Cost Comparison: Disney Cruise vs. Disneyworld?

[scrapbookmomma74]

You will get a variety of answers. To be honest, you have to compare at LEAST a moderate resort with the deluxe dining plan and park tickets to make the comparison equal.
The people who say they can "do" WDW cheaper are not comparing equal things, IMO.
On a Disney cruise, you can eat whenever you want, whatever you want. You get to go to Broadway quality shows. You have a dining team who knows who you are and travels with you to the different restaurants. You have recreation options on the ship. You are in a floating luxury resort, even if your room is a bit smaller than the resort rooms.

Can you do WDW cheaper? Absolutely
Are you getting the same experience? Absolutely NOT

I like DCL for different reasons than I like WDW.
When I'm on vacation, I don't want to have to worry about getting from one place to another, so I'm going to stay on WDW property. I also don't want to cook, so I'm purchasing my food or doing a dining plan. I like the freedom of going where I want to go, so I get a park hopper with water park & more.
All of these things add up. If I ate comparable meals in WDW that I eat on DCL, I am fairly sure my bills would be even larger.

So, I did some exploring...
For our family of 4, for August 9 - 16, we can cruise for $8147.48
For the same week, we can stay at the Contemporary Resort, have 8 day park passes with park hopper and water park & more, and the deluxe dining plan for $7,925.78.

Now, would I pay that for either vacation? No stinkin' way! But, its awfully close pricewise. At other times of the year, it can be cheaper to cruise than a WDW vacation, and vice versa.
I guess it comes down to what kind of vacation you want, when you want to travel, and how much work you are willing to do comparing.

We have cruised in late Sept. or early Oct. 3 times, and are doing it again this year. We got in on the day that the itineraries were released, and are paying around $1000 per person for a 7 night cruise. I'm pretty sure you can't ever get into WDW for that!

 

[GrtWtNorth]

Me and DD4 make an expensive party of 2 on DCL. I think my 7 day Fantasy cruise cost about $5500 (inside stateroom, category 10?) - the second person always charged full adult fare, even if they're 4 years old. Our week at Art of Animation package (Little Mermaid) cost about $2500 plus food. We definitely didn't spend $3000 on food, so the "World" is much cheaper for our family.
These vacations were taken on consecutive weeks around Easter (peak season) 2013. As much as I loved it, cruising will be limited by finances, while WDW and DLR trips are no-brainers.

 

[Brojoef]

So, I did some exploring...
For our family of 4, for August 9 - 16, we can cruise for $8147.48
For the same week, we can stay at the Contemporary Resort, have 8 day park passes with park hopper and water park & more, and the deluxe dining plan for $7,925.78.

This is exactly what I was looking for. What do get at WDW for the price of a cruise. From your "exploring", it looks like a cruise is pretty comparable to a deluxe hotel/dining package.

 

[KalamityJane]

Ok, I priced it out for the week of Nov 30-Dec 6 - Kids are 6, 3 and 1.

WDW for 2A2K, 1 baby

Week in VWL - ~1400 (this is renting points and at a low point time, so this could be much more expensive otherwise)
Deluxe Dining Plan - ~1946
MYW 7 day tickets, no PH or WP - ~1295
Total - 4641

DCL in 2 insides (11B) on the Magic, same dates
Price - 4996 with $380 in gift cards using Costco = 4617

I didn't add in the extra 5% using Target and Disney Gift Cards since you can use it on both. This is also without 10% and OBB if a prior cruiser and booked on board.

 

[DahliaRW]

We did 7 nights on the Fantasy. The total for the cruise fare per day ended up being around 657 per night, for a deluxe family ocean view for a family of 5 (8d). This does not include tips, excursions, or souvenirs.

Our trip to WDW, not including souvenirs or car rental (we only had a car for one night) and estimating food since we did not buy a dining plan ended up being around 625 a night, stayed at POR, non-hopper tickets, for a family of 5.

When you plug in excursions, etc, the cruise is more. But it's not significantly more without that. We did do the cheapest resort and room category on DCL that would sleep a family of 5 in one room. We easily could have made WDW more expensive or DCL more expensive just by booking different accommodations.

