Combo Disney cruise and Disney Land vacation?

CanuckTraveller

Mouseketeer
Joined
May 23, 2011
Messages
323
Am I crazy to consider this? The kids love cruising, and we'd love to check out a Disney ship. However, the prices are very high compared to what we're used to on NCL (!), and I'm wondering how much we'll get from the ship if we're only on board for a few days with lots of ports. Plus I have no idea how many days we need to visit MK and maybe Epcot. Right now I'm thinking of a 4 or 5 day cruise out of Port Canaveral (I know it's an hour drive from Orlando) and then another 3-4 days at Disney...give or take? We have 8 days max to do this trip.
Has anyone done a similar trip and can give me some advice? My boys will be 7 and 5 yrs, and not Disney nuts by any stretch of the imagination, but do want to see "The Mouse"!
TIA!
 
I don't know about you being crazy but I'm doing exactly what you described with my 2 boys this October. Doing a 4 night cruise to the Bahamas, and then 4 days in the parks. I'll have to let you know how crazy it is once I'm back. :rotfl:

I've read that disney is VERY expensive in relation to the other lines but this is my first for the cruise and the parks.
 
Not a crazy idea at all! Disney used to sell a land & sea package but stopped selling that way a few years ago. Most Dis-ers would vote for doing the cruise last but of course it's up to you.

I'm a DCL junkie and have to say that the best $$ saving plan is to book the cruise uber far in advance. I usually try to book 2 yrs in advance or on day 1 of price release, which seems crazy to non-cruisers but I'll explain why.
When DCL releases their dates/prices newly available to book, that is the cheapest it will be. As the ship fills, the price goes up. (A few exceptions for certain sailings that are not selling as quickly as they'd like.) In general, any time schools are closed, the prices will be much higher.
As for the new ships, they are selling very well so I can't imagine any discounts coming.
For example, back in Jan I checked next school year's calendar and saw our kids have off a 4-day weekend for a Jewish holiday + teachers' inservice. I quickly booked a 3 nt cruise and friends of our (new to DCL) booked also. Within about 8 weeks, their fare (no kids) increased $700 and ours (2 kids) went up around $900. Crazy! And this is for a 3 -nt Sept cruise, which before the new ships would be one of the last to sell out. Very off-peak time.

I can't compare to NCL but we have sailed Carnival 3x and RC 2x, and DCL service just blows them away. It's not the characters or free soda but all the Disney touches, the shows, rotational dining, and lots of Disney magic that we miss on other lines. We walk into the dining room to smiling CMs who remember my name & know that dh & I like ice tea. They cut my son's meat and crack his lobster.
The focus is on having a great time with your family, not about drinking, gambling & smoking. kwim? Sure people drink but it's not like what we saw on other lines. DCL doesn't have the alcohol & casino revenue that other lines do; there's no casino and have a larger % of passengers that are children. So that's another reason you pay more for DCL.

Call me crazy but I don't even compare prices with other lines any more. Sure I can get a cheaper 3 nt cruise out of PC on RC but honestly, I'd rather go to work and save the vacation time for a cruise I KNOW we will have an awesome time on. Just like I can visit Six Flags for a lot less than what it costs at MK for a day but if someone had never been to MK, they might think SF is a great theme park, :lmao: & not even know what they're missing.

You don't say when you're looking to cruise but I'd find a date/price that's doable and book as soon as you can. The price might just go up if you put it off.
 
I know all about booking cruises well in advance, our current cruise for Jan/12 is "on sale" for $500 more than what we reserved back in Jan/11 :yay:
The trouble is DH just got appointed (on Saturday!) as a vice-principal in his school board (yeah, more money to spend on travel!) which means we have NO IDEA where he will be working in two years. He's jumping to the elementary panel in September, but could be back in the secondary panel next year. This is playing havoc with my travel planning, KWIM? I was hoping to find something for Feb, 2013, which means starting to plan the cruise portion soon. Maybe I'll just have to read the cancellation policy really well!
I do hear you about DCL focusing on family fun rather than what's on the more mainstream lines. However our last experience with NCL was slightly off-peak and it was very much an older, laid back crowd. We never saw people drunk, mind you we don't go to the casino and we're in bed by 9pm, so that could be why ;) The kids loved the fact all the crew knew them by name by day 2...and I mean EVERYONE, because there were so few kids on the ship. However, the quirk in our school board's schedule that allows us to travel on this off-peak time ends this year, so I'm back to the drawing board. Disney in the summer isn't a big draw for us, because it's not much cheaper than in winter, and I'd rather escape the cold if given the chance!
 

