Beyond the Checked Bag

Author: Minghong

  • How to do online check in for Disney cruise

    When is check-in?

    Online check in for first time cruiser start 30 days before your sail date and you can find your date easily in your Navigator App. Depending on your Castaway Club level, you may be eligible to check in earlier. As an example, we are silver members which allows us to check in 33 days prior to sailing. Remember the check in time starts at midnight eastern time of that day. I typically would set an alarm at 11:55 pm to wake up and get signed into the app and website (you know just in case you forgot your password and need time to reset).

    First thing to do is book Royal Gathering if you are interested in attending!!! Keep in mind that this is only available 30 days prior to sailing and Castaway Club member does not get early access to the booking. So you may have to do it on another day if your check in date is earlier than 30 days. Some people think they have to do the check in first before booking this activity but you don’t need to. By the time you are done with all the steps of check in, royal gathering could be all booked up. So be sure to snatch it while you can.

    What to prepare before the check in date

    I have all those below saved on my computer and also on my phone so I can easily access each option. If you haven’t heard, sometimes the navigator app can crash or freeze (although it has gotten much better this year).

    1. Take a photo of everyone’s passport, make sure the photo does not show any glare where the information might not be clearly readable and entire page is visible. Highly recommend using passport, although alternative photo ID and birth certificate can be utilized, but do not recommend those
    2. Take a head shot for everyone, similar to passport style photo. However, this photo cannot be the same photo as the one on the passport
    3. Decide who you want to designate as emergency contact and get phone number ready.  This has to be someone that is not traveling with you.
    4. Have your payment method ready, you don’t want to be digging for your card to get the card number during the check in process. Or you can choose cash option and go back to change it later after getting port arrival time. You can also choose who is authorized to charge to the account, for example, if you want to give kids option to buy things and charge to the account, you can set that up in this step.
    5. Information regarding your flight such as flight number, time and airline etc. This information is helpful for Disney Cruise to help figuring out disembarkation process. Also for embarkation date, if you are staying the night before in the port city, then you don’t need to include the flight information for pre-cruise.

    Select Port Arrival Time

    You will not be able to select the time until you have completed all the steps. So try to get thru those steps as fast as you can so you can get an early time slot. You will not be able to enter the port terminal until it is your time or after. After you review and sign the cruise contract, then you will get your port arrival form.

    Print a copy of the Port Arrival Form

    On top of saving a copy on your computer, email to yourself and others in the party, adding to digital wallet. I always recommend print a copy just in case your phone doesn’t work that day or is out of battery. Now time to get packing!!!!

  • Why do we always choose Disney Ground Transportation?

    Obviously there are several options for ground transportation such as rent a car, ride share services, private transportation company, and public transit depending on which city you are in. We have chosen Disney Ground Transportation for both trips and plan to do that for our trip next year as well.

    The most common reason I hear about not choosing Disney Transfer is due to the cost. Disney Ground Transportation cost does vary based upon the port. From Houston to Galveston it was 90 dollars and from Fort Lauderdale to Port Everglade it was 50 dollars. That price was per person for round trip. Depending on the distance and number of people in your travel party, Disney Transportation can be more expensive. As an example, if you have 4 people in your party, getting an Uber for 15 mins one way car ride might only cost you about 40 including tips. But Disney transfer can cost you about 84. With the same distance, with 2 people, then Uber and Disney Transportation might cost you about the same. So why did we choose it over other options?

    Key Advantages

    Early Boarding Group

    By far the biggest advantage of using Disney Transfer is you are automatically getting an earlier boarding group. Your boarding starts when the bus arrives at the port regardless of what your port arrival time is when you completed online check in. They typically will have a designated cast member that leads the group to the check in once the bus arrives. The transition is seamless and you don’t need to worry about waiting outside in the sun if you arrive earlier than your port arrival time. Being able to get onboard earlier is super valuable.

