Newbie Question--Trying to Do Too Much!?!?

[lucky10]

This will be our first time at WDW, and I'm having a really hard time making a decision about adding a cruise or not. I’ve been going back and forth on this for weeks, it’s making me crazy! Hope that some of you can offer advice! Sorry this is long, but I'd love your input!

Background:
Me and my two kids, ages 15 and 13, will be going to WDW and Universal for the first time Dec 4th-13th or 14th. We are coming from the West Coast, and chances are good we will not go again anytime soon. So, I want to get the most out of our time. But I don’t want to try to do too much. I can squeeze everything in with a 3 day cruise at the end, or have more open time with our park days by staying in Orlando.

I have done a lot of reading and made touring plans for all the days of our trip. With the cruise we can fit in everything we want to see, if we can get ourselves up early for RD a couple times. We’re not early risers, and will suffer from the time change as well. Do you think I’m crazy/will overdo it by trying to add the cruise at the end???

Plans:
Here are the two options I’m considering:
**WITH CRUISE**
Dec 4: Depart SEA 8 am. Arrive MCO 4:30 pm. Pickup Rental Car, Food Shop, checkin @ Cabana Bay
Dec 5: US/IOA 11 am-5 pm. Relax at hotel 6-8pm. Disapalooza Party 9-midnight
Dec 6: US/IOA 10 am - 5 pm. Relax at hotel for evening, prep for checkout
Dec 7: Checkout Cabana Bay, drive to AK Park 11 am - close (6 pm?) Checkin AK Lodge
Dec 8: Relax AK Lodge all day
Dec 9: MK - RD to Midnight. Will relax a couple hours in park and try for BOG Lunch
Dec 10: EPCOT - RD - 9:30
Dec 11: Checkout AK Lodge,. Drive to Cruise, checkin about 1
Dec 12: Cruise (staying on boat in Bahamas)
Dec 13: Castaway Cay
Dec 14: End Cruise, Drive to Orlando. EPCOT or HS (10 am-4 pm), Arrive MCO @ 5, Flight 7 pm

**WITHOUT CRUISE**
Dec 4: Depart SEA 8 am. Arrive MCO 4:30 pm. Pickup Rental Car, Food Shop, checkin @ Cabana Bay
Dec 5: Relax at Cabana Bay all day. Disapalooza Party 9-midnight
Dec 6: US/IOA 9 am-5 pm. Prep for checkout
Dec 7: Checkout Cabana Bay, US/IOA 10 am - 5 pm Checkin AK Lodge
Dec 8: AK Park 9 am - 5 pm.
Dec 9: MK - RD to Midnight. Will relax a couple hours in park and try for BOG Lunch
Dec 10: Relax AK Lodge
Dec 11: Checkout AK Lodge, EPCOT 9 am - 9:30 pm Checkin new hotel
Dec 12: EPCOT/HS
Dec 13: Checkout Hotel. Discovery Cove 8 am - 4 pm (or another Park Day), Arrive MCO @ 5, Flight 7 pm

Thanks for any help/advice/input!!
Lucky10

 

[sharonabe]

I think I would forego the cruise. There are Disney cruises on the west coast (granted you don't get the private island) or you could do a longer cruise another time as it's own vacation. Two different "theme" parks AND a cruise just seems like too much to me.

 

[grecorj]

I'd also skip cruise. But that's just me.

If you were doing Plan 2, I would recommend 2 partial days in MK rather than RD-close and a full resort day. (Dec 9-10). Maybe RD MK on Dec 9 and leave park by 2 and spend rest of day at resort. Then on Dec 10 spend morning at resort (or try Downtown Disney) and do MK in evening. RD-close at MK would be a very long day. And by doing 2 half days you get 6 FP+ opportunities instead of 3.

Good luck.

 

[POOHsie]

I would skip the cruise, too. First, I wouldn't pick "wintery" months to be out on the open Atlantic. It can be cold out there! Second, your vacation is compacting a lot into a little bit of time. You don't need to go to MK from RD to midnight. I would schedule HS for Dec 11, your check-out/check-in day. On Dec 12th, I'd schedule Epcot all day. That way you won't need Park Hopper $68.16 each) and you'd be spending your time better. If you choose one more park day, I'd go back to MK. It's so much fun there and a great ending to your trip. Where are you staying on Dec 11th-13th?

 

[Jen731]

Lucky, you're from Seattle? Then heck yes, add the cruise. We just survived our first seattle winter and I would have given anything to get some warm sun on us in December. I love cruising, though so I am biased. But after a lot of active vacationing at the parks, relaxing on a cruise sounds like heaven. Either way, you are going to have a great time!! I don't think there's a bad choice here.

