where would you stay? We will be arriving late on a Friday, and leaving Saturday for a
Disney Cruise. Any place that would be especially fun to do some morning exploring?
We have stayed CBR, WL, POFQ, BCV, AKL - and would not repeat a resort. Of what's left, where would you spend one night?
We did this last August, so in addition to sharing where we would stay, I'll share where we did! BWI CL, and it was perfect for this situation. (Although we stayed two nights with Typhoon Lagoon in between.)
But here's what we loved about the night before the cruise and the morning of the cruise:
1) Location! There is so much to do around the Crescent Lake area (you know this, because you've stayed at BCV.) We loved the ability to walk around and visit multiple resorts. It's like five resorts in one!
2) Dining. No park tickets, but tons of dining options - again, because of the 5-in-one feature of the Epcot resorts area. We ate at Il Mulino and Flying Fish those two nights, and Yachtsman when we returned to BC post-cruise.
3) Disney immersion. At first, I booked a hotel near the port for the couple nights before our cruise, but then I changed our plans and switched our reservation to BWI. I'm so glad we did! Hopping on Magical Express to BWI, and then taking the
DCL transfers from BWI to the port was convenient and fun. (Not the least expensive option, and didn't get us to the port early, but it worked out perfectly for us.) We had time for swimming, shopping and an early lunch at Beaches & Cream before the DCL bus picked us up at BWI. And then the port was entirely uncrowded when we arrived - walked right onto the Dream and straight to our room.
4) Pool. Fun pool and slide at BWI. I prefer SAB (and we stayed at BC after the cruise, so we used SAB then, but for a short trip, the BWI pool is fun.)
5) View of the Parks. We chose the Epcot resorts area very purposefully. Our boys love Epcot, and we could see Illuminations from the club lounge and Wishes from our BWI balcony. But we rarely had a direct view of the Epcot ball, which was good under these circumstances! We specifically decided against a stay in the MK area, because it would be hard for our three boys (ages 12, 11 and 5) to be looking at the castle knowing that they can't go to MK. Of course, they were very lucky to be going on a cruise and have been to WDW many times, but for kids - well, they just didn't want that in front of them. And I get that!
Good luck with your decision!
For 2 adults/2 kids, it's about $600 for a 1 night package at a value, including regular dining and 1 day basic park tickets, so I think we're going to do that. We just have to decide on which value! We've never done a value so I'm not sure whether I want to do Pop or All Star Movies.
