Which is better? Separate booking or land and sea package?

[clueluvzmickey]

Im going on a 3 on land 4 @ sea disney cruise vacation in 2010. Yeah its far out cuz honestly i dont have the money up front. Im proud to say that I'm working hard making payments for a vacation that I get to taking once every 5 years. Anyways. The sea part is booked. The land isnt. I called Disney Cruise booking and they say that Disney world has not yet put out the prices for next year Land and sea. Now here are my questions:

1. If I book separately with Disney and stay at a disney resort. Will they get me to Port Canaveral?

2.Is it cheaper booking with Disney Cruise Line?

3. Does that 30% discount dining really work? Is it worth it?( when Im doing the land part)

4. I read somewhere that I only have one chance to get on a bus to take me to the airport after disembarking at 9 am. Is that true?

5. If I book separately doesn't Disney and Disney Cruise work together to get me where i need to go say from airport to hotel? hotel to ship? ship to airport?

6. How much do Money should I take for the whole trip Land and sea?

7. If I book separately is they anyway they can join the bill so I only pay one payment.

Thats all I can think of right now. I really like this website and I love reading ur comments, answers , tips and advice. I know I will think of several more questions later... HEY this is talk disney vacation planning and thats exactly what im doing.

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[2006fan]

We went on Land/Sea package in '06, and booked them seperately with Disney.

When you book seperately make sure you tell them you want transportation to Port Canaveral, but you must tell them. It's much cheaper booking separate...(when you book a package you have to stay at the Poly which is extra $$$) -stay in a value resort. It pays off in the long run, you'll be pampered and treated like royalty on the cruise.

Cheaper dealing with Disney - depends. Do plenty of research. At the time we went it was cheaper dealing directly with Disney.

We included Dining in our package and it was worth it...at the time gratuity was included in the package. You get plenty to eat. We figured the price of the package per day is equal to one expensive dinner and you get breakfast, lunch and snacks free.

Can't answer the question about catching the bus to the airport after disembarking the ship...hope not to miss ours when we go in Dec.

Once again, make sure you mention you need land transportation to make sure you get to WDW from airport, WDW to port, port to airport.

Money??? depends on how much you want to spend. You will get a key to the World card at WDW...from what I remember this is NOT used as a credit card. On the cruise you'll get another card that is used as a credit card. No cash or credit cards are used on the cruise except at the end for the tips...then you will need cash. Make sure you bring enough cash for souveniers at the ports...some places take credit cards.

They will put the bill together even if you book separately...

The MOST important thing to do is GET Disney Insurance. It was pointed out from several travel agents that other insurance co DO NOT guarantee what Disney does. It may cost a little more, but if anything goes wrong Disney stands behind it.

I hope I'm correct in everything...if not I'm sure someone on the board will edit my mistakes. ;-) Good Luck

[ferrazalves]

Well, I´ve booked a vacation (very special for our entire family) with both land and sea.

I´ve talked several times with Disney to try tofigure out what would work better.

I´ve found out (I´m not sure if that is the same for everyone), that booking separate provided me a better deal. Even though part of my travel will be during Thanksgiving (my DD B-day is nov-28 and I figure that travelling at this time would be better, onc seh will indeed celebrate her Bday in WDW and save me a few $ on cake and small "family" celebrations)

I´ve booked both separate, and tried to use most of discount codes, I spend a few weeks quoting prices to check between room only (plus buying tickets and spending money in meals) and full vacation package including tickets and dining plan..

End up that we were 3 (2 adults an 1 child) and the plus on including dining plan would b similar to that I´d spend by eating at regular restaurants - and I´d like to try one signature dinner and (cross fingers) celebrate her B-day at Cinderela castle...We are not travelling during "free dining" time, if you are able to do that it will save you a few bucks.

I´m staying previously to the cruise for 6-night so dining will be part of the trick, I imagine that for 4 night I´d skip dining plan and eat at counter restaurant (too much to see, few time to spend and hour or two in restaurants...). I suggest you to run as much simulation at disney site (use this year to do it, them you get and aproximate amount to 2010) as possible, seek some site discounts for room only on websites edicated to that, call disney yourself and check if there is a discount code for you....It take time, but I think that the $ you save here is worth!!!

After that I did the same with DCL (even called an agent and see if he/she could reduce the cost I´ve managed to figure). They did not. So I booked by myself. Let´s say that for almost a month I spended in planning and booking this vacation...We booked early b/c the way disney handle the payments worked pretty well for us, a deadline for full payment and we can "deposit" as much as we can each month (the travel agency did not matched the price, and wantted a regular payment of the same amount - divided the full vacation for 6 and it would be how much I´d need to pay each month, they did not even get a discount for full payment in advance!!)


I wrote to DCL and adding ground transportation you can be taken either from airport or WDW resort (the only "but" is that not all resorts are part of DCL transporation, but they told me that talking to disney cast there and they provide me transportation between resorts). So, as we are going to stay in a resort non-participant we will need either to go to airport (using the ground transportation for disney) or go to a participant resort (GF, Poli, AKL....) and them take to DCL transportation from there.

Also I tried different combination between resort and cruise to decide the way it would be better. So by booking in separate you get the possibility of choosing where to stay in both part of the trip. If you choose the "land and sea" package the "level" of the stateroom will be matched to a specific group of resorts....so by separating them you can organize and stay where you want (even using that "secret" stateroom, where there are porthole or verandah and are sold as inside or navigator due to they ´ve not the total view) and them you got a kind of "upgrade"....

[cmcclain]

It has been a few years since we did the land and sea cruise package so things might have changed. When we went it was cheaper to book separately if you found some deals on the land side of things, back then there weren't to many deals on the cruise packages. Transportation is is included in the L&S package but was an add on if you booked separately. Also if you booked separately you had to check in and both your land resort and cruise ship. Where as if you book the package you can check in for the cruise ship at your land resort enabling you to walk right onto the ship upon arrival. We booked through AAA and got a ship board credit and a few free gifts so it might be worth while to shop around some Disney Travel Specialist to see what deals they might offer. All in all as we were on our Honeymoon and booked relatively late booking the package was best for us as it was one stop shopping and once we checked in at our resort we we able to fully enjoy our trip with no more hassles.

[laura1977]

I just asked this very question with a Disney Cast Member on the phone. One major thing I discovered is that if Disney World happens to be running free dining or any other offer, you won't get the offer if you book land and sea package.
It is best to do them each on their own to get the best deal.
Easy way to figure it out is get on their website and do the math with each one.
Stay away from getting air tickets with Disney... much more expensive usually. I just did this last week and saved about 600.00 getting it on my own.

[clueluvzmickey]

Hey everyone I booked separately. I also have a friend who works as a whole sale airline something or other meaning i should be getting my airline tickets at a cheaper price. and yes dcl is not offering dining for 2010. Very sad. but Im happy WOO HOO