Having the ship all to yourself all day?

[over50visits]

Just wondering....on some of the itineraries (such as the 8 day Bahamas out of Galveston), one day is at PC with a e-e-e-early morning bus to Disney World, returning late, for a day at the park(s).

Wonder if anyone has ever just stayed on the ship? If you go to Disney several times a year, one more day might not matter. You could sleep in late, have a pool and restaurant all to yourself, have a virtually empty ship to explore.

Anyone ever done that or heard of it?

 

[m4travel]

Living in a foreign country, we don't get to WDW as often as we used to visit. Our visits are usually confined to a few days either before or after a cruise out of PC. However, with the Galveston cruise from Texas, you can be darned sure we're going to spend time at the parks - we already have ressies for the Safari Trek at AK, dinner at Le Cellier, and the Illuminations reception in EPCOT. And we'll try for a quick visit to the new section of Fantasyland between AK and EPCOT.

We have stayed aboard the ship on Nassau days in the past and enjoyed the smaller groups of folks - also enjoying the day aboard.

 

[stsomewhere]

Even if you stay on the ship, you will need to leave the ship to clear customs. I think the last call was around 9:30am. You can get right back on.


ETA: This is for the Port Canveral stop on the 8 night from Galveston only.

 

[clten]

When we sailed form NY last summer, we did not do WDW on Port Canveral port day. We didn't stay on the ship either (we were off for about 4 hours). We slept in, had a nice sit down breakfast. Headed off the ship. When we got back on, it was like an empty ship (crew said there were only about 100 people that didn't do the WDW day and we were 4 of them). Don't know how many of the other 96 even got off - couldn't find anyone onboard when we returned. Dinner was very quiet. If I had to do it again, we wouldn't have even gotten off for those few hours (we had family in the area, and went for a visit that was cut short due to medical reasons - theirs, not ours). Had some great chats with the crew that were left onboard around the pools and at dinner (didn't have our regular serving team).

 

[moosecrouse]

On my NYC cruise I was the only one in a party of 19 who stayed onboard but it was on of my favorite days. Had to exit ship by 10 for about an hour but saw Brave by myself & shared the adult pool with one older couple. Didnt seem to be worth all the hassle for a couple hours in the park.
Guess it depends on traveller. We went in June during peak season and the parks were parked. I enjoyed a nice lunch with a bunch of the crew members and basically had a personal concierge at the quiet cove. Thats my type of vacation. Lol

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

This is interesting, we always just tacked WDW on to a few days before or one after, I never thought of Orlando as actually being an 'excursion'. What time is the all aboard time out of curiosity?

-To the person that was thinking about trying to fit in new Fantastyland, we always went straight there in the morning to hit Belle's Storytime (which I absolutely LOVE! Its so 'disney magical' putting you in a small intimate room with about 30 people and a big giant golden Belle in all her glory) which typically has a wait time that starts to pile up if you don't hit it soon. Ariel's UnderSea adventure is a constant loop, (like Nemo or Spaceship earth) so I think it moves pretty quickly. But neither of those are ones to miss! At least not for me, and if you haven't done them and they are new for you. Those are just my thoughts about that.-

Do they offer any line help for the the cruisers because they have to get back? Is the admission of the parks extra from the cruise fare, or exactly the same as purchasing a ticket? Do you have to pay extra for hopping also?

Just a bit curious about the idea of WDW being a separate excursion...

...I really love cruising out of PC anyway though because it takes us 13 hrs to drive to Orlando, so we have to stay the night somewhere ANYWAY and so we might as well plan a day to spend at the parks, stay over that night, and then board the next day...sigh...

 

[lanejudy]

This is interesting, we always just tacked WDW on to a few days before or one after, I never thought of Orlando as actually being an 'excursion'. What time is the all aboard time out of curiosity?

-To the person that was thinking about trying to fit in new Fantastyland, we always went straight there in the morning to hit Belle's Storytime (which I absolutely LOVE! Its so 'disney magical' putting you in a small intimate room with about 30 people and a big giant golden Belle in all her glory) which typically has a wait time that starts to pile up if you don't hit it soon. Ariel's UnderSea adventure is a constant loop, (like Nemo or Spaceship earth) so I think it moves pretty quickly. But neither of those are ones to miss! At least not for me, and if you haven't done them and they are new for you. Those are just my thoughts about that.-

Do they offer any line help for the the cruisers because they have to get back? Is the admission of the parks extra from the cruise fare, or exactly the same as purchasing a ticket? Do you have to pay extra for hopping also?

