Better deal? lAND AND SEA COMBO OR DO SEP?

[ValDisney]

hI eVERYONE.
I booked my 2nd Disney cruise for Dec 2006. I have 2 friends who want to come. One called her travel agent who told her its a betterdeal if you do the land and sea combo. If she does this, she will not be on my cruise. When I priced it out last yr< I thought it was better to do each sep. What do you guys think?
Thanks
Valerie

 

[TinkersMagicDust]

It really depends how long you want to go
IT is much cheaper to do it on your own . AAA has the best hotel rates
64.40 instead of 99.00 for a value.
WE are going for 7 day cruise and 7 day disney and found we are only paying 430.oo more for 7 more days of fun.
7 days with tickets premium passes at a value hotel was only 1200 for 3 adults.
so it really up to you to figure if you book in January for disney through AAA you get a better rate,.

 

[vossjemi]

And sometimes its hard to price it out because we are staying in a cat 10 SPR but wanted the poly for WDW, and the packages don't work like that. You have to stay in your same category for both the cruise/resort. But, I priced it both ways and tried to figure out the difference both ways, and it still seemed cheaper to me to do it separately. Of course, you have to factor in park tickets too because they should be included in your package.

edited to add: Also, when you book on your own, you can do it in the order you like. The packages do WDW/cruise, but we are doing it the other way around...cruise/WDW.

 

[jacobatt1]

For us, it was actually cheaper to do the land/sea through Disney. I priced it both ways. If you have a coupon for the hotel room to get a better rate (like from mousesavers), they will still apply it to the room rate even if you have the package.

Several things that might affect it:

We booked a year in advance, so maybe the early booking discount through Disney was at its cheapest

We went in October when it is cheaper

We wanted to stay at AKL anyway, and it matched up with the room category we wanted, and it was one of their choices (if I had priced cheaper hotels with a cruise, it probably would have been less, but to stay at AKL and then cruise was more than our quote for Land/Sea, and of course it was nice to check in only once)

So you might want to price it both ways, although if your friends want to go with you, it may be better even if they spend more money!

HTH

Amy

 

[vacation disney]

We also priced it both ways and the land sea package was cheaper. Booked 2 months in advance, leaving Thursday.........YIPEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

 

[Hygiene99]

Check both Ways..


vacation disney.. when booking at a late time such as 2 months before the cruise the prices will be higher ...as the closer, the cruise gets the higher the price goes..

 

[vacation disney]

After reading all the wonderful info on these boards.......we plan to book a 7 day cruise for 2006 while on board.( as long as we like DCL as much as we think we will!!! )

 

[kcashner]

You really can't predict which is cheaper--you have to price out exactly what you want. You do have more flexibility if you book things separately--for example, you can choose your resort category and your cabin category independently.

Some things that may make the price difference....the land/sea packages include what used to be called Ultimate Park Hopper passes. These get you into anything anytime. However....you pay a premium price for them. If you won't use the water parks or pleasure island, tickets that don't include these features could be a more economical way for you to go.

Depending on season, discounts available, etc. hotel rooms can be much cheaper than on the land/sea package. Depending on number of people, it can be cheaper to use a private limo than DCL transfers. Again, you have to price it out both ways. Remember that if you use travel insurance thru Disney, you will need 2 separate policies if you book separately. However, private companies offer policies that will cover both parts of your trip.

 

[zachsmomie]

Jacobatt1,
I am not sure I read your post correctly. If I find a code for the time period of our land portion of the vacation Disney will discount the land portion for me? Is that right? How do you get them to do that?

 

[SueEllen]

I price these daily. Often it is less expensive to do the land/sea package than to book it separately. I would say about 80% of these have priced out less as a package (especially in the deluxe resorts.)

As others have said, it depends on how far in advance you book and what you are booking.

Sue Ellen