New Here

[rkandmjsmommy]

Hi everyone
We just got back from disneyworld on Tuesday and I have been crazy trying to plan our next trip

We had a GREAT time but it was way too hot, never again in August. I am graduating nursing school in May if all goes well and I want to do a big vacation for my 2 kids, Rachel will be 7 Matthew will be 4, and I am thinking a 4day land, 3 day sea package next Sept. I was so excited to see that If I book a cat 6 we can stay at the Poly/AKL/Beach club or Swan WOW a deluxe how exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

do you think the kids are too young for the cruise? Is 3 days enough on the boat, this will be the first cruise for the kids. I got a quote of about 4500.00 does this sound reasonable? I know soooooo much about Disney world but nothing about their cruise, any and all advice would be GREAT
Thanks

 

[Verandah Man]

Hi everyone
We just got back from disneyworld on Tuesday and I have been crazy trying to plan our next trip

We had a GREAT time but it was way too hot, never again in August. I am graduating nursing school in May if all goes well and I want to do a big vacation for my 2 kids, Rachel will be 7 Matthew will be 4, and I am thinking a 4day land, 3 day sea package next Sept. I was so excited to see that If I book a cat 6 we can stay at the Poly/AKL/Beach club or Swan WOW a deluxe how exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

do you think the kids are too young for the cruise? Is 3 days enough on the boat, this will be the first cruise for the kids. I got a quote of about 4500.00 does this sound reasonable? I know soooooo much about Disney world but nothing about their cruise, any and all advice would be GREAT
Thanks

Welcome to the world of DCL!!!

I haven't done the land/sea package myself, but I understand it is cheaper if you make two separate ressies, one for the cruise and one for WDW. I would make a suggestion however, that you might want to do a 4 day cruise and 3 day land, JMHO

 

[glindamood]

Welcome Denise! I did a land and sea package this past February (we did 4 day Wonder and 4 days in the park) and booked it myself seperately. Since you ahve a quote for it together it would be simple to see how it compares to booking yourself. I am sure that you will get other reposnses and suggestions.

 

[clh2]

I would also second the recomendation to look at the 4-day. A 3-day cruise wouldn't be enough time in my opinion.

On a 3-day ship leaves about 5:00 pm. Day 2 - you go to Naussan, Day 3 you are at Castaway Cay, and the next morning you are off the ship.

On a 4-day cruise, you get a day at sea. This is the fun day where you can enjoy the ship, have brunch at Palo, do the wine tasting, have fun with the characters etc. It is a wonderful day!

I also would take a look at booking the land and sea separately. That way you can have exactly the accomodations you are looking for on both the land and on the sea portions. (When we booked a land-sea, we also did them separately, doing the Swan/Dolphin and a cat 10 on the ship.) Plus, we got an excellent deal at the Swan.

 

[MelissaE1]

Welcome to the cruise board!

My kids were 4 and 8 on our first DCL and they loved it. They cried when we had to debark. I agree with the other posters recommending a 4 day cruise... the 3 day ones only give you two real days onboard. The extra day will make a big difference.

And once you go, get ready for a lifetime addiction!

 

[rkandmjsmommy]

Thanks for the advice of booking separately, I JUST started looking into that, I will also look into a 4 day crusie.

Here is a question, if I do land first, if we dont have a car how do we get to the port and then back to the airport? Any ideas?

thanks

 

[ImNarek]

Thanks for the advice of booking separately, I JUST started looking into that, I will also look into a 4 day crusie.

Here is a question, if I do land first, if we dont have a car how do we get to the port and then back to the airport? Any ideas?

thanks

You have several transportation options, you can rent a car to the port and then back to the aiport, you can take Disney shuttle transportation, or you can use a towncar service. The Disney Magical express is free from the airport to the Disney resorts if you do that first. When I travel, there's only my DH and I so we typically use the disney transfers - neither of us likes to drive and its cheaper than the towncar. But with more than two people, I think the towncar is likely the most economical. If you decide to rent a car, you can often get a better rate by doing two one-day rentals - one for the trip from the resort to the port, and one for the trip from port to airport. But the cost of transfers should be considered when you look at booking separately as opposed to the land/sea package where they are included. (or at least they were last time we did it - many years ago - we too book them separately).

cheers!

 

[kristen821]

I also would do at least 4 night cruise and if possible I would do wdw first and then the cruise. I did the cruise first last year and regretted it the whole time I was at WDW. I usually love wdw but after the cruise it just seemed like so much work. The cruise really spoils you! This time we are going to wdw then the cruise and I think we will enjoy wdw much more. Also, when you book seperately you can include the food at wdw in your price. If you book together unless it has changed you can't include the food in your price for the wdw portion of the trip. Last year we used Happy Limo, but I know there are other places you can go, for the most part I was happy with Happy Limo, except the last driver we had tried to refuse our 15 minute grocery stop, luckily my dh doesn't tolerate that kind of behavior and we stopped at 7 eleven near wdw. The driver said he had another pick-up, but we only needed a few minutes to get a case of beer for dh. My kids were 2.5 and 6.5 and loved every minute of the cruise, in fact my son said he only wanted to do the cruise this year, but I convinced him to do both. (I can't believe I have to convince the kid to go to wdw!)