they are alligators

I returned yesterday with Thomas cook. I booked a cheap package, decided to book a villa for £850 for two weeks as we didn't fancy staying in a single hotel room, managed to get a last minute deal. So didn't check into the hotel, just used the deal for cheap flights. We can't relax in a small room and showering and drying is a problem with teenagers.

Flights were OK, Main meals were average, breakfast on return was poor, yoghurt, small hard and crunch cereal bar and a small cup of orange juice (from concentrate), TV's were OK, but had to pay £4 each to watch movies each way as the free content wasn't very good. I'm 5' 8" so never have an issue with leg room. Just be warned that Orlando weather can be bad, so brace yourself for a bumpy landing in a lightning storm.
I also booked a room at the Hard Rock before brexit for £330 (minus £30 quidco), same room is now £370. Room wasn't great, but we only booked it for the unlimited express passes for Universal (doesn't include park entrance). It means the queues are about 10-20 mins each for all the rides, a couple were 30 mins. But we managed to do nearly all the rides in two parks each day as you get two days of express passes. If you purchase the express unlimited passes separately it would have cost us £700. If you do the same as us, don't bother with the extra hour before opening for Harry potter as the queues were too long, late evening queues were as low as 10 mins for Gringotts and Forbidden Journey.
Avoid Dollar car rental as they ran out of SUV's, so I had to take a downgrade and their customer service is non-existent, so I'll be contacting my credit card company to sort a refund.
A cheap florida deal, can work out an expensive holiday. Hotel before flight plus parking cost £100, theme park tickets £1750, Car hire £310, Extra car insurance £25 (covers tyres, breakdown etc), ESTA £40, not to mention the exchange rate which was a bit of a stinger. Taxi to and from hotel £30,
A bottle of water in a park is £3, or the same bottle from a supermarket is 10p, Gatorade bottles were 35p in a supermarket so we froze bottles and carried them in a rucksack, so saved £30 a day by doing that . We did go to cici's pizza which is unlimited food and drink for £7.50 each, a cheap meal.
Parking at theme parks is $20 a day - £15. Disney allow you to use the same receipt in different park in a day, so one park in the morning, another in the afternoon. We were cheeky and showed an old receipt a couple of times when arriving late afternoon after waterpark in the day. The cashiers at the tolls were too busy chatting to look at the dates.

Don't forget to add the solid gold suitcases and Armani trunks too. Is your comment for real?

I'd get a new Keyboard, as yours appears to NOT WORK CORRECTLY !

Is this still available

​what a ridiculous comment!

Just come back from getting married in New York with 2 kids & flew with Thomas Cook. The economy seats were absolutely fine. Seat snobs, smh. This is a bargain OP. Awesome price.

I wouldn't recommend the villa we stayed in, even though it 25 five star reviews on Homeaway. We had a sewage blockage in the street so had to move out for a night to another villa nearby, there was also lack of maintenance with the pool pump, a burst pipe. I messaged 50+ people on homeway and VBRO asking for the best price and went with this one as it had good reviews, I guess we were unlucky.

[quote=toli236]@Paul.Jacobs, could you please share the location and name of the villa you booked? Thank you.

you dont have to go to the parks if you go to FL.. theres loads to do there without being stuck in Orlando.

Rent a car and go south to Miami and the Keys... Hell for a few bucks more take an overnight cruise to the bahamas (that start at $150 p/p + tax & fees) and stay for a few days there. You can go to Tampa or Daytona Beach as well. Use the air fare to get you there, dont have to stay in the destination city.

Shame about the start of school so not a valid or (most) families ?

1st June to 1st of Nov

I'm over 6ft 3" and flew economy last year with TC and the leg room was fine.
These are not the same size planes that you fly around Europe in
In fact after a recent trip to the canaries (with extra leg room) I think Id rather fly across the Atlantic and be on a bigger plane it's much more roomier.
I couldn't fault TC at all.

No such deal!

Ditto, Manchester to Miami in May, with Thomas Cook, superb flight and service - probably the best ever transatlantic and done the trip at least 20 times. Take an Ipad with your own movies ! Return flight and service was OK but food not so good, cabin crew mentioned on the way out that would be the case as they use US catering for the return. Not a problem for me, I never eat on flights from the States, I switch to UK time as soon as I'm at the US airport as the "evening meal" on the aircraft is really at about 3AM. I find by not eating on the flight and having a normal breakfast at normal time when landed in the UK I'm not affected by Jetlag at all.

