2.5 Days Post Cruise Worth It (Labor Day 2020)?

[Frozen2014]

We've been to Disney World once and Disneyland once and love the parks! Next summer we have a 4 day cruise (not Disney) that is out of Port Canaveral and is the last week in Aug from Mon - Fri.

Not sure when we'll get a chance to return to Disney World (as we've gone a bit cruise crazy and our next few vacations are cruises) so I thought it would be a good opportunity to squeeze in 2.5 park days (i.e. afternoon on the Friday after we check into our hotel....Sat, Sun). This of course though is Labor Day weekend.

I know no one knows that crowds will be like with Star Wars but considering August is stupid hot and it's the first full summer of Star Wars, are we wasting our time adding in the days? Or should we go for it? It will be costly as it'll probably add another 3K to our trip for the few days. (We won't even catch free dining as we won't be staying long enough).
Hopefully for next summer, the bulk will come July to Mid Aug so at least crowds will be "lower" again.

 

[Shula]

We are doing the exact same next June. We have been a lot and are always planning a trip to go back even if it's not for a couple years. Our plan is to not over plan and just enjoy being there doing our favorite things. The part I am very excited about is waiting in the long customs line knowing I am not going home just yet. I say do it!

 

[Frozen2014]

Thanks. Good to hear we're not the only ones. Hopefully next year they'll have summer offers back that time of year (labor day weekend is cut off when checking this year probably due to the Star Wars opening).
We'll definitely book FastPasses and have a general plan but also take it by the day depending on crowds and heat.
Lol...yes, helps not getting kicked off the boat and heading straight home to the airport.

 

[goofygal531]

We did this several years ago after a cruise. We purposely stayed at the Yacht Club and spent the day by the pool. We upgraded to club level since we were predominately at the resort.

Rather than get park tickets, we just attended the MNSSHP on Labor Day. It had a record low attendance.

Overall, our pit stop in WDW didn’t break the bank.

 

[Frozen2014]

Nice! For us, we'd definitely try and spend all our time at the parks but enjoying the Yacht Club would be great too.

 

[glocon]

Definitely worth it. Even with SWG. Even if you rope drop then just do your three fp’s. Or 3 fp’s in the evening and close a park. Do it!

 

[lanejudy]

We've done WDW post-cruise. A parks vacation is so much "busier" than a cruise, I definitely prefer to do parks first. But if after is what fits your schedule I would still do it, especially since you don't expect to be back in Orlando for a while. We didn't go commando for the parks on that trip; in fact, I think we only chose to do just 1 park day and spent time at the resort and Disney Springs.

Enjoy your vacation!

 

[DisneyWishes14]

We've done one night pre- and post-cruise stays in WDW and they have been very enjoyable. IMHO, you would be able to do and see quite a bit in 2.5 days of park touring. I would definitely consider it and keep your eyes open for any promos that might be released for that time period. As you mentioned, there are no discounts, currently, starting with the opening date of SWGE, but that could change at any time and certainly as some of the hoopla dies down, we may see discounts again. We go the last week of August every year and it's, traditionally, a pretty slow time as most schools in the U.S. (except the northeast where we live) are back in session by then. Just be prepared for high temps!

 

[Frozen2014]

We've done WDW post-cruise. A parks vacation is so much "busier" than a cruise, I definitely prefer to do parks first. But if after is what fits your schedule I would still do it, especially since you don't expect to be back in Orlando for a while. We didn't go commando for the parks on that trip; in fact, I think we only chose to do just 1 park day and spent time at the resort and Disney Springs.

Enjoy your vacation!

Yeah...I can see parks first followed by cruise makes sense (although we stay pretty active on a cruise when with our kids as they go from activity to activity). But for us, this won't work as our kids have camp right to the end of August (and DS is a counselor now so can't miss any days) and so cruise first followed by parks works for our days.

As a side...we do have a cruise in March that has a stop in Port Canaveral. Thinking of hitting Disney Springs as we haven't been there so it s a good opportunity to check it out.

 

[Frozen2014]

We've done one night pre- and post-cruise stays in WDW and they have been very enjoyable. IMHO, you would be able to do and see quite a bit in 2.5 days of park touring. I would definitely consider it and keep your eyes open for any promos that might be released for that time period. As you mentioned, there are no discounts, currently, starting with the opening date of SWGE, but that could change at any time and certainly as some of the hoopla dies down, we may see discounts again. We go the last week of August every year and it's, traditionally, a pretty slow time as most schools in the U.S. (except the northeast where we live) are back in session by then. Just be prepared for high temps!

Good to hear that we can still get a lot done in just 2.5 days!
That's what I'm hoping for discounts and crowds. We're from Canada and so schools don't return until right after labor day. Good to hear you find the crowds good. You manage ok with the temprature? We did Disneyland a couple summers ago that same week, but it's hot there without the humidity (and no rain). Will need to have reserach the indoor queue rides, etc. and make a general plan.

