Help Me Decide Please!!

[JulienK]

Hello All. I find myself back here after many attempts at planning a family vacation. We have 2 adults and one teen, 14 DS and one 9 y/o DD. It's so difficult to find a vacation that both kids will enjoy. They do however both like the idea of a Disney cruise. We have visited "the World" a few years ago and loved it. But due to school constraints we are now limited to summer vacations only and the parks would be too crowded and hot for us. So now my first decision is which cruise? The eastern Carribbean or western? And which month would be best - end of June or any part of July? August would not be good due to registering for classes. I tried to search for this topic, but so many responses and not enough computer time to go through all of them! So if anyone could share their preferences on this, I would be so very grateful! Thanks in advance!

Julie

 

[tchoney]

Hello All. I find myself back here after many attempts at planning a family vacation. We have 2 adults and one teen, 14 DS and one 9 y/o DD. It's so difficult to find a vacation that both kids will enjoy. They do however both like the idea of a Disney cruise. We have visited "the World" a few years ago and loved it. But due to school constraints we are now limited to summer vacations only and the parks would be too crowded and hot for us. So now my first decision is which cruise? The eastern Carribbean or western? And which month would be best - end of June or any part of July? August would not be good due to registering for classes. I tried to search for this topic, but so many responses and not enough computer time to go through all of them! So if anyone could share their preferences on this, I would be so very grateful! Thanks in advance!

Julie

First of all, if you are planning for this summer, DCL will be in California so there isn't an eastern or western for 7 nights. You could, however, do a 4 night, which has a couple different iteneraries based on your date. When we did our 4 night, we went to Nassau, Freeport, Castaway Cay and didn't get any days at sea. I wouldn't recommend that! It was sooooo busy, we didn't get to enjoy it as much as we would have if we had an extra day at sea. Now I think they go to Nassau, Castaway Cay and a day at sea... I would say also that early June would be better as far as crowd controll. Because some schools are just starting to get out for the summer in early June. Once you get to Mid-June/July - CRAZY! But its all in what you prefer.

Whatever you decide - enjoy the planning and look forward to a fantastic vacation!!!

 

[LissafromSJ]

My advice would be to go on the Disney Cruise Line website and order the DVD - we just got ours and it's chock full of info that would definitely be of help to you in deciding. Even after reading the Passporter Guide (another great thing to help you) and reading these boards, I still learned a lot. After researching which ports your family would like best, then you'll have that part answered. As far as when to go, well, I think June would be my preference but all of summer is part of hurricane season, so it really depends on your family's scheduling.
I wish we could cruise summer - we're going in November because of our business schedule, but if it were me, I'd go in June. Whatever you choose, have fun planning it - that's half the fun for me! Melissa

 

[HooKooDooKu]

Here's how I answer the basic Eastern vs Western question.

If you've never done either, then do the one that is cheaper. If you've done one, do the one you haven't.

 

[jrabbit]

If your kids are pretty active - I would lean to the western because of the 4 days in port.

I like the eastern better because St. Maarten and St. Thomas are more interesting islands (High lush hills vs. flat "Gilligans Island" type) and I enjoy the sea days and on St Thomas we go over to St. Johns - absolutly beautiful!!

 

[ll_california]

Have you thought about the first week of winter break? We visited WDW and cruised twice during the winter break (before the Christmas holiday). The parks were not so crowded and the cruise price were relatively cheap.

 

[JulienK]

Thank you all for the great info! I like the idea of going during Christmas break. At the risk of sounding looney...i watched a talk show that had that psychic Sylvia or some such name and she predicted there will be even worse weather this year than last...so I was thinking of avoiding the regular stormy season! Can't be too careful when your spending all that money on a vacation! So Christmas break should be safe, huh?