Opinion of Disney booked flights?

[ennisb]

What's is your opinion of the flights that DCL books with their package? I know I can save some money by booking on my own but I am interested in the feature of tag our bags and the next time I see them will be outside our room on the ship.

However leaving from New Jersey I am wondering what other peoples experience has been using DCL to provide the flights and transfers. Have the flights been resonable, not two many stops or leaving just enough time to get to the ship?

Did the tag the bag and you will see you bag's at the ship work well?

Looking forward to hearing everybody thoughts on this.

 

[pediatric-rnp]

This is the way we did it last year during April school break, and it actually ended up being less costly for us than other flights - I don't know if this is always true. Booking the flight thru Disney also includes the RT transfers, so make sure you figure that in when comparing. It also guarantees getting you to the ship at no extra cost if your flight is delayed, etc. One drawback is that you don't find out your flight times until about a month before the trip, but that wasn't really an issue for anyone except myself, who is an obsessive-compulsive planner and likes to know all the details way in advance!! We had requested the earliest flight possible going, and received a flight for 6:05 AM, which was perfect! Our flight on return was at noon, and worked out well, also.

Going down, we were doing the land/sea, so we were responsible for our own luggage, as we were going to WDW first. It was just great not to have to worry about the luggage on the return leg - just got off the ship at 7:30 AM, found our luggage, breezed thru customs, and went to the Delta station outside the terminal where we received our boarding passes, and left our luggage. We then boarded the DCL bus and were at the airport by approx 8:40 AM, and all the details were taken care of for us! We were so impressed!

To me it was well worth it - reduced the stress greatly.

 

[jel0511]

You don't need to book DCL air to utilize the check your bags at your airport and don't see them until you board. You can book your own air, you just need to purchase DCL transfers. Just tell DCL (or have your TA tell them) what your air arrangements are, so they know what airline and flight you'll be arriving on. That's it. We've always booked our own air, and have always tagged our bags before leaving home and they've always showed up at our stateroom.

 

[moocow35]

Our first few trips we booked using Disney air, with their selections. We fly from New York, and they always had us leave very early in the morning. Sometimes we got direct, other times we had stopovers. The luggage thing always worked very well, never had any trouble. Then we decided to go with the "air deviation" and fly in the day before with a direct flight. This is about $50 more per person plus the cost of a stay at the Hyatt. We were always too tired leaving CT at 3:00 to be at NY for 4:30 for a 6:00am flight. By dinner time on the ship, we were ready for bed. We prefer enjoying the first evening on the ship to the fullest. Our cruises were always in February, so even with the deviation, we let Disney book our flights, just in case. However for our May repo cruise, to get the best deal, we are flying Jet Blue the day before!

Robin

 

[MaryKatesMom]

What airline did Disney use out of NY?

My worry is an excessive layover somewhere and trying to keep two kids occupied in an airport for hours.

Can you pick "air deviation" after you get the flights and don't like them?

TIA!!

 

[Philadisney]

not relevent to pricing, but my problem with the flight disney booked for my cruise was that it didn't get me to orlando until noon. this meant that half of my day, that i could have spent at a park, was wasted. plus i was going with a friend in another state (we booked together, same reservation) and they put her on a plane that got her there four hours before i did, so she had to wait at the hotel all morning for me to show up. we called several times and they wouldn't change it without charging us several hundred dollars!
i do have to say though, disney took great care of our luggage on that trip. we didn't have to carry it anywhere, it followed us from the airport to the hotel to the ship to the airport again. awesome!

 

[tam012864]

I have DCL transfers too, booked my own airfare and we are doing the land/sea package. I was under the impression that my luggage would be transferred from the airport to our hotel and that I wouldnt have to get it...is that not the case with the transfers? Thanks in advance for any replies!!!!

Have a great day!!!!

 

[jel0511]

I have DCL transfers too, booked my own airfare and we are doing the land/sea package. I was under the impression that my luggage would be transferred from the airport to our hotel and that I wouldnt have to get it...is that not the case with the transfers? Thanks in advance for any replies!!!!

Have a great day!!!!

You are correct. Just place the luggage tags on your luggage before you leave home, and DCL will move the luggage for you.

 

[moocow35]

What airline did Disney use out of NY?

My worry is an excessive layover somewhere and trying to keep two kids occupied in an airport for hours.

Can you pick "air deviation" after you get the flights and don't like them?

TIA!!

Usually they flew us on Delta, but also American, US Air, and I can't remember which else. Once you get your flights, I don't think you can change them without a big fee, I would go for the deviation before. With Disney, you won't have your flights until 30 days out, at that time any change would be more expensive. Make sure you call the Disney transportation desk at 30 days to get your flights and airlines. Then you can call the airline directly and get your seat assignment so you will all sit together. We didn't know this the very first time, and we were ALL over the plane!

