in association with Mr Brits Guide To Orlando 2010
This page is updated with the latest Orlando related news, ticket offers and theme park announcements as well as anything else that could help you with planning an Orlando holiday.
ContentsAugust 11th ...... 16.05pm
ThemeParkTicketsDirect.com GONE BUST?
Hopefully you haven't bought any Orlando theme park or attraction tickets from this company because it seems that they have just gone bust. Their telephone number now has a message informing callers that they have ceased trading and you will not be receiving your tickets. Anyone that has bought tickets from this company and have not yet received them must inform their credit card company straight away and the money should be reimbursed back to you. If you have bought tickets from this company and you didn't use a credit card, you may struggle to get your money back.
One other thing to be aware of is that if you have vouchers from this company and you are planning to exchange these for real tickets, you may also have a problem because there are reports coming in that Brits are being refused entry at the theme parks already as the real tickets haven't been purchased by ThemeParkTicketsDirect.com.
You can get the full message by calling their Customer Careline on 0844 579 3061
I am crossing my fingers that some other ticket websites are not owned by the same people because if they are, they will also soon cease trading and I am looking into this now and will report back if I find any more info
Mr Brit
TOPIC UPDATES.....
" My worst fears are confirmed - Keith Prowse tickets are owned by the same company that owns ThemeParkTicketsDirect.com so if you have recently purchased from this company I would try and find out what is going on. I have tried to contact Keith Prowse tickets and it is engaged constantly!"
"still no answer after 45 minutes of redialling so it's not looking good for Keith Prowse tickets unless they are just being bombarded about ThemeParkTicketsDirect.com"
FREE ESTA's coming to an end
From September 9th you will have to start paying for your ESTA's so it may be worth applying for a FREE new one now. Once you apply for an ESTA they will last for 2 years and after September 9th you will have to start paying $14 per person for an ESTA. Read the 'Flying To Orlando' section of Mr Brits Guide To Orlando 2010 to find out everything you need to know about ESTA's
Visit the ESTA Website to apply
Buy a Dyson and get over £200 towards a Virgin Holiday
Spend over £250 on a Dyson at Tesco Direct and you can get back over £200 in Tesco Deals and you will also get a £25 Tesco gift card. We have just bought a Dyson and got back 5018 points and this works out to over £200 towards our next holiday. This is how you do it but you have to be quick as part of the deal will expire in 2 days......
• Buy a Dyson and you will automatically receive 3000 points and a £25 gift card
• Add the code TDX-FUJD and you will get another 1500 points if used before August 1st
After August 1st the 1500 point code will not work but you will still be able to get the 3000 points which is the equivalent of £120 in Tesco deals towards your holiday plus you will get your minimum 500 spend points giving you another £20 in Deals
Click the link below and go to the Tesco Direct section of the website
Click here to get a Dyson now
Discovery Cove - Cheap Tickets
There are some cracking prices for Discovery Cove around at the moment and prices are starting from as low as £120 for the Dolphin swim. This price also includes a 14 day access to Busch Gardens or Seaworld.
Click here to find out more
Mr Brits Guide To Orlando 2011 - OUT NOW
The third annual release from Mr Brit - the 2011 edition of Mr Brits Guide To Orlando is OUT NOW. Even more good news is the fact that from this edition Mr Brit has brought the RRP down from £14.99 to just £9.99
The first travel guide in the world to bring you the Wizarding World Of Harry Potter!
Mr Brit has braved every ride, visited every gift shop and ate way too much food in the Three Broomsticks restaurant of this new theme park area. The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter' opened in June 2010 and Mr Brit spent 3 days at the park to write everything you need to know about this amazing new addition to Islands Of Adventure at the Universal Orlando Resort.
The Harry Potter area has its own dedicated section of Mr Brits guide and this is not the only new additions to the guide. The guide has grown by around 25% over the 2010 guide and all of these sections have had a major re-write
• Eating in Orlando
• Restaurants
• Shopping
• Water Parks
• Theme Parks
• Clearwater Beach & Cocoa Beach
and many more sections. To buy the new guide today visit TheBritsGuideToOrlando.com or MrBrit.co.uk to find a retailer.
New ride coming to Busch Gardens
A Busch Gardens insider has give me a little bit more info about the new rollercoaster coming to Busch Gardens Tampa next year. The ride could be called "Cheetaka" but this could also be a red herring because a lot of new ride names tend to be shrouded in secrecy until the ride is ready to go. The ride will be appearing on the artwork for the park map this August and I will be sent a copy although I do not know if this will be available inside the park as the standard map. As soon as I know any more details about the ride I will jump straight in here and let you know.
