Do you or your kids miss the rides?

[MissDaisyofTexas]

We are booked on our very first cruise in June 2012. Our kids don't know yet. My oldest son has been to Disney World twice, our middle son once, and their favorite thing about it was the rides. Not the shows or the characters, although they enjoyed those as well.

When you go on your cruise, do you miss the WDW rides? Or do you always spend a few days at the parks before or after? We were not planning on doing this, except for maybe 1 day before our cruise to go to Star Wars Weekend (but probably won't make it on many rides that day).

Is the cruise so awesome that you don't even think about the rides?

 

[CherylSue]

We just got back from our very first cruise with our DD13. We are theme park people also, who love riding the rides. My DD is a coaster junkie and loves all the rides at WDW or Universal/IOA.

We LOVED the cruise. I was afraid, and almost canceled before our PIF date because I was worried there wouldn't be enough for our teenager to do......man was I ever wrong! We barely saw her! She joined us for dinner every night and she would stop by the room throughout the day and leave us a note as to her where she was going to be....she had such a great time she's dying to go on another!

If you decide to do a park with the cruise I would suggest going to the park before the cruise.......I was sooooooo tired from all the activities that I could barely walk! I don't think I could have done a park after that cruise!

 

[aidtrismommy]

My kids never asked about rides and I don't miss them at all. We go to Disney every year (sometimes 2x). It is a totally different kind of vacation. The shows are awesome, the character meets are nice since we don't do a lot of that at the parks, and just being on a ship is like a ride! To make the vacation a little longer and different, we spend a couple days on Cocoa Beach before the cruise and this year we are doing Kennedy Space Ctr for the day. It is just a different type of vacation for us and it doesn't feel like we are missing anything. Maybe people who don't go to the parks as often feel differently.

 

[SnowWhite2]

My DDs have been cruising since they were 7 and 9. They are now 14 and 16 and still feel that DCL is the very best vacation. Hands down over the parks or any other vacation.

 

[KSDisneyDad]

Great question!

We too thought that we'd miss the rides at WDW. Five cruises later, we still can't decide which vacation is better so we just keep doing both! In 2011, we are doing a WDW vacation and in 2012, we are back on DCL!

For three of our five trips, we added a day at the parks immediately before the trip. Our boys love Star Wars Weekends, so that would be a must for us too if we were in the area. But really, that one day is all we need for a DCL vacation, if at all. This past year, we didn't visit the parks at all prior to our Spring Break cruise and the boys didn't complain a bit. But they knew that they'd be back the following year!

 

[Mamiamjo]

We are definitely ride people also. Nothing says Disney to us like the rides in the parks.
That's why we always add some park time either before or after the cruise

 

[cookie99]

Our first cruise was a week long and then we did Disney for five days. My kids talk about the cruise all the time but the parks not as much. In February we're going on The Dream and I gave them the option of doing two back to back cruises to make up seven days or going on a four day cruise and then spending three days at the parks. Both immediately choose to just do back to back cruises! They love rides but they LOVE the cruise!

 

[llnolte]

We are definitely a family that loves to go on the rides. We love the Disney parks. I too was worried that there would not be enough to do on the cruise and that my girls (14 and 11) would miss going on the rides. But they absolutely loved our first cruise in October. We hardly saw them on sea days and at night. We all went to the show and dinner together and then the girls were off. They made so many new friends and had so much fun in their clubs with all the activities. The girls actually stayed out later than we did! When we were planning our next vacation, we asked them what they would rather do if they could only pick one: parks or a cruise. The cruise was the unanimous choice for all of us.

 

[simbasmom2]

You won't miss the rides at all! So much to do. You can make it as busy or as relaxing of a vacation as you want. You can always sign up for "high activity" excursions if they like the thrills.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

We were worried our 1st Disney cruise too, wondering how we could stand to pass through MCO and know we're not going to WDW.
Now 5 Disney cruises later, the parks feel like work compared to cruising. I still can't get enough cruising but now prefer the parks only in small doses: long weekends vs our old 10 night trips.

Last March we did a quickie 3 nt winter escape cruise and spent the day prior at MK. It was nice but every now & then while waiting in lines I'd remember the next day we'd be getting on the ship and get excited.

 

[DisneyDream2B]

We're combining with 4 days at WDW - so rides will be included.