The first couple of times we went to Florida we used package holiday companies such as Virgin Holidays. It was easier and you knew you were protected if something was to go wrong. But more recently I have been booking all the parts separately - flights, accommodation and car hire - and we have saved quite a lot of money in the process and ended up with better accommodation. I believe the key to visiting Walt Disney World on a budget is booking everything separately and going for self catering accommodation so that you do not need to eat out all the time. Staying in a Walt Disney Resort is extremely expensive even the value resorts are not that cheap, when ten of us went in 2018 I compared Disney value resort prices against what we paid for an 8 bedroom villa just outside of Walt Disney World and we saved over 60% and were not crammed into three hotel rooms, instead we had a spacious villa with its own pool. To have got a villa in Disney would have cost many times more, with the cheapest that can accommodate 10 being almost £20,000 and yet still only 3 bedrooms.
My Process
Dates
First I work out the dates we want to go. When the girls were younger we could go out of school holiday times, now unfortunately we can't do that because we get fined by the school. So a few years back I looked at the crowd calendars and read some articles, it turned out that the least busy two week period in school holidays was the last two weeks in August, as most of the American school children have returned back to school. If you are lucky enough to have children who get two weeks off over the October half term, this is another very good time to go and the temperatures are not as hot as August, which will be unbearable for some.
Flights
So once I have the dates I move onto flights, different airlines have different schedules as to when the flights are released, for instance British Airways flights come out 355 days before departure and Virgin Atlantic flights come out 11 months before departure, but you will need to wait for the return flight to also be available before you can book. Once flights are available I will start using a few websites to compare prices. The main websites I use are:
Kayak
Skyscanner
Momondo
Having flown to Florida a number of times we have been through three different airports; Orlando International (MCO), Tampa International (TPA) and Miami International (MIA). Tampa is over an hours drive from Walt Disney World and the surrounding area, but we found that to get through customs when entering the USA it is so much quicker via Tampa, that you can save that much time by flying to Tampa, also if you buy the tickets at the right time it can be much cheaper too. The only thing is that British Airways are currently the only airline that fly there direct from Gatwick (Finnair & Iberia will show up on searches, but it will be the same plane as BA). Miami is around a 4 hour drive to where we stay near WDW, but if you are comfortable with the drive, there can be some considerable savings to be had by flying into Miami.
We only fly direct, even though you could possibly save up to £200 per person (sometimes more) if you are willing to go indirect and have 2 stops each way, the journey time goes up from 9 hrs to anything up to 42 hrs (usually with 1 stop it is about 14 hrs depending where the stop is, but the saving will not be as much). I think 9 hrs is enough for any child (and parent!) so we stick with direct.
By using the above websites you can also check to see if it is cheaper to fly into one airport and out from another. It also makes a difference which day you fly on and Momondo shows which days are more or less with a useful graph, generally Saturday is the most expensive day due to so many people wanting to travel then, we have found we can save quite a bit on flights (around £200 each) by reducing our holiday by one day and leaving the UK on a Sunday instead, but this varies.
In 2019 we were unable to book as soon as the flights came out, as we were waiting to find out what secondary school our daughter would be attending. Once we knew that (March), we checked the flights and they were expensive! At least £200 each more than the previous year! So we watched the prices for a few weeks, but they weren't coming down and then my wife came up with the idea of Miami, so we flew direct to Miami International Airport with Norwegian. This meant a 3 1/2+ hour drive to the villa, but we ended up paying less than what we did for previous years flights. We stayed overnight in the hotel at Miami Airport and then drove up to Orlando the next morning, mainly using the toll road. The drive was quite easy, the toll road was empty and the service station we stopped at was pretty nice and again empty.
Accommodation
So we have got flights for the dates we want, now we need somewhere to stay. We have found that unless it is for one or two nights, it is a pain staying in a hotel room with the 4 of us, so we prefer a self catering apartment (condo), townhouse or villa. We also like to be relatively near to Walt Disney World, so by casting a net and doing some research on resorts, we have a list of them that are suitable. Due to cost and the fact that most of the accommodation in Walt Disney World are hotel rooms, we do not stay there. Places we have stayed at and enjoyed include:
Windsor Hills - one of the closest gated resorts to Walt Disney World, it has condo's, townhouses and villa's. We stayed in a 3 bed condo which was a good size, especially just for the four of us, there is a resort pool and clubhouse, as well a playground area. Prices are higher partly due to the location.
Encantada Resort - a little further to WDW than Windsor Hills, there are only townhouses in this gated resort. We have stayed here a couple of times in a 3 bed townhouse, these have hot-tubs. The resort has a pool, clubhouse and playground area.
