Crazy Itinerary?

[TheRatPack]

Okay, next year is our first cruise. We've always done land WDW vacations and LOVE them......really hoping that the cruise lives up to our love of WDW.

Anyhow, the cruise leaves out on a Monday, and it's a 4 night.....so back early Friday. With the way my husbands employer allows him to take vacation, we can't really take the week prior to our cruise, or after....just the 5 consecutive biz days surrounding it and the weekends.

Would it be just absolutely crazy to attempt a WDW resort before and after? So it would look like this:
Saturday check in WDW resort
Sunday check out but spend day in the parks then drive over to a resort near the Port for the night
Monday - Friday Cruise
Friday morning (how long does it take to disembark and get going?) check in at WDW and spend day at park and MNSSHP
Saturday- WDW
Sunday- check out headed home

We are driving.....so no delays in flights or anything to factor in.

 

[Justacruiser]

Okay, next year is our first cruise. We've always done land WDW vacations and LOVE them......really hoping that the cruise lives up to our love of WDW.

Anyhow, the cruise leaves out on a Monday, and it's a 4 night.....so back early Friday. With the way my husbands employer allows him to take vacation, we can't really take the week prior to our cruise, or after....just the 5 consecutive biz days surrounding it and the weekends.

Would it be just absolutely crazy to attempt a WDW resort before and after? So it would look like this:
Saturday check in WDW resort
Sunday check out but spend day in the parks then drive over to a resort near the Port for the night
Monday - Friday Cruise
Friday morning (how long does it take to disembark and get going?) check in at WDW and spend day at park and MNSSHP
Saturday- WDW
Sunday- check out headed home

We are driving.....so no delays in flights or anything to factor in.

works! you could actually stay at the report Sunday night also. Leave the report around10am and get to the port around 11:30.

friday, you could get off by 8am, the port is about 1.25 hours from the resort. You should be in the park by 10:30

 

[lilpooh108]

Okay, next year is our first cruise. We've always done land WDW vacations and LOVE them......really hoping that the cruise lives up to our love of WDW.

Anyhow, the cruise leaves out on a Monday, and it's a 4 night.....so back early Friday. With the way my husbands employer allows him to take vacation, we can't really take the week prior to our cruise, or after....just the 5 consecutive biz days surrounding it and the weekends.

Would it be just absolutely crazy to attempt a WDW resort before and after? So it would look like this:
Saturday check in WDW resort
Sunday check out but spend day in the parks then drive over to a resort near the Port for the night
Monday - Friday Cruise
Friday morning (how long does it take to disembark and get going?) check in at WDW and spend day at park and MNSSHP
Saturday- WDW
Sunday- check out headed home

We are driving.....so no delays in flights or anything to factor in.

We do this, except we stay at WDW the night before the cruise and drive over in the morning.

It's definitely more fun this way. The post-cruise WDW won't be as fun, but it's better than going home.

 

[TheRatPack]

We do this, except we stay at WDW the night before the cruise and drive over in the morning.

It's definitely more fun this way. The post-cruise WDW won't be as fun, but it's better than going home.

LOL, that's what I was thinking. I don't want to go home after the cruise, when there is still 2 good days we could spend at WDW. Two days is hardly enough though, so I thought maybe we could squeeze in a night or two prior to the cruise as well, especially so we can do MNSSHP again.

I guess we could probably check out Monday morning as well now that I think about it, since boarding doesn't start until later.

 

[TheRatPack]

works! you could actually stay at the report Sunday night also. Leave the report around10am and get to the port around 11:30.

friday, you could get off by 8am, the port is about 1.25 hours from the resort. You should be in the park by 10:30

I'm glad you brought that up....makes more sense. We are in the first boarding party but still we could leave the resort in plenty of time to make that ....and glad to hear that debarkation day doesn't take long. I'm sure the kids will be excited to head back to WDW and MNSSHP

 

[sambycat]

it sounds fine but unless you have a compelling reason (and since you are saying the goal is to also try and get some quick yet relaxing WDW time in) i would drive to the port the morning of the cruise and not make the day before a rush rush, check in/check out kinda day. have fun!

 

[TheRatPack]

it sounds fine but unless you have a compelling reason (and since you are saying the goal is to also try and get some quick yet relaxing WDW time in) i would drive to the port the morning of the cruise and not make the day before a rush rush, check in/check out kinda day. have fun!

Thanks...and yea I don't know what I was thinking. I've looked at that disembarkation time and I guess I was thinking the embarkation started the same time....but it's much later so I think driving over Monday morning would be just fine and give us all Sunday at Disney plus we won't have to pack late....etc.

 

[JLDSMD]

Okay, next year is our first cruise. We've always done land WDW vacations and LOVE them......really hoping that the cruise lives up to our love of WDW.

Anyhow, the cruise leaves out on a Monday, and it's a 4 night.....so back early Friday. With the way my husbands employer allows him to take vacation, we can't really take the week prior to our cruise, or after....just the 5 consecutive biz days surrounding it and the weekends.

Would it be just absolutely crazy to attempt a WDW resort before and after? So it would look like this:
Saturday check in WDW resort
Sunday check out but spend day in the parks then drive over to a resort near the Port for the night
Monday - Friday Cruise
Friday morning (how long does it take to disembark and get going?) check in at WDW and spend day at park and MNSSHP
Saturday- WDW
Sunday- check out headed home

We are driving.....so no delays in flights or anything to factor in.

