What else could possibly go wrong - very long story...

[estowife]

Oh boy it's been a trying couple of weeks...

So about 8 weeks ago I began to loosely toy with the idea of considering another Florida holiday (2013 was our last visit), nothing was definite, it would depend largely on cost & whether or not the OH wanted to do it.

So I began to price it up to see what we were looking at. Timing was crucial, as next year our oldest 2 girls have both GCSE's & A levels throughout May & June, so I didn't want them to be missing any school in the run up to that, but ideally I didn't want to go after the exams at the end of June as it would just be too hot.

The 'easter' holidays looked ideal in terms of temperature & not taking the kids out of school. So I checked on the local education authority calendar for holiday dates next year, and was in luck! Easter is quite late next year but fortunately the 2 week school holidays had been scheduled for 3 weeks before easter, thus missing the highest of the prices

So I began to make enquiries for those 2 weeks from roughly 29th March -12th April. I checked with my line manager at work to see if I could have the time off, that had to be escalated to another manager, but came back a couple of days later with a YES.

So I started to price up packages for that time of year. For a family of 5 your typical Thomas Cook package holiday was coming back at about £4500 (including flights, accomodation & car hire). I then wanted to compare that to a DIY holiday. It soon became apparent that cost was very similar, but the standard of accomodation when booking something like a Dibb villa would be far superior to the usual package holiday offering.

So that was my new direction, to investigate all the necessary components of a DIY booking. At this point it was still all pretty covert. I hadn't told the kids as I didn't want to get anybodys hopes up if we didn't do it.

I began to make enquiries for villa's and peruse the search results. At this point oldest DD had seen what I was doing & was super excited, despite me telling her I was 'just looking' she seemed to go head long into planning mode & was my PA!

I utilised her i.t. skills & had her make a spreadsheet & together we closely analysed each villa and entered them onto the spread sheet in order to come up with a short list. This was quite an enjoyable process as we both got carried away with narrowing it down as though the holiday was definitely going ahead!

DD was so excited that a 4 bed villa would sleep 8 people, that she decided to invite my sister & her kids along! Not terrible, but my OH would not be so keen. My sister is recently divorced & has 2 difficult kids, but I figure for their sakes we can accomodate them for 2 weeks. Little sister is immediately up for it, so thats that - 8 of us going!

However she soon decides that she can't possibly drive over there & so we need to look for some car hire arrangement that would fit us all in & luggage & not burst the budget! Well of course it pretty much does burst the budget! We're likely looking at hiring a 12 seater to fit 8 of us in plus luggage, and it costs in the region of £900

So back to holiday planning - I was watching flight prices, although at the time, the only ones available were with Thomas Cook as other airlines hadn't yet released their prices. I naively thought I would wait until other prices were released to compare the cost! big mistake!

We had contacted a villa owner, to enquire about availability & told her of my intention to watch flight prices for a couple more weeks & then confirm a booking. She was fine with that & happy to hold the dates until we had made a decision on flights.

As the days went on I decided that actually I didn't need to wait for more flight prices to compare to, that the ones that I had been watching were just fine & I should book them. So I paid the villa deposit, went to bed with the decision to book the flights the next morning & low & behold, the very next day the flight prices had jumped up by £50 per person I had initially been looking at a cost of £3050 for the 5 of us, which had then jumped up to £3300

So my dilemma was - what do I do at that point - pay the increased price, or watch to see if the prices changed again. I decided to watch for another couple of weeks which brings me right up to this weekend just gone.

The prices didn't go down again but I was beginning to panic, didn't want them to go UP again monday morning & didn't want the flight to be sold out, it being a peak time of year, so I decided it was time to book the flights!

Now before I get into that nightmare, I'll just backtrack about a week. My youngest DD had gone to play with one of her friends & they ended up talking about next years holiday. Imi said we are going to Florida, & friend Lyla said they were going to Florida. They got into comparing when etc & it turns out they travel 2 days after we do. No problem with that. The friends mum mentions to Imi that its a pain that we're having to miss a week of school because the school changed their holidays - wait what

Apparently it had been said at one school meeting (which I was not present at) that the school were not following the local education authorities holidays, they were setting theirs a week later this has NEVER been done before, nor had I had any notification of it!

I searched the school website - cannot find anything to confirm the changed holiday dates, so emailed the school for clarification. The reply was to confirm they had been changed, and that a letter had been sent home in February, a letter that as most teenagers do, did not make it home...

The teacher informed me that if I could provide proof of booking prior to this letter being issued in February, then I would not be fined, but only having booked a villa a couple of weeks ago, being unaware of the changed holiday dates, it seems I haven't got a leg to stand on. So now I am booking an expensive holiday at peak season, the kids are missing 7 days of school & we'll be getting fined!, despite my best efforts to co-ordinate it all for the school holidays!

This of course posed another dilemma, do I change the dates of the holiday, I had already paid a deposit on a villa & hate to inconvenience people, June would be too hot (june would be cheaper which is appealing) but I had already got my heart set on March-April. I made the difficult decision to stick with things as they are.

It seems that every obstacle I faced had me having second thoughts about the whole thing, was I just foolishly going ahead with something that was wrong in every direction I turned.

So back to the flight problem I decided to book before the prices went up any more. Went to the TC airlines website, entered all the necessary details & at the point of confirming payment & booking, I was faced with an error message. No matter what I did over the next 2 days nothing could get me past this error message! Live chat couldn't solve it, i tried it on chrome, internet explorer, firefox, app, you name it nothing worked. I have spent hours & hours trying all sorts of alternatives, nothing worked. By now I was beginning to feel totally panicked thinking the flight was full & thats the only possible reason it would not let me book. Panicked thinking I had missed my opportunity, I should have booked flights weeks ago!