    Designated Pick up

    If you are arriving the day of the cruise departure day, Disney will have cast member picking you up at the baggage claim and take you to the cruise transportation check in desk. That was very helpful as you do not need to worry about navigating the airport after arrival. If you are staying at a partnered hotel the night before cruise, Disney transfer will have a check in area inside the hotel. As mentioned in previous post, your luggage will also be taken care of for you.

    CAR SEAT!!!

    Parents, you know why this is in all caps. When it comes to traveling with kids, one of the most frequent asked questions is how are we going to handle the car seat situation at the destination. For ride share services, while some do offer car seat option and many do not, not to mention that it usually takes longer to wait for a ride with car seat option vs one without. It also gets harder when you have multiple kids that need car seat. Many ride-share drivers are only able to provide one. Car seat often costs extra on top of ride fare. I still remember the time that we took the bulky baby car seat with us to New York City and how much of a hassle that was. At least if you know you are going to use the car seat for several days, it might be worth it to rent one or bring one from home. However, going on the cruise, you only need it for the ground transportation only and you are stuck with it for the rest of your trip and having to figure out where to store it in your room. With Disney Transfer, you get a charter bus and car seat is not required, problem solved. Also on another note, Disney transfer is only available on embarkation day and disembarkation day. So if you arrive the day before, you do need to figure out ground transportation option. For our most recent trip, there is a private airport shuttle service that goes to the hotel and it also did not require a car seat.

    Entertainment

    Disney Bus will typically have small monitors that plays Disney Shows or Disney Trivia on the bus. It helps to keep kids occupied in the case of a long ride. It took us about one hour from Houston Airport to Galveston and it was a fun way to kill some time and avoid “are we there yet?” question from kiddos. It’s icing on the cake for families and getting kids excited for the cruise.

    Peace of Mind

    While this has not happened to us before, being on a Disney Bus gives me peace of mind and knowing that if something unexpected happens, they can communicate with the cruise ship and also having alternatives to get to the port if necessary.

    If you live within driving distance of the cruise port, ground transportation will look different. This post is based on our experience and for people that are going to port city without their own car. We always had excellent service from Disney Transfer. Regarding the planning, you can add Disney Ground Transfer directly from the Navigator app or Disney Cruise website or by calling Customer Service.

  • First time with Southwest Airline? How was the experience?

    First time with Southwest Airline? How was the experience?

    Despite it being one of the most popular airlines in the United States, somehow we just never flown with them before. Our most recent trip to Fort Lauderdale was our first time taking Southwest airline. Quite frankly, Southwest doesn’t always come to mind because we don’t live in a hub city and they didn’t use to show details on Google Flights. Sometimes I simply just forget to check out their options. Southwest airline now shows up on Google Flight, which made it much easier to compare time and pricing. When we were looking for flights for our most recent cruise, Southwest had flight time that fits our schedule very well. It’s a great opportunity to try it out. The icing on the cake was that I was able to save extra money by buying discounted Southwest Gift card at Costco. You pay 450 dollars for 500 dollars’ worth of gift card.

    Booking and Rebooking

    We booked about 3 to 4 months out, I always feel better to have things booked even if it may change later. What was nice with Southwest is no change or cancellation fee, which made it a no brainer. The price was originally higher and it did drop during those few months until about one month before the travel date. Prior to travel day, we did rebook the flights 4 times to save money. Hot Tip: with Southwest airline, they allow you to rebook the same flight if the price has dropped and you will get a flight credit for the difference. The credit can be used for future flights. In total, we got 120 dollars in flight credit for each of us.  

    Early Bird Check in

    We didn’t buy early bird check in for departing flight and we did for the returning flight. The reason we bought it was mainly because we knew we are going to be on cruise without internet access and wanted to ensure we get a good boarding group. Based on our experience this time, using the early bird check in didn’t make a big difference in boarding group. We still got boarding B on one of the flights and got group A on another flight. Plus we already will be getting family boarding. So I probably will NOT buy early bird check in again for future flights. 

