$10,000 Later. Oh My Word! Say It Isn't So !

[Jade]

Okay so I decided to start checking things out. We are a family of 5. Two adults and three daughters. I was thinking of planning for a Dec. 2006 Cruise.

3Day Cruise/4Day Land WDW. Complete package rounding out around $7,000. I want to cry I tell you. I really want to cry.

3k for Cruise. I believe that includes airfare. If not, that price will go up. Plus there is an Adult Package for around $465 that I thought looked kinda nice.
Not sure where I pulled $3k from. I saw somewhere the pricing for adults at $799 per night. From there there were two other sets of numbers for various ages on children. Brought it to around $3k. I can't recall the link I pulled up for it. I believe I found the information off www.dreamsunlimitedtravel.com though.

Then we have WDW and staying at the Dolphin Resort. That came to $3,414. It includes staying a resort with dining for those days. Also, tickets for all four parks for those four days. Got that info off the www.wdwinfo.com.


I'm not sure if I left anything out. I figured it would run up close to $10,000 for the family trip for five. Ugh. Are my calculations incorrect?! If read correctly the depo is $200 per person up front. Then rull payment 60 or 90 days in advance. So that $1k would go toward the full price of the trip.

Oh, and I didn't even figure in Car Rental with one car seat either. So that will be another $300 I'm sure.

What else am I missing? Have I covered it all? I'm stressed now. I think I"ll head to the gym for a while.

In the meantime, any of you have family of Five flying from CA to FL for the 3Day Cruise 4Day WDW Resort Stay? that can tell me what the cost was?!

I apologize if I posted this in the wrong place. Didn't see a forum for Cruise/Land trip combined.

Thank you all for your time!

 

[Chuck S]

Are you talking about using the MYW Dining Option at the Dolphin? I thought I read in another post that you can't stay at the Swan or Dolphin since they aren't DIsney operated hotels, and the dining option is encoded on the Disney room ID/Keys.

 

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

Wow! I've never been on a Disney cruise, but if it were me I'd spend a lot of time on these boards and on mousesavers.com to see if I could put a trip together myself before I'd plunk down that kind of money. $10,000 is a lot of money for one vacation! By the way, although not always, packages are often the worst deals. They tend to be more for convenience than savings, although I don't know how much the new dining options will factor into that general axiom.

 

[Amirah95]

I believe that $10,000 price tag. I did a trip inquiry and it came up to a little over $5,000. It is very expensive to split land and sea. Are you going to go for it or are you still thinking about it?

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

The prices for a family of 5 can be deceiving because the only cabins that can accomodate that many people are in categories 4 down to 1. With Disney, the lower the category, the higher the quality of the cabin. You might be able to get a better price if you were to look into getting two connecting category 11 or 12 cabins (inside staterooms).

Do not book the land portion of the trip along with the sea portion. You can always do much better by doing it separately. Cruise packages tie your resort category to the cabin category. So someone staying in a category 4 cabin on the ship will be staying in a deluxe resort on land.

Other factors that influence the cost: airfare included, ground transportation (Disney charges mucho bucks to transport you to the port, much cheaper to get a towncar service), and trip insurance.

With all that being said, the Disney cruise is the most expensive in the industry. If you're more interested in cruising than the Disney experience at sea, there are a few cruiselines that depart from Port Canaveral and do the exact same ports of call (with the exception of Castaway Cay).

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I agree...book the land portion on your own to help you save money. The land/sea is the same price as booking a 7 day cruise (or pretty darn close). I was looking at booking (always looking...) and it is cheaper to book 2 adjoining rooms...you will want to do it so that you can pick the staterooms to know for sure that you have a connecting door.

It is possible for less than 10K!

 

[chasbos]

With a family of 5 you will be paying for 3 adult and only 2 children! So that increases the cost. We are a family of 6 so they split us up 3 & 3 into our 2 staterooms and of then I ended up paying for 4 adults and only 2 children!

