We have got 5 park flexi pass from TCD and you receive
a voucher, but no problems just gave into SeaWorld on
our first day and got original tickets

Thanks for the reply Jam,
I suspected that you received vouchers, I think I'll stick with buying actual tickets, as we are travelling at peak holiday time, and then we won't have to queue at the ticket booth to collect the tickets.

l have just sent for my tickets here yes they are tickets

http://www.best4attractions.com there are a lot more sites for you to look at best 4 throw in a meal and are the cheapest around l think

Hello we are traveling to Orlando next October from Manchester Airport
as anyboby flown with Travel City Direct and are they anygood

I booked a fly drive with TCD in March this year for next Feb (06) and, although we were paying over the odds for the car hire, the whole package for 2 adults / 2 children from Manchester was very reasonable (£1,210 in total). At my time of booking I asked if we could add any extra party members at a later date, as several people we knew were interested, but unable to commit themselves at that time. The TCD rep assured me that there would be no additional charges for doing this, although the flight prices could vary ...which is fair enough - what you would expect.

However I went to add 2 more to my party today and TCD want them to pay £328 for flights each and £200 extra for upgading our car to a 7 seater MPV - total cost of MPV being £578.
However, if my friends booked exactly the same flight with TCD independently of our party - (according to their internet site) their flight price would only be £258 (inclusive tax etc) and for them to hire a 7 seater MPV would only (!) be £534 !!!

What kind of pricing is this because there is no consistency to it ???

Not only have they blatantly misled me about adding extra people at the time of booking I am totally cheesed off (polite version) about how they trying to rip me off for getting them extra bookings !
When I pointed this out to the TCD rep. I phoned today his attitude was 'oh well you'd better see if you can book it any cheaper on the internet then' . Nice !
Has anyone else come across this ? did you get anywhere complaining ?
Also as we have already booked an economy car with TDC do you think we can up grade it at the airport to a MPV, cheaper than upgrading with TCD ? Has anyone done this when using TCD ?

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr .....I'm so annoyed - cheap or not I won't use them again - there is no price transparency with this Company and selling practices are totally disreputable.

well my recent experience tells me you get none. The earphones weren't working right across our three seats on sunshine upperdceck and the stewardesses were anythng but helpful about it. we first went with this company three years ago and there has been a deterioration in their service . i'd think twice about using sunshine upperdeck again. it was money down the drain.

We're flying with Travel City Direct next week, i'll let you know how we get on.

Just returned home from Florida using Travel City. 14.5 hr outbound delay from Manchester to Sanford. Constant misinformation re cause of delay. Crew out of hours, technical probs. 1 travel city rep and 1 Air Atlanta - who provide the filght after having given the Jumbo a lick of paint and a few TCD headrests. Old useless Jumbo. Checked in at 10:30hrs to be told there would be a 12hr delay and here was a £5 voucher. Told to return to the check-in desk for a further £5 at 16:30hrs. Never received it. Tannoy for all passengers to get on a bus at 18:00hrs to be taken to a hotel for a meal. Then received pachy info re whether the plane has actually left Florida from the rep. She would never answer straight that it left at xx hrs. Further £3 voucher at 00:00hrs and a tannoy that the plane had landed but that it needed a wheel changed. This then changed to 3 wheels needed changing. Got onboard at 02:45. Pilot says that the final bags are going on and it will be 30 mins. Finally took off at 04:35hrs.

Claimed easy check in at Lake Buena Vista also crashed. 'The computers were down' so us and 517 others then had to trek up to Sanford and then had to feel like a begger obtaining our $20 early check in money back

I feel sure that Companies like Virgin would treat you much much better than this. I would never use this company again. Usual case of once they have your money they don't give a monkey

I have read many reviews about this company, but I travelled with them march this year, and found them to be very good. I have also booked again for next year. Why so many negative reports? You get what you pay for, I have been to florida so many times, and with many other companies, but I found tc the best! Please dont put other people off this company. BLAKEY

Why so many negative reports ??

I'll tell you two good reasons - they misinform you when you book over costs of additions to your party size and then try to rip you off if you are adding people to your original party with their flight prices and up grading your car hire - and that's even before I've flown with them !

