Florida in June/July - America/Canada Discussion Forum, Holiday Forums

Florida in June/July

bluey3

2007-01-30 12:29:34

Coming out of my comfort zone (benidorm) this year we are hoping to go to florida with the 3 kids 13,8 and 2 and i really dont know where to start can anyone please give suggestions.

We are looking for comfort and space so were thinking maybe best to go self catering or hiring a villa but again where do you start? is it best to book first time with a travel agent and let them guide us to what we want and need? im asking as hubby would just go too t.a and book it but I need more info

Are there hotels with 2 bedrooms? and what area would best suit as holiday based around the parks and shopping

How would the parks be at this time as ive picked up its school holiday time over there so will it be mobbed with hours to queue? and how hot would it be?

Next is what to take and what to buy out there and what we can bring home, car seat which we will need as we would be hiring a car do i take one or can i hire one from the rental company or if i book via a t.a will they drop us off at accomodation? also buggy for little man we have one here but do we just buy stroller over there as ive seen decent ones on walmart for $60 compared to £100 i paid for maclaren techno.

On the walmart subject we did notice the jewellrey and the cost for the diamond rings is great compared to here, we have seen a 12 carat ring working out £1000 but here it would be over £2500 if not more, would it be a good buy or are the costs that good elsewhere in florida? I have a anniversary while we are out there hence looking at rings.

Back to the cars, how big can we hire over there? when we are going to spain 5 plus 5 suitcases and bags i think it is a vw sharron we have used and really need the space what would you recomend we hire as ive picked up its best to book and pay for all the taxes insurances here or is that big wrong, do we book standard and upgrade when we get there?

Lastly why is it so much dearer to fly from glasgow than it is manchester? is it worth the extra to go from glasgow or worth the hassle to save and fly from manchester booking an overnight stay?

Sorry for all the questions these are just some but dont want to be a nuicance i would be here all day

doe

2007-01-30 13:37:18

I am sure someone will come on and explain about hiring a private villa as a few people on this board do it quite regularly.

Regarding hotels with 2 bedrooms though. In florida there are many 'suite hotels' these are very popular with Americans and now Brits are using them as well. You get all the facilities of a hotel i.e. big pools, restaurants, on site supermarkets but the flexibility of a one or two bed apartment.

I stayed in the Sheraton Vistania resort at Lake Buena Vista, but there are many others. If you get a good Florida brochure you can check them out for facilities location etc.

Springhill Suites, Enclave Suites and Homewood Suites have all been mentioned on here by members.

The three areas to choose from are International Drive, Kissimmee and Lake Buena Vista.

Re your child car seat lots of people just take theirs with them.

You will need a car upgrade as the 'compact' the smallest size will not be big enough for 5 plus luggage. I would say minimum size would be what the car hire companies call an 'intermediate'.

I have always been last 2 weeks July as I am not comfortable with my kids missing much school, however if you are not bothered about this, I would go for June, it will be cheaper, less crowded and less humid.

Live down south so cant help about why Glasgow flights are dearer, but I know this to be the case as people on here often comment on it.

I would check how much cheaper it is to go from Manchester, and then its your call really. But if its say 200 quid cheaper and it isn't going to cause too much hassle I would go from Man.

Good Luck. I'm sure you'll love it.

Doe

bridd

2007-01-30 14:53:52

Hi Bluey
I would think about the last poster's suggestion of a suite hotel. A lot cheaper than a villa, 2 bedrooms but with all the facilities of a hotel - restaurants, housekeeping etc.
Regarding where to go, it depends what parks you are interested in. If only Disney, look at the Lake Buena Vista area as its handy for Disney. If you want to spend equal time at the Universal parks look at the south (quiet) end of International Drive.
July/ August will be hot and humid and you will likely get rain and maybe storms. I would think about taking the kids out of school in May or early June but that depends on what stage they are at with exams etc.
You can hire as big a car as you are prepared to pay for. If you get to the curb and it looks too small just go back in and tell them you want a bigger one. We always had an Intermediate for our family of 2 adults and 2 kids and it was fine. A bit of a squeeze for luggage maybe but not too bad. If you take a lot of stuff I'd go for the next size up.
We also live in Scotland and I would never go from Manchester as I would hate the long drive home after a night flight.
Look at BA and United Vacations. They throw in free connections from Glasgow if you book a transatlantic flight from London.

jdybnsn

2007-01-30 16:23:53

Have a look at Globespan for flights - they had cheap flights from Glasgow last year.

I would hire a seven seater Chrysler mini van - these are similar to the VW Sharran but much roomier.

