Help!! Perpetual planner needs flight information for Land/Sea package

[Suzanne033]

Please help me!! I am trying the plan the Land portion of my December Land/Sea cruise. I want to be able to make the most out of our first day at WDW. So I wanted to book the Candelight Processional Package for the first night but I don't know if we will arrive in time.

I booked the entire vacation through Disney so I have no idea what time my flights are. What I need all of you previous Land/Seers to tell me what time you arrived and did you have enough time to visit a park on your first day?

I will be flying out of South Bend, Indiana which will be a two-stop flight to Orlando. Most flights out of So. Bend go to Chicago (Midway or O'hare) and them directly to Orlando. Does Disney have a specific airline they like to use over others? ATA, Northwest, USAir, United, Continental and Delta fly out of South Bend.

Please, pretty please help me. I AM ADDICTED TO PLANNING EVERY MINUTE OF THIS VACATION!!!

 

[T1130]

We also booked everything through Disney we are leaving 8/12 for our land sea vacation. We just got our docs. yesterday. Our flight information is this we leave N.J. at 8:30 a.m. and arrive in Orlando at 11:30A.m. we are flighing on Continantal. Hope this helps.

 

[8 Ears]

Keep the flight times coming please as this area is unknown to us as well.

Greatly looking forward to getting our docs for our December cruise to see if we will be able to make it to a park the first day.

 

[mickeyboat]

We did cruise only and booked our air through DCL. We were not able to get our flight information until about 30 days out. Good luck with your planning.

BTW - we flew out of Manchester, NH. Our flight was scheduled through Delta, leaving at 7:30 AM, laying over in Atlanta, and arriving at MCO at 1:30 PM. We flew on a Saturday.

Hope this helps

Denae

 

[Kaa]

I have been told by DCL that they try to schedule land/sea passengers to arrive as early as possible, but at least by 3:00pm.

 

[outahere]

I would suggest that you cancel the air portion through Disney and book it yourself...... or at least check the pricing. You may be able to save money by booking it yourself and you have control over your flight times and which airlline you use.

 

[Kae]

Well USair is leaving South Bend in Sept, so that is a good reason to check your flights. Let them know that you know this. and United only has a 30% rate of flight returning to SB from Chicago. So I hope it is Delta or NWA.

Kae

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

Hi, Our family has booked air with Disney three times (I will never book air with them again). One of these trips included a Land/Sea package. Disney used American, United, and USAir for our flights. They were all scheduled to leave between 6:30 and 7:30 am. We had plenty of time to enjoy the parks. They seem to take into consideration that most people want to start their day at the parks on Day 1.

Tink

 

[EmmasGrammy]

We did the land/sea package this past June 17-24th. We booked through AAA and we flew out of Pittsburgh on USAir. Our flight left @ 9:30 a.m and arrived in Orlando @ 11:30 am. We had DCL transfers and were checked in to our resort (CBR) by 12:30 p.m. and inside Epcot by 1:15 p.m. Our room at the resort was not ready when we arrived, but they gave us a phone number to call from guest services in the park to check on it. We had made dinner arrangements for the San Angel Inn in the Mexico Pavilion for 6:00 p.m. that evening before we had left home, so we enjoyed the park, ate our dinner then returned to our resort room that evening to find our luggae waiting there in our room. We didn't feel like we had wasted a touring day because it was a travel day.

Hope this help. I know all about being a planaholic!!!!

 

[Suzanne033]

Thank you everybody for all of your information.

I have actually gone so far as to get the schedules for all of the flights that leave South Bend and all of the flights that go to Orlando from each connection city for each airline.

I think I am addicted.

 

[outahere]

I don't know how far you are from Chicago, but would it be possible for you to drive to a hotel near either Midway or Ohare the night before? Stay at hotel near the airport, and catch a non-stop flight the next morning. We live about 40 miles from Logan airport in Boston and have done this a couple of times, so that we could catch an early flight without having to get up at 3:00am!
Some airport area hotels may let you park your car there for the week you're gone since you stayed there before you left (the airport Hyatt here in Boston allows that).

A quick look on Travelocity is showing non-stop flights from either Midway or Ohare for around $200. Flights from South Bend look to be around $300.

 

[cristit14]

We just got back yesterday from our land/sea package and we had air through disney. We left here (Denver, CO) at 6:50 am and got to MCO at 2:30 pm. We had transfers through disney also we got to our room probably between 3:30 and 4. We did end up going to MK that evening around 6pm and stayed until closing.

 

[two-foxes]

I would skip booking air through Disney, and do it on own and fly in the night before. We did this on our last trip and I we are doing it again this year. We found a great rate at ASMu for one night, so we flew in the night before our package began, took Mears to ASMu, had dinner and headed to bed. In the morning, we took a cab to AKL, check in (our room wasn't ready obviously, but we got our KTTW cards) and headed to the parks. Disney took our bags from ASMu to AKL for us, and they were ready for us when we came back in the afternoon.

This time around, we are spending the night at MCO (crowne plaza thru hotwire), then taking Happy Limo to the resort first thing to get our full $$ worth for the days at WDW.

I think air travel is way too unpredicable to count on getting there when you want/need to......the "what ifs" are not worth the stress, so I am willing to pay an extra $70 for a hotel for a bit of piece of mind, and to get the full fun out of my package!