Not funny.

We flew with Thomas Cook on almost these dates last year from Manchester, lovely new plane, you could pay for more tv channels but you got a decent selection for free and had to pay for headphones so take your own. Best food I ever had on a plane, comfy seats, as good as any. If you can waste money on PE, good luck to you.

A bit of a sick joke!

Very curious about this. I go a few times a year, and never done the I Drive Vendors. Aren't they all for Time Share presentations? Any more info?

Thanks @ Dainese321

We've booked villas using VR360homes.com and normally get a few quotes from people. Never paid the full asking as we wait until close to hols before we book and owners normally keen to rent as they have a management fee to cover. We paid £570 (incl pool heating) for a 4-bed/3-bath with pool for 10 nights last year and it was immaculate and in great area. We always go in October. This is a good deal if you don't mind paying taking the kids out of school. We normally budget £3,500-£4,000 for 2-weeks all-in for 2 adults and 2 children etc.

One tip if you go in October and you only want one day in Magic Kingdom is to go to "Mickeys not so scary Halloween party" if as it only costs $72 per person instead of $150. It says entry from 7PM but we went @ 2PM last year and didn't leave the park until 1AM. Great fun for kids as well as all the rides are much quieter after 7PM when daytime punters are kicked out and you get a fireworks show and lots of parades as well.

Where is the deal itself? The link direct's to the Thomas Cook homepage.

Can anyone please recommend any nice and affordable villa with good accessibility in the Orlando area? Thank you.

@Paul.Jacobs, could you please share the location and name of the villa you booked? Thank you.
[quote=paul.jacobs]I returned yesterday with Thomas cook. I booked a cheap package, decided to book a villa for £850 for two weeks as we didn't fancy staying in a single hotel room, managed to get a last minute deal. So didn't check into the hotel, just used the deal for cheap flights. We can't relax in a small room and showering and drying is a problem with teenagers.
Flights were OK, Main meals were average, breakfast on return was poor, yoghurt, small hard and crunch cereal bar and a small cup of orange juice (from concentrate), TV's were OK, but had to pay £4 each to watch movies each way as the free content wasn't very good. I'm 5' 8" so never have an issue with leg room. Just be warned that Orlando weather can be bad, so brace yourself for a bumpy landing in a lightning storm.
I also booked a room at the Hard Rock before brexit for £330 (minus £30 quidco), same room is now £370. Room wasn't great, but we only booked it for the unlimited express passes for Universal (doesn't include park entrance). It means the queues are about 10-20 mins each for all the rides, a couple were 30 mins. But we managed to do nearly all the rides in two parks each day as you get two days of express passes. If you purchase the express unlimited passes separately it would have cost us £700. If you do the same as us, don't bother with the extra hour before opening for Harry potter as the queues were too long, late evening queues were as low as 10 mins for Gringotts and Forbidden Journey.
Avoid Dollar car rental as they ran out of SUV's, so I had to take a downgrade and their customer service is non-existent, so I'll be contacting my credit card company to sort a refund.
A cheap florida deal, can work out an expensive holiday. Hotel before flight plus parking cost £100, theme park tickets £1750, Car hire £310, Extra car insurance £25 (covers tyres, breakdown etc), ESTA £40, not to mention the exchange rate which was a bit of a stinger. Taxi to and from hotel £30,
A bottle of water in a park is £3, or the same bottle from a supermarket is 10p, Gatorade bottles were 35p in a supermarket so we froze bottles and carried them in a rucksack, so saved £30 a day by doing that . We did go to cici's pizza which is unlimited food and drink for £7.50 each, a cheap meal.
Parking at theme parks is $20 a day - £15. Disney allow you to use the same receipt in different park in a day, so one park in the morning, another in the afternoon. We were cheeky and showed an old receipt a couple of times when arriving late afternoon after waterpark in the day. The cashiers at

economy iis fine is you are less than 6 ft tall

Get you park tickets from vendors on International drive. Lived there over 6 years and never had a problem getting my tickets on the cheap.

Some great info on here. We are thinking it may be possible for us to go next year. All the advice on here really helps.

