To book (Land & Sea package) or not to book

[LCTsMom]

We have friends flying in from Boston to join us on our cruise. They have decided to spend a few days at WDW before cruising. (They have two sons, 2 & 4.) Should they look into a Land & Sea package or is it better for them to plan the trips separately? What are the pros and cons of booking a package? Are transfers from WDW resorts to Port included in any of packages?

They are interested in flexibility and minimal stress - if there is such a thing

Thanks for any help!

 

[zeldacruiser]

Hmmm, flexibility AND lack of stress...If you book on your own, you get more flexibility. If you book a package, less stress. We've always booked on our own because we were always able to get better pricing that way.

 

[weluv M&M]

We booked the pkg last June and intended on booking seperately for the upcoming trip in June in order to get a better price. Once we started looking we realized that what we were saving in $ we were adding in stress. Since we knew we wanted to stay at the POLY and in a cat.6 state room we didn't have the issue of trying to book seperate levels of resorts and staterooms. We also REALLY liked the ease of being able to check our luggage at our home airport and not see it again until it was waiting on us in our resort room. The same with the sail date...we left our luggage in our resort room and it was waiting on us in our stateroom on the ship All the while we were traveling comfortably on the DCL transfer buses without any worries. Since we were traveling with younger children this was awsome and I was more than willing to pay a little more for it

 

[Limmer]

WAY less $$ to book by yourself. In 2001 it cost us $1500 CDN for 3 days at WDW before our cruise (before I found these boards). In 2002 we went for 6 days for $1500 CDN. It was very easy to do the package however, one check-in, one key to the world, all transfers, flights; no stress at all. I would book seperately if money is a cocern.

 

[HappyLawyer]

i feel, especially if u r staying offiste, it is less expensive to book seperately
good luck

 

[jacobatt1]

We went on a land/sea in October, and it was actually cheaper to book it together than separately!! Go figure.

The great part to us was the ease of checking in once. When you get to the terminal, you already have your KTTW card and you just get on the ship! You do have transfers with a package, but you can buy them anyway, or you can turn them down even with the package--so that part you can do either way.

We wanted to stay at AKL anyway, so the price was better than booking it separately, and we had a savannah view room!!!!! I'd say run the numbers on both--you might be surprised. But for ease, I have to give a BIG thumbs up for the package.

HTH!

Amy