having second thoughts...

[2Tiggies]

we could have really cute airplanes with mouse ears for wings!!
and mouse ear headphones.....

Dumbo ears could work for wings too. I do like the Mouse Ears headphones - and we won't even charge our passengers for those

Food will be great: Dole Whips during the movies

 

[disneyholic family]

Dumbo ears could work for wings too. I do like the Mouse Ears headphones - and we won't even charge our passengers for those

Food will be great: Dole Whips during the movies

oh right!!! dumbo ears - much better!!!

 

[disneyholic family]

ok...so let's think about this logically:

the whole trip will be two weeks this time...
with the first two nights at Universal and the rest at disney...
we don't usually do universal, but i know DS would like to see HP, so universal gains two of our nights at the expense of disney...

so checking the universal rates for the first two nights:
hard rock hotel is $239/night room only
Royal Pacific is $219/night room only

so for 3 rooms for 2 nights:
Hard rock = $1434
Royal Pacific = $1314
difference between the two is $120, so it's probably worth it to stay at the Hard Rock (which i think is the nicer of the two and DD the singer/songwriter probably would enjoy)...
so that's about £900 for rooms the first two nights...

by the way, i'm basing these rates on the universalorlando.com website.
Anyone know if there are cheaper rates on another site?

that takes care of the room for two nights.
and we need tickets - so i suppose either a 2 or 3 day hopper....
at the US website, a 3 day hopper ticket is $145/person...
it's possible i can get these discounted somewhere, but for now i'll use these in the calculation..
so 3 day tickets for 6 people is: $870 or about £540 for tickets ..

and food....hmmm.....how much would we spend on food...
we won't have a kitchen or free dining.....
breakfast is probably about $10/person...
Lunch another $10/person
dinner $20/person
snacks $10/person
so each day about $50/day/person.....that might be low, but i'll go with that...
we're not going to splurge during the universal days if we have free dining for the rest of the trip..

so that's $50/person/day for 6 people for 3 days = $900 for 3 days
that sounds high to me for 3 days...we won't have breakfast the first day or dinner the last (since we'll be transferring to disney)...
so recalculating that would be $720 for 6 people for 3 days - or £450

so for the 2 nights at universal it would be £450 + £540 + £900 = £1890
and basically, that's just to see HP...

so now i'm having second thoughts about staying at universal...
sounds like way too much money just to get FOTL access...

maybe we'd be better off staying at disney the entire time and just popping over to IOA one day to see HP

how long a wait in line is it for HP if you don't have FOTL access and you're just a regular person coming into the park? (not a hotel guest)

 

[wayneg]

Are other sites cheaper? yes, 1st site I checked I found a slightly lower rate.
24th Aug for 2 nights direct incl tax converted to £ = £168
Alpharooms £159(less £8 Cashback)

BUT buy elsewhere and you are tied to that rate(or pay cancellation fees) book direct and any lower rates you see can be applied between now and just before you check in. Discounted rates rarely appear so far out.

Late Aug into Sept I doubt you will need FOTL, maybe someone will post who has been at that time.

WWoHP is well worth seeing but I won't pay for Uni hotel again, wasn't worth $150/night we paid(same price as OKW for us with free DDP)

 

[WiganTony]

Although prices have increased, a Disney holiday does seem to be better value in comparison with a visit to some other areas of the USA (specifically New York and the North East which is where we will be going in August). As we had managed to get flights to New York with Air Miles, the cost of flights in this case hasn't been an issue.

However, in New York, we found very few decent hotels under the £150/night mark. Compare to our visit to Disney's OKW last year with rooms at £100/night including free DDP.

Looking at accommodation on the coast in Maine or in Hampton Beach for 4 nights, it's coming in at around £170/night B&B We did manage to get the Sheraton in Boston for £80/night through Hotwire though.

In total, I am expecting that it will cost us around £2k for 15 nights accommodation, excluding any food. In fact, when I looked at the total cost of the holiday, I also started to price up for 12 nights at Disney instead of NY and the Maine Coast, and this was coming in at around £1400 including free DDP (plus the non-refunable Boston hotel accommodation).

Add onto that the cost of paying for the various attractions in NY and Boston, and I worked out that we could change our plans to fly from NY to Orlando (at extra cost), 12 nights at OKW with Park Tickets and Car Rental for only £400 more than the cost of our hotels and car rental for NY/Boston. However, we decided to stick with our non-Florida holiday this time, and will return next year hopefully for more free DDP!!

 

[disney_princess_85]

Late Aug into Sept I doubt you will need FOTL, maybe someone will post who has been at that time.

