Those who have done 5 night cruises...

[bridget]

We've done 3-4 nights at Disney before a 7 night cruise, twice now.

Then we did 7 nights after a 5 night cruise.

Doing Disney before a cruise kind of wears me out!! Also, once I get off the cruise, it is nice to know I have a few more days of vacation left.

I'm a teacher, so I have all summer off, which makes it nice.

 

[mickeys girl 52]

We did a 5 day in June of this year.We stayed in the treehouses for 3 nights before the cruise. At the end we added a day because of our air line plans and stayed a night at Beach Club Villas. It was great .we just rekaxed that last day at the resort.No running to any parks.

 

[DVC Jen]

We are doing a 5 night in May followed by a week at Vero Beach (Disney's resort).

 

[twinmom108]

We're doing 5 days at Fort Wilderness before our 5 day Dream cruise next March.

 

[acomasdiaz]

We did 3 night before and 1 night after. I always like doing the parks first because I feel like those days are so hectic and the cruise is the relaxing part of the vacation. I also like to have one night after to unwind. We just hung out at Downtown Disney that day but I didn't feel rushed to get to the airport.

 

[Sarabi's Cubs]

I'm so glad you posted this because I am debating it myself. Our first cruise was a 5 nt and we did a day at MK before the cruise, mainly because my youngest was only a year old the last time we were there and I wanted him to experience it. While we had a great time, it was a very crowded day and super cold, so we felt rushed and the kids were cranky.

This time our cruise will end on Tuesday of the kids spring break so we could easily tack on 2-3 days at Disney before we start the long drive home. I'm just debating whether 2-3 days is enough or will we feel too rushed and compelled to do everything. We only get to WDW about every 4 years as a family so there is this feeling like we need to hit all of the highlights. We haven't been to Universal before, so part of me is thinking we should just do 2 nights there after the cruise so the kids can see the new Harry Potter area. But since we only did 1 day at MK last time, it will have been 4 years since the kids have been to the other Disney parks..

Laurie

 

[Donna3271]

We could only do a 5 night this April because of the way spring break fell for us. The first Disney cruise we did was 3 nights (WAAAAY too short for us), and since then, we have stuck to the 7 nighters. We are staying 3 nights at BC to make up for the shorter cruise.

We are flying down this January to participate in the Marathon and go to the parks for just 5 nights, so personally, 5 nights is enough of a vacation to fly in for... but the extra days at WDW just adds to a perfect vacation!!

 

[annabug]

so glad you are asking the sae question that I am still debating about!

We are going on our first cruise june 29-july 4
its a 5 night double dip

we are flying in day before and staying at hyatt mco

then cruising

upon return, it will be 4th of july
i did not want to travel home on that day

i booked 4 nights at the poly post-cruise
this is a BIG splurge for us
we always stay at POFQ ( I just love it there)

Here is why (just my thoughts as it pertains to my family

This is our first cruise, and we are a family of 4 (DD7, DS3)
It probably wont be a "relaxing" cruise for us!
My kids will probably spend limited time in kids club (our choice)
We have never been on a ship like this, and plan to be very busy!

So we can relax at the POLY!! have lots of pool time, since I suspect pool time will be limited on the cruise!

We have been to WDW 3 times before with our kids
They almost ALWAYS pick up a little cold/virus cough or slight fever
when at the parks
I dont know, I just dont want to expose them to the parks, and then be on a cruise with sick kids
I know its not completely preventable, but that was how I was looking at it

We plan to just stay at the Poly for the 4th of July, would not dare go to the parks!!
then try and do the pool, and limited early morning hours at parks, mainly MK and Epcot

hope that help, or makes sense!!
annabug

 

[simbasmom2]

Well...we have done several combos. Our last cruise was a DD and we planned on taking a road trip down to the Keys after the cruise. Then when the school schedule finally came out we decided to take one day after the cruise and spend it at MK. I like flying in atleast one day before (so we aren't so tired embarking day) and I like having something to do "new" when we debark. I hate leaving the ship so having something to look forward to helps. Sooo, we had one day at MK and it was to rushed and we were exhausted. We would have been better off just hanging out at the resort and swimming and going to DD for dinner. The girls had to start school 2 days after returning home. School started August 15th (usually it is around the 23/24th). If we would have known this before booking we would have chosen another date to spend more after time after the cruise.