In defence of my comment .... I flew to florida 7 times last year .. Econ is terrible and even worse with TC.

As a frequent flyer I understand that £1200 looks like a good deal but you will be touching £3k by the time you are done with extras you either want or will need.

If you plan to go all the parks and actually see Florida I would suggest, save some extra Money and save yourself some hassle along the way:

Car = £250 - Why a car you ask if they have shuttles ... Well in my experience the shuttles are not great and you are limited to their times of departure, you may think everything is in walking distance but visiting the malls via bus is just not great and a trip in a cab to Millenia mall is like $30 each way.
PE upgrade = £300 for 2 people on TC at the moment differs depending on dates ... I would advise PE for TC just because for the little extra it costs you notice the difference, same goes for Virgin or BA but they are way more expensive.

Park tickets - Where do I start with this one .... Dont believe people who say you can buy second hand ones out there from people not using their 14 day passes for the next 7 days or whatever ... reselling of tickets has been cracked down and you will not get in with them as they are tied to your finger print now(not sure how secure that is but I wouldn't risk it). --- If you plan to visit parks more than once buy your tickets off the website before you go as you cannot guarantee "cheap" tickets when you get there, Universal has gone up to $145 or something per person for the 2 parks and you will want both parks. Disney in my opinion doesn't seem to differ from the US to the UK both pretty much the same for 14 day ultimate pass, but risk if you want.

So on top of all that you will need to get to the airport(parking/purple parking etc, train, bus), travel insurance, potentially the lounge access if you are travelling as a couple, potentially an extra bag on the way back with all your Florida goodies, if you have a car then you will have to pay a site fee for parking if not with Virgin of £7.50, it all adds up.

But obviously most of what i said are extras but lets face it if you are going all that way you want some comfort and £1200 doesnt fully represent the actual cost if you factor in the must haves like park tickets.

Still cold for me as these sort of prices have always been around for flights well in the future, it just allows us who want to go book and add on all the stuff to make it a great holiday instead of a cheapy one that we'd rather forget.

30th August for 2 weeks ? Think about it OP, you want kids to scive school ???

2016

Is this for 2016 or 2017?

Heat added, just to counter this guy if nothing else - Good find! Shame I can't take holiday in Sept

THIS DEAL SO GOOD I FORGET HOW TO TURN OFF CAPITALS...

So I could book one of these deals and simply not use the hotel? Seems cheaper than just booking flight only. Interested in this but would book a villa rather than use the hotel.

So the tickets normally come included do they

They had run out of SUV's and mini vans, nothing at all available except a saloon car. It was a case of taking what they had or wait until someone returned one, at 10pm, it wasn't likely as there were a dozen other people in the same situation. Plus having been awake for 24hrs, I just wanted to leave. Flight was 12 hrs, diverted to Tampa due to a storm, then had to wait for a few hours to return to Orlando. Pilot aborted original landing at Orlando in a huge storm last second, it was like the scene from Tom Hanks Castaway (without the crash), not fun and enough to put some people off flying for life.

As for breakdown/tyres insurance, I have had a puncture before in the states, so £25 extra is nothing compared to the total spend. Plus my own brand new car had to go to the garage after 3k miles due to an engine management problem.

Couple of things for next time you go

Water is free at any place where they have a soda fountain at Disney and Seaworld, it is illegal for them not to do this. They even put ice in your cup.

We flew United last year, worst airline food ever. We actually bought food at the airport to take on board last year just in case we were hungry, good job we did.

As regards car hire, you REFUSE the car they give you point blank if it's not what you booked. Don't worry, they'll get you one. I ordered a Jeep Grand Cheyenne - large SUV or equivalent, I also did a bit of homework beforehand to see what each car manufacturer had as standard, full size and premium models . When I got to the pick up lot the choice were all standard SUV's but in the large SUV spaces, nice try. I saw Brits just take whatever was there. Me ? straight back in and firmly but politely demanding what I'd paid for, never raising my voice.