Just a bit curious about the idea of WDW being a separate excursion...

...I really love cruising out of PC anyway though because it takes us 13 hrs to drive to Orlando, so we have to stay the night somewhere ANYWAY and so we might as well plan a day to spend at the parks, stay over that night, and then board the next day...sigh...

There are cruises out of Galveston that include a "port" call at Port Canaveral and all passengers receive a 1-day park-hopper included in the cruise fare along with transportation to/from WDW. Last summer a similar itinerary was run out of New York with the WDW port stop. It's not an excursion option for other cruises.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

That makes sense (I knew it wasn't for PC cruises) but still! That is very interesting! I suppose like CC, (which to me is like their 5th park only sea based) it is included with the cruise. I applaud Disney for providing a single hopper admission with it.

Any info on the all aboard return time?
(At least I know if I end up having to do a non PC eastern cruise, WDW might be a possibility.)

 

[Luv2Diz]

We'll be on the 8 night with the day at WDW next month. It would be an interesting experience to spend a day on an essentially empty ship. But won't be doing that! We are taking it as a personal challenge to hit 3 of the parks. We've been to WDW a number of times, but our last visit was a couple years ago, so we know which favorites and new things we want to see. Can't wait!

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

You can do it! We did 5 parks on each of our hopping days, and one day was after disembarking from PC and we got started at 11am. EPCOT, ANIMAL KD, HOLLYWOOD, EPCOT for Illuminations and dinner in Morrocco, and end in MAG KINGDOM. That was from 11a-12a on a Sat. We hit about 23 attractions (by attractions, I include World Showcase & Illuminations and Pizzafari -hey that's an attraction to me!- along with the number of times we could ride Tower of Terror or Everest etc...)

This last week on 4/9, we started at 9a in MAG KING, hopped to HOLLYWOOD, hopped to AN KINGD, hopped to EPCOT with just enough time for a bag check and to ride Spaceship earth and used our cell phone to record a hilarious video of us from the future! (its a great keepsake, you should record yours) and then surprise our parents for dinner at the Wave at the Contemporary, and then after dinner, we hopped a monorail back to MAG KING with our parents for the last 1.5 hrs to watch Wishes fireworks and see Monsters Laugh twice with them. That day we hit about 20 'attractions' or things we wanted to see, including the Animation drawing class. And the Pixar Midway line was less then 30 min in the middle of the day! That was a fluke if I ever saw one...

Anyway we are a bit crazy people, but I feel confident you can hit all the highlights. You of course have to work the fastpasses but they dont always help (for instance, you may hop to the next park before your fastpass time), but things like single rider for Rockin Rollercoaster really help get you through quick when you only have one day.

Happy WDW to you!

 

[Luv2Diz]

You can do it! We did 5 parks on each of our hopping days, and one day was after disembarking from PC and we got started at 11am. EPCOT, ANIMAL KD, HOLLYWOOD, EPCOT for Illuminations and dinner in Morrocco, and end in MAG KINGDOM. That was from 11a-12a on a Sat. We hit about 23 attractions (by attractions, I include World Showcase & Illuminations and Pizzafari -hey that's an attraction to me!- along with the number of times we could ride Tower of Terror or Everest etc...)

This last week on 4/9, we started at 9a in MAG KING, hopped to HOLLYWOOD, hopped to AN KINGD, hopped to EPCOT with just enough time for a bag check and to ride Spaceship earth and used our cell phone to record a hilarious video of us from the future! (its a great keepsake, you should record yours) and then surprise our parents for dinner at the Wave at the Contemporary, and then after dinner, we hopped a monorail back to MAG KING with our parents for the last 1.5 hrs to watch Wishes fireworks and see Monsters Laugh twice with them. That day we hit about 20 'attractions' or things we wanted to see, including the Animation drawing class. And the Pixar Midway line was less then 30 min in the middle of the day! That was a fluke if I ever saw one...

Anyway we are a bit crazy people, but I feel confident you can hit all the highlights. You of course have to work the fastpasses but they dont always help (for instance, you may hop to the next park before your fastpass time), but things like single rider for Rockin Rollercoaster really help get you through quick when you only have one day.

Happy WDW to you!

Impressive! Sounds like you had a great time!

The parks are only open from 9 am - 9 pm for our visit, so we are going to have to push it to do everything that we want.

How does it work for park tickets that day? Does WDW give us a ticket that works in the Fastpass machines? (I doubt we can just run our ship KTTW card through???)

