Thanks ilovelilo - that's very helpful!
We've definitely decided on at least a 4 day cruise but now, I'm being tempted by a 7 nighter with 10 or 11 days at WDW. Some people are just sooooo indecisive!
Lee (my partner) still likes the idea of 14 nights at WDW though so I guess, as he's given in to my constant whingeings about wanting to do a cruise, it's only fair that I don't deprive him of his 14 days at WDW.
The annoying thing I'm finding now though is that Disney don't make it easy to book a cruise unless you do one of their packages (either fly and cruise or land and sea).
Coming from the UK, I don't want just 3 or 4 days at WDW followed by a 4 or 3 night cruise (as they offer with the Land and Sea package). There's no point travelling all that way for a week!
And yet whenever I visit the WDW official website and try to book with them, I only get offered Disney's packages of 5, 7 or 9 nights. And Disney cruises aren't even mentioned on the official UK Disney website so I can't include that in the package at all!!!
That's just rubbish!
Why can't I just say I want to fly out on this date..., stay at POR for 14 nights, have a 14 day park pass, then have a 4 night cruise then fly home.
Surely it's not difficult - we are dealing with the same company here aren't we?? Disney Cruise - Walt Disney World? Sounds similar to me!
Disney have taken back control of cruise bookings for 2009 so I can't book via our usual UK agent (we have always used Virgin Holidays before as we can book flights, hotel, car rental,
tickets and insurance in one go - and Virgin give us a 10% discount on everything for being frequent travellers).
Now I have to book everything separately - a Virgin flydrive package with
tickets for WDW, Universal and Sea World, the hotel (either through Virgin or Disney) and then the cruise direct with Disney. We can't book transfers to the port online and I can't see anywhere that we can book parking at the port if we take the car.
I don't like travelling without having everything pre-arranged, pre-booked and pre-paid. It's just extra stuff to worry about which I can do without on our vacation!
Before, I could book everything under one roof - so easy.
It looks like the only thing I can do (and I'm not sure that even this is possible) is to make a lengthy international phone call to WDW and book directly.
Even then, I doubt we can book the rental car in the package (and as excess waiver fees are never shown on websites and cannot be paid in advance if I book the car separately, that's another unknown cost).
What's more, there's no guarantee that the £ will maintain it's current strength against the $. With the economy in it's current state (and signs that the £ may weaken against the $) we're effectively signing a blank check if I book with Disney (in US$) as we don't know what the £ cost will be until we arrive and pay.
Disney have a complete mess of a booking system in that repsect that makes it so difficult and obstructive for people like us to book. It's not even as if we're not spending a fortune for the priviledge!
Come on Disney, sort it out!