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QUESTION: Florida on the cheap

S

SLC

TS Member
Although over two years away, I was beginning to think about some kind of holiday for me and a mate or two for after we finish college/sixth form, which naturally (as a theme park enthusiast) made me think of a fortnight in Florida. I was wondering the cheapest way that we could visit the theme park capital of the world ie cheap flights, hotels and whatnot.

I know about things like the flexticket, I'm just more curious about things such as comparing the cost of staying in a Disney hotel compared to a Universal hotel when taxi costs are added into the equation, or what time of year is the price lowest (although we'll probably be limited with that choice).

It's probably a bit early to be thinking of this, but it would be best to get a rough idea of how much we'll need to save in these 2/2.5 years before we go.

Sent from Tapatalk, excuse any mistakes.
 
I know that April/May and September/October are generally the cheapest times of the year, and that it's best to leave it very late to book flights because as they are quieter times of year they'll have quite a few spaces that they'll want to fill (at last minute prices).
 
Well there is tons that I have posted before about Florida.

Flights, it depends I know people have found good prices close to their holiday but I personally prefer to have them booked if I am booking other stuff in advance.

I have been to Fl twice and never visited Disney. Just did not see it was worth the money just for a few thrill rides. I want big thrills and not to bothered about all the details.

So you could decide to do one lot of parks or the other, it will save you a decent amount of cash. Most of the parks discount multi day passes with I think 2 week passes being about the best value. So if you are only going for 2 weeks its pointless getting 2 weeks of Universal/seaworld and 2 weeks of Disney.

There are plenty of places that sell tickets. But watch out for the dodgy ones.
http://www.orlando-ticket-deals.co.uk/

We got ours from here and it worked out cheapest for us to get Universal 2 park ticket, Discovery cove ultimate ticket that then covered the rest of the parks as we wanted to do DC anyway.

I found a good place to find info was on the trip advisor Orlando page. But there used to be a few Disney drama queens over there so it got rather annoying.

I have stayed in a hotel just off idrive which at the time was a Marriott and it was very nice. There was a daily bus transfer to Universal (after opening time) and there was one back in the afternoon and one in the evening. But Taxis were so cheap from there, all under $10 no matter how slow they drove :p

Seaworld was easy to get to on the buses. I would recommend Lynx buses rather than the I trolley. Lynxs goes a lot further and you can get to Disney using them if you want. I trolley just goes more or less up and down Idrive and has rubbish air con and is normally packed with tourists. On lynx they have good aircon and you get to mix with some locals. With tickets there is a free transfer to Busch gardens which is ok.

I have stayed in a villa which was good. Nice lot of space, nice quiet area. But the cost of a car was a bit expensive when you have to factor in (at the time) $15 a day parking at the parks! It was ok for us as at the time there was 5 of us so splitting the cost of everything brought the price down but if it was just me and the wife I am not sure I would get a car.

I would think that using the bus and the occasional taxi would be far cheaper. Might not be so good on time but if you are trying to keep costs down I would think that its the best way.

There are some apartments that are called vista cay that are just off idrive. They are smaller than villas so might work out cheaper.

When you get there go to a walmart or something and buy a big pack of bottled water, when I went bottled water in the parks was I think $3-5 for a 750ml bottle and when its really hot its amazing how much you can drink.

Get a small cooler and take some food in, its amazingly expensive in the parks. This can be more difficult in a hotel room with no kitchen equipment but some hotels do have fridges you can have in your room.

Budget Budget Budget and try to stick to your daily budget.

Also get more people to go with you to get the cost down.
 
Post above pretty much covers all the details. I'd definitely recommend staying in one of the many hotels on idrive rather than a resort hotel if you want it to be affordable. I'd also recommend late September/early October, weather is still hot - scorching depending on your luck and the Halloween events will all be underway. Public transport is surprisingly good around Orlando so you'll only need a taxi if you need to get back in the early hours. Make sure you research a decent reputable taxi company and stick with them though, you find yourself hounded by all sorts of vehicles when stood roadside and some just don't appear safe. We used Mears throughout our trip including coach to Tampa and they were just fine. Wouldn't bother with the iRide Trolley things, normal buses are just fine and cost $2 for any trip, also most hotels on iDrive offer free shuttles but the times might not be ideal and they get quite full. For an idea of price, my wife and i spent 14 nights in Orlando, did all 6 Disney Parks (plus Disney Quest), both universal parks, Seaworld, Aquatica, Discovery Cove and Busch Gardens. Also did some Halloween events (Howl-O-Scream, Mickey's not so scary and Halloween Horror Nights twice) then took a day trip to New York before flying home. We spent around £1200 each on the holiday, and spent about £1000 between us while there.
 
Wow Earth, that's a ton of cash, bet it's the best 3 1/2 grand you've spent though eh!!??

I'd love to go!
 
I went with my girlfriend last September and we tried to do it as cheap as possible. The biggest costs to you will likely be attraction tickets and spending money, so it's up to you how much you get of each. For the flight and accom. We spent about £600 each for 3 weeks.
 
Had a look on the Disney package website, and I found flights, hotels and park access to all Orlando parks for 14 days in April 2013 works out at just over a grand each for 4 people, which might work. It'll most likely raise in price in a few years, but for now that seems okay.
 
TheMan said:
Wow Earth, that's a ton of cash, bet it's the best 3 1/2 grand you've spent though eh!!??

I'd love to go!
Click to expand...

Well the basics were all done as cheap as possible so we had plenty left over for extras. I'd do it again without a second thought!
 
