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Note: This post is out of date. To see the latest prices (that we update once a month) go to our homepage and find the latest pricing posts from there. Or subscribe to our email list and get updated delivered to your inbox at the beginning of each month!
The Disney Cruise Line Spring 2018 itineraries were released near the end of October 2016. We started scanning them as soon as they came out because we knew our Spring break trip for that year would be a DCL cruise. We eventually decided to go back on the Magic as a follow up from our Christmas Cruise planned for December 2017. The cruise we selected was a 5 night Bahamian cruise that left from Miami with stops at Key West, Nassau, and Castaway Cay. We had previously sailed to Key West on the Wonder and loved the port. We were also excited because there would be a sea day after Castaway Cay. All of our other cruises spent the last full day at Castaway Cay, which kind of made the stop bitter sweet.
The cruise would leave on a Friday, thus forcing the girls to miss a half a day of school. We don’t normally like to have them miss school, but this departure date would let us apply an onboard placeholder to save 10% off the cruise.
Since we knew we would have annual passes by the time of the Spring Break Cruise, we needed to add on some additional time at the parks as well.
I sent our request to our travel agent, Michelle McKnight. Michelle said she would book it as soon as the Gold Castaway Club window opened. She booked the cruise and sent us the information. We eventually re-booked the cruise to add an onboard booking that we made during our Star Wars Day At Sea Cruise in January 2017, thus dropping the price of the cruise by 10%.
Flights
We waited until April of 2017 to start booking the rest of our arrangements. We knew we would have annual passes, so we wanted to add in a visit to Walt Disney World. Once the flight booking window opened, I scanned the various airlines sites that we have miles for. The best deal appeared to be to fly American Airlines from Reagan National Airport into Orlando the night before the cruise. The return flight would be on the Monday after Easter, with the girls having to go back to school on Tuesday. That would allow us to maximize our time in the parks as well. The flights were really cheap, so we used the Chase Ultimate Rewards points to purchase them through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. I believe we used about 60,000 points to get the round trip flights for all four of us.
The trouble with flying into Orlando is that we needed to get to Miami for the cruise. We would have to get a rental car to get us down to Miami. We would then drive to the Port, park the car and board the cruise. Once the cruise was over, we could grab the car and drive to the parks. We could use the car to get to the parks and eventually to return to the airport.
Hotels
I had initially thought about getting a hotel in Miami for the night before the cruise. Our flights were going to land in Orlando around 8 pm. Once we got our bags and our rental car, we probably wouldn’t start driving until 8:30 pm. That would put us in Miami around 12:30 am or so. After a full day of work, I really wasn’t looking forward to driving 4 hours late at night. I moved the hotel booking from Miami to a Holiday Inn Express in Stuart, Florida. It was about 2 hours or so from Orlando, which meant we could leave around 8 am in the morning and still get to the boat around 10 am for boarding. The hotel was free because we used our free night that comes with our Chase IHG Rewards Select Credit Card. We’ve used this free night on several hotel rooms over the years, thus saving a lot of money.
We would also need a room at Walt Disney World for 5 nights. Spring Break is an expensive time to visit Walt Disney World because it is so busy. We wanted to stay on property, but didn’t want to pay on property rates. Luckily, we had a large pile of Starwood Preferred Guest(SPG) points. SPG is the hotel group that the Swan and Dolphin belonged to. I say “belonged” because SPG was recently bought out by Marriot. We booked the Dolphin for five nights on points and would only end up paying for parking and “resort fees.” We chose the Dolphin over the Swan because I had exactly enough points for five nights at the Dolphin, which is cheaper than the Swan.
Remaining Planning
We got our annual passes a bit early in August 2017. We decided to skip out on excursions through Disney Cruise Line on this cruise to save a bit of money and just planned to do our own thing at each port. After we returned from our Christmas Cruise, we just waited until our cruise documentation arrived in the mail.
Next up, we’ll talk about the trip down to Miami!
Planning | Travel | Boarding | Key West | Nassau | Castaway Cay | Sea Day | Disembarkation
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We had checked out of our room at the All-Star Movies resort in the morning before we headed off to the parks. We didn’t quite know what to do with our bags though. We could have checked them through to the airlines, but didn’t want to do that because the last time we did it with the cruise line, we got charged for our bags despite having the Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard (it gives us one free bag per person). We decided instead to leave our bags with Bell Services and pick them up when boarding the Magical Express to the airport.