 

[robhawk]

Not trying to be a wise guy.
Do people really not get park hopper passes? I can't imagine not having them. So much more freedom. Especially when staying in the Epcot resort area.
It adds quite a bit to the comparison discussion.

 

[JohnDS]

Not trying to be a wise guy.
Do people really not get park hopper passes? I can't imagine not having them. So much more freedom. Especially when staying in the Epcot resort area.
It adds quite a bit to the comparison discussion.

We've gotten them but never use them. Adds so much to the cost of a ticket and for us is a mostly useless option.

We won't stay at a Disney hotel, we prefer to stay offsite at a Condo or Vacation home, it costs a fraction of the Disney price and it is so much nicer. I have looked at the Disney prices and it always staggers me that I pay less for a week in an Apartment style condo 2 minutes away than people pay onsite for a single room for a night.

 

[CruiseCrazy44]

Not trying to be a wise guy. Do people really not get park hopper passes? I can't imagine not having them. So much more freedom. Especially when staying in the Epcot resort area. It adds quite a bit to the comparison discussion.

We bought the park hopper option the first two times we went, but realized we didn't use them enough to make the cost reasonable. Each of the parks has more than enough to keep us hopping until our feet give out. We do a five day pass mostly, and that means a day in each park and then we pick which one we want to go to twice. This does often involve splitting up that last day, one parent in each of the two parks. We always have to decide between magic kingdom and Epcot. We just don't need the freedom. Besides, the amount of time involved in traveling between parks makes us not interested.

 

[sushi2]

I think if you're comparing the two, then you need to either add the cost of excursions to the cruise, or take away the cost of park tickets from WDW. I think that would add to the 'fairness' in the comparison.

 

[DahliaRW]

I think if you're comparing the two, then you need to either add the cost of excursions to the cruise, or take away the cost of park tickets from WDW. I think that would add to the 'fairness' in the comparison.

Not everyone does excursions, they are optional. I don't know anyone who goes and spends a week at WDW resort hotels without actually going to the parks, though.


As for hoppers, we wouldn't have used them. The transportation between parks is not quick, and we were there in the off season with shorter park hours. We're used to DLR, where park hoppers make sense, it's a 2 minute walk between parks, we always get them there.

 

[robhawk]

We love the hopper because we stay at BCV. Epcot is our nighttime destination most nights. MK during extra magic hours

 

[barbja99]

No comparison. Dcl cost about 4 times our standard disney trip.

Same for us. I'd never, ever pay as much to stay at WDW as we do on DCL. That's too much to stay in one spot.

 

[Kim1964]

Our 4 night on the Dream in August in a deluxe family ocean view stateroom with verandah is about $3900. I just priced a 4 night trip to BWI CL (which is the only place I'm willing to stay) with park hoppers and deluxe dining (which I never buy but I'm trying to compare the all included food aspect to that of a cruise) for the same dates as our cruise, and it comes out to $5084. So the cruise works out to be less expensive for us.

I've been to WDW 12 times, and only on one Disney cruise (only one cruise of any kind, actually). I'm ready for a break from theme park vacations. As my life has gotten busier over the years, I am more interested in relaxing on vacation rather than the go go go kinds of vacations we have at WDW. DCL works for me. I know I could do either a theme park vacation or a cruise for less than we spend (not stay CL or deluxe at the parks, forgo the verandah on the cruise) but I want what I want on vacation. Feeling pampered is a huge part of the vacation experience for me, so we spend the money.

 

[jenf22]

Not trying to be a wise guy.
Do people really not get park hopper passes? I can't imagine not having them. So much more freedom. Especially when staying in the Epcot resort area.
It adds quite a bit to the comparison discussion.

We never do and we've been to Disney World dozens of times. We plan to do one park a day based on crowd levels and night shows. It's just so much cheaper that way!

And we always do the Value resorts. We think they are so much fun! So for us WDW is considerably cheaper than DCL.

 

[holula]

Not trying to be a wise guy. Do people really not get park hopper passes? I can't imagine not having them. So much more freedom. Especially when staying in the Epcot resort area. It adds quite a bit to the comparison discussion.

We have done it with non park hoppers once and never again. I like being able to hop from park to park, especially for dining reservations!

WDW is much cheaper for us - we have DVC and APs. But I would much rather be on a cruise. I can spend 3 days max at WDW and then I want to go home.