anyone stayed at a WDW resort 1 night before cruise

[MandyMommytoReaghan]

Hello Everybody! I have been brain storming, trying to make the best out of our Disney cruise and I had a thought come to mind. Has anyone stayed at one of the Disney Reosrts the night before they get on the ship? I have booked a room at the Radisson but thought this may be a FUN idea for us to try. Has anybody tried this before? I thought if we did this we could get out of renting a car because then we could get the Disney transfer I think anyway. Would they pick us up at airport? Does this sound like an okay idea or should we just stick with renting a car at MCo and driving to the port and staying the night at the Radisson and then renting yet another car to drive back to MCO to fly back home? Any input would be greatly appreciated! TIA

 

[RKB]

Yes - we flew in the day before (Friday and took a shuttle to the Pop Century). We then went to the ticket counter at the Magic Kingdom bought tickets and stayed till they closed! Then the next morning we had a cast member take us to the Swan and we got on the DCL bus there. We did let Disney know that we would be there for that bus so they had our name on a list. It worked out great. We had a great time - my kids were DS 10 and DD 15 at the time so did not need to nap, etc.. if your kids are younger this may not work out as well. Hope this helps.

 

[jimilla]

We did this on our April 05 Wonder Cruise. We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge for just one night. It worked for us for several reasons.

1. It is close to Magic Kingdom by water shuttle. (Since we were pressed for time we didn't want to wait for a bus.)

2. Since it was only one night we could splurge on the price of the room. (With a normal stay at Disney, Wilderness Lodge would be out of our price range, but for only one night we thought " what the heck").

3. The morning we left for the Cruise we had breakfast in the resturant they have there. This is like an attraction in it's self. I don't think I laughed so hard at breakfast before.

4. It is an unbelivable resort, if we chose not to go to the Magic Kingdom we could have stayed at the resort with pleanty to do.

We did however use a town car, not the Disney shuttle, it just gave us a little more time to spend at the resort in the morning.

 

[LAMPSKIES]

Yes, we did it the last 3 years. 02 was Swan/Dolphin.....for 2 nights (never do that) then 03 was POR and last year was BC. 02 and 03 we booked 2 nights (Thanksgiving and the next Friday) and last year was just Friday night at BC. We called DCL about transfers (Friday) and they had a Mears van waiting for us (friday morning) and we took the regular bus from the resort to the ship (Saturday)......

 

[tweetsie]

We will be staying at Pop Century the night before we cruise. Our flight arrives at 8:05 and we are going to rent a car at the airport. We will be driving to Port the next morning. I thought this would be fun and a surprise for my dd10.

 

[BABYJOSIE98]

Except I am trying to stay 2 nights at PFQ... We are renting a car from Budget for $50 for 2 days and will turn it in at the port and they have a free shuttle to take us to the ship. Much cheaper than transfers for the 3 of us.

I have stayed at the Radisson twice and loved it,but thought we would do something different this year!

Have fun!

 

[dizneefreak29]

We haven't yet but are going to try in June! We arrive the morning before the crusie around 9:00 a.m. So we have a room booked at All-Star Movies and got one day park hopper passes. We plan on doing as much as we can and relaxing on the cruise!

 

[StuartMI]

We're staying at the swan next year. The internet-only rate is $159 - not bad for a deluxe room!

 

[MandyMommytoReaghan]

So you guys do recommedn staying the night before at a WDW resort. My next question, would we be silly to just stay at the resort and not actually go into Disney World? We will be getting to Orlando at 2:30 if I am remebering correctly. The prices I found last night for 1 night stay at Grand Flordian and Aniaml Kingdom Lodge(?) were scary, this was with the Magical Express too. What do you guys think of this price, for 4 adults and 1 3 year old it was like $1,400 and $1,700. Could this be right or was I doing something wrong? Let me know. TIA for any advice! BabyJosie98 I loved your pic!

 

[westjones]

I love the resorts and I wouldn't pay to go to a park for just part of the day. We usually go to Downtown Disney the day we come in or the day we are leaving (when we only have part of the day to do something).

There are some nice places for dinner (like Chef Mickeys) that you could go to that evening also. We did the Cinderella Dinner at the GF's Park Fare 1900 restuarant and it was a great way to kick off our Disney trip!

DJ

 

[Hygiene99]

We have done it both Way's

If you are arriving late in afternoon
I would say go to the Rad..

enjoy it there they have a great pool area..


Can be done either way..

Peter

 

[StuartMI]

The only reason we're staying at the resort is because the rest of our gang (9 people) are flying in 3 days earlier and doing the parks for 3 days and staying at BWI.

We wanted to be close to them and will probably meet up and have dinner with them @ ESPN Club or something the night before the cruise to go over paperwork, etc.

If i didn't have a reason to be at WDW (ex. this October) I would stay at the Radission which is what we are doing this year.

 

[BABYJOSIE98]

That is a picture from our first cruise on the Wonder. I need to update since DD is 7 now!! OMG! I can't believe how fast time fly's!

We are flying down on May 24th and staying 3 nights at AKL,but not going to any parks. We are only going to Sea World and enjoying the resort. I wanted to stay somewhere different in Orlando and I can always count on Disney to deliver. Plus Mom has never been and so I want to give her a little taste of what WDW is about.

I did make PS for Ohana and Boma and hopefully we can watch Wishes from the beach at the Poly one night.

So I see nothing wrong with staying at the Disney resorts with no park time.

Before the cruise we plan on just doing MK for either the MNSSHP on Thursday night or just the park on Friday???

Check mousesavers for discount codes or try for a AAA discount. I had a pin code attached to my name and got AKL Standard for $124 or Savanah view for $160. I could not believe it! So it does not hurt to call and ask. I would never book through the website.
Just call and ask if you have one...I just happened to call at the right time and got lucky.
Good luck!

 

[LAMPSKIES]

StuartMI..........DON'T DO IT!!!!!!!! Don't stay at the Swan....JMHO!!!!! It IS NOT a WDW resort!!!! That means no KTTW card, and 2 yes 2 check-ins. We made that mistake in 02 and will NEVER do it again.....If you want p.m. me and I'll fill you in.......If you book a night at a WDW resort.....BC, CBR, POR etc. along with a sailing (this is for you stewart) your KTTW card IS good as a "park hopper". I think it was 99.00 a night for us in 03 for 2 nights at POR along with our 11/03 Eastern sailing.......You get NO KTTW card at the Dolphin and Swan....they ARE NOT WDW resorts.......thus YOU PAY for WDW.........Been there done that........

 

[MandyMommytoReaghan]

Okay I am calling them myself or maybe my AAA agent can save me some time and money Hygiene99 are those Cocker Spaniels in your pics? I love those pics, I seen those a couple of months ago when I was just lurking on the boards We are hughe fans of Cockers! Thanks again for everybodies input!