Disney Cruise Line
Booking the Cruise
By spring of 1998, still unsure of our summer vacation plans, we started exploring our Disney Cruise Line options.
We resolved to make this a true honeymoon, after our abbreviated honeymoon of the year before.
Disney offers 3-day and 4-day cruise packages.
You are also offered the opportunity to combine this with a stay at Walt Disney World.
Complete packages also include air travel and bus transportation from the airport to Walt Disney World,
a bus ride to the ship, which sets sail from Disney's very own brand-spanking-new terminal at Port Canaveral,
and transportation back to the airport after the cruise is over.
The 3-day cruise included a stop in Nassau in the Bahamas, followed by a stop the next day at Disney's own Castaway Cay (pronounced "key"),
a privately owned tropical paradise. The 4-day cruise includes an extra day at sea.
All packages seemed fairly expensive, but some hunting on the Internet quickly turned up a well priced all-inclusive package available through the Expedia Cruise Outlet for 4-day land, 3-day sea.
Truth be told, all packages are offered directly through the Disney Cruise Line and the travel agency only acts as an intermediary.
Booking through an airline's travel agency (such as Air Canada Vacations) may have been a bit more expensive but would probably have offered a more direct flight route.
Disney Cruise Line, apparently, waits until the last minute to book plane transportation in order to lock in the cheapest fare, and this can mean absurd lay-over waits.
For example, my wife and I, travelling from Montreal, Quebec to Orlando, had to stop over in Pittsburgh (since we were flying US Airways and Pittsburgh is one of their hubs).
The lay-over on the way to Florida was only about 45 minutes.
Unfortunately, on the way back, Disney was so anxious to get us off the ship that we arrived at Orlando International Airport 4 hours before our flight.
Furthermore, we were once again forced to lay-over in Pittsburgh. And this time, the wait time was ANOTHER 4 hours!
All packages are offered directly through the Disney Cruise Line and the travel agency only acts as an intermediary.
All this to say that if we'd opted to go with the more expensive Air Canada Vacations, rather than directly through Disney Cruise Line,
then we probably would have been booked on a direct flight between Montreal and Orlando, and we wouldn't have experienced any of this unnecessary waiting.
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