5 night double dip on the dream or 7 night on the fantasy

[M2DD's]

Can't decide which to do
Our family enjoys the ship more than the destination and we don't do many excursions when we cruise.We do love CC but only spend a few hrs on the island. We feel the ship itself is a great vacation. We love to eat and lay by the pool to lounge read.
Any helpful suggestions would be wonderful
TIA

 

[jilljill]

I'd go for the 7 night Fantasy eastern, especially if you don't like to spend all day on CC. That gives you 3 sea days, 2 port days and CC.
I would do a cost comparison on a nightly basis to see which cruise gives you more bang for your buck.

 

[Silverfox97]

I agree with jilljill Go for the 7 night on the Fantasy.

 

[DLW8]

I agree with JillJill. If you don't care about the excursions or spending the day at CC, then figure out which is more cost effective. I found the 5 night cruises to be more expensive than the 7 night, but that was also because there were no 7 nights in the summer.

For me, if I can afford the longer cruise, I would go for that. Just work up the numbers and see what makes sense!

 

[eyeheartgoofy]

I was facing the same dilemna (until my DH put his foot down and said 5 nights was enough). I love Castaway Cay and have always wanted to do a double dip, so I'm sure I'll enjoy the 5 nighter on the Dream, but I think a week long cruise would be so relaxing!

I say go for the 7 night on the Fantasy ... it will be a newer ship than the Dream and you will get 2 extra nights to check out the facilities.

 

[catzle]

We loved our double dip last year. It was so nice. i could spend our entire trip on the island, of course i love the water and beach. We couldn't do one this year too expensive but hope to do another in 2012.

 

[Silverfox97]

I loved our 5 night DD this summer, too. So much in fact, that we are booked on another on on the Magic in Jan. However, OP said they don't spend that much time on CC. In that case, I say, go for the 7 night on the Fantasy. We are going to be booking a 7-night Eastern on the Fantasy as well. We are doing the 7-night Western on the Magic in 2011 (which I am thrilled about -- get to go to Key West), then saving the Eastern for the Fantasy so that we have 3 sea days to explore the new ship.

To be perfectly honest, we would book any of the ships that had a 7-night Eastern in summer 2012....that's when we become a slave to the school schedules

 

[DW2010]

We're going to do a 5 night double dip on the Dream which I think will be just fine for us. It will be our first cruise as a family. Dh and I have only been on one previous cruise and that was 5 years ago for our honeymoon . Anyways, it will cost us $1K less for the double dip because we have flexible schedules. If we could only go summer, we'd probably need to choose RCI due to cost.

 

[eyeheartgoofy]

OP: Did you make a decision?

I was originally kind of bummed that my husband vetoed the 7 night Fantasy, but after checking prices this morning and finding the 5 night to be $2000 less expensive for the same category & week, I'm totally onboard with the 5 night double dip!

 

[KSDisneyDad]

After your post about the Double Dip being $2,000 less, I had to compare ours for 2012. For us, the same staterooms combo is $1,200 less on the Double Dip. There are five of us.

On a per night basis, the base cruise fare itself is less expensive for the 7-night cruise than the 5-night. Plus we actually travel somewhere further away than the Bahamas. I love Castaway Cay, but I want to see other places as well.

Granted, we have two extra nights so it's more expensive overall. However, when you factor in flying in from 2,000 miles away, spending the night at a hotel before the cruise, ground transportation, etc., the 7-night is even less expensive on a per-night basis. Getting to the cruise is the same cost regardless if it's 3 nights or 15 nights. We like the longer cruises for that reason as we want to get the most out of our vacation. If we could do it around a WDW trip, that might work too!!

 

[DW2010]

After your post about the Double Dip being $2,000 less, I had to compare ours for 2012. For us, the same staterooms combo is $1,200 less on the Double Dip. There are five of us.

On a per night basis, the base cruise fare itself is less expensive for the 7-night cruise than the 5-night. Plus we actually travel somewhere further away than the Bahamas. I love Castaway Cay, but I want to see other places as well.

Granted, we have two extra nights so it's more expensive overall. However, when you factor in flying in from 2,000 miles away, spending the night at a hotel before the cruise, ground transportation, etc., the 7-night is even less expensive on a per-night basis. Getting to the cruise is the same cost regardless if it's 3 nights or 15 nights. We like the longer cruises for that reason as we want to get the most out of our vacation. If we could do it around a WDW trip, that might work too!!

See, I can totally understand the reasoning behind this. For us, we are driving. We do plan to possibly stay in a hotel the night before, but we're under 5 hours driving time from the port.

 

[Kim&Chris]

Having done two 5-day DD's on the Wonder, and a 7-day on the Magic, I can say that we enjoyed the 5-day DD much, much more.

I vote for the DD!!