I was not really surprised with the price - we are only doing a 4 day and the cost was $3500 for the 6 of us (just the cruise!)

The cost really escalates when you go over 4 people!

 

[Disneycrazymom]

Did you know that the Magic will sail from CA for the summer of 2005? That might change your plans? We did our first Disney cruise last summer and they are wonderful. We did a cat 5 with balcony for 4 (2A, DD4, DS11) and I think all total it was about $9000. Now that includes EVERYTHING but a cruise on Disney is not inexpensive. Post over on the cruise board and there are some money saving ideas, like getting 2 cabins instead of 1 suite. I will say that we booked while on board for June 06 so we thought it was worth the money. If you go with an on-line agency you can get a stateroom credit and that helps. Happy sailing!

 

[my3kids]

I would get a quote from www.cruisequick.com for the cruise. It is generally cheaper to book just the cruise, then book the land. They could price it both ways then you could compare their package rate with whatever land rate you find on your own. I don't know if the 7 night land/sea is adding the dining option for the cruise guests. It really would be a nice thing so most food is covered for the whole week.

 

[my3kids]

Also, if you looked at off the cuff rates for a family of 5, it would have been in one category 4 room. You can book 2 connecting category 10 rooms for less on the ship. Also, the category 4 room means you are paying rack rates for the hotel portion in a deluxe resort, one room. The category 10 rooms would be rack, or standard rate at a moderate resort in 2 rooms.

 

[CheapMom]

Hi- we just got back from a December 4 day sea, 4 day land trip. We did not get a package.
Our grand total for
4 night DCL cruise- CAT 4: 2624
tips and misc charges on the cruise: $375
3 nights at ASMO: $186
3 day park hoppers from ALAMo: $609
rental car from airport to WDW, then the port $32
rental car from port to wdw>airport: $128
Airfare from Vacation Express: $416
drumroll please.... $4370
That doesn't include food we ate while at WDW (We ate so much on the cruise we barely ate at WDW anyway.) There are some misc things I didn't include - like gas for the rental car, tips for baggage people...
Also we got easy because our fifth person is a baby (age 2) so we could all stay in 1 room at a value resort and of course no park tickets needed, also free airfare for him.
Hope this helps.

 

[Amirah95]

CheapMom that is great! How did you go about making up your package and who did you go through to book it? Was everything separate...did you go through Dreams or Travelocity or wherever? Disney 2003 was the start of me personalizing my own vacations and before we use to let a TA do all of our vacations (costly). I'm testing a few different ways although we won't be doing a land/sea until our DD is at least 13 years old.

DH wanted me to ask: how can we save money if we want a good size category with a balcony? Is there time of year where the rooms are on discount (what a question)?

It will be DH, myself, DD13, DNiece 14, DNiece 16 and DNiece 16 (all girls) at the time we go. Like I said before, we are quoting packages now and most come over 5k. By then it will be a lot more of course.

 

[maggiew]

I hope I don't get flamed but maybe you should look into another cruise line for the cruise and then do the Disney land package on your own with the great information from these boards.

I priced out a 4 night cruise for 5 (my mom, me, DH, and 2 DDs) for this coming June on Disney and it was $5500. I priced a very similar itinerary on Royal Caribbean and it is $2500. As much as I really wanted to do the Disney Cruise, I just couldn't justify the extra $3000. That can pay for a whole Disney trip for us.

Just my opinion. Others think the difference in price is worth it. I have never been on a Disney cruise (or any cruise for that matter) so I can't really say.

Maggie

 

[Tigger&Belle]

I also priced a 2006 cruise for our family of 6 (1 week cruise) and was shocked at how expensive it was. We decided that we'd consider a 2007 cruise, for our 25th anniversary. That's a long way off, but it gives us something to plan and look forward to.

One hint that I read is that if you need to rooms to book one outside cabin room with a balcony and the other inside, across the hall. Obviously, that would only work with older children, but mine will be 7, almost 14, almost 17, and 19. I figure I can keep my youngest with me and put the older kids across the hall. They can visit our balcony.

