also stayed onsite and it does make it a nice experience.

 

[Withdean11]

You say maybe park tickets? What would you do in Orlando for 10 days if not? Unless you are not planning to stay in Orlando/Kissemee?

If you are..

If it's within your budget, definitely stay in Disney. It will make the whole holiday that much better. But you can still have a great time if not. Most of the hotels in the area offer complimentary shuttles to all park, many including Busch Gardens in Tampa.

Disney is fantastic for all ages. Download the app before you go so you can take advantage of the free fast-track selections. This will help reduce queue times but make your selections a few days before you visit each park as they will book up quickly.

You'll be pushed to fit everything into 10 days, i would recommend going for 14.

If you can find a few spare hours give the Bonnet Creek Air-boat ride a go. Great fun drifting through the central Florida everglades and seeing wild Gators, snakes etc.

 

[Albion my Albion]

Have you heard of the new amusement ride? Gay club shooter? Avoid the bullets and carry your friends to hospital.The happiest place on earth no longer it is (Yoda).

 

[StonehamPark]

Thanks very much guys, loads of good information here.
I'll start having a look at the links today.

 

[Bowers-sfc]

www.thedibb.co.uk

Hours of reading to be had.
Think [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION] actually posts on there as well.

 

[maltaseagull]

Have you heard of the new amusement ride? Gay club shooter? Avoid the bullets and carry your friends to hospital.The happiest place on earth no longer it is (Yoda).

Highly inappropriate!

But hilarious

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

Forgot to add that Attraction Tickets Direct is the best place for all tickets. You get proper tickets from them and not vouchers. That might sound trivial but you can waste a lot of time queueing at park windows to redeem your voucher for a real ticket.

 

[dazzer6666]

Done it several times now and it is really down your personal preferences, budget and what you want to do.

Last two trips we have hired a villa, car and booked the flights completely independently from each other.

If you are looking for a full on Disney experience, and particularly if you have younger children there is a lot of merit in staying in one of the hotels on Disney, but that comes at a cost.

Personally I preferred being able to go back to the villa and our own pool in the afternoons, but we have also stayed onsite and it does make it a nice experience.

Great advice. Done Orlando many times, wouldn't contemplate a Disney hotel once the kids are past about 10 years old. Flexibility (and vastly lower cost) of a huge house 15-20 mins easy drive away wins every time. Last one we had (Kissimee) had a Bass lake backing onto the lawn, a swimming pool and a games room with a pool table and table tennis table and was less than $1000 a week.

Tampa is a great option for flying. Great airport you can zip through in no time and less than 90 mins very easy drive from Orlando. Flights and car hire usually much cheaper.

Park tickets are an horrendous ripoff but nothing you can do. You're basically stuffed with buying 14 day multi park tickets which will be c£400+ per person. Just shop around online and get the best deal you can. If you're visiting Disney, Universal, Epcot, Seaworld, Busch and a couple of Water parks you'll use them every day anyway. Early start at one park avoids the queues, go home, chill out by your pool for a few hours, then go into another park for the afternoon/evening.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

Early start at one park avoids the queues, go home, chill out by your pool for a few hours, then go into another park for the afternoon/evening.

This is the best piece of advice for anyone travelling there - especially with kids. Obviously, the further you are away from the parks, the more time out you take.

For the first few days I would also look to have a siesta. You will be awake at silly o'clock on the first morning and you need to get your body clock adjusted, If you can get the kids to have an afternoon nap, they will be refreshed and enable you to enjoy the evenings in the park and/or an evening meal without them being grouchy or asleep.

Try and have a day off from the big parks every few days. Go shopping, go to a water park, have a look around the area, chill out around the hotel. It may sound like a waste of a day but you will get theme parked out without a rest. Weekends often get an influx of local day visitors so I try to avoid the parks and use those as the down day.

 

[dazzer6666]

This is the best piece of advice for anyone travelling there - especially with kids. Obviously, the further you are away from the parks, the more time out you take.

For the first few days I would also look to have a siesta. You will be awake at silly o'clock on the first morning and you need to get your body clock adjusted, If you can get the kids to have an afternoon nap, they will be refreshed and enable you to enjoy the evenings in the park and/or an evening meal without them being grouchy or asleep.

Try and have a day off from the big parks every few days. Go shopping, go to a water park, have a look around the area, chill out around the hotel. It may sound like a waste of a day but you will get theme parked out without a rest. Weekends often get an influx of local day visitors so I try to avoid the parks and use those as the down day.

Good point - should have mentioned making your off-day Saturday or Sunday ! Go and wander round one of the many outlet malls (cheap gear, easy parking, loads of restaurants) or just do f*** all........

Rides at the theme parks (Universal and Seaworld in particular) really quieten down later in the day, well worth going later or hanging around for the much shorter queues. I think people either flock to Disney for the parade/fireworks, or are so shagged after several hours in the heat and humidity they have just had enough. The siesta time back at your house/hotel mid-afternoon can't be recommended highly enough.

 

[driller]

I find Feb the best time of year.
No queues - walk straight on to Harry Potter ride past the ' line time from here 2 Hours!' - must be hell in August.
No humidity
Temperature 25+ still
Hotels/ villas dead cheap
No effing mozzies

 

[woody12a]

My wife and I have been renting out 5x luxury private villas (one formerly owned by us) for the last 10 years now. PM me if you would like details or advice on anything Orlando related
www.lynnandpaulsvillas.com


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