Flying with Disney or separate?

[FrenchSnowWhite]

Hi! I'm booking our firs cruine for November 2007

Want to have your advice, do I take the package that disney offers with the plane or buy a separate airplane tickey to arrive the day before?

Have some of you missed the boat because the airplane was late????

Please help me!!!!

 

[labmom97]

We did our airfare on our own. Found it WAY cheaper then disneys, more $$ for the cruise!!

 

[mommasita]

If it were me, I would buy it seperately. It is most often cheaper this way, and definitley more convenient. You can fly in the day before, be well rested, and go by YOUR schedule...

BTW, there are some people who do miss the boat, so better to save than sorry.

Howdy neighbour..

 

[GreatDaneMom]

When we're booking cruises that far out we include the airfare with the cruise line booking. We monitor air rates as we get closer to the actual cruise. If they are bad on the open market we keep the cruise air. If we can purchase the airfares cheaper we cancel the cruise air (before final payment is due) and book air on our own. It kind of gives a price protection just in case fuel prices sky rocket or something.

Cheryl

 

[DisneyMom&Fan]

I initially booked the entire package through DCL. I have since changed our ressie to just the cruise (and transferred to Costco before they changed the discount rule). I have found that doing airfare on your own is not only cheaper, but you have control over your flights (non-stop vs. connecting, day before vs. day of). I then purchased my own travel insurance through insuremytrip*com so it would cover all my travel arrangements (cruise, airfare, hotel).

One drawback of doing it yourself: If you book your flights through DCL, they will hold the ship for you if you are running late. But, if you arrive the day before all should be fine.

Good luck planning your trip! It's the best way to spend time waiting for that cruise!

 

[carl59]

I always book my airfare seperately. I have yet to find a vacation package with airfare that flys from my local airport. They all go from a New York city airport, which are from a hour to 1.5 hours away without hitting traffic. The local is only 15 minutes away and I almost never have traffic problems. What would you do?

 

[mattmommy]

I'm guessing you fly out of MacArthur? I heard it was a nice airport.

I would do it on my own. Repeating what another poster wrote that you have control over direct--connecting and times. I've heard of DCL booking people on early flights on departure day. Who wants that stress?

On 7/1 they held up the ship for a bus that didn't make it in time because of the shuttle launch crowd. I believe it was about an hour hold-up. No big whoop. I felt really bad for the people on the bus stressing about it. The only thing that was disappointing was how they made up for it (they didn't have to) by staying at Key West until 11pm. I would rather have stayed in Grand Cayman or Cozumel longer. I know they never stay late at CC because of the bugs (or so they say).

 

[carolmp]

In 1988 DH and I were flying down for our honeymoon. We were doing the 4-day-sea and 3-day land package with Disney's "Big Red Boat". Due to problems in Cleveland, we missed the ship. There were at least 12 of us on that same plane that were trying to make the ship. All they would have had to do was hold the ship for 1 hour and we would have made it. They did not. Because it was a land/sea combination, we just switched, which turned out better because it was freezing cold. We booked our air through Disney thinking we would be covered if something like that happened. I guess not. In fact, we are flying down from Minnesota in March for a cruise. We were initially schedule to fly down the same day, but after reminding DH about our honeymoon, and knowing the weather in March can be horrible (snow and sleet), we changed to fly down on Friday.

I don't know if it's different since Disney owns the whole thing now, but I wouldn't count on it.

 

[ricka47]

We learned years ago (after getting on an RCI ship in MIA one minute before it sailed!) to get our own air. It's cheaper, more relaxed, and you are on the ship earlier since you are already in town and can go to the pier as soon as the ship is available for boarding.

 

[FrenchSnowWhite]

Thanks for all your comments!

The thing is that we are leaving from Montreal, Canada not a state in US. So the rates are much cheaper for you then for me!

But! like my super TA told me, we booked the flight with Disney, now we are going to wait and see if the flight go up or down. We have 15 months to find a flight a day earlier for about the same price! If we do, we just have to cancel the one with Disney!!!

 

[alwayslisad]

I had booked all 11 of us ( 4 ressies ) through DCL and about 6 months ago went searching for deals. Found each of us round trip tixs for about 175.00 each. I called DCL and deleted AIRFARE and then booked my way. We are all flying in from allover and meeting at MCO within 10 - 20 minutes of each other... it also saved the group of us close to $1500.00 or more! Book yourself and come and go when you want

 

[MinnesotaMouseketeers]

Book the flight on your own and get in the day before. Even paying for a hotel, depending on how many are in your family you'll still save money. To spend while on the cruise

 

[Houzer]

FrenchSnowWhite: We have done both first with DCL because we knew all to well the weather conditions here in Canada. We did fly in the day before but we had just had a snow storm one or two days prior to flying in so we knew if somthing was to of happened we were covered. With that snow storm we were to fly into Orlando early afternoon but we didn't get to the Dolphin until 10:00 pm. If you choose to fly seperate make sure you book at least a day plus so you have at the least 24 hours to play with in Florida just in case. We flew in a few days prior this past year and stayed on Disney for a few days. This year we can't fly out until the day of so we are going with the cruise line package.
Make sure you do what ever you are comfortable with.
Have a WONDERFUL trip.
Houzer

 

[Chattyaholic]

We let Disney do our air for our first cruise, we were newbies and thought the TA should do it for us. We were spending 4 nights at the Contemporary Resort before the cruise, so we didn't worry about missing the cruise. But the Disney air was quite expensive, plus they added on $50/person "deviation fee."

But! For all our other cruises we have done the air on our own. The one time we booked with Dreams Unlimited they said we HAD to fly down the DAY OF THE CRUISE, we were not allowed to fly in the day before. I said, "but, we're in Michigan, a snowstorm could prevent us from flying that day". It did not matter. If we chose Disney's air program, we HAD to fly in the day of the cruise. Not acceptable.

We fly Spirit direct from Detroit to Orlando, or Allegiant Air direct from Lansing to Orlando/Sanford for about $200/person. And we can fly down when we want to that way!!

 

[wdwpirates]

We are going on our first cruise in May 2007. At first when we booked our package we have the air included. After it was booked, I did the math...Disney was charging $1000 for the the flight portion. So I cancelled the package and went with another TA and they were able to get me some on board credit. (an added bonus!!!) So all in all I was able to get airfare for about $500 for the both of us, saving me about $500 on the total trip....more $$$ to spend on jewelry...shhh don't tell DH.

 

[poohfriend]

Thanks for all your comments!

The thing is that we are leaving from Montreal, Canada not a state in US. So the rates are much cheaper for you then for me!

But! like my super TA told me, we booked the flight with Disney, now we are going to wait and see if the flight go up or down. We have 15 months to find a flight a day earlier for about the same price! If we do, we just have to cancel the one with Disney!!!

Once, I called to cancel my flight information and the rep treated it like I was canceling the whole thing and rebooking at the new (higher) rate. We were able to cancel air...but for some reason that rep didn't know how to cancel just the air. It worked out in the end.

 

[crzy4magic]

We did DCL air for our first two cruises, and after our experience on the second one said NEVER again. Not only is the DCL fare higher than you can find for yourself on the Boston-Orlando route, but Delta (the DCL carrier of choice) seems to always book at least one direction of the flights as a connection through Atlanta.

Needless to say one blown connection later, we are NEVER doing that again.