Family Trip

[Mad Dog]

Looking at park tickets and everywhere has dropped in price.

The 14 day WDW ticket is going to be £60 ($80) cheaper for 2020 compared to what I paid for 2018.

Must be a UK thing. I'd guess demand for Orlando trips is down. They sure haven't dropped ticket prices in the USA.

 

[Scott W.]

Must be a UK thing. I'd guess demand for Orlando trips is down. They sure haven't dropped ticket prices in the USA.

With the crappy exchange rate, I don't see any reason why you couldn't buy tickets from the UK if you needed to.

A 14 day SeaWorld, Busch and Aquatica ticket with free parking is about $130.

3 Park SeaWorld, Aquatica & Busch Gardens Ticket

 

[WAJAS]

With the crappy exchange rate, I don't see any reason why you couldn't buy tickets from the UK if you needed to.

A 14 day SeaWorld, Busch and Aquatica ticket with free parking is about $130.

3 Park SeaWorld, Aquatica & Busch Gardens Ticket

Wait, there has to be something not legal with doing that. It can’t be possible that if I just buy from a UK site my price of admission drops.

 

[Scott W.]

Wait, there has to be something not legal with doing that. It can’t be possible that if I just buy from a UK site my price of admission drops.

I don't see why not. When the exchange rate was better, I would always buy my tickets at the gate. I've booked hotel rooms using websites based in other countries.

I've never had to show any kind of ID going into a park.

The only issue I see, is that Disney World and Universal will give you a hard ticket (Disneyland doesn't). You'll have to pay for shipping.

SeaWorld gives you a pdf to print out. Walk to the gate and use that at the turnstile.

 

[JoeCamel]

I don't see why not. When the exchange rate was better, I would always buy my tickets at the gate. I've booked hotel rooms using websites based in other countries.

I've never had to show any kind of ID going into a park.

The only issue I see, is that Disney World and Universal will give you a hard ticket (Disneyland doesn't). You'll have to pay for shipping.

SeaWorld gives you a pdf to print out. Walk to the gate and use that at the turnstile.

You may need an address there to purchase, may I use yours Scott? :toast:

 

[Scott W.]

You may need an address there to purchase, may I use yours Scott? :toast:

Any time I need an address for buying things in the US, I always use Cabana Bay. On my next stay, I'm half expecting hundreds of mail to be waiting for me

You can add a US address on the UK SeaWorld website weirdly, give it a shot:
| SeaWorld Parks Bookings

Here's the price differences (The US also adds Adventure Island but it's the closest for comparison, both are 14 day tickets + free parking):


Edit: From the website, I first linked to, they have this in their terms and conditions:
Orlando Attraction Tickets


Ticket dispatch / Delivery

Hard Tickets: These will be sent via a Royal Mail ‘Signed For’ service. This means that you will need to sign for the tickets upon delivery. Once signed for the tickets then become your sole responsibility. In the event that you are not based in the UK and have ordered real tickets we reserve the right to alter your order to eTickets (where available) which we will be able to dispatch via email anywhere in the world.

 

[Scott W.]

Starting to get restaurants booked just now and the 6 month window has made things incredibly easy. Tables of 9 for Be Our Guest, Chef Mickey, Sanaa, Oga's Cantina and me and Laura are planning to do Brunch at the Top again.

No problem and with more reservations to come but my huge issue is that none of the theme park reservations will matter if we go to book a FP for the days that we're now locked into and can't get them. DHS is planned for the first day but if we can't get a FP for Rise (If it's opened up at that stage) and can get one for the following day, it completely destroys the plans that have been made.

Does anybody know if resorts are doing direct buses to the water parks again?

 

[Mad Dog]

Starting to get restaurants booked just now and the 6 month window has made things incredibly easy. Tables of 9 for Be Our Guest, Chef Mickey, Sanaa, Oga's Cantina and me and Laura are planning to do Brunch at the Top again.

No problem and with more reservations to come but my huge issue is that none of the theme park reservations will matter if we go to book a FP for the days that we're now locked into and can't get them. DHS is planned for the first day but if we can't get a FP for Rise (If it's opened up at that stage) and can get one for the following day, it completely destroys the plans that have been made.

