Pros and Cons of Land/Sea

[crisi]

I haven't done the land sea, but I'm not a fan of the idea. Four days at WDW is too short, three days of cruising is too short, and it isn't better if you switch them. But a non-internet savvy friend has asked me for advice, and I'd like to be open minded about the whole thing.

What are some of the pros and cons in your mind of doing the land/sea.

 

[zeke11]

We're doing the land/sea because my youngest (8yo) doesn't remember a lot about our last WDW visit which was when he was 3. So we wanted to see a bit of WDW mostly for him.

The cruise is for the rest of us!

We're doing the 4 night cruise, 3 night WDW.

Kris

 

[Cuzisayso2]

I am just back from a 4day land/3 sea at Disney. While it was nice to be able to see the parks, it was a VERY busy vacation. I felt like it was go go go all the time and that we didn't have time to just soak it all in. If I were to do it all again I would have done either a full week at the parks or a full week on the cruise and allowed myself more pool time and "just relaxing" time.

Gina

 

[Bethipooh4]

Hi Gina,

We're getting ready to do a 4 land/3 sea starting Sunday. We are staying at the CBR. If you don't mind I have a couple of questions.

Did you do the AK pickup on your departure for the port day?

Did you get the pins/lanyards with your land package?
Any onfo would be greately appreciated. Don't have any excursions planned on the ship except my DH and DS's parasailing. So hopefully I can relax.

Thanks, Beth

 

[Wish Upon A Star]

We booked our first land/sea for April 2005.

While I agree that the 4 day land is too short, for us, since it will be our first time on a cruise, I figured that 3 days was plenty of time to see if we would enjoy it.

We go to WDW pretty much yearly and we never do commando type touring I figured in April we probably won't do AK, we'll mainly stick to mostly MK and Epcot and maybe spend some time at MGM.

Our kids are also older and I think they'll enjoy doing something a bit different from the norm.

 

[hayesktrm]

I don't think we'll do land/sea again. We were just too exhausted when we finally got on the cruise. We did 2 days at Pop Century while we went to Universal, then stayed at Port Orleans Riverside and went to all the parks. We had 4 days land and we saw everything we wanted to see, and even went to a water park, but we just did too much. We knew we wouldn't be back to WDW for some time so we wanted to get it all in. The 3 day cruise was too short. By the time we were rested, it was time to get off.

 

[Cuzisayso2]

Hi Bethipoo!

In answer to your questions...

No we did not do the AK departure on port day. We arranged our own transportation. I decided to do that after reading several threads in regards to the DCL transport. It was nice being in control over when we came and went.

And yes, we did get the pin/lanyard when we checked into our resort. We stayed at the Beach Club and LOVED it.

I hope you have a great vacation! If you have any more questions I'll do my best to answer them for you.

Gina

 

[heart4dis]

would be if you are a family of 4 (everything in the travel industry assumes you are) and you only have 7 vacation days for job or school reasons. Then you can have a little of both worlds.

For us, it was too short for what we wanted, plus for a family of 6 we have to double any package cost (either that, or it doesn't work at all they just tell us forget it!). We piece-mealed our own 10 day vacation. We were theme-parked-out by the time we got to the cruise, but we loved it all.

 

[two-foxes]

When we did the land sea, we booked a seperate land package to get a few more days at WDW, because I agree that 3 or 4 nites at WDW is just not enough!

But as another poster stated, it is a great "do it all in one week" kinda trip for those who only have a week.

Benefits are
-it is a no brainer package for easy planning. It takes care of the major details (transfers, luggage transfer, park passes, easy check in)
-It is a good way to get a taste of cruising for newbies. It unfortunately sold us (and our bank account!!!) to DCL!

Drawbacks are
-it comes with Ultimate park hoppers which is good, but 3 or 4 days is not enough time to really use them
-you are stuck with DCL's stateroom/resort match up...meaning if you want to stay in a moderate and then get at Cat 4 stateroom, it won't happen with the land sea package
-depending on the season, it can cost more than booking the land and sea as seperate packages, but that, IMHO, is made up for with the convienence of the booking.

I would recommend that if the package is booked, fly in a day early and stay at a MCO hotel, at a WDW resort or close by hotel so you get a FULL day on the first land day of your package. If you fly in the day of your package, you have wasted nearly one full day of park hoppers and park time because or travel.

 

[Memaw2Wm]

I doing a land/sea in August with my DS, DD and three grandkids (7½, 9 and 10). I added a day to the front of the land/sea so we'll have 5 days at WDW.

