BudgetTravel

Mary Waring: Hi! This is Mary Waring of MouseSavers.com, and I'm excited to talk with you today about ways to save money on travel to Disney destinations. So let's get started!

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Kingston, ON, Canada: We are a family of 6 (2 adults and 4 children). We are just beginning the planning of a 7-night Disney cruise (land and sea). We have no preference of which one as they all look wonderful and this is our first cruise!

We need flight and cruise. Available to depart from Toronto: departing date anytime from Dec 19 - 22nd and returning after Christmas. We will be traveling with 3 other adult family members (a couple and 1 single).

What is the best (most cost-effective) way to book staterooms? The children will be ages 9, 10, 13 and 14 at the time and would be comfortable being 'bunked' with any of the 5 adults.

We also wish to bring along our then-14-year-old son's service dog on our cruise. Do the Disney Cruise boats accommodate Yellow Lab service dogs? What (if anything) is required at reservation to allow for his attendance?

Thank you for your assistance as this is quite confusing to attempt to figure out...

—Lorraine

Mary Waring: So if I understand your question correctly, you actually have a total of 5 adults and 4 children who would like to take a 7-night Disney Land and Sea vacation, which consists of 3 or 4 nights at Walt Disney World followed by a 3- or 4-night Disney cruise.

First, be aware that you are planning your trip during the most popular, and therefore expensive, time of the entire year. I would strongly advise you to leave as early as possible (December 19, or even earlier if you can manage it) because December 25-31 is an absolute zoo at Disney World and you'll never get any kind of discount during that time.

Here's a tip for accommodating your large group. Since you're willing to break up the kids and bunk them with various adults, this gives you some flexibility. Disney only offers super-expensive suites for families of 6 or more who want to share a stateroom, but if you house some of the children with another adult, you can book 3 standard staterooms that sleep 3 or 4 people each, which will be much less expensive.

Also, be sure to get pricing on both the Land and Sea package and on the individual trip components. It is frequently cheaper to book the cruise and the Disney World vacation separately.