Aileen-D

2007-01-30 19:01:39

We have been twice to florida and travelled from Glasgow. Would not think of going to Manchester because of the long journey on way back, have found no great difference in price. There is only 3 of us and we have been to villa both times, like having own pool and the space you get. Would not want to be stuck in a hotel room but again it depends on your own preference. On our last visit we booked an intermediate car and got the chance to upgrade for additional charge. Can't remember how much but it worked out cheaper than if we had actually booked the 7 seater at start. Lots of space and liked driving it.

bluey3

2007-01-31 09:15:57

Thank you all for for advice, we have decided we would like a villa with private pool and are looking at kissimmi area villas 20, florida but the prices vary so much our original date was 28th june £3855 from glasgow (no car upgrade) or £3371 from manchester but if we go the week earlier 22 june its £3274 from glasgow or £3098 from manchester which is not worth the saving flying from manchester as we would be driving down the night before and getting a hotel or similar so were leaning to go from glasgow on the 22 nd price is £3732 inc 7 seater and premium insurance but ive still to hit the high streets and fly globspan when the sites working ok.

The next mine field ive found is the park tickets and which to buy we want the main disney park, mgm and sea world and maybe a day or so at the water park/s but i cant find anything that includes them all and what i can find duplicates the other, what would be the best option as we would like maybe 8/10 days at parks with a few days to do whatever also maybe to pop to a park at night.

Any thoughts?

bridd

2007-01-31 09:47:21

Have you looked at
http://www.keithprowse.com
for park tickets?
You won't find a ticket that includes them all as Sea World is part of the Universal group and the others you mention are Disney.

bluey3

2007-01-31 10:18:05

Yes that was my first stop and then i went on to some other ticket site and they started talking about hoppers and tickets where you get passes to other parks too hence the confusion

Pippy

2007-01-31 12:19:21

Hi Bluey

You'll find lots of ticket information HERE :wink:

Pippy

bluey3

2007-01-31 23:13:24

I took a trip to center today and picked up brochures and had a chat whilst there and i think i have a better understanding of the tickets or of what we want, we want the dinsey access whenever through out the 14 days magic kingdom and mgm again a water park would be good and then buy tickets for sea world for a one or two day pass.

We have settled hopefully on dates and accomodation but the car hire bit im a bit unsure the best option going via the t.a that we are looking to book with want £364 to upgrade the insurance to platinum with unlimited drivers and full tank of fuel, am i best to go with that or wait and upgrade there? it just seems a little steep for 2 weeks insurance.

Big thank you for all your help and advice, it doesnt seem the daunting job to book this holiday that i originaly thought.

Aileen-D

2007-02-01 20:42:27

Best ticket we bought was the 14 day ultimate ticket for disney, only available in UK. £156 per adult, £136 child from http://www.themepark-tickets.com. All the disney parks as often as you like for 14 days including blizzard beach, typhoon lagoon and much more, and you can then get a 1 or 2 day pass for Sea World. As for the car we have booked a 7 seater, gold insurance full tank of petrol and unlimited drivers for £360 from http://www.uscarhire.co.uk. Used them twice car from dollar and had no problems.

Hope this info helps, if need more let me know.

claireymac1

2007-02-01 22:01:17

I went to Florida last two weeks in June last year and flew from Glasgow which was great. We flew with Flyglobespan, it was just after they started direct flights from Glasgow. We also booked Howard Johnson hotel via them which saved us a fortune!

The weather was really nice although we had rain nearly every day and also thunder storms but they were amazing never seen anything like it! We had hopper tickets for Disney and Universal which were worth getting. Queues weren't as bad as I expected possibly because we used fast-track. Must recommend swimming with dolphins at Discovery Cove it was fantastic! :wave

bluey3

2007-02-01 22:47:21

Thank you both, i think its those tickets 14 day ultimate you mentioned that we want to get but how do you fast-track? as ive heard that but not seen the option or maybe not looking hard enough. Also found out that we can dine with the characters so we will look into that but just not tell the kids till it happens.

Ive price up the globspan option and taken as far as entering personal detail ie names but no mention of car, is there the option further on in the booking process or do you arrange it seperatley?

Big thanks to all that are taking the time to help a disney virgin

Bizzilady

2007-02-02 10:16:08

Florida

Hi there

I assume you mean Fastpass?

This is a system where you put your theme park ticket into one of the fastpass machines next to the ride you want and it gives you a specified time to come back (usually a 2 hour slot). Then you just turn up and walk straight through. Although during busy times you still may have to queue for a bit with fastpass.

Bizzilady

bluey3

2007-02-04 10:51:05

Update - weve booked

Total turn of events and we have booked a villa and flights to orlando for june/july this year, villa we have a 3 bed in windward cay, kissimmee via villas 2000 then we priced flights via virgin as the 46 kilos luggage allowance appealed and flying from manchester the flights were £1000 cheaper :shock:

os we have booked into a hotel bewelys at the airport costing £119 inc car parking for the 5 of us and we will drive down on the saturday and fly sunday morning.

So only thing left is to book car hire (I hope) and tickets for the parks but there is plenty time for that :hyper

Big thank you to all who replies here and on other threads the advice has been great :ghug

Might come back with more questions later :wink:

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