Disney or Cruise?

[mikehn]

I'd be cruising outta Galveston or New Orleans. Making decisions like that would be so easy if I live in Texas.

 

[DisneyFansInLINY]

Go for the cruise!

 

[Dayton Flyer]

Never thought I'd enjoy a cruise, but my family went on one this past spring (my boys were 12 & 10 at the time), and it was awesome. The boys had a few things they could go off and do by themselves, and then we had plenty of family time on the beaches and in the ports. One of the ports wasn't so great, but that day we decided to just have the cruise ship pool all to ourselves.

+14 on cruising (since you've already been to WDW).

 

[mb_uh]

Thanks for the the help. I would love to do all three but since the costs of tickets are so high it makes sense me to do 2. DH wants US since we have never been. DCL is twice the cost of Carnival so for our first I would rather do a cheaper one first so we do not get too spoiled. I will probably do a resort DVC day after the cruise and maybe a character meal or other nonpark activity.

Our schedule is tight and based on available cruises I am thinking.

Day 1 drive
Day 2 Universal
Day 3 Universal
Day 4-8 cruise
Day 9 Universal
Day 10 DVC return.

Busy but that is how we roll

 

[sweetdana]

Thanks for the the help. I would love to do all three but since the costs of tickets are so high it makes sense me to do 2. DH wants US since we have never been. DCL is twice the cost of Carnival so for our first I would rather do a cheaper one first so we do not get too spoiled. I will probably do a resort DVC day after the cruise and maybe a character meal or other nonpark activity.

Our schedule is tight and based on available cruises I am thinking.

Day 1 drive
Day 2 Universal
Day 3 Universal
Day 4-8 cruise
Day 9 Universal
Day 10 DVC return.

Busy but that is how we roll

This looks perfect! If you stay at dvc last night you can say go to camp fire at fort w / or the poly luau or something at night and/or even watch wishes from Blt. Or pool hop to poly n watch from the beach or stop by the BW or DTD or for dinner.

I 'd stay last night on site at disney n do a mini golf/ pool/ breakfast/ shopping / dinner / fireworks/ and get enough love there

 

[kymom99]

I have never been on a Carnival cruise, but I am going to recommend Royal Caribbean. We took a 3 day cruise out of Port Canaveral last June and it was nice. I will say, it was PACKED with kids. (Our first cruise was in February 1996 and we hardly saw any kids at all.) Our 13 year old loved the cruise and met some nice kids his age that he ran around with. He also enjoyed trying all the different foods at dinner. Nassau is not a great stop unless you spend some money on an excursion. I would have been happy staying on the relatively quiet ship.

 

[dpswift]

Have fun. Universal is fun. The year we went to Universal I thought we would miss Disney but the kids loved it. This year we did 2 days at Disney and a Disney cruise(during kids sail free). My son had more fun on the cruise.

Carnival has a good program for kids.

 

[goofyintoronto]

Us too! Next year will be our first cruise! So excited! We might do one or two days of parks before the cruise, but not more than that.

Jumping on the cruise band wagon also.

We're taking our first cruise instead of Disney also next year. Absolutely can't wait!!

I vote for cruise!

 

[LynnTH]

I too vote for the cruise. I have 2 kids - DS14 and DD12. We have been alternating Disney and Cruises for the past 6 years or so. Kids have been on 2 Carnival Cruises and last year we went on the RCCL Allure of the Seas. They both wanted to go back to Carnival. Have our next cruise booked for beginning of June.

I think the 3 cruise lines (carnival, RCCL an NCL are more alike than different). Your kids are good ages for cruising. My kids are pretty much Disneyed out at this point (as am I) so I think cruising will be our vacation of choice for a while.

Since you are only doing a 3-4 day cruise you won't be going anywhere except maybe the Bahamas. You may go to one of their private islands - those are alot of fun. I would look to see if by chance there are any 5 day cruises for when you are looking at going. You are going to soon realize that 3-4 days is not long enough and won't want to get off the ship.