Masters Inn

[E. Cosgrove]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by big momma
Dont seem to be able to get flights, and car rental any cheaper than this package deal, the one near marker 4 has been recently decorated- Im sure it will be fine- I hope! Our last villa at Windward Cay was beautiful but it was through a private rental company.
[/quote]
Car hire from this site is excellent value. In the summer we hired a 7 seater minivan in Colorado via an online car rental co (uk based).
We paid over £700 all inclusive for 17 nights[msnsad]
We have just hired the same vehicle for 9 nights in Florida for £233
Idon't know how that works out pro rata {Im no good at maths}but even given that car hire is marginally cheaper in Florida than in the South West it's still excellent value.[msnsmile2]
Shop around for cheap flights too, We have flights with US airlines for £253 + £80 tax and aer lingus are quoting 290 euros direct to MCO from Dublin {again not brilliant at maths but my other half tells me this is about £200}[msnsmile2]

[big momma]

Suite has 2 room and a standard room. There will be me and hubby in one bed, two daughters aged 17 & 18 in a double and 13 year old son on sofa bed. Mother in law and neice in room next door with a double bed each. Feeling very worried now, but its florida on the cheap or Skegness!

[Carla]

With 7 of you, you'll spend a lot in restaurants if you always have to eat every meal out, as you would in a hotel. I know they give you breakfast at the Masters Inn, but it's only incredibly weak coffee and a bagel or a muffin. This will become samey and pretty unbearable after a few days. I only tried it for a couple of mornings and then ended up at a Denny's down the road for the rest of my stay.

If you book a private villa then you could budget to eat in for your breakfasts (and everyone could have what they like), maybe BBQ for some dinners and do yourselves some packed lunches to take to the Parks with you. You could then eat out when you really wanted to.

You could also buy loads of bottled water and other soft drinks and keep these in the large fridge. It costs $2.50 for every bottle of water at a Park, and when I was there in July, I bought 48 bottles for just $10 from Wal-Mart, so I got 44 bottles FREE!!! We'd stick them in the freezer the night before we wanted them and take them to the Parks with us. They kept everything else lovely and cold and we could drink them whenever we wanted to.

You could easily cut your costs here and spend the savings on making sure that you have somewhere great to stay.

Even if you ate at the cheapest restaurants like Ponderosa, Sizzlers etc., you'd still spend a minimum of about $95 for dinner for 7 including tax and tip. Multiply that by 14 and you get $1330 and that's just for the cheapest meal and drink in the cheapest place.

[blott]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by big momma
Suite has 2 room and a standard room. There will be me and hubby in one bed, two daughters aged 17 & 18 in a double and 13 year old son on sofa bed. Mother in law and neice in room next door with a double bed each. Feeling very worried now, but its florida on the cheap or Skegness![/quote]That's exactly the point we're trying to make - for what you've booked it isn't cheap! It just looks like it is as it's all lumped in together.

If you booked the components separately, ie villa, car rental and flights, it could be just about the same price but a whole heap better with a lot more space, your own private pool and cheap meals at your 'home'!

[chrizzy100]

I've been very lucky with hotels in Orlando over the years......we had one room that we could hear the traffic......but they moved us from there the next night.....

We get up at 7 in the morning and never get back till gone 11 at night....so we really only need a place to sleep......I've become lazy in our own villa....not going out....getting up late....etc.......I'm begining to feel like I'm not making the most of my time away...

[SunLover]

Big Momma

The advice that the other owners on this forum have given you is extremely good. I too would agree with all that has been said.

They are not trying to get you to rent their villas by saying what they do. They are merely concerned that you understand the implications of what you thought would be a budget holiday spiralling out of control cost wise.

Renting a Florida villa is perhaps one of the best value holiday accommodations anywhere in the world, when you consider all the great things that are included within the house, and not forgetting your own private pool.

When we first went to Florida (on a budget) we did the same as you are intending to do, and booked what looked like a great deal. We ended up paying way over the odds in reality, and found returning to a budget hotel at night really cramped and depressing. Even before we bought our own villa, whenever we returned to the US, we always booked things separately from then onwards, and saved lots of money in real terms by doing so.

Having so many family members in such a small space is never a good idea ~ to me it would be like Christmas Day with the family x 14 nights !!! More than a little stressful !!!

