Is it cheaper to book a land/sea package for DCL or book land part on your own?

[Steamboat Girlie]

I was wondering if it is cheaper to do a land and sea a la carte, or book through DCL?

 

[goingbacksoon]

Steamboat -

We found it cheaper to book on our own with a travel agent. He helped us with most of the arrangements, except airport transfers during the land portion.

Instead of the usual 4 sea/3 land, we made a 4 sea/5 land and still came out ahead of DCL package price. Doing it yourself gives you a little flexibility with tickets, and what hotel you want. We found we didn't need "ultimate park hoppers" and "park hopper plus" suited us just fine, saving us over $120 alone.

Being AAA members also helps; the yearly member price is worth its price in hotel discounts alone.

Hope this helps!

goingbacksoon

 

[Jestocost]

Even pricing it direct from Disney Travel and DCL, I didn't find any real cost difference between booking the land/sea package and booking it myself. I chose the latter option because we wanted to do a four-day cruise with a three-night stay at WDW after. With the land/sea packages they only offer it before the cruise, so that means a Thursday/Thursday trip instead of Sunday/Sunday, which is what our schedules called for.

 

[BALAMAV]

I posted a few days ago that I went on the Disney site and figured it out ala cart. We saved 1,100 by booking through Disney as a package. Ala cart was much more expensive. We are on deck 6 cat.6 with veranda and we are staying at BC. I wonder if it is cheaper alacart if you are going alittle more moderate price or staying at budget resorts. I figured the ala cart just like we have the package. 3 night cruise. 4 days BC. and 4 day hopper. With the package we get Ultimate Hopper so you would think that it would have at least been equal. Please if I have figured this wrong let me know. I have read all over these boards that it is cheaper to do ala cart, but I can't figure out how. Thanks Brenda

 

[TammyC]

I think it depends on whether you are paying rack rate for your room and deciding if you really need UPH passes.

 

[hydster]

it was about 750 dollars cheaper to go through Dreams and do the land/sea through them than to book it seperately. We would have had to get 2 rooms and having never been there before we decided to just let them handle the room arrangements. That being said next time I will price them out again seperately (if we ever do a land/sea) and see which one wins. We did the 3 land/4 sea and then added on an extra 3 nights at the end on our own through expedia at POR. We bought length of stay passes on the last 3 days and it worked out great.

Heidi