Lake Buena Vista Resort & Spa - this condo resort is very close to WDW and has a great pirate ship themed pool. We stayed in a 2 bed apartment which was very spacious. It is also next door to Lake Buena Vista Factory Stores. It has been a few years since we stayed here and although we enjoyed it, I have heard stories of it going downhill recently, so please check the recent reviews.
Indian Ridge Oaks - just down the road from Windsor Hills this area is not gated and all the properties are houses. We stayed in a 4 bed property that had its own pool, there is also a community pool and playground area.
Emerald Island Resort - a gated resort with pool, clubhouse and more. Our 8 bedroom villa that we booked in 2018 had its own pool as well. Emerald Island is only a little further away from WDW than Windsor Hills and appears to be mainly 6,7 & 8 bedroom villa's. We are staying at this resort this year also.
Indian Creek - this community is not gated, but looked well kept and the location was good. We stayed in a 4 bedroom villa with a pool and I would happily stay in the community again.
So once I know where I would like to stay I search HomeAway.co.uk for suitable accommodation at the location I want, I always look at the reviews to see what other people thought of the property. Another site I have used is ClickStay.com which is similar to HomeAway. Last year we actually found our villa on airBnB.co.uk.
Car Hire
Once you have flights and accommodation all booked the next two things to think about are the Theme Park Tickets and the Car Hire. Generally I focus on car hire first as it is usually cheaper the earlier you book it.
First you need to work out what size vehicle you want/need. Some vehicles will happily take the number of passengers you require, but you will struggle to fit in all your suitcases to and from the airport as well, so do check the guidelines.
Then it is over to the comparison sites to find the car you want at the best price, the best websites seem to be:
Skyscanner
TravelSupermarket
Carrentals
Kayak
I also want to mention Discount Florida Car Hire who did us a great deal for 12 seater in 2018 and always seem to get great reviews on all the Orlando FaceBook groups. Since Covid car hire prices have been very high, so shopping around can save hundreds.
Theme Park Tickets
I have found that there are usually discounts and deals around for tickets just after Christmas/New Year and also around Easter, so these are good times to look. Around Black Friday is also a great time to get tickets.
The UK Disney World tickets are quite special and I think much better than the US tickets. They come in 7 or 14 versions and all these tickets are Magic tickets which means they include unlimited access to all 4 Theme Parks and both Water Parks, you can also have one round of golf each day at Disney's Oak Trail Golf Course, Disney's Fantasia Gardens Miniature Golf Course or Disney's Winter Summerland Miniature Golf Course, and have access to Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex including the PlayStation Pavilion (30 minutes of playtime). The 7 day ticket gives 7 days admission over a 15 days period and the 14 day ticket gives 14 days admission over an 18 day period. When booking your tickets you will need to pick the first date you will use the tickets and then you need to use the Disney Park Pass System to make your theme park reservations for the days you want to visit the 4 main parks.
Further to this you can go to more than one park on any day (park hopping is allowed from 2pm) and it includes MemoryMaker, PhotoPass Lenses and Audio Tales
MemoryMaker allows you to download all your digital photos taken throughout the parks by cast members and on the rides, just make sure you get your ticket/MagicBand scanned. Some rides now include videos and some photographers can even do Magic Shots!
Disney PhotoPass Lenses give access to special Disney PhotoPass Lenses for your mobile device, allowing you to explore magical new augmented reality effects.
Audio Tales allow you to discover the parks in cool new ways through fascinating fun facts and behind-the-scenes insights you can listen to during your visit.
Recently I have found Theme Park Tickets to be one of the best websites to get the tickets from. They generally have the cheapest tickets and if you do find cheaper elsewhere they will beat that price by £5, so you can't go wrong really. Another website that has been coming up cheap (especially if you can afford to pay up front) is Florida Escapes, be sure to check if there are any discount codes available as well. I would suggest checking out the following FaceBook group as Dianne who run's it does a price comparison of the theme park tickets, updated usually on a weekly basis - Deewol's Orlando Park Ticket Updates, due to the number of people in her FaceBook group she sometimes has discount codes as well.
Once you have your Disney World tickets, you can register on the Disney World website, setup your family members and then attach your tickets ready for booking Fast Passes. You can also book Disney Restaurants on the website up to 180 days in advance.
Travel Insurance
As soon as you have booked your holiday you should get Travel Insurance. I usually get annual cover as it only costs a few pounds more and means I am covered for any other holidays throughout the year. The best guide to purchasing Travel Insurance is on the Money Saving Expert website, so if I was you I would check it out. Also make sure the cover is Worldwide as many plans are Europe only. Don't forget that some bank accounts include travel insurance with your current account.
ESTA's
Anyone travelling to the USA from the UK, needs to fill out an Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) form in advance. It costs $21 per person and lasts for up to 2 years (a new one is required if you have a new passport). There is only one website that you can apply on, so be careful of scam websites that charge much more than the $21. The Official ESTA Application Website is here, for further information about ESTA's I would suggest checking out the page on the Money Saving Expert website which gives advice what an ESTA is, how to pay and other helpful information.
