Question about land/sea CRUISE

[niks81]

Hi all...I'm somewhat new to the cruise part of these boards...but we are planning to take a Disney Cruise at the end of December 2003 or early Jan 2004. We aren't sure yet which cruise...probably definitely not the 3 day...too short. You all highly recommended the 7 day one Anyways, I REALLY wanted to piggyback a stay at Disney for a few nights prior to the cruise. I figured we're down there, might as well go to WDW too!! Well...my fiance is kind of antsy about that....he thinks it will be too much hassle trying to get from WDW to the cruise.

Can anyone help? Or offer any suggestions? We have no clue what we are doing!! At the airport we saw the DCL staff walking people around and I think taking them to the bus....do they do this at WDW? Should we cruise first? HELP!!

 

[allears]

Hey there,
If you book a land and sea package or even if you do them both seperately, you can purchase the Disney transfers for all legs of your trip. They will get you from the air port to your resort. They will then take you and your luggage from the resort to the port then from the port to the air port. It really couldn't be much easier.

Our first trip was a four day land tour (we added a day to the front) and a 4 day cruise. We purchased the Disney transfers. When we landed in Orlando, we collected our luggage (since we arrived on a notn-sailing day) and turned in our travel vouchers at the Mears transport desk. The took us to the hotel. The night before we were to leave for the cruise we put the disney cruise line tags on our luggage (they come with your documents) and the hotel staff takes care of getting them from your room to the cruise bus. The luggage showes up in your stateroom prior to sailing. Then you just board the cruise bus and off you go.

You may already have checked in for the ship at the hotel, ask your ta about that. After the cruise you collect your luggage ( we always get a porter for this, we're a family of 5) and depending on the air line you're using, you may be able to check in right there at the port. We've flown US Air and they have a desk at the port. We check our luggage, get our boarding passes, get on the bus and off to the air port and on to the gate.

Couldn't be easier. Disney is awesome when it comes to this.

Other options are using the limo serivces others here on the board have used. They just pick you up at the hotel and take you to the port. Can be less expensive, but you have to handle your luggage a little more.

Good luck in planning. These boards are awesome for getting all the information you could ever want.

 

[niks81]

WOW!! Great information!! Thanks!!

My fiance is just a no hassles guy and to him it sounded like it would be a lot of work to do both...I should have known better that Disney would have some perfect plan for this

 

[Parrotheader]

I don't like hassles either, but we decided to brave renting a car for our land/sea anyway since we wanted a little freedom of mobility. For just two people, it cost a little bit more than using the Disney transfers, but it was substantially less expensive than using the limo/towncar services so many on here recommend (those tend to make better financial sense if you have a family-sized group or if you just REALLY hate driving on your vacation.) We stayed at an off-site resort our first night in Orlando before moving on-site, plus we wanted to be able to make grocery store runs if needed and leave for the cruise ship BEFORE the Disney cruise buses left the resorts so a rental car made sense to us. We didn't end up using the car much once we were at WDW, but it definitely was worth it since we got to the cruise ship over 2 hours before the first buses from our resort showed up. We were already done with our lunch by then and had our spa reservations booked and were off enjoying the ship! The cruise staff at the resort gave us very detailed instructions on how to get there by the way. It was a very easy drive on the toll roads. The hardest part was getting out of WDW. Their highway system is a bit confusing.

Our cruise was only 3 days and we do wish it could have been a bit longer. However, (and this is just my opinion) I'm personally not sure if I'd like 7 days. That might be a little TOO much time for me personally. We like to be able to move around and play it by ear sometimes and while a cruise ship has TONS of activities and ports-of-call to choose from, it's not like being at WDW where I can choose from dozens of restaurants and hundreds of different activities and not be on a set timetable. Granted, the cruise is a seemingly much more laid back and relaxing environment and if you can get into that zone for 7 days then it must be very relaxing. I wish they still offered 5-day cruises since that would be the perfect length to me (not to mention financially, since Disney is a bit pricey.)