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.
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