It eventually got to what do I expect to have ? here's where the homework came in........I'll take a Suburban or Escalade....... But you haven't ordered one of them, they're in a higher price bracket........that's correct but I never ordered that equinox either and that's in a lower price bracket but parked in a higher bracket space. Less than 5 minutes later my car was delivered with built in sat nav ( they wanted $12 +tax for a hand held one). With just a little research I could blag I knew about cars over there and what model to expect, sadly many don't. I also booked through Car 3000 over here. All insurance was pre-paid and with some hire companies you paid around £30 extra but got a tank full of fuel, handy when it's a 20 gallon tank. Personally I wouldn't pay extra for breakdown or tyres, you're hiring a brand new car they shouldn't break down (we did 2,300 miles) but if it's piece of mind you're after then fine.

Good price on the villa btw. Don't know why anyone would stay in a hotel room after staying in a villa.

We loved Florida but basically the whole thing is designed to fleece you from the moment you book. You can do it on a low budget but it takes lots of planning, as Paul stated above. We did a LOT when we were there (probably too much to be fair - 8 theme parks in 13 days) but it was worth it for the joy on the kids faces.

I would avoid Magic Kingdom if you have kids who are a) not interested in Princesses and b) you want 'thrill' rides. Our three (boy 5, two girls 8 and 11) only liked Space Mountain and the log flume there. It wasn't worth spending a whole day there and I personally found Eurodisney much better VFM. Islands of Adventure/Universal are a must, as is Busch Gardens. I could live in a small hut in either of those places and be content for life!

Top respect for this, "Welcome to Cici's" Best place ever

I returned yesterday with Thomas cook. I booked a cheap package, decided to book a villa for £850 for two weeks as we didn't fancy staying in a single hotel room, managed to get a last minute deal. So didn't check into the hotel, just used the deal for cheap flights. We can't relax in a small room and showering and drying is a problem with teenagers.

Flights were OK, Main meals were average, breakfast on return was poor, yoghurt, small hard and crunch cereal bar and a small cup of orange juice (from concentrate), TV's were OK, but had to pay £4 each to watch movies each way as the free content wasn't very good. I'm 5' 8" so never have an issue with leg room. Just be warned that Orlando weather can be bad, so brace yourself for a bumpy landing in a lightning storm.
I also booked a room at the Hard Rock before brexit for £330 (minus £30 quidco), same room is now £370. Room wasn't great, but we only booked it for the unlimited express passes for Universal (doesn't include park entrance). It means the queues are about 10-20 mins each for all the rides, a couple were 30 mins. But we managed to do nearly all the rides in two parks each day as you get two days of express passes. If you purchase the express unlimited passes separately it would have cost us £700. If you do the same as us, don't bother with the extra hour before opening for Harry potter as the queues were too long, late evening queues were as low as 10 mins for Gringotts and Forbidden Journey.
Avoid Dollar car rental as they ran out of SUV's, so I had to take a downgrade and their customer service is non-existent, so I'll be contacting my credit card company to sort a refund.
A cheap florida deal, can work out an expensive holiday. Hotel before flight plus parking cost £100, theme park tickets £1750, Car hire £310, Extra car insurance £25 (covers tyres, breakdown etc), ESTA £40, not to mention the exchange rate which was a bit of a stinger. Taxi to and from hotel £30,
A bottle of water in a park is £3, or the same bottle from a supermarket is 10p, Gatorade bottles were 35p in a supermarket so we froze bottles and carried them in a rucksack, so saved £30 a day by doing that . We did go to cici's pizza which is unlimited food and drink for £7.50 each, a cheap meal.
Parking at theme parks is $20 a day - £15. Disney allow you to use the same receipt in different park in a day, so one park in the morning, another in the afternoon. We were cheeky and showed an old receipt a couple of times when arriving late afternoon after waterpark in the day. The cashiers at the tolls were too busy chatting to look at the dates.

and crocodiles

Throw I. Another £1500 for park tickets for four and the upgrade to premium econ you will want and it's about as expensive as any other trip to Florida ... Sorry cold

WITH THOMASCOOK

i have never flown premium economy, no need, the normal seats are good ..
get your park tickets over there, cheaper, this is a cracking deal.

£1158 2adults, 2kids staying in the Ramada Gateway (not the best hotel, but handy for shuttle buses to the parks).
£1194 staying at the Clarion Inn (better accommodation).

Shame, kids go back to school also 1st week of Sept!

Can't find this deal / price?

Just don't go feeding the crocodiles!

Just £1200 for four in Orlando?

Is someone taking the Mickey?

When is hurricane session.. End Aug / Sept time?