Help us Decide!

[writersblock]

Really undecided and could do with some help from people who have more experience than us! Ideally we want to book this weekend.

History: No kids. We love Disney World and have been 4/5 times. We like deluxe resorts, we are foodies, we love animals. We love planning and we love long road trips but also trying to find ways to relax. Traveling from UK.

We have been on the Treasure last year and loved it. Favourite things: upper deck dining, Enchante, Bingo, sea days, Castaway, speciality coffee, the shows, quiet time on our verandah with books.

We didn’t like: rotational dining (quality of food), how small the bars were.

We are booked on the transatlantic this year with Disney Dream and hope that we like the food better (and if not, we will do more room service/top deck/paid for, so it’s clearly not the deal breaker).

We are looking ahead to 2027 (Jan to July period) and we want to make it one to remember as we may not be able to travel for a couple of years after. These are our narrowed down options:

1) Transatlantic again - DCL Wish. Paired with some WDW to start. Why? I think we will love the ship. Plus, sea days. And value for money. Cons: Will have already done a similar one this year.

2) Alaska & Canada. Plan would be Vancouver round trip cruise (unsure of cruise line - considering Princess for value and Glacier Bay and DCL seems so expensive for this - plus only 7 days, but we also know we will be comfortable with Disney - for those who chose Disney for Alaska, why?) paired with self-drive Canada for a week. Why? Totally different, spectacular scenery, nature. We’d like to see bears. Cons: cold (I run very cold usually), longer travel, expense, really unsure about cruise lines for this one.

3) Hawaii. Considering two options here. Either, a longer round cruise from California that stops off at multiple islands (Princess! We are aware of NCL inter-islands too), and pairing that with DisneyLand CA for a few days (never been). OR flying and doing it ourselves - Aulani for a few days then perhaps a couple of the other islands. Why? It looks stunningly beautiful, plus warmer, and it would be a ‘wow’ type holiday. Cons: the DIY version with Aulani seems really a lot of travel - from UK to USA mainland then Hawaii plus the flights between the islands. But we can’t do Aulani if we pick the cruise version. Gah! Also: expensive. Any advice?

4) WDW/Universal. Old faithful. We would do 2-3 weeks and really slow the pace down. Lots of nostalgia for us here and if we can’t travel for a couple of years it’s like a one last hoorah. Would resort hop and finally do some Epic (not huge universal fans but wanna do the new park just to see). Would involve lots of food. Why? We love it. Cons: expensive, already done it loads.

I think our problem here is we love so many things it’s hard to narrow them down. One of us is strongly leaning towards Alaska and that’s the one I am least leaning towards. We are also wary about cruising with other cruise lines which seems daft when I say it. We are not big party people.

Open to other options.

Thanks in advance!

 

[holula]

I would do Alaska, but with Disney. It’s hands down my favorite cruise. I’ve done it twice on Disney and always said I’d do another line for Glacier Bay but just end up with Disney (I booked a third time for this summer but the World Cup priced me out with hotel and flight prices.)

If you can get a May/early June sailing on Disney the rates are normally reasonable, still more expensive than other lines, but reasonable. My first cruise was May and the second was September, overall I preferred May as the mountains still were white capped and the weather was overall better. The only thing you don’t get in May is the salmon run. Vancouver is also a great city to explore for a few days pre cruise.