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gulfindian,

the best option for you is to book it here : http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/disneyparks/en_US/index?name=HomePage Book for 3 nights 2 park activities. best bet Magic Kingdom and Epcot/Blizzard beach. -- Stay inside the resort hotels (convenient free transportation to parks, can include dining plan, pick up & drop off from airport). Very convenient for your short trip.

Internal flights, your issue would be baggage.. There are restrictions on how much one can carry. Ensure that is taken care off. Orlando to bahrain if you have flights, that might be a good option.

-SK

About park info...there is a excellent travel blog in this site ...I would use that as a guide for the park activity. You can cover 2 parks easily in 2.5 days and may be 3 if you try to hurry on less attractive rides. Being summer park will be crowed I would allow some extra time to rest too

In term of package deals...try travel sites like expedia or orbitz. But if you are willing to take some extra risk to save some $$$ than your best bet will be craigslist e.g. http://orlando.craigslist.org/tix/1856860887.html remember these are timeshare presentation so you have to qualify first and than should have strong will power to say no. Search about timeshare presentation before signing up with them..but usually they are the best deal in the town

If you want to go separately on park ticket and hotel...again Craigslist is best bet to purchase tickets as there will be many people trying to sell 2 or 3 days ticket out of 7 days ticket ...usually good deal but kind of risky as park takes your fingerprints first time you use your tickets.

for internal flights in US...try www.kayak.com best website to get good price comparison. You may have to pay for the baggage if you don't have international flight on same ticket but you can try your luck by talking to the check in agent and showing your international ticket.

gulfIndian;308444We have been planning a tour to the US through SOTC in India, and with just over a month to go for the start, we are told the tour is cancelled due to lack of sufficient numbers and another longer and higher priced tour is offered on the same date. We have a choice to take the longer tour including a cruise or a shorter tour operated by them. If both the options are refused, we will have to forego the entire advance for no fault of ours (as per the fine print in the terms and conditions of course!)
I have decided to take the shorter version and do Oralando by ourselves. The tour starts in the west coast and ends in NY. I can only stay 3 nights in Orlando after leaving NY in the late afternoon/evening. What is the best way I can go about covering Disney world in Orlando? What should and can I see in 2 full days and a half day? Both my children are over 15 and they had been to Euro Disney in Paris 7 years ago. But still think they should not miss Disney World.
Do any of you have any suggestion on any package deal containing 3 night stay and park tickets and where to get it? Any info on how much it should cost? For flights from NY to Orlanodo and back what is the easy and economical way to buy? What are the problems in taking an internal flight to NY and changing to an international flight to go to Gulf? Will it be better, if I buy my ticket from Orlando to Bahrain so that they will transfer our baggage? But the cost is quite high. Is it worth it? Any suggestions will be helpful.

GulfIndian,

Please use LoveIndia's thread for more details. It has excellent details

http://www.r2iclubforums.com/forums/showthread.php/15295-DisneyWorld-Orlando-Travelogue-Nov-2009/page2

If your kids are over 15, I would suggest EPCOT (don't miss Soarin/Fireworks) and Hollywood Studios (don't miss Fantasmic). I am not suggesting Magic Kingdom (it's my favorite theme park) as it's catered towards younger children.

For planning, please look at this thread.

http://www.r2iclubforums.com/forums/showthread.php/8416-Help-with-planning-Orlando-Disney-world-trip?p=233643#post233643

I would suggest that you stay in a Disney Resort (as they provide transportation from Orlando MCO's airport).

To make it easy and convenient, choose one of the disney theme park lodges. Go to disney.com for prices/packages. Forget trying to stay outside disneyworld. Commute will be a problem.

Ignore the animal kingdom at disney. It's for kids.. Magic kingdom may be fine. But do EPCOT if your kids are teenagers and maybe Hollywood studios or one of the water parks on the third day.

Travel light, all places will usually have washer/dryer facility. So you don't need to carry clothes for the entire trip.

For travel from NYC to Orlando, check airtran.com or jetblue which may be cheapest, particularly if you want one way ticket.

Thank you all for the useful tips and the links. Now I have sufficient material to read and analyse during the week end!

Sorry about your plight with the tour operator. Something tells me this is not the first time they are doing this to someone.

US is such an easy place to travel you don't need a third party to coordinate your trip. You can almost always find better deals yourself with the abundance of information on TripAdvisor, Expedia and other such sites. You can also try Kayak to search multiple sites. The whole process can be fun. May be your kids can do that legwork for you.

Usually package deals are not a great idea within the US. You can put together an equivalent package yourself with minimal effort.

For park tickets, try to buy them from Disneyworld's website. If you know someone with a Costco card, you can ask them to buy a package of the Orlando attractions (including Universal Studios). You can also try on eBay. With eBay you have protection in case something goes wrong (Craigslist is free for all and no protection).

