DIY vs Package

[RDP]

Hi All,

chatting with a friend today who was slightly filled with horror at my upcoming DIY Florida vacation. They are big fans of the package deal and said there was no way they could book the way I did. It did get me thinking over my plans, I have nine separate elements that would need to be rebooked if an act of god struck my holiday dates down. However booking the vacation we have planned any other way would have be cost prohibitive. My upcoming vacation consists of

1. Pre flight hotel in Heathrow (Crown Plaza)
2. Meet and greet parking (Park and Go)
3. Flights to Miami (Booked with VA)
4. Car Hire (AVIS)
5. Universal Hotel (Thomas Cook)
6. Universal Tickets (Florida Tix)
7. Port Canaveral Parking (Port Canaveral)
8. Disney Cruise (Booked with DCL)
9. Disney Hotel / Tickets and Dining plan. (Booked with WDW Travel Company)

Im working on the basis most of this can be rearranged to other dates if the worst came to the worst. For the non refundable elements theres travel insurance. Any thoughts?

 

[Kath2003]

Book whatever is cheapest. If it came down to a last minute cancellation, you'd be relying on travel insurance even with a package holiday

 

[chmurf]

Doesn't sound scary in my book.

you know what you need, you know where to get it. You're good to go.

People will get scared because when they lay down their plans, they realise that this will mean *work*

DIY requires time and personnal investment. Some people just want to get it over with as fast as possible. And they pay ridiculous amounts for that.

I'm a strong DIY advocate. I work hard and spend time to get the lowest prices, and ... it pays
Some people will prefer the package, and will work equally as hard to earn the extra money required to pay for the package.

well ... it's almost the same amount of work, but DIY makes it fun

 

[scoobydooby]

I pretty much always book as you have described. Not scary at all if you have invested the time to know what you're doing, which you have.

 

[Dimplenose]

The nearest we have come to DIY is booking a flydrive, villa and tickets separately. To be honest it was the most stressful time I have had sorting out a holiday.

The villa company we chose because they were ATOL or ABTA (which ever applies to non flight bookings) registered and we could chooses a specific villa. We had a lot of problems including not being able to pay by credit card and ended up with a different villa on the same community and only knew for sure 2 days before we flew that we even had a villa.

The company shut within months of our return.

Again I chose the ticket supplier through DIS recommendations and I did get what I had ordered but that company also closed shortly after our trip leaving other travellers out of pocket.

I can see all the advantages of DIY and why others prefer it, but it's not for me.

 

[TheFram4]

I'm a strong DIY advocate. I work hard and spend time to get the lowest prices, and ... it pays Some people will prefer the package, and will work equally as hard to earn the extra money required to pay for the package. well ... it's almost the same amount of work, but DIY makes it fun

I wholeheartedly agree with this I spend a stupid amount of time checking flight prices with all different combinations of airports and dates, but gladly do this with the prospect of saving ££££'s, It means that by saving on the initial costs I can be a lot more extravagant whilst out there. In my head when I make, for example, a £100 saving on flights I think "that's the universal tickets paid for"

 

[Donald D Duck]

It doesn't have to be hard work or risky to save money DIY. I've booked flights direct with BA with car and Pop century with tickets direct through Disney.

It's cost just over £4500, a quick quote just now for a similar package was in excess of £6k. I reckon if I was patient I could have saved another £500 on flights but as they say when you're happy with the price.

 

[wayneg]

DIY can be time consuming but well worth the rewards, I just prefer to do DIY myself, don't trust a TA, I like to be in control of my own bookings.

Its like anything, put the hours & work in and you should save money. Just in the process of sorting a complete new bathroom, 1st quotes £4,000 or all the parts(shower/enclosure, fitted units, mirror, loads more) and £2,000 fitting. Spent hours upon hours of my time finding best prices for everything hopefully going to cost around £2,000 + £700 fitting. The price difference was unbelievable from one seller to another for exactly the same product.

 

[Kath2003]

For us, DIY is literally half the price of a package. It's not like we are going somewhere that is commercially under developed or lacks basic provision of healthcare or sanitation, or even speaks another language. Good travel insurance, common sense and a bit if spare cash if ever you need it, and DIY will allow you to enjoy exactly the same experience for half the cost. There is no way we would have been so often on package holidays.

 

[Dimplenose]

It doesn't have to be hard work or risky to save money DIY. I've booked flights direct with BA with car and Pop century with tickets direct through Disney.

I'd happily do that - more like booking 2 packages than DIY.