Does anybody know if resorts are doing direct buses to the water parks again?

and....that's why planning reservations so far in advance is screwed up. I like Universal's day of reservations better. The Palms is really the only place you sometimes need to book a week or so in advance, but sometimes not there either.

 

[Scott W.]

and....that's why planning reservations so far in advance is screwed up. I like Universal's day of reservations better. The Palms is really the only place you sometimes need to book a week or so in advance, but sometimes not there either.

The thing is, it wouldn’t matter in Universal anyway because everything is about less than a 30min walk away.

 

[UK-Trigg]

With the crappy exchange rate, I don't see any reason why you couldn't buy tickets from the UK if you needed to.

A 14 day SeaWorld, Busch and Aquatica ticket with free parking is about $130.

3 Park SeaWorld, Aquatica & Busch Gardens Ticket

Exchange rate is up and down at the minute, I saw a 3 points gain and a 4 point drop within 48 hrs.

Luckily I hit it right when booking a Disney gold pass and got it for £482 Bargain seeing as I am in for 3 trips this yr :bow:

AP purchased was residents as I have DVC

 

[Scott W.]

Exchange rate is up and down at the minute, I saw a 3 points gain and a 4 point drop within 48 hrs.

Luckily I hit it right when booking a Disney gold pass and got it for £482 Bargain seeing as I am in for 3 trips this yr :bow:

AP purchased was residents as I have DVC

Seeing as a 14 day ticket is about £400, I'd call that a great bargain. By the time you remove the cost of the tickets, going to Orlando seems quite cheap.

I'm still not sure how it works with upgrading my ticket to an AP at Disney. Checking it on the app, it's still coming up full price to upgrade.

 

[Scott W.]

 

[JoeCamel]

Sorry mate

 

[Scott W.]

To give an update. I've been told from Virgin that we can change our flights with no fee and no difference in fare price which is a huge relief.

The balance for the Disney hotels is due on 9th April. I hope that we can change the dates here as well if we can't travel but I've been told that if the parks aren't open by then, our insurance will cover the hotel because it was booked as a package of tickets and hotel and if they can't honour part of that then the whole thing is void.

Not ideal but given the money being spent, it's reassuring we won't be out of pocket.

 

[Joe]

To give an update. I've been told from Virgin that we can change our flights with no fee and no difference in fare price which is a huge relief.

The balance for the Disney hotels is due on 9th April. I hope that we can change the dates here as well if we can't travel but I've been told that if the parks aren't open by then, our insurance will cover the hotel because it was booked as a package of tickets and hotel and if they can't honour part of that then the whole thing is void.

Not ideal but given the money being spent, it's reassuring we won't be out of pocket.

You should be hearing about WDW closure very soon.

 

[Nick]

You should be hearing about WDW closure very soon.

I'm extremely surprised WDW hasn't said anything yet. They told their CM's two days ago and both Orange and Osceola are under Stay-at-home starting tonight so they have to stay closed anyway. It's just odd they haven't said anything yet.

 

[Mad Dog]

Just my own personal opinion, but there's no way I'm going to schedule a vacation in Orlando for the next 7 months, no matter how good the deal.Between C. Virus, plus these past heavy hurricane seasons in southeast USA (Aug. Sept. Oct.), I don't want to 'worry' about a vacation. Vacations are for leisure, not hassles. This will be the first time in 10 years I've skipped Orlando in late May.

 

[randompixel]

I think we're going to try to reschedule our Virgin Holidays package for 12 months time, so end of April 2021. Pain in the arse doing all the Disney planning again but at least we'll have a new window to do them in.

Maybe Dockside will have actually opened by then.

 

[Scott W.]

While I'm still waiting on my refund for my cancelled flights, I've started looking at rebooking the same trip for next year.

Flying from Manchester, it's £335 return. That's more than £500 per person cheaper for a 3 hour drive down the road plus it's on a new plane.

Things are going to get interesting.

 

[randompixel]

Virgin have only this week refunded us from our missed trip in April. Took them about 108 days.