[ellie]

Oh, dear Big Momma, you certainly have a dilemma! What might have seemed a bargain may in reality turn out to be less than that.

I wonder how you are actually going to sleep all of your party, as we have a teenage girl and a boy who most definitely will not sleep together, and frankly I would not expect them to. Are your teenagers happy with having to sleep in the same bed? I also wonder if you have you ever slept on a sofa bed in one of these motels? They are simply the most uncomfortable things you can sleep on, bearable maybe for a single night if there was no choice, but for a fortnight, well back-ache will be the least of your worries - fights about who gets the sleeper sofa and who gets the real bed (shared or not!) will be a bigger nightmare. And of course, once it is made up, you have to climb over it or go under it to get anywhere in the room.

The one thing that puts us off, too, is the fact that many of these cheaper motels do not have inside corridors, and we wouldn't feel safe there. Also as everyone has to pass your door, and your only window, you will see that everyone keeps their curtains shut all day, so if you are stuck in there it is really gloomy.

Do you have girl teenagers? Then you will know that one bathroom between them is a constant source of aggravation, especially when you want to get to one of the parks early and they ALL want to do their hair, nails, make-up etc etc! And my daughter is still at the stage of changing into about 10 different outfits before she will go out of the door - in a small space watch for the explosions! Been there, done that, got the t-shirt! Having said that, boys can be equally fussy with all their hair gels etc!

Actually renting one of these rooms is really really cheap if you do it via a US website, about £20 a night, so it would seem to me that the travel agent is taking a big profit on this, too.

There is very good advice here about renting a villa, and although I am a villa owner, and could be said to be biased, we could not accommodate a big party, so it makes no difference to me. However, I do think that the fantastic comfort you would have in a villa, several bathrooms, plus your own pool, freedom to come and go as you please, and the ability to eat at home if you want to - even if its only breakfast - as well as the space to spread all of the children out, makes it worth considering.

Also, as Lesley so rightly says, do check up on the car hire insurance situation as TCD are one of many who expect you to pay a huge 'top up' in order to cover you for the same level as is included on the link above.

As far as 'recently renovated' goes, this can cover a multitude of sins - you may well find that it is only some of the rooms that have been newly decorated, and sometimes the phrase 'newly renovated' means 2 or 3 years ago, so it would be worth checking if your rooms are actually new or not.

Whatever you decide, I really do hope that you all enjoy it, but if you are going to spend this much, then accommodation is the very last thing I would economise on.

Hope you have a lovely holiday and let us know how it goes.

Ellie

[chrizzy100]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by big momma
Suite has 2 room and a standard room. There will be me and hubby in one bed, two daughters aged 17 & 18 in a double and 13 year old son on sofa bed. Mother in law and neice in room next door with a double bed each. Feeling very worried now, but its florida on the cheap or Skegness!
[/quote]

We've always done hotels holidays to FL.....and we've always had a great time.......don't worry.....our kids can't stand to be in the same room together most of the time........but in a hotel they really get on.....I just go and have fun........its cheaper to eat out in the States then to buy and cook yourself....trust me I live here......LOL!

Have a great holiday.......maybe next time you can look into villa rentals......and you'll have something to judge the costs against......
a holiday is what you make it......no matter where you end up sleeping.....

[lisi]

As a matter of interest - did you look at the prices to rent a villa? There is so much choice on this site - You would see that they do vary but would be far better value than a motel. So nice to have the freedom to do your own thing and you can get so fed up of eating out all the time. I echo all that has been said above - we never have much money and I never ever thought I would be renting a villa but having done it now it is so easy and made my dollars stretch much further than had I stayed in a hotel.

Lisi

[fiona]

We stayed in a hotel in Miami for just 2 nights with our teenagers last year. Despite being promised a large room with 2 king beds, it was a large room with a queen and a double sofa bed. The sofa bed couldn't open unless it hit the queen - so no room for anyone to nip out of bed for a visit to the bathroom without waking everyone up. Aircon was noisy and non-existent and carpet was exactly as Carla described above, no one dared walk round bare foot. Couldn't wait to move on and when we arrived at our villa it seemed like a palace by comparison.

I am sure yours will be fine BM, and do come back and tell us how it went. I think everyone has pointed out that for future visits you might do better by planning it all and renting direct from an owner. That's what we do now having paid through the nose from holiday companies and ending up in dumps!