New to Disney cruise

[Jakejosh4]

Hi just wondering if anyone can advise on booking the cruise we have looked at American sites and they are cheaper and give on board credit which companies in the uk do not offer. Also would like any advise on how to get to the port and what do most people do when they disembark so early and the flight back to the uk is not until around 6 pm. What about car hire to the port is it easy to shuttle back? basically any advise would be gratefully received.

 

[wayneg]

Welcome to DISboards!!

Very few UK agents will book Disney cruises, if they do they are usually overpriced.
I use either direct with Disneycruiseline.com of Dreamsunlimitedtravel.com never had a problem with either(booked 6 cruises between them)
We always rent a car, if its a 3 or 4 night cruise we pay for parking at the port, 7 night cruise drop off the car at the rental office and they have shuttles to the ships, after the cruise they collect you and take you back to the rental office (you can do this for 3-4 night cruises but we find its worth the cost to store luggage in the car)
Disney also provide a shuttle service from the Disney resorts or airport, $69pp return. Details here http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/cruise-new/cr-transportation.htm
Never flown back same day as leaving the cruise, we like a few days back in Orlando to finish the holiday, don't suppose there is a lot you can do if you are taking the shuttle buses, you are stuck to their times, if you are renting a car then its upto you what you do, last bit of shopping? DTD?

 

[Jakejosh4]

Thanks so much for the advice dreamsunlimited are giving me the best price with on board credit so will book with them. We are doing the 7night cruise with a week in Orlando before. It maybe better to hire a car for the day then do some last minute shopping at DTD as you suggested.

 

[Elise79]

We are cruising in June and flying back the same day - we will be hiring a car and taking the luggage straight back to VA DTD check in then off to enjoy ourselves for a while (plus we will have to drop off our OLs with John!)

 

[Jakejosh4]

Thanks Elise who did you book the cruise with? We need to book today to get the free on board credit with dreamsunlimitedtravel, what company have you used for th car hire and if you don't mind how much was it? Sorry it's all so confusing we usually just have a villa for 2 weeks with car hire.

 

[heatherbelle]

Dreams unlimited always have onboard credit available so please don't feel like you have to book today. They will have a cabin on hold for you that's why they are saying book today. You can book next week and still probably get the same amount of onboard credit although this is not guaranteed.

The price of the cruise may go up if you do delay booking though and if you are travelling at peak time, i have never seen the price come down.

Other agents to try are travel on a dream andall seasons.

 

[Elise79]

We booked our cruise through Dreams Unlimited.

Not booked car hire yet for our Feb trip let alone June Sorry that just always seems to be the last thing I sort. I will just pick the company with the cheapest hire from the port for the day - no real loyalty except when collecting at MCO then usually use Dollar as we have express.

 

[~Piglet~]

We booked our 2010 cruise with DU too and had no problems, they were very helpful and replied promptly via email to any queries we had.

Jakejosh4 - are you staying onsite? we used Disney transportation from our Hotel to the Port, which was great, they collected the cases from POR that morning and they were waiting outside our cabin when we arrived on board (I know there are cheaper options to get to Port but for us it worked well as we had all our Wedding baggage as well as DD and buggy to manage!).

For the return journey we had pre-booked a car online - with Budget I think - from the Port to MCO drop off. We drove back to DTD, used the VA check-in and spent the day around DTD until it was time for the flight home.