Sorry but I can't recommend them and that's before I've even set foot on thier plane. I won't use them again no matter how cheap they appear to be.

May be you do get what you pay for if cheap equals inferior / dodgey ?

Travel City Direct do offer some very tempting offers in their advertising. Current "draws" are £249 for a 14 night holiday, or £59 for a flight. These are normally capacity limited, to unpopular dates, based on 4 adults sharing and with a whole host of additional costs to add on (I particularly like the booking fee of up to £12 per person!). They are not doing anything wrong - just drawing people in with low offers. People beleive that they can really get the holiday of their dreams for what is often an unrealistic price. For many I am sure it is great. For others who perhaps have higher expectations - the holiday or flight is not up to their "perceived" dream holiday.

As blakely points out - he, like many others have had great holidays with TCD. His point

You get what you pay for

is very true. If you are drawn to a cheap deal - chances are you will get a cheap holiday experience.

I always think people should plan the holiday that they want then shop for the best deal that fits their needs or wishes - rather than look for the cheapest deal around - then try to make this cheap deal fit their own holiday requirements.

to blakey we also travelled with tcd last year and we had a holiday of a lifetime,flight was perfect and waterpark in our villa community was excellent,all very reasonable price,we are also doing it again next year,so looking forward to another tcd holiday of a lifetime,we were also given park food tickets for buying their flexiticket for universal

went with travel city direct the other year and we got qoutes from 4 travel agents for 4 adults and 4 children and the price we was given by travel city direct beat the other so called cheap qoutes by £700 pounds and we got a good value for money holiday

I would never go with Travelcity again. We were out in Orlando in 2001 when 9/11 happened & they were awful to us. We went to their shop to try & find out what we should do etc & there were loads of Brits milling around doing the same a s us. We were all basically told to p....s off & that we had to get on with it & they could do nothing to help. The rows at the airport that some people had before the return fight with the reps when complaints were being made at the way the Brits had been treated by this company were worth paying to see.

Unlike some of the Virgin clients who we met up with who told us that virgin had gone out of their way in helping them to feel safe & secure & had even given people money if they were running short.

No way would I ever use Travelcity again

Oh & another thing BEWARE. Their planes have a habit of breaking down. We got stuck in the back of beyond overnight in a place called Ganda just inside Canada on the outbound trip. One of the engines had failed according to them BUT we then found out from another couple who we chatted to whilst standing in a Disney line that they too had the same experience with this company 3 days before us on their outbound flight & were held overnight in the same place ???????????

My feeling. You buy cheap you pay dear. Its Virgin for me now whatever the cost !!!

Hate to upset you Sue, but if you fly Virgin from Manchester to Orlando you'll be flying on a plane operated by Air Atlantic....who, together with Excel Airways and Travel City Direct are part of the same group - Avion Travel.
I flew Virgin back in summer 2000 M/cr to Orlando and whilst we were lucky and had a genuine Virgin aircraft, my parents joined us 4 days later and had a terrible experience - Virgin had contracted Air Atlanta to operate the service. We experienced the same bad service on our return.

I believe the flight prefix EUK is Excel Airways. If you look at the Manchester Airport real-time flight display on the web (http://www.manairport.co.uk/) and search for flights beginning EUK you'll see that several arrived late/have yet to arrive - often 12hours plus late.

Worth avoiding the whole of the Avion Group.

sorry to upset u travel city direct knockers but this will be my 4 th time with tcd and not suffered any problems yet

*EDIT- Please do not post phone text style (u for you) on the forum. Many Thanks. Pippy*

you should read my write up l came home saturday night if you had been there 5 of us 2 planes with 518 people on each and that came from the 1 repeat 1 tcd persons mouth trying to get us in to hotel rooms 1 poor girl trying to cope with over a 1000 people no food no change of cloths what more can l say when you sit there and watch other planes taking off to orlando the 2 plane they could not even mend that one after 26 hours read back from hoilday it makes you very bitter what we had to go through

Hi Mark

I think it's a little unfair to call the members 'travel city knockers'. It's nice to know you've travelled with the company problem free but please respect we all have different experiences.

Raynor
Any chance you could use the odd full stop or comma next time