 

[virginiamama]

We've done both, park days before and after the cruise.

We prefer to add the park days after the cruise. We fly in the day before the cruise and stay at the MCO Hyatt, relax by the pool and have dinner. I find travel days exhausting. So we get to bed early and head right down to catch a bus to the port in the morning. A few years ago we added 2 nights at the Beach Club. This year in August we had 2 nights at BLT. Wow! The cruise bus dropped us off at BLT and we were fully rested and ready to hit the parks. We don't find the cruises to be tiring. It is always sad to get off the ship, so we like to have something to look forward to.

The one time that we did parks before cruise, we were basically killing time until we got on the cruise. We didn't enjoy the parks as much because we were all looking forward to getting on the ship.

In August I was really surprised by how fresh and energetic we felt at the parks after the cruise. We were spending time in the parks with lots of hot and tired folks and we felt like Energizer bunnies. (Normally we are the tired folks!)

 

[thepops]

We did a 5 nighter last July. We did 2 days before and 2 days after in WDW. I just couldn't see rushing back to work after that nice relaxing cruise.

 

[devine5829]

We have teen girls and doing the double dip in April. We were thinking of universal and Hard Rock Hotel but that all seems pricey so we will see.

 

[m&m's mom]

We have done 5 nights in summer 2010 and 2011.
In 2010 we stayed in Cocoa Beach a day before and after the crusie we went to WDW for a week. That order was nice because we stayed at the Poly afterwards and really got to spread out to repack.
This summer we went to Cocoa Beach the day before and went to WDW for 2 days afterwards. I think 2 days was just a teaser. It might have been better if we did not go at all.
Next summer we are going to try WDW beforehand since after the crusie will be too close to 4th of July crowds. Parks a week, a 7 day cruise (finally- thank you Fantasy).

 

[yukongirl123]

We did a five day repo cruise in Sept.....and added...the seven day MR cruise. It was very relaxing

 

[psimon]

Did you add on any extra vacation days before or after your cruise? Or did you just do the cruise? And if you did add on, what did you do?

Just trying to decide if the cruise is "enough" or if we need more vacation

We usually do 7-8 days at WDW, so the 5 N cruise wasn't enough for us. Right now I have 3 nights reserved at OKW after our cruise, but I may cut it back to 2 depending on what else is going in life at the time.

In reality, a cruise is NEVER LONG ENOUGH... a good couple of weeks before and after at WDW seems appropriate to me!

--Paul in Southern NJ

 

[MichelleVW]

I guess I would have to ask if this would be a 2nd or supplemental vacation or is it your ONLY vacation for the year? If we can only plan 1 vacation for the year then we like to plan for at least 10 nights. But if we take a couple of vacations during that year then they would each be shorter BUT long enough to the money out of our flights. Might do a 4-6 night trip over a long holiday weekend or over spring break then at LEAST a full week in the summer. Looking back at what we've done recently one year we had 3 nights at VWL at WDW over MLK weekend in January then we did 3 nights at AKV + B2B cruises on the Wonder in July that summer. The next year we did 4 nights over Memorial Day weekend at SSR at WDW then we went back in August for a week at BCV & 3 nights at Vero Beach. Then the next year we did 6 nights over Spring Break at AKV and then 7 nights at HHI in August. Then LAST year we went all year with nothing since the previous August because we were going to Europe for a week + doing one of the Med cruises. With 15 nights planned all at once we had to sit tight at home for a year. So it all depends but I guess I definitely wouldn't be happy with a 5 night trip if that was my only trip that I had planned for awhile. But I would be OK if I knew I had something else planned in a few months.

We did a 5 night cruise this past July and it was enough for us. Of course I would have liked to stay a bit longer, but DH isn't a fan of long vacations. I would rather take a few small vacations a year than one big one. I honestly get stir crazy if I have too much times between vacations. Even if it's a quick trip to Vegas for the weekend I need something every 5-6 months.

Edited to add, we did add one day to the end to just hang out at the Port Orleans French Quarter pool and go to DTD before we flew home Saturday morning. That still gave us Saturday afternoon and Sunday to relax at home before we had to rush back to work.

 

[VMinick]

We did the 5-night double dip in July and went straight from the ship to the Disney Vero Beach resort for two nights/three days. It was the perfect was to ward off the end of vacation depression without the fast pace of the parks!