 

[Justacruiser]

Impressive! Sounds like you had a great time!

The parks are only open from 9 am - 9 pm for our visit, so we are going to have to push it to do everything that we want.

How does it work for park tickets that day? Does WDW give us a ticket that works in the Fastpass machines? (I doubt we can just run our ship KTTW card through???)

Don't know about the Fastpass machines, but our KTTW card gets us in the parks. See you there!! Three weeks!

 

[SnipsNSnails]

We'll be on the 8 night with the day at WDW next month. It would be an interesting experience to spend a day on an essentially empty ship. But won't be doing that! We are taking it as a personal challenge to hit 3 of the parks. We've been to WDW a number of times, but our last visit was a couple years ago, so we know which favorites and new things we want to see. Can't wait!

Absolutely doable! We went in Feb. We started out at Epcot for the early entry at 8 AM, did TT twice while my mom got Soarin' FP for us, did Nemo, then Soarin', hopped to AK at around 10. I got FP for safari, did FOTLK, safari, got FP for dinosaur, ate lunch, did dinosaur, standby on EE (1/2 hr. wait) while dad did triceratops spin with the little one. Hopped to MK, got there about 4, got FP for Little Mermaid and Goofy's coaster, did tiki room and POTC, ate dinner, got FP for Winnie the Pooh and Dumbo, rode Goofy, Dumbo, Winnie, and Little Mermaid right in a row with the FPs (times worked out excellent!) came out just as the fireworks started and watched them back between little mermaid and Be Our Guest, fought the crowd to the front and got an excellent spot for the 2nd light parade and watched and then headed back to the Magic!

Yes, your KTTW is your park pass and works in the FP machines.

 

[Luv2Diz]

Absolutely doable! We went in Feb. We started out at Epcot for the early entry at 8 AM, did TT twice while my mom got Soarin' FP for us, did Nemo, then Soarin', hopped to AK at around 10. I got FP for safari, did FOTLK, safari, got FP for dinosaur, ate lunch, did dinosaur, standby on EE (1/2 hr. wait) while dad did triceratops spin with the little one. Hopped to MK, got there about 4, got FP for Little Mermaid and Goofy's coaster, did tiki room and POTC, ate dinner, got FP for Winnie the Pooh and Dumbo, rode Goofy, Dumbo, Winnie, and Little Mermaid right in a row with the FPs (times worked out excellent!) came out just as the fireworks started and watched them back between little mermaid and Be Our Guest, fought the crowd to the front and got an excellent spot for the 2nd light parade and watched and then headed back to the Magic!

Yes, your KTTW is your park pass and works in the FP machines.

Sounds you had an exhausting but really fun day! We can't wait!

 

[over50visits]

On my NYC cruise I was the only one in a party of 19 who stayed onboard but it was on of my favorite days. Had to exit ship by 10 for about an hour but saw Brave by myself & shared the adult pool with one older couple. Didnt seem to be worth all the hassle for a couple hours in the park.
Guess it depends on traveller. We went in June during peak season and the parks were parked. I enjoyed a nice lunch with a bunch of the crew members and basically had a personal concierge at the quiet cove. Thats my type of vacation. Lol

That really sounds fantastic. Really - an entire Disney cruise ship almost to yourself for an entire day.

As you might guess from my moniker, with over 50 visits (a lot over), we get plenty of Disney World (loving every minute). I think this would be a wonderful opportunity for a truly remarkable memory!

 

[sunryzez]

I never stayed on the ship at wdw but I have stayed on the ship at other ports and I LOVED it. On my last cruise I had the fitness center, rainforest room, pool, and hot tubs to myself almost the entire morning. It was LOVELY. Especially since I am a stay at home mom of 3 that doesnt even get to go to the restroom by herself...lol.
If you enjoy alone time and relaxation and dont mind missing the parks, I say go for it!

 

[KristiMc]

That makes sense (I knew it wasn't for PC cruises) but still! That is very interesting! I suppose like CC, (which to me is like their 5th park only sea based) it is included with the cruise. I applaud Disney for providing a single hopper admission with it.

Any info on the all aboard return time?
(At least I know if I end up having to do a non PC eastern cruise, WDW might be a possibility.)

We were on one of the NYC cruises last summer. I think I remember the all aboard being 11:00 pm. We were on the first bus that left the port in the morning and arrived at MK for EMH morning. We also went to AK and Epcot. We had planned on staying the whole day but the rain got to us and we left to go back to the ship around 7:30.

We had a great day.