The Holy Grail - Florida vacation every year!

Well what can I say? What a great forum and what a helpful bunch you all are! Your posts make fascinating reading and I have learnt so much, but they have brought on a major bout of impatience as I want to be there NOW! [msnmad]
Hubby and I are taking the kids (aged 7 and 5) for the first time in May (we have been before in '94 & '96) and just know that no other holiday will ever match up to this and will therefore want to be Florida bound every year. However, without wishing to create a political hot potato, how do we afford it every year (against a European holiday)?
The costs really do mount up with flights, car hire, car insurance, park tickets etc. I have looked at the links at the top of the page regarding costs (sadly I had booked everything before being recommended to this site [msnsad]) but the savings aren't huge against what I have already paid.
I know a lot of you guys own villas and therefore accomodation costs do not apply (can you just pretend you would have to pay?) and I would not want to stay in a hotel (I think a villa really makes the holiday) are there any other ways to cut costs? I notice that on some posts, there has been mention of non-direct flights to Orlando, does this save money?
I apologise to anyone who thinks I am being contentious, I do not mean to be, I am just in search of the Holy Grail.........[msnsmile]

Can quite understand you wanting to go every year - most people on this forum would love to do the same[msnsmile2]and personally I think the villa does make the trip for me.
Although we own our own I would not say I am getting my accomadation for free as the "cost" of the week or more I am there is that it is not available to be rented out to any other lovely vacationers[msnwink]
We have found that you can save money on flying indirect but there are also deals to be had on direct flights if you can afford to go when those deals come up and if you are willing to fly into say Miami or Tampa instead of MCO.
Also - do you have to do parks every trip? Or maybe just a couple of days and not every day. If you have a read of the forum you will see there is loads of other things to do as well as the parks.
The links at the top of the page are a good place to start but I will be watching this thread to see if there are any other tips I can pick up too[msnwink]
Have a great trip this time.

Hello Tia,

Welcome to the Forum. Yes, it may cost more to go to Florida but just look at how much more holiday you get for that extra.
I was a complete convert to Florida, always said "I have 3 children and I would take them just once!!!!"

Yes, we came, we stayed in a beautiful villa with another family. This worked out about the same cost as a holiday to Spain. It was the Park Tickets that makes it that bit more expensive.

Oh boy was it worth it, we fell head over heals for Florida and have now bought our own villa with the friends we shared our 1st Villa with.[msnwink][msnwink][msnwink]

Owners may not have to pay for our villas when we stay in them....We pay all year for owning them, but most of us think that's worth it.[msnsmile2][msnsmile2][msnsmile2][msnsmile2]

Have you got a family you could share the cost of a villa with ? A mini van with ? Buy a bigger Disney Park ticket with no expiry date on, this will then last two holidays and work out much better value. Just a few things that worked for us.

I'm sure other owners and Florida lovers will give you more tips[msnsmile2]

Have a great holiday when you do go this year [clap][clap][clap]

We first visited Florida about 16 years ago with our 4 (then young) children.

Like you, having sampled a Floridian holiday, we could not imagine wanting to go anywhere else.

We used to do a U.K. holiday one year and Florida the next as we could not afford to go every year.

Surprisingly, villa accommodation has not increased much in price in all those years!!

when I go in May/June this year it will be just me and my son. I have purchased the universal four park flex tickets. This cost under £200 for the pair of us and will allow us to go to a theme park everyday if we wish. I know this does not include Disney, but if you are planning on going every year there is no need to visit Disney everytime. If you alternate the parks you visit, not only do you save money but it means there will be more new rides the next time you go.
PS - although my son loves the fast rides his favourite park is actually Seaworld.

There are a few things you might consider Tia.

If you are able to travel out of season you typically find flights priced a little lower, especially the flights into Tampa, which isn't much further (time wise) than Orlando International or Sanford. Booking flights well in advance sometimes helps, as does having the flexibility to travel on odd days. BA's website is excellent for giving a comparison of the costs of flights on different dates. It can be quite significant!

Go for an airmiles type programme like BA's or Virgin's and then restructure your life around acquiring points. For example, if you put your whole family's spend through either Virgin's or BA's credit cards you will be surprised how fast the miles rack up.

There are 4 of you. If you have any other families that you get on really well with get them to join you. The bigger villas are great for two families, and as well as splitting the cost of the villa you can split the cost of the car hire too; especially with the options offered by this site where you don't pay over the odds for having lots of extra drivers.

Look for smart ways to ticket your theme parks and take as much advantage as possible of any special offers like free extra days. If you've booked a villa, ask the owner to keep an eye open for things like this. Maybe do only Disney on one trip and only Universal on another.

Spend a few extra days by the pool in the villa. Sometimes you do wonder who is the driving force behind visiting the theme parks. The kids are almost as happy spending a day in the water.

Look for different events that aren't as expensive as the theme parks. A launch from Kennedy costs you nothing more than the drive there and back. Have an afternoon around Kissimmee Old Town or catch one of the classic car cruises. Gatorland is still very reasonably priced and is a great afternoon out.

