Holiday on a Budget for July 30th

[Jeanette Burns]

Hi All, im waiting for a good deal hopefully to florida end of this month for 2 weeks, for 2 adults 1 child (5) Years old.

Does anybody now what chances of us getting cheap flight's £400 each, we dont want to spend more than £1800 in total for the accomodation & Flights fo the 3 of us but want to be in a [u]good clean </u> Hotel/apartments.

Ive been before but it was 11 years ago and hoping we can afford to go again, Jenny

[Clare R]

Jeanette,

Villa owners are not allowed to answer accommodation requests through this forum you need to put in a request into the sites at the top of the page.

Flights 3 x £400 = £1,200 leaving you £600.00 for your two weeks accommodation or £42.85 a night for the three of you.

You may need to revise your accommodation budget - would you let an unknown family live in your private house/villa for £42.85 a night?

[ellie]

This is the most popular time of the year, so flights are unlikely to come down in price before August 24'ish.

As Clare has said, your accommodation budget is very small, and I doubt if you could book a Knights Inn even for this price. We had to pay double that for a last minute and very basic Travelodge for my son's graduation last week! [msnwink]

Unfortunately you have chosen the busiest and most expensive time of year for your proposed trip. Can you go any other time? Flights often drop in price for September which is a lovely time of year to go.

[Snapper]

Hi Jeanette

If you are working to a tight budget you might want to think about travelling at a different time of the year outside of the school holidays.

Or if you are tied to the school holidays why not go in 2010. That would give you first shot at the flights as soon as they are released and also longer to save up. To balance the downer of not going this year, maybe consider a three week trip next year instead of a two week trip this year. That way you get better value from the cost of the flights as the flight costs don't change from 2 weeks to 3 weeks.

[Katys Grandad]

You could easily get a 3 star hotel room for less than £600 for 2 weeks but £400 each for flights at this time of year will be tricky.

As you've visited Orlando before, you'll know that to get the best out of it you have to spend a fair amount of money. I'd look at going next year and doing everything you want to do without having to count the pennies too much!

[Jeanette Burns]

Hi All thanks for the advise, yeah we may have to consider may 2010 maybe, you see my hiubbie can only get the first 2 weeks in August for this year, he was a bit slow at putting holiday requests in! We really didnt decide on florida until Jan this year so we have only had a few months to save up, when i was pricing holidays in june they were really good deals coming up at £1500 anmd thats were i got the idea of thinking maybe we could get a good deal like that, like i said i havnt been to florida for 11 years and forgot how expensive it can be.

Anyway I will let you all know what deal i get if i get one!!!!

Jenny

[christhear]

You will get good deals (flights) in June as this is a quiet period for UK travellers. Even thoses that take children out of school can not travel in June as there are lots of exams at this time.

Villas may also be slightly cheaper in june, but not as loww as £600 for a fortnight

[Jeanette Burns]

Hi All, well what a nightmare i have had!! We found a very good deal last weekend, BOOKED flights 2 adults 1 child for the 1st August for 14 nights £1,300! Paid by credit card, BOOKED Hotel Royal plaza for £510, so total was £1,810 which was thought was a real bargain, until i got an e-mail sunday morning from [name edited] saying that the flights we booked were unavalilable!!

I complained that they shouldnt of been advertising them if they were unavailable but there reply was you have to wait for a confirmation by e-mail for the flights, before you start making other arranagements ie, Hotel, tranfers.

So then i was trying like made to find a flight for the same day as we had already booked the hotel! Couldnt find a flight so i e-mailed [name edited] to see if they can change the hotel dates to the 30th July as we could get flights for that date and the reply was we will let you know in 48hrs, that was monday and we still dont have a reply we was told that the 30th july was still avaialable and to reply by e-mail as soon as,which we i did on monday, we phoned them yesterday for any news and was rudely told to wait until 5pm yesterday, i e-mailed them today saying if they dont contact me for 12pm today i will be phoning their head office to make a complaint, as the longer we are waiting i cant see us getting a flight out there.

This has been a lesson learned, from now on i will read every small print and not jump to quickly at booking holidays[msnsad]

I will post again as soon as i know anything[msnembarrased]

[Sniff]

Who did you book the flights with? It's very rare these days that they cannot confirm flights immediately. I assume as the flights were not available that they didn't charge your CC?

[vickk17]

If you have been offered suitable flights for the 30th I would snap them up without waiting for hotel. I think it unlikely the hotel won't move the dates but if they should you could book in to a cheap motel for a couple of nights. Should get 2 nights on a travel lodge for less than 50 a night.

