Days At Sea...Question from 1st Timer

[Nutsmom]

Are 3 days at sea during a 7 day cruise too many?

We are aiming to book our first cruise for our family (5 and 10 year olds traveling with us) in late 2016/early 2017. I've read from a lot of posters that a 7 day cruise is the way to go in the sense of having time to get used to the ship and the way things work, along with just being able to truly relax and feel like you're on vacation.

My concern/ question centers around the days at sea for a 7-day cruise. One itinerary has 3 days at sea- is that too many? Will we get bored or go stir crazy, or are there enough activities for both kids and adults alike to keep us entertained? Silly question, I know. It's DISNEY after all. Just need help to calm my nerves...

 

[darjohn]

Are 3 days at sea during a 7 day cruise too many?

We are aiming to book our first cruise for our family (5 and 10 year olds traveling with us) in late 2016/early 2017. I've read from a lot of posters that a 7 day cruise is the way to go in the sense of having time to get used to the ship and the way things work, along with just being able to truly relax and feel like you're on vacation.

My concern/ question centers around the days at sea for a 7-day cruise. One itinerary has 3 days at sea- is that too many? Will we get bored or go stir crazy, or are there enough activities for both kids and adults alike to keep us entertained? Silly question, I know. It's DISNEY after all. Just need help to calm my nerves...

We actually prefer the sea days. There are lots of things to do on the ship, and the sea days gives you a chance to explore without feeling rushed to get off and see a port.

 

[disnygirl55]

In my opinion, six sea days and one land day at Castaway Cay would make for the ideal cruise.

In all seriousness, you won't be bored at all. There is so much to do - trivia, spa, tastings, cooking classes, movies, shows, crafts, meet and greets, etc. and so on. If you cruise primarily to set foot in different countries, less sea days would feel like you are getting more bang for your buck, but we are the opposite. My family goes cruising for relaxation and fun, and not necessarily to tour. On port days, we like to spend a half day touring on an excursion, and the afternoon back on the ship relaxing.

It would ease your mind to take a look at the navigators, and you will see how much there is to do!

 

[BrownFamilyDCL]

Are 3 days at sea during a 7 day cruise too many?

We are aiming to book our first cruise for our family (5 and 10 year olds traveling with us) in late 2016/early 2017. I've read from a lot of posters that a 7 day cruise is the way to go in the sense of having time to get used to the ship and the way things work, along with just being able to truly relax and feel like you're on vacation.

My concern/ question centers around the days at sea for a 7-day cruise. One itinerary has 3 days at sea- is that too many? Will we get bored or go stir crazy, or are there enough activities for both kids and adults alike to keep us entertained? Silly question, I know. It's DISNEY after all. Just need help to calm my nerves...

Like you said, its Disney! How can you get bored. I completely understand why you'd ask this question though.
Its actually good to have 3 days because normally on say a 3 day cruise you are constantly going and rushing around to squeeze everything in. Its nice to have 3 days to just sit by the pool and talk about enjoying the shows or sending the kids to the kids club will you and your significant other enjoy the adult clubs. Its alot more relaxing than the 3 to 4 day cruises.

 

[tink1970]

And if you're like me, there's a Palo brunch to work in, the Rainforest Room, catching up on my reading, power napping...hmm, I think a cruise is due

Sea days are my favorite!

 

[Mitura]

This past December we had 3 sea days and they were great. Just to relax, go to the Kid's club or see a movie, just hang out on your balcony!

For this upcoming December our cruise added Jamaica. We decided that we will skip Jamaica and treat that port stop as a sea day!

You won't go stir crazy.

Joe

 

[AquaDame]

We are a sailing party of two adults and found three sea days on Disney to be lovely..! Our last couple of cruises have had only one and that has been far too few. Disney does a really good job of having a whole slew of things to do activity wise and even if you aren't crazy about tastings, crafts, games and towel folding there are always the pools, movies (pool deck, on demand in your stateroom and the theatre on board), shows at night, minigolf, as well as all the relaxing and wandering you could want. They have a nice gym, fancy spa area and their coffee bar does a good job even if you only like Starbucks (that used to be me, but I have branched out in recent years since coffee has boomed in my city). Time goes so quickly, especially if you are the sort to sleep in... My only reservation is if you are a night owl - there is not a whole lot going on past 11pm or so on the ship.

