Several Cruise questions

[Marc A.]

My family will be on the Wonder in October 2010. We received the 4 night trip thru a DVC add-on incentive.
We are staying AKV before and BLT after the cruise. My mother has recently
expressed interest in joining us for the cruise as well as one leg of our park stay, the BLT part.
One question I have is this....
How should I go about booking her on the cruise.?? Thru DCL or thru a TA?
She would be staying in her own stateroom but we would want to try and get her as close to ours as possible.

Secondly, as far as transfers. I think we will set her up with ME from the airport/Hyatt (staying the night before) to the Port and then to BLT.
For my family however, 2 adults, 2 kids. Is it worth it to seek outside services other than ME, needing car seats and tipping???
It would be resort-port-resort??

Your thoughts???

Thank you

 

[kcashner]

First, a little terminology (just to be clear). Magical Express is a free service that runs between MCO and WDW resorts. It does not go to the port.

DCL transfers cost $35 per person each way and run between the WDW resorts and the port and MCO and the port.

As to how to book your mother--call a TA who specializes in DCL. Tell them YOUR reservation number and that you want your reservations linked...and that you want the cabins as close together as possible. By using a TA, your mother will be able to get a lot of her questions answered as well as getting a small onboard credit as a thanks for booking. Sailing solo, she will be paying a "single supplement." She'll pay 175% of the cruise fare portion of her ticket. If she has a friend or relative that she'd like to invite, the cost would be very little different.

It is very easy for your TA to set her up with DCL transfers from the Hyatt to the port.

For your transportation (and you can include her on the way back), you have to decide what matters most--cost, convenience? You have 3 options:
rental car--you can pick up the car in the WDW area. Budget is in the Doubletree by Downtown Disney, Avis is in the Hilton on that same road. They will shuttle you from your resort to their location. You can rent a car one way, drop it in the Cape Canaveral area. You'd have the option of dropping the family at the port and having the driver return the car or taking the gang to return the car. As you mentioned, car seats add $12 to the cost of the rental. We typically pay about $40 for a car using discount codes at rentalcodes.com or mousesavers.com, plus about $10 more for gas and tolls.

Limo service (towncar) cost is usually the same as 3 1/2 - 4 DCL transfers. Easy--they pick you up at the resort, take care of the luggage, drop you at the port. Reverse the process to get back. Price is based on the size of vehicle and length of trip, not on number of people, so she could ride back to BLT with you at no additional cost. Runs on YOUR time schedule. There are many good limo/towncar services. Costs $100-120 each way.

DCL transfers will leave your resort about noon and get you to the port about 1:30. Your luggage will be taken from your room about 8 am. Very easy, but you have no control of time frame. You may visit up to 3 resorts to pick up people before heading to the port. Same on the reverse side. Price is high if there are 3 or more of you!