Booking a Disney Cruise in the UK

[Scottish_Maleficent]

Just wondered what your thoughts were on who to book with for a Disney Cruise. Thinking of doing the 3 night cruise at the beginning of our trip next year

 

[princess jackson]

We recently booked a 7 night cruise for next year with virgin, booked a flydrive and cruise, no problems. arranging own accomodation for before and afterwards.

I found it difficult finding a tour operator who did the 7 night cruise, i think the 3/4 night cruises are more popular.

 

[florida sun]

Cath

I booked mine direct with Disney Cruise lines on their website below:

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/dcl/en_US/index?bhcp=1

Very easy to get a price and you can select the type of cabin you want and the dates, you just need to pay a deposit and then the balance 75 days out.

I have also heard great things about Dreams Unlimited :

http://www.dreamsunlimitedtravel.com/

Hope that helps

 

[saratogagirl]

Cath

I walys book mine with an American Travel Agent AllSeas Travel, do a search on them, they are great and nothing is too much trouble for them. Our travel agent has been John for the past two years and he is fab, will go way beyonf the call of duty for you. This year he booked our Magical Express for us as I was having problems, we did not even book this part of the trip with them ....

 

[Laurafoster]

I also booked mine direct with Disney Cruise line - via the website - was very easy and i even got to select the exact cabin i wanted!

Its my first cruise so we are also doing a 3 day one at the end of our honeymoon!

 

[Boo Boo Too]

I have also heard great things about Dreams Unlimited :

http://www.dreamsunlimitedtravel.com/

Yes, I have booked a cruise (our one and only Disney Cruise) through Dreams Unlimited. They were great (but we are not hugely demanding) and they sometimes offer bonuses for booking through them like a "stateroom credit" (i.e. they will credit your stateroom account with a certain amount in dollars for you to spend when you get there...).

There interesting thing to know about booking with a US Travel Agent (like Dreams Unlimited) is that if the cost of your stateroom/cabin DROPS between when you book and your departure, you can have that price drop (i.e. your final balance is reduced). You normally have to monitor this yourself, but as soon as you point it out, they will make the adjustment. We benefited from this during our Disney Cruise: we were booked in a "category 5" (balcony) cabin, the prices dropped so we upgraded to a "category 4" (bigger family balcony) for the same price. Dreams managed that, without a problem, for us.

If you booked the cruise through Virgin (or any regular package holiday operator) you would not benefit from any price drop - their prices are fixed.

If I was you, I would shop around and see what works out cheapest: pricing packages (with Virgin/BA etc), pricing the cruise seperately with fly drives and scheduled flights + seperate car etc... definitely worth getting a quote from Dreams Unlimited though

Boo

 

[Lindy Loo]

Use Dreams unlimited, Sue ellen.... shes fab!

 

[Merylj]

Dreams Unlimited for us also Our 7 day cruise last year was a $1000 cheaper with them than with Disney direct.

 

[keme]

We did ours with walmart.com and found it so much cheaper. Tickets arrived at the villa we own and our management company picked them up for us.

 

[kristieuk]

We shopped around a little, but it was no more expensive to book with DCL directly, so we did that - just easy to choose your cabin, and pay online when the $ rate is good. I would shop around, and decide then.

Just book as far out as you can - there are early booking discounts, and the prices creep up as more staterooms are booked. If you do need to cancel, you get a full refund up to 75 days out.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

I book my holiday flights and some hotels with virgin but book my DCL cruise through DREAMS UNLIMITED, they have been very good I use KELSIE JOHNSON, and very helpful with a strong pound I have paid my dollars off quickly saving a lot and get a shipboard credit, previous years was a discount.

I find they are very good.

 

[StephenKay]

Hi there,

We cruise last Oct and have booked a 7 night cruise with DU for next Oct 07, the first cruise was booked via expedia and the second from DU. What I have found out the many of the great prices are when the booking is made far out.

PS Best Wishes to you all from Oman, currently in the armed forces.

