Land & Sea Package questions...

[disneycruising]

We are in the process of booking our first land and sea package. I don't completely understand how it works & have a few questions...

We are booking a 3 night land/4 night sea, with 2 cat 10 rooms. Which I understand will give us rooms in a moderate hotel at WDW. When will we find out what hotel?

Does our package include: park hoppers? the dining plan? transportation to & from the ship?

 

[sunshine1259]

We are in the process of booking our first land and sea package. I don't completely understand how it works & have a few questions...

We are booking a 3 night land/4 night sea, with 2 cat 10 rooms. Which I understand will give us rooms in a moderate hotel at WDW. When will we find out what hotel?

Does our package include: park hoppers? the dining plan? transportation to & from the ship?

Wow, your first land and sea package. Congrats!! This will be my 3rd. The resort choices for the moderate level are Caribbean Beach Resort, Port Orleans Riverside and Port Orleans French Quarters. You should be able to select the one you want unless the resort is booked during the time that you choose to vacation.

The package will include for you 4-day park hoppers but do not include the dining plan. And if I understand correctly, transportation will be included if you use Disney for your flight.

I will be going on my 3rd land and sea in less than 2 weeks. I am looking forward to it.

I hope that answers your questions. Enjoy your vacation.

 

[disneycruising]

Thank you for the quick response. I will call our TA in the morning and add the dining plan?

Now, I just need to figure out how I am getting all of us to the port.

 

[lbgraves]

You can either add the dining plan with your TA or if you book the entire package on your own. The code is posted in the DIS DCL FAQ thread. This is something that is new in 2009. You weren't able to get the dining plan with the land/sea before. Sunshine, you may be able to add it to your land/sea if you aren't PIF. It's worth a try if you are interested in it.

 

[tjbaggott]

If you take the ground transfers which is included in the package by default, You will have transportation from the airport to resort (regardless of weather or not your flight is booked through Disney), and from resort to Port and then Port to Airport.
If you decide to do your own transportation instead and decline the ground transfers, they will deduct $69.00 per person off the package price.
Thats what we've done since we've decided to drive down instead of fly (originally we were going to fly but were not booking it through Disney).

 

[disneycruising]

Thank you all for the great info.

We are planning on flying with frequent fliers. There is total of 6 (maybe 7) people going. I need to decide if I want to spend $500 on Disney transfers. Or find our own way, by either renting a car or happy limo.

I have read that you can pick up a rental car at the Car Care Center @ WDW. We have never done this. I don't know if it is worth the hassle since... our time in the parks is so short already. Does anyone know how much they would charge for a mini van rental? Is their prices "inflated" because they are on Disney property? How long would the whole process take? Can we do it the morning of the cruise?

Happy Limo would be over $300 round trip. But definitely more convenient! It is nice to have someone else: pick us up, deal with the luggage, drive to the port & drop us all at the port (together). No rental return!

I guess it is back to the internet... to research the cost of rentals.

 

[lbgraves]

Check out www.mousesavers.com for rental car codes. We used one last August to get a minivan for a one way day rental from Avis for $64.00.

 

[tjbaggott]

When we decided, after our final payment was made but before the final payment was due, to cancel our ground transfers, we used the refund towards and upgrade from two Category 12's to two Cat. 9's.
Keep in mind too if renting a van, if there are seven of you in there, will there be enough room for all your luggage too?

 

[disneycruising]

tjbaggott - We were a little concerned about the luggage to in a minivan. Before we have always ended up packing it around the kids! This get harder as they get older and actually need the floor space for there feet... LOL. With the possiblity of one more person, plus their luggage has us a little worried.

 

[disneycruising]

Another question:

If we do decide to do DCL transfers. Does DCL still have the service: where you check-in your luggage at your airport and then Disney takes care of picking it up on the other end & getting it to your hotel? And the same for departing the ship? I don't know what this is called. Does any one know what airlines participate in this service?