    Family boarding and Open Seating

    Southwest allows family boarding for family traveling with kids 6 year-old and under. You will get to board the flight after group A and prior to Group B. Southwest airline had open seating policy, so there is no assigned seat just boarding group. You get to pick whichever seat you want once onboard. It was a nice to do family boarding without having to upgrade boarding group. Although I was really surprised when we boarded, it was already quite difficult to find an empty row for 4 of us. Most airlines have family pre boarding to allow more time for families with young children to get settled in. So Southwest feature isn’t unique. But most airlines have assigned seats and we don’t typically have carry-on bags so boarding early vs later doesn’t matter as much to us. I am not a fan of open seating policy, it was a bit tricky for family traveling with young kids. We didn’t know what seats might be open so when we boarded, we have to make a decision fast how we are going to sit. We originally wanted to sit on one row with one parent and one kid on each side of the plane. Out of a total of 4 flights we took, that only happened once. It was not because there was no open row but more due to the rush and excitement of our kiddos. Once they picked the seats and other passengers started filling in so we didn’t get to change our mind. Well oh well, we were all fine, no issue really.

    Checked bags

    Well we can’t finish this post without talking about the checked bags!! At the time we booked our flights, Southwest offered 2 free checked bags per person. It was one of the top reasons many people pick the airline over others. It was a sweet deal but unfortunately that feature has gone away at the end of May. I know this has been a hot topic in the travel news lately and I personally am really disappointed too.

    Flight experience

    Overall all of my flights were great, their seats are reasonably comfortable and onboard service was good. They are very efficient and staff are friendly. We were on time for the most parts. I do have to mention free snack and drinks are a nice plus. Most budget airlines don’t offer anything these days. As a mom of two, I always appreciate some free snacks and drinks for kiddos, even though we always pack plenty ourselves. Just something to distract them and keep them happy during the flight.

    Will we take Southwest again?

    Absolutely!!! However with a big caveat. We would compare pricing, schedule etc. with all other airlines before deciding. Free Checked bags were a great competitive advantage, but since now that has gone away, it is no longer a factor. To me, Southwest is comparable with United, Delta etc. on all other aspects.

    Note: There have been quite a few of recent changes published by Southwest and some have been announced and will go in effect soon. This post was based on our recent experience in June 2025.

  • Pros and Cons of booking flights via Disney Air Program

    In this post I am going to discuss pros and cons of using Disney Air Program with DCL.

    Pros

    Flight monitoring by Disney Cruise Line

    Disney Cruise will monitor any potential flight changes of schedule, delays, cancellations on your behalf and make arrangement as necessary to make sure you get to the port on time if possible. The ship will wait for you if you have a slight flight delay when you book thru Disney. Since Disney will be aware of what time you will possibly arrive and if it is feasible for the ship to wait. They may rebook you on another flight if your original flight is canceled. They will offer assistance for passengers to get on the ship even if you missed the ship due to cancellation or delay of your flight. I have heard a story of a family’s first flight got canceled and there was no other flights available due to the weather, Disney helped them make arrangement to fly to Nassau, Bahamas to get on the ship there instead. So for peace of mind and not having to figure out rearranging travel plan and risk of entire cruise vacation being canceled, booking thru Disney Air Program is a good idea

    No payment required for air tickets until your final cruise payment date if you book flexible fare

    Most other ways of booking air tickets require you to make a payment at the time of booking. So if you don’t have all the funds ready yet, this is a way for you to secure your flights without paying the bill right away. Although keep in mind that flexible fares is usually more expensive than restricted fares, so you are definitely paying a premium.

    Cons

    Flight Time

      As stated on Disney Cruise Line Website, flights booked through Disney Cruise Line are booked in accordance with the recommended time guidelines for arrival and departure from the cruise embarkation and debarkation port(s). If I remember correctly, on embarkation day, they will only book you flights that arrive at the port before 1 pm at the latest and on disembarkation day, they will not book you flights with departure time earlier than 12 pm. So this obviously would limit some of your flight options. For example, during our first cruise, we could have flown back at 11:30 am with another flight but because we booked thru Disney we could only be booked on the 4 pm flight. Obviously the recommend guideline is there for a reason. But in our experience, we totally would be able to make it to the 11:30 flight and avoid the long wait at the airport. Disembarkation can take some time, so definitely would not recommend booking flight too early. You may be getting off the ship by about 9 to 10 am so be sure to account for travel time to the airport and how busy the airport generally is.

