Disney World after cruise?

[keishashadow]

Originally Posted by DevCruise

Hey all....

My wife and I were looking at maybe hitting Disney World for two days following our NCL cruise in January. However, tickets are expensive! Looks cheaper to make our cruise a 4 day + 3 day back to back than to hit Disney after getting off our cruise.

Any suggestions?

Right now it's looking like $352 just for the tickets. $272 for a hotel for two days. And about $100 for a rental car to get us from Miami to Orlando. Haven't figured out food or airfare differences yet versus doing the round trip to/from Miami.

re SOG as a military contractor do you qualify as DOD as stated below?

O-4 thru O-10, CW-4, CW-5, Active and Retired DoD Civilians, Foreign Military assigned to a U.S. Military installation only, DoD Contractors assigned to a U.S. Military installation only.

Although you're sailing out of Miami might be worth your while to check into the cruises offered out of Port Canaveral to combine with WDW, an hour+ down the road.

I'm one of those disney nuts we've stayed @ the Contemporary Resort and Bay Lake Towers many times and never get enough of the view of the magic kingdom - as noted by the pic i took one year that serves as my avatar. We've enjoyed all our visits, ranging from the values to deluxe resorts.

OP sign up for info on WDW site, sometimes pin codes are issued at great discounts (up to 40% off room rates) but not so much lately...moreso package deals. I wouldn't be surprised to see a free dining package or some form of a complimentary disney gift card promo released for January. The rates for 2013 just came out, the deals will follow.

[DevCruise]

Originally Posted by keishashadow

re SOG as a military contractor do you qualify as DOD as stated below?

O-4 thru O-10, CW-4, CW-5, Active and Retired DoD Civilians, Foreign Military assigned to a U.S. Military installation only, DoD Contractors assigned to a U.S. Military installation only.

Good catch! I should qualify under the last part. Where did you find that? I checked this page (http://www.shadesofgreen.org/eligibility.htm) and it doesn't have that on it.

Originally Posted by keishashadow

I'm one of those disney nuts we've stayed @ the Contemporary Resort and Bay Lake Towers many times and never get enough of the view of the magic kingdom - as noted by the pic i took one year that serves as my avatar. We've enjoyed all our visits, ranging from the values to deluxe resorts.

Let me ask you this. Our cruise gets back Friday. Guessing we could make Disney by maybe 2pm at the latest on Friday. Was going to spend Friday/Saturday at the park with the idea of covering Epcot (Friday) and the Magic Kingdom (Saturday). Do you think it's doable?

Originally Posted by keishashadow

OP sign up for info on WDW site, sometimes pin codes are issued at great discounts (up to 40% off room rates) but not so much lately...moreso package deals. I wouldn't be surprised to see a free dining package or some form of a complimentary disney gift card promo released for January. The rates for 2013 just came out, the deals will follow.

Will do. Also going to sign up for the mousesavers one somebody else mentioned above. Noticed that I could just recently book packages for 2013.

[phabric]

Have you bought your air,yet. You might want to fly into Miami, rent an one way car rental and fly home from Orlando. Once you are at Disney, you do not need a car. What would the cost be to fly from Miami to Orlando?

We are using a Budget code Y937800 (anybody can use) for Dec. Mousesavers might also have discount car rental codes.

Another site for Disney information is www.wdwinfo.com.

[mrsjetpup]

Originally Posted by phabric

Have you bought your air,yet. You might want to fly into Miami, rent an one way car rental and fly home from Orlando. Once you are at Disney, you do not need a car. What would the cost be to fly from Miami to Orlando?

We are using a Budget code Y937800 (anybody can use) for Dec. Mousesavers might also have discount car rental codes.

Another site for Disney information is www.wdwinfo.com.

We are doing this exact thing after our cruise in December, even using Budget rental car. One thing though, I found it cheaper to actually keep the rental car for the three days we will be at WDW, because it includes unlimited miles. The one-day rental was going to cost me more because it only gave us 125 miles.

Our hotel has free parking, so we'll keep it and return it at Orlando Airport when we fly out, and we'll have it in case we want it. Make sure to check out both ways.

[Latinhunny33]

Thanks for the info.

We're looking at a short stay before our cruise next May & the MYW Package looks great.

[phabric]

If you are taking the dining plan with the Table Service meals, you should make dining reservations as soon as you can either through Disney's website or by calling the dining reservation line. Most of the time, you can not walk up to a Table Service Restaurant and walk in.

[CoquinaKeyNereid]

The MYW plan now has a lower-cost or free if it's during special times of the year, that include only the quick service restaurants. No reservations needed for these and there are so many really good options in all of the parks that may work well for someone on a budget or someone that just does not want to bother with the sit-down restaurants and the reservations that have to be made so far in advance. We are going to try the quick service plan when we book our MYW plan for next year's stay at the new Disney Animation hotel.

[Latinhunny33]

We'll be traveling with a 4yr old so we prefer the Quick Dining Plan.

[keishashadow]

[quote=DevCruise;34550141]Good catch! I should qualify under the last part. Where did you find that? I checked this page (http://www.shadesofgreen.org/eligibility.htm) and it doesn't have that on it.

i can't give away all my secrets jk i just had it in my notes since we're only eligible in September being just honorably discharged but not retired. Here's a good site with lots of info, the rules for SOG are there: militarydisneytips dot com

Let me ask you this. Our cruise gets back Friday. Guessing we could make Disney by maybe 2pm at the latest on Friday. Was going to spend Friday/Saturday at the park with the idea of covering Epcot (Friday) and the Magic Kingdom (Saturday). Do you think it's doable?

Depends on how late the parks will be open. If they close at 6 pm then i'd have to say no. The schedules usually come out 6 months prior but historically the winter has shorter hours. You can do a search for last year's dates, they'll be similar.

Unless a package would require a two day ticket purchase, my honest opinion would be to drive up there on Friday and just enjoy whatever onsite resort you pick. You can ride the monorail without park entrance. It runs up to an hour after the parks close. Year past our first day when kids were small was to grab transport up to the MK then hop on the monorail for a spin. We'd make the loop and have dinner at Chef Mickeys. It's very expensive but it's a great way to cross off meeting the charactars and you can watch the MK fireworks from the viewing platform. I'd likely skip a package entirely and just book a discounted room and buy my own ticket media and pay OOP (out of pocket) for my meals. Nice thing re a room only is you can cancel it up to 5 days prior vs having to pay off a disney package much sooner - i believe it's 75 days prior to trip and non-refundable


Will do. Also going to sign up for the mousesavers one somebody else mentioned above. Noticed that I could just recently book packages for 2013