Parks before/after cruise?

[chik1987]

We are going on a 4 day Dream cruise October 2 2017. I have 2 kiddos who will be 10 and 12 who have never been to Disney. I wanted to maybe try to get in a park or 2 the weekend before or after the cruise. Its been over 10 years since I've been to disney and that was a highschool trip so I did 0 planning for it.

I know we won't get to see and do *everything* in just a day or 2. We were thinking of doing Universal the Sunday before we leave, Kennedy Space Center the Friday we get back to port, and Magic Kingdom Saturday.

I've been starting to do some research on the parks but if anyone would want to give me advice or point me in a direction I would appreciate it.

 

[jode246]

Check those parks' schedules so you know for certain that any shows/attractions you definitely want to see are taking place that day. Set up fastpasses for the rides you do not want to miss out on. Since you'll only have a day at each park, I wouldn't try to do a big meal at the park, plan for quick service to take up less time. Eat all your big meals on the boat - it's already paid for

We did a 3 night cruise in February and tacked on a day at Legoland before and a day at MK after. We were able to see/do all we wanted to. It's was Presidents' Weekend so pretty busy; in October you won't see the lines nearly as long.

 

[LSUfan4444]

We're doing the same thing next May.

Flying in Friday night and will stay at Bay Lake or Polynesian using DME to get from MCO to the resort. Hit the parks pretty hard on Saturday and Sunday then use Disney transfers to get from the resort to Port Canaveral. After disembarking on Friday we will rent a car and carry our bags off and his a park Friday afternoon and again on Sunday and return the rental car at MCO on Sunday when we fly out.

Success will be determined by how "easy" we take it on the cruise. 2 full park days is alot and although you want to take advantage of alot of what the ship has to offer, I would think in terms of quality on the boat and quantity in the parks.

 

[chik1987]

Check those parks' schedules so you know for certain that any shows/attractions you definitely want to see are taking place that day. Set up fastpasses for the rides you do not want to miss out on. Since you'll only have a day at each park, I wouldn't try to do a big meal at the park, plan for quick service to take up less time. Eat all your big meals on the boat - it's already paid for

We did a 3 night cruise in February and tacked on a day at Legoland before and a day at MK after. We were able to see/do all we wanted to. It's was Presidents' Weekend so pretty busy; in October you won't see the lines nearly as long.

Thanks! Yea all my kids really want to do is go to Harry Potter at Universal lol. I think they will enjoy MK a lot too. I'm hoping for shorter lines in October as well. Did you stay at a Disney hotel for MK? We want to stay at Universal before (since you get earlier access to the parks) but I really had my heart set on staying at the beach the night before the cruise which we would have to do 2 nights at Universal because we have to have somewhere to store bags while we are at the park. IDK I guess its take a little give a little.

 

[chik1987]

We're doing the same thing next May.

Flying in Friday night and will stay at Bay Lake or Polynesian using DME to get from MCO to the resort. Hit the parks pretty hard on Saturday and Sunday then use Disney transfers to get from the resort to Port Canaveral. After disembarking on Friday we will rent a car and carry our bags off and his a park Friday afternoon and again on Sunday and return the rental car at MCO on Sunday when we fly out.

Success will be determined by how "easy" we take it on the cruise. 2 full park days is alot and although you want to take advantage of alot of what the ship has to offer, I would think in terms of quality on the boat and quantity in the parks.

Sounds like you got it all figured out

 

[hoffman1]

If you have a choice, I would do the parks before.
It is a bit of a transition if you go from the laid back feel of the cruise to a full couple of days at parks. We always come home exhausted when we do the parks after a cruise.

 

[The Sasquatch]

I am actually on your cruise...18 of us!

We will do a couple days before at Universal and a couple afterward at WDW. Most will say to cruise second which I agree for the most part but we just did a 3 night Dream followed by 5 at WDW and had one of the best trips ever. Its hard to squeeze parks in on the same day you have to fly out, I would avoid that.

 

[anricat]

We did something similar for our first cruise (except for the pre-cruise part). After getting off the ship, we made for Port Orleans Riverside, dumped our bags and spent the rest of the day at Epcot. It wasn't quite enough time there (due in part to a torrential downpour that stranded us in the pastry shop in France - could have been worse), but we still had a great day. The next day we did a whirlwind of our top picks at Magic Kingdom. Again, not enough time for the park, but we got to hit all the high points.

I would just make a list of all your top rides so you can have a solid touring plan to maximize your time at Magic Kingdom.

 

[chik1987]

If you have a choice, I would do the parks before.
It is a bit of a transition if you go from the laid back feel of the cruise to a full couple of days at parks. We always come home exhausted when we do the parks after a cruise.

We are trying to get in as much as we can without having to keep the kids out of school any longer which is why we are trying to squeeze in a couple parks over the weekends. If we could take a whole other week off to do parks before I so would lol.

 

[chik1987]

I am actually on your cruise...18 of us!

We will do a couple days before at Universal and a couple afterward at WDW. Most will say to cruise second which I agree for the most part but we just did a 3 night Dream followed by 5 at WDW and had one of the best trips ever. Its hard to squeeze parks in on the same day you have to fly out, I would avoid that.

Woohoo I haven't seen anyone on my cruise yet thats exciting. We are auctually getting married on Nassau day so we will have probably 15-20 people there with us as well. Planning a disney vacation on top of a wedding seemed like such a good idea at the time lol. Yea we aren't going to do any parks when we fly out on Sunday. I don't fly well and need all the mental prep time I can to convince myself to get on the plane.

