Booking your own package

[acepepper]

Hi,

We're thinking about booking our own package and wondered if it works out much cheaper than going through an agent. Also, best prices for villas and flights. We're going in feb 2003.

Thanks.

 

[MalcolmC]

After our first visit which was a package with Style, we have always booked everything separately. We reckon it's cheaper, overall.

You can check that the flight times and routes suit you. You ensure the car hire is the best value you can get and the villa is where and what you want, not just what's left.

If you want more info about where is best to check out these things, PM me.

 

[signtalker]

Another vote for DIY, last year we did a package, this year i booked myself, we are going in 2003, for 3 weeks last year we went for 2, overall i guess i have saved myself at least £1,500, i could have done it cheaper still but we opted to fly with virgin who worked out more expensive than alot of others.

Jules

 

[BevS97]

we've done both - it seems to depend where you live, if you are near to heathrow, gatwick or manchester than you have a lot more choice of flights, but we are in Newcastle, and the only direct flights from Newcastle to Florida are with the charters. If we want a direct flight then we are probably better off with a package as the fly-drive prices on charters seem quite high and no discounts for kids.

Saying that, this year we have booked flights seperately, but we have got to change planes in Amsterdam. This year price was more important that the direct flight, but next year I will check out both options again and if a package comes up with a good price then I would take the package.

Bev

 

[UKDEB]

Hi acepepper, and welcome to the DIS!

Will this be your first trip to Orlando? And are you used to DIY holidays, or do you normally book packages? We did packages for our first couple of trips, but wouldn't dream of doing it now. A DIY is really easy - it just involves a lot of phoning around, but with the help of the folks on these boards it'll be a doddle! Just post a new topic for each question you want answered. I would say that DIY is definitely cheaper, but you do need to be prepared to shop around.

What we like about DIY is the flexibility. You're not tied to anything. We like to stay in villas - when we booked a package we were allocated one on arrival. These days we book directly with owners and we get to see photos of the villa and we know exactly where it is.

For scheduled flights we've had some good deals from Flightbookers, Virgin Travelstore (they sell all operators' flights and holidays) and Expedia. We find we get better prices by phone than online.

Not everyone is comfortable booking direct with villa owners, but we always do. Check out the private villa magazines available from Smiths - Private Villas (www.privatevillas.co.uk) and Holiday Villas. Also try searching using your browser, or Google, or whatever search engine you use, with key words such as 'villa+orlando", "villa+kissimmee", "villa+disney", etc. Here are a few sites to check out to get an idea of what is about:

www.blueribbonvillas.com
www.allstarvacationhomes.com
www.disneyvacationvillas.com
www.villas2000.com
www.vrbo.com
www.vacationhomesneardisney.ws

I've got hundreds more if you want them. Feel free to e-mail me with any questions.

 

[athurstance]

We always book ours as a DIY. We went on a package the first time but find it much better value to book things seperately. Especially if you want a villa you will find it much cheaper to book directly with an owner as there is on commission on top.
We usually fly Virgin and you can get some good fly-drive deals through them. I think Virgin and BA are the only scheduled airlines to fly direct into Orlando but there are plenty of bargains to be had with the US airlines if you don't mind changing.
If you're after a villa I know the following villa site has a lot of British owners on them:

www.orlandovillas.com

Just ask if you need any further information.

 

[Hilary]

We've done both package and DIY and have pros and cons with each.

We like the flexibility of DIY as we don't usually want to be tied to one place for the whole trip, but living 4 1/2 hours from Gatwick and having older children, means we don't like using the scheduled flights with Virgin and BA (for the reasons Bev has already mentioned).

I wouldn't recommend DIY for your first trip to Orlando, but there's certainly a lot going for it once you know what you want from future trips.

Have fun planning!

Oh, and welcome to the DIS !

 

[acepepper]

Thanks for all the tips and websites. This will be our second trip, the first we booked through an agent and got a pretty good deal. The problem we're having with DIY is that the flights seem very expensive. Would it be better to book later in the year? We're going in feb 2003.

Andy.

 

[snookhams]

We are preparing for our 5th trip, on the first three, everything was organised for us, even coaches privatly hired to take us to the parks, but we had to do what they wanted us to (we went away with my husbands social club) - but last time we 'did it ourselves' and now I would never go back to buying a package, this way we get exactly what we want and save money as well.

As far as flights go the cheapest quotes that I got were from Teletext (sorry don't have the number to hand) or Dunstan Brearly (recomended by our villa owner) tel; 01226 230731 there was less than £1 difference between the prices quoted - but we only fly Virgin although I'm sure you can get cheaper flights with other carriers.

