Land-Sea-Land Park Planning

[TikiRob]

We will be going on our first cruise (DCL or otherwise) at the end of March. It will be me, DW, DD18, and DD13. We are flying down early before and flying back later after. Originally didn't plan for park days, but we can never go to the resorts and not go to the parks! The hangup I'm having is for our Animal Kingdom day. Not sure if we go before the cruise and have a full day or save it for our departure day. I tend to have a problem being idle and I worry about the checkout day without plans, but also know my family will be tired after the After Hours event. Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Fri – Arrive at Old Key West around noon (resort/Disney Springs day)
Sat – Magic Kingdom
Sun – Animal Kingdom or resort day
Mon – Disney Wish cruise
Tue – Disney Wish cruise
Wed – Disney Wish cruise
Thur – Disney Wish cruise
Fri – Arrive at Animal Kingdom Lodge (resort/Disney Springs day)
Sat – EPCOT (with my parents)
Sun – Resort day with Hollywood Studios After Hours 7p-12:30a
Mon – Animal Kingdom or resort day (check out is at 11am... and a very late 10:00p flight home)

 

[coasternut22]

I don’t know if you have an AP or plan on buying a ticket. You have 4 park days. A 4 day ticket expires seven days after first use. If you buy a 4 day ticket and use it first on Saturday, it would expire on Sunday (I think). You wouldn’t be able to use it on your departure Monday. I’m even questioning whether you can use it for your Epcot day.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/en_CA/index.php/faq/tickets/ticket-dates/

 

[LarryGadget]

Love this post! We have a trip planned in December that is very similar. We’ve got 2 days at Contemporary and parks, then a 4 day Wish cruise, capped off by 4 days at Wilderness Lodge. So far, we are planning MK and HS before the cruise and then Epcot, AK, HS & MK to close it out.

To your question, have you thought of a park day on the day you debark? Instead of Disney Springs you could walk off the ship as early as you can, Uber to AKL to drop off bags, and then go to Animal Kingdom that first day off the ship? If you get Genie plus you could have a couple or 3 rides waiting for you since you will be arriving after rope drop. You could save Disney Springs for that last travel day before heading home?

 

[lanejudy]

A 4 day ticket expires seven days after first use.

Close. A 4-day ticket is valid for a total of 7 calendar days from the designated start date. Assuming a start date of Saturday, it will expire (last use) on Friday.

Unless purchased through DCL.

 

[TikiRob]

I don’t know if you have an AP or plan on buying a ticket. You have 4 park days. A 4 day ticket expires seven days after first use. If you buy a 4 day ticket and use it first on Saturday, it would expire on Sunday (I think). You wouldn’t be able to use it on your departure Monday. I’m even questioning whether you can use it for your Epcot day.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/en_CA/index.php/faq/tickets/ticket-dates/

Yes, unfortunately we currently have two one-day tickets for MK and EPCOT and After Hours tickets to Hollywood Studios. We would be turning one of the one-day into a two-day.

 

[TikiRob]

Love this post! We have a trip planned in December that is very similar. We’ve got 2 days at Contemporary and parks, then a 4 day Wish cruise, capped off by 4 days at Wilderness Lodge. So far, we are planning MK and HS before the cruise and then Epcot, AK, HS & MK to close it out.

To your question, have you thought of a park day on the day you debark? Instead of Disney Springs you could walk off the ship as early as you can, Uber to AKL to drop off bags, and then go to Animal Kingdom that first day off the ship? If you get Genie plus you could have a couple or 3 rides waiting for you since you will be arriving after rope drop. You could save Disney Springs for that last travel day before heading home?

We are spending time after debarkation with our cruising crew (my parents) who don't want to go to AK. So we are trying to shoehorn this final park right before the cruise or after. I think we are leaning on doing AK before on the Sunday and just relax at the pool after checkout and do a 5:00pm dinner before heading to the airport.

 

[sponica]

I would do AK before the cruise, it's a lower key park. Plus a resort day before a cruise seems counterintuitive to me. A cruise IS a floating resort.

 

[ajsamett]

I wouldn't do AK after an after hours party because AK is a park you want to get to early in the morning and you probably won't get back to the hotel until at least 1am

 

[ComeToSocialize]

I would definitely go before your cruise. There’s no advantage to doing AK while staying at AKL (you still have to take a bus) and in fact it can be a lot of animals at once! I haven’t stayed at Old Key West, but AKL is a great resort for a resort day, I think likely more fun than OKW.

Also, doing a resort day on your second full day seems a bit early for a resort day. As someone else noted, the cruise is very much a resort day every day! I always am more exhausted at the end of a trip, so saving relaxation/sleep in days for the end makes sense to me.

The one thing I would note, and you probably know already, is that debarkation is usually pretty early and easy (relative to embarkation) so you’ll have a pretty full day at AKL. You’ll basically have 4 full days after your cruise (including debarkation, Epcot day, after hours day, departure day). That’s only 1.5 park days in 4 days. I might think about adding another park day on your departure day just to take more advantage of your post-cruise period.

 

[TikiRob]

The one thing I would note, and you probably know already, is that debarkation is usually pretty early and easy (relative to embarkation) so you’ll have a pretty full day at AKL. You’ll basically have 4 full days after your cruise (including debarkation, Epcot day, after hours day, departure day). That’s only 1.5 park days in 4 days. I might think about adding another park day on your departure day just to take more advantage of your post-cruise period.

I get that and that is part of the reason I was considering AKL on our final day. If we decide to do AKL before the cruise I'd be upgrading a 1-day to a 2-day and if I wanted to do another park day after the cruise, I'd have to turn another 1-day into a 2-day.