Florida Holidays

[TechSupp]

Just comming to the end of the summer holidays so its time to start looking ahead to the Easter ones

; just like my performance management answers, Q: What are your targets? A: Pay the mortgage and look forward to he next school holiday...Oh sorry you meant me to be serious! anyway, the wife and daughter want to go the Florida and do the Disney holiday thing using a villa (not my cup of tea but hey ho), got some approx prices from the holiday shops today and they are wanting about £3500 for villa, flights and car hire!!! Anyone done this before and found a better way to get it all a bit cheaper?

[FN-GM]

My boss hires his Villa out it is 8 mins from Disney World. check his website

myfloridavilla.info: Orlando villa, Florida Vacation Home rental in Ashley Manor, Orlando near Disney World, Written and Designed by Nick Goodall

 

Z

[TechSupp]

Thanks but not available to book in April

[FN-GM]

Thanks but not available to book in April

 

Are you looking at April 2009 there? You need to move onto the next page for April 2010 it is empty April 2010

[TechSupp]

Whoops! Told you I needed another holiday!

[Sylv3r]

My boss hires his Villa out it is 8 mins from Disney World. check his website

myfloridavilla.info: Orlando villa, Florida Vacation Home rental in Ashley Manor, Orlando near Disney World, Written and Designed by Nick Goodall

 

Z

 

I stopped in a villa in that exact estate last year. Very nice accommodation all round and very close to all the attractions, although you will need to hire a car as none of them are easy to walk too even though its only 8 mins away. I can't remember how much it cost us - but we had 13 of the family stopping and we all fit no problem!

[computer_expert]

i found theDIBB good for general Florida info as well as the various Disney/Universal/Seaworld/Water parks.

 

They also have a Villa Rental board where members let out their villas to other members.

 

if you can, fly into Orlando Sanford Airport as you don't have to wait in the immigration queues for 1hour + like at Orlando International.

[laserblazer]

It's a good few years since we went but we had a Fly/Drive deal and stayed a week in Orlando and a week on the Gold Coast. This was in October and the weather was great. We had a condo. for the second week with stunning views along the beach.

[m25man]

I never wanted to go to Florida,

 

Milton Keynes with sun thats what I always said.

 

Been there five times now and will be going back again soon.

 

As there are only 3 of you going I would thoroughly recommend this place,

 

Bahama Bay Resort in Central Florida - Caribbean Style Resort Living on Lake Davenport

 

You can book direct, get a fly drive from one of the big tour operators.

There are plenty of owners advertise direct or the big tour operators include this resort now including Virgin, Thompson etc.

 

Last time just the two of us went, we still got a 3 bed condo it was massive!

3 swimming pools within a minutes walk, club house, free wifi at the clubhouse but it was usable from our condo on the other side of the small lake!

 

Villa's are great especially when there are lots of you but I tell you this has to be looked at, 10 mins drive and you are in Disney, it's well away from all of the usual 192 tourist rubbish.

 

Lying on the fake beach watching the gators swimming in the lake is just so cool!!!

[kearton]

I can recommend Clearwater. It's a bit (1.5hrs from memory) of a drive from Orlando but has a FABULOUS beach. I stayed here. I can't remember what the car rental cost, but it was from National. Edited September 2, 2009 by kearton

[TechSupp]

Thanks, given us lots to look at unfortunately as we are a bit limited when we can fly it seems the flights will our biggest cost. Info has been much appreciated though.

[m25man]

Most of the UK Tour Operators out of Sanford change over on Thursdays so thats when you will find the cheapest flights.

You will need a car anyway so look for a fly drive deal with one of the holiday tour operators this way you are just filling seats on the same planes carrying the families to Disney.

 

The crunch has hit them hard out there and whilst the flights might be dearer and the exchange rate not as good as it has been there are some silly deals on theme park tickets so it may not be as expensive as you think!

 

There are lot's of Brit's with Condo's in Florida that are desperate to rent this/next year as they still have to pay the mortgages even though they can't rent!

 

We think we have it bad here, I saw a news clip on MSNBC where a $300,000 dollar Florida Villa went for just $90,000 at Auction...

 

Look here

 

Some Brit's have just stopped paying the mortgages on Florida holiday homes and defaulted on US Mortgages.

As nobody is paying for the maintenance the grass is 3 ft high on some estates.

 

It would be interesting to hear from any Geekers that have just returned from the sunshine state to see just how good/bad it really is.

Edited September 5, 2009 by m25man
Typo

[MYK-IT]

Try TravelCityDirect

 

I used them 4 years ago, and they were the cheapest.

 

Yes, they did go bust last year but now run by Virgin.

Friend of mine has book through them for December 2010 and it was over £500 cheaper than booking with Virgin (and that was with their 10% off bank holiday promotion!)