cruise in late Oct or wait til next April-spring break?

[shefor24]

Should we go on out first cruise ever on a Disney Cruise in late October- fall break, or should I wait until April for next Spring Break?? What is the better weather? I heard Oct may be rainy.

 

[iloverags2]

If you have the option for choice, and neither one is really preferable to you over the other, I would say go in April. October is still hurricane season which means even if there is no large storm, you still could run into some questionable weather. Wouldn't want to chance not docking at Castaway Cay, or having the itinerary change due to being re-routed because of weather related problems.
Hope this helps!

 

[kellyb2000]

I can't compare the two seasons, but our first cruise was in mid/late October 2000 and we had wonderful weather! There was no rain and plenty of sunshine all 4 days. We booked our next one for late September. There's just something about those fall prices!

 

[Bev J]

We went the week before halloween last year and had 4 days of wonderful weather, calm seas and really good prices. Not too many kids, plenty, but not overcrowded in the clubs. Spring break would probably have many kids and higher prices.
We don't worry about sailing during hurricane season-it could be a fun adventure to have a change in the island lineup.
We are going to try a 7 day next october, our kids have a week off during this time.

 

[Kimber1963]

Go in October--less crowds, cheaper fare. Then book again for April!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Firefighter Mickey]

There doesn't seem to be any significant difference in fares for fall vs. spring any longer. We had originally booked a cruise for mid-October 2002, but had to reschedule for end of March 2003, and the fare for March was only $30 higher than our original booking in October.

Generally it seems that DCL is moving toward early booking getting the better deals.

 

[Kimber1963]

Wow! You must have got some deal. When I price the same cruise in April 2003 that we are taking in late September 2002 (Western), the cost is $2500 more. I would say that is a significant difference.

 

[Firefighter Mickey]

Hmmm. Maybe it;s the time period. Spring break for our kids is the last week of March, but possibly the real spring season starts in April.

Getting back to the original question - we cruised in October of 2001, and found the weather to be fine. If the cost of the cruise starts to be a significant factor, then I'd go with the cheaper of the 2 time periods.

 

[tkd lisa]

Spring break prices seem to be tied to Easter. Our actual spring break was the the first two days of the 1st week of April (last week), but our kids have one day off the 2nd week of April (this week). When I was looking for prices, the difference between the 1st and 2nd week of April was almost 1/2! (i.e. for a family of 4, cat 11 it was about $6k for the 1st week of April and about $3k for the 2nd week).

I'd run your proposed dates through the pricing tool (or just call DCL direct) to figure out the price difference. I know that we just couldn't justify the spring break price, so we're taking the kids out of school for the inaugural Western.