And that's it in terms of booking your holiday, all the main things are now taken care of, if you want to go to a particular Disney restaurant, make sure you book it 60 days out and the next step is planning what you are going to do on each day of your holiday.
If you have any questions please join our FaceBook Group - Paul's Guide to WDW Community
My Process
Dates
First I work out the dates we want to go. When the girls were younger we could go out of school holiday times, now unfortunately we can't do that because we get fined by the school. So a few years back I looked at the crowd calendars and read some articles, it turned out that the least busy two week period in school holidays was the last two weeks in August, as most of the American school children have returned back to school. If you are lucky enough to have children who get two weeks off over the October half term, this is another very good time to go and the temperatures are not as hot as August, which will be unbearable for some.
Flights
So once I have the dates I move onto flights, different airlines have different schedules as to when the flights are released, for instance British Airways flights come out 355 days before departure and Virgin Atlantic flights come out 11 months before departure, but you will need to wait for the return flight to also be available before you can book. Once flights are available I will start using a few websites to compare prices. The main websites I use are:
Kayak
Skyscanner
Momondo
Having flown to Florida a number of times we have been through three different airports; Orlando International (MCO), Tampa International (TPA) and Miami International (MIA). Tampa is over an hours drive from Walt Disney World and the surrounding area, but we found that to get through customs when entering the USA it is so much quicker via Tampa, that you can save that much time by flying to Tampa, also if you buy the tickets at the right time it can be much cheaper too. The only thing is that British Airways are currently the only airline that fly there direct from Gatwick (Finnair & Iberia will show up on searches, but it will be the same plane as BA). Miami is around a 4 hour drive to where we stay near WDW, but if you are comfortable with the drive, there can be some considerable savings to be had by flying into Miami.
We only fly direct, even though you could possibly save up to £200 per person (sometimes more) if you are willing to go indirect and have 2 stops each way, the journey time goes up from 9 hrs to anything up to 42 hrs (usually with 1 stop it is about 14 hrs depending where the stop is, but the saving will not be as much). I think 9 hrs is enough for any child (and parent!) so we stick with direct.
By using the above websites you can also check to see if it is cheaper to fly into one airport and out from another. It also makes a difference which day you fly on and Momondo shows which days are more or less with a useful graph, generally Saturday is the most expensive day due to so many people wanting to travel then, we have found we can save quite a bit on flights (around £200 each) by reducing our holiday by one day and leaving the UK on a Sunday instead, but this varies.
In 2019 we were unable to book as soon as the flights came out, as we were waiting to find out what secondary school our daughter would be attending. Once we knew that (March), we checked the flights and they were expensive! At least £200 each more than the previous year! So we watched the prices for a few weeks, but they weren't coming down and then my wife came up with the idea of Miami, so we flew direct to Miami International Airport with Norwegian. This meant a 3 1/2+ hour drive to the villa, but we ended up paying less than what we did for previous years flights. We stayed overnight in the hotel at Miami Airport and then drove up to Orlando the next morning, mainly using the toll road. The drive was quite easy, the toll road was empty and the service station we stopped at was pretty nice and again empty.
Accommodation
So we have got flights for the dates we want, now we need somewhere to stay. We have found that unless it is for one or two nights, it is a pain staying in a hotel room with the 4 of us, so we prefer a self catering apartment (condo), townhouse or villa. We also like to be relatively near to Walt Disney World, so by casting a net and doing some research on resorts, we have a list of them that are suitable. Due to cost and the fact that most of the accommodation in Walt Disney World are hotel rooms, we do not stay there. Places we have stayed at and enjoyed include:
Windsor Hills - one of the closest gated resorts to Walt Disney World, it has condo's, townhouses and villa's. We stayed in a 3 bed condo which was a good size, especially just for the four of us, there is a resort pool and clubhouse, as well a playground area. Prices are higher partly due to the location.
Encantada Resort - a little further to WDW than Windsor Hills, there are only townhouses in this gated resort. We have stayed here a couple of times in a 3 bed townhouse, these have hot-tubs. The resort has a pool, clubhouse and playground area.
Lake Buena Vista Resort & Spa - this condo resort is very close to WDW and has a great pirate ship themed pool. We stayed in a 2 bed apartment which was very spacious. It is also next door to Lake Buena Vista Factory Stores. It has been a few years since we stayed here and although we enjoyed it, I have heard stories of it going downhill recently, so please check the recent reviews.
Indian Ridge Oaks - just down the road from Windsor Hills this area is not gated and all the properties are houses. We stayed in a 4 bed property that had its own pool, there is also a community pool and playground area.
