WDW piggybacked with a RCL cruise...

[Lampoon2012]

Has anyone done this with three kids? DS is 12, DD is 9 and DS is 18months. We are headed to Fl for two weeks next April and were originally planning 9 days in the parks and a few days with family in Tampa. But now we are toying with the idea to do a 4night cruise on Enchantment after 4nights in the parks. Then Tampa for the remaining time.

I'm looking for anyone's personal experience with this. Do you think it will be too much? No rest and all running around? I've never done a short cruise. We usually do 9-12nights out of NJ.

TIA.

 

[Susan2771]

We have done this with our two girls. We did a 5 night sailing on the Enchantment to the Western Caribbean, spent a night at my parents condo in Clearwater to do laundry and then 4 nights at CBR at Disney. Our daughters were 2 years and almost 4 at the time. We kept the excursions pretty simple during the cruise and of course had the at sea day to relax. It was a lot of fun.

During the Disney stay we only did 2 parks so that we could have a day in between each park day to take it easy and enjoy other aspects of a Disney vacay. It would have been too much not just for the girls but all of us to get up early and out every single day, all day long. We just did what we could at our own pace and had a great vacation. We have now done a few cruises out of Florida and either Disney or Universal before or after the cruise. Now that they are a few years older our excursions on cruises can be a bit more adventurous since there endurance is a lot better.

Have a wonderful time with your family!

 

[JohnDS]

Has anyone done this with three kids? DS is 12, DD is 9 and DS is 18months. We are headed to Fl for two weeks next April and were originally planning 9 days in the parks and a few days with family in Tampa. But now we are toying with the idea to do a 4night cruise on Enchantment after 4nights in the parks. Then Tampa for the remaining time.

I'm looking for anyone's personal experience with this. Do you think it will be too much? No rest and all running around? I've never done a short cruise. We usually do 9-12nights out of NJ.

TIA.

I couldn't take 9 days in the parks, and I love Disney World. We typically have done 2 days in the parks during a week long vacation in the area, usually a day at Epcot and a day at either MK or the studios. That leaves pool time, time for things like Gatorland, a trip to the beach, etc.

 

[ronandannette]

We did a short, intense visit to WDW followed by a 7 day Western Caribbean cruise from PC and it worked very nicely. We ran ragged for 4 days in the parks and our cruise itinerary included 3 sea days which we found very restorative. It might be quite a different dynamic for you as a 4 day cruise can be very hectic in itself if you're trying to make sure you don't "miss out" on anything. Perhaps during your WDW stay you plan some downtime? If not I think you'll need a vacation from your vacation!

 

[disneybass]

Has anyone done this with three kids? DS is 12, DD is 9 and DS is 18months. We are headed to Fl for two weeks next April and were originally planning 9 days in the parks and a few days with family in Tampa. But now we are toying with the idea to do a 4night cruise on Enchantment after 4nights in the parks. Then Tampa for the remaining time.

I'm looking for anyone's personal experience with this. Do you think it will be too much? No rest and all running around? I've never done a short cruise. We usually do 9-12nights out of NJ.

TIA.

I would look at cruising out of Tampa. Normally, RCCL has some short cruises out of Tampa in the spring.

 

[Lampoon2012]

I would look at cruising out of Tampa. Normally, RCCL has some short cruises out of Tampa in the spring.

I did check Tampa but the prices were more than double! Smh.

 

[Lampoon2012]

We did a short, intense visit to WDW followed by a 7 day Western Caribbean cruise from PC and it worked very nicely. We ran ragged for 4 days in the parks and our cruise itinerary included 3 sea days which we found very restorative. It might be quite a different dynamic for you as a 4 day cruise can be very hectic in itself if you're trying to make sure you don't "miss out" on anything. Perhaps during your WDW stay you plan some downtime? If not I think you'll need a vacation from your vacation!

That's what I'm afraid of, needing a vaca at the end of vaca. Lol. We are not concerned so much with excursions. The kids love adventure ocean, although we've never been on Enchantment (just explorer). We've also never been to coco cay or Nassau. But we are very much beach people. My DH is the one who insists on doing the parks each day...and as much as humanly possible in the parks each day. But I'm sure going with an 18month old will definitely change some things. Like add in some pool time. The older two are great. They did 9 days in the parks last year without complaint. And they had fun