Hello! My sister and I are looking into planning our 1st cruise next October. We’re planning a WDW trip in October 2022, and were thinking of tacking on a cruise on the Wish on to the end. I know the dates for the Wish currently only go to the end of September, but if it keeps the same pattern as the summer dates, we were thinking of M 10/17/22 - F 10/22/22 (4-day Bahamian). My questions (right now) are as follows:
The dates for the Wish summer dates booked up pretty significantly in the Early Booking window of 5/17-5/27. Is this common, or is it just because it’s the newest ship? And are the Early Booking dates always this long, or are they normally shorter?
When are the October 2022 dates likely to post, and then to release for booking?
We plan our own WDW trips ourselves without an issue, but this would be our first cruise. There’s just so much we don’t know. Should we go through a TA for just the cruise part?
Are the concierge room king beds actual king beds, or more like queens? This affects the type of room we’d try to go for.
Does anyone here have any insight into the convertible beds for larger individuals? How sturdy/comfortable are they?
I’m sure I will have more, but I’m most concerned about the booking windows, not even being able to price things out well, and the staterooms themselves - I’m not even sure we’d fit comfortably in one, given our respective sizes.
The newness has a lot to do with it - which is surprising with how much many past cruisers whine about “Nassau Circle”. In the past they have been a bit shorter, but it seems like they may either be preparing to revamp the Castaway Club structure - or that the tiered booking for Platinum members may be here to stay, which would make it longer. I don’t think DVC has had its own day in the past either.
Usually around now. Speculation is it may be later this time just to give everyone (TAs and DCL agents) time to recover from the Wish madness.
Honestly? I would never do part of a vacation with a TA. I’d either book the whole thing through them or nothing through them. If you do go the TA route, I’d DEFINITELY get one that specializes in Disney. Not a big box “agency” like Costco.
The multi-room suites MIGHT have Kings - I’m not sure. Most of the staterooms have queens. And they are true queens, not “more like queens”. Unlike other lines, Disney does NOT do the horrid split bed that theoretically can be pushed together thing.
The sofa (at least the ones in the regular rooms - I’m too low maintenance for Concierge) is like many at WDW where the back flips down into a twin bed. The berth that comes from the ceiling has a weight limit of 250 pounds.
I would think your booking difficulty has to due with the new ship and the pandemic. People are starting to breakout of there homes and heading for vacations of all types. I have not done Disney cruise since it was the Big Red Boat which Disney did not own but rather represented. Now they have there own fleet of ships and of coarse Castaway Cay. Advice: Plan way ahead of your cruise dates and I would use a travel agency as they can reduce the headache of booking and they are free to you as they make their fee via Disney cruise lines. I would check with Magical Vacations Travel (MVT) as they are quit big and very experienced. Darcy is who I have used but there are many agents to choose from. Now all that said I will tell you to get a room with a outside deck and toward the middle of the ship. To close to either end will be bumpy toward the bow and prop noise on the stern. Pick a deck about 6 or higher as you will be above the water enough to limit wave noise. You will probably gain 10lbs from all the food that is available. There are now specialty restaurants that cost extra and shore excursions are additional as well. Remember this above everything. BRING SUNSCREEN! While on the top sundeck it is easy to lose track of time. 15 minutes in the tropical sun on the ocean near the equator is about an hours worth on land. It will burn you quickly and you will be miserable the whole trip thereafter. This is just a little of what you should know and I will let the others add to it. Hope this helps and have a wonderful Cruise.
Also there are a LOT of people with Future Cruise Credits to use - and those have an expiration date.
I will say, the other DCL ships are fabulous. I would never discount them just because they aren’t the Wish. In some ways, they have aspects that are even better.
remember the Carnival Triumph? I was on it’s second voyage with no problems, but a number of years later it got stuck at sea with a fire and engine failure. I think they were stranded for a week
I’ve found a lot of really great general cruise info on you tube, there are many channels with answers to pretty much any question you could think of. And, lots of tours of ships, although since the Wish is so new I’m not sure if anyone would have that yet. But if you look at videos about the other Disney ships you could probably get a good idea.
