need help making sense of it all!!!

[crz~enthusiast]

I am an avid cruiser and have enjoyed many cruises over the years. I introduced my DH to cruising 6 years ago for our honeymoon(alaska). We recently returned from an RCCl cruise and decided its about time to introduce our daughter to cruising. She is 2 1/2 and we are interested in doing a Disney cruise when she turns 4(thinking this would be the best age to start her:)

 

In all my cruising I have never done disney or travelled with children and I am at a loss. My DH(36), DD(4), and I(32) will be travelling with my DH's sisiter(40) and their three girls(ages 4,7, and 11). My Dh's parents will also be coming. Aside from my DH and myself they are all 1st time cruisers. Which is a lot of pressure b/c we've been raving about our trips for six years.

 

I think we are leaning toward the 3 day disney Land and 4 day disney cruise. I can find no info on the disney land portion(ie what it includes, accommodations, meals....ect) Any help or experience would be appreciated.

 

DIS appears a bit pricy and I don't even know if that is the cruise portion or total cost.

 

Are there connecting rooms in all categories. Are their options for connecting balconies? How does the pricing work for double occupancy in one and the kids in the other. Or is a Quin better?

 

Is the land sea a better plan for us than the 7 day since the kids have never been to WDW?

 

Please shed some light on this for me.

[jcanino]

I think we are leaning toward the 3 day disney Land and 4 day disney cruise. I can find no info on the disney land portion(ie what it includes, accommodations, meals....ect) Any help or experience would be appreciated.

 

DIS appears a bit pricy and I don't even know if that is the cruise portion or total cost.

 

In regards to the land/sea package, it includes a resort and passes. The resort that you have a choice of is based on the category cabin you choose. No meals are included on the land portion. If you do the package air inclusive, it includes transfers from the airport to the resort, resort to pier and pier back to airport.

[TheWog]

I don't know much about land/sea packages, but disboards.com will give you tons of info on both the land portion as well as your disney cruise. wdwinfo.com I think gets you there as well. Good luck.

[GottaLuvCruising]

I used to work for Disney Cruise Line so I know the Disney product.

 

The land portion includes your resort (resorts you can choose from are based on stateroom category booked). It includes passes to all four theme parks, two water parks, Disney Quest, Pleasure Island. Your passes are good from the time you arrive until you leave for the cruise and you can hop all you want. It also includes WDW transportation.

 

If you book airfare with Disney, your transfers are included. If not, they are available for purchase at an additional charge.

 

There are a limited number of adjoining staterooms and they do not include all categories. Disney will not allow you to book the children in a seperate stateroom. You have to book one adult in each. Of course, if the staterooms adjoin, it really makes no difference which one has your name on it.

 

Yes, Disney is pricey.

[Jsme]

All kind of things to keep in mind here.

 

 

One I want to say yes, DCL is more expensive than other cruise lines. I think it is worth it though!

 

Price wise, you need to price each componet of your vacation seperately and together. Sometimes you can get a better deal with the pricing when you book seperately. Not always though.

 

Also if you book directly with Disney you will pay alot more. I would call around or go on line and look at various TA's for pricing of the vacation.

 

A great website to look at is the dis boards. http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=9

 

I love this website. If you find an-line TA you can ask there on the board's if anyone has used them before.

 

Remember Sam's, Costco and AAA in your search.

 

Yes you can get a verandah adjoining room. We did this last year and loved it!!

 

You will have to have one adult per room and the pricing is per two people in each room. Meaning 3rd and 4th are the cheapier ones.

 

If you purchase airfare with your vacation you will pay more. Either way you have to add the DCL transfers at $59 pp. There's ways to not pay that amount though. You can rent a car for $30 one way. Meaning you can get a car roundtrip for about the price of DCL's transferrs. It really depends on how much you want to spend.

 

We live about 10 hours away. We have only flown down once and decided then it was not worth it for us. We stay at the Radisson at the Port and they have a shuttle in which we take to the port. But please remember we only live 10 hours away!! Here is the webcam from the Rad. http://www.opusad.com/radissonwebcam/

 

The Wonder is in port on Sundays and Thursdays and the Magic will be home soon!!!

 

I hope I have answered some of your questions.

[Koalagal]

Wow, where to begin...hmm...we love Disney so much, we bought the timeshare(Beach club villas). I don't recommend Saratoga Springs(the newest timshare), although that is not the point. We used our timeshare points to cruise disney & were not disappointed! In fact, its 55 days til our carnival cruise & I'm almost afraid to compare the 2. But I digress.

 

This is my personal view of Disney: The youngest child should be: potty trained, able to walk all day on their own & know how to say NO to strangers. Once the kids can do all of that, you will LOVE disney. Otherwise, you will get frustrated with them(the kids). Now, even if the above applies, you should take a break at the park OFTEN. Remember, there can be as many as 20,000 other folks in the park with you, so it is very easy to get overwhelmed. Lots of folks get an early start & retire to the hotel for an afternoon nap(which often helps the dads more than the kids). Sometimes the kids like the pool better than the parks. I would definitely do less days at disney, more days on ship for your age group of kids. You can always go back to the park later. And yes, disney is pricey, but you get what you pay for with them. They always treat you good, but the more you spend for room, etc the more upscale it is...no matter where you go, though, they treat you like they were your personal servants...at least when I've been(even before we bought the timeshare).

