Disneyworld from Boston

micks_address

Hi folks,

We are spending 6 weeks in Boston during the summer, I'll be working mostly but we are planning to do a week or ten days in Orlando either in July or August. Normally I'd probably get on to Abbey travel or some of the local companies here, but I'm not sure of the best way to go about booking a trip from the state?

What would be the best way to organize? Costs are important. Flights are easy enough to book from Boston to Orlando - but what then? Book direct with the park and stay in a resort hotel? Are there packages where you can do Disneyworld and Universal?

Cheers,
Mick

Green_Martian

like yourself we would normally book with a travel agent here, but one year we booked ourselves.

As you said flights seem to be handy enough so no problems there

Park tickets - We shopped around ticket attraction sites and booked them through that company, sometimes the same price as direct with the parks but they sometimes throw in little extras. They do combo offers of Disney/Universal and SeaWorld etc.

Accommodation - Booked through the usual hotel sites, don't want to name them in case its against rules but PM me and I will send on details

Sometimes it can work out cheaper doing it yourself, but this may not always be the case so try get a price from a travel agent as well just so you have a base price.

SweetSand

Hi Mick,
Yes, flights from Boston to Orlando are handy but not cheap. I would suggest to check flight prices for your estimated dates and to download Hopper app, it will tell you if it’s a right time to buy or not. I remember few years ago when we were in California for few months we thought we ll travel so much, that’s us being spoiled by Ryanair prices in Europe, well, domestic flights here are not cheap we did end up traveling a lot, but mostly by car. You do have to keep an eye on flight prices as they fluctuate a lot. Just last week we booked flights from Boston to FFL, $610 for 4 of us (2+2) for our upcoming cruise in March, all along the price was around $1000, but on Thursday night it dropped to $570 + 1 checked in bag.
For accommodation I d suggest checking vrbo.com (booked through them good few times) and Airbnb. Resort hotels are great but super expensive:(
For the actual tickets - check out parks pricing first and then price around. I know Disney hiked up their ticket prices last month. For universal - check out their seasonal pass, might work out cheaper than 2-3 day passes overall. Have a look at Costco Disney packages, you don’t have to be a member to buy them. And definitely no harm pricing with travel agent in Ireland.
Get yourself mentally ready that it is going to be one expensive trip I’d say it will cost you 5K+ all in. We didn’t do Orlando but did Disneyland in LA the time we were in California, everything inside is insane, our girls were 2 and 4 at the time, we got there at 8.30 in the morning and left after 9pm, I d say we did 8 rides in total, lines were so long. Everything is so overpriced as well, paid $48 for 2 Minnie Mouse hairbands, $16 for hot dog and chips ( and they were just crisps of course ))
Re staying in Boston - again in a lot of places seasonal pass = 1 day entry ticket in price, or a very little difference, definitely to the places like Boston Aquarium, Museum of Science and etc. It’s definitely worth it if you even go twice. So before buying an entrance ticket - always check their seasonal policy first.
Please feel free to ask any questions and hope you ll have a great time here!
P.S. just reread your post and I presumed you have kids might be a good bit cheaper if it’s just 2 of you.

micks_address

SweetSand wrote: »

Hi Mick,
Yes, flights from Boston to Orlando are handy but not cheap. I would suggest to check flight prices for your estimated dates and to download Hopper app, it will tell you if it’s a right time to buy or not. I remember few years ago when we were in California for few months we thought we ll travel so much, that’s us being spoiled by Ryanair prices in Europe, well, domestic flights here are not cheap we did end up traveling a lot, but mostly by car. You do have to keep an eye on flight prices as they fluctuate a lot. Just last week we booked flights from Boston to FFL, $610 for 4 of us (2+2) for our upcoming cruise in March, all along the price was around $1000, but on Thursday night it dropped to $570 + 1 checked in bag.
For accommodation I d suggest checking vrbo.com (booked through them good few times) and Airbnb. Resort hotels are great but super expensive:(
For the actual tickets - check out parks pricing first and then price around. I know Disney hiked up their ticket prices last month. For universal - check out their seasonal pass, might work out cheaper than 2-3 day passes overall. Have a look at Costco Disney packages, you don’t have to be a member to buy them. And definitely no harm pricing with travel agent in Ireland.
Get yourself mentally ready that it is going to be one expensive trip I’d say it will cost you 5K+ all in. We didn’t do Orlando but did Disneyland in LA the time we were in California, everything inside is insane, our girls were 2 and 4 at the time, we got there at 8.30 in the morning and left after 9pm, I d say we did 8 rides in total, lines were so long. Everything is so overpriced as well, paid $48 for 2 Minnie Mouse hairbands, $16 for hot dog and chips ( and they were just crisps of course ))
Re staying in Boston - again in a lot of places seasonal pass = 1 day entry ticket in price, or a very little difference, definitely to the places like Boston Aquarium, Museum of Science and etc. It’s definitely worth it if you even go twice. So before buying an entrance ticket - always check their seasonal policy first.
Please feel free to ask any questions and hope you ll have a great time here!
P.S. just reread your post and I presumed you have kids might be a good bit cheaper if it’s just 2 of you.

