Hi 008,
Have been to disney twice and done it diy, went at easter both times which was very busy and i found it to be the most exspensive time of the year to go.

We hired a villa through friends (sorry not much help on this) and booked flights with KLM although these were not direct we had a couple of stop offs, they were the cheapest at the time of booking. Kids enjoyed getting off each plane and having a wander around, didnt really think it took that much longer than any others. all depends on what budget you have. Went with some friends and had priced up with tour operaters and found it to be very exspensive, the money we saved was our spending money.

As well as this forum have a look on the following website http://www.thedibb.co.uk full of useful information and can chat and ask questions the same as on here but it is just dedicated to disney.

If you do manage to go and your budget allows it i would recommend doing the discovery cove experience, well worth the money in my opinion.

hope this of help.
Theresa

Hi 008
I have done diy to orlando a few times, for flights i have used the flight centre ( we did this over the phone) booked well in advance and went scheduled, one stop on way got fairly good prices. have also used expedia they give a comparison of scheduled airlines. finally, we booked flights only, with first choice for our last trip out there. This was a fair bit cheaper but not as comfortable as scheduled.
For accomodation we booked directly with the hotel and got a good price. it really depends what you want, we stayed at the quality inn plaza on international drive and it was brilliant. clean, central and comfortable.
if you are thinking of hiring a car try airline network they are great value. the free cars you get with a fly drive get bumped up the cost of their insurance.
hope this helps please feel free to ask away.
hugs la x

Hi
We are also a family of 2A & 2C, and we did a DIY to Florida (amongst other places; as we always seem to save money over package prices doing DIY)
We got a fly drive with TCD then booked our own villa direct with the owner. We also booked a 4 night Disney cruise direct with a specialist US travel agent (Dreamsunlimited).
We saved an absolute fortune, and had only the 4 of us rattling around in a 4 bed/3 bath villa instead of couped up in a pokey hotel room.
Just to give you some idea of costs booking in February, (half term) which is LOW season, from Manchester ..

Flydrive TCD = £1240 (economy car - free up grade to compact as don't actually have economy cars !)

Town house Regal Palms (Davenport area) 10 nights = £550 booked direct with owner (so £55 per night)

4 nights (full board) Disney cruise to the Bahamas cat.12 (lowest cat inside cabin ) = £920

Now bear in mind this was not a last minute booking, and was booked about 11 months before we went, so we are talking pre fuel supplements and pre extra air duty tax...in 2005 .....so expect to pay about another £200 in total over these fly drive prices quoted and this should give you a rough idea. Also you are planning to go HIGH season..its a personal choice but do you realise that it will be very busy, very expensive and very hot/humid at this time...if you are able I would chose any other school holiday time (except Easter when it is manic in the parks !!!) if you can. We love going Feb half term, its quieter , weather has always been lovely, and its cheaper (and its cold here too so we are escaping that !)

You should always check out package prices though, because you can get good deals in those too ,and this should be your bench mark for your DIY price in any case. Virgin are offering some good deals staying on site at the moment...including July.

My last point is that I am presently finding flights expensive to book this January (we are planning another trip for Feb 2008) , even TCD fly drives, at the moment (possibly because January is traditionally a popular time to book so demand is high)...so my advice would be to wait a wee while.

Hope this is of some use to you, and others.

thanks all for all the info looks like we may wait and go in oct.

Last time we did DIY Florida, we found that a Fly drive was cheaper than Flight only, so booked that...then shopped around for car hire prices. The fly drive car ins was over priced. We got same car hire plus same insurance by booking direct with another car hire company....at less than the fly drive package wanted just for insurance. So much for free car hire! We just took the flight and told them we didnt want their car and walked to other side of airport and straight off in our car..no queue either!
We used a search engine and got a great deal on a Kissimmee hotel...and googled until found a fabulous private rent apartment opposite the beach at Fort Myers with own pool....truly amazing!
Good luck!
Lyn

We just got great prices for flights from a web company called Ocean Florida.
They got us direct Virgin flights for next Feb alot cheaper than the Virgin website (we decided we wanted to go for longer than the standard 14 days offered by the charters). They were not a great deal more expensive than TCD in the end either.


They seem to be good at finding good deals on both direct and indirect flights to Florida - worth getting a quote if you are going the DIY route - just thought I'd share the info.