Expensive vacations for sure!

I would consider a different cruise line, depending on our financial situation in a year from now (we have a DD starting college).

T&B

 

[estherhead]

Ok, I admit that I am a cheapskate. But I'm a cheapskate that is willing to go with less luxury wise and take more vacations. That is my motto. This year in early December I am taking a cruise for a whole week and then doing a week at Disney. My sister has a family of five and she too is going. Here is the plan:

We are going on another cruiseline (not sure I'm allowed to say which) for a seven day cruise that leaves from Port Canaveral. I realize it isn't Disney, but it was only $380.00 per adult, $190.00 per kid plus taxes. The rooms are for 4 only so we are taking another couple with us and her eldest son will technically be in their room, while really sleeping in my sister's. The cruiseline said they do this all the time and it's legal. Even getting 2 rooms however, the cruise would have cost them $1710.00 plus taxes ($2635.05.) Her cruise this way, taxes and port fees included is $2255.05.

Then we rented an off property home with it's own heated pool. I bartered with lots of owners and got a 5 bedroom house with pool heat and tax included for $700.00. So that will cost her $233.33. She has a baby so he is free into the park. She'll get 5 day hopper MYW tickets that do expire which will cost $862.66 for 2 adult and 2 children. We will eat breakfast at home, get to the parks super early, go home for lunch at around 2 pm, and then home again for dinner at 7pm. We'll grocery shop the day we get there and each spend about $100.00. We drive down from Ohio.

Her total cost for a family of five is $3451.04 for 16 days of vacation. That doesn't include snacks in the park or gasoline or excursions on the cruise or parking, perhaps $1000.00 more.

If you had to fly you can find lots of cheap tickets on-line and rental cars in Orlando are a snap and cheap. You could do it for an additional $1000.00.

We have done this kind of trip many a time and always have a fabulous time. I simply don't have $10000.00 but I adore travelling and cruising and Disney.

The $5548.93 still in your pocket will make the extra effort in planning worth it.

Stay on this board and you won't have to spend $10000.00.

Esther

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Estherhead, are there lots of children's activities on "the other cruise line"? I'm not opposed to going on a non-Disney cruise, but know that since my kids are growing up that this first cruise (in 2 1/2 years) would be my last logical time to do a Disney cruise. Even then only one of my kids would be in the single digits and the others would be teens. I figure that I need to start researching this now so I'll be ready to book when they start the 2007 bookings later this year.

T&B

 

[tazdeb]

Our family went on a RCCL cruise which has great facilities for kids. They have a supervised kids club that is free from 8am-10pm. After 10 it cost $5 an hour. My 7 and 8 year olds didn't want to leave. They play games, make crafts,dress up as pirates and take over the ship etc... I have never been on a Disney cruise but have heard it is every bit as good as Disney minus the characters, but I figure you'll get enough of them in the World.....TAZ

 

[denisenh]

A lot of great tips here for you. I agree, stay on these boards to learn all kinds of money saving tips. We spent $10,000 easy on a family trip before I found this message board.
Big mistakes I made: used a US airways package, used length of stay passes for 8 or 9 days (2 adults, 2 Teens and 2 over 3 year old kids = mega bucks). Now I know better! I book air, hotel, tix, car individually often with discounts and pay a fraction of that $10,000 for a WDW vacation.

 

[studog100]

I would never book a package. I have found over the years that it is cheaper to piece a vacation together.
Try expedia for the cruise. For some reason it would allow me to book the basic stateroom for $300 less than Disney. Any mandatory upgrades made by Disney would be free.
Wow! $10K is a LOT of money.
Think hard about it

 

[lUVTOGO]

We did the Disney Cruise twice and it was our best vacations!! Post on the cruise board and you will get a lot of help!! It can be done for a lot cheaper than 10,000, especially for a 4 day cruise, and if you book the land portion yourself!