Orlando Family Holiday

PaddyJules

I hope I am not being cheeky here - but just looking for some info. We are considering 'thinking' about a family holiday to Orlando next year (2011) but before I start to get too excited about it, we need to decide if we can afford it. So here is my questions - could anyone give me a rough idea of how much a 2 week holiday to Orlando would be for 2 adults and 2 kids (aged 15 and 11) in July 2011. I have done some searches online, but thought if someone who has booked this type of holiday, could give me a guideline. Also - any advice on good websites to look at. Thks

ncmc

PaddyJules wrote: »

I hope I am not being cheeky here - but just looking for some info. We are considering 'thinking' about a family holiday to Orlando next year (2011) but before I start to get too excited about it, we need to decide if we can afford it. So here is my questions - could anyone give me a rough idea of how much a 2 week holiday to Orlando would be for 2 adults and 2 kids (aged 15 and 11) in July 2011. I have done some searches online, but thought if someone who has booked this type of holiday, could give me a guideline. Also - any advice on good websites to look at. Thks

Your first port of call should be www.touramerica.com and www.americanholidays.com airlines only release prices 330 days in advance so you may have to wait a couple of weeks before you get prices. Once you have your prices from these two websites, I would use them as a guidline and see if you can save money by booking everything seperately yourself. As a rough guide, you can expect to pay €500-600 per person for flights.

For two adults and two older children you should look for a two bedroom apartment, that will give you a bit more space and comfort. Some well reviewed ones in Orlando are Staybridge Suites, Homewood Suites and Embassy Suites. We stayed in a place called Liki Tiki Village a few years back, it was nice and quite reasonable, but it was quite far from the parks and so you would need a car. I would think you would be looking at at least €5000-6000 for flights, accomodation, car hire and tickets. If you stay on International drive, a lot of the bigger hotels offer shuttles to the parks or you could use the I-Trolly, so that might save you the car hire costs.

Some hotels would allow you all to stay in one room, so that would save you a good chunk of cash, you'd be fairly squashed though, so not sure if that would be a problem. You could consider a villa, that would really gove you space to stretch out, though I have never done that so not sure how cost effective that would be. The tickets are expensive, so if you want to see all the parks, that will really up your costs. You could save money by only going to the Disney parks or Universal Parks rather than both, but then my attitude is that it's a long way to go to only see half of the attractions! I always recommend the Trip Advisor Orlando forum http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowForum-g34515-i19-Orlando_Florida.html it gets a lot of traffic and the people on there are very helpful.

losthorizon

http://www.travelzoo.com/uk/cheap-flights/international/863673/?utm_source=top20_uk&utm_medium=email_top20


Keep an eye out on this site - its fairly good. Most of their deals are UK based but more Irish ones are creeping in. The had ones to Orlando starting from this week as well but they seem to have been all booked out. Keep an eye on it.

PaddyJules

Thanks very much for your advice - I will start my investigations soon.

mini78

Hi,

We went to Orlando last summer and booked everything ourselves. I think the prices some Tour Companies charge are very high.

We booked our flights direct with Aer Lingus. We stayed in the Radisson Lake Buena Vista (Check it out on Trip Advisor). The hotel is located just off the highway and is at the main gates of Disney World. The main incentive of this hotel is that it is much cheapier that the hotels within Disney and also each room has two double beds and comes with a microwave and fridge. This is a good hotel if you are on a budget.

We also hired a car because it is really essential if you are not staying within Disney.

I hope some of this helps. Enjoy Orlando as it is a seriously great place to visit.