 

[floridamum]

We always do DIY, this year is our 5th trip, teletex page 222 have lots of choice, Virgin Travel Store are page 273. I book my Villa, usually someone local and then book flydrives. But I'm another one who likes to fly Virgin, you get free drinks and extra luggage allowance with them.
So plenty of space for the extra shopping I do.

 

[Timmie Boy]

Yes, maybe DIY gives you more flexibility, and maybe slightly cheaper, but wheres the proof in cost saving? Somebody give me a breakdown of there DIY holiday please and lets compare with a package deal.
I think anyone going 1st time would be better playing safe with a package. Once you're over there, you talk to other people and see whats around you, then maybe its cheaper to DIY, but lets see the proof!!

 

[lisag1]

We saved about £2000 - £2500 last year and I did a breakdown of the cost savings and posted it on the old UK Dis boards before they went down...... If I can still remember it, I'll post the differences later.

Lisa

 

[lisag1]

Found them! These costs are based on 2 adults, 3 children on a 19 day holiday on November 23rd - 12th December 2001

Flights booked with Continental on a Virgin plane

Adults £280 x 2 £560
Child £177 x 3 £531
Car Hire £612 7 str minivan for 19 days inclusive
6 bed Villa x 15 nights £1050 executive villa @ Formosa Gardens
4 nights Concierge @ Polynesian £732

Total DIY £3485.00


Virgin price...............£6384.50!!!!! that is for a garden view room only at the Polynesian, so it doesn't include concierge rates!!

Virgin price for a 5 bed villa, flights & 7 str minivan excluding Polynesian hotel is £4164!

So the DIY version was still nearly £700 cheaper that their villa/flydrive only combo!


I would definately recommend DIY but appreciate that certain TA's have good hotel/fly drive offers on for families.

I would like to say that I would recommend first timers to DIY as there are a lot of very helpful people on the boards who will give lots of advice and help them along the way.

Lisa

 

[rob@rar.org.uk]

Originally posted by Timmie Boy

I think anyone going 1st time would be better playing safe with a package. Once you're over there, you talk to other people and see whats around you, then maybe its cheaper to DIY, but lets see the proof!!

I don't agree with this view for a holiday in Orlando. For other destinations it might be the case, but Orlando is so geared up for the tourist trade and there is unlimited free (and unbiased) advice available all over the place that even first timers will be more than adequately prepared for their holiday.

We have always booked DIY, even our first visit which included a fly-drive, rooms booked directly with CRO which were heavily discounted because we bought annual passes, SLI and CDW which were paid for with our travel insurance policy and a complete itinery for our stay. All this was planned with the help of the internet, and I'm pleased to say that we had no nasty surprises which we were unprepared for.

If DIY is cheaper for you (it always has been for us, and we feel we get much better value for money) then go for it, even first timers.

Regards

Rob

 

[Timmie Boy]

Rob,

Lets see what you saved?

I'm booked with a Virgin package at Econolodge, Kissimmee, car hire, full insurance, 2 weeks at the beginning of August 2002. 2 adults and one child aged 11.
I would be interested to see what the DIY price would be on this exact same holiday.
If someone can give me a price I'll tell you what I payed in return.

Tim

 

[lisag1]

Tim,

The airfares are still quite expensive, especially scheduled. I've just looked at Travelcity and their chartered flights are approx £250 each. The car hire would cost either £280 for a compact or £308 for an Intermediate 4 door inc and the Econolodge is $36 per night (£24/night = £345). So I've got it to roughly £1402 but I will hazard a guess and say you've got it for slightly less???

Come on Rob, what did you get it to??

Lisa

 

[rob@rar.org.uk]

Originally posted by Timmie Boy
Lets see what you saved?

My preference is not to go for the absolute cheapest holiday I can find (although for us DIY has been cheaper), but to get the best value-for-money holiday we can afford. Each time we have compared prices across DIY and package options, for the same amount of money the DIY option gives us a much better holiday.

For example, in 2001 we paid £1,429 per person (I still have the spreadsheet) for our DIY holiday, travelling with my sister and brother-in-law during August (all our holidays take place in August). For this we got a Virgin fly-drive (with a complimentary car upgrade because they didn't have the economy grade available at the time we collected), all car insurances paid for using Amex travel insurance, a luxury 3 bed/2 bath pool villa 10 minutes drive from Animal Kingdom, Premium Annual Passes to Walt Disney World, and Annual Passes to IoA/US. These annual passes gave us unlimited access plus many discounts across the resorts. Believe me, the freedom of being able to come and go to the parks when you want (ie annual pass v. hopper pass) makes for a much better holiday. There is no sense of 'clock-watching' to make sure you get the most of of each precious day you have available. At the same time as planning the holiday in 2001 we also planned our WDW holiday in 2002. So last year's annual passes will still be valid when we return in August. This time we are splitting our stay between two Disney hotels (All Stars and AKL), which is not impossible to book with a package tour, but by the time you have done battle with the travel agent it would probably be less complicated to book direct with CRO.