      Selection of Airlines

      Another reasons for using the Disney Air program is limitation on air carriers. As far as I know, they only partner with certain airlines so you may have to get a connecting flight based on your departure city but you may be able to find a non-stop flight from a budget airline. We flew with United Airline for our first cruise. I believe regular scheduled airlines are partners. I do not believe they partner with budget airlines such as Spirit, Breeze, Southwest etc. So be sure to compare before you make your decision.

      Booking Methods

      Another inconvenience is you have to call Disney Customer Service or your travel agent to book your airline tickets or make any changes/cancellations. If you book air tickets yourself, you can usually make your booking, make changes on website or app and without being on hold with customer service.

      Conclusion

      I personally don’t think you need to use the Disney Air program UNLESS you are flying into port the same day. I think you have a lot more flexibility with booking your flights separately. Generally speaking, if you arrive at the port city at least one day in advance, you have enough time to navigate in the event of delay/cancellation happens.

      Other considerations for booking flight

      If you are flying from outside of North America, you may want to consider arriving at the port a couple days ahead to account for delay and also adjust to the new time zone. If you are flying to FL from west coast or flying to CA from east coast, I think it’s also a good idea to give yourself a couple days to adjust to the new time zone. Take that advice from me, because my kids woke up at 5 am on the first sea day of the cruise and nothing was open and they were eager to go out of the stateroom. Needless to say, I learned it the hard way. So stay in the same zone if you don’t have extra vacation days, for example, consider taking cruises out of FL if you are in eastern time zone.

      If you are a penny pincher like me, price is a big consideration. Especially when you have a family of four, the price adds up quickly. I like to use Google Flights to compare price across different airlines. It’s also a quick and easy week to compare flight time schedules to see what fits best for you and your family. In general, flight during the day is more expensive than flights early morning or late at night. Before I had kids, I used to fly red eye flight because of the price. However, now I prefer flights during the day, simply because it makes my life easier as a mom. Kids don’t need to wake up in the middle of the night. Honestly I don’t even want to think about waking up kids at 3 am to make it to airport and getting thru security with meltdowns. No thank you. I think my sanity is worth the difference in ticket price. Obviously everyone’s situation is different, all I am saying is to take other things into consideration, not just the price.

      We recently experienced Southwest for the first time and will post a full review soon, stay tuned.

    1. Where to stay pre-cruise?

      First of all, why considering hotel option when you are going on a cruise, don’t you just get off the plane and get on the ship? Yes, you absolutely can. However you are taking a BIG risk of cruise ship leaving without you in the event of flight delay or cancellation. The number one tip for first time cruisers would be arriving at the port one day before the cruise.

      Why should you arrive the day before?

      Travel Delay/Cancellation

      If you have been seeing the news, you know how frequent travel delays and cancellation have been happening. So flying into port the day of embarkation is very risky, especially if you have connecting flight. A slight delay can throw off your entire vacation. The cruise will leave without you. Even if you are driving to port, there are potential reasons for delay due to traffic, construction etc.

      Embarkation day experience

      If you arrive at the port the day before, you will have much better embarkation day experience. You don’t have to get up super early and able to rest a full night before embarkation day. Full disclosure, last year we flew to Houston the same day of cruise embarkation day. Our flight was on time but I would not do that again. We were nervous the whole time and most importantly the embarkation day was EXHAUSTING. Because it was travel day and embarkation day altogether. Embarkation day itself can be very overwhelming. Not to mention that we got to the port in the afternoon around 1 pm and soon after boarding the ship and had lunch, it was time for safety drill and sail away. It felt so rushed and we didn’t have time to get ourselves oriented on the ship. However on our most recent cruise, we stayed the night at the hotel and woke up at our normal time to have a relaxing breakfast at the hotel. We boarded the ship around 11. The embarkation day experience was totally different and we did not feel tired. We were actually able to explore the ship before our stateroom was ready. Disney cruise vacation is not cheap, not having a few more hours on the ship means you get more bang for your bucks.

