The Holy Grail - Florida vacation every year!

[tia 33]

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]

[Lyn]

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

[DiannaUK]

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

[E. Cosgrove]

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]

[Magical Dreams]

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.

[LiesaAnna]

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!

[DisneyDreamer]

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?

[jtijani]

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

[Curly Wurly]

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.

[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.