AHCK! No DDP on the Land/Sea?

[wdwbeforetn]

I've run into 2 stumbling blocks in trying to plan our first family cruise. Now I find out that the DDP is not available for the land portion? Why wouldn't it be, if I'm staying at a Disney resort? It's going to be sooooo expensive if I book a at WDW stay and a cruise separately isn't it?

 

[Mint Addiction]

I've run into 2 stumbling blocks in trying to plan our first family cruise. Now I find out that the DDP is not available for the land portion? Why wouldn't it be, if I'm staying at a Disney resort? It's going to be sooooo expensive if I book a at WDW stay and a cruise separately isn't it?

I just booked them separately and actually saved money. I booked separately at Pop Century (which is not a choice with the land/sea package) for 4 nights and then booked a 3 night cruise. By doing that the price decreased enough that the DDP was essentially "Free".

 

[F1Julie]

I booked my land/sea separately so that I could have the dining plan. I stayed at a value resort instead of the moderate that would have come with my stateroom category, added an extra night and had the dining plan for about the same cost as the land/sea package.

 

[bwallace]

This is what I've been told.
Disney Travel and Disney Cruise Line are 2 separate entities.
DCL purchases resort stays at a set price, a good time in advance. because of that their flexibility is limited.

I booked my february trip separately and added a night. Of course it was more expensive because the meal plan was added in, but otherwise the rates for room a tickets actually worked out to be a little lower.

 

[Jen76b]

It all comes down to what resort you want to stay at versus what category room you want. If you compare the land/sea pkg for say Cat 6 @ AKL, and then what the price is seperate, the land/sea pkg is cheaper. If you still want that Cat 6, but want to stay at a value resort, then booking seperate is cheaper.

 

[dawn8226]

Whether it is cheaper to book seperately really depends. My daughter and I are cruising in Dec. 2007, cat. 6, Beach club. I really wanted the dining plan so I had the travel agent look into booking it separately, with any discounts available. It was going to be more than $1,000 more to book separately. So we went for the DCL land/sea package, no dining plan but that's okay. I will just have to budget better if we decide to do a lot of table service meals.

 

[Peggy Jean]

I booked my land/sea separately so that I could have the dining plan. I stayed at a value resort instead of the moderate that would have come with my stateroom category, added an extra night and had the dining plan for about the same cost as the land/sea package.

We too booked our vacation with DCL and WDW separately this past summer, but word of warning, when I booked my trip DCL booked both the cruise and the days in WDW before the cruise (not the traditional land/sea). I was not able to get the dining plan because DCL could not do that. At that time they were not able to offer that feature.

 

[kcashner]

Whether the land/sea package or booking separately is cheaper depends on season of year, any resort discounts that may be offered, specials a particular TA might have available, etc.

The biggest place to save $ is by choosing a higher category on the ship but a lower grade of resort than is attached to that category. You cannot add the DDP to a land/sea.

Normally, the DDP can only be applied to a non-discounted resort stay that includes park passes. However, some AAA packages can include a small discount on the resort and still get the DDP.

 

[Vavasmon]

During Christmas/New Years last year it was more expensive to book the land and sea separate. We were also cat 6 on the Wonder and staying at the Beach Club. We added extra days to land (via our TA/DCL) and made it 7 days land 4 nights sea. I believe our savings was over $2000.

I agree that as the category/resort price goes up the better the deal for the land/sea.

Just as an aside, the other reason DDP may not be availble is you are not paying Rack Rate for the room (or at least we did not). This is not new to DDP the old wishes packages were not avaiable with the land sea either.

 

[DisneyPRPrincess]

We booked our trip through our AAA travel agent separately in order to get the DDP and actually saved $450 from what it would cost booking it together.

 

[Luvtocruise]

I booked ours together at first and then after I transferred it to DU I kept checking the prices. It finally came up better to separate it out, add 1 day at the poly and add the dining plan! We still saved over $200. My TA was sooo shocked. So it can happen!