Best Value Time....

[vesw01]

We would be traveling with at least a 14 yr old and a 5 yr old and we are looking to do something next year. Currently we are looking at staying in a condo near Disney in Mid-Dec right before the high season (the park is still decorated and there are few crowds). We are foster parents, so the number of kids and ages will increase (these two listed are ours). We don't mind taking the kids out of school and wasn't sure if the beginning/mid Dec for the cruise is the cheapest time (Disney said it is their cheapest time)....

 

Any thoughts?

 

BTW for the ports that Disney does, I am assuming the kids would need passports next year? We might not be able to get all the kids passports and I would hate to have to leave anyone behind.

[mom x4,grandma x4]

HI,

Yes just after thanksgiving but before Christmas is the perfect time to go. The costs are lower and the crowds are not bad at all. When it gets closer to the holidays people wait an dgo at the holiday so the in between times are awesome. MGM is your best place to see the decorations at night. The Osbourne family light spectacular is great.

Yes after 12/31/06 everyone, including kids will have to have passports, no exceptions. You could call DCL and explain your delima, but I dont think they will be able to help you because this is the law.

as for the cruise, yes the first part of December is lower in costs and so is the later part of september. That is their slow times. we have sailed those months several times and it was great.

Good luck, I would hate for you to have to leave someone behind too. Of course it's not just the passports, DCL only allows a certain amount of people per cabin, so if you had last minutes people, you may need another room, which might not be available. One adult ( over 18) has to be in each room. So if you need 3 rooms and only have 2 adults going, it wont work.

 

mom x4,grandma x4

[OurFamilyisCruisebound]

BTW for the ports that Disney does, I am assuming the kids would need passports next year? We might not be able to get all the kids passports and I would hate to have to leave anyone behind.

 

Hi there...

 

We adopted 2 kids from foster care. We originally looked at doing a cruise when the kids were still our foster kids. We decided not to because of how difficult it would have been just to get the passports. You have to get special permission to even apply for passports. This was separate from the approval they had to give to go on the cruise, in addition to the placement agreement, birth parent approval, etc.

 

I don't remember the specifics, but we called the phone number to find out exactly what we would have needed to do. It wasn't that overwhelming, but enought that it was just easier to wait since we were already in the process of adopting them.

 

Hope that helps.

 

G

[vesw01]

We just became foster parents so we aren't anywhere near adoption or legal guardianship so waiting until then is to far off and a big if in the future. Good point about the extra cabin... I think we would be able to get away with two cabins though, 4 in one room 3 in the other room, but the passport thing is a dilemma. The parents in IL don't have to approve, but we would need the judges approval and we had that already done for a trip to the East coast - that was painless, they just included in the normal 6 month review. I just can't imagine paying for 7 passports especially for kids that may not stay with us