Thanks yes a 12 year old girl and 16 year old boy. Actually booked a fair share of it last night. We are going to the park Wednesday to Wednesday. It's funny the hotel is like 1000 euro and the park tickets were 1800 for ultimate passes. Booked flights down from Boston to. Surprised as you say by the price of domestic flights. Paid 1000 for the four of us return with Delta. I thought we'd be able to get flights to new york etc for four for 350.. wrong was I!

Not sure if we spend the 7 days in Disney may do a day or two in universal. US colleague suggested renting a car in Disney for the days we want to go off park.. that bringing a car can be costly with parking fees etc ..

micks_address

We will have a car while in the Boston area so definitely want to do some short hops at the weekends to see some sites. Wanted to do the tourist attractions in New York but that looks like could be expensive weekend. Also maybe a trip to Niagara falls but again costs will run with flights. Tuesday family flights over with Norwegian from Dublin and back with a checked bag only cost 1250.. they didn't want the hot meals and are prepared to bring their own supplies and iPads etc and flight blankets..

SweetSand

Well done Mick, you did great booking so much already!

For your kids ages I would strongly recommend investing into fast pass to skip the line or to remember about single ryder option, that line is for people who want to ryde by themselves, it's usually much shorter and quicker. I would echo your colleague, you don't need the car for the whole duration of your Orlando trip, parking is a pain and expensive. You can rent it for 2 days or take Uber, it is very reasonable and efficient here.

As for trip to NY - we drove few times there, usually 3-4 hours drive, very easy one. Parking can be an issue though. I can't recommend hotwire.com strongly enough. Again, I just booked a hotel for 1 night for us in Miami, $215 including taxes, exact same hotel on booking.com is $450 for our night. I hope the weather will be nice for you, last summer it was so humide, you didn't want to spend any time outside at all but the summer before that we had bbq almost every night it was so nice

Last 3-4 times we flew Norwegian from Boston to Shannon, can't say anything bad about them. I really like Providence airport as there is never a queue through security and check in is usually very fast. I never bother with their food, we either eat at the airport or bring sandwiches/snacks. As for entertainment: I download girls favorite cartoons from Netflix into their tablets. You can't beat the price!

Y

webpal

Posted this in BA re park tix, I saved almost €500 between Disney, universal and seaworld/aquatica

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057947156

Motivator

I booked this trip on Expedia in 2011. Return flights from Logan to Orlando with 12 nights in a lovely hotel in Lake Buena Vista for $800 each, it was an absolute bargain. Couldn’t tell you how much it would cost now but we booked it probably 4 months in advance so I’d go looking at booking now if I were you and if you know the exact dates obviously.

The hotel we stayed in looked after all the park tickets for us except Disney which we paid on the gate for. The hotel also ran free shuttles to all the parks and the outlet mall so we didn’t need a car. It’s a class trip and internal flights in the US are grand - we flew with JetBlue and they were great considering how cheap they are to fly with.

OP if you have any questions send me a message.

Fathom

micks_address wrote: »

Hi folks, We are spending 6 weeks in Boston during the summer, I'll be working mostly but we are planning to do a week or ten days in Orlando either in July or August. Normally I'd probably get on to Abbey travel or some of the local companies here, but I'm not sure of the best way to go about booking a trip from the state? What would be the best way to organize? Costs are important. Flights are easy enough to book from Boston to Orlando - but what then? Book direct with the park and stay in a resort hotel? Are there packages where you can do Disneyworld and Universal? Cheers, Mick

There are motel specials with free transportation to many parks in Orlando. Search directly recommended. Some include airport to motel.