Each piece of the puzzle might only be small, but if you keep chipping away at it everything adds up in the end. You can't eat an elephant all in one go, but if you turn it into elephant burgers you can nibble away at it until it's all gone.

A way to save money on tickets and you want to go every year is plan for a trip just within 12 months (e.g. December 2005 and then November 2006).
Then buy Annual Passes on your December 2005 trip for Disney/Universal/Seaworld and use them for next years trip too.

Brizzle.

You can pick up cheap (er) flights if you shop around Tia. This easter we paid £245 for flights to MCO via Charlotte with US airways, my niece who could only join us for part of our trip paid over £600 to fly direct with Virgin. Aer Lingus are also offering very reasonable prices on flights from Dublin and you can pick up a Ryan Air flight to Dublin for peanuts!!
I don't think the price of car hire from this site can be beaten. Shop around for travel insurance, the travel agents offers are way in excess of anything you can get on the net, although they will often lure you through the doors with promises of free insurance if you book a holiday with them.
You don't need to do the theme parks all the time, maybe just a couple of days and make them very full days so you will appreciate the relaxation when you don't go. There are so many other things to do in and around Orlando.
Like other villa owners have said, our accommodation is never free!!!
We pay all year round, and as Jan said, when we use it ourselves it cannot generate income for us.....a bit like being self employed and taking a holiday. I do have to agree though the best way to holidat in Florida is in a villa so if you can share the cost with another family it is really economical.
If you can't go to Florida every year, just think of how much you will appreciate it when you do!!!

If you factor in the cost of your trip at the start of the year,somehow you will afford it, put some cash aside every month

And as has already been stated,if you only go occasionally,you spend a lot more money because you don't want to miss anything

We send our renters a free things to do leaflet,full of great days out.Mix that with the odd day at the parks,State Parks,that only cost a dollar or two and some time in your villa and around the pool and it will be a reasonable holiday even with the flights

Plus,you can plan to eat in more and with careful shopping you can take home some bargains that also offset your holiday costs.Keep your eye on the dollar and change your money at the best rate

All in all,can you afford to vacation anywhere else?

laura echoing above,
we are flying direct with virgin for the same price as indirect with american. you just have to research and belucky. if you can go at short notice even 4 of you can fly cheap. out of season you can pick up a fly drive from £79 plus costs.
re the parks - get up early , get out and spend full days in the parks. cheaper a few full days than several 11 o'clock starts.

you could do the time share thing and get free or $10 tickets. yes its a pain. 6 years ago when the kids were small and our finances tight we did a 2 hour presentation, got free breaky! kids had a supervised play park use of club facilities all day if you wanted, $20 to spend in the club shop and a family 2 day pass to universal.

we had no intention of buying , couldnt afford to, but it meant for the use of that morning our family got 2 great fun days. i wouldnt do it again now, but for us then, it worked.

set yourself a date in the future and start saving. even buy the park tickets as you go along(save the family allowance) cos they dont expire - go on you kmow you want to[msnwink]

Thanks to all of you for posting so promptly. There were some great tips that I will definitely be using.
trevlad you are so right - I definitely want to [msnsmile2].
As for Snapper, who needs Atkins? It's elephant burgers from now on!!
Many thanks [clap][clap][clap][clap]

Bill goes out to work to finance the family, I go out to work to take us to FLorida - excellent combination.

I can only echo what the others have said, and definitely sharing a villa with friends or family makes the whole holiday a lot more economical. We always used to go to Europe, Portugal or Spain, but even though flights are more expensive to Florida, everything else is so cheap it compensates for it. Where else can you get a 100 item buffet breakfast for $3.99? You don't have to eat for the rest of the day, you can spend a day at the parks for a lot less than you can in the UK and come home for a cool and relaxing dip in your own private pool. Holiday? It's a whole different lifestyle :)

Go for it, it's a lot cheaper than you think.

Dianna

That's how it works in our house too Lyn.
I often moan about having to work, and with David's salary and some investments we have made over the years I could give up work and still be reasonably confortable but the first cut back would have to be holidays.....no way[msnwink]<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Lyn
Bill goes out to work to finance the family, I go out to work to take us to FLorida - excellent combination.
[/quote]

Planning early is one of the best ways to save.
Make use of the coupons in the brochures you find in supermarkets and buffets etc.

We found one on our last trip that gave you a free disney pin to start trading, each of you could have one of these and save yourself around $8 each.

Some places have specials on food for children if eating with an adult.
Take drinks with you into the park, this can save you loads of money, as a regular soda is around $2 in the parks (Minimum) but you can buy 18 cans of soda (Coca cola, mountain dew or what ever) for $4.99, plus most stores have offers on for things like this too.

we have to budget very carefully as we went last year to florida we have now been twice and are going again in november this year, we will only be doing 1 or 2 parks and one of them will be seaworld, so maybe just do 2 parks yourself Laura there are many other places to go where you pay either very little or nothing, such as the beaches, i know driving around costs but petrol is so much cheaper there, as we only went last dec we are going less then a year later and hubby is working like crazy to give us a fab holiday to florida, we even got dollars off one of our boys as a silver wedding anniversary pressie!

