WDW Visit Between B2B Cruises?

[Mainsail Minnie]

I have booked B2B Dream cruises for my teenage son and I for next year, and am leaning towards treating our gap day as if it were a port day, and going to WDW. I was thinking of renting a car at the port, then going to a park for 3-4 hours, enough time to get in 3 FP+ rides as well as a few standbys. Then leave the parks around 1pm, and board the ship in the afternoon. I was considering keeping the rental car throughout the 2nd cruise, then using it again after final disembarkation, to go back to WDW before our evening flight home.

Has anyone here gone to WDW between B2B's & have experiences to share, tips or thoughts?

 

[Maggie'sMom]

Do you have APs? If not, i wouldn't waste a day of tickets on that short of time. And even if you did have APs, I'd recommend against it. Just too much hassle for such a short time in the parks. One small benefit to B2Bs is the ability to reboard before everyone else boards.

 

[Travel60]

I think timing would be tight but might work. As an alternative, depending on age of your son you could rent a car and explore space coast....Cape Canaveral, etc.

 

[Rob1872]

Personally, I would view trying to fit WDW in between B2B cruises as a massive stress. Too many delays could impact you getting back on the ship. I also wouldn't try to do a WDW day before flying home; however, if your flight is late enough then it is possible. We've done a WDW day coming straight off of the ship and then spending the night and flying back the next day; I don't think I would have liked it as much if I was watching the clock to get back to the airport in time.

 

[otten]

It only makes sense money-wise if you have APs and if you have APs it doesn't make sense to go just for a couple of hours and deal with all the stress since presumably you'd be back another time.

The Cocoa Beach area is lovely. I'd use this opportunity to spend some time there, maybe visit the Space Center if that interests you.

 

[SamFaniam]

I don’t think I would recommend this either. If for some reason you were delayed coming back, an issue with the car, or traffic problems. You could end up missing the ship. One of the benefits of back to back is being on the ship earlier than the other passengers. Maybe you would enjoy getting to ride the aquaduck many times before others show up. The space center is a nice option, and although you wouldn’t have quite a full day there you could still see quite a bit. It also wouldn’t require the hassle of getting a rental car, as you could easily taxi or Uber back-and-forth.

 

[Mainsail Minnie]

We love WDW and getting to go there is a special treat for us, as we live a few states away. We actually just cruised the Fantasy and afterwards rented a car and went to Disney World before a late evening flight, and that was great. We'd probably leave the parks more around 12:30, now that I think about it, just to leave lots of padding in terms of getting back onboard. That still would allow us a nice morning at a park.

It just seems more fun than waiting around at the port, and then on an empty ship, especially since you have to be off the ship by 9, and the pools don't re-open until noon. We're not really the types to lounge around drinking coffee, or to take pictures of an empty ship.

I was planning to get 2-day park tickets, and use one between the cruises, and one after the second cruise. Any logistical problems with using tickets 4 days apart that anyone knows of? Since there are only two of us, park tickets are not a massive expense. Not cheap, but again, I'm thinking of it as a really fun excursion.

 

[SamFaniam]

I was planning to get 2-day park tickets, and use one between the cruises, and one after the second cruise. Any logistical problems with using tickets 4 days apart that anyone knows of?

It might depend by what you mean by four days apart. Currently, a two day pass is good over four days. So a pass that you use today would also be good on Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday. If you go to the ticket page, put in the first that you want to use, and it will tell you what the last date is.

 

[Rob1872]

I was planning to get 2-day park tickets, and use one between the cruises, and one after the second cruise. Any logistical problems with using tickets 4 days apart that anyone knows of?

Depends if you have the 3 night or 4 night as your second cruise. A 2 day ticket would expire before you get back on a 4 night. Having said that, a pair of 1 day tickets is only a few dollars more than a 2 day ticket. You don't start saving the serious money until 5 day tickets.

 

[Kritn4]

Just an FYI- our last cruise (November) there was an issue with customs. No one was allowed to disembark until 8:45. And then the lines just to get off the ship were horrible, not to mention customs. It was after 10 when we got to our car.

 

[DCLPrincess]

I booked my first B2B for April so I haven't done it yet but from what I understand you can get off the ship later than others and back on earlier therefore limiting your time in the terminal. My plan is to use the day to relax by the pool. I wouldn't want to be rushed at the park plus I already payed for the food and amenities on the ship.

We always drive and the traffic can be bad. The Beachline is notorious for accidents so I'd be worried about getting back.

I often go to Disney after my cruise but we leave the next day not same day.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

I just got off a B2B (Jan 17). The first part was easy: off the ship at 0830, cleared customs (only 4 people/families in front of us), back upstairs and waited for 0930 check-in, sat in the fishbowl and walked back on to the ship at 1030. The second cruise was a nightmare: concierge escorted didn't start until 0739, the ship was packed, walk-offs started 0753, 0818 finally stepped off the ship to the ramp, 0948 cleared customs.
You can't predict how crowded the ship will be nor the number of customs agents assigned that morning.

 

[Mainsail Minnie]

Good tips, thanks. I'll definitely make sure my car rental reservation is nonbinding if the timing turns out bad due to a customs or ship arrival issue. Hopefully that won't happen, as the times in the past that we've used Express Walk-Off, we've gotten off very early. I didn't know about the strict ticket limits. The 2nd cruise is 4-nights, but that's actually fine as I checked the WDW website, and it said you get an extra day if you have hoppers, and I'm planning on getting hoppers, so we can hop on our disembarkation day.

 

[Rob1872]

I'm planning on getting hoppers, so we can hop on our disembarkation day.

Check the pricing; if you are only going to use the hopper for your disembarkation day and not the time between the B2B cruises I'd be really surprised if it isn't cheaper to buy a 1 day non-hopper and a separate 1 day hopper. If I remember correctly, you only save $4 buying a 2 day over a pair of 1 days, and paying for a day of park hopper ticket you won't use should eliminate that savings.

 

[AgentMama]

I hope this works for you. Sounds way to stressful for our family. You're going to be spending much of the time driving or watching the time to come back. I would be too worried about traffic or some unforseen issue making me miss the second cruise. On the flip side, I've always admired people who are comfortable not feeling like they need to get to the airport two hours ahead of time. Have a fun trip!

 

[Mainsail Minnie]

It honestly doesn't sound stressful to me, just fun. Maybe because it's just the two of us, and because we both are healthy and mobile and enjoy the parks, these things are easier. I would never do this as part of a large family, or with small children or older family members, or family members who weren't up for it. That would be stressful and not worth it, I agree.

We have the same stateroom both cruises, so there won't be any packing. We'll just get up early, have breakfast at Cabanas & line up early for Express Walk-Off, then drive over to WDW to enjoy the morning, before coming back to the ship. Honestly, I've done ship excursions before that were more of a hassle than that, and a lot less fun. In fact, my son and I rarely do Caribbean excursions anymore, because they don't tend to be worth the hassle for us. We have more enjoyment onboard.

I'm surprised not to hear from anyone else who has actually tried this. I'