So first thing this morning I went to my local TC TA & attempted to book the flights. She could book them, there wasn't a problem, but the price was another £500 more that the already increased £3300! (£3800)

This was getting beyond coincedence. Everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong, should I have just backed out of the whole thing, the prices always end up being more than we had anticipated when we were making the decision of whether or not we could do it

I decided to come home & keep trying to book flights myself. Another try on the TC website resulted in another fail, so I started comparing every flight search engine I could. Each one virtually identically priced, & each one £150 more than Thomas cooks £3300 (£3450)

I was left with no other option than to book through a 3rd party. £450 more than it would have been had I booked 2 or 3 weeks ago No chance of reserving seats, the budget is well & truly blown!

I was faced with the point of no return, up to this point, I could back out, the kids wouldn't miss school, I wouldn't get fined, or I could cross the point of no return make the booking, there is no going back after that, & wait for the fallout - whatever that might be!

I booked the flights (through TravelUp), panicked that I might not have access to things like online check in, that things might not run smoothly, that anything could go wrong as I've never used them before. And now I don't know how to feel

The excitement has gone, replaced by stress & worry & maybe further along the line - regret!

The cost of this holiday is astronomical (around 10K overall) & one I wish I hadn't comitted to, I'm just hoping that as the year goes on it will be fine...

So to sum up my run of bad luck I've had

increasing flight prices
change in school holidays
Fines!
website error
full flight scenario
increased car hire costs
Budget Blown!

It dosen't seem much in that little list, but believe you me I have had sleepless nights about all this!

So please if anyone can work a little magic & send some good luck my way, I really really need it

I hope nobody else has the nightmare that I've had with this one, positive thoughts needed

[ashesmod]

Sending you a well done.
Villa sorted,
Flights booked
Two ticks in the box.

A treat for both your children before there exams Tick
A treat for your sister and her children after a divorce tick

As long as your not troubling yourself finacially the money is now planned to be paid so start enjoying the other planning. The cost of a Orlando holiday is always high however the planning part of a Orlando holiday is as much part of the overall experience as being there.

I would say get yourself a glass of wine laptop on and start researching and planning.

PS if all your bad luck is all used up then its only good from now on!

[JellyEllieBean]

I’m sorry this isnt going to sound very encouraging, but have you spoken to the school to check if they’re missing important revision classes in the week they’re missing or even during the holidays. I know my son’s school arranged sessions for them to attend for GCSEs during Easter holidays.

Is there a chance you could move flights/villa to the October half term or will your eldest be at uni?

[Smilesonfaces]

Originally Posted by JellyEllieBean

I’m sorry this isnt going to sound very encouraging, but have you spoken to the school to check if they’re missing important revision classes in the week they’re missing or even during the holidays. I know my son’s school arranged sessions for them to attend for GCSEs during Easter holidays.

Is there a chance you could move flights/villa to the October half term or will your eldest be at uni?

See more...

Agree. My son was in school for most of the Easter holiday before his GCSE’s. Nearly all the lessons had revision sessions for at least part of the day.

[Orlando 2004]

Originally Posted by JellyEllieBean

I’m sorry this isnt going to sound very encouraging, but have you spoken to the school to check if they’re missing important revision classes in the week they’re missing or even during the holidays. I know my son’s school arranged sessions for them to attend for GCSEs during Easter holidays.

Is there a chance you could move flights/villa to the October half term or will your eldest be at uni?

See more...

I have to agree. Most schools have revision sessions in the Easter holidays and they could be missing lots of revision in the week they'll miss. Having discovered the dates had changed before the flights were booked I'd have tried to move the villa dates or lost my deposit.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by Smilesonfaces

Agree. My son was in school for most of the Easter holiday before his GCSE’s. Nearly all the lessons had revision sessions for at least part of the day.

See more...

I was thinking about saying the same but held off as the OP had already booked, but as its "out in the open" now I would add that my daughter spent 7 of the 9 days of the Easter holiday in school doing some sort of revision related sessions and the amount of past papers sent home meant that she was effectively doing a 9-6 working day every day including one of the weekend days each week.

It will be a great place to revise but park days maybe hard to fit in around revision needs

[Lell]

Yes our kids went to Easter school too before exams. Maybe worth checking.

[sunseeker]

Although the kids will be on holiday some revision time should be put in place. I couldn't think of a better place to do it, by the side of your pool in Florida sunshine. As for the car, I don't see why you think this blows the budget, surely you would be paying around half that if the others didn't go. I don't think it is unreasonable to expect the other party to contribute half. On top of that I would be expecting them to pay for most of the fuel seeing as you're doing all the driving.

Dave

[tinytots]

My daughter has also spent a lot of time in School for revision sessions for GCSES over Easter holidays plus her own revision time, amounting to full on days for a lot of the holiday. Hopefully they can arrange revision to be done whilst on holiday.

[floridafan101]

Aw bless you what a nightmare! This is usually the best bit getting booked and making it all seem real, the PN getting down to the planning.
Yes it’s cost you more than you planned but we’ve all missed cheap flight bargains. It’s annoying and stomach churning but you have to try and put it behind you. I wish you’d come on here earlier and could maybe have got some advice rather than struggling on alone trying to figure it out.
Hopefully other people can provide some advice and support but you are where you are, Florida holidays are rarely bargain breaks but are always a fabulous holiday.
Speak to School about exams and revision and what support they can give you maybe you can get some extra revision in before you go and get something to take with you. Quite often there’s online work they can do.
I’m looking to go the same time as you next year and take advantage of the early holidays VS late Easter but will double check the dates after your horror story before booking flights (waiting for indirect ones to come out) ! Good luck with the rest of your planning.