 

[Scottish_Maleficent]

Thanks everyone. I've requested a quote from Dreams Unlimited, and I've also checked prices from Disney. I'd like to be able to choose my own cabin - can you only do this by booking direct with Disney??The family suite witht the veranda sounds lovely - but an inside stateroom us much cheaper LOL!!!

I just need to convince DH that we 'need' a Disney cruise, but I'm sure it won't be too difficult.

 

[Boo Boo Too]

Thanks everyone. I've requested a quote from Dreams Unlimited, and I've also checked prices from Disney. I'd like to be able to choose my own cabin - can you only do this by booking direct with Disney??The family suite witht the veranda sounds lovely - but an inside stateroom us much cheaper LOL!!!

You can choose your cabin no matter which travel agent you book with.

Just do a "dummy booking" on the Disney Cruise Line website. Go through selecting cruise type, dates, cabin type and when you get to the "Customize Cruise" page you will see a "choose specific stateroom" option under "stateroom". That should show you the 8 "best" staterooms still available in the category that you selected and it will also show a deck plan. If you see another stateroom on the deck plan (or on another deck) that you prefer, then enter it under "looking for a specific stateroom?" - when you click "continue", it will let you know if that stateroom is still available. This will allow you to work out which stateroom (which is still available) that you want.

Once you know which one you want, let your travel agent know the number and they can reserve that one for you. I have done this a number of times (on Disney, Royal Caribbean and other cruise lines).

I just need to convince DH that we 'need' a Disney cruise, but I'm sure it won't be too difficult.

You would have great fun. A 7 night Disney Cruise was our first cruise and we had a GREAT time . My advice would be to go as long as you can afford: 7 nights if you can, if not then 4, only go for 3 if you are desperate. With a 3 day cruise you would bearly have time to unpack before having to repack again...

Disney tends to be expensive compared with other cruise lines, so if budget is an issue, you could consider Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas (or one of their other ships) that also sale out of Port Canaveral... Mariner isn't Disney, but has rock climbing, in-line skating, ice skating and a slight more adult atmosphere... could be worth looking at.

Best Wishes and have fun planning

Boo

 

[keme]

When we did ours with walmart.com we chose our steroom we had the family room wiht veranda as that was the only ones that could take 2 adults and two children great cabin better than P&O.

We booked our flights through Premier Travel in Kent first which were also over £200 cheaper than VH for 4 of us, and all the travel agents I dealt with in the past, adn booked thec ruise.

Only thing was one of the barmen came from about 5 miles from where we live.

We had Xmas onboard the cruise and ther were very few Brits all the Americans kept buying us drinks!!!

Have a great time

 

[Boo Boo Too]

When we did ours with walmart.com we chose our steroom we had the family room wiht veranda as that was the only ones that could take 2 adults and two children great cabin better than P&O.

You can "choose" your stateroom in two ways:
- choosing the type of stateroom (i.e. "family room with veranda", "inside" etc.)
- choosing your exact stateroom (i.e. by number)

Everybody chooses which type of stateroom they want (that determines the cost of your holiday). Some people also like to choose exactly where their cabin is. For example:
- some people like to the on a high deck (less movement and nearer the pools and buffet)
- some people don't like to be immediately beneath the pool deck because they think it will be noiser (but, in my experience, it hasn't been)
- some people like to be on a low deck (nearer the restaurants and theatre)
- some people like to be in the middle of the ship (less movement)
- some people like to be nearer the buffet or the spa.
- some people prefer port, some people prefer starboard (for various different reasons).
- some people like "aft" cabins (because they have a fantastic view of the wake of the ship), although the aft tends to feel more movement and may feel engine vibration more.
- sometimes there are slight differences in cabins (i.e. size/shape/type of window/balcony) within the same class of cabins.

Anybody considering booking a Disney cruise should check out the Disney Cruise forums on DIS - they really helped me a LOT for my first cruise

Boo