Cat 3 Question: Have you gotten a mid-ship one w/out booking a land/sea package?

[DiznEeyore]

We're looking into the idea of booking a category 3 for our 20th anniv/son's h.s. graduation trip in a couple of years. The DU TA said that mid-ship cat 3's are "generally" reserved for land/sea packages on the 3- and 4-day cruises.

Has anyone ever been able to book one without doing the package? We are DVC owners and would want to use our points at WDW after the cruise, so we have no need for the package.

Any info would be appreciated!

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

We were told the same thing......what our TA did is "wait-list" us for the mid ship 3.

I guess at some point if no land-sea customers book the mid ship 3 then we can book it. But I don't know any of the details.

I don't understand it at all. It should be first-come first served.

 

[DiznEeyore]

We were told the same thing......what our TA did is "wait-list" us for the mid ship 3.

I guess at some point if no land-sea customers book the mid ship 3 then we can book it. But I don't know any of the details.

I don't understand it at all. It should be first-come first served.

Okay, that makes sense. I also agree that it doesn't seem fair. If I book first, I should get first choice of cabins. *pout*

 

[justmestace]

DCL has always held the suites on the 3 & 4 night Wonder cruises for Land & Sea Packages....they make more money off the Land and Sea, so I guess that's why they do that.

You CAN waitlist for one, and the waitlist will be filled as first come, first served. But your odds of getting a suite on the Wonder are better if you waitlist for ANY Cat 3 as opposed to just mid-ship. You can add room number preferences to it, but you have a better chance if you make sure that they know that you'd be happy with any.

 

[DiznEeyore]

DCL has always held the suites on the 3 & 4 night Wonder cruises for Land & Sea Packages....they make more money off the Land and Sea, so I guess that's why they do that.

You CAN waitlist for one, and the waitlist will be filled as first come, first served. But your odds of getting a suite on the Wonder are better if you waitlist for ANY Cat 3 as opposed to just mid-ship. You can add room number preferences to it, but you have a better chance if you make sure that they know that you'd be happy with any.

I'll keep that in mind. Thank you!

Right now we're planning to book enough ahead that we can get a 3 for sure ... just wishing we could book one of the larger mid-ship ones for cruise-only.

 

[heatherplus3]

We are actually in 8034 in a cruise only package. We are on a 4 day in Oct 2008...
Hey Justmestace- A big shout out from the North Peoria/Lake Pleasant Area!! Thanks for the mid-ship cat 3 photos, your little photo tour put my husband over the edge when deciding between cat 3 or 4.

 

[emememem]

We have 8032 booked for Dec 07, cruise only. We initally had 2 cat 9s booked and then called DU to see if a cat 3 was available..we were able to have our pick..

 

[disneyholic family]

We're looking into the idea of booking a category 3 for our 20th anniv/son's h.s. graduation trip in a couple of years. The DU TA said that mid-ship cat 3's are "generally" reserved for land/sea packages on the 3- and 4-day cruises.

Has anyone ever been able to book one without doing the package? We are DVC owners and would want to use our points at WDW after the cruise, so we have no need for the package.

Any info would be appreciated!

we booked direct with DCL and got a midship cat 3 for the 3 day cruise - however, this was 4 years ago...

on our four day cruise we did have to book a land/sea so that we could have a cat 1 (the walt disney suite)....in that case we also booked directly with DCL and were told that we could only have the cat 1 if we booked a land/sea....which we did.....it cost a fortune, but was worth every penny....we LOVED the walt disney suite....

 

[m4travel]

We're in a sideways, mid-ship Cat 3 (8034), this December. We booked it cruise only while on board during our last cruise.

As DVC members, land/sea packages are not attractive to us. And we like to do the cruise first, too.

 

[justmestace]

So it looks like they ARE now booking suites on the Wonder, even if they aren't Land & Sea??
Lots of you have done that, it seems. Sorry if I misinformed anyone, I guess DCL has changed their policy.
But then...that doesn't make sense since they didn't let DiznEeyore do it....

Hi Heather! I have pics of the Walt and the Roy you can show him for your next cruise....

 

[DiznEeyore]

So it looks like they ARE now booking suites on the Wonder, even if they aren't Land & Sea??
Lots of you have done that, it seems. Sorry if I misinformed anyone, I guess DCL has changed their policy.
But then...that doesn't make sense since they didn't let DiznEeyore do it....

Just for clarification, it's the TA at Dreams Unlimited that's telling us we can't get a mid-ship Cat 3 if we don't do a land/sea package. Now that I hear people have done it, I'm wondering what the deal is!

 

[disneyholic family]

Just for clarification, it's the TA at Dreams Unlimited that's telling us we can't get a mid-ship Cat 3 if we don't do a land/sea package. Now that I hear people have done it, I'm wondering what the deal is!

call DCL directly and ask them and then you'll know...
as i said, to get the cat 1, we HAD to do a land/sea....(which can also be a sea/land - the order is unimportant - it just means you have to do a package deal)...

but to do the cat 3 midship we didn't have to do the package..
however we booked it very much in advance....

but it IS posssible that DCL is blocking those cabins on some of its cruises, since they are the preferred cabins....

just call DCL and ask them.....

 

[AlexandNessa]

Our stats: 4-Night/mid December 2006/midship 8534: no land and sea package booked. Cruise only.

I think you are getting misinformation from DU. Call DCL and see if the cabin you want is available. If it is, call DU and have them change your ressie.

Also, we had friends who had the Walt Suite booked for a 4-day in April 2007. They did not have the Land & Sea booked either.

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

Wow, this is weird, because DCL told my TA that you had to have a land-and-sea booked to get the mid-ship cat 3.

Maybe this is one of those cases where it depends on who you talk to at DCL.

 

[DiznEeyore]

Interesting. I wish DCL would make up its mind and let all of its TAs know which way it is! We have some time before we have to book, so maybe things will shake out one way or another before then.

I appreciate everyone's input!

 

[DiznEeyore]

Dh just got off the phone with DCL. We asked about a Cat 3 (mid-ship) for Dec. '08 (just so we'd know what the deal is -- we're not going in '08). She happily quoted us a price for cabin 8532 and said we did *not* have to book a land/sea package to get it.

So for anyone interested, the Dec. 4 '08 sailing still has a prime Cat 3 room available!

 

[OlKiara]

We had mid-ship 8034 on the Magic during the Med. Cruise...it was awesome! We were so spoiled it will be hard to ever cruise and not have concierge service! We were also able to get a suite for our upcoming 7 day cruise in April, this is suite 8522. We were shocked when this became available, it sealed the deal for us though! We booked our cruise directly with Disney but cruise only. I do my on air fare etc... I'm not sure if the 7 and 10 day work differently than the 3 or 4, but I hope this helps!
Betsy

 

[3for Me]

I booked "the last" Cat 3 for our Feb. 3rd - 4 day Wonder about two months ago. No Land/Sea as the dates didn't work the way Disney had it, so I'm doing my own land portion.

HTH!

 

[Ski-and-Sea]

Wow - this is really interesting because when DCL opened up the dates for 2008, inventory control called my TA and when we specifically asked for a mid-ship cat 3 for our back-to-back Wonder cruises the DCL rep said we could NOT book those rooms if we weren't doing a land-and-sea. She said we had to be wait listed.

We were able to get other cat 3's but not the mid ship ones.

Now I know for next time.

 

[Cobbo]

Just throwing in my $0.02...had no problem calling and getting a Cat-3 (8522) on the 8/08/08 3-day Wonder with no Land/Sea package...so it appears that someone was spreading some mis-information...