3 Day Cruise...Time in Parks...Let the Planning BEGIN!

[Petals & Pixie Dust]

So, DH and I have gone back and forth with planning DS's first cruise. We love to cruise and our DS has loved everything that we love, but there is always that daunting thought of what if he gets sea sick, hates it, or any combination of things...I personally feel that the magic of the parks is much different as we move through the ages (DH agrees) so I don't want to miss park time either. That being said, we've decided on a 3 day cruise, and then return to the parks for some play...then head home. Here are my questions...
1. I always believe is traveling the day before embarkment. What is there to do in Port Canaveral?
2. Will I have to plan my own transportation back to the resort after we disembark?
3. Will I have to book all of this separately DCL and WDW?

TIA for the insight!

 

[swimfin]

Hello!!

You can book everything together as a land and sea vacation package. (If you are military, you may want to keep everything separate as this could be cheaper)

If you don't want to rent a car then you could use Disney transfers for all transportation needs, but I think the DCL transportation to the port is only for "day of arrival??" OR transfers from WDW on the day of cruise (You can use it after the cruise though) If you are arriving a day early, it might be tricky to "see" all that the area has to offer without a car. Kennedy Space Center is always a great tour and Canaveral National Seashore is beautiful as well but does require a car to get to. If you enjoy beach time, then you could do the beach without a car, but would still need to arrange for transportation from MCO to the Canaveral area.

I'm not an expert so I'm sure others will have more information ... We are doing WDW 1st then DCL in June but chose to rent a car as we like to have the freedom to drive ourselves (if running late) to dinner, to go to Publix and have a beach day.

ENJOY your trip!
Cheers!

 

[anricat]

We did this last year and had a great time. We flew in the night before to MCO and stayed at the Hyatt. The next morning we took DCL transfers to port and enjoyed our cruise. Upon returning we took a DCL transfer to Port Orleans Riverside. We were at Epcot by 11 and thus began the WDW portion of our vacation. It was cheaper for us to book the WDW stuff separately. DCL has some limitations. You can only get park hopper tickets for example and if you want a dining plan they were only able to offer deluxe.

 

[SarahKate]

We did almost this exact thing last November. It was our 1st cruise and we also did the 3 night cruise, followed by 6 nights at WDW. We typically rent a car for our WDW trips anyway...so we rented a car at the airport and drove to PC the night before the cruise. Stayed at a hotel there and then parked the rental at the port during our cruise. Then we had the car for the rest of the WDW trip. It worked really well to not have to rely on transportation from others.

Doing these two things back to back was EPIC. But it was also very exhausting. We were soooo tired at the end of the trip. And we don't feel it would've been any better if we had flipped the order of things. The 3 night cruise is pretty busy because so much is crammed into a short period of time, and then of course, WDW is always pretty busy too with so much walking. But I wouldn't trade it for the world!

We also booked our trips separately. I booked the cruise online and I booked the land part through AAA. That was probably our last time using AAA, because there are really no more perks to going through them as there use to be.

 

[iheartbklyn]

We are planning to do this as well in February 2017. We will do 4 nights at WDW and then a 4 night Bahamas Cruise. I cannot wait!

 

[Crush518]

We have a 5 year old and 3 year old and Did Magic Kingdom this past Sunday then a 4 day cruise....I greatly underestimated the walking involved both at Magic Kingdom and the cruise....We opened the park and closed the park Sunday then paid for it Monday getting on the boat.....This was too much for family so next time it will be cruise only and then maybe when the kids are older we can return back and do the parks again...Was just a huge mistake for us this time around.