The reason I did the land/sea is that I wanted to try cruising and I wanted to take my older grandson to WDW, too. He's been before, but he went with his maternal g'mom and was only 5 (he'll be 10 this trip).

I'm expecting to be EXHAUSTED at the end of the trip and I imagine our time at WDW and on the cruise will be too short, but better too short a trip than no trip at all!

 

[OJulie67]

We just got back last week from the land and sea...and we would NEVER do it again. We said over and over that we wished we would have done the 7 day cruise instead. We are from So. California and we enjoy the parks here so much better than Florida. That said, I am glad we did it so we know, but my two cents is, take a 7 day cruise and save up for a trip to DisneyLAND, instead!
We were also so exhausted from rushing through 4 large parks in 3 days that, that part of our trip was NOT at all relaxing. Even our 5 year old enjoyed the cruise 200 x's better! (her words!)

 

[tam012864]

I have the land/sea package booked for next June (2005) I took the 3 nite land and 4 nite sea. However, I added 4 extra nites to my land package so we will have a full week in the parks. I am booking my flight seperate from the package and am looking at the flight that gets to mco at 10:30 am...that way we can have almost a full day to play.

 

[TheWog]

another con is port selection. If you want to go the nicer ports you need to do a 7 day. Eastern you get an extra sea day as well.

 

[zeke11]

If you have already been to WDW (as we have, several times), I think 3 full days is P-LENTY!

We have been to WDW before, like I said, but not as part of a cruise. We spent a full week there.

By the 4th day, we were totally amusement park burned out. The awe and excitement of our first day at the MK was gone by the 4th day. We would get up, feet still hurting, and think.....oh no.... more lines, more heat, more expensive food.

Truly, a week seemed too long to do amusement parks, no matter how many there are or how diverse they are.

And I know some would suggest just spending a half day at the parks and then going back to swim or whatever. But what would be the point to that...might as well just condense it into 3 days then!

Besides, it seemed that once you got into a park and made your way in deeper and deeper, it wouldn't make sense to quit and leave -- especially with the kids wanting to check out the next attraction, then the next, etc.

I still say -- 3 days is plenty -- spend full days; see what you can but don't stress and enjoy the cruise afterwards!

Kris

 

[Lynda Silk]

We did the land/sea (3/4 days) in 2002 and really liked it! It was too short, but I think we'd still think that no matter how many days we spent at WDW and on the cruise! It was perfect for us at the time because we hadn't cruised before, so we were able to visit the parks again plus try out the cruise to see if we liked it (and of course, we LOVED it!).

We also did the departure from AK to the ship; it was very convenient and easy, but the only drawback was that it would have been nice to board the ship a little earlier. We left AK at around 12 noon, had a bit of a wait at the port when checking in as there were a lot of people on the bus (and many of them were non-US citizens as we were, so there was a huge lineup at the non-US check-in) so it was around 2- 2:30pm that we walked on the ship (I remember being a little rushed to get lunch before it closed at 3pm).

When we went on the 3 day cruise later in 2002, we arrived at the port at around 11:30 a.m., no lineup at the check-in and were able to board the ship much earlier. This made it more relaxing for us and I felt more organized.

Just thought I would share our experiences!

 

[tam012864]

I have a silly question...why do you depart from AK? I have the land/sea package booked for June 2005, I was under the assumption I would get picked up from the CBR to head to the port. I am now confussed---please help!!!

 

[Lynda Silk]

You can depart from your resort but Disney offers you the chance to visit AK for the morning and then you can leave for the port from AK. In our case, it was a nice opportunity because we weren't able to fit AK into the 3 days. We did enjoy our visit to AK and the transfer was very easy and convenient as I mentioned, but the only drawback was the time we boarded the ship.

 

[kellimomo3]

We are making our own land and sea! We are doing a week at Disney/Universal before the 7 day cruise. Obviously, if you only have a week off, this would not work. We just didn't want to feel rushed!!
Kelli

 

[tam012864]

Thank you so much for clairification LyndaSilk!!! I kept reading on different threads about people leaving from AK and I was very confused...thanks for the help!!!

 

[crisi]

How about packing? One of the other reasons land/sea combos don't sound like a great idea to me is that my cruise wardrobe is so different than my park wardrobe. Park - tennis shoes, t-shirts, short, lots of socks. Cruise - clothes for dinner, more swimsuits, sandals, non-walking shoes. Fewer shorts and tshirts.

So much luggage to cruise anyway, the packing challenge of a land sea seems overwhelming.