 

[chik1987]

We did something similar for our first cruise (except for the pre-cruise part). After getting off the ship, we made for Port Orleans Riverside, dumped our bags and spent the rest of the day at Epcot. It wasn't quite enough time there (due in part to a torrential downpour that stranded us in the pastry shop in France - could have been worse), but we still had a great day. The next day we did a whirlwind of our top picks at Magic Kingdom. Again, not enough time for the park, but we got to hit all the high points.

I would just make a list of all your top rides so you can have a solid touring plan to maximize your time at Magic Kingdom.

Yea I planned on really getting in what we wanted with the fast passes to make sure we at least got on those and whatever else we get in is just icing on the cake No idea how the kids will even do on some of the more extreme rides yet. Their first experience with a "real" amusement park will be this summer so we will see how it goes.

 

[jode246]

Thanks! Yea all my kids really want to do is go to Harry Potter at Universal lol. I think they will enjoy MK a lot too. I'm hoping for shorter lines in October as well. Did you stay at a Disney hotel for MK? We want to stay at Universal before (since you get earlier access to the parks) but I really had my heart set on staying at the beach the night before the cruise which we would have to do 2 nights at Universal because we have to have somewhere to store bags while we are at the park. IDK I guess its take a little give a little.

We did not stay at a Disney hotel. We used reward points to stay for free at a couple different Marriotts. We rented a car for the duration of our trip so we kept our luggage in there while at the parks and in between hotels.

 

[chik1987]

We did not stay at a Disney hotel. We used reward points to stay for free at a couple different Marriotts. We rented a car for the duration of our trip so we kept our luggage in there while at the parks and in between hotels.

Ok thanks. Ive been looking into the cost difference of doing that as well!

 

[FigmentSpark]

Can I point you to another website? Check out Touring Plans. If you buy their yearly subscription, one of the features is access to all their premade touring plans. But you can also make your own. It gives you estimated times for how long it will take you in lines, or to walk or for the ride itself. There's a WDW subscription and you can add on a Universal one, too and make up a plan for that. Remember, with WDW, if you're staying at one of their hotels, you can make Fastpass reservations 60 days ahead of schedule (recommended for some of the headliners) and if you're not staying on property, make your Fastpasses 30 days in advance.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Oh, I forgot, if you're going to Universal, consider staying at one of their (3 premiere) hotels for one night, as you'll get front of the line access to most lines (not Harry Potter). If you don't stay there, you can still buy this perk, if you want. Their website has all the details.

 

[TeaBee]

Thanks! Yea all my kids really want to do is go to Harry Potter at Universal lol. I think they will enjoy MK a lot too. I'm hoping for shorter lines in October as well. Did you stay at a Disney hotel for MK? We want to stay at Universal before (since you get earlier access to the parks) but I really had my heart set on staying at the beach the night before the cruise which we would have to do 2 nights at Universal because we have to have somewhere to store bags while we are at the park. IDK I guess its take a little give a little.

You can store your bags with the bell hops while you're at the park. Just check out in the morning, give them your bags and they'll give you claim checks. Then you can spend the day in the park, retrieve your bags and head to the beach that evening. We stayed at Hard Rock and did a park day before heading out for an evening flight. The bag check was easy peasy on that last day.

 

[chik1987]

You can store your bags with the bell hops while you're at the park. Just check out in the morning, give them your bags and they'll give you claim checks. Then you can spend the day in the park, retrieve your bags and head to the beach that evening. We stayed at Hard Rock and did a park day before heading out for an evening flight. The bag check was easy peasy on that last day.

Oh ok thats awesome I didn't know that. We are traveling with others who have never seen the ocean so I thought it would be neat to spend the evening before and the morning we leave for the cruise on the beach . Ill have to look into this thanks!

 

[Masonmj84]

We did a night at the Poly and a night at AKL before and after our Eastern Caribbean cruise on the fantasy this past April.

We bought a one day ticket with water parks, which allows for two water park entries.

We went to MK on the day before the cruise and then to each of the water parks on consecutive days after the cruise.

We flew a red eye into Orlando the Friday before the cruise so as to maximize our park time. I don't know if I'd ever do that again because none of us sleep well on planes and we were all pretty tired when we arrived (Magical Express was a ghost town). But once we arrived at the Poly, our Disney adrenalin started to build and we had a good day at MK (while having breakfast at the Poly, someone gave us two FPs that could be used anytime and anywhere, so that in combination with our 3 reserved FPs allowed us to do a lot).

Before going into the park, we checked our bags with bell services as our room wasn't ready (we later received a text, while in the park, that our room was ready).

We had dinner at 'Ohana at 5:30 after which the plan was to watch Wishes from the beach. But we were all so tired from not getting much sleep the night before that we were all out before 8 pm. After about 12 hours of sleep, we had a late breakfast at Kona, then took the Disney bus to the port.

After the cruise, the bus to AKL didn't leave until about 9 am and we arrived at AKL between 10:30 and 11 (we again had to check our bags with bell services as our room wasn't ready). We then went to Typhoon Lagoon and had dinner that night at Boma. Our flight the home the next day wasn't scheduled to leave until 6 pm, so after breakfast at Boma, we went to Blizzard Beach and then got back to the resort to catch the Magical Express bus around 3 pm.

Overall, we were able to pack a lot into our trip and everyting went fairly smoothly. But I don't know if I'd do the red eye again.