After leaving our bags, we headed to the parks. Our flight was supposed to leave at 9:00 pm, so we had a resort return time of 5:30 pm for the 6:00 pm Magical Express to the airport. However, we were done with the parks around 3:30 pm and decided to return to the resort. Once we arrived, we retrieved our bags and asked Bell Services about the chance to get on an earlier Magical Express bus to the airport. They said we could ask the bus driver and see if there was space.
Once the bus arrived, we asked the bus driver about taking the earlier bus. He had to load everyone that was scheduled for the bus first, but could see if there was space once all the passengers with reservations had gotten on. There ended up being enough extra seats for us, so we hoped on and headed to the airport. Once we arrived at the airport, we checked in for our American Airlines flight and dropped off our bags. Our first stop was for dinner in the food court. The food court in the Orlando Airport has a variety of choices. We each grabbed something we liked and settled in to eat.
About the time we were done, TripIt started to notify us of a delay on our flight home. It looked like it was going to be delayed about 30 minutes. We decided to go through security to enjoy the Admirals Club that recently opened since we have free access with the AAdvantage Executive Mastercard. We got to the club but noticed that it was closing at 8:30 pm. We asked while checking in if they were still going to close at that time, since they tend to stay open later when American Airlines flights are delayed. They said they would stay open until about 9:00 pm. We grabbed some drinks and used the wifi for a while until it was time to board.
The flight home was uneventful. We arrived at Reagan National Airport, gathered our luggage, and headed home. The trip was a nice way to spend our school break.
While the trip was fun, I don’t think we will be staying at a Value resort for a while. I really didn’t enjoy the double beds. I also didn’t really enjoy waiting for the buses. The only park I like taking the bus to is the Magic Kingdom since it lets you avoid the entire Monorail or Ferry Boat transportation. Staying on property without a car also restricts the places we can eat since we are limited to the ones on Disney property unless we are willing to take a cab or an Uber. Most likely we will only do it if we have a rental car or get a free dining plan.
Of course, the highs of being on the cruise always come crashing down on Disembarkation day. We decided to carry our bags off the ship with express walk off, but still enjoy breakfast. We left our room and headed towards Animators Palette, which is where we had dinner the night before. Since we had late dinner, our breakfast was at a reasonable time.
After breakfast, we collected our bags and headed off the ship to wait in the Customs line. We were through Customs rather quickly, then onto the bus to head back to the airport. We handed over our bags to the bus driver, who placed them under the bus. The ride back to the airport was uneventful and we collected our bags again once we got to the airport.
We had afternoon flights, which caused us a slight problem at the Orlando Airport. We were flying on American Airlines and they wouldn’t take our bags earlier than four hours before our flight. We had arrived at the airport six hours before our flight, so we had to wait a while to check the bags. Fortunately, the Orlando airport has lots of great areas for sitting while you are waiting. We found one that had power outlets and just camped out for a while. Everybody had their phones to entertain themselves. Once a few hours had passed, we took the bags back and checked in for our flight.
We also made sure to get some lunch before we headed through the TSA Precheck lines. There aren’t many choices after the security lines in the Orlando airport. After lunch, we decided to go through security and head to our gate for our flight home. The flight home was uneventful. We picked our bags up and headed to our car, which we had parked in the daily garage at Reagan National Airport. We returned home and head to start getting ready for work the next day.
This cruise had been a replacement for our Halloween cruise that had was canceled because of Hurricane Mathews. We decided to take our children with us and eventually invited our friends as well. While I’m sure it would have been nice to go on a cruise as a couple, its always a lot of fun to have family and friends along! I thought a three day cruise would be too short, but we did manage to squeeze in a lot of fun in three short days! While I always want to stay on board as long as possible, a three day cruise was a nice break from work without missing too much time away.
Planning | Travel | Boarding | Nassau | Castaway Cay | Disembarkation
The travel day for our Disney Dream cruise finally arrived! We had decided to leave really early so that we could join our friends at the airport. We could easily kill time in the Admirals Club lounge at Reagan National Airport. We were going to get the girls from school around noon, then leave for the airport at 12:30, which should get us there at 1:00 pm. The flight didn’t leave until 3:00 pm, so we should have plenty of time to get lunch as well.
