Opinions on the optimal number of park days & before/after preference

[Mrspeaks]

In your opinion, what are the optimal number of park days to add on to a 5 night cruise?

Also, do you prefer before or after your cruise?

We are taking a 5 day double dip cruise in June. I want to add on some park days and I'm thinking of adding on the front in of the cruise. Traveling with dh and dds 5 and 3. Not our first cruise and we will have been to Disney in September. I think we might drive this trip. My initial thoughts are 3 nights and two days at the park.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Which 2 parks are you doing or are you getting park hoppers? If you're thinking MK and AK and it's your second trip in the year, then that would be okay, especially since you won't have to stand in a lot of M&G lines, since you'll see the princesses, etc. on the ship. But remember, even though it costs more for extra hotel nights, the more park days you purchase, the cheaper they get.

 

[WiscMomof2]

We did 2 days beforehand this past cruise and it was great. When we went to the parks after a cruise we felt it was too busy. I like ending vacation in relaxation mode.

 

[ILoveMyKellen]

Our next trip is coming up at the end of next month. We have a 9 night WDW, 7 night cruise, and 1 night WDW.

This is longer than what we would normally do but we typically do the parks first for 4 or 5 days and then the cruise. More relaxing for us to do it this way.

 

[RedStars]

2 full park days before cruise would be my preference

 

[com_op_2000]

We have taken 8 DCLs.
We normally do 2 - 3 nights before and then up to 5 nights after.
Next cruise we are doing 3 nights after the cruise and nothing before.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I have done, before, after, and both before and after.
I would say priority to me is having park days after so that we have something to look forward to when leaving the ship. I have a really hard time leaving the ship, however it is easier to leave wdw because so many people are self centered these days making the parks less appealing.
We do make sure to go down the night before and stay at the hyatt if we don't have pre cruise park days.

 

[DCLDVC1]

We like to do 3-4 days at WDW before the cruise. We've done WDW before and after DCL and prefer going to WDW before the cruise. The cruise is so much more relaxing for us than WDW that we like to end our vacation stress free. It's nice getting off the ship, getting on the plane and heading home instead of going to the parks and having to fight the crowds.