Have you paid the hotel already or could you cancel

[Jeanette Burns]

Hi there,I originally booked the flights through [website link edited], and no they havnt charged our CC.

yes we have paid the hotel, we booked through [website link edited], i phoned them again yesterday to find out if they can change the dates and they keep saying "we are waiting for the supplier(hotel to confirm)", we have now been waiting 4 days! We took a chance and booked flights on monday for thursday 3oth July and it cost £2069 for the 3 of us in premium class as all the other seats had gone, and i got a bit panicky, so fingers crossed that we get the dates we want.

I have complained to [website link edited] and have threatened to take it further by contacting ABTA and there head office, this has been a really stressful time for me this week, i just cant relax, if we were to cancel the hotel today we would loose £255 if we cancel tomorrow we loose All of the money we paid (£510).

[website link edited] are not a helpful company.

If we dont hear anything today we are going to contact the hotel to see if a booking has been made and if [website link edited] has been in touch with them, if they havnt hten we are going to contact our CC company to see what they say, we need to know as its now less than 2 weeks before we go.

I will post later today to let you all know what happens[msncry]

<span style="color:blue">Please don't put these company names in each post as they're not allowed on the forum </span id="blue">

[steph_goodrum]

Jeanette
I hope you get it sorted. As you have had to pay so much more for your flights than you originally anticipated, why not cancel the hotel and book a villa instead. That way if youu have less money available to spend on park tickets, you can spend days at home and save money but still have a fantastic time. I'm not sure how old your child is but the family bonding time you can spend having fun at the pool etc will make your holiday so much greater. Not to mention when the little 'un is asleep in bed you and your other half can still enjoy the pool or deck area and even watch tv without disturbing him or her. It means they will probably sleep better as well as days walking round the parks can be very tiring for them,

Unfortunately it's always a guessing game whether to book or wait and hope things get cheaper but it doesnt always work as availability becomes limited and prices then rise.

[Jeanette Burns]

Hi Steph, about 11 years ago i went with my mum and my sisters family to Florida and we had a villa for 2 weeks and the villa was out of this world, think it was in kissimee. I just wish we had planned this last year, as we only decided in feb 2009 that it would be cheaper to go to florida than cyprus or spain, with the dollar been good, and it is a lot cheaper eating out in florida, well i think it is, maybe a lot has changed since 11 years!

We will be eating jam butties now for next 2 weeks![msnsmile] and not buying any shopping in untill we get back LOL

If we go next year we will definately rent a villa, and we would book flights a lot sooner!

Jeanette

[steph_goodrum]

Things must be ok though Jeanette if you can afford jam, used to be bread and dripping for us:)

I'm sure you'll have a great time wherever you go. Dont forget to add to the trip reports and let us know what you are doing.

[Jeanette Burns]

Hi All, bad news and good news, the bad news is the hotel wont let us change our dates and want an extra £150!! And the good news is the company i booked it through has just given a full refund!!

So now im looking for a hotel again tonight!

Probably still be on jam butties though for next coupl of weeks but it will be worth it[msnsmile][msnwink]

[Solana]

Jeanette hope it all turms out to be worth it I am sure youwill have a fabulous time

[Jeanette Burns]

Hi all, the choice is (royal palza wdw resort) lake buesta vista or Regal sun resort, 1st choice is £648.50 and the 2nd choice is £531.23, but what worrise me will these hotel's charge surcharges and why??

hard choice[msnscared]

[Fourdents]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Jeanette Burns
Hi all, the choice is (royal palza wdw resort) lake buesta vista or Regal sun resort, 1st choice is £648.50 and the 2nd choice is £531.23, but what worrise me will these hotel's charge surcharges and why??

hard choice[msnscared]
[/quote]

What do you get for this price ?

[steph_goodrum]

Does it include local taxes?

[Katys Grandad]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Jeanette Burns
Hi all, the choice is (royal palza wdw resort) lake buesta vista or Regal sun resort, 1st choice is £648.50 and the 2nd choice is £531.23, but what worrise me will these hotel's charge surcharges and why??

hard choice[msnscared][/quote]I'm seeing the Regal Sun at £616 all in including breakfast and the Royal Plaza for £588. What's the total price you're being quoted?

[Jeanette Burns]

Hi there can i be cheeky and ask you were you saw it? Please

Prices im getting are £648.00 royal plazza and just found out dont have to pay any local taxes or surcharges. standard guest room only

And the other Regal sun resort £531.23 standard guest room only.

do you think you coulds DM me

[Jeanette Burns]

i did put my address in but it has been blooked oopsss

[Katys Grandad]

I've sent a DM (I did get the address before the censors stepped in![msnwink].

[Jeanette Burns]

All booked, going next week 30th July 14 nights at thr royal plazza hotel £628 standard guest room, its took a lot of looking on the net comparing prices, reviews, and my and now ive got repetive strain injury! Can give my hand a rest now, just the park tickets to book and travel insurance and then i can concentrate on packaging.

Thankyou everybody for the lovely advice

Jeanette