I thought we were getting a jump on the trip when we picked the kids up at 11:30 am. But, that quickly went sideways. Our youngest daughter had a slight medical issue that was going to require a trip to the doctor for some medication. Nancy took her and headed off to the urgent care, hoping that we would be able to make it on time. My wife was in and out of the urgent care in about an hour and a half, but that put us at about 1:15 pm. We still had to get her prescription filled and get to the airport. We loaded everybody in the car and headed to the drugstore. Nancy ran into the drug store and quickly explained our issue. It still took them a little bit to put the prescription together, but they definitely went above and beyond to speed us on our way. We left the drug store around 1:45 pm and drove like crazy to get to Reagan National. We parked in the daily parking and went inside. We found a relatively empty check-in line and checked our bags. Thankfully, we have TSA Precheck, which got us through security in less than 5 minutes. We arrived at the gate just as boarding started. Thankfully, our friends had grabbed us lunch so we got a chance to eat before boarding. They were life savers!
The American Airlines flight to Orlando was uneventful and we were soon on the little monorail from the gate to the main terminal. We headed down to baggage claim to pick our bags up, then headed towards the Hyatt Regency that is located in the airport. It is the same hotel we stayed at during our Star Wars Cruise. The Hyatt Regency is located right next to the Security Checkpoint for Gates 70-129. The lobby/check in for the hotel is actually located on the fourth floor, so we went there with our luggage.
We had originally booked this room using one of the two free nights from our Chase Hyatt card signup bonus for our canceled October cruise. Once Disney notified us that the cruise was canceled, we canceled the room booking and then re-booked the free night for this cruise.
We arrived on the fourth floor and were greeted by the hotel staff, who quickly checked us in. The room itself was the exact same room we had three weeks before! We dropped off our luggage and headed back into the airport for dinner. We were all pretty tired from running around, so we decided to have a quick dinner at the food court. After dinner, we went back to the room for an early bedtime.
We woke up early the next morning because it was time to go and get on the cruise! The Hyatt Regency offers a program where you can spend the night before a cruise at the hotel and they will send your bags in the morning to the ship. You just have to tell them you want to participate in the program and they will give you a letter than explains everything. You then put the Disney Cruise Line luggage tags on your bags and leave them in the room. The hotel will gather your bags and deliver them to the Disney Cruise Line luggage transfer people. We decided against doing this and just handled our bags ourselves.
We met up with our friends in the airport in front of the Hyatt. We went to grab a quick breakfast and coffee at the nearby Starbucks. Here is a great tip that Nancy learned from an airport worker during our last trip. If you are looking at the Hyatt Regency, there is a Starbucks on the left. However, don’t go to that Starbucks if it has a long line. Instead, go down the steps to the left of the store. There is a smaller Starbucks down the stairs that is rarely busy. We never had a wait going to that Starbucks and the upstairs one had a line that was at least 20 minutes long. After a quick breakfast, we headed towards the B side of the airport (if you are looking at the Hyatt Regency, it is towards the right). We headed down the stairs and towards Disney Cruise Ground Transportation.
On the left hand side, you will see the Disney Cruise Line Luggage service. We went outside and the luggage handlers scanned the luggage tags, took our luggage, and loaded it into the truck. We then headed back inside and got into the line for the Disney Cruise Ground Transportation.
Once we got to the front of the line, they checked our cruise documentation, verified our passports, and sent us forward . We were then assigned onto the next available bus. Of course, we had to stop and take pictures of the bus!
We waited a bit until the bus was fully loaded, and then we were off to Port Canaveral. The trip took about 45 minutes and most of that time was filled with various videos that played. Some were advertisements for Disney Cruise Line and some were just cartoons to keep the kids entertained. The bus is equipped with a bathroom, just in case!
After about 45 minutes, we could finally see the Disney Dream! Unfortunately, I somehow failed to take any pictures in the terminal this time. I think it was because we spent most of the time talking with our friends, who had never taken a Disney cruise before. We got off the bus and headed inside. We had to stop for the security screening line, of course. We then headed to the check in line for the cruise. While waiting in the line, we got a health survey form that asked if anyone in our group had a fever or diarrhea within the past 72 hours. We filled the form out and turned it in when we approached the counter. A cast member looked at our cruise documentation, scanned our passports, and then issued us our Key To The World Cards and our Gold lanyards for being Gold Castaway Club Members.
