Land/Sea or on your own?

[jtorch]

My sister-in-law would like to do the Land/Sea package. 3 nights in Disney and 4 night cruise. Since you all have so much experience and are so helpful I was wondering which would be cheaper. Should she do the land/sea through DCL or....should she just book the 4 night cruise and then do her WDW stay on her own along with renting a car?

Any advice or opinions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks. Janine

 

[markºoº]

It generally will be cheaper to book separate. If you book separate, you will be able to take advantage of discounts that might be available on the hotel. The other big advantage is that you can stay where you want if you book separate.

DCL reserves a set number of rooms at certain resorts for their land/sea package. The resorts you can choose from is dependent on which category stateroom you book. Also, once all of DCL's reserved rooms at a resort are gone, you will have to pick from another choice.

For example, we booked a 4 night Wonder cruise in Cat 3. If we did the land sea package, we would have been assigned the Grand Floridian. We wanted to stay at the Beach Club so we booked separate. We also wound up with a great AP rate at the Beach Club that saved us a lot of money.

 

[atigeg]

We too have always found it cheaper to book the land portion on our own.
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[OurDogCisco]

We recently booked a land/sea package. Originally I booked our trip as a packaged. But after much research figured it is cheaper to book everything separately. First, the land/sea package does not give you any hotel discounts. I was able to find on mousesavers a coupon code for $100 off a night at a deluxe resort. So, we ended up saving $400 for the room. As a result, we added two more nights to our stay. Also, the package you are given the Ultimate Park Hopper pass which gives you access to all the parks plus water parks, disneyquest, etc... However these park passes are only good for the length of your stay. We found in our case that it would be a waste because the first day that we fly we will not be able to use our passes because we don't get in until 11 pm at night. So, day 1 is wasted even though we paid for it. Second, in 4 days I doubt we'll see everything. We decided to buy park hopper passes which gives us passes to the 4 main parks which is probably all we'll have time for. Also, the passes do not expire so, if you miss a day then, you can apply your credit to your next purchase. Also, disneyclub members can buy the passes at a discount. Finally, the transportation fee included in the package is very expensive. You can rent a car for much cheaper than Disney charges for 4 people.

Good Luck with your decision.

 

[NCRedding]

We did a land/sea in October without transfers--renting a car, and parking it at the port. I researched and found that for us, a land/sea was cheaper than booking it separately. I wanted to stay at the Poly, and would have had to paid less than $100 per night to stay there in order for the land/sea to be more expensive. Best thing to do is to do the research and see which is more economical

 

[phxjj05]

For us booking it together was cheaper (believe me I crunched the numbers several times because I did not believe it.)

I think the ages of the children you are taking and the number of them make a huge difference. I have 3 children that are 11 and under and the price difference between the 4 day cruise only and the 7 day land/sea was next to nothing. We saved about $700 between our two cabins.

Since we are arriving a day ahead of time and staying offsite, we will make sure we arrive at the Beach Club first thing in the morning, get our park hoppers, drop off our luggage and head over to MK until our room is ready.

 

[Familyof6]

is what cat. stateroom you want. Cat's 1, 2 and 3 must be booked in a pkg for the 4 night cruise. I'm not sure how the previous poster was able to book that sep. DCL won't sell them w/o the pkg unless it's something like within 60 days of the cruise.
I had booked L/S pkg Cat 2...had to cancel last min(9/11)...decided to book it all sep since I'd learn how to save so much on these boards...DCL informed me that I couldn't book that cat without booking the pkg...I ended up rebooking the pkg.
(without the pkg, I could have gotten discounted park tix through the military and booked a room at SOG) We did our own transfers.
Try crunching the numbers both ways and see what works for you. Keep in mind that any codes that become available would make in less, but you won't know about them until closer to your trip. (and you're taking a gamble that one will come out) If you don't want to crunch the numbers, have a travel agent do it for you.
I hope you have a great trip no matter what you do!

Lisa

 

[markºoº]

Lisa, we booked a Cat 3 on the Wonder separate back in Feb '01. Maybe having to book as a package is a fairly new policy? I hope not because I like the freedom to book separate and not be tied into certain items such as which resort.

I also agree the UMP is not for everyone. We will only do the 4 major parks during our land stay and also will be leaving fairly early on our last day. A Park Hopper pass was a cheaper alternative for us.

 

[Familyof6]

I think perhaps that this IS a newer policy of DCL. I really wish it wasn't. We had a wonderful time but we could have saved a bundle on park passes for 5...through the military. Also, I'm sure I could have gotten a better room rate, BUT I also wouldn't have been in GF RPC! (I guess that makes it worth it...at least for that trip) If we EVER go on DCL, we won't book a suite again. I loved it, but dh was rather uncomfortable with the whole idea..."we're unworthy" feeling. I don't think dh will agree to another Disney cruise any time soon. I'm having enough trouble getting him to let me book the parks again! (and to be honest...we did have more fun at the parks. Mostly because we did more. On the ship there was just so much to do, we got overwhelmed and got very little done.)
Perhaps if enough people complain about the policy, DCL will change it.

Lisa