Holidaying In Florida (Disney).

We went to Florida for our honeymoon back in 1998 & that was the first & only time I have ever been on a plane, infact my passport ran out in 2002 & it has never been renewed.
We then stayed IIRC in a Motel type place on Highway 192 in Kissimee.
Anyway it will be my wife's 40th Birthday in October & she keeps moaning that we never go anywhere so I came up with an idea today to do a surprise holiday. Thing is I have no idea of the best/cheapest way of getting there without being ripped off.
If we go it would be most likely the second two weeks of October & there would be 5 or 6 of us so what I would like to know is the following :-
Best way of obtaining flights & by whom?
Best way of seeking/booking & type of accommodation (probably travellodge type as only really needs to be a base with breakfast).
Car hire.
Anything else one needs to know?

Any help will be appreciated thanks....

I can recommend a nice villa if its 6 adults. Not the cheapest way to go but the best in my opinion . don't forget to fill in an online ESTA form before you go.and go to the universal haloween night its really good

I have been going pretty much every year since 1992 and last last few years I have been going twice a year. There is pretty much no such thing as a cheap holiday to Florida anymore. The taxes on any flights are now more than the actual cost of the flight and if you can find one all in for under £500 you are doing well. You also have to watch some of the airlines who charge for baggage and seat allocation so its not long in all adding up. Car hire for a mid size (4 passengers) is about £130 pw and a 5 bedroom villa with pool heat is about £500 per week.
I would buy all my park tickets in the UK before you go.
Supra dan makes a good point about the ESTA's as well. Every person must complete a separate online form but watch what site you go to as there are a good number of 'facilitator's' who's web addresses are pretty close to the government site address. they will offer to fill in your ESTA but charge you ridiculous amounts of money. Im sure the official ESTA site price is about $14 (each).
Drop me a PM if you want any further details about anything. Im in the process of booking my own trip this year and depending where you want to stay (accommodation is pretty well spread out away from the 192 area now) I can give you a decent idea without overloading this thread.

I can't add much to what Bob above has said, only that make sure everyone in your party's passport is valid for at least six months from the day of outbound travel and get some decent travel insurance valid from the day of making the booking, or before.

If you plan to do any driving around and about, a lot of the roads around there have tolls. When I last went the car rental firm also rented us a Sun Pass electronic widget so that we could just drive through avoiding queues.

Beware of Bob's warning about only using the official ESTA site. The others do look convincing! I found that the approvals were more or less instant, but do it well in advance. They are valid for 2 years IIRC and allow for multiple visits, so you can go to the US next year too!

I will speak to my Brother-In_Law re those ESTA things as I knew nout about them till yesterday, he travels a lot with his work so knows all about them. I/we have not been out of the country since around 1999/2000 so I dare say things have changed. We didn't encounter tolls when in Orlando in 1998 so are these new?

None of us (me/wife/son) have passports at all so that is something else to sort.

You will only be able to apply for ESTAs after you have obtained passports.

This is the official US ESTA site: https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/

Don't know when the tolls started, but they've probably been there for 10 years.

.

Andy - if you can avoid going during the UK school holidays you will save a lot too, July/August/ early September are "cheap" for several reasons - it's too hot, it's too humid and it's peak hurricane season! Make sure you have insurance cover for having to get out in the event of one. If, like me, you BIL works in the USA then he won't have an ESTA for work, he will have a special visa (mine is a C1/D) rather than a B1/B2 for tourists. If you can go away from the school holidays then anytime after Labor Day is cheap as basically the USA holiday season ends then, but the "snowgoose" Canadian winter sun seekers haven't travelled south and put the prices up. IIRC Florida high season starts end of October, early November. I went to the Anaheim Disney World two days after Labor Day and there were no queues at all for any of the attractions whereas up to Labor Day there were massive queues. In Miami I rented a car and drove to Key West for a few days - the drive along the Keys is fantastic and the beaches when you get there are amazing.

I've been to florida a few times, once travelling both the coasts and stopping around Disney for a few days, also saw a Space Shuttle Launch from Kennedy which now has a Shuttle viewing gallery if it's open! Havent been for a while now, but the Villa's are aplenty and such a great way to stay, or if you want 'easy' look at Disney's own hotels they probably do a package, then there's the usual Holiday inn type places, International Drive is the central town area. Definitely buy the Disney passes up front, Disneyland, Epcot, Waterpark etc Universal City Walk is quite good for evening entertainment too with Restaurants and bars... although my knowledge is getting out of date. As Tim says the coastal drives are nice, Cocoa Beach, Palm Springs, or Tamps to the west side etc, but the Keys are a long way from Orlando!

Then there's all of the shopping malls! Make sure you go there with your suitcases as empty as possible.

That applies to anywhere in the USA though recordman! Arrive with nothing and buy it all there and you will save at least 50% on the UK prices - it used to be that something that was $20 in the USA was priced at £20 in the UK. Outlet Malls are the place to shop for branded goods.