Disney air package or book my own?

[cruiser]

A few weeks ago, we booked a 7 day Western cruise for Christmas of 2002. This will be our third Disney cruise and we are very excited. We are considering adding a day at WDW after the cruise, however, I was informed that Disney charges some change fees associated with flying out a day late. We live on the west coast (fly out of Portland, Oregon), so air fare is pretty pricey, on previous trips we have stuck with Disney assuming they can negotiate a better fare than we can.

What do you guys think? Do you book your own air, or use the Disney package? If you book your own air, do you have any favorite sites you use to locate good prices?

Thanks,

Lee

 

[candleonwater]

I booked my own airfare (DC - Orlando) because I wanted to fly down two days early - and Disney was going to charge me a $50 pp deviation fee... So instead I got my airfare on my own, for about 1/2 what Disneys rate would have been (if you included the change fee)

 

[pal2pluto]

When we booked through AAA, our travel agent (who knew very little about DCL) knew that Disney air rates were high, so she booked the flights for us. This next time, I called US Air directly and got the same rates my TA gave me for the last trip. I suggest calling the airlines yourself as a starting point. expedia.com also has rates, but I've never bought flight tickets off the net. But that is a good way to compare pricing. I know flights to the same location but leaving at different times can vary by hundreds of dollars.

 

[kplatt]

We had Disney book the air for our first cruise and won't do it again. You have much more control and can save money if if you do it yourself.

Disney didn't give us our flight times until about 3 weeks before our cruise. They kick you off the ship by 9 am, and our flight was not until 4:45 pm. We spent the day waitlisting for flights that would get us out earlier, but nothing became available.

Karen
Wonder 11/01
Magic 3/02
Wonder 11/02

 

[din]

We got our own air. I asked for a quote and they were a little higher than a quote from the web. Since I had about a year to work on the air I checked all airline and web site on a regular basis if the site did not provide e-mail of new fares.

We got lucky as there was a special by Delta for $150 round trip from west coast to MCO with only one stop!! The catch was that the sale was for two days only. After the two days the price was back up.

Guess what I am trying to say in a long about way ... is that if you have time and patience it may payoff to get a great price by hunting on your own..

GOOD LUCK!!!! Hope this helps..

 

[atigeg]

We generally book our airfare, although we have done it through Disney a few times when we booked a cruise at the last minute or when we got a better rate through them (happened a couple times when we sailed on a holiday). Overall, I prefer booking my own flights so I know that we will be flying in early or even the night before. We use Happy Limo, so we don't have to worry about the Disney buses, and we get great rates froim Hotwire and Priceline for the night-before hotel rates. I like having as much control as possible, and often we end up on the "Disney Cruise Line" American Airlines flight anyway!
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com