Halloween or Christmas 2023, or both??

[AJ1983]

Hey everyone! We just got home a week ago from our wonderful 3 week vacation in Orlando, and I am already trying to plan our next Disney vacation

We decided to go in the fall of 2023, doing a 7 night Disney cruise and 7-10 nights at Pop Century either before or after the cruise.

Just wondering if we should do a Halloween cruise in October or a Christmas cruise in November, or a non themed cruise from Nov 4-11. Truthfully, flight schedules/prices will likely determine which cruise we take, amd as this is our first cruise we qomt be heartbroken if we cant do a themed sailing.

Also wondering if we should try to do our parks portion during the Halloween or Christmas season, or if there is a sweet spot of about 7-10 days that we could experience both?

Any suggestions welcome and appreciated!

 

[CynBeth]

I would do holiday season Thanksgiving or later to be able to experience the decorations at the parks and resorts and at Epcot the storytellers and CP. The holiday party starts earlier in November but not all of the resorts are decorated usually they are up by a few days before Thanksgiving and the things I mentioned at Epcot do not begin until Black Friday.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Hey everyone! We just got home a week ago from our wonderful 3 week vacation in Orlando, and I am already trying to plan our next Disney vacation

We decided to go in the fall of 2023, doing a 7 night Disney cruise and 7-10 nights at Pop Century either before or after the cruise.

Just wondering if we should do a Halloween cruise in October or a Christmas cruise in November, or a non themed cruise from Nov 4-11. Truthfully, flight schedules/prices will likely determine which cruise we take, amd as this is our first cruise we qomt be heartbroken if we cant do a themed sailing.

Also wondering if we should try to do our parks portion during the Halloween or Christmas season, or if there is a sweet spot of about 7-10 days that we could experience both?

Any suggestions welcome and appreciated!

I'm a vote for Christmas for the parks and a non themed Dis cruise on Nov 4-11 but I'm also not a big fan of Halloween time. Just doesn't excite me. If your cruise is Nov 4-11, I'd do the parks post cruise to help hit a crowds sweet spot. We've been to Disney the weeks before Thanksgiving and it's a quieter time, now I know Jersey week can fluctuate some and cause some crowd impact but they're usually closer to the time when you would be on your cruise so I think you'd miss it next year. We've had great trips between Nov. 13-19 over the years. Experienced cooler temps, a lot of Christmas decor, not as crazy crowds, we loved it.

Now it could be a bit chilly if you sail out of port Canaveral so do keep that in mind as it's not as humid as the warmer months so you may not be swimming as much as you think. Those deck breezes are intense even when it's not that chilly out. If you decide to do the parks in advance of a cruise, whatever dates you decide, just watch out for Jersey week and halloween, crowds will peak around those dates. Usually right around Nov 1 is when Christmas will start going up in parks. Some resorts won't be fully decked out until around the second full week of November. All in all though, the switch from fall decor to Christmas at the parks does happen pretty quick especially at MK.