Emerald Island Resort - a gated resort with pool, clubhouse and more. Our 8 bedroom villa that we booked in 2018 had its own pool as well. Emerald Island is only a little further away from WDW than Windsor Hills and appears to be mainly 6,7 & 8 bedroom villa's. We are staying at this resort this year also.
Indian Creek - this community is not gated, but looked well kept and the location was good. We stayed in a 4 bedroom villa with a pool and I would happily stay in the community again.
So once I know where I would like to stay I search HomeAway.co.uk for suitable accommodation at the location I want, I always look at the reviews to see what other people thought of the property. Another site I have used is ClickStay.com which is similar to HomeAway. Last year we actually found our villa on airBnB.co.uk.
Car Hire
Once you have flights and accommodation all booked the next two things to think about are the Theme Park Tickets and the Car Hire. Generally I focus on car hire first as it is usually cheaper the earlier you book it.
First you need to work out what size vehicle you want/need. Some vehicles will happily take the number of passengers you require, but you will struggle to fit in all your suitcases to and from the airport as well, so do check the guidelines.
Then it is over to the comparison sites to find the car you want at the best price, the best websites seem to be:
Skyscanner
TravelSupermarket
Carrentals
Kayak
I also want to mention Discount Florida Car Hire who did us a great deal for 12 seater in 2018 and always seem to get great reviews on all the Orlando FaceBook groups. Since Covid car hire prices have been very high, so shopping around can save hundreds.
Theme Park Tickets
I have found that there are usually discounts and deals around for tickets just after Christmas/New Year and also around Easter, so these are good times to look. Around Black Friday is also a great time to get tickets.
The UK Disney World tickets are quite special and I think much better than the US tickets. They come in 7 or 14 versions and all these tickets are Magic tickets which means they include unlimited access to all 4 Theme Parks and both Water Parks, you can also have one round of golf each day at Disney's Oak Trail Golf Course, Disney's Fantasia Gardens Miniature Golf Course or Disney's Winter Summerland Miniature Golf Course, and have access to Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex including the PlayStation Pavilion (30 minutes of playtime). The 7 day ticket gives 7 days admission over a 15 days period and the 14 day ticket gives 14 days admission over an 18 day period. When booking your tickets you will need to pick the first date you will use the tickets and then you need to use the Disney Park Pass System to make your theme park reservations for the days you want to visit the 4 main parks.
Further to this you can go to more than one park on any day (park hopping is allowed from 2pm) and it includes MemoryMaker, PhotoPass Lenses and Audio Tales
MemoryMaker allows you to download all your digital photos taken throughout the parks by cast members and on the rides, just make sure you get your ticket/MagicBand scanned. Some rides now include videos and some photographers can even do Magic Shots!
Disney PhotoPass Lenses give access to special Disney PhotoPass Lenses for your mobile device, allowing you to explore magical new augmented reality effects.
Audio Tales allow you to discover the parks in cool new ways through fascinating fun facts and behind-the-scenes insights you can listen to during your visit.
Recently I have found Theme Park Tickets to be one of the best websites to get the tickets from. They generally have the cheapest tickets and if you do find cheaper elsewhere they will beat that price by £5, so you can't go wrong really. Another website that has been coming up cheap (especially if you can afford to pay up front) is Florida Escapes, be sure to check if there are any discount codes available as well. I would suggest checking out the following FaceBook group as Dianne who run's it does a price comparison of the theme park tickets, updated usually on a weekly basis - Deewol's Orlando Park Ticket Updates, due to the number of people in her FaceBook group she sometimes has discount codes as well.
Once you have your Disney World tickets, you can register on the Disney World website, setup your family members and then attach your tickets ready for booking Fast Passes. You can also book Disney Restaurants on the website up to 180 days in advance.
Travel Insurance
As soon as you have booked your holiday you should get Travel Insurance. I usually get annual cover as it only costs a few pounds more and means I am covered for any other holidays throughout the year. The best guide to purchasing Travel Insurance is on the Money Saving Expert website, so if I was you I would check it out. Also make sure the cover is Worldwide as many plans are Europe only. Don't forget that some bank accounts include travel insurance with your current account.
ESTA's
Anyone travelling to the USA from the UK, needs to fill out an Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) form in advance. It costs $21 per person and lasts for up to 2 years (a new one is required if you have a new passport). There is only one website that you can apply on, so be careful of scam websites that charge much more than the $21. The Official ESTA Application Website is here, for further information about ESTA's I would suggest checking out the page on the Money Saving Expert website which gives advice what an ESTA is, how to pay and other helpful information.
And that's it in terms of booking your holiday, all the main things are now taken care of, if you want to go to a particular Disney restaurant, make sure you book it 60 days out and the next step is planning what you are going to do on each day of your holiday.
If you have any questions please join our FaceBook Group - Paul's Guide to WDW Community