This past fall we did four nights at WDW and then a 3 night cruise. We stayed at Poly at WDW. It was perfect! Do it!
 
I know all about booking cruises well in advance, our current cruise for Jan/12 is "on sale" for $500 more than what we reserved back in Jan/11 :yay:
The trouble is DH just got appointed (on Saturday!) as a vice-principal in his school board (yeah, more money to spend on travel!) which means we have NO IDEA where he will be working in two years. He's jumping to the elementary panel in September, but could be back in the secondary panel next year. This is playing havoc with my travel planning, KWIM? I was hoping to find something for Feb, 2013, which means starting to plan the cruise portion soon. Maybe I'll just have to read the cancellation policy really well!
I do hear you about DCL focusing on family fun rather than what's on the more mainstream lines. However our last experience with NCL was slightly off-peak and it was very much an older, laid back crowd. We never saw people drunk, mind you we don't go to the casino and we're in bed by 9pm, so that could be why ;) The kids loved the fact all the crew knew them by name by day 2...and I mean EVERYONE, because there were so few kids on the ship. However, the quirk in our school board's schedule that allows us to travel on this off-peak time ends this year, so I'm back to the drawing board. Disney in the summer isn't a big draw for us, because it's not much cheaper than in winter, and I'd rather escape the cold if given the chance!

Wow, that's so hard to make plans when things are so up in the air. I too love to escape cold winter. I let my kids miss a week of school for our 1st Disney cruise (7 nts Eastern Caribbean in Feb is just :cloud9:!!! )but they were only in grades 4 & 1 back then. They're now entering grades 9 & 6 so it's not so easy to go away during winter.

Do your kids get a week off for Easter break? We're sailing next Apr and got it very reasonably priced, around $3k for a 5 nt double dip, 2 ad/2ch in cat 5E. Not bad for a holiday cruise but it's gone way up now. It's not a good as escaping winter but will give me something to think about while I'm shoveling snow. :laughing:

Usually DCL releases another year of itineraries & prices sometime in Oct or Nov. Maybe book for 2013? A new opportunity to book something early. :thumbsup2
 
We have 4 days off at Easter, our week-long break is in March when the prices are sky high ($3K sounds very reasonable!). Our best bet is to try and get DH some time off in February and go then. Our boys can take a week off school without much problem, I'll just get DH to talk to the teachers *grin*
Good to know the new schedules are released in the fall, at least we can start looking and get something reserved. Then I have lots of time to figure out the rest of the trip ;)

Wow, that's so hard to make plans when things are so up in the air. I too love to escape cold winter. I let my kids miss a week of school for our 1st Disney cruise (7 nts Eastern Caribbean in Feb is just :cloud9:!!! )but they were only in grades 4 & 1 back then. They're now entering grades 9 & 6 so it's not so easy to go away during winter.

Do your kids get a week off for Easter break? We're sailing next Apr and got it very reasonably priced, around $3k for a 5 nt double dip, 2 ad/2ch in cat 5E. Not bad for a holiday cruise but it's gone way up now. It's not a good as escaping winter but will give me something to think about while I'm shoveling snow. :laughing:

Usually DCL releases another year of itineraries & prices sometime in Oct or Nov. Maybe book for 2013? A new opportunity to book something early. :thumbsup2
 
I don't see it as crazy... I do see it as VERY expensive! Basically Disney World parks get cheaper for the longer you stay. By doing 2 "separate" vacations you won't get the benefit from of either for doing a longer trip. For our family it was cheaper to do 2 separate longer trips on two seperate years.
 
We have done this a few times. We did a week at the parks and then a 7 day DCL. We were in a Disney daze by the end of it, even bought Disney Vacation club on the cruise. Now we do it every year- not this year though. We are doing an Alaskan cruise and a week in Seattle afterwards. :)
 




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