Adding a day at the beginning of a land/sea package

[froggymomma]

After all of the help I received regarding handling eating and my DS's allergies - I knew this was the place to come with my next question.

We have a 3 day land/4 day sea package 10/16/03-10/23/03. We're staying at the Poly. I'm booking my own air separately, but have purchased the transfer package. After looking at the departure times on 10/16 - I realized that if we want to truly enjoy all three days at WDW, I need to consider flying in the night before.

If I fly in the night before my land/sea pkg, will my airport/WDW transfer still work? If I book an additional night at the Poly do I need to check out and check back in as part of my package? Will I likely have to change rooms at that time too? I had hoped that they give land/sea package folks good rooms - better than I would get if I only book a single night, so it may be to my benefit to check out/in. I booked the original trip through a local TA and would probably work with her on the new reservation, especially if it would make the transfers work better.

Sorry this sounds so jumbled. I want us to start our WDW trip rested and ready to go - and that is not going to happen with a 4YO and a 7 am flight out.

Has anyone done this - and do you have any advice?

 

[Michelle]

If you add on a night to your land/sea I would advise doing it as a separate room-only reservation to take advantage of any discounts that are offered. You COULD add it on through DCL but the rate they use is "rack rate" and no discounts are available.

As for transfers, I would DROP the first leg of your transfers if you decide to come in a day early. When you come in on the days that aren't part of the normal package they do NOT pick up your luggage for you and transport it to the resort for you, so you're better off getting a town car service or using Mears transportation for that day, since you have to claim your own bags anyway.

You probably will NOT have to switch rooms, just tell them when you check in that you are starting a land/sea package the next day and if space is available they will be able to keep you in the same room.

Have a great time!

 

[epjenk]

You don't want to do your add-on through DCL for the land/sea package because if they do the add-on it includes park tickets for the add on day. They said they can't add the night without adding the whole package for the extra night. We are doing the same thing and we booked the extra night w/the hotel directly.

 

[Fay Ray]

Froggymomma,
Last year we added a day at POR to our land/sea package.
We used a limo service to get from the airport to WDW, then
used the Disney transportation to Port Canaveral. The pain of it was that we had to check in twice at POR. Once for the first night and then again the next morning for the package. We didn't have to move rooms, but I had to stand in line when I could have been in one of the parks. I voiced my complaint via email when I returned. I have no idea if the policy has changed.

I would recommend not using the Disney transportion at all. If you make your own arrangements for your whole trip, you can get to the ship when you want (early!). We had to wait until 11:00 to leave POR with the Disney transportation. The bus we were assigned to was almost full and we didn't get to sit together. Not a big deal, but for the same money I would use Happy Limo or one the the other services recommended by DIS'ers.

 

[froggymomma]

Thanks for all of the input so far. At this point I am planning on talking with my TA to cancel the first leg of the transfers. Since our DS is 4YO and I'm not that interested in making too many reservation on the ship, I'm thinking it would work out okay to take the transfer to the Wonder and spend the morning at the Poly pool and getting him a snack before the trip.

I know now not to book the additional day through DCL (thanks!) - would it be better to add it through my travel agent, or contact Disney directly? I am a AAA member so I believe there is some (small) discount available.

Any suggestions on the cheapest way to book a room for a single night? There was almost $100 difference in booking a garden view versus a lagoon view when I checked online at WDW site. Does it really matter?

Is there a number or website that you would recommend for our initial transfer to the Poly from MCO? I think people have mentioned Happy Limo? Good experiences?

Any additional suggestions you could make would be appreciated!About 6 months to go!!!

 

[jlp651]

I was going to try this...with a catagory 7 we would have been at the poly. I down graded the hotel and then it would have cost us -for 2 people...and extra $1000.00!!! We opted to make the best out of the time that we were going to be there so that we could use the extra money elsewhere....

 

[yvettpal]

I also added on one-night to our land/sea. I cancelled the airport to resort transfers and used Yourride. You do have to check in again, but we did it early in the morning and there was no line (we had 8:20 am PS at CRT so we were up early). However, the cruise desk was not yet open, so we had to come back to the hotel in the afternoon to check in there.