      Where to stay?

      You can stay at pretty much any hotel you want as well. When it comes to picking hotels, every traveler/family has different priorities. We typically would evaluate price, breakfast option, proximity to the port and airport, transportation options to the port etc.

      Disney Cruise has partnered with some hotels at popular port cities where you can book a hotel room prior to cruise. For example, they partner with Hilton and Marriott in Fort Lauderdale. While you can book hotel thru Disney, you definitely don’t have to. Before you make your booking, make sure to compare the price. For example, for our most recent trip, we wanted to stay at Hilton Marina at Fort Lauderdale. To my surprise, booking it ourselves was A LOT cheaper compared to the pricing Disney quoted me and we stayed in the same hotel as others who booked thru Disney and got the benefits of staying at a partnered hotel.

      Benefits for staying at partnered hotel

      It’s not a secret that Disney partnered hotel is more expensive than other options you can find. They come with some benefits:

      1. Disney ground transportation (if booked) will pick you up from Disney partnered hotels (giving you an earlier boarding group) and transport you to port. No need to worry about figuring out how to get to port.
      2. Disney will pick up your luggage directly from your hotel room and not having to load them to the vehicle and offloading them yourselves

      There are definitely situations where you are not able to get to the port the day before, maybe you have limited vacation days or no flight is available the day before etc. If you can only fly into the port the day of the cruise, there is an option for booking flights thru Disney Cruise Line Air Program. Disney will guarantee that you get on the ship, however it may or may not at the first port. You can learn more about the program by clicking on the link. We have booked thru them once, if you have any questions, please leave a comment below.

    2. Cruise Booked, Now what?

      What to do after booking Disney Cruise really depends on how far in advance you book your cruise. Below is a list of things you should do. From right after booking and all the way to before cruise activity booking window opens. If you book your cruise 12-18 months out, then you will have plenty of time to do those. If you book your cruise much closer to the cruise time, then you probably just do those in a faster pace.

      a. Get excited!!!

      You have booked your cruise, now it is time to get excited to start planning!!! I love having a trip to look forward to, even if it is really far out in advance, just means more time to think about the exciting trip right?!

      b. Download the app and link the reservation

      You will need your Disney Reservation number to link to the app. It is 8 digit numbers only that you will find in your confirmation email. If you booked thru travel agent or third party, be sure to ask for Disney Reservation number as they often have their own confirmation of the agency too. Disney Navigator App will give you a very CUTE Disney countdown. My daughter loves to see it and often asks to see how many days left from the cruise. Many more ways that you will use this app leading up to the cruise and during the cruise. More on that on another post.

      c. Make a plan for payment

      You typically will need to put down 20% of the deposit at booking (which this has now been reduced to 10% with recent Disney Cruise announcement). You have some flexibility on the remaining balance. You can decide how often you want to pay and how much you want to pay each time, as long as you pay it in full before the due date. So pay attention to the due date and don’t miss it.

      d. Make special requests

      If any of you have food allergy, needing assistance for accessibility, or needing extra item for kids such as crib or bedrails etc. You can make those requests right in the Navigator app. You can also request to change dining time if you did not get your preferred dining time at booking. Although it is not guaranteed but chances are good if you put in your request early. If you have preference on the dining table location, you will be able to indicate that in the app as well. In our experiences, Disney has been very good on accommodating to our preference.

      There are additional to do lists below that I recommend. I will write in more details about those in separate posts.

