Back in July, when we tried to book pre-cruise nights in London through
DCL, we discovered that only one property - Park Plaza County Hall - had rooms that could sleep 3. DCL didn't have any more rooms available there, so we wait-listed with Disney and made a reservation on the hotel website as a back-up. When I did that, I discovered that my web reservation was
considerably less expensive than the price DCL was quoting.
Last month, I made a business trip to England. Spent a Saturday in London between meetings in Glasgow and Winchester. Collected lots of maps & brochures and came home convinced that 2.5 days in London was just not enough for DD16's first trip there. Fares haven't changed as much as you'd expect since we booked our air last summer, so Bill & I started talking about changing our flight to go a few days earlier, even though we knew it meant paying a hefty change fee to the airline.
The budget couldn't support the change fee and Park Plaza County Hall's rates for 5-6 nights, so made a reservation at a Marriott near Marble Arch using my corporate rate, which saves us quite a bit. Park Plaza doesn't have a corporate rate for my company - wish they did! Figured we'd transfer to County Hall for the last night so we'd be there for the transfer to the port.
This weekend, as I was looking for something else on the DCL site, I stumbled on the page that listed the three pre-cruise hotels. I was stunned to discover that Park Plaza County Hall has been replaced by Park Plaza Westminster Bridge on the list. I asked Kelsie at Dreams to investigate. Turns out Disney has replaced Park Plaza County Hall with Westminster Bridge, which is a new hotel opening in March that's practically next door to County Hall. When they changed hotels, Disney cleared our waitlist, but they never told Dreams about either.
DCL's rate on a standard room with standard view that sleeps 3 is $497 a night including VAT. I can get a studio room (sleeps 3) with breakfast on the Park Plaza website for about $150
less. We'd been told before that I could use a hotel/port transfer even if I booked a London hotel on my own, which Kelsie reconfirmed this week. Yes, you can book the Disney-designated hotel on your own. In fact, apparently you can use hotel/port transfers even if you book a London hotel other than one of the three designated by Disney.
We thought about staying at the Marriott for the entire stretch, but decided we'll pay the extra to stay at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge night of June 11 so we can eat breakfast there and be ready to catch the bus for Dover whenever it's time to do so without worrying about a transit across town.
I'm not impressed with the way Disney handled the hotel switch or the profit margin they seem to be taking on the rooms, but Kelsie at DU has been wonderful about sorting it all out. I think we finally have it all straight - just in time for the final payment deadline next week.
My father says the planning is part of the adventure. No kidding!
Laura
. VERY seriously thinking about booking this Baltic Cruise on our spring break cruise
. I feel that I just can't read fast enough and learn everything off these boards, let alone keep all of you straight. I am on page 50 of the 1st thread...where everyone is stressed out about booking. Trying to learn as much as I can. Can you confirm that the best thing is for me to book a cruise on the cruise and then transfer it to DU? 
Even our photo has been removed. I dunno, maybe we were taken off for not posting????????
I am the one that did the updates and don't know why! 