Universal Orlando Halloween Horror Nights
The dates are out for the scariest event to hit any of the Orlando theme parks. If you are travelling to Orlando between September 24th and October 31st you may get chance (if you've got the guts) to experience one of these amazing Halloween Nights. The ticket price is the first scary thing about this event - priced at $75 (or from $40 if you have an annual pass)
Visit the official website
BritsInOrlando.co.uk - Orlando NEWS & VIDEOS
The theme park pages and the ride pages of BritsInOrlando.co.uk are all being updated with the best videos from YouTube. This site is a great way to get a feel for all of the rides of the Orlando theme parks. The site is currently being updated each day and there are currently around 20 ride videos to watch but as the next week passes, more videos and images will be added. www.BritsInOrlando.co.uk
Orlando Eat & Play Card - JUST LAUNCHED
A great new discount card has been launched this week and below is the first card to be delivered into the UK (Mr Brits). This card is similar to the Kids Eat Free Card featured in Mr Brits Guide To Orlando but this gives some cracking discounts off for the whole family. Here are a few of the better deals to be had - CiCi's Pizza which is already really cheap give you a 30% discount when you show the card, Wild Buffalo Wings (lovely) give 20% off and even McDonalds are part of the program giving a good 15% off when you show your card. At a maximum cost of $25 it may only take 2 restaurant visits to get your money back and there are also lots of savings for some of Orlando's smaller attractions like Gatorland etc. The card is valid for up to 4 people at a time and will last for 90 days from first use.
Pictured is the card and a list of all of the locations to use the card along with their discounts offered. The list actually folds up into a little folder for the card. You can find a full list of participating venues and more info from this link
Legoland is coming to Florida
UK Legoland owner Merlin has bought the struggling Florida theme park - Cypress Gardens. Cypress Gardens is Floridas oldest theme park and it is just over an hours drive (on a good day) from Orlando but the park has been struggling to compete with the likes of Disney and Universal for years. The new park is scheduled to open in 2011....more to follow
Universal Orlando PRICE HIKE!!! - up to 70% increase
As of yesterday (Monday 11th January) Universal Orlando resort have raised ticket prices by up to a staggering 70% and this is just in time for the big "Harry Potter rush". On Sunday a 7 day ticket that would get you into Universal Studios and Islands Of Adventure would have cost you $99, today the price is almost $170. The new system is similar to the Disney system where you select how many base days you want and you can add the option of jumping from one park (Universal Studios) to the other park (Islands Of Adventure) on the same day. The bad thing about this is that they are not offering a 'no expiry' option because that would make the increase a worthwhile increase. All ticket days must be used within 14 days of the ticket being activated.
At the moment UK ticket sellers are still selling 7 day tickets for around £70 but this will not last long as Universal will soon only offer this new ticketing system to all worldwide visitors. If you are visiting Orlando this year make sure that you buy your tickets now (if you haven't already) because it is going to cost you a small fortune in the increased amount. If you are planning on buying a Flexticket, read below first but I think all Flexticket prices may also start to go up this year so whatever you are doing for your tickets, do it now or you will pay a lot more.
Don't buy a Flexticket!!!
Mrs Brit has just been shopping around with the various ticket websites to see what good deals are around for Flextickets. It seems that they are all overpriced compared with buying two separate tickets if you don't plan on visiting Wet n Wild (who needs Wet n Wild when you have Aquatica). You can get a 14 day unlimited ticket for Universal Studios and Islands Of Adventure for £72 from Travel Republic and you can get a 14 day unlimited Seaworld, Aquatica and Busch Gardens ticket for just £69 from FloridaTix. The Universal Studios ticket also gets you into the City Walk nightclubs for free so this is a really good way to save money.
A Flexticket that includes Busch Gardens can range between £152 and £169 depending on your time of travel so this way of splitting up your tickets could save you between £11 and £28 per person when you do not buy a Flexticket. These prices are for adults so kids will be even cheaper so just don't go and buy a Flexticket before you have shopped around.
UPDATE - Due to the price increase from Universal Orlando Resort (above) all tickets have started to increase in price over the last couple of weeks so these ticket prices are now a little higher. Make sure you sort out your Universal tickets now!!! before it costs you a lot more.
Harry Potter LEGO game - coming soon
Now I know that this doesn't have too much to do with an Orlando holiday but if you have read my section about 'planning to visit the theme parks' you will know why I have added this to the Breaking News section. If you own a Nintendo DS, Wii, PC, PS3, PSP or Xbox 360 you may be happy to know that Lego are releasing a video game called LEGO Harry Potter years 1-4. The game isn't scheduled to be released until May but as Islands Of Adveture are about to open the Wizarding World Of Harry Potter theme park area in Spring 2010, this could be a great bonus prezzie for any young Harry Potter fans in your home.
