New charter flight from Ottawa for the winter season

Knowing that at least one of my loyal readers is from Ottawa (like me) I thought there might be some mileage in mentioning that Air Transat will be flying direct flights from Ottawa to Orlando for the winter season. Flights are on Fridays, and many dates have quite attractive pricing. Flight times are OK too.

 OTTAWA - ORLANDO   TS940   07:30  10:40

 ORLANDO - OTTAWA   TS941   11:40  14:35

Right now for the 7th Jan, for example, the price is a ridiculous $99 plus tax & service (total around $350)...

A reminder that Westjet are still probably your best choice from Ottawa as they have direct flights 6-days a week, so offer much more flexibility. Right now they also have a seat sale with their lowest fare around the same $350 mark - very impressive...

Their flight times are the same Monday to Saturday...

 OTTAWA - ORLANDO   WS1278   11:30  14:45

 ORLANDO - OTTAWA   WS1279   15:35  18:26

Sundays are:

 OTTAWA - ORLANDO   WS1280   17:00  20:15

 ORLANDO - OTTAWA   WS1281   13:15  16:06

Unbelievable news about free dining at Walt Disney World

In what is a completely unprecedented move (in my 11-year memory at least!) Disney seem to have gone nuts and are offering free dining right through select dates in SEPTEMBER 2011! Yes, you read that right - more than a year of potential free dining dates to book!

We already knew that the free dining promotion was valid for arrivals most nights most dates up to the end of December this year:

•  Oct. 1-7, Oct. 22-28, Nov. 12-18, Nov. 27 — Dec. 2 and Dec. 10-21, 2010,

But here are the new dates for 2011...

• Jan. 1-5, 
• Jan. 9-13, 
• Jan. 21 — Feb. 3, 
• Feb. 11-17, 
• Feb. 25 — March 3, 
• May 27 — June 2 and 
• Aug. 19 — Sept. 29, 2011.

CRAZY!!!

Booking window is from today through 20th December, but, as always with the Free dining promos, the number of rooms is limited, so it is better to book earlier. There is no down side to booking early...

And that's not all.

In subsequent posts, I'll summarise a couple of more limited offers also announced today, that also may appeal to you. Although these other offers cannot be combined with the free dining, they fill in some of the dates that are not offered with free dining.

2011 Walt Disney World Packages are now available to book

Well, a few days earlier than expected, it is now possible to book 2011 packages. I'll wait a couple of days to swap over my existing client bookings to avoid the long phone wait times and the possible technological crashes that tend to happen in the first couple of days!

As for the rest of you that were waiting for this moment to book -- let's hear from you!!

The 2011 Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort vacation packages are now available to book.

The packages are valid for arrivals beginning January 2011 and feature brand-new enhancements, excellent value and exclusive benefits that only Disney can provide.

Learn more about 2011 vacation packages.

• Magic Your Way Package
• Magic Your Way Package Plus Quick Service Dining
• Magic Your Way Package Plus Dining
• Magic Your Way Package Plus Deluxe Dining
• Magic Your Way Premium Package
• Magic Your Way Platinum Package

 

Disney Park Ticket prices go up TOMORROW!

Not much notice, I agree.

Disney actually announced this officially yesterday, quietly. I missed it 'til today.

All tickets are going up. We mostly sell Walt Disney World, and their ticket prices are going up approx 5% (an increase of between $2 and $22 per ticket depending on duration). This is for travel in the remainder of 2010 and onwards. Tickets ALREADY PURCHASED (including tickets purchased as part of a package) will be honored at the price originally paid. (No supplements will be charged.)

So if you are in the market for a Disney trip in 2010 and have been sitting on the fence - you'd best buy today and save a few dollars!

As package prices for 2011 have not been announced yet, there is no sneaky way to avoid the price increase for 2011 that I can think of.

In the last month I had quoted a few clients "guesstimated prices", based on an estimated 5% increase in price, which turns out to have been pretty accurate. Though I am wondering why a 5% increase when inflation in the USA is only just above 1% right now, and hasn't been above 3% since the end of 2008...

Anyway...

Here's the official Disney Blog announcement

and here is a chart showing the new Walt Disney World prices