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The Top Five Secrets of Booking a Disney Cruise.

This post brought to you by Christina Wood of Pixie Vacations, the preferred Disney vacation travel planner of The Disney Blog.


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Planning a cruise is not as difficult as planning to Disney World, where I regularly encounter my clients’ six-page spreadsheets, make multiple dining changes, and spend a couple of hours just picking out fastpasses. While it’s not as simple as just showing up for your cruise, cruising, truthfully, is easy. That’s what makes it so great. Booking your cruise, however, can be a little bit tricky. Here are some pointers to make the process a little less confusing.

5. Book as early as possible.

The biggest reason to book your cruise as early as you can is that you’ll pay less. Cruise lines all raise prices based on availability–as room categories fill up, the price of the remaining rooms under that category increases. It’s simple supply and demand.

In addition to saving money, booking early allows you to get your first pick of dining times. If you have young children, an early dining time is usually ideal. Finally, booking early allows you to pick your cabin, so you have more deck and location choices. While deck choices are a personal opinion, most guests like mid-ship, so those will fill up first.

4.  Don’t pay for insurance until you’re final payment is due.

You can cancel your cruise for any reason prior to your final payment date and get a full refund, no question asked (exceptions for concierge), but if you have insurance added, you won’t get that money back. Since you can add insurance any time before final payment, just wait until then and then add it. But don’t forget–otherwise you’re probably out of luck.Read More »The Top Five Secrets of Booking a Disney Cruise.

castaway cay christmas with Mickey!

Disney Cruise Line Christmas Decor and Characters Showcased

castaway cay christmas with Mickey!

I’ve never been aboard a Disney cruise ship at Christmas, but I hear it’s a special time. Beyond the decorations and specially costumed walk-around characters, there are special meals and holiday entertainment to enjoy. Here’s a fresh video with highlights from across the Disney Cruise Line fleet revealing how the Christmas holiday is celebrated. There are also a few wonderful shots of decorations at Castaway Cay and the Cape Canaveral terminal too.

As it’s the first Christmas Season for the Disney Fantasy, it’s the very first time decorations have been erected on the ship. Disney recently shared a video showing the installation of the big 20ft tall atrium lobby tree in Time-Lapse video. Which you can see below the jump:

Read More »Disney Cruise Line Christmas Decor and Characters Showcased

Disney Fantasy – Executive Panel Discussion

The Disney Fantasy is now sailing regularly from Port Canaveral making thousands of guests happy on every 7 day cruise. I was fortunate enough to be invited to one of the preview cruises. There were plenty of great opportunities to explore the ship and hear… Read More »Disney Fantasy – Executive Panel Discussion

Comparing Occupancy Rates on the Disney Dream vs Disney Fantasy

The Orlando Sentinel takes a deep dive into the numbers behind Disney’s latest ships, the Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy. Although Disney doesn’t provide occupancy numbers, some rough figures can be estimated based on the passenger figures provided by the port. Both ships have approximately… Read More »Comparing Occupancy Rates on the Disney Dream vs Disney Fantasy

Christening, Last Minute Prep for Disney Fantasy in New York

With these immortal words, “I christen thee, Disney Fantasy. May God bless this ship and all who sail on her,” Disney’s fourth cruise ship was officially christened tonight by its Godmother Mariah Carey. Also on hand was Neil Patrick Harris and a host of celebrities.… Read More »Christening, Last Minute Prep for Disney Fantasy in New York

Disney Fantasy – Enchanted Art

Enchanted art is the logical progression of those little digital frames you send your grand parents stuffed with pictures of their grand children. Some people liken it to the moving photos in Harry Potter films, but it’s really more magical than that. Disney pushed the… Read More »Disney Fantasy – Enchanted Art

Disney Wonder to switch ports from Los Angeles to Miami?

Last we heard, Disney Cruise Line was canceling December 2012 cruises on the Disney Wonder from Los Angeles to Mexico and it appeared a re-positioning cruise through the Panama Canal was a possibility. Now, evidence points to an eventual new home port of Miami for… Read More »Disney Wonder to switch ports from Los Angeles to Miami?