Robin

 

[ennisb]

... Then you can call the airline directly and get your seat assignment so you will all sit together. We didn't know this the very first time, and we were ALL over the plane!

Robin

That's a great tip, I didn't think I would need to call and get seats togther would have thought they would think of that.

 

[moocow35]

You'd think so, but one time my whole family went, including my sister and her 3 little girls. They had the littlest one, about 4 years old sitting by herself! My sister got it all straightened out at the gate, so at least there was one child per adult, but what a mess! I'd call to be safe.

Robin

 

[sillysmom]

OK ennisb, here is the lowdown, lol. Last year on our first cruise in April, there was no way, with spending all that money that I was going to do ANYTHING on my own. I let Disney do everything including the air. That being said, we had to get up at 3 a.m. to have a limo pick us up and drive us to the airport about 50 miles away, when there is one less than 10 miles from our house. We had to change planes in Baltimore, so, a 3 hour flight, took about 5-5 1/2 hours. We were exhausted when we got to the ship, and everyone was cranky and I felt like the whole day was wasted. Now we kinda knew that if we liked the cruise, we would be rebooking on board, so that is what we did, WITHOUT AIR. When I compared the price for our upcoming cruise with and without air, at the time it was $1000 difference. I knew I could get the air cheaper. I was a little stressed waiting to buy my airfare, it took a while for it to become available, its a vacation week, so needless to say, if it wasn't I would have paid around $600 for the airfare for 3 of us. It turned out to be $800, and I have to pay $150 for the transfers, yes it works the same way whether you buy Disney air or not. So I ended up saving around $50, BUT, I have a flight that leaves at 7:30, no transfers, direct flight, and the airport is no lie, 20 minutes from my house. I am happy! But I can definitely understand, first time cruisers letting Disney do everything, I was too excited to do anything on my own, I didn't want to screw anything up, I had to have everything perfectly coordinated. lol. It was wonderful! Good Luck!

 

[tdsryan]

I booked my airfare with DCL during my last cruise (7/2004), and I will never do it again. While it was nice to have all the details put together, I was ticked off by the problems it caused me. Looks like Disney books the flights as a bulk rate, meaning that everybody who is on the particular flight is under one reservation. When I checked in on my first flight, my wife and I were listed on the check-in computer with the 10 other people on our flight who were going on the cruise. While this bothered me, I didn't think too much of it.

When we got off the cruise, we were told that the computers were down, and that we could not check in at the port. When we got to OIA, I went to check in on the self check-in computer. The computer said I was already checked in, and that I had gone over my allotted baggage allowance. Then, the agent gave me a hard time about giving me a boarding pass. This was because the other 10 people were one group. They were able to check in at the port before the computers went down, and the agent at the port checked everybody on the flight in, including us! To the agent at the gate, we were already checked in, and the large party used up our checked luggage allowance. It was a big hassle that slightly soured the vacation for us. I will never let DCL book our flights again.

BTW, I flew out of Newark, NJ and Disney used Continental. The price was around what I would have paid myself.

 

[chzhdinparadise]

We used the Disney Air program for our first cruise last February and had a horrible experience. I was a novice and thought that leaving everything up to the mouse would be less stressful. We had an 0600 flight from an airport three hours from home and were scheduled to be in Orlando at about 1200. We drove down to the departure city the evening before and did the "park and fly" option at a hotel, left just before 0400 on cruise day from our hotel. We had a little breakfast at the airport. Because of some weather delays (which I certainly do not blame on Disney) we ended up getting to Orlando about about 1345. We raced to the bus and then ended up sitting on there until nearly 1430. One of the passengers had left something somewhere and the bus "monitor" let her go back into the airport for it. Anyway, we got to the ship just before 1530 (the bus monitor made sure everyone had all their documents filled out and pulled out the correct pages while we were on the bus) and were hustled through so we could get to our stateroom, don our lifejackets and run off to the lifeboat drill. We were tired, crabby, and absolutely starving! (Remember, the only hour you can't get anything to eat on the ship is 1530-1630 and we had spent most of the day on airplanes where they no longer feed you!) We missed everything in the terminal and I felt like I spent the whole first evening in a daze. Then our departure flight was at noon so we also had to rush out the the last morning.

We're going again next month and I booked the air myself (saving about $400), we are going down the day before and I'm planning to be at the doors when they open the terminal so I can see everything I missed last time!

So, my advice is if you book Disney Air, pay for the deviation or pack plenty of food for the plane especially if you are traveling with teenage boys.

Colleen (who really did have an absolutely wonderful cruise experience!)

 

[4formickey]

I didn't buy the transfer package but by mistake we tag the bags before we left home. When we got to baggage claim dcl people had already started to get our bags and send them to the boat.They will take care of your bags