 

Now, on to the cruising: It is fantastic. We did the 7 night w. carib. last nov. and we have NO children. I expected to be annoyed by children...did NOT happen(although we chose late dining). They used to run a tv ad where the kids never wanted to eat dinner with the folks...this is no lie. I don't know what activities they do with them, but on the rare occasions I actually saw kids they were grinning(or moping at having to eat with the family). By the time you go, the 11 year old will be too old for Oceaneers club, but they should have a teen club on Magic by then(Wonder has one but only does 7 day cruises). The kids all seemed to LOVE it. Sign them up for things early(online/phone if possible) so they can do it if they want to.

 

Eating: food is fantastic, prob. too rich for kids, which is why they do kid's meals in the dining rooms. Beg, bribe or force the inlaws to watch your child 1 nite & Run, don't walk, to make Palo reservations(or whatever the pay restaurant is called) the Moment(yes literally) you embark onto the ship. You will pay $20 flat fee for you & hubby, but it is sooooo worth it. Food in heaven will taste like that. Try to make it for the nite out of 4 that you duplicate a restaurant. Sodas were now free on Wonder(which is one thing I'm not too happy w/Carnival about). There are places to satisfy cravings at 3am. Look it up on their website once you book, it really is a decent one.

 

Excursions: If you really want to do one, book online/phone once you are sure, some of them(not all) sell out. I can't advise on which are good, since you will be going to Bahamas & I didn't. I can say for the one's I did, the companies were very trustworthy. Disney doesn't want to lose their reputation.

 

Shows/characters: Do all of these, as they change them periodically. All the ones we did were great! The kids will love seeing all the characters around ship. They will take your pictures w/characters(and it costs scary $) or you can bring your camera & do it yourself(our option).

 

Embarking/debarking: went very smoothly for us- bring something for the kids to do while waiting and you should be ok. If you go after Dec05, you MUST now have passports(check w/post office).

 

Rooms: Wow, nicely done! Loved that there was an actual bath, not just a shower(although we had an outside w/balcony). Look for the "hidden Mickey's" all over the ship & in your room too. And, of all the folks to tip more than recommended, your room steward is the one. Everyday, while you are out, he/she will clean the bathroom, the whole room, make your bed, change the towels & make a towel animal which is left on the bed awaiting your return...we tipped him the most(he cleaned my toilet every day)! I got a snake, swan, elephant, pirate, frog & I can't remember what else! So even the adults will love this. Nothing was EVER missing from our room, and even my personal pillow(which I always bring on long trips) was fluffed for me.

 

Guess I rambled on there, but it was my first cruise and now I am so hooked on cruising! Hope all of this helps!:p

[crz~enthusiast]

WOW!!

 

Thanks for all the advice. I've started pricing out the packages with a few TA's. Haven't attempted pricing separately yet as its still too overwhelming but, I'll get there.

I appreciate all the info and firsthand knowledge.

[roohound]

By the time you go, the 11 year old will be too old for Oceaneers club, but they should have a teen club on Magic by then(Wonder has one but only does 7 day cruises).

 

Actually, the Mgic does 7 day cruises, the Wonder does the 3 and 4 night runs

[melissaga]

If you do decide to do the 3 day land/4 day sea package, I HIGHLY recommend doing the land portion first. As you already know, cruising is so relaxing. There's no way I'd want to be running around the parks (even as a frequent WDW visitor, we are also DVC members- Disney's timeshare) after my relaxing cruise.

 

The first time we ever cruised, we did this package. I felt neither time lengh was sufficient. 3 days is not enough time in the parks and definitely not enough time to take advantage of all that your passes provide you with (the water parks, the 4 theme parks, Pleasure Island, DisneyQuest- though we did do that the morning of the cruise as they had busses pick us up there). A 4 day cruise was a great way for us to start cruising bc we were nervous about "being stuck on a ship" for all that time. I LOL now bc we ended up wishing we could spend more time on board and booked a 7 day cruise almost immediately! But, a 4 day may not be enough for you.

 

There are other difference with cruising Disney that you will notice, aside from the characters. We considered them pluses. No casinos but we don't gamble. Minimal smoking anywhere. No midnight buffet every night (we rarely stay out that late anyway). The pools are not saltwater. Aside from the shops, everything seems to be open and running while in port (all the pools, restaurants, etc). They show first run movies- if a Disney movie is being released while you are on board, you will see it first. We saw Finding Nemo at midnight (well, dh did LOL! I was asleep) the day it was released. We saw one of the Dalmation movies as well on the day it premiered (they had special souveniers for the new movies too).

 

We did our first cruise when dd was about 3 and a half. It was a great age. She was old enough for the kids club and absolutely loved it there! She begged for more time there. When we cruise now, we just don't expect to see her too much (she's 8). She plans her day based on the activities planned for the club and what's on the adult dinner menu (she has rather adult like taste and won't do kids fare on a regular basis). A cruise turns into a vacation for dh and I together. We leave TOMORROW :D on a RCI cruise and we all cannot wait. Disney is a great way to introduce a child (or anyone) to cruising!