Walt Disney World With Kids (Fodor's, 2012) - Fodor's [117]
The Land-and-Sea “Package”
Many Disney visitors combine a stay at Walt Disney World with a three-, four-, or five-day cruise. To call this a “package” is a bit of a misnomer since Disney allows families to totally customize their vacation. In other words, you treat the Orlando segment as an add-on before or after your cruise, choosing any resort you like and staying as long as you decide. It’s a good way to get the best of both worlds.
Although it’s possible to reverse the order, most families like touring first and cruising last. That way the relaxing cruise segment follows the more exhausting theme-park segment of the week.
You’re met at the Orlando airport and escorted directly to your resort, where you can find all the documentation you need for the entire week. After the theme-park segment of the trip is over, you’re transported by a special Disney Cruise Line (DCL) bus to the ship, which waits in Port Canaveral harbor, approximately an hour from Orlando.
Disney does everything possible to make the transition “seamless”; the key to your Orlando hotel room is also the key to your stateroom on the ship, and you can use it as a charge card both at Disney World and onboard the ship. Your bags are picked up from your hotel room and transferred directly to your room on the ship. In short, the logistics of checking in and checking out, arranging transportation, and lugging baggage are all handled for you.
Approximate Costs
Calculating the exact cost of your cruise depends on several factors: the time of year, the size of your family, the itinerary, and the level of cabin or stateroom you choose. It’s probably a little too late to do anything about the size of your family, but the other three factors are within your control.
Time of year has a huge impact on price. If you’re going in the middle of summer, spring break, or Christmas week, you’ll pay top dollar. If you’re traveling during the off-season, say something like the third week of October, the rates will automatically drop about 30%. Most of the specials and discounts you’ll find through AAA and independent Web sites like www.mousesavers.com are also for the off-season.
Lodging also affects the bottom line. All staterooms are nicely appointed, designed for families, and therefore 25% larger than standard cruise-ship cabins, so it’s really just a matter of how much space you’re willing to pay for and how posh a resort you want if you’re combining the cruise with an Orlando stay.
Insider’s Secret
When shopping for discounts leave no stone unturned—and make no assumptions. Although some families report that travel agents found them the best deals, others say that agents quoted higher rates than those given when they called Disney directly.
And then there’s the issue of itinerary. Obviously it costs more to cruise Europe for 11 nights than it does to take a three-day run to the Bahamas.
Let’s see how all this shakes out with some examples. For example, a family of four taking a seven-night Caribbean cruise during spring break week in April and staying in a deluxe ocean-view stateroom with veranda, will pay about $6,300. Gulp. If they’re willing to stay in an inside stateroom with no veranda the price drops to about $4,000.
But what if their dates were flexible? If this family of four were willing to travel during seven days in October, they could go deluxe for about $4,700, and inside stateroom for about $3,100. In other words, by changing the level of your stateroom and the time of year you travel, you can cut the total price of the vacation package in half.
The most inexpensive option, as you might expect,