going from ship to parks

[dwight16]

going to do a land and sea trip next year right now thinking about 1 night in wdw then 3 day cruise then back to wdw for the week. my question is going from ship back to WDW what is the process like? do they take the bags or do we have to pick them up and move them to the bus i would imagine i need them for customs. what have peoples experiences been?

 

[ivanp91]

Going to the ship, you will be given a time that the bus will collect you from your resort. You tag your bags, take them to the required spot, and the next time you see them will be outside your stateroom later that day.

Heading back to the resort, every passenger is required to collect their bags from the terminal before proceeding through customs. The bus itself works virtually the same as Disney's Magical Express from the airport to WDW - take your bag to the bus, it will be loaded underneath, and collect it again once you get to your resort.

 

[dwight16]

Going to the ship, you will be given a time that the bus will collect you from your resort. You tag your bags, take them to the required spot, and the next time you see them will be outside your stateroom later that day.

Heading back to the resort, every passenger is required to collect their bags from the terminal before proceeding through customs. The bus itself works virtually the same as Disney's Magical Express from the airport to WDW - take your bag to the bus, it will be loaded underneath, and collect it again once you get to your resort.

awesome thank you for the info!

 

[coast2coastmickey]

We did WDW before and after a cruise last December.

Getting to WDW from Airport: Magical Express...the usual.

Getting from Resort to Port: The night before they will provide instructions for your luggage and your pickup. For us, it meant that Bell Services at the resort came by at 8am, and picked up our luggage. Further, we were told that we'd be picked up at 11:30am, so we spent a couple of hours at Epcot (we stayed at Beach Club). At 11:15 or so, we made our way to the rendezvous point which was just a lounge area at Beach Club. There were maybe half a dozen other families there. A Disney Cruise representative was there confirming that our luggage was picked up, and then walked everyone over to the Disney Cruise bus. After riding the bus for an hour, we got off at the port. At that point we only had our carry on bags (a diaper bag and backpack), and we were told that our luggage would be placed outside our stateroom that afternoon. Went through security, and boarded the boat to begin our cruise. The luggage showed up around 430 if I remember correctly.

Getting from the Boat back to WDW: The night before getting of the boat, we were given a time that we were to report to a Disney Cruise bus to take us back to WDW. I think it was 830. We were also instructed to have our bags outside of our stateroom by around 8pm the night before. We woke up, had breakfast, then got off the ship, then went to find our bags. Once we grabbed our luggage, we went through customs which was very quick and easy. Then we walked the very short distance to the Disney Cruise buses. The bus dropped us off at our resort (Grand Floridian this time) where we dropped off our bags with bell services so we could go back to the parks. When we returned to the hotel that evening, the room was ready, and we called bell services from the room phone, and they brought up our bags.

 

[mrp4352]

My only suggestion would be to decide if the convenience of the baggage pickup in your hotel room is worth the extra cost of Disney Transfers.

If you're looking at a three night cruise - you might price a rental car. We found that for our family of four, we could get a car and pay the three night's port parking for less than the Disney transfers. It also gave us the ability to stop and buy bottled water for the Disney part of our stay and tennis shoes (since my niece's shoes had a blow-out during the day at Disney prior to the cruise). I also like getting to the ship much earlier than Disney transport gets you there - but that's a personal preference.