CLICK HERE to See a short video on YouTube
This great card usually costs you £9.95 but at Mr Brits Breaking Orlando News it's free. You may have seen the TV adverts for FairFX recently, well here is a run down on how their card scheme works:
Imagine you had a magic piggy bank and every time you heard that the Dollar rate was really good, you could put £50 or any amount you wanted into the magic piggy bank and it magically turned into Dollars at that good rate....well this is basically how the FairFX Card works...
The FairFX Card looks like a credit card but it is not a credit card. It is a Mastercard so you can use it to pay your restaurant bills or buy anything in Orlando, the difference is that you have pre-paid money onto this card. As an example - you are not going on holiday for about another 3 months and you think that the current exchange rate is really good, you can add any amount to your card when you feel that the rate is good. If you added £200 to your card today, your money would be transferred into dollars at today's rate and the amount would stay on your card in Dollars until you have spent it. The amount of Dollars you have secured today would stay exactly the same until you spend it, the amount will not go down or up if the Dollar rate changes.
Advantages of using this card
• No charge for using the card abroad for purchases in card currency
• Get the equivalent of a better Dollar rate if you pre-paid when the exchange rate was higher
• The card can be FREE when ordering through Mr Brits Breaking Orlando News (normal price £9.95) when you top-up with just $20
Click the image on the left to apply for the card and when you add at least $20 to the card you get the card for FREE.
Toy Story Mania on the Wii - OUT NOW
As featured in Mr Brits Guide To Orlando 2010, Toy Story Mania has just been released for the Wii. Amazon is the cheapest that I can find it at the moment so grab the game from there. This type of game is ideal for younger kids as it is a 'shoot em up' based around the Toy Story films. Click this link Toy Story Mania (Wii)to buy the game from Amazon
More cutbacks!!! Virgin Atlantic have halved the amount of luggage that economy travellers can take aboard without paying extra. They are trying to tell us that it will save us all money in the long run but it is obviously another way to screw a bit (or a lot) more money out of us. These 'bang out of order' new rules apply to all bookings made after November 25th 2009 so if you booked before this time you are ok. One other thing to note is that if you booked before Nov 25th your booking will probably state that you are allowed only 1 bag per traveller, don't worry as I have contacted Virgin and they have stated that everyone that booked before the date will be allowed 2 items each whatever the system says.
A BIG thumbs down from Mr Brit
Click here for all the details
If you have been saving your Tesco Deals up to help pay for an Orlando holiday by following my advice in Mr Brits Guide To Orlando , you will be interested to know that from September 1st 2009 Virgin are putting a 'cap' of £700 of deals tokens being used per passenger. As you already now have to pay for your fuel supplements in cash which is usually around £200, you will have to put more cash towards your holiday if the cost is around £1000 or more per adult. Visit THIS PAGE at Tesco.com to find out more.
Clubcard 2!!!
One other thing is that Tesco have just launched a promotion called ClubCard 2 and what this does is give you an extra point per £1 spent in store. The downside to this is that I believe that Tesco could soon be changing the Tesco deals scheme and instead of your vouchers being multiplied by 4 when spent in deals, you may soon be looking at just double or triple value. This is all guess work by me but I cannot believe that all of Tesco's deals partners like Alton Towers and Virgin Holidays will be happy with everyone being given double points from now on so as with most special offers....what is given in one hand can be taken away with the other. If you think about it like Quantative easing, the more Tesco Deals on the market, the lower the value.
My tip would be.....don't hang on to your Clubcard Deals for too long....spend them now by booking a holiday to Orlando before they de-value.
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A good time to buy Disney tickets ?
With the exchange rate well up on 6 months ago when £1 would buy you around $1.40 now could be a good time to buy your theme park tickets from DWTickets as the rate is closer to $1.65 recently. If you buy with an Abbey Zero card or similar you will not pay any fees to your credit card company so an even better deal.
Here is a quick comparison against a top UK ticket seller -
Attraction Tickets Direct sell a 7 day Disney ticket for £215
DWTickets sell a 10 day Disney base ticket for around £152 including taxes. This ticket does not give you access to the water parks etc but it is a much better value deal with 3 extra days in the main Disney theme parks. You can buy your tickets today while the rate is good and collect them near Walt Disney World when you get to Orlando.
To visit the DWTickets site for the cheapest Disney World tickets CLICK HERE
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