This is all great advice. I think you tend to pack as much in as you can on the first holiday, as we did. All our subsequent trips to Florida have been cheaper as we only visit our favourite parks. Also the Simon Veness book A Brits Guide to Disney and Orlando (I think thats its title) has lots of tips on places that are free or very good value so that might be worth investing in?:)

One of the best places to save money is if you do not go direct. A bit of a hassle but we once went with American Airline, and my husband hated it, however we saved around £800 by not travelling direct. (couple and 2 kids). Also we rented a 4 bed villa for £850 for two weeks. As this was shared it costs less for each family.

If you cant afford all this, you can try price line dot com, where you bid for hotel rooms. We once stayed at the Rosen Centre hotel on International Drive, where we paid $150 per night, and there were lots of people there who paid $50 through price line. Be careful before you bid though, you don't want to bid and realised you have made a mistake. Once your bid is accepted, you cannot refuse it and your credit card will be charged. No matter what your excuse is, once the bid is accepted, that's it. However you can bid for a 3, 4 or 5 star in a particular area. One site that assist all price line bidders is bidding for travel dot com. You must read through everything properly before bidding.
You can also bid for rental cars. Our rental car SUV collected from Orlando airport only cost $300 through Alamo. Normally we pay £500+ for our SUV in Orlando, but we only rent through Price line now. Good luck

I too wish we could afford Florida every year but I've resigned myself to the fact its every other year. Maybe once the kids have flown the nest me & hubby could go every year on our own because I am sure there are plenty of things we would enjoy without hitting the parks hard.

We went 2003 and did the full disney/seaworld/universal/IOA/Water parks and it was great. Very tiring but great. Were going again August this year and even though we've done the parks before there is so much we missed (plus we have 2 new additions to 2003 holiday 2 more teenagers [msneek]) so were doing them all again.

I agree wholeheartedley with the posts above though, that you can save lots of money if you don't do all the parks.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:You can also bid for rental cars. Our rental car SUV collected from Orlando airport only cost $300 through Alamo. Normally we pay £500+ for our SUV in Orlando, but we only rent through Price line now. Good luck
[/quote]

Agreed with much of yor post however just a point.

Most cars rented directly in America do not have insurance as Americans own car insurance covers them.

I would be very surprised if a $300 SUV hire from Alamo(presumably for 2 weeks?) had adequate insurance.

Anyone taking that particular bit of advice should check very carefully.

I have found it is always cheaper to book cars in UK if you are to avoid additional insurance and tax charges.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Robert5988
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:You can also bid for rental cars. Our rental car SUV collected from Orlando airport only cost $300 through Alamo. Normally we pay £500+ for our SUV in Orlando, but we only rent through Price line now. Good luck
[/quote]

Agreed with much of yor post however just a point.

Most cars rented directly in America do not have insurance as Americans own car insurance covers them.

I would be very surprised if a $300 SUV hire from Alamo(presumably for 2 weeks?) had adequate insurance.

Anyone taking that particular bit of advice should check very carefully.

I have found it is always cheaper to book cars in UK if you are to avoid additional insurance and tax charges.
[/quote]

We have good hire car cover on our US insurance.....but we still take out the car hire cover if we are there more than a long weekend.....its nice to just walk away from anything that happens in FL and not have it come back to your own Ins cover.......the extra few hundred $$ is well worth it...it takes away a lot of worry.......

We have had several ways to keep the cost of a Florida holiday down except the one I find most helpful. HIDE THE CREDIT CARD FROM THE WIFE.;)

Shopping is such good value in Florida that we restock our wardrobes and save a bundle. This saving helps offset the cost of the holiday. There are plenty of other things I would go without before I'd give up my Florida fix.

Jeff

I first went in nov 2002 and then again in nov 2004, with my parents and my fiance.

We loved it both times, and even though we could afford to go every year if we wanted to, we actually prefer the idea of going every two years.
apart from the fact that it gives you a year off, where you can holiday somewhere else (i am off to vegas twice before our next trip next nov!) and gives you extra time to save the money, but it also means that there is always going to be something new to look forward to ride wise. for example after coming back in 2002, we watched the net and read about the new rides such as shrek 4-D, the mummy and the haunted lighthouse being built. if we had gone in Nov 2003 we would have missed the mummy ride.
Now when we can book for next nov we have at least two more rides to look forward to, the new rollercoaster at animal kingdom and the new rollercoaster at busch gardens. Seeing as most of the rides take about a year to build and test anyway, chances are if we went every year we may miss them.

We also book the whole trip thru virgin staying at the all star resorts, and this price included all disney tickets so it was only universal we had to sort out ourselves. Now though, virgin dont offer the deal anymore, as it their deal expired with disney, but they now offer the rooms and tickets separately at a cheaper price than before. but i know mist people on here are villa owners, but for those that arent it workth thinking about.