Booking a disney cruise?

[jaddychicken21]

Hi, first post on here!
My names jared and im from birmingham, england!
basically i'd love to book a cruise with disney cruise lines, but im not sure what to do. i've never been on a cruise before and it will be between me, my girfrind and our son who is obsessed with disney
Do i book it on the disney cruise website, or is it best to go through like a third party website or a travel agent?
this will be my first cruise and basically the first holiday i have book, so any help will be greatly appreciated

 

[mandymouse]

Welcome to the UK Community Jared

I live just down the M6 from you, near Coventry

I have taken a few Disney Cruises, and I have got to the stage where I love to cruise rather than go to WDW

We tend to book our cruises through the Disney Cruise Line website, though many on the UK Forums use a travel agent too (I will move this thread over to the UK Planning forums, where I am sure you will get lots of help)

If I was you, I would read up on the Disney Cruise Line forum on here and read lots of trip reports too

Have fun planning your first cruise

 

[jaddychicken21]

i Used to do motocross in coventry Thankyou I'll have a look at those forums and i might try get a load of quotes from all the places up town, I'll come back with my results and see if they are anygood If anyone has any cruise companies or anything they want to recommend to me then please feel free to do so, i need all the help i can get

 

[luke]

I use Dreams Unlimited Travel to book my cruises. They are owned by the same people who own the DISboards. You'll basically get the same price as booking through Disney but will get a higher onboard credit

 

[wilma-bride]

Hi Jared and welcome to the DIS. There are many ways to book a Disney Cruise but the main ones are:

• Through DCL direct, on their website or by phone
• Through a UK travel company, such as Virgin Holidays Cruises
• Through a US travel agent, such as Dreams Unlimited

We have been on 3 Disney Cruises and have a 4th booked for next October. The first cruise we booked was through Dreams Unlimited, sponsors on this site www.dreamsunlimitedtravel.com

Subsequent cruises have been booked while we were still onboard (you get extra incentives such as a discount, reduced deposit and onboard credit (OBC) for rebooking whilst still onboard). We then choose to transfer our bookings to Dreams Unlimited, which usually earns us an additional OBC and means we have an agent to manage any changes we may want to make in the future, such as a change of date, dinner seating time, stateroom or even linking up with other cruisers so we can be seated together at dinner.

This is not without its possible pitfalls aswell, since you can end up doing a lot of to-ing and fro-ing if you want to make change and, if using a US agent, the time difference can mean you often don't get a response instantaneously. However, I have found DU to be a pleasure to deal with and have always had responses from our TA within 1 or 2 working days.

A lot of the DISers here on the UK board have taken Disney Cruises so feel free to ask any questions you might have and everyone will be more than happy to answer. Do you know yet which of the four ships or which itinerary you might want to sail?

ETA: It might be worth having a look at options and pricing on the DCL website, then doing the actual booking through DU - that way you will have an agent who you can ask questions of but you will have an idea of what you want before booking

 

[jaddychicken21]

I'll try all of them out, i've been up town today and a lot of the places where no help at all, offering me stupid cruises on different companies. i've yet to try phoning some places and web quotes

 

[jaddychicken21]

Has anyone used http://www.cruise.co.uk/ before?
so far they have offered me the cheapest deal?

 

[jaddychicken21]

So i'm paying £669 per person for a balcony room with everything included basically

 

[disneyholic family]

i've been on 3 disney cruises.

the first 2 were booked directly with disney cruise lines.

My most recent (last month) was booked with dreams unlimited, which was the same price as disney, but gave me an onboard credit.

i've found that most agents have the same price for disney..

i've found that the cheapest website for cruises in general tends to be cruises.com (a US site).
However, i didn't find them to be cheaper for disney cruises.

i was very pleased with my dreams unlimited service on our cruise last month and when i rebooked on board, i listed dreams unlimited as my travel agent. when you do that, Dreams gives you a double on board credit. (twice the amount than if you just transfer your booking).

 

[wilma-bride]

So i'm paying £669 per person for a balcony room with everything included basically

On what length of cruise? What dates? Which itinerary?

 

[RDP]

Currently having breakfast in BC after a recent 3 night Dream Cruise, 3 nights is not long enough!