As another example just the two of us went in 1998 and again in 1999 using the annual pass scenario. For those holidays we were on a tight budget, but nevertheless wanted to get the most bang for our buck. I spent 18 months researching on the internet and decided that staying on-site at a Disney hotel, booking direct with CRO using Magic Kingdom Club and possibly annual pass discounts would give us the best value-for-money. I can't give you the exact figures (maybe £900? per person, travelling in August) but for pretty much the same price we paid the package option would have bought us a 'free' car and 10-day passes while staying at one of Disney's All Star resorts. In the end what we got was a fortnight at Dixie Landings in a river-view room, with annual passes and all the discounts that brings. As you can imagine, our holiday in 1999 (when we had already paid for our annual passes) was even cheaper. I was able to achieve this higher value-for-money holiday by monitoring when Disney offered heavy discounts on room-only bookings (which they almost always do at certain times of year) and making sure that we were eligible for these discounts (Magic Kingdom Club/Disney Club/annual passholder/code-user). If you book a package tour you simply cannot take advantage of these special offers. This year, for example, the discount that we are getting off the rack rate for our week at the All Stars and a week at AKL totals £857! We have also changed our booking three times (at no cost) to take advantage of special offers and upgrade our hotels; this is not possible with a package option.

I will accept that if look in isoloation at the price we paid for our holidays in 1998 and in 2001 then cost savings were marginal, and you may even have been able to get broadly similar holidays for less money. I would argue that booking DIY gave us far more value-for-money because of higher quality hotels and the complete freedom of annual passes. However, when you look at the prices we've paid across our 'holiday pairs' (in 1998/99 and in 2001/02) we have saved literally hundreds of pounds booking DIY. Of course, not everyone would consider going to WDW in succesive years, so the approach we took would not be right for everybody (although how many people here have saved for that 'trip of a lifetime' and are now on visit number 15!). What I always advise, and did in my reply to you, is that you must do the price comparisions. I'm sure that on some occasions packages will be cheaper, but on other occasions DIY will be cheaper. It will depend on so many different circumstances that it is simply impossible to say which option is always the cheapest. However, I continue to argue that DIY gives better value-for-money, and more than likely leads to a better holiday (it certainly does for us).

I should point out that my main motivation for replying was not because I think DIY holidays are cheaper, but because I disagreed with your advice that first-timers should go with a package because it is better to "play safe". For other destinations this may well be sound advice, indeed I have done the same to some places. But for holidays to Orlando I would not agree that first-timers need to be that cautious. There is no language barrier, the destinatin is incredibly well set up from the tourist's point of view and there is more unbiased advice available than you can shake a stick at. If first-timers work out that DIY will lead to a better holiday they should have no hesitation is opting for this; there are plenty of people here to hold your hand as you navigate these calm waters!

Regards

Rob

 

[BevS97]

A Couple of questions - first off, where are you flying from - this makes a HUGE difference - while I agree in principle with Rob, I have found packages to be cheaper from regional airports, especially when the tour operators are offering big discounts - but you lose out on flexiblity.

Also - do you really want to spend 2 weeks at the Econolodge? It wouldn't be my first choice - although I'm sure it's clean enough - but I would imagine that if you tell me your exact dates, airport choice and the price you've paid, I could probably find you a nicer option for the same money - Unless you are flying from Newcastle....


Bev

 

[boff]

Dear Timmie Boy,

If you feel you have secured a good deal then these boards are a great place to share your coop. If the offer you managed to find is still available then other users would probably like to know.

It's not a contest to see who can get the best deals just a forum to those who want to share the obvious enjoyment of one of the great entertainment centres of the world.

It is also not disputed that the opinion of these boards are that DIY is by far the cheapest option, enabling flexibility and price control.

It is also fairly well documented that some users, especially first timers could well be nervous about DIY and a package aids there enjoyment.

In my experience, in travelling in a party of six once and ten twice to a private villa we have always managed to save between £500 and £1000.

Let's not forget....the best thing is to have a great time and share the good times with all concerned, especially those that have helped you out...ie these boards.

 

[Hilary]

Well said, boff!

At the end of the day, what matters is that everyone is happy they are getting the combination of price / arrangement that suits them best.