 

[OhThePain]

I'd skip the cruise. Not so much because you are trying to do to much, but IMO 3-night cruises are not worth the cost. By the time you get un-packed and start to figure out the ship, it's time to disembark. I personally don't find them very relaxing.

 

[mshanson3121]

I would definitely skip the cruise. You have some crazy days planned - RD to midnight in park is an EXTREMELY long day. You'll be exhausted, and then expect to try and do RD to close again the next day?! I really don't think you'll get the enjoyment out of the trip that you could otherwise. Plus a 3-day cruise isn't worth it. You're going to be exhausted from your two Disney days, so, I doubt you'll really enjoy that much. It'd be one thing if it was a longer cruise and you had more time to unwind. Your first plan just sounds totally exhausting.

So, I would definitely skip the cruise, and would probably do something like this:

Dec 4: Depart SEA 8 am. Arrive MCO 4:30 pm. Pickup Rental Car, Food Shop, checkin @ Cabana Bay
Dec 5: Relax at Cabana Bay all day. Disapalooza Party 9-midnight
Dec 6: US/IOA 9 am-5 pm. Prep for checkout
Dec 7: Checkout Cabana Bay, US/IOA 10 am - 5 pm Checkin AK Lodge
Dec 8: AK Park 9 am - 5 pm.
Dec 9: MK - RD to 4:00 or so, then head over to Epcot and spend the evening at the World Showcase, watch IllumiiNations.
Dec 10: Relax at AK Lodge for the day, do an early ADR for supper in MK, spend the evening at MK doing the MSEP, Wishes etc...
Dec 11: Checkout AK Lodge, EPCOT 9 am - supper. Go check in at your new hotel. Rest for the evening.
Dec 12: Spend the day at HS: either do RD to close, taking a break with a nice ADR for lunch, or spend the morning relaxing and go in for a 12-9 type thing. Either way, watch Fantasmic.
Dec 13: Checkout Hotel. Discovery Cove 8 am - 4 pm (or another Park Day), Arrive MCO @ 5, Flight 7 pm

Not sure on your last day. Discovery Cove looks beautiful, but I think you're pushing it to start leaving at 4:00 and expect to get dried off, changed, get things packed up, out to your car and to MCO by 5:00. You would probably need to start packing up by 3:00 or 3:30. At the price tag that DC comes with, it's not a place I'd want to be cutting myself short. Also, you don't know what time you'll get assigned for the Dolphin Swim if you're doing it. If you get a late afternoon swim... If you really want do Discovery Cove, I would try doing it on Dec 11th instead, when you can give it the full day, without feeling rushed like you need to get somewhere. Then, I would do Epcot on December 13th. If you're at Epcot at RD, and stay till 3:30 or 4:00, that should give you plenty of time, especially since you'll already have spent an evening there.

Otherwise, if you're willing to skip Discovery Cove, then on your last day you could just wing it and choose to go back to whatever park you guys found most interesting/want to spend more time at. Not sure if your children include any boys or not, or if your kids are into cars or not, but in Old Town (Kissimmee) on Friday and Saturday nights they have an amazing car show. http://www.myoldtownusa.com The cars are on display, they do a cruise down the street, they have live bands etc... There's some other really neat things to do there too (really cool portrait studio where you can dress up in costumes - gunslingers, pirates, tonnes of stuff for male/female alike etc... and have photos done). So if you skip Discovery Cove you could always do something like this:

Dec 11: Checkout at AK Lodge, spend the day at HS, watch Fantasmic.
Dec 12: Relax at hotel, then head into Old Town for the afternoon/evening.
Dec 13: Checkout hotel. Epcot from 9-3 or 4. Arrive at MCO at 5:00 etc...

 

[DisneyRookie2007]

Skip the cruise. We did a 4 day WDW and then a 3 day Bahamas cruise (Royal Raribbean )back in 2007. Both were my 1st time doing either. WDW was too short and so was the cruise. I figured that 4 days in WDW and I'd be bored and want to do something different......I was wrong!

I was sooo wanting more WDW that we later booked a 10 day trip to WDW.......6 months later.

 

[lucky10]

Thanks so much for all the feedback! We will go with the majority vote and skip the cruise. I really appreciate all the viewpoints and new ideas.

It actually feels more relaxing to me now--I think I was stressing myself out trying to fit so much in. I will need to tweak the non-cruise plans this week based on your ideas. It's a surprise trip for the kids so can't work on it too much on the weekends! We'll be letting them know June 2nd, the oldest's birthday.

I don't have a hotel Dec 11-13, we are booked with DVC points (from the DIS rental board) Dec 7-11 at AKV. Would love to try Beach Club but can't swing the price unless I did DVC. It seemed pretty booked up but will look more into it now. Otherwise will do POR or a value resort.

Thanks again all!!