 

[wayneg]

Has anyone used http://www.cruise.co.uk/ before?
so far they have offered me the cheapest deal?

All websites should be the same price for Disney cruises. If its cheaper then make sure you have a final price with all taxes, fees, credit card charges etc.

Personally I use DreamsUnlimitedTravel.com same price as others but extra onboard credit as others have said.

Currently having breakfast in BC after a recent 3 night Dream Cruise, 3 nights is not long enough!

Never done 3 nights, by the time you board first day and off by 8am last day its really a 2 day cruise, I always advise 4 days minimum.

 

[heatherbelle]

As others have said, all travel agents should be charging the same price for your cruise. The only difference will be the OBC that you may be offered.

I use Dreams unlimited too for my Disney cruises. I have moved dates numerous times and changed cabin requests and there are no charges for doing so.


Next year we are trying Carnival. I had trouble finding a US travel agent, as they can't sell flights for Non US cities. My next cruise is in the Med. we decided to fly in the same day as the cruise boards, to save money, which was offset against having a balcony cabin. I have always wanted to try one just once.

Anyway, Carnival have changed the itinerary of our cruise since booking, and they are now going to Greece and Turkey, neither of which I fancy and we have lost Monaco and Majorca.

Because I have booked through a UK travel agent, then I cannot cancel the cruise. Buried in the fine print in Virgin Cruises terms and conditions it says more than three port changes are considered a major change. So if we want to cancel, then I will forfeit the deposit. Had I booked directly with Carnival I could have received a full refund.

So lesson learnt by me. I will never book a cruise with a UK travel agent again.

When I went on my Disney Med cruise, I booked everything myself, but I did have the reassurance of flying in the day before the cruise, as we had a post cruise stay. My cruise itself was booked with Kelsie at Dreams.

At least if you book your Florida cruise with a US TA you can always cancel and rebook with another operator up until final payment.

I did moan a bucket full to Carnival about my experience with Virgin and they have been really helpful, so thumbs up to them.

So please bear my experience in mind if booking with a UK TA. If it's the ship that matters to you and you don't mind where you go, then that's not a problem. But if it's the ports that matter, then book with a US TA.

Of course I do release that changes happen to port schedules, but the ship isn't sailing for another 9 months. I would expect changes Once i was onboard due to a hurricane or bad weather, or even the floods in Venice. As I said to Carnival, if you get on a plane that's going to Orlando and you end up in Turkey you wouldn't be very happy.

Edit - if funds allow go for the longest cruise possible, three days isn't enough. Try a week! Don't forget to re-shop your next cruise onboard to take advantage of the larger OBC and smaller deposit. You can always change the cruise later.

 

[disneyholic family]

four days isn't enough on the disney dream, so 3 days certainly won't be enough.

 

[wayneg]

four days isn't enough on the disney dream, so 3 days certainly won't be enough.

Not a massive fan of the new ships myself. I have been looking at sailing from Miami next April to sail on the Wonder for 4 days rather than the Dream from Port Canaveral.
I don't know if its the size of the new ones, certainly wasn't happy with the adult pool on the Dream, preferred food on Magic and Wonder but menus change, nowhere to enjoy a late evening drink like the Promenade Lounge. Mart & Nigel asked us to go on Dream again this summer but declined, not worth the money to me unfortunately.

 

[heatherbelle]

Not a massive fan of the new ships myself. I have been looking at sailing from Miami next April to sail on the Wonder for 4 days rather than the Dream from Port Canaveral.
I don't know if its the size of the new ones, certainly wasn't happy with the adult pool on the Dream, preferred food on Magic and Wonder but menus change, nowhere to enjoy a late evening drink like the Promenade Lounge. Mart & Nigel asked us to go on Dream again this summer but declined, not worth the money to me unfortunately.

The amount of posters that say they prefer the older ships is amazing. Lots of my cruise buddies say the same thing Wayne. I think they just prefer the smaller ships. I would love the chance to sail on the larger ones just to satisfy my curiosity. Sadly funds won't allow. Maybe one day.

 

[luke]

I've only ever sailed the Wonder and Magic (a 4 day Bahamas and a 7 day Med) and loved them.
Really looking forward to trying the Fantasy next Easter though