We stayed at RPR for one night on September 1st last year. While we didn't *need* FOTL, it was certainly a nice perk. When we go this year, we're not staying onsite so we're going to buy it. It's $26+tax per pass in September, which I think is very reasonable. It's worth noting that it can only be used once per participating attraction, unlike the hotel pass that gives you unlimited access.

WWoHP is well worth seeing but I won't pay for Uni hotel again, wasn't worth $150/night we paid(same price as OKW for us with free DDP)

Same here.

 

[OrlandoMagic]

The cost of holidaying is Orlando certainly is expensive and seems to get a lot more costly each year. What we have had to always do is plan our holiday around the costs so we can spend as less as possible.

A few things we have done the last few years:

Travelled off-peak season (I know that is not always possible for families)
Free dining onsite - We account for this in our costs as we would have to spend money on food anyway!
Flown to different airport, Tampa this year. The price difference between flying into Tampa and Orlando is quite large!
Going every other year - Unfortunately we just are not in a financial position any more to go every year.

 

[disneyholic family]

WWoHP is well worth seeing but I won't pay for Uni hotel again, wasn't worth $150/night we paid(same price as OKW for us with free DDP)

after working the numbers for a universal stay i have to agree with you...

Although prices have increased, a Disney holiday does seem to be better value in comparison with a visit to some other areas of the USA (specifically New York and the North East which is where we will be going in August). As we had managed to get flights to New York with Air Miles, the cost of flights in this case hasn't been an issue.

However, in New York, we found very few decent hotels under the £150/night mark. Compare to our visit to Disney's OKW last year with rooms at £100/night including free DDP.

Looking at accommodation on the coast in Maine or in Hampton Beach for 4 nights, it's coming in at around £170/night B&B We did manage to get the Sheraton in Boston for £80/night through Hotwire though.

In total, I am expecting that it will cost us around £2k for 15 nights accommodation, excluding any food. In fact, when I looked at the total cost of the holiday, I also started to price up for 12 nights at Disney instead of NY and the Maine Coast, and this was coming in at around £1400 including free DDP (plus the non-refunable Boston hotel accommodation).

Add onto that the cost of paying for the various attractions in NY and Boston, and I worked out that we could change our plans to fly from NY to Orlando (at extra cost), 12 nights at OKW with Park Tickets and Car Rental for only £400 more than the cost of our hotels and car rental for NY/Boston. However, we decided to stick with our non-Florida holiday this time, and will return next year hopefully for more free DDP!!

i was also very surprised at prices when i was in the states in June and September.....houston hotels were also very high (especially considering what you get for the money)..

We stayed at RPR for one night on September 1st last year. While we didn't *need* FOTL, it was certainly a nice perk. When we go this year, we're not staying onsite so we're going to buy it. It's $26+tax per pass in September, which I think is very reasonable. It's worth noting that it can only be used once per participating attraction, unlike the hotel pass that gives you unlimited access.

Same here.

does that pass include harry potter?

The cost of holidaying is Orlando certainly is expensive and seems to get a lot more costly each year. What we have had to always do is plan our holiday around the costs so we can spend as less as possible.

A few things we have done the last few years:

Travelled off-peak season (I know that is not always possible for families)
Free dining onsite - We account for this in our costs as we would have to spend money on food anyway!
Flown to different airport, Tampa this year. The price difference between flying into Tampa and Orlando is quite large!
Going every other year - Unfortunately we just are not in a financial position any more to go every year.

i wish we could go in september....that would drop the airfare a bit....but we have to go in august...
and we're the same....we used to go every summer for 3 weeks...
and i know we paid a lot less than this 2 week trip is going to cost...
so i guess our annual trips are a thing of the past..

 

[disneyholic family]

no matter how i play with the numbers, it always comes up the same...mind-numbingly expensive....

am i just getting miserly in my old age?

i could sell a kidney....but it would take two kidneys to cover the cost of a trip...
and with two kidneys gone, i don't think i'd be doing too much enjoying....

 

[disney_princess_85]

does that pass include harry potter?

No- Forbidden Journey and Pteranodon Flyers are excluded, as is Rip Ride Rockit. Apparently you can get early access to WWoHP if you're staying onsite (we didn't bother).

 

[Chilly]

Although prices have increased, a Disney holiday does seem to be better value in comparison with a visit to some other areas of the USA (specifically New York and the North East which is where we will be going in August). As we had managed to get flights to New York with Air Miles, the cost of flights in this case hasn't been an issue.

However, in New York, we found very few decent hotels under the £150/night mark. Compare to our visit to Disney's OKW last year with rooms at £100/night including free DDP.

