Am I nuts to book a last minute cruise on the Fantasy? Anyone done this?

[MickeyD]

I am looking at possibly booking the Feb 20th Fantasy. The price wasn't too bad for a gtd veranda (about what we paid for our 2015 Fantasy). I am kicking myself that I didn't re book onboard, but I never do.
Other than possibly not getting any excursions I want, what other things would I be missing out on?
Flights are actually cheap to MCO, so that isn't a factor. We have enough Marriott points to stay overnight at the port for nothing.
I am just tired of cold and no sun and ready to get away.

thanks
Lisa

 

[jane01jp]

If you can do it, you are nuts not to.

I wouldn't worry about shore excursions - you can always do them on your own.

Palo may be full for the brunches.

Go for it!

 

[Jennifer777]

We booked last minute (GTV) like this for our first cruise. The only other special consideration I can think of is that you won't know your room number until a week or so before you cruise, if that's important to you. You could still get some of the excursions you want if you keep checking every day. We got our first cabana less than a month before our cruise due to someone else canceling. You could also book private excursions, there's always plenty of those left this far in advance and usually even the day you dock at port. I would go for it!

 

[MickeyD]

I think my other concerns are not knowing our room number, and it being non refundable. There are a few places on the ship I would not want to be, like right above the kid's club or right below the pool deck. I did go on costco travel and checked actual room numbers, and I can book without the gty, but it is about $1000 more! Does anyone know if travel insurance is unallowable so close to the date? And if you can get travel insurance, would this cover the non refundable cruise rate as well? Hope that question makes sense. LOL

 

[Maggie'sMom]

Booking *GT does give you the risk of a less desirable stateroom location, but I'd rather be on a cruise in a "not perfect" stateroom location than not on a cruise.

Travel insurance coverage is obtainable and will cover the *GT fares. You will need to purchase the insurance within a certain amount of time of booking the cruise in order to get coverage for certain things, like pre-existing medical issues and cancel for any reason coverage. I can't remember what that time period is, 48 hours maybe? Go ahead and check a website that allows you to compare travel insurance policies so you know how soon you need to purchase that.

There are always some reservations for Palo and Remy held back for people to book onboard so if you can't book those ahead of time, don't fret.

 

[MickeyD]

Thank you Maggie's Mom! Very helpful information.

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

Our first sailing was 6/2012 and we fell in love immediately. We ended up booking a *GT about 2 weeks after returning and went again in 8/2012 and that was about 3-4 weeks before our sail date. I've booked another one with a friend about 3-4 weeks out, also another *GT rate. I can say that I've been pleased with each *GT cabin or even the GTY cabins I've received and wouldn't hesitate to do it again if the price was right and the dates/airfare lined up as well. As others noted, yes indeed you can still add insurance (which we always have) so just shop around if needed.

Go for it
Heather

 

[bumbershoot]

Flights are actually cheap to MCO

Remember that airfares can change in the blink of an eye, so if you're going to do this, do it as fast as possible.

And if you can get travel insurance, would this cover the non refundable cruise rate as well?

That's the point of travel insurance; to cover the nonrefundable parts of a trip.


If it all works out perfectly, do it. Sounds nice.


As for being assigned a stateroom, it wouldn't really matter to me where it was. Bring earplugs and let yourself be rocked to sleep by the ocean.

 

[miss m]

Every cruise we have taken (5 so far) has been last minute GTY. We've never had a bad cabin and have found advantages to every location on the ship. I've also found that booking this way has made our trips more relaxed; knowing you can't plan everything is somewhat freeing! Have a wonderful trip.

 

[Ofinn]

I dont even consider that last minute. We get better rooms booking with a VGT rates than if I picked the room. We have always gotten cat 5a or 5b. If I was picking the room Im sure I would pick the cheapest category like a 7a.

 

[ironwill1979]

We just booked the Disney Fantasy for the Feb 6th sailing a couple days before Christmas. We were booked for a veranda GT and got our stateroom assignment within 5 days. My primary interest in this sailing is the Star Wars Day At Sea, so I was interested in booking only 1 excursion, which happened to be available. Palo was sold out, however we will check onboard and given past experience I'm reasonably certain we'll be able to book something at that time with no issue. I definitely say "Go for it!".

 

[MickeyD]

Thank you all for the replies and the encouragement. It's funny because I really don't care that it is SWDAS as I (gasp) have never seen Star Wars...I am more of a Trekkie truth be told. We actually opted for the April 30th sailing (I think that is the right one), so we could see a different port (Falmouth). I feel much more confident booking a GTY in the future now from all your replies.

 

[ironwill1979]

Thank you all for the replies and the encouragement. It's funny because I really don't care that it is SWDAS as I (gasp) have never seen Star Wars...I am more of a Trekkie truth be told. We actually opted for the April 30th sailing (I think that is the right one), so we could see a different port (Falmouth). I feel much more confident booking a GTY in the future now from all your replies.

Enjoy!

 

[n2mm]

We just booked last minute too on the magic February 25 - b2b. The only downside for us is not getting an early port arrival time. We got 12:30pm. Also only late dining seating available. I was watching the 7 night cruises as the prices were good, but my husband said he thought the theme would be too distracting since we were not fans. I like to do the trivia onboard and figured it would only be Star Wars theme too, lol. I still got a 7 night with two stops at castaway cay. Also, I just added insurance yesterday through insure in trip. I booked my cruise a few days ago.

 

[MickeyD]

We just booked last minute too on the magic February 25 - b2b. The only downside for us is not getting an early port arrival time. We got 12:30pm.

Honestly, I was so excited for our early PAT on our last Fantasy cruise, and then Budget was such a mess that we ended up an hour past our PAT, it really didn't make that much of a difference, it was still easy on the ship and Cabanas was fine for lunch. A b2b would be great. The Magic is my fav ship because i have been on her the most. Have a great trip!

 

[n2mm]

Honestly, I was so excited for our early PAT on our last Fantasy cruise, and then Budget was such a mess that we ended up an hour past our PAT, it really didn't make that much of a difference, it was still easy on the ship and Cabanas was fine for lunch. A b2b would be great. The Magic is my fav ship because i have been on her the most. Have a great trip!

Thanks. This is our first time trying a B2B. Our second time on Magic, but we have now sailed all 4 ships. At least on the second half of our cruise we don't have to worry about a PAT!

 

[Ofinn]

Honestly, I was so excited for our early PAT on our last Fantasy cruise, and then Budget was such a mess that we ended up an hour past our PAT, it really didn't make that much of a difference, it was still easy on the ship and Cabanas was fine for lunch. A b2b would be great. The Magic is my fav ship because i have been on her the most. Have a great trip!

We always take a cab from the rental agencys. Its well worth the 20 bucks.

 

[scootch]

We booked 29 days before our November Fantasy cruise. Only issue I had was getting early dining. I had a noon port arrival time, but we stayed at the Hyatt and were on the first bus and one of the first people in port, it was truly empty. I had boarding group 10. I ended up not booking anything for Mexico, but my kids were nervous about us going alone, and ended up getting an excursion the same day.

 

[jburge12000]

Month and a half is plenty of time. Have done 2 cruises that we booked over the weekend and left 5-6 days later for the cruise. Even that late, I have not had any issues getting the port adventures we wanted. The only thing we encountered was that we could not get spa reservations.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

We just did dec 11th on the dream, booked late November.

We were looking for shore excursions for our swdas cruise Jan 23rd and decided we didn't want to wait that long.

Only consequence was we ended up in second seating. That wasn't all bad though. We found second seating wasn't as bad as we thought.

Do it!