How are the 3 day cruises?

[ladybugmommy84]

Is a 3 day cruise worth it or should I try 4. Also how was it when it comes to cruising during school days? Thanks

 

[Bishoparc]

They're great, other than it's always sad to get off the ship so soon. We've taken 2, 3 days so far and both were fantastic. The biggest thing is how much time you have and how much you can afford. If you have the time and money for the 4 day then definitely do that but if not the 3 day won't disappoint. But like this past weekend I took my wife on the 3 day for her birthday because that's all we had time for.

 

[MickeyEarrings]

The three day cruise is just too darned short!! The four day cruise gives you a day at sea, which is lovely, and very relaxing. I'd do four days if you can afford it. (Palo brunch is also offered only on sea days!)

 

[AnnaS]

If you can swing the 4 night - go for it!!

 

[ladybugmommy84]

Thank you all so much. I have a 5 year old. How did it work with school days for those of you who have babies I'm school ?

 

[AquaDame]

3 nights are definitely worth it, but we also enjoyed the 4 night better. We find it more relaxing to have at least one sea day, and on the 3 nights it felt way more like people were running around with their heads cut off trying to do everything. Just about the time you get used to the ship its time to get off, but still great fun! We are doing a 3 night baja in May, so I obviously wasn't *too* traumatized! :haha:

Edit: we don't have kids, so I can't really comment about taking them out of school. It seems like most people feel like its easy to do for the first few years of school at the very least until it gets a little harder to miss class. At least if your school district is okay with it!

 

[Shanti]

Is a 3 day cruise worth it or should I try 4. Also how was it when it comes to cruising during school days? Thanks

Can't speak for cruising during school days, but our 3-night cruise was perfect. Long enough to relax and immerse, just long enough to never get bored, and not so long that I couldn't stand eating the mediocre DCL food for another day. Genuinely, our trip was wonderful.

 

[ahain]

If I had a choice between a 3 night cruise or none at all, I would definitely take the 3 night. ANY cruise is always better than NO cruise! However, if you can swing the 4 night, it is amazing how much better and more relaxed that extra night makes you feel.

As far as cruising on school days....I think that depends a lot on the age of your children, your school's policy and how well they do in school (i.e. how easy will it be for them to make up for lost time?). For example, we took my daughter out of school for vacations when she was in elementary/middle school and she had absolutely no issues (we did take some homework along on vacation when she was in middle school); but when DD was in high school it was MUCH more difficult for her to do the homework ahead of time & to miss the classroom lecture/projects. In every instance, we approached the school and her teachers WAY in advance to tell them about our trip and ask for teachers to either assign homework early so she could work ahead and have it done before we left or to allow the homework to be completed during our vacation to be turned in upon our return.

 

[TXDCLfan]

3 day is way to short....I for one would not even spend the $$ on a 3 day cruise,

 

[scootch]

Thank you all so much. I have a 5 year old. How did it work with school days for those of you who have babies I'm school ?

I have been taking my kids out of school since kindergarten, they are now sophomore and 7th grade. They have done fine with it. I am actually getting ready to take them out for the second time this year. A great tip concerning this is, take them out BEFORE a holiday come us. If you go over the holiday it will cost you a fortune, but the week before isn't. example, we used to cruise or go to WDW the week before Thanksgiving. They would come back, have school Monday and Tuesday and then off for Thanksgiving break. By the time school resumed after Thanksgiving it was like they had never missed.

3 days are really short, so if you can swing the 4 day, go for it. A much more relaxed feel. We love the 7 days best, but next month we are doing a 3 day just so I only have to pull them out another 2 days of school(already have missed 6 days for vacation this year).

I also thought as they got older it would get harder, but it actually has gotten easier. When they are younger there are so many papers, busy work... now she just has to make up whatever graded material she missed(in high school)

 

[jrabbit]

having been on the full range of nights onboard (3,4,5,6,7,8,10,12,14) I am NOT a fan of the 3 nights. You get on, get unpacked, and bam, you repack and are off of the ship before you know it.

If that is all you really have time for, then go for it., if you can swing a longer cruise (4 nights) then that is so much better (it's amazing what the extra day gives you)

3 Nights
Day 1 - Board ship by 1, lunch, unpack, do stuff, bed at midnight = 11 hours
Day 2 - Up at 8, bed at mid night = 16 hours
Day 3 - Up at 8, start packing by 4, dinners, done packing by 9, bed at midnight = 16 hours, but several of them a very low quality
Day 4 - Up by 6 off of the ship by 9am = 3 hours
Total of 46 hours, at least 5 are low quality - packing / unpacking

4 nights
Day 1 - 2 same as above
Day 3 - Up at 8 done with day at midnight = 16 hours
Day 4 - same as day 3 above, BUT it's a sea day so packing really is easier
Day 5 - same as day 4 above
Total hours 62 hours, with a little less time devoted to packing / unpacking - since you can repack a little bit at a time throughout the day as you pop back to your room between other activities

and really, the "same" activities will be spread over 3.5 days vs 2.5 days - so less scurrying from point A to point B to point C.