 

[kiford]

We're heading to WDW on Aug 30 (booked two weeks before they announced Star Wars - that was a bit of a surprise) for a week. We know it will be stupid hot and given that we're from southern Ontario, much hotter than we're used to (we were there last week and it hit 36 degrees most days by mid-day which was waaaay too hot for us). Our reasoning was that most children will be back in school or heading back that week and it's the start of F&W which isn't as busy right at the beginning, or so they say. Our plan is to go out in the morning, bail by 1-ish back to the hotel, return about 5 pm. Normally we'd book ADRs for about 11:30 am, spend a leisurely lunch in the A/C and then back to the hotel but we want to experience the kiosks in Epcot. We'll probably avoid HS unless we can get 1-2 FPs for something. We're staying at YC so we can go back and forth to Epcot reasonably easily and quickly. The weekend prior to Labour Day will be much busier than the rest of the week obviously, but you can still get in some reasonable park time. Book your FPs as soon as you can, try to avoid the heat mid-day, avoid HS and plan to do/see some non-ride things especially those that have A/C or inside queues.

 

[bumbershoot]

This is for next year? Sure, I’d try it. (I personally would do universal post-cruise, because staying onsite there is almost as relaxing as a cruise)

As a side...we do have a cruise in March that has a stop in Port Canaveral. Thinking of hitting Disney Springs as we haven't been there so it s a good opportunity to check it out.

Disney springs is a mall. A pretty outdoors mall.

I’d rather hit the beach or see Cape Canaveral than drive all the way to Orlando to go to a mall.

Our reasoning was that most children will be back in school or heading back that week

I’m not sure *most* kids start school again before Labor Day. Not nationwide. I personally never went to a school (pre college) that started before Labor Day. Those schools definitely exist, but every district is different. Just trying to set expectations.

 

[Mango7100]

We are doing this July 3-6 after our cruise. We are doing a park July 3 evening and then July 5 with a resort day July 4. I know it will be stupid hot and crowded, but we are so close after getting off the cruise in PC and we have the time off work already...it’s like having a second mini vacation!

 

[kiford]

I’m not sure *most* kids start school again before Labor Day

Clarification: The "week" I was referring to was the week that starts with Labour Day, not the week prior. What was clear in my head but unclear in my comments was that we chose the week of Labour Day because most kids are in school or going back that week but then also chose to go the Friday beforehand because F&W is generally considered to be less busy in Epcot during its first weekend. I didn't intend to imply that most kids would already be in school before Labour Day. My original sentence didn't parse well. I assume that the weekend will definitely be busier than the week of Labour Day (weekends are always busier anyway) although crowd calendars still seem to indicate reasonably low attendance even on the weekend (except HS obviously) though, yes, they are only predictive based on past history and we don't really know what Star Wars will do overall to the other parks.

 

[goofygal531]

Clarification: The "week" I was referring to was the week that starts with Labour Day, not the week prior. What was clear in my head but unclear in my comments was that we chose the week of Labour Day because most kids are in school or going back that week but then also chose to go the Friday beforehand because F&W is generally considered to be less busy in Epcot during its first weekend. I didn't intend to imply that most kids would already be in school before Labour Day. My original sentence didn't parse well. I assume that the weekend will definitely be busier than the week of Labour Day (weekends are always busier anyway) although crowd calendars still seem to indicate reasonably low attendance even on the weekend (except HS obviously) though, yes, they are only predictive based on past history and we don't really know what Star Wars will do overall to the other parks.

In NYC, my kids return to school the Thursday after Labor Day.

In the North East tri-state area (NY, NJ, PA, CT) we all return to school sometime after Labor Day - it varies each year. Some years as early as Tuesday some as late as Thursday. I booked our flights without knowing the school start date, so I went with Sunday before Labor Day. Had I known my son didn’t start school until Thursday I would have stayed longer.

 

[xuxa777]

....We didn't go commando for the parks on that trip; .....

Let us know when you do! Bet it helps with the temp in the parks

 

[Frozen2014]

Thanks for the replies. Yeah...because we have our cruise, we can't go week leading up to labor day, nor the week after labor day. So it would be actual Labor Day weekend. Sounds like there will be still kind of heavy crowds. Thanks for clarifying.

Disney springs is a mall. A pretty outdoors mall.

I’d rather hit the beach or see Cape Canaveral than drive all the way to Orlando to go to a mall.

Still figuring out what to do for our Port Canaveral day, but we're thinking Disney Springs is still a way to get a bit of a Disney fix in without going to parks (as it would be $$$ to do the parks for only a few hours with our actual port time on our cruise - This cruise is a March cruise. ). Not really decided yet. Not sure that Cap Canaveral interest us and it's still quite pricey.