The last holiday to FL (in March 2011) it cost about £1300 per person for flights, car hire, villa, park tickets, car parking, car hire to drive to and from Gatwick, night stay at Gatwick.
 
I think we've found a package we like, 1138 each for two rooms, one with 2 girls and one with 4 boys at the Disney All-Star Sport hotel. The boys room would be £300 cheaper but the cost would be fairly split. Car parking would not be a problem since we could get family to drop us off.

What are the American driving regulations? Most of us, if not all of us, would be 18 at the time and at least one of us would be able to drive. Would we be allowed to hire a car? Would this be cheaper than using taxi's to get to beaches, shopping centers and non-Disney theme parks (seeing how the Disney buses would be used the majority of the time)?
 
I know that, I meant as cheaply as possible :p Roughly £1100 (plus spending and food money, which would take up quite a lot as well) sounds like good value for what we'll be getting.
 
SLC said:
I think we've found a package we like, 1138 each for two rooms, one with 2 girls and one with 4 boys at the Disney All-Star Sport hotel. The boys room would be £300 cheaper but the cost would be fairly split. Car parking would not be a problem since we could get family to drop us off.

What are the American driving regulations? Most of us, if not all of us, would be 18 at the time and at least one of us would be able to drive. Would we be allowed to hire a car? Would this be cheaper than using taxi's to get to beaches, shopping centers and non-Disney theme parks (seeing how the Disney buses would be used the majority of the time)?
Click to expand...

We used these guys
http://www.uscarhire.com/

Looks like you have to be at least 21 to hire a car.
http://www.uscarhire.com/faq-restrictions.aspx


To get to the beach it would be cheaper to have a car or you could try finding some tour company that does it. On our honeymoon we did a tour to Clear water which was good.

I think if you are staying on Disney property you get free car parking but don't quote me on that. But you get to use Disney transport for free so most of the time would not need the car unless you were going off site.

you can get lynx buses to get to Universal etc from Disney.

This is the best description of buses travel to and from parks:
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Travel-g34515-c116996/Orlando:Florida:Bus.Services.On.International.Drive.html

Depending where you stay taxis could not be that expensive to shopping malls, depends where you are and where the mall is.

Might find this handy
http://www.taxifarefinder.com/main.php?city=Orlando


On the trip where we had a car the best thing I ever did was hire a sat nav off someone on ebay with all the up to date maps on it. So easy. Heading home from KSC and wanted to have some food when we got back to Orlando so just found restaurant near the villa and it took us strait there and we were nice and close to get home.
 
If you can, look into the moderate resorts when they offer free disney dining plan! It is a great deal, and you will even be able to get food related gifts (american portions of snack credits xD). Also, you may be able to get a better deal through the US website: LINKY

I highly recommend staying on wdw (I'd recommend, Value- All Stars, Moderate - Port Orleans), also you can book rooms for more people on the US site than the UK one, for some reason.

Also with port orleans you can book either 'half' and still use the facilities of each, they are only a 5 minute walk away from eachother. Plus Riverside has the best foodcourt i've come across on WDW property :)
 
At the moment we're back down to 4 males which is the cheapest option, rather than a 2 and a 4 people room. We're looking at the All-Star Sports resort because it's the cheapest. It's also where I stayed in April so I'm familiar with it and the transportation, food court and entertainment. Only problem is that there are just two double beds, although we could probably sort this out. I know you can rent single beds as that's what I slept on last year, while my friend volunteered to sleep in the bath :p

The free food thing sounds awesome, although if it's the same time of year in 2015 as it is for 2013 then it will only be for a short portion of our trip so it's not worth it. It'll probably work out cheaper this way anyway.
 
Jem8472 said:
SLC said:
I think we've found a package we like, 1138 each for two rooms, one with 2 girls and one with 4 boys at the Disney All-Star Sport hotel. The boys room would be £300 cheaper but the cost would be fairly split. Car parking would not be a problem since we could get family to drop us off.

What are the American driving regulations? Most of us, if not all of us, would be 18 at the time and at least one of us would be able to drive. Would we be allowed to hire a car? Would this be cheaper than using taxi's to get to beaches, shopping centers and non-Disney theme parks (seeing how the Disney buses would be used the majority of the time)?
Click to expand...

We used these guys
http://www.uscarhire.com/

Looks like you have to be at least 21 to hire a car.
http://www.uscarhire.com/faq-restrictions.aspx


To get to the beach it would be cheaper to have a car or you could try finding some tour company that does it. On our honeymoon we did a tour to Clear water which was good.

I think if you are staying on Disney property you get free car parking but don't quote me on that. But you get to use Disney transport for free so most of the time would not need the car unless you were going off site.

you can get lynx buses to get to Universal etc from Disney.

This is the best description of buses travel to and from parks:
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Travel-g34515-c116996/Orlando:Florida:Bus.Services.On.International.Drive.html

Depending where you stay taxis could not be that expensive to shopping malls, depends where you are and where the mall is.

Might find this handy
http://www.taxifarefinder.com/main.php?city=Orlando


On the trip where we had a car the best thing I ever did was hire a sat nav off someone on ebay with all the up to date maps on it. So easy. Heading home from KSC and wanted to have some food when we got back to Orlando so just found restaurant near the villa and it took us strait there and we were nice and close to get home.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for this!

Going for our fourth visit in 2 years (Super Lucky) in June and have never really thought to use a lynx bus to get from IDrive to Disney but looks like it could be a super cheap option from taxi's without the restrictions of a free shuttle.
 
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