How much cheaper could I have made it?

[Emmafleur]

regarding free dining - the UK free dining package at OKW and SSR includes a discounted rate for the hotel, so you really are getting free dining.
And if you eat at any of the character buffets, you will get tremendous bang for your buck.
We did several of the dining packages that included great seats at fantasmic and things like that.
Had we paid out of pocket, it would have been a fortune for the 8 of us.
but they were all only 1 dining credit each. What a bargain!

and in any case, even if i pay more for "free dining", i like the feeling of paying with credits rather than 'real' money.
somehow paying a credit for something that i think is very high priced doesn't feel as painful.

plus i know how much i'm paying up front.

also, note that now you can pre-order quick service lunch on your mobile even with the dining plan.
a friend of mine who just got back from WDW ordered all their quick service lunches on their mobile and said it was fantastic.
so much better than standing in those crazy long lines at the quick service.

.

Thank you

 

[susieh]

You asked how you could have made it cheaper....
-
We are DVC members and because of that we try to go every 2 to 3 years. We try to save the costs as follows:-

Gatwick airport hotel - stay in an offsite hotel that includes parking for 14 nights and airport transfers.
Gatwick airport parking - not needed if you do the above
Return flights to Orlando (BA direct) - Keep this
Visas - If you mean ESTAs then you can't avoid this
Hire car for 14 days - Keep this
14 nights at Old Key West - Keep this but make use of the facilities and have takeaways or cook for yourselves sometimes (it doesn't have to be hard work as you have dishwasher. Even eating breakfast in the apartment would save you quite a lot)
Disney Dining Plan - not needed if you do your own meals sometimes and eating offsite is definitely cheaper than eating onsite so mix it up a bit
Memory Maker - free if you buy a UK 14 day ticket from Orlando Ticket Deals (also free with Disney this year)
14 days tickets to Disney - Keep this
$200 gift card - ??
One night at Royal Pacific in Universal - stay at OKW and be prepared to queue at Universal
14 days tickets to Universal parks and Volcano Bay - Choose one of Universal or Sea World per trip (but yes I agree with the 14 day ticket as the UK tickets are the same price for 2 days as for 14 days)
Tickets to SeaWorld, Busch Gardens and Aquatica

 

[Emmafleur]

Thank you. There are some good tips there that I’ll definitely look into. For me, I think it’s just the difficulty of finding a room only option at Disney. I’ve looked lots on the Disney UK website both during the free DDP offer window and after and, once this offer of over, there seem to be very few room-only options left. Is there anywhere else I could possibly look for this? Thanks

 

[pickers1982]

seems a very decent price to me. we have booked 6 nights in villa , 10 in beach club with car, dining and $200. ba to tampa out economy back business for about £2250 (cant remember the exact flight cost) each at the end of August. no other park ticjets yet.big difference was we used avios and a companion voucher to keep costs down. as you are flying ba if you are not already you should def join the flying club. for future trips you can save a fortune.

i know people love to say about free dining not being free but i love getting it. as others have said its takes the stress out of paying out you pocket there and i love looking at a menu and not needing to look at prices. people have said about not getting the car but again i think it gives you a tonne of felxibility which again on holiday is great. get wet at a water park you dont have to stress the uber driver might charge you a clean up fee. its inportant in my humble opinion to look at the benefit and the cost of things and not just the cost. alot of people spend months stressing about whether they will sit together on a flight when it would have been well worth paying to book seats to make it more enjoyable.

re free dining packages, if i wait and book a room (with a discount) and add dining would it likely come out the same price or cheaper? also do they still have good room availability.

so overall i think you ve done well and also shouldnt get any nasty surprises cost wise and have lots of flexibility. enjoy!

 

[pickers1982]

seems a very decent price to me. we have booked 6 nights in villa , 10 in beach club with car, dining and $200. ba to tampa out economy back business for about £2250 (cant remember the exact flight cost) each at the end of August. no other park ticjets yet.big difference was we used avios and a companion voucher to keep costs down. as you are flying ba if you are not already you should def join the flying club. for future trips you can save a fortune.

i know people love to say about free dining not being free but i love getting it. as others have said its takes the stress out of paying out you pocket there and i love looking at a menu and not needing to look at prices. people have said about not getting the car but again i think it gives you a tonne of felxibility which again on holiday is great. get wet at a water park you dont have to stress the uber driver might charge you a clean up fee. its inportant in my humble opinion to look at the benefit and the cost of things and not just the cost. alot of people spend months stressing about whether they will sit together on a flight when it would have been well worth paying to book seats to make it more enjoyable.

re free dining packages, if i wait and book a room (with a discount) and add dining would it likely come out the same price or cheaper? also do they still have good room availability.

so overall i think you ve done well and also shouldnt get any nasty surprises cost wise and have lots of flexibility. enjoy!

shoukd probably add we are a family of 4 and paid for the kids flights out of pocket

 

[Emmafleur]

I’ll look into the BA flying club, thanks. My son has a friend that works for BA so got us direct flights from Gatwick to Orlando International for £820 each. I haven’t found direct flights that cheap for our dates so was quite pleased that my son has useful friends

 

[GirlDreamer]

Thank you. There are some good tips there that I’ll definitely look into. For me, I think it’s just the difficulty of finding a room only option at Disney. I’ve looked lots on the Disney UK website both during the free DDP offer window and after and, once this offer of over, there seem to be very few room-only options left. Is there anywhere else I could possibly look for this? Thanks

If you don't mind booking through other sites, you can book through other hotel booking sites if you want room only. I've done that on a previous holiday.

