Any tips for deals on Disney Cruise rates

[tinkerbell211]

I've never been on a Disney Cruise. It would be a dream come true for me! Does anyone have any tips on getting a good deal? I teach and have 2 in school, so off season rates don't seem to be an option for us, and summer seems so HOT HOT HOT!
Am I asking too much?
Thanks!

[westjones]

Do you have a Fall Break? If so, that would probably be the least expensive time.

If you have to go in peak season, then the best advice is to book early. Maybe decide now for 2005 and try for one of the dates in the summer at that time.

Go with a Cat. 11 room. They are the least expensive, and you hardly spend any time at all in your room (at least we didn't).

If the 7 day is too much, go for the 4 day. You get a day at sea and it is a little more relaxing than the 3 day. It will still leave you a couple of days to visit WDW if you want also (although with the 3 day, we went before the cruise to WDW and enjoyed that schedule very much).

Flying adds a lot to the cost of a trip, so if you can drive, do that.

While on board be careful about the little extras that add up (like pictures, drinks, spa, etc.). You can have a great time without all the extras added to your bill!

Try visiting the Cruise Board. They have some GREAT tips there. They clued me into a special on the Hyatt at the Orlando Airport (no longer available) that saved me a $100. Those people are great, they have lots of great advice.

We love the Disney Cruise. We have been on 4 times, have 2 booked for this year and 1 already booked for next year.

To check out some pricing, look at this website, you can spot the least expensive weeks this way:

http://www.*************.com

Good Luck! You will love the cruise! And if you enjoy the TV Show "Life According to Jim" on ABC, be sure to check it out NEXT week (Feb 24th). They filmed it on the Disney Cruise last month, and I believe it is going to be a 2 part show that will conclude the following week on March 2nd.

DJ

[mad4themouse]

Book early. The longer you wait, the higher the rates go, especially if your travel time is limited to when the children are out of school.

Our last cruise was during the middle of August. The rates start to go down that week due to southern schools returning for the fall at the beginning of August. The ship was still packed.

Go to the Disney website and play around with dates and stateroom types. The difference between a cat. 5 and a cat. 6 stateroom is only the deck that they are located on (cat. 5 is one deck closer to the pools).

If a porthole and view are not important to you, book inside staterooms for much less than the outer staterooms. You still get the same meals and ammenities as anyone else, you just have a smaller, darker cabin.

Also, book your own airfare and ground transportation. We found that it was cheaper to get a towncar than the Disney bus to the port. Their airfare was no bargain and could have routed us thru BWI or Charlotte before getting us to MCO. I booked direct flights on my own for much less.

You can pose your question on the cruise board too. They were great when I was planning my cruise!

[Daisy5115]

We booked our cruise for Spring Break and got the lowest price I've seen for cat 10 (all the cat 11's were booked) I have cruised before with an inside cabin and have no problem with that. I think our break is different from some others, but we also booked early, back in the summer for this Spring. We also made our own flight arrangements, it was much less.
Hope this helps!

[AreWeThereYet]

We booked our cruise through Dreams Unlimited (you can find them sponsoring something here in the DIS). We shopped around and found that Dreams Unlimited had the best prices for the time we wanted to go (which was during our Spring Break two years ago). We did book in October the fall before we went, so that may have helped a bit on the prices.

You can get a free quote from this agency as well as others by filling out an online form. Response is usually pretty quick!!

[Luckymommyx2]

Do your research on travel agencies before booking. We booked through DU last time and even though they were great we found a better price from a different ta this time. We compared Disney, DU, ************* and Costco. Costco was over $400 cheaper than Disney and $200 cheaper than the other two. I loved DU but for the price difference we booked through Costco.

Also, since we homeschool we can go any time we want so we try to pick times that would be cheaper. Fall months, September and October are real value seasons.

Pick the cabin you'll be most happy in. If you don't plan to be in your room much than an inside room should be fine. We have two little ones so we splurged on a room with a balcony. It was worth it for us because we could sit out on the balcony while the little ones napped. Go over to the cruise board and read up on the secret porthole rooms too! ;)

Lastly, book as early as possible. The prices rarely go down, only up. The earlier you book the better selection of cabins you have and the cheaper the rate. Good luck and let us know how you make out!!!