Just Back from 17 days of Disney

[LorraineinTO]

We are just back this afternoon from the June 8 Western cruise and another week at the parks. We had a fabulous time despite the weather and I will be posting a trip report shortly. This was our third cruise, so we have done the 3 day, 4 day and 7 day now. Any questions from anyone about the Western or the Magic?
Cheers.
Lorraine

 

[DisneyCruiseluvr]

Hi!

Did you do any excursions? If so, which ones and what did you think of them? I'm dying to hear people's opinions/experiences on the Western excursions!

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Happy Birthday Cat]

Did you do the park or the cruise first? Did you like the order that you did it in? We are planning the same type of trip for a year from now.

HBC

 

[saturday97]

We are also planning to do the 7 day Magic and several days (possibly a full week) at the park next April-- did you stay at more than one resort? Was 17 days too much? I am also anxious to hear about the excursions and anything fun that we shouldn't miss!!

 

[LorraineinTO]

Thanks for your questions - I found out so much from these boards when planning our trip - I'm happy to answer yours!

DisneyCruiseluvr - we did not do any of the Disney excursions - but we did book Stringray City with Captain Marvin's for Grand Cayman and we went to Chanakaab Park in Cozumel. Sadly, because of the weather Stingray City was cancelled and while we thought Chanakaab was a great park for snorkelling - it rained most of the day there too. However, we had a great time under a thatched umbrella just enjoying being outside - it was warm afterall. It turns out that we were grateful that Captain Marvin cancelled - the Disney excursion that went out ahead of us ended up washed up on a sand bar with the snorklers being gradually washed out to sea! Several other boats had to come by and pick them up. We heard about this on the ship and actually travelled back to the Avis rental office in the shuttle with one of the families involved. So - small mercies!

Happy Birthday Cat - we did the cruise first and then tackled the parks. This cruise was a graduation present for me (I just completed my MBA while working full time) and I needed the week to recharge my batteries before hitting WDW. Besides, it was not nearly so difficult getting off the ship knowing that we had another full vacation ahead of us. We planned our park days carefully to avoid losing all the relaxing benefit of a cruise - and the weather slowed us down a little. We spent Saturday checking into our time share (Vistana Resort - just a mile from WDW), enjoying the pool and getting groceries, unpacking etc. Then we did 1 park day then one waterpark day, alternating until our week was over. Even spending 8 days further at Disney we did not get to do everything we would have liked. The place is so massive that even with 2 able-bodied adults and lots of advance planning, we missed things. Oh well - a reason to return next year!

Saturday97 - As I mentioned above, we stayed off-site. If we were staying on site - I would still stay in 1 spot. We travel with a lot of luggage (cruise demands - tux, blazer, gowns, day dresses, shoes, etc - and park demands - lots of extra changes of dry clothing!). I would hate to have to pack up and move more than I had to. That was one of the reasons that we used our time share for this holiday - all the comforts of home! 17 days was not too much time - I could easily have spent several more days, particularly with the weather being so bad. Having said that - there is a limit to the amount of time we can spend listening to miserable children and misbehaving adults. You have to expect that at Disney but it does get on your nerves after a little while. However, I would gladly have spent more days.

Hope these answers help - let me know if you have any more questions.
Cheers,
Lorraine

 

[juniorbugman]

Have asked this before but have received no answers, so here I go again. As you leave port how far ofshore do you go before heading south, can you see the lights of Florida as you cruise down, lets say from your starboardside veranda, or topsides. Thanks J.P.

 

[LorraineinTO]

juniorbugman - as I recall, I did look out of our veranda that first night and you could see the lights from the coast in the distance. Of course, our first port was Key West, so we were pretty much hugging the coast line.
Hope this helps,
Lorraine

 

[vstitt]

Hi Lorainne,

Sorry I missed you on the ship. I'm glad you had a great time on the cruise. This was our very first cruise. We spent a lot of time at the Mickey pool with our DD5 and playing ping pong with our DS8. My daughter loved all the character meeting opportunties and our son loved pin collecting and the video games room. It was unfortunate that we had such abnormally bad weather which cancelled most of our on-shore plans. Who would have thought!

I have a mixed opinion on the cruise and will be writing up a trip report shortly.

VS

 

[saturday97]

Thanks for the info-- I definately think moving all of the luggage around is not worth the time and effort, even though it might be fun to experience more than one resort. I'll be looking into staying offsite as well-- I may need all of those "comforts of home" after a long day at the parks!!