Thursday, February 25, 2010

Apparently I'm Very Persuasive!

Well, it seems that my little commercial for Disney World may have actually worked. I was totally expecting Luke to laugh at my idea and tell me that there was no way he was going to spend money on a trip to Disney World in the summer. But he told me he is actually interested...if we can afford it, that is.

Basically, I don't know yet how much the whole thing would cost, and if we in fact CAN afford it. I am willing to save every cent of my splurge money possible in order to help pay for the trip. And today I am writing this post begging for your travel advice!

I've spent the last hour or two...or more...researching every corner of the internet for travel sites where I can hopefully find cheap flights/hotels/tickets. And all I've managed to do is confuse and overwhelm myself. I've been on Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz...you name the travel site, I've probably been there this evening. And my brain is just on information overload! Do you have a suggestion of a favorite travel website?? There are just so many out there. I think I like Expedia the most at this point, because it just seems to be the easiest for me to use for some reason.

Another question...anyone who has visited Orlando a lot: Are there any CHEAP hotels that you would recommend? I know you get what you pay for, and I won't get anything spectacular for low, low prices. However, it would be nice to get recommendations for places that are at the very least clean and comfortable!

Also, do you have any favorite tips on discounts to Disney World tickets or things inside the parks? I'm already getting a day free through the volunteer program, so that will help a lot. IF we go, that is.

At this point, I'm really trying not to get my hopes up. I'd say there's maybe a 50% chance that we will go. But I just absolutely LOVE trip planning, and I'm trying to figure out if this is going to be a good idea for us financially. I should have been a travel agent.

I'm actually a little shocked at how cheap the airplane tickets and some hotels are! Not very expensive at all! It's the tickets to the park that seem to cost an arm and a leg. And Luke and I talked about it a little bit, and we decided if we go, we want to skip Epcot and Animal Kingdom, and go to Universal/Islands of Adventure instead. Luke's more interested in that than Disney World, and I really want to check out the new Harry Potter section of IoA! Anybody know if there's a way to get discounted tickets to those parks, too?

So anyway, if you have ANY tips or tricks that would help me with potentially planning this spontaneous vacation, I'm all ears (get it? Mickey Mouse? Ears? Sorry, I had to :-P)

8 comments:

  1. I use AirfareWatchdog.com for all my fare finding needs. You can set it up to email you several times a week with fares to and from your desired home city. Also, Bing has a fare predictor on their site that will tell you the likelihood that a certain fare will rise, fall or stay the same. Good luck!

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  2. I love trip planning! Its a wonderful feeling of knowing what and where you will be going!! :-)

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  3. Hotwire has really, really cheap hotels : ) Good luck!

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  4. I just start Googling. Then I do a cross check with Yelp

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  5. Ooh! I totally forgot! My neighbor used to work at Disney World and she told me that when you come into the parks, always choose the path that goes to the left. The majority of people go to the right, so you will be getting to the rides in the opposite order of most people.

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  6. Check out Funjet.com and Priceline.com. They have the best prices that we've been able to find for flights and such. That's exciting! I hope you guys can go. We may end up going to the same place for vacation again this year, because Disney World is one of our options! :-)

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  7. Callie, It's so cool that you might be going too! If you decide to go, and you just happen to be going the week of June 6 let me know, and we'll have to meet up! lol (although if it were up to me, I'd like to go in October or sometime because of the heat! Too bad I can't since I'll be working!)

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  8. Well if you fly there, I would recommend that you stay at one of the hotels at the Walt Disney Resort. They will pick you up from the airport and provide all of your transportation to the parks, water parks, other resorts, Downtown Disney during your stay. They have buses, ferries and monorails that run constantly.

    "Good Neighbor" hotels are those that are not on property but do provide transportation. My advice is not to stay at one of those. We made that mistake on our last trip. The Disney hotels are sooo much better. They are nicer (in my experience) and the transportation is sooo much better.

    Some of the cheaper Disney resorts are Pop Century and all 3 of the All Star Resorts.

    I interned at Disney for 2 summers plus I've been probably 20 times so email me if you want to!

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