Best time to visit?

[seanchai]

I would certainly book a villa through this site as we were not sure what to expect on our arrival .....sure it turned out fine and the villa in lindfields reserve was very nice indeed , it had on-suite in every room and tv's in every room.... although we never watched much tv to be honest ....Good luck on your search for a villa ...i,m sure the site owners will keep you right and if/when i am booking another holiday in Florida i will certainly use this site to do so. (I found this site after we had booked flights/tickets/cars and villa for this years holiday)

[cash]

Quote"I also don't think it matters when you go with regard to the airlines, they are going to charge you an absolute fortune no matter what time of the year you go !!"

bit of a sweeping statement there !!!, there are certain times of the year when you can pick up some very cheap flights, also look out for sales, BA & Virgin have them every few months when you can grab a bargain, if your not restricted to length of stay then look at the charters ( firstchoice/t cook etc) for 7 or 14 days, again you can find some very cheap deals, I always find November/Jan & feb the cheapest times to fly purely down to the fact that not many UK passengers are going over during these periods.

also may be worth looking into a credit card that gives you air miles ( virgin/mbna etc) especially as you have a while before you go, we have always flown with Virgin and never paid more than £400 using miles + money fares, in fact this October we are going out upper class and only paying £350 eah as we have used our air miles, so in some cases it is worth using the cards.

[Katys Grandad]

Quote"I also don't think it matters when you go with regard to the airlines, they are going to charge you an absolute fortune no matter what time of the year you go !!"

bit of a sweeping statement there !!!, there are certain times of the year when you can pick up some very cheap flights, also look out for sales, BA & Virgin have them every few months when you can grab a bargain, if your not restricted to length of stay then look at the charters ( firstchoice/t cook etc) for 7 or 14 days, again you can find some very cheap deals, I always find November/Jan & feb the cheapest times to fly purely down to the fact that not many UK passengers are going over during these periods.

also may be worth looking into a credit card that gives you air miles ( virgin/mbna etc) especially as you have a while before you go, we have always flown with Virgin and never paid more than £400 using miles + money fares, in fact this October we are going out upper class and only paying £350 eah as we have used our air miles, so in some cases it is worth using the cards.

I'm sure nobody wants this thread to stray into another debate about airfares but the only point I would make is that what is seen as a 'very cheap flight' these days would have been seen as pretty expensive just a couple of years ago. It's all relative of course but anybody who thinks fares haven't risen a lot recently hasn't been paying enough attention.

I do concur with your advice about collecting miles and every little helps but you have to have very significant credit card spend to accumulate enough for regualr redemptions, and, inevitably, the thorny issue of availability always comes into play.

[Sherman]

Thanks for the heads up re flights. I'm a fairly regular visitor to the U.S. and always use Virgin, and have been saving my frequent flyer miles to go towards this long planned trip. I've not done the villa thing before though so was really looking for a steer on prices etc in Feb. Also, because of the composition of the party, (3 couples and 3 children) we're looking for something ideally, with 3 doubles and a triple. Most of the villas I've looked into so far seem to offer twin bedded rooms for the kids. Not insurmountable I know, but any recommendations ( if allowed on this site) or suggestions would be very welcome. And thanks again for everybody's helpful replies!

[Tony G]

a 'very cheap flight' these days would have been seen as pretty expensive just a couple of years ago. It's all relative of course but anybody who thinks fares haven't risen a lot recently hasn't been paying enough attention.

Definitely agree with this. The price of my off peak flights now closely resembles that of the peak flights a couple of years ago.

[carolmc]

Thanks for the heads up re flights. I'm a fairly regular visitor to the U.S. and always use Virgin, and have been saving my frequent flyer miles to go towards this long planned trip. I've not done the villa thing before though so was really looking for a steer on prices etc in Feb. Also, because of the composition of the party, (3 couples and 3 children) we're looking for something ideally, with 3 doubles and a triple. Most of the villas I've looked into so far seem to offer twin bedded rooms for the kids. Not insurmountable I know, but any recommendations ( if allowed on this site) or suggestions would be very welcome. And thanks again for everybody's helpful replies!

Owners cannot reply to your requests here - just put out an enquiry and list your requirements....there are plenty of villas with a set-up to suit your needs.

[Sherman]

Apologies carolmc - and thanks.

[bargainqueen]

We normally book outside school holidays but this year my niece came with us for the first week. She works in a school but we were able to travel on the Friday before half term. We were staggered by how much the flights were, from memory her flight was over £500 and that was booking as soon as flights were released by Virgin.

This year we've booked similar dates, mid week though and our tickets were much cheaper but as Easter is in late April in 2014 I don't know if that changes half term.

[ujpest doza]

I'm not a Parks expert but as far as weather is concerned, October is better by a long way.

I agree with this.
We've been various times of the year but the last 4 trips have all been October as we've settled on that being the best both weather and crowds wise.

February/March we found really hit and miss for weather with some really horrendous weather and some okay. Also busy due to snow birds but also spring breakers and surprisingly bikers staying in the Kissimmee/davenport area and commuting to Daytona for bike week as it's cheaper to do.

[Big_Momma]

We went in March last year- weather was still good, but the parks were absolutely packed. All our other trips have been sept, oct and nov ones and the parks were much quieter and the weather still warm and lovely!