While I normally do my own vacation planning, I always use a TA for cruising. I have regularly needed phone-type questions answered, and she is in a much better position to do that than I am. The cruise doesn’t actually cost you any more for using one. I have a local agent that has helped me through the years.
I think any day now it should open up for Oct 2022. Pre-pandemic, that would be the case, anyway. If you are ready to go with a TA, s/he can jump on it as soon as the window opens up.
I also encourage you to consider any of the ships if you can’t get what you want on Wish. I have had wonderful cruises on big ships and small ships, new ships and old ships, and on multiple lines.
To be clear, I wasn’t saying “Don’t use a TA.” What I was saying is that I think it would be tacky to do the land portion by yourself and use a TA only for the sea portion. The only things you can’t do on your own for a WDW vacation if you use a TA is make a resort/room type change or make payments. YOU can still do your ADRs, your online check-in, your TP room request, etc. And the benefit is if a discount comes out, the TA (assuming they’re a Disney specialist) will check to see if you can benefit from it and automatically make that change for you without you having to wait on hold for hours.
As a DVC owner I would always book the WDW land part of a cruise and have my TA book my cruise (she only books Universal and cruises for me and knows I take care of the land).
@thedownsfamily, I always work with a TA when booking my cruises. For non-Disney cruises she looks for discounts and automatically saves me money. For Disney, she has helped me pick the best room and has sat on the phone for 8 hours to book on opening day .
The TA I have always used now works for Touring Plans. The initial Wish offer I think was the agency was paying the first two guests gratuities? A TA will generally also give you some kind of benefit for booking through their agency.
Well, I guess if you’re driving yourself to the port and not using Disney’s cruise shuttle they wouldn’t.
I guess I just care more about supporting a small business and someone who has done a lot for me who has had a tough, tough year with zero money coming in. It’s the principle of the thing for me.
Gotcha.
My agent regularly encourages me to book things directly when it saves me money to do it. She and I compare prices and I can often do better than she can with things like Expedia and Priceline. She makes up for it when she books our cruises, I guess. It’s always multiple staterooms.
There’s the difference. I’ve had too many bad experiences with Expedia (I don’t care what their commercials say, they do NOT have your back if something goes wrong in my experience) and I’d never do something where I don’t know what I’m booking, so Hotwire and Priceline are out too.
I know my TA has my back when things go wrong - and even when things are like “Huh?” like in February where just before I was sitting down for dinner rather than a room ready text I got a “see the front desk” text. I posted it on FB - not even emailing her about it, just as a curious thing - and she took it on herself to call, find out what was going on, and then message me so I could relax and enjoy my dinner. (They just needed to link my MB correctly so it would open the door.)
I’m sorry to hear that that about your experience with Expedia. They’ve been exceptionally helpful when I’ve needed it, including complicated cancellations for a trip to DLP.
Sounds like your agent is great at customer service!
I had multiple times when I had bought a tour or ticket through them, had the receipt, and the operator could find no record of it. And all Expedia would say was “If you have your receipt that is all you need.” No help.
Yes - Jacki is awesome, which is why I book all my trips through her.
Just stating what could have happened to I and my wife. Cruises are not for us. Too many bad things happen out there these days and way over crowded. Price have went through the roof especially Disney cruises. Extra’s are mounting and most lines have many things and restaurant that are NOT included.
Stuff can happen anywhere. The Skyliner wire can break. You can be hit by a bus. Planes can crash.
You can stay home in your house cowering in fear or you can live.
I find it interesting that you have no desire to cruise, yet you comment on a thread about cruising. I get that it’s not for you, but why comment? I’m not over on Star Wars threads saying how stupid I think it is. I ignore Star Wars threads. Pretty simple to ignore what does not interest you.
Wow, obviously my comments were not for you. I have indeed had experience on various cruise line, four to be exact. I could say I have seen you out here commenting on various posts that I felt were inappropriate, but it was none of my business. My post was information for thedownsfamily and they can take it or leave it. you on the other hand can keep your comments about my posts to yourself.
They’ve been exceptionally helpful when I’ve needed it, including complicated cancellations for a trip to DLP.
