Just booked Land/Sea Package for 2006 - Yippee! (Some questions now)

[AlexandNessa]

I have been wanting to do DCL forever and convinced DF that we should do a land/sea for next year since we were planning on going to the WORLD anyway, and what could 4 days on the ship hurt, right?!

So, we are all set at the GF from Oct. 19 - Oct. 22 and in Cabin 8046 on the Wonder from Oct. 22 - Oct. 26! Woo-hoo!

I just have one question though -- for the rate we're paying (**gasp** and this is one bill I'll be hiding from DF ), do they **really** put you in a standard room at the GF?! Has anyone been upgraded to at least Water/Lagoon View? It seems awfully high for just a plain old standard garden view. We are people of convenience though, so didn't want to bother doing things separately, plus I think I read somewhere that people who book land/sea get priority on suites for 3-4 day cruises.

Oh, and one more question: has anyone added a 4th night to their Land/Sea package so that you have 4 nights on land and 4 nights on sea? My TA's hours are over for the day, and I'd meant to ask her about that earlier.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Jiffymom]

Yes we added a day to the land..... infact we added two days. We arrived by air at 3:30 and I didn't want to spend those high prices for only half day. So we stayed at the airport Hyatt. Now that was convenient and great rooms. Gave us a opportunity to rest. We took the Disney bus to the Polynesian the next morning. Even though our rooms were not ready they stored our luggage and we got our passes spent the afternoon at magic kindom. Our rooms were ready when we returned. I was dissapointed also that we had standard room but honestly the rooms were very nice and easy to get every where with the monorail. Great pools. I also went to the GF and looked it over, I'm sure you won't be dissappointed with standard rooms.All the hotel rooms looked nice.

 

[Corryn]

Yes, us too.....
Trip technically starts on a Thursday morning, but if you're en route, then that is a wasted day. So we spent $100 extra to stay over on Wednesday night so we were ready to go on Thursday morning.
We stayed at CBR and did not have to switch rooms. On Thursday morning, even though we checked in on Wednesday afternoon, we had to go back to the front desk and recheck in, as well as check in for the cruise. COMPLETE ALL YOUR DOCUMENTS BEFORE YOU GO AND DON'T FORGET TO BRING YOUR BIRTH CERTIFICATES/PASSPORTS WITH YOU to the front desk. We had to run back to the room to retrieve them and it also cost us precious minutes away from the parks that morning! .


Also, everyone (and we went with over 60 people) said we should have just done the 7 night cruise, even the ones who had never been there before. It is very rushed doing both. Some might say otherwise, but that was the consensus on our trip. The cruise was AWESOME and we didn't want to leave after just 4 nights.
BTW - we had Laszlo & Noemi as our servers. They've signed on for another tour with Disney and they are both committed to the 3/4 night cruises. They're Great Servers!

 

[barkley]

when we did our first disney cruise we added days to our package-we live on the west coast and figured we needed to maximize our time there. i'm glad to see you are doing the land portion first, that way you won't burn off your relaxing experience on board by running around the parks afterwards! they did'nt have 7 nite cruises when we first went, but our second trip (as well as our upcoming) was a 7 day, and we love having the days at sea just to enjoy the ship and all it offers.

i second the concept of using the airport hotel-we've never used it on arrival, but have booked a room at a day rate for the day of departure so we could shower and relax while the kids watched t.v. rather than sitting several hours waiting for our flight to leave. we took disney transportation back to the airport from the cruise, checked in for our flight (and checked our luggage), went to the room and kicked back.

have a great time-you will love the 4 day cruise, and get every bit as much enjoyment as you would on a 7.

 

[AlexandNessa]

Thanks for the responses!

I got the skinny from my TA re: adding a day to the land portion. You must add the extra day through DCL in order to only have to check in once and definitely keep your same room. If you book through WDW directly, WDW won't recognize you're adding on to a Land/Sea Package. So, we just added our extra night through DCL (again out of convenience).

We are accustomed to 10-day cruises, so I'm sure 4 days is going to fly by and we'll regret not booking a longer cruise. But 4 days will certainly be enough to get a taste of DCL and convince DF that a longer DCL cruise is in order! I wish DCL offered more 10-day cruises that weren't around the holidays ... maybe 2007 or 2008?

 

[Billinaz]

We did the 3 land 4 sea this past Feb.

We were booked for a Cat 3 cabin, and we got a standard room at the GF. Nice hotel, but the room was just so-so. Being booked in a suite and the price we paid, I thought we would also get concierge level at GF as well.

We got to WDW the night before, and checked into the hotel at about 9AM. They will take your bags and store them until your room is ready. Then we headed over to WDW.

 

[SueEllen]

Just an FYI, they do put you in the Garden view room at the Grand Floridian. You can always ask for an upgrade at check in.

If you wish to upgrade your room category in advance it can be done through DCL, and they will give you the cost of the upgrade, but I woud likely chance it at check in.

Sue Ellen

 

[mhelsley]

May i also say this if you do enjoy your cruise and want to do another be sure and book while onboard. You can also still use your TA if you want to. I did this and so far i haven't found anyone that can beat the price i received onboard.

 

[AlexandNessa]

Thanks again for the input. With the extra night we just added, I figured out we were paying rack rate for the GF (almost $455 per night for a standard room ). I was wondering if any discount codes became available if they would apply to the room portion of the trip? If not, we would consider paying the extra couple of dollars to book concierge at the Beach Club instead, primarily for our favorite location (and SAB!) and extra service. Has anyone done this -- stayed in a CAT 3, but changed resorts? Although the GF is very nice, it's not our preference for location -- especially at $455 a night.

Thanks again for any help.

 

[mhelsley]

I don't think you can get your hotel(Beach Club)choice and stay in a Cat.3 stateroom. This is one of the main reasons some of us book the land and sea part seperate. If you have a good TA this should not be a problem and you can still get transfers to the ship plus if the codes come out they can be applied to your land resv. The only drawback is you will have to check in at the port which is a small thing to me if it means i get to stay at the hotel i want. Good luck and let us know what you decide.