So, having finally convinced (I think!) my partner to go on a Disney cruise, I have a few questions.
We intend to stay at POR for 14 nights (the trade-off to do the cruise was to stay at POR rather than a Fort Wilderness cabin) and then take a 4 day cruise.
As Disney don't seem to offer flexible Land and Sea packages to accomodate this, we will have to book everything separately.
Being in the UK, we tend to use Virgin Holidays rather than book direct but I'm then left with a few questions:
We may decide to keep our rental car for the whole 18 day trip. If we do, are there parking facilities at Port Canaveral and does anyone know what the charges are?
Also, are there transfers available from the parking lot to and from the ship (or better still, valet parking would be good!!)?
If we decide to take a rental car for the 14 nights we have at POR and then return it to a local site at WDW (Dollar operate from one of the hotels just outside Downtown Disney so we'd probably drop it off there), what facilities are there for getting from WDW to the port (again, remembering we have not booked a package and have booked the room/flight/park tickets/rental car package through an outside agency)?
Finally, assuming we do somehow get to the Port, how do you then get back to the airport? We wouldn't be flying back to the UK until 5pm and so would ideally like the flexibility to either come back and have a day in the parks or maybe at Kennedy Space Centre (the WDW parks would be our preference). From what I've seen pn previous threads, the only option that would allow this is to hire a car at the port and drop it off at the airport - is this still the case?
Finally, is the 4 day cruise worth the extra cost over the three day cruise given that the stop-offs are the same? The only difference seems to be an extra day at sea (does the boat just chug round in circles for a day???).
I can answer a few of your questions....
Port charges are $15 per day and your car is in a secure, monitored parking lot. The good thing about the car rental is you can come and go when you please at the port.....you can arrive when you want and leave when you want. The cost of transfers that Disney offers are rather high and in my opinion it is cheaper to rent a car, pay for fuel and park it than be on a scheduled transfer.....
If I had my preference, I would do the 4 day! It gives you that extra day to relax. And if you don't want to relax, there are tons of activities!
Once you do your first Disney Cruise, you will be hooked!
If you have the chance to do one, DO IT!!!!!
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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!
Winkster,
Have you had any success booking your trip/cruise? Many of your questions were ones I have as I consider a land and sea trip for next year. I don't like the constraints Disney places on its packages because most of the offerings are 3day cruise, 4day parks or vice versa. I can't imagine feeling satisfied with only 4 days in the parks. We like to take our time and do everything, 4 days is not long enough!
Were you able to book it yourself? Did you find a travel agent? I usually use an approved Disney travel agent online to book travel so I don't have to spend all day on the phone (I complain about US long distance, I can't imagine staying on the phone and paying international charges). However, I am always looking for new ideas.
Sorry - I'm back from work now so have a bit more time to answer!
We did give the cruise some serious consideration but unfortunately Lee (my other half) really doesn't fancy the idea of a cruise. He thinks it will be all organised tours where we'd be herded into things we don't really want to do.
You and I know that's not the case but there seems no telling him!
Despite that, he did agree to a cruise after a WDW break however the booking process ended up too messy.
There were issues over booking the flights and accomodation separately. Then we had to decide how to rent the car (fly drive or separate booking) and what to do with the rental car (hand it in and get the bus to the port or leave the car in the car park and pay for extra days car rental while we're at sea). There were various other scrappy points that I don't remember now but ultimately, I think it was partly the cost that changed our mind and partly the fact that I didn't want us paying a fortune for a vacation I knew Lee didn't really want to go on. That and the fact that travellers not booking a complete package in the UK do not get the same kind of industry protection as travellers on a complete package deal.
The lack of suitable stay and cruise packages was really annoying although I guess we could have overcome that if we'd really have wanted to. It would however have taken a number of emails and international calls and to me, it seems ridiculous that we can't book the cruise as part of a package from the UK.
I'd much rather book flights, car rental, hotel, tickets, cruise and cruise transfers all in one package as I really don't like leaving things to the last minute (like booking cruise transfers from the resort while we're there). I only end up worrying that something will go wrong! I much prefer to have everything sorted from the UK and can then look forward to our trip knowing that nothing is left to chance. Unfortunately however, it seems that unless you're in the USA, it's not that easy.
