Planning next year's holiday: what would you do?

[disney_princess_85]

We've been back for less than a week but already we're working out next year's trip. Typical!

Anyway, we're thinking of going for 17/18 nights and we would like to do a four-night cruise. Our current plan:

- one/two nights onsite
- four-night cruise
- 12 nights onsite (at OKW/SSR)

What do you think? Good/bad plan?

Also, I was wondering how we would get to the cruise terminal from wherever we're staying onsite. I'm aware of the DCL buses but will we be able to use this service to get to and from the terminal? Is there a charge?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[wayneg]

1st thing I would do is look at price of cruises as they vary so much from 1 week to the next. Already prices have risen for next year upto 25% from when the prices were released.
We always do it the other way around as we are next year OKW 17 nights, 4 night cruise, 3 nights before flight home. If we changed it to cruising earlier in the holiday the cruise price goes up by approx £100pp

Are you going Sept? just had a quick look at prices, cheapest cabin on 4th Sept sailing £862, cheapest on 11th Sept £707(prices for 2 adults) all depends if you are looking for cheapest cabin/cheapest sailing, people are struggling to get inside cabins now for many sailings in August, Sept probably easier.

For transport info here, $69pp round trip.
http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/cruise-new/cr-transportation.htm

 

[disney_princess_85]

Thanks Wayne.

1st thing I would do is look at price of cruises as they vary so much from 1 week to the next. Already prices have risen for next year upto 25% from when the prices were released.
We always do it the other way around as we are next year OKW 17 nights, 4 night cruise, 3 nights before flight home. If we changed it to cruising earlier in the holiday the cruise price goes up by approx £100pp

Are you going Sept? just had a quick look at prices, cheapest cabin on 4th Sept sailing £862, cheapest on 11th Sept £707(prices for 2 adults) all depends if you are looking for cheapest cabin/cheapest sailing, people are struggling to get inside cabins now for many sailings in August, Sept probably easier.

For transport info here, $69pp round trip.
http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/cruise-new/cr-transportation.htm

I've had a look at some prices and you're right, they do vary (quite dramatically in some cases!). We're looking at the September 11th cruise and it's approximately £800 for a room with a verandah. This amount is what we expected and we are happy to pay it.

Do the cruises book up quite quickly then? Would you recommend booking as soon as we can?

Thanks for the transport link, I'll take a look now.

 

[2Tiggies]

I think it looks like a dream trip Have you thought of putting the cruise at the beginning/end of your trip? I just wondered how you would do yoru tickets (14 or 21 day) which need to be attached to the later reservation for OKW/SSR for the dining plan.

 

[wayneg]

For our cruise the inside cabins sold out quite quickly, odd one keeps showing(one there now) we paid around $1,600, Cat 10A went upto $2k before selling out. What they are possibly doing is upgrading some inside bookings to outside if sales are slow, that could be why some keep appearing.
I haven't been watching Sept sailings but I suspect they have risen since being released same as August, earlier the better for booking a cruise. If the price drops(they rarely do) you can get the new price applied to your booking or you can cancel upto a certain date with full refund of deposit.

 

[disney_princess_85]

I think it looks like a dream trip Have you thought of putting the cruise at the beginning/end of your trip? I just wondered how you would do yoru tickets (14 or 21 day) which need to be attached to the later reservation for OKW/SSR for the dining plan.

Yeah, we're very excited about it!

We don't really want to do the cruise at the start of the trip because the flight might be delayed or something- don't want to chance anything! We'd rather finish off at WDW, seeing as this is our first cruise and we're not guaranteed to like it (although I'm sure we will).

As for the tickets and dining plan, we would book the OKW/SSR part of the trip separately and just get the 14 day tickets. For the first one/two days onsite, we wouldn't go to the parks. We're thinking of staying at the Beach Club, so we can enjoy Stormalong Bay and the Boardwalk, plus we'd be close to Fantasia Gardens.

For our cruise the inside cabins sold out quite quickly, odd one keeps showing(one there now) we paid around $1,600, Cat 10A went upto $2k before selling out. What they are possibly doing is upgrading some inside bookings to outside if sales are slow, that could be why some keep appearing.
I haven't been watching Sept sailings but I suspect they have risen since being released same as August, earlier the better for booking a cruise. If the price drops(they rarely do) you can get the new price applied to your booking or you can cancel upto a certain date with full refund of deposit.

Thanks for the info. Do you usually go for an inside cabin then? Just wondering if there is much point in getting a room with a view/verandah.

 

[Pinky166]

I loved having a room with a verandah....it was the perfect way to start the day, sittng on the verandah having breakfast in my pj's. If you can afford it, I'd say go for it! £800 for a 4n w/verandah sounds pretty good to me. (Although i'm not an expert!)

As for the pricing, it is done in tiers. They release a certain amount of rooms, once they are sold the price goes up to the next level, so it pays to book early. The deposit is fully refundable for a long time, can't remember exact terms off the top of my head but approx 75 days up to cruise.

 

[wayneg]

1st cruise we booked inside and got upgrade to verandah, used it 10 mins the whole cruise, no fun for me sat on a 2x6 space when theres a whole ship to use.
We then found out about Secret Porthole cabins (Magic & Wonder) pay for inside but get a porthole with obstructed views, love these rooms on deck 5.
Easter 2008 was the 1st and only time we have had inside cabins, wouldn't hesitate accepting inside every cruise. Next year it wasn't that much more for outside cabin but we wanted the virtual porthole.
So for us we are more than happy inside, its just somewhere to sleep and change but others won't cruise without a verandah.

 

[disney_princess_85]

I loved having a room with a verandah....it was the perfect way to start the day, sittng on the verandah having breakfast in my pj's. If you can afford it, I'd say go for it! £800 for a 4n w/verandah sounds pretty good to me. (Although i'm not an expert!)

As for the pricing, it is done in tiers. They release a certain amount of rooms, once they are sold the price goes up to the next level, so it pays to book early. The deposit is fully refundable for a long time, can't remember exact terms off the top of my head but approx 75 days up to cruise.

Thanks Claire. I actually got it wrong, it's £800 for a room with a view and £950 for one with a verandah. Just for comparison's sake, the standard inside room is £700. Not really sure what to do!

 

[gemmybear83]

Sounds like a grat trip Lauren

Were booked onto the DCL cruise bus for December, when we looked into it, it was much cheaper to book through DCL for a couple, and we decided we wanted to the stress free option where they collect they luggage and you get to watch a video on the bus

The only downside is that you do not get to port early, this doesnt affect us as we will will have checked in online etc and would rather have a swim in the morning that sat around in the cruise terminal.

Love the look of the beach club - we got the boardwalk on a 45% discount for this December on the the Disney USA site, much cheaper than the UK one.

 

[disney_princess_85]

Sounds like a grat trip Lauren

Were booked onto the DCL cruise bus for December, when we looked into it, it was much cheaper to book through DCL for a couple, and we decided we wanted to the stress free option where they collect they luggage and you get to watch a video on the bus

The only downside is that you do not get to port early, this doesnt affect us as we will will have checked in online etc and would rather have a swim in the morning that sat around in the cruise terminal.

Love the look of the beach club - we got the boardwalk on a 45% discount for this December on the the Disney USA site, much cheaper than the UK one.

Thanks. It's a bit more complicated than our past trips but I'm sure it'll all work out fine!!

I'll be sure to check the Beach Club prices on the US Disney site. I assumed we'd just book it with Expedia (or similar) so thanks for the reminder. 45% discount is awesome!