Newbie questions

[pwcarlson]

I have soooo many questions I don't know where to start. My DH and I are celebrating a big wedding aniversary in Aug. To Celebrate this milestone we decided to try a cruise. We have never done this before and I am not sure where to start. SO I thought why not start with the experts.

We would like to do 3 day cruise and also at least 5 or 6 days land. I know the packages are for 3/4 but would like to extend our land stay. Is this possible or would it be better just to do 2 separate res (one sea, one land)?

Is it better to book with DU or Disney or our own travel agent. Do the independent agents know the codes. I have book our stays at the different resorts with CRO using codes in the past.

Which cat is the best for "Newbies" ? We will be traveling kidless but are kids at heart. ALso die hard disney fans.

Also we will be driving our own car probably to the port or where ever we start. We will be staying off site to visit family first. Is there a place to leave our car at the port? I have seen the buses comming and going from the different resorts marked DCL.

Any tricks, tips and advice would be appreciated.

 

[Señor Ferrari]

I've never done a land/sea trip, but I'm told that you can usually get a better deal if you book the two parts of the trip separately. This way you can book exactly what you want, for the length of time that you want.

Regarding a travel agent, if you have one that you are comfortable with, and they are experienced with cruises, you'd probably be find sticking with them. Dreams Unlimited specializes in Disney Cruises, so they're experience may be valuable to you, since this is your first time. They're probably always going to be less expensive than booking with DCL directly.

Cabin category is a very subjective thing. Your choice will depend a lot on what you'd like from your cabin. I personally like to have a cabin with a verandah, as we like to spend time out there just having coffee or a beer, sometimes even breakfast or lunch. On a 3-day cruise, however, the ship is in port every day, so you may not be in your cabin as often as you would on a 7-day trip with several days at sea. Some people use their cabin only to sleep, shower, and change clothes, in which case, a less expensive inside cabin is just fine. Some want to have at least a window, so they go with ocean view (no verandah).

There is a parking lot at the port. I believe the charge is $8/day to park there, and that they take cash only. The trip from the resort to the port is probably about an hour or so, maybe a bit longer.

 

[Buckaroo's Dad]

Hi pwcarlson.

We will be staying off site to visit family first. Is there a place to leave our car at the port?

Unless your family is as crooked as my ex wife's brother-in-law, you might want to consider leaving your car at the home of your family. At least it will be safe and secure.


As far as room type, I fully agree with Senor Ferrari -

Cabin category is a very subjective thing. Your choice will depend a lot on what you'd like from your cabin.

Wishing you a most wonderful cruise!

 

[delo4]

You can park at the port, the cost is $10/day. We just sailed last week and parked there. $70/week.

 

[Empire Day]

I haven't sailed yet... 28-27 days away!!!!
But I can say this... We wished a year ago when we booked we knew about the DIS, as we could have saved over $1500 booking the land and sea seperate! although I can't complain we have alot done for us and don't have to worry about much (HA)
If you are planing on renting a car, staying off prop./or even on I would sugest booking through who ever you feel comftrable with (we used a local TA this time, next we will try DU! so many nice things are said of them!!!)
For what we did the land sea together everything is wraped up in a neat package from hoppers to transfers etc. BUT trying to add on 3 days at any on site resort was just a pain and too much $$$
next year it will be US doing all the booking and planing to save a little $
PS with the codes ; every time we heard something we called TA and she got us the disc. (I supose it depends on your TA), and as far4 as staterooms: WE are celebrating an annivers. also went with a cat.6 for the veranda (we have DS7 with us ) and thought it would make for nice romantic evenings to star gaze
but what you plan on doing on the ship, could be the deciding factor, alot of activities well an inside cabin for les $ might be perfect; its kind of a prefrence for you are you planing on alot of time in the cabin?! If I had the $ I'd be in a cat #1 the Walt or Roy suite!!!!!!!!

 

[two-foxes]

We did the 3 night land/4 night sea for our honeymoon and added on 3 nights to the land seperately, for a total of 6 nights prior to the cruise. It probably would have been cheaper to book the 6 nights seperately, then the cruise, but we didn't. It seemed alot easier for us as DCL first timers to have all the transportation handled from WDW to port and the check in completed at WDW. With the land/sea, we did a Cat 6, which gave us a choice of BC, WL and I forget which other deluxe resort to stay in, but it was nice to stay in a deluxe resort on land and get to have a beautiful stateroom with a verandah for the sea portion. We spent our first 3 added days at the AKL, so we really spoiled ourselves!

Check out all your options, see what works best for you guys! We went for conveinence in booking, planning, transportation and check in, and it was well worth paying a bit more for the land/sea package.

 

[pwcarlson]

Thanks for all the advice. Pixie dust for all!

My gut was saying that we could probably get a better deal with 2 separate res. I thinking I will be doing that. We are dropping off our DD at college then driving down to spend some time with MIL who is in the nursing home in Florida. So we will have our car with us. We are familiar with the area- seems like our second home. So driving to the port is no problem.

More questions have popped up. They say that you get dinner schedule in your stateroom when you board the ship. But the boards also talk about making dinner reservation right away when you board. I thought your dinner schedule is set. So why make other reservations.

I am just so green about this. I was not sure what questions I need to ask.

Thanks to all!

 

[Señor Ferrari]

As far as dinner goes, the reservations you'd make would be to eat at Palo, the alternative restaurant. I really recommend doing this, as it's a great experience. There's a $5/person surcharge for eating here, ostensibly to cover the tip for your server, who isn't part of your normal wait staff. Most people add to this after they experience the service and atmosphere at Palo.

You dinner schedule is set, but you won't know all of it until you check in. You'll know (or should know) if you have main or late dinner seating, but you won't know your restaurant rotation. There are 3 main dining rooms on board, and you rotate through them. You'll likely want to know in which restaurant you'll be dining on which nights, in order to decide which night to eat at Palo.

 

[DVC4US]

Your dinning rotation will be on your KTTW that you get when you check in. The ship has an adult only restaurant called Palo which is a little more upscale fine dinning. If you want to eat at Palo you must make a reservation and these are done soon after you board. These reservations go quick especially on a 3 or 4 day cruise so that is why everyone is always talking about getting aboard early and getting a reservation.

If you have not already done so, a couple of excellent sites to look at regarding information for DCL are

Dave's site at www.dcltribute.com
Barb & Tony's site at www.castawayclub.com

and the passporter site where you can order a passporter, which is a book with a lot of great information about the cruises at
www.passporter.com.
LeiLani