We decided not to even bother checking for a stateroom upgrade on this cruise. Our friends had selected a stateroom that was in the same area as ours, so we decided to stay put. We grabbed a Navigator and settled in until our boarding group was called. Because we had an early port arrival time of 10:30 AM, we were in the third boarding group. Unfortunately, our friends were in boarding group 25. They insisted we go on board and just meet them on board. Soon our number was called and we headed onto the ship!
Planning | Travel | Boarding | Nassau | Castaway Cay | Disembarkation
We usually plan our travel 18 months or so in advance. We look at school calendars, compare prices, and then book a trip. In the case of our February 2017 cruise on the Disney Dream, almost none of this happened (we did look at the school calendar). Here is how our cruise came together.
In October 2016, Nancy and I had planned a trip on the Disney Dream for October 7, 2016. I won’t go back over the entire story, but that cruise was canceled because of Hurricane Matthews. Disney immediately refunded all the money for our cruise (including the trip insurance). We eventually received our airfare back as well. Since we weren’t out any money, we started planning for another cruise on the Dream as soon as possible.
We had already planned a cruise for January 2017 and had a Spring Break trip planned for April 2017 as well. After looking over the various itineraries for the Dream and the school calendar, we decided on the 3 day Dream sailing leaving February 3, 2017. The itinerary included a stop at Nassau and Disney’s private island. We decided to bring the girls with us on this trip even though our previously canceled cruise was just for the two of us (a 20th anniversary celebration cruise). They were definitely excited to be going with us since none of us had been on the Dream before.
We had a few items that we needed to check off the list. The first was to book the cruise. I contacted our travel agent at the time and asked her to book the cruise using a place holder booking that we had reserved on a previous cruise. This gave us 10% off the booking, plus a $100 onboard credit. It also allowed us to apply the $250 we had paid on the place holder to this cruise. We chose a Category 5C Deluxe Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah, Stateroom 7044, which is on the Port (left) side near the forward elevators. We also booked Disney Cruise ground transportation from the Orlando airport to the ship and back again after the cruise was over.
The second item to take care of was the flights to and from Orlando. A quick look at the American Airlines website found four round trip tickets at the saver level (25,000 miles each) that were perfect for planning purposes. We found a flight that would leave Reagan National Airport at 3:00 pm and land in Orlando at 5:30 pm. The girls would miss a half day of school that day, plus one more the next day (it was an early release day). Our return flight would leave Orlando at 3:00 pm and land at Reagan National Airport at 5:15 pm. We had received the 100,000 AAdvantage miles by converting 80,000 Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) points into 100,000 AAdvantage miles. In hindsight, I probably could have found a better use for the SPG points, but live and learn.
The next item was our hotel room for the night before the cruise. Since Nancy and I had planned to stay at the Hyatt Regency in the Orlando airport for our anniversary cruise (and our January Cruise), we just canceled the night from the October cruise and moved it to February. We had read multiple reviews of people who had stayed at the hotel before the cruise and everyone recommended it. We decided that if it didn’t go well in January, we could always find something else for this cruise.
After booking those three items (cruise, transportation, and hotel), we simply had to wait till our check-in time to arrive. Since we are Gold Castaway Club members, we could check-in 105 days before our cruise to book excursions. Once the day arrived, we logged in at midnight to see what was available. There was a Cabana available on the family beach, so we reserved it right away. The Cabana are expensive, but we really enjoy them. We didn’t manage to get one for our January cruise, so we were looking forward to enjoying one again. The Cabana was the only excursions that we choose to book for this cruise since it was only a 3 night cruise. We’ve been to Nassau previously, but had always decided to stay onboard and enjoy the ship.
I thought that would be the end of our planning, until some friends of ours decided to join us at the last minute. They ended up booking the same flights, hotel and a nearby stateroom! We had our travel agent link our reservations so they could have the same dining room table. The only thing she wasn’t able to do was to add them to our Cabana. We would have to wait until we were on board the ship to sort that out.
Planning | Travel | Boarding | Nassau | Castaway Cay | Disembarkation