Are you set on sailing the Magic? If not, why not look into a Dream cruise. Those usually leave on Sunday and get back in on Thursday. You could drive straight to port on Saturday, sail out Sunday, get off the ship on Thursday, and do WDW/MNSSHP on Thur - Sun. Just a thought.

Also, we usually don't fly home right after we get off the cruise and the times we go to the parks, we're not to much up for the evening because we're up so early on disembarkation day. Just something to keep in mind if you're doing MNSSHP the night you get off the ship. But, all people are different.

Also, with getting off on Thursday, you should have your choice of either Thursday or Friday for MNSSHP and it also tends to be cheaper on Thursdays (depending on the date).

However, if you keep your original plan of sailing on Mondays, MNSSHP runs on most Sundays, so you could always do it the night before your cruise. We've done that without any problems. Just drive over in the morning.

 

[TheRatPack]

Are you set on sailing the Magic? If not, why not look into a Dream cruise. We're actually selling the Wonder.....and we can't afford Royal Concierge on the Dream , plus the Wonder has a double dip at Castaway Cay

Also, we usually don't fly home right after we get off the cruise and the times we go to the parks, we're not to much up for the evening because we're up so early on disembarkation day. Just something to keep in mind if you're doing MNSSHP the night you get off the ship. But, all people are different. We usually get up at 6 on WDW park days to make early breakfast ADRs at 8 and have made it to 11-12 midnight on those days. So I hope we can do it that day....but as you pointed out, we may do MNSSHP before the cruise...that would work and then we'd have plenty of carry on candy LOL

Also, with getting off on Thursday, you should have your choice of either Thursday or Friday for MNSSHP and it also tends to be cheaper on Thursdays (depending on the date). We're going earlier in the month when tickets have the cheaper prices We go this time every year (for the past 9-10 years) and planned our cruise around the same time due to cheaper rates and lighter crowds.

Thanks for the pointers , this is new territory for us as we are first time cruisers. We may absolutely love the DCL....but that would be horrible to hate the cruise and have to wait a WHOLE year to make a trip to WDW to get our 'fix' LOL.

 

[chemnerd09]

Okay, next year is our first cruise. We've always done land WDW vacations and LOVE them......really hoping that the cruise lives up to our love of WDW.

Anyhow, the cruise leaves out on a Monday, and it's a 4 night.....so back early Friday. With the way my husbands employer allows him to take vacation, we can't really take the week prior to our cruise, or after....just the 5 consecutive biz days surrounding it and the weekends.

Would it be just absolutely crazy to attempt a WDW resort before and after? So it would look like this:
Saturday check in WDW resort
Sunday check out but spend day in the parks then drive over to a resort near the Port for the night
Monday - Friday Cruise
Friday morning (how long does it take to disembark and get going?) check in at WDW and spend day at park and MNSSHP
Saturday- WDW
Sunday- check out headed home

We are driving.....so no delays in flights or anything to factor in.

I say go for it. We are also veteran WDW goers so I can't imagine being in FL without going to WDW. Hence why we have WDW before and after our cruise too.

 

[bumbershoot]

Thanks...and yea I don't know what I was thinking. I've looked at that disembarkation time and I guess I was thinking the embarkation started the same time....but it's much later so I think driving over Monday morning would be just fine and give us all Sunday at Disney plus we won't have to pack late....etc.

Remember that the staff onboard have to have time to CLEAN that ship and get ready for, well, you! (such a lovely thought until you are the one leaving the ship, waaaaah. )


Glad others brought up just staying at WDW and leaving that morning for the port, because that would have been my suggestion, too!


We did a Dream 3-nighter in Feb. Got in 2 nights before, stayed at WDW. I think we only hit Epcot though. We took DCL transportation but we have only the one kidlet; if we had (or ever have) your size of group we wouldn't consider it. Driving you'll get there way earlier.

Then the day of disembarkation we took the Disney bus to the airport, got a rental car, and headed off to Universal. Uni was great because when you stay onsite it can be so *relaxing*. No rushing. Unlimited Express Pass makes it so simple. 3 nights there, then back to WDW.

We have a RCCL cruise planned in January. Booked it almost immediately after getting home. We *have to know* if we've become Disney cruise snobs/people, and this will help us figure that out. We have our Disney/Universal stay planned BEFORE that cruise. So we can see which way we like doing that, too.

 

[plumeriainseattle]

mnsshp? Sorry, what is that?

 

[Carolwoodpr]

mnsshp? Sorry, what is that?

Mickeys not so scary Halloween party.

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[plumeriainseattle]

Mickeys not so scary Halloween party.

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Thanks! I could not figure it out for the life of me!

 

[Carolwoodpr]

Thanks! I could not figure it out for the life of me!

Yeah, that is a tough one. Glad I could help.

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[TheRatPack]

We took DCL transportation but we have only the one kidlet; if we had (or ever have) your size of group we wouldn't consider it. Driving you'll get there way earlier.

Yea, with 5 children it's just not budget friendly to fly anywhere or to take the DCL Bus......although I always kind of thought buses were part of the trip cost since I see so many people using it, and the Airport Transport as well. Then when I read how much it was per person I thought WOW.....not for us LOL.