 

[pinklotusflower]

We're DVC members & tend to go every year as it makes it a lot cheaper to stay on site. We stay mainly at the Boardwalk, you could cost up renting DVC points for next time.

 

[saintrob]

One of the best ways to cut costs on your trip is to make your starting airport what is known as 'ex EU' We've flown many times from Dublin with Aer Lingus and it's saved us so much money. We live in Liverpool so book a cheap Ryan air to get us there and back. By shopping around this can save sometimes thousands of pounds.

We've used the 'free dining' in the past but as others have said, it's definitely not free and does in fact add to the cost of the holiday. It's a good ruse by Disney and I can see why it's popular but we've saved so much money by not using it. There are often room only discounts available on the USA Disney site - we're annual pass holders - but even for non pass holders, discounts are often available which are well worth looking at. We also purchase a Tables in Wonderland card ($125) which gives us 20% of all food and drink in most restaurants. It's probably not worth it for one trip but it's extremely valuable to us.

If you plan on staying at Universal, they also offer a discount if you're a member of the AA. We've had this on rooms at Royal Pacific and also in most of the food outlets - I think it's 10%.

As for staying on site - have you considered the Swan and Dolphin? They offer all kinds of discounts throughout the year.

 

[Emmafleur]

One of the best ways to cut costs on your trip is to make your starting airport what is known as 'ex EU' We've flown many times from Dublin with Aer Lingus and it's saved us so much money. We live in Liverpool so book a cheap Ryan air to get us there and back. By shopping around this can save sometimes thousands of pounds.

We've used the 'free dining' in the past but as others have said, it's definitely not free and does in fact add to the cost of the holiday. It's a good ruse by Disney and I can see why it's popular but we've saved so much money by not using it. There are often room only discounts available on the USA Disney site - we're annual pass holders - but even for non pass holders, discounts are often available which are well worth looking at. We also purchase a Tables in Wonderland card ($125) which gives us 20% of all food and drink in most restaurants. It's probably not worth it for one trip but it's extremely valuable to us.

If you plan on staying at Universal, they also offer a discount if you're a member of the AA. We've had this on rooms at Royal Pacific and also in most of the food outlets - I think it's 10%.

As for staying on site - have you considered the Swan and Dolphin? They offer all kinds of discounts throughout the year.

Thank you - those are really good tips. Stupid question time - AA, is that the AA roadside assistance? I wouldn’t think that it is but can’t think of anything else :/
If we go again, I’m definitely going to look at flying out of Dublin. Thanks

 

[Woodview]

The AA in UK is AAA in USA ..... If you are a member of AA then you can get USA Road Maps

OR ........ if you can find and Call into a AAA office ( As I do ) then you show your AA membership Card

And you can get Free Maps of Florida & other States & Canada

 

[robinb]

I'm from the US and I'm puzzled by some of the deals you get . PLease don't be offended by my questions.

Does the 14-day Universal ticket ALSO include Sea World & Busch Gardens & Aquatica? Or are you paying for a 14-day Disney ticket and a 14 day Universal ticket and tickets to Sea World & Busch Gardens & Aquatica ... all over 14 days? If it is the latter then that is definitely overkill. You purchased 28+ days of fun and only 14 days to enjoy it. That doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

I'm from the US and I'm puzzled by some of the deals you get . PLease don't be offended by my questions.

Does the 14-day Universal ticket ALSO include Sea World & Busch Gardens & Aquatica? Or are you paying for a 14-day Disney ticket and a 14 day Universal ticket and tickets to Sea World & Busch Gardens & Aquatica ... all over 14 days? If it is the latter then that is definitely overkill. You purchased 28+ days of fun and only 14 days to enjoy it. That doesn't make sense to me.

Some of the ticket deals we get are good value. For example you can get a Universal 2 park ticket for £229, a 3 park ticket is currently the same price and both are valid for 14 consecutive days. Compared to Undercover Tourist offering a 3 day park to park ticket for $286+tax, you can see we don't get a bad deal as we are not paying much more to get 14 days entrance. You can then spread your days over the 2 week holiday, although having tickets to WDW, Universal and SW will mean you have a lot to fit in!

 

[Emmafleur]

I'm from the US and I'm puzzled by some of the deals you get . PLease don't be offended by my questions.

Does the 14-day Universal ticket ALSO include Sea World & Busch Gardens & Aquatica? Or are you paying for a 14-day Disney ticket and a 14 day Universal ticket and tickets to Sea World & Busch Gardens & Aquatica ... all over 14 days? If it is the latter then that is definitely overkill. You purchased 28+ days of fun and only 14 days to enjoy it. That doesn't make sense to me.

We got our tickets from American Attractions and it was £379 for Universal 3 park tickets, SeaWorld, Aquatica and Busch Gardens. All are valid for 14 days from first use and cost £312 in total. I don’t know if we could have got all those tickets cheaper if we had bought them on the day from each place separately? It also means that we can choose to go back to places more than once if we want, eat in the Disney parks in the evenings if we have been elsewhere during the day, park hop etc.

 

[robinb]

We got our tickets from American Attractions and it was £379 for Universal 3 park tickets, SeaWorld, Aquatica and Busch Gardens. All are valid for 14 days from first use and cost £312 in total. I don’t know if we could have got all those tickets cheaper if we had bought them on the day from each place separately? It also means that we can choose to go back to places more than once if we want, eat in the Disney parks in the evenings if we have been elsewhere during the day, park hop etc.

No, you would not have been able to get anything cheaper. That's a real bargain .