Orlando hotels (outside the park) are very inexpensive. So you will have plenty of options especially if you time your trip during the weekday. Book something that gives free breakfast (but read reviews on Trip Advisor on how good that breakfast is). In some places you can get a small kitchen and microwave, which can be handy if you want to do some basic cooking yourself. You can book inside the park but you will be paying Disney prices on everything including food. Also will you be going to Universal Studios too - which is something you should plan on.

If possible see if you can make changes to your departure date and extend the stay to get a couple of more days in Orlando.

For transportation from airport, you can talk to your hotel. They would usually arrange it for free or for a small fee. If you know how to drive in the Gulf, you should be able to rent a car. Avoid taking cabs except in New York.

Taking a domestic flight to NYC and switching to an international flight is what we would do ourselves if the cost differential was high. The domestic carriers would allow you to carry extra luggage for a small fee (you can see if the cost differential is worth it). If both of the flights are from JFK or Newark, the process is fairly easy. You need to allot 45 minutes to pick up baggage, transit to another terminal and check in there. It would be wise to enrol in the airline membership program (the free one) that allows you online checkin. By checking in ahead, you will save long wait times at the terminal. If you are landing in La Guardia for some reason, then you have to factor in about $50 in taxi fare and an hour of travel plus 30 minutes to check in.

JetBlue costs about $100 each way from NYC to Orlando. But most other airlines are probably similarly priced. Check Expedia or Kayak.

Enjoy the trip.

gulfIndian;310441VWbuggy78, thanks for some very useful information.

I decided to increase the length of my stay at Orlando by one day to get three full days to visit the parks. As I am not intending to drive, I want to stay at any of the Disney resort hotels or some other close by ones where Disney World transport plies. I checked about Disney resorts All star Movies and All star Music etc. on the internet and almost made up my mind to choose one of them, when a Dubai based travel agent I have been in touch comes up with an offer of accommodation and park tickets that is almost half the price of what I can get on the internet for Disney resort hotels. The hotels suggested are Hilton in Walt Disney World and Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort, which I suppose are as close to the parks as the Disney resorts.

The rates he has quoted are based on Quad share basis, which means all four of us will be accommodated in one room with two king size beds. Has any one stayed in these hotels, any pros and cons?

On the internet if I try these hotels for Quad share, I am getting very much higher rates. Is it possible for someone to offer a 4 night stay in these hotels for four people with 3 day Disney tickets for between US $ 450 and 700? Or is there something wrong in his calculation or anything fishy about this deal?

Please refer to this and see if you can get any discount for Disney Value Resort (All Star Movies/Music/Sports and Pop Century)

http://www.mousesavers.com/disneyresorts.html#roomonlycodes


I've stayed in All Star Movies/Music and Pop Century (value resorts). I like all 3 of them. If I were to rate them, then it would be.

1. Pop Century.
2. All Star Movies
3. All Star Music.

Pros :

Nice food court

Bus Service to all the parks till the park closes (max wait : 20 minutes or 30 minutes after fireworks while returning back to the park)

Excellent ambiance and great customer service.

There are huge statues which smaller kids would enjoy, but it's definitely a good place for excellent photo-ops.

Pickup of luggage from Orlando Airport to your resort room and Free Transportation from Orlando Airport.

Cons:

Expensive -- If you compare with staying outside Disney, but you wouldn't get the convenience.

Note : Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin is not a part of Disney Resort and I am not sure if they have bus service to the parks every 20 minutes.

No Idea on hotels for Quad Share. I usually book through Disney 1-(407) W-DISNEY

I stayed in Doubletree lat time (also owned by hilton) which is next to Hilton. Both are good hotels and not too crowded.. It's inside the disney property and they do have shuttle to the parks. With teenagers, you'll be spending the whole day at the park. And staying in hilton allows you to stay longer in some disney parks (extra magic hours) . Here are some reviews of hilton.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g34515-d217366-r72553567-Hilton_in_Walt_Disney_World_Resort-Orlando_Florida.html#CHECK_RATES_CONT

4 person in a room is quite common. It'll be usually 2 double size beds which is common in U.S. So don't worry about that.

what's the total package price and what dates? The 450-700 dollars you mentioned, is it per person ? check with your agent.. . I think it's a per person rate.

3 or 4 day pass will cost you $900 for 4 tickets. Hilton is showing around 125-150 per night depending on dates. So 4 nights would be 600 bucks. Total cost would be around $1500 total for 4 persons for stay and tickets.

if your agent is offering this for $700 or even 1000 total, just take it. If not, just post the dates when you plan to visit, i or someone here can lookup some deals for you.

Note, There's lot of sales pitch in these hotels in orlando to sell time share. They tempt you with free ticket offer. Just say no.. You'll waste half a day and not worth it.