      6 months prior to cruise

      1. Consider Air and Hotel options
      2. Consider Ground Transportation Options
      3. Research Port Excursions
      4. Learn about variety of onboard cruise activities

      Cruise Activity Booking window opens

      1. Book activities ASAP
      2. Packing Prep
      3. Get Documents and photos needed for check in

    3. Booking a Disney Cruise

      So let’s start by talking about different options of booking a Disney Cruise that I personally have experience with and what we ended up doing.

      Option 1: Booking via Disney Cruise Website

      You can book Disney Cruise directly from Disney Cruise Website. Website itself is very easy to use and straight forward. Disney Cruise also sometimes has special offers that you can take advantage of. Those offers are typically available if you book thru Disney travel agent too.

      Option 2 : Booking via Third party website

      There are a ton of third party websites out there that you can book cruises. I only have experience with Costco Travel so that’s the one we will be talking about here in the comparisons.

      Option 3: Booking via a Disney Travel Agent

      Yes there are Travel Agents specialized in Disney and some travel agents that can help you book a cruise. I personally have not used one yet, so I will not be speaking from experience. I have contacted a couple of them for basic inquiry but did not decide to book thru them. They do advertise for added benefits such as booking excursions and activities for you and checking in the cruise for you etc.

      Comparisons:

      1. I consider the Disney website to be the most comprehensive. You can filter by date of travel, ship name, destinations, port etc. While some third party websites might not offer some of those options and only showing certain ones and you have to keep going back and forth to pick what you want. But of course you can also use Disney’s website to find the cruise you want, then go to third party website to book it. I did notice that Disney Website appear to offer more room availability. I have had a situation that I tried to book on Costco but was told that room was not available, but I was able to book it directly with Disney.
      2. Once your cruise is booked, you can make changes to your reservation such as room type, cancel reservation, adding ground transportation, make payments etc right from the website or Disney Navigator App. If you have questions that you need to contact Disney Customer Service, they do have exceptional customer service. Each time I speak with the cast member, they make you feel warm and fuzzy. If you book your cruise via third party (in our case, our second cruise was booked via Costco), you will need to contact third party provider every time you need to make a change. It can be a bit of a hassle as you need to wait on their customer service and the reality is they are not able to make changes on their end, they still need to contact Disney to complete those steps. So you will end up on hold for a while.
      3. Booking via a travel agent typically give you an offer of onboard credit, which is basically an amount you can use towards your final bill. The amount can vary. Booking via Costco will get you a shop card (a Costco gift card), again the amount will vary based on the cruise and any promotion that Costco might be running at the time of booking. The price of the cruise would be the same as Disney website, so the additional gift card/onboard credit would be icing on the cake.

      My Pick

      So far I have booked a total of four cruises. Two we took, one we canceled, and another one is set for next year. Out of those four, three of them were booked directly from Disney and one was booked via Costco Travel. So obviously my pick would be directly from Disney Cruise Website. For Convenience factor, I would always pick Disney Website. Dealing with third party can add additional hassle, especially in the event of unexpected issues with your trip. But if you are looking for additional cash benefit, booking thru a third party can be worth it (imagine having Costco Shop card pay for your next month’s grocery bill). You just need to weight your pros and cons. Booking cruise is just the first step, but a very important step because then the count down starts!!!

      Countdown in Disney Cruise Navigator App

    4. Why I write

      Hey everyone, this is RainbowMC. I am so excited to launch my blog. It will be a work in progress but I am so glad to take the first step. I am more of an introvert but I can also be chatty on the subjects of my interest or around people I know. 

      I am a travel enthusiast and started traveling with family since I was little. I often hear people commenting that travel is out of budget, they don’t know how to plan, unsure of going to unknown places etc. Having visited 24 countries so far and super nerdy about travel planning, I think I have something to offer. Blogging seems to be that creative outlet I was looking for. In my blog, I will be sharing our family vacation stories, personal finance related to traveling, packing list, travel planning, reviews and things I have learned etc. Pretty much anything and everything beyond the checked bag.

      Note: We recently went on a Disney Cruise and I will have some posts about our trip coming up soon, stay tuned!!