 

[sunshine1259]

You can either add the dining plan with your TA or if you book the entire package on your own. The code is posted in the DIS DCL FAQ thread. This is something that is new in 2009. You weren't able to get the dining plan with the land/sea before. Sunshine, you may be able to add it to your land/sea if you aren't PIF. It's worth a try if you are interested in it.

Hi, Lisa. We did add it. I should have mentioned that. Yes, last year you couldn't add it on. Already have ADRs and everything. We also are using DCL transportation. I need to give more complete answer.

 

[mmouse37]

Another question:

If we do decide to do DCL transfers. Does DCL still have the service: where you check-in your luggage at your airport and then Disney takes care of picking it up on the other end & getting it to your hotel? And the same for departing the ship? I don't know what this is called. Does any one know what airlines participate in this service?

Yes, if you take the DCL transfers your luggage will be taken from MCO and brought to your hotel at WDW. You would take the Magical Express bus to your hotel. From the WDW hotel to the ship it would be called DCL TRANSFERS....same with ship back to airport...DCL TRANSFERS.

Here is the info at the Dis site re onboard airline check in and from the DCL site.

From the wdwinfo.com:

Onboard Airline Check-In Program:
Disney Cruise Line has announced that the Onboard Airline Check-In program will be offered to all DCL Guests via the DCL Guest Ticket Booklet beginning January 2008. Guests who have purchased Disney Cruise Line Air and/or Ground Transfers can now register for Onboard Airline Check-in at the terminal or at their resort.

Guests who book their air through DCL or provides their independent air arrangements in advance will receive a form with the information filled in. Blank forms will also be available. These are to be turned in at the port or at the resort's guest services.

Guests who do pre-register will receive their airline boarding pass and will check-in their luggage while onboard the ship.

Please note: The airline check-in adjacent to the Disney Cruise Line bus terminal has been closed.

-----------------------------------------------

From the DCL site:

Question
What is Onboard Airline Check-In?
Answer
Onboard Airline Check-In is a convenient service that provides Guests who have purchased Disney Cruise Line air or ground transportation the ability to check in their luggage for their flights and receive their airline boarding passes before they disembark the ship.


I have to say that the above from the DCL site is lacking in what the old description of the program had. Before they changed the DCL website this week the site described the onboard airline check in program in much more detail, listing all the participating airlines. I will search the new site some more to see if they have the info listed in a different section of the new website.

MJ

 

[disneycruising]

Thank you to everyone that has taken time to answer my questions. I have one more.

My understanding is we have to pay extra for the ground transportations... That it is NOT included in the package. Does anyone know if this is correct? I tried looking it up on the DCL website...but on the new site I can't find an answer.

 

[colturn]

I'm pretty sure that if you use the promotion code DINE when booking your land/sea vacation, The dining package will be included free.

Also Transfers are included only if you book air through Disney. You can add the transfers to your booking for a fee.

Hope this helps.
Enjoy your trip.

 

[DLW8]

I'm pretty sure that if you use the promotion code DINE when booking your land/sea vacation, The dining package will be included free.

Also Transfers are included only if you book air through Disney. You can add the transfers to your booking for a fee.

Hope this helps.
Enjoy your trip.

If you use DINE as a promo code, you are adding the dining plan, it is definitely not free. Even if there is free dining while you are going, you can't get free dining with land/sea, you'd have to break out your package to 2 separate ressies. We found that our land/sea combo was still a better deal than splitting it out and getting free dining, by doing that we'd pay $560 MORE than what we paid for the package.

If you want to add transfers to your package, they are $69 per person round trip. We have a party of 7 and found it more cost effective to book a car service to bring us from the hotel to port and port to MCO. It will cost us a little more than 1/2 the price of DCL's transfers, even with the tip! Plus, we can have the pickup times whenever we want.

 

[colturn]

Sorry

The DINE promotion was on the old web site. I don't even see the land/sea package offered anymore on the new site. It looks like they have gone to a new system where everything is booked separate.

 

[Hagan]

On the Disneycruise.com site, click on "Cruises and Destinations" and then "Hotel Packages" ... there's nothing on that page yet, but it looks like that's where it will appear "coming this fall."