 

[Nutsmom]

This is very helpful. Thank you for your insights! I hadn't realized that we could do things like cooking classes, tastings, etc. Sounds like we can keep ourselves as busy (or not) as we choose.
Thanks again!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We are a sailing party of two adults and found three sea days on Disney to be lovely..! Our last couple of cruises have had only one and that has been far too few. Disney does a really good job of having a whole slew of things to do activity wise and even if you aren't crazy about tastings, crafts, games and towel folding there are always the pools, movies (pool deck, on demand in your stateroom and the theatre on board), shows at night, minigolf, as well as all the relaxing and wandering you could want. They have a nice gym, fancy spa area and their coffee bar does a good job even if you only like Starbucks (that used to be me, but I have branched out in recent years since coffee has boomed in my city). Time goes so quickly, especially if you are the sort to sleep in... My only reservation is if you are a night owl - there is not a whole lot going on past 11pm or so on the ship.

Yep.

My ideal cruise is at least an even number of sea days/port days. That's mostly because DH like more port days, and I like more sea days.

 

[thumpie's mom]

Sea days are our favorite days! So much to do, you won't get bored.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

This is very helpful. Thank you for your insights! I hadn't realized that we could do things like cooking classes, tastings, etc. Sounds like we can keep ourselves as busy (or not) as we choose.
Thanks again!

Sea days are awesome! We're doing an 8 night Mediterranean and have 6 port days and only 1 sea day and it's driving me crazy! I really wish there were at least 2 more sea days

 

[RedSox68]

In my opinion, six sea days and one land day at Castaway Cay would make for the ideal cruise.

THIS --yes! We love sea days. It is our catch up day for reading, packing, laundry, etc. Time to explore the actual onboard lunches since we are there -- time to have breakfast in a main dining room instead of the buffet. Spa stuff, roam the ship stuff, and whatever activities they have planned.

Do a galley tour -- they're fun and they give cookies out at the end. Explore the ship -- on the Fantasy we made a point to roam every deck and see the different groups of paintings and pictures (on the new ships, some of them come alive). There are board games you can borrow -- we always sit up on deck 5 in the atrium to play.

I feel like sea days are the "other" vacation in our vacation because those days belong to us!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Sea days are awesome! We're doing an 8 night Mediterranean and have 6 port days and only 1 sea day and it's driving me crazy! I really wish there were at least 2 more sea days

On our Med/TA B2B I was really glad we'd done it that way (didn't think about it beforehand). The Med cruise was 10 nights with only 2 sea days . But the TA had only 5 ports (14 night cruise). Much more relaxing.

 

[RedSox68]

On our Med/TA B2B I was really glad we'd done it that way (didn't think about it beforehand). The Med cruise was 10 nights with only 2 sea days . But the TA had only 5 ports (14 night cruise). Much more relaxing.

Oh did you do that one, too? Yes, the Med was very port intensive and really tiring. I loved the 6 straight sea days across the Atlantic. I hope I can do that again sometime! What a dream.

 

[MammaMoe48]

It is virtually impossible to get bored on a Disney cruise. We have taken three and each time we've had fun. What I like about cruising is that there is a finite number of guests on board and all the entertainment, restaurants and things can pretty much accommodate them all. If your kids are comfortable with spending time in one of the kids clubs definitely take advantage of them - you and your spouse/partner/other adult can have some grown up time. When we did our last cruise, one of the stops was at Cayman Island, which we had done on our previous two cruises so we decided to stay on board that day and it was virtually deserted. We had the pool practically to ourselves, I spend a couple of hours at the spa, DH & DS went to the arcade and did the virtual sports thing. I really want to go on another cruise again but we are doing WDW this year, hoping to go next year or 2018.

Oh and the stage shows are AMAZING - we saw Aladdin before it went to Broadway.

 

[KristiMc]

Love sea days! Plenty to do or lots of loungers to relax and do nothing if you choose.