Looking at accommodation on the coast in Maine or in Hampton Beach for 4 nights, it's coming in at around £170/night B&B We did manage to get the Sheraton in Boston for £80/night through Hotwire though.

In total, I am expecting that it will cost us around £2k for 15 nights accommodation, excluding any food. In fact, when I looked at the total cost of the holiday, I also started to price up for 12 nights at Disney instead of NY and the Maine Coast, and this was coming in at around £1400 including free DDP (plus the non-refunable Boston hotel accommodation).

Add onto that the cost of paying for the various attractions in NY and Boston, and I worked out that we could change our plans to fly from NY to Orlando (at extra cost), 12 nights at OKW with Park Tickets and Car Rental for only £400 more than the cost of our hotels and car rental for NY/Boston. However, we decided to stick with our non-Florida holiday this time, and will return next year hopefully for more free DDP!!

We are paying pretty much the same price for our upcoming West Coast trip as our last Disney trip for flights and hotels.

 

[disneyholic family]

No- Forbidden Journey and Pteranodon Flyers are excluded, as is Rip Ride Rockit. Apparently you can get early access to WWoHP if you're staying onsite (we didn't bother).

you didn't bother staying onsite? or you didn't bother with WWoHP?

HP would be the only reason we would go to universal at all.
we didn't like universal or IoA the two times we were there...
but DS probably would like to see WWoHP....so we would go just for that...

 

[disney_princess_85]

you didn't bother staying onsite? or you didn't bother with WWoHP?

I meant we didn't bother with the early access.

 

[UKDEB]

Well, we've also had second thoughts about our proposed trip later in the year. I've said for years that, whilst I firmly believe an Orlando holiday is good value for money, it doesn't alter the fact that it's still an enormous layout. Our adult girls have been desperate for us to go (we haven't been as a family since 2004), so last summer we all committed to save for a trip this October/November as part of my plans to spend the whole of 2011 celebrating my 50th birthday.

As the months have progressed, we've realised that, increasingly, it's become a 'maybe', rather than a 'definite' and, on Wednesday evening, Matt and I made the decision to knock it on the head. We're off on a Caribbean cruise in 6 weeks time, followed by a week in Orlando, which is costing us an arm and a leg. For years, we've thrown virtually all our disposable income at holidays and the house is suffering for it. We always seem to be on the back foot and, when the boiler broke down a couple of months ago, struggled to scrape together the £3000 we needed to replace it.

I wanted to wait for the right moment to break the news to the girls, but yesterday had a text from younger dd saying that she and her boyfriend had realised that they wouldn't be able to afford it. They've been sending us £500 each month to save for them, but are struggling without it. She was clearly worried about telling me, too, but I'm just glad they're being sensible about it. I did tell them that it would be difficult to save enough on top of all their other commitments.

All that said, we've had these flashes of sobriety before and invariably end up booking another holiday.

 

[catrinuk]

I am so glad that it isnt just us feeling this, we are going over for a month in aug /sept and have really overstretched ourselves but flights are booked and at least DVC covers accomoation, we are using three years points in one go and cashing in the last of our savings. but we both work and dont have any other holidays or expensive hobbies and the enjoyment we all get and the closeness we feel as a family when in disney is worth every penny. Also selling anything i can on e bay to give us some extra spending. I have even delivered yellow pages in the past to give us a bit extra! however if things continue with wage freeze and cost of living and mortgage increases then we are stuffed.
Cat

 

[disneyholic family]

We had to replace the washing machine and water heater so far this year. Oh and also replace part of the plumbing pipes.
We moved to this house 19 years ago - so other repairs are possibly not far behind
So maybe that's what's got me rattled
But no I think it's the prices I'm seeing

 

[2Tiggies]

We had to replace the washing machine and water heater so far this year. Oh and also replace part of the plumbing pipes.
We moved to this house 19 years ago - so other repairs are possibly not far behind
So maybe that's what's got me rattled
But no I think it's the prices I'm seeing

I have offered this very practical solution to someone on here before and she laughed at me but regarding the property repairs and essential maintenance ..... two words: Duct Tape.

 

[fairytale]

I have offered this very practical solution to someone on here before and she laughed at me but regarding the property repairs and essential maintenance ..... two words: Duct Tape.

And WD40

 

[2Tiggies]

And WD40

Sorry, I slipped up and forgot that one

 

[disneyholic family]

I have offered this very practical solution to someone on here before and she laughed at me but regarding the property repairs and essential maintenance ..... two words: Duct Tape.

Sorry, I slipped up and forgot that one