Looking for advice/FL/MTO rates

[CaLuCa]

We have gone on 2 cruises..a Double Dip in early June (2012) and a 4 night in February (2015), both on the dream. I am a DW pro, but I really need some DCL advice. We are long overdue celebrating 20 year anniversary and dh's military retirement. We have 4 kids, one high school and 3 elementary. We are FL residents, and I think even as retired we can still use the military discount (please correct me if wrong).

We did not like the February one we went on because it was cold, and we never made it to Castaway due to high winds. We enjoyed Castaway and the shows mostly on our June one. I don't think I want a 3 or 4 night cruise, but would do another double dip 5 night. We are pretty big SW fans (whole family has costumes...do people dress up?) We didn't really like the pirate night...do they still do that? I adore food, and my kiddos are somewhat adventurous, but love Mickey Mac and Cheese (that's all that 2 of mine remember from the cruise).

Looking at rates, I'm having a bit of sticker shock. We will need 2 rooms, which is probably the issue. Am I correct in thinking it will be at least $8K for the 7 night? Potentially $10k? Gosh, that's hard to swallow. I've started watching the discount rates, but as of yet, I'm not ready to pull the trigger. Are there any other discounts we could access? I had a random conversation with another military couple from Florida who said they used BOTH the resident and the military discount. Is this even possible? It is very important to me to have connecting rooms due to the ages of our children.

Any advice? Thoughts? (Destinations are not terribly important. We are going more for the cruise experience. We live by the beach, so other than the beauty of Caribbean beaches, even that isn't that vital.)

 

[Carrie in AZ]

It is my understanding that FL and Military rates are mostly released for sailings that do not have strong sales/occupancy — the ones Disney needs to work harder to fill. So, the discounts become available closer to the cruise dates. Discounts may not be available during the popular times such as summer, holidays and other school breaks. As a result, it may be harder to plan well in advance. I do believe there is a long-running thread here that documents past discounts, so maybe look for that and study it to get a feel on which dates have historically been discounted.

Good luck! I hope it works out for you. You are correct in your observation that prices have increased significantly in the past few years.

 

[dcassetta]

We have gone on 2 cruises..a Double Dip in early June (2012) and a 4 night in February (2015), both on the dream. I am a DW pro, but I really need some DCL advice. We are long overdue celebrating 20 year anniversary and dh's military retirement. We have 4 kids, one high school and 3 elementary. We are FL residents, and I think even as retired we can still use the military discount (please correct me if wrong).

We did not like the February one we went on because it was cold, and we never made it to Castaway due to high winds. We enjoyed Castaway and the shows mostly on our June one. I don't think I want a 3 or 4 night cruise, but would do another double dip 5 night. We are pretty big SW fans (whole family has costumes...do people dress up?) We didn't really like the pirate night...do they still do that? I adore food, and my kiddos are somewhat adventurous, but love Mickey Mac and Cheese (that's all that 2 of mine remember from the cruise).

Looking at rates, I'm having a bit of sticker shock. We will need 2 rooms, which is probably the issue. Am I correct in thinking it will be at least $8K for the 7 night? Potentially $10k? Gosh, that's hard to swallow. I've started watching the discount rates, but as of yet, I'm not ready to pull the trigger. Are there any other discounts we could access? I had a random conversation with another military couple from Florida who said they used BOTH the resident and the military discount. Is this even possible? It is very important to me to have connecting rooms due to the ages of our children.

Any advice? Thoughts? (Destinations are not terribly important. We are going more for the cruise experience. We live by the beach, so other than the beauty of Caribbean beaches, even that isn't that vital.)

To answer your first question, yes active duty or retired military personnel can use the discount. The important word there is retired, not just discharged. If you still have an ID card, then you're good. Both the retired person and the spouse can each book one room with their ID card.

I could be wrong, but I don't think you can get both a Florida resident and a military discount. But, you would want to ask Disney about that. This is the link to Disney's military rate page. It explains the process and shows the cruises that are currently available. As the PP suggested this will vary over time - https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/special-offers/military-rates/#MTOdetails

There is a thread here on the DIS that shows current discounts https://www.disboards.com/threads/current-gt-mto-flr-discounts.3244232/ and you could also follow Scott's blog at www.dclblog.com as he tracks this also.

 

[Quellman]

In order to help reduce some costs, think about non verandah rooms as well. Either ones with a porthole or an inside. If a verandah is necessary, then consider getting an inside room across the hall.

I would also consider not doing a double dip, those are inherently more expensive than other 4 day options, because everyone loves Castaway Cay. Figure the math, is an extra day at castaway cay worth $1200 (for example). Consider a 7 night cruise on the Fantasy, particularly the eastern if all you really need are beaches.