Orlando Holiday Easter 2009, book now or wait?

[zAndy1]

I'm seriously considering going to Orlando during the 2 week Easter school hols next year, been looking at Travelcitydirect and Thomson websites to get an idea of prices and it's coming out at around £3.5k for a family of four including a car (staying on International Drive). The vast majority of that seems to be the flight prices which are £580 each (i.e no cheaper for the kids!). Would we be better booking a villa and trying to get a cheaper flight nearer the time? I'd like to have it booked so I can pay it off each month but it seems a lot of money to me considering there would still be the park tickets on top etc. Is it reasonable to think we could get accomodation and flights for say £2k for the 4 of us or is that unrealistic?

Oh and anyone been at that time of year? Is it a good time to go, not too busy, good weather etc?

Cheers
Andy

 

[TheBigApple]

3.5k seems a bit much, however this may be a premium price due to it being in school holidays. I think 2.5k sounds more realistic.

Have you had a look at Virgin? I have always found the service excellent. Their prices are reasonable, you should be able to get somewhere for four people between 2.2k & 2.5k depending on star rating, but to be honest even a 2 star hotel in Orlando is better than the standard of a 2 star UK hotel.

From experience I would say that you will only make a saving on a villa when you have about six people. Even then the villas tend to be located in Kissemee which is outside of the main part of Orlando. While not a major issue it did get very tiring having to drive everywhere.

The flights to Orlando get extremely busy and I wouldn't recommend waiting for the chance of a last minute deal.

As for the time of year it is very very busy, we stayed for two weeks, one of which was in the easter break and found the waiting time to get on the rides and shows unbearable at times, restaurant are full and all the shopping malls are packed.

The second week however was a total contrast, relatively quiet, maximum time we waited for a ride was 15 minutes, we could walk in a restaurant and not have to wait for a table. That was the first time we went and have returned 3 times since always outside of term time as it feels more like a holiday than a cattle market.

Hope this helps.

 

[zAndy1]

Virgin comes out at £3200 and that's flying on the Sunday 5th April (would prefer to fly on Saturday 4th to be honest). Thanks for the advice, will keep an eye on things for a while, no rush at the moment I guess but I'd like to get something booked cos it will stop me wasting money on other stuff and force me to pay for this!

EDIT: Blimey, the £3200 was flying from Manchester, going from Gatwick comes out at £2500 including a hire car, now that's more like it!

Flying from Manchester on 5/4/09:-

Adult price 723.00 2 1446.00
Child price 249.00 1 249.00
Teen price 249.00 1 249.00
Weekend flight supplement 20.00 6 120.00
Weekend flight supplement 20.00 2 40.00
Fuel apd & Resort tax 166.00 3 498.00
Fuel apd & Resort tax 166.00 1 166.00
Discount -80.00 3 -240.00
Discount -80.00 1 -80.00
Outbound premium supplement 295.00 3 885.00
Outbound premium supplement 221.00 1 221.00
Online booking discount -289.00 1 -289.00
Total for your holiday £3265.00

Flying from Gatwick on 5/4/09:-

Adult price 723.00 2 1446.00
Child price 249.00 1 249.00
Teen price 249.00 1 249.00
Flight supplement 50.00 3 150.00
Flight supplement 50.00 1 50.00
Weekend flight supplement 20.00 6 120.00
Weekend flight supplement 20.00 2 40.00
Fuel apd & Resort tax 136.00 3 408.00
Fuel apd & Resort tax 136.00 1 136.00
Discount -40.00 3 -120.00
Discount -40.00 1 -40.00
Online booking discount -214.40 1 -214.40
Total for your holiday £2473.60

Looks like there are only premium seats available on the manchester flight!