Florida Villas

[Jam_Man]

Anyone able to recommend decent Villa companies ?

Going to Florida in March and dont want to stay on the parks as want a bit more variety.

 

[steveo]

How many people? Not sure if youve been before but there ae loads to chose from.
We usually look for south facing, pool, Jacuzzi, wifi. Just south of the 192 is aways ok, maybe down to Haines City, Champions gate area. Im going in October, ill pm some info and let you know if it was any good.

 

[Jam_Man]

Did reply to your PM but :

4 of us, 2 adults 2 kids.

We were pricing it up for March and then checked Virgin's package villa deals and it was cheaper, but you dont get the benefit of choosing your villa, but on the flip side car etc is included and you have one contact point.

With everything, including park tickets we came out at £6500, which was about what we would expecting.

 

[OldBlueLady]

I can't recommend the villa we arranged, it was rubbish! Had been recommended by two work colleagues, but we went after it hadn't had hurricane repairs done! I'll have a word to a couple of friends who always use the same people and have been now 5 or 6 times between them and see if I can get a recommendation from them.

 

[Jam_Man]

Ive found a nice looking villa a few miles from Disney, looks good and should hopefully get it booked in next couple of days.

Thanks to Steveo for his advice in PM.

Now to sort out a car and park tickets....

 

[steveo]

Now to sort out a car and park tickets....

Try www.carhire3000.com. Dollar are ok too but watch out for different firms fuel policies as with some I’ve used you have to return it with a full tank. If you don’t they take the equivalent amount from your card based on the national average fuel price. Think that was Alamo. Either way its not too important as petrol is cheap. Also, make sure you have some loose change with you. You may need to go via an unmanned automated toll to get to your Villa. However I didn’t have any on one occasion so I phoned the next day and explained and they said don’t worry about it.

So having typed this post both of my points don’t really matter much.

 

[Jam_Man]

What do you do about booster seats for kids, satnav etc?

I remember one site allowing me to select them, but other sites dont see to give you the option?

 

[steveo]

What do you do about booster seats for kids, satnav etc?

I remember one site allowing me to select them, but other sites dont see to give you the option?

My kids are 21 and 24 so they dont need them.

Even when they were young as far as I recall we never got them. Not sure on the Florida law these days.

Satnav? If you have adecent map reader with you, you probably wont need it but it can make things a bit easier early on.

 

[MK Shrimper]

My kids are 21 and 24 so they dont need them.

Even when they were young as far as I recall we never got them. Not sure on the Florida law these days.

Satnav? If you have adecent map reader with you, you probably wont need it but it can make things a bit easier early on.

As far as I'm aware, the US is **** hot on booster seats etc. As for Sat Nav, I paid an extra $60 when I hired a car in NYC 2 years ago.

http://sheriff.org/safety/carseat.cfm

 

[Jam_Man]

My kids are 21 and 24 so they dont need them.

Even when they were young as far as I recall we never got them. Not sure on the Florida law these days.

Satnav? If you have adecent map reader with you, you probably wont need it but it can make things a bit easier early on.

1. You can never be too safe. make your 24 year old use a booster seat. It would be funny if nothing else

2. My wife will be the map reader. She would not fit into the catagory "decent map reader"

:smile:

 

[steveo]

As far as I'm aware, the US is **** hot on booster seats etc. As for Sat Nav, I paid an extra $60 when I hired a car in NYC 2 years ago.

http://sheriff.org/safety/carseat.cfm

Surely not just to drive round the City?

 

[Jam_Man]

flights booked, car booked, villa almost booked.

Getting there.

Just realised need visas, and kids to get passports done.

 

[mattytheshrimper]

Now to sort out a car and park tickets....

If it helps you can get a pretty good deal on 14 day flexi tickets for both the universals, sea world, busch gardens, wet n wild and a few others for around £190 for adults and something like £140-£150 for kids.

 

[MK Shrimper]

Surely not just to drive round the City?

No mate, drove NYC - Boston - Niagara - NYC.

Jammy, visas are done on line. https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/

 

[OldBlueLady]

What do you do about booster seats for kids, satnav etc?

I remember one site allowing me to select them, but other sites dont see to give you the option?

book them. You will need them. Had to have one child seat for my then 4 year old daughter, she wasn't at all happy as she'd been out of hers and using a booster for some time, but the requirement then was that she had to have a child seat (14 years ago).

I'd advise doing Disney in one block, a 5 day pass is probably best and allows for going in and out of the parks. Use the mono-rail at Epcot to get in and out of Magic Kingdom, it's far less stressful than the parking there.

 

[hockleyeast1964]

Harry Potter at Universal is a must as is Busch Gardens ,they do a free bus shuttle as its a1.45 drive.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Harry Potter at Universal is a must as is Busch Gardens ,they do a free bus shuttle as its a1.45 drive.

Not sure Busch Gardens is a must for kids the age of Jam Man's? The rides there, I felt, were for older kids and adults. All reports I've heard of HP though definitely make it a "must"!

 

[Jam_Man]

Steveo said the same thing about Busch.

The thing is there are so many parks I reckon we will have plenty to do !

 

[superblue24]

Try Florida car hire .net. I've used tthem every year and been there for the past 5 years. Although 3000 are quite good also admittedly.

As for villas, try villas360 I think it's called. It all depends on the time of year you go, but we always go around November/october time where we often pay £500 pw for a villa. Closer to peak time they become quite dear.

Parks - universal is number one, or should I say island of adventure is. Universal the original is also good. Disney probably next. Busch gardens is for roller coasters only really. I'm a "bag carrier" at that place! MGM is pretty good also. Hopper tickets are a bit of a con, you're better off going for a weekly ticket with however many parks or visits you wish in that week. Universal probably offers best value IMO. They also do deals from time to time.

I could probably dig out a bunch of villa contacts if you like, but am typing from iPhone ATM so don't have them to hand.

Kayak for flights btw.

 

[hockleyeast1964]

i have to recommend sea world .It has a live show with trained cats and dogs ,it's one of the funniest things i've seen ,your kids will love it!