I booked the extra night with CRO and then checked for discount codes on mousesavers.com and had it applied when they were announced for our travel dates (the code was a better discount than the one for AAA).

We had Disney transfers to the port and opted for the AK pickup.

 

[tpseller]

Froggymama -

We are in EXACTLY the same situation.

We live in California - so it is literally an all day trip to get to Florida.

Here is what I did:

I actually booked us to come in two days early. We are getting in on Tuesday at 9:30 pm. Wednesday will be a relaxing pool day (we need it) with my DH and DD (4). Thursday will start our land/sea package.

We are also staying at the Poly for our Land/Sea portion of the trip. When I checked on the cost for two extra days for the Poly - it was $566 garden and $758 lagoon view!!! (This is with a discount code). Regular cost was over $650 for garden. (All prices are inc tax)

Since one night is getting there and going right to bed I started exploring other options. I ended up booking two nights at the Carribbean Beach Resort for $265.00 total. I figure they have lots of pools and kids stuff - so we will just hang there and swim for the day.

I am hoping that Disney will somehow send over our luggage to Poly - if not, I figure we will store it at CBR till lunch time or so, when we will be coming back to the room anyway for a break. We will pick up the stuff and head over to Poly.

I am not doing the Disney transportation. I called Happy Limo and they were really nice. I got a town car with a booster seat from MCO to CBR, Poly to Port Canavaral and Port Canavaral to MCO for less than the DCL transfers. Plus if you come in after 5:00pm with the DCL transfers - you have to take a shuttle and I hear it is not always convienient. I like the thought of someone toting the bags for us and some peace and quiet.

So that is my story - If you want to wait for a couple of weeks to make your reservations, I can email you when we get back. We are leaving in a week! WOO HOO!
I am a little nervous though!
So I can fill you in on how it went when we return. It may be worth it to pay the extra $$ to stay at one place the whole time.

 

[froggymomma]

tpseller - it's good to know we're not the only one. I would be very interested in hearing about your experiences with the Happy Limo transportation. I checked out their website last night and pricing for the towncar looked reasonable - I would expect it to be the same or less than transfers for three people. Sounds like I need to get a quote from them for the whole package.

At this time there are no discount codes to apply to the Poly in October except for the AAA discount (minimal). I checked mousesavers.com and they suggest booking through the CRO for a room only reservation using the AAA discount and checking back frequently to see if any discounts open up. Although it will cost an arm and a leg to book the Poly for an additional night I am hoping it will get the trip off to a more relaxing start.

Please let me know how it goes - have a wonderful trip!

 

[vicnmickey]

We added a night on to our upcoming land/sea. I booked when I decided to do this and then applied the codes when they came out, disney ressies had no problem with this. I also dropped the first leg of the transfers and booked a van thru Happy Limo for six of us. I actually saved money in the long run. The van with Happy Limo for six was cheaper than the DCL transfers for four.
I will write a trip report when we return. One week and counting

 

[minniecarousel]

Just found this thread - we are flying in from Calif too - & didn't want to waste a touring day travelling. I booked us one night at the Dolphin, because adding a night to the Beach Club was too expensive! (I also considered getting a room at the Hyatt at the airport.) We figure that we'll get up early on Sunday, haul our luggage over to the Beach Club from the Dolphin and get our passes to start our park-hopping! I'm also going to look into the limo service for at least our first hop from the airport.

 

[froggymomma]

So far I've booked the air and the extra night at the Poly. So far no discounts other than AAA are available so the price including tax for a GV was $345. Haven't told my DH the cost yet. Hoping to find a much better discount as we get closer. The CM noted on our reservation that we had 3 nights following as part of the land/sea package and requested that we stay in the same room - so although we have to check out/check in again; we hopefully won't have to deal with packing again. Used Tikiman'site to figure out which long house to request. Chose Tokalau - hopefully it will work out well for us and our 4YO DS.

Now I need to cancel the MCO to WDW leg of the land/sea transfer package and book a towncar - likely with Happy Limo.

When we return from the cruise we plan on renting a car fora few days to visit family in Tampa. Does anyone know which rental agencies are on-site in both MCO amd TPA? Or suggest a website that provides that info?

Hopefully we'll get updates from some tpseller and vicnmickey on how things worked out for them.