4 nights are way calmer than 3 nights. and your fellow guests will be less frantic which helps increase the "hey this is GREAT" feeling you will have about your trip.

 

[mevelandry]

DH and I loved our 3 nights. We loved our 4 nights as well but we found ourselves to be a bit bored since the sea day came last and we had previously done pretty much everything we wanted to do on the prior days.

We chose to do only three nights for our next cruise.

 

[mevelandry]

having been on the full range of nights onboard (3,4,5,6,7,8,10,12,14) I am NOT a fan of the 3 nights. You get on, get unpacked, and bam, you repack and are off of the ship before you know it.

Tips: We use packing cubes. The only one we unpack is the one for toothbrush, combs, make up, razors... All the clothes stays in the suitcase except for the suit/dress we need for Remy/Palo. We put dirty clothes in a plastic bag in the suitcase so it doesn't mix up with the clean clothes.

When we leave, we put the suit/dress back in the suitcase with the cube for toothbrushes, etc. Problem solved. Takes 10 minutes max each time.

More time for the cruise!

 

[Trera]

having been on the full range of nights onboard (3,4,5,6,7,8,10,12,14) I am NOT a fan of the 3 nights. You get on, get unpacked, and bam, you repack and are off of the ship before you know it.

If that is all you really have time for, then go for it., if you can swing a longer cruise (4 nights) then that is so much better (it's amazing what the extra day gives you)

3 Nights
Day 1 - Board ship by 1, lunch, unpack, do stuff, bed at midnight = 11 hours
Day 2 - Up at 8, bed at mid night = 16 hours
Day 3 - Up at 8, start packing by 4, dinners, done packing by 9, bed at midnight = 16 hours, but several of them a very low quality
Day 4 - Up by 6 off of the ship by 9am = 3 hours
Total of 46 hours, at least 5 are low quality - packing / unpacking

4 nights
Day 1 - 2 same as above
Day 3 - Up at 8 done with day at midnight = 16 hours
Day 4 - same as day 3 above, BUT it's a sea day so packing really is easier
Day 5 - same as day 4 above
Total hours 62 hours, with a little less time devoted to packing / unpacking - since you can repack a little bit at a time throughout the day as you pop back to your room between other activities

and really, the "same" activities will be spread over 3.5 days vs 2.5 days - so less scurrying from point A to point B to point C.

4 nights are way calmer than 3 nights. and your fellow guests will be less frantic which helps increase the "hey this is GREAT" feeling you will have about your trip.

Great analysis! the main thing for us is a three day is almost always over the weekend and the 4 nights are during the week. Since we live in Orlando, we only have to miss the Friday of work as we can get home and get to work for monday after disembarking the ship. So 1 missed day of work vs four.

 

[MickeyEarrings]

DH and I loved our 3 nights. We loved our 4 nights as well but we found ourselves to be a bit bored since the sea day came last and we had previously done pretty much everything we wanted to do on the prior days.

We chose to do only three nights for our next cruise.

This reminded me of the incredible pressure some people feel to "do it all" on a 3-nigt cruise. You can't do it all. You simply can't - there's not enough time. Possibly not even in 4 nights. But I don't like that kind of pressure to do so many activities on what should be a relaxing vacation.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

Longer cruises are more relaxing, but 3 night cruises are great if that's all the time you can take off.

 

[mevelandry]

This reminded me of the incredible pressure some people feel to "do it all" on a 3-nigt cruise. You can't do it all. You simply can't - there's not enough time. Possibly not even in 4 nights. But I don't like that kind of pressure to do so many activities on what should be a relaxing vacation.

I guess it depends on the kind of vacations you wanna take. I prefer action. That's what relaxes my brain the most.

 

[bovioask1]

3 day cruises are just a tease. 7 dayers are where it's at! Plenty of time to unwind, explore everything, and relieve yourself from the every day normal routines.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

3 day is way to short....I for one would not even spend the $$ on a 3 day cruise,

Sorry but this Where I'm gonna have a different opinion the 3 day was amazing!

It gave me that taste of what Disney cruise has to offer that has me booking another one: Alaksa!

My advice is if your on edge to see if Disney cruise is right for you ....try this. You get pirate night and fireworks too!

 

[missyp]

Our first cruise was a four night and by the time we learned our way around the ship it was time to get off. We really felt it was too short. The kids were crying and didn't want to get off. Our second cruise was a 5 night and it was great almost felt perfect. Then we did a 7 night and wow!!! My theory is the more the better. 3 is not going to give you much. Minimally I would start with 4. A friend of mine recently did a 3 night on the Dream and I asked her, " what did you think of this or that? " she hadn't even seen it or done it way too short