The decision to only allow a few US (and no UK) agents to book Disney cruises seems very insular and rather blinkered as Disney are effectively putting up barriers to booking vacations. With that and the non-availability of the cruise DVD to UK residents, you do wonder whether Disney wants foreigners on their boats!
We decided at the time to take a non-Disney cruise elsewhere at some point in the future instead although, knowing Lee's thoughts on the subject, I doubt that will ever happen.
Ultimately though, with the exchange rate in freefall, we decided the cruise would just be stupidly expensive compared to other cruise and non-cruise vacation options. We can book a week's cruise elsewhere for the price of a 4 day (and sometimes even a 3 day!) Disney cruise.
So - instead, we took advantage of the latest WDW offer and booked 14 nights for the price of 10 and got a 14 day park hopper for the price of 7. The deal was too good to turn down!
I have never been on a cruise, and I share some of Lee's fears. When I think of a cruise my mind flashes back to my years watching Love Boat, being assigned to eat dinners with random people making forced conversation. It is the primary reason I was leaning toward a Disney cruise, I figured there would be some drawbacks but also some nice Disney touches too.
As for your difficulties booking the cruise, and the lack of UK access to booking, this does not seem like a smart move on Disney's part as they are expanding into Europe in 2010. I may consider the Europe cruise because sometimes I can find flight deals to Europe nearly as cheap as to Florida. I was just hoping to "try out" the cruise experience for just a few days at the end of a WDW trip to make sure my family likes it before I spend two weeks on a boat.
Still, a Disney land/sea isn't going to work if we only get 4 days in the park. 7 days is our minimum, and with the 7 for the price of 4, you can't beat the deal. I am so jealous you were able to take the 14 days!
Similar to your situation, the transfers and other transportation is a concern with booking the cruise and trip separately because we do not fly into Orlando International (our local airport runs a shuttle but to Orlando/Sanford for 1/4 the price) and therefore always rent a car. Paying for rental and parking while at sea seems silly. And dealing with these issues on vacation is NOT an option. Like you, once I'm there, I'm on VACATION. I do not want to spend hours dealing with the minutia of the trip.
Well, thanks for the insight. I am just now exploring options, and it is helpful to know limitations before I waste my time searching for packages that do not exist.
Anyone else book a land/sea package other than the 3/4 split option? Did you book separately?
Again, any info is helpful.
I am having problems with adding a day to my 4 days on land and 3 day at sea. They are telling me that I will have to switch rooms during my stay at the Polynesian. I will to check out then check back into the hotel.
In '06 my DF surprised me and took me to WDW/Cruise. I did plenty of research and found out it was cheaper to book the 3land/4sea separtely rather than the package. Granted the Poly is a beautiful resort, but why pay for something where you're only going to shower and sleep. We got the value resort, saved $$ and booked the 4 night cruise. We dealt directly with Disney.
I did plenty of research and found out it was cheaper to book the 3land/4sea separtely rather than the package. Granted the Poly is a beautiful resort, but why pay for something where you're only going to shower and sleep. We got the value resort, saved $$ and booked the 4 night cruise. We dealt directly with Disney.
Carol
Good to know. Thanks for sharing. If you found it to be cheaper, I may look into separate bookings so I can have more control of hotel and ticket selection.
What about transportation? Since you booked them separately how do you get from park to port and vice versa?
Hi. I work in Port Canaveral and help cruise travelers all the time. I'm always interested in seeing what questions people have in making their travel plans for their Port Canaveral cruise. I just noticed you are thinking of leaving a rental car at Port Canaveral. Not a great idea. I've seen so many people make that costly mistake. There are Port Canaveral car rental locations with drop off service and shuttle to the port. Once you drop off the car, you stop paying for it. Don't pay rental car fees and port parking fees for every day you are on your cruise and that car is racking up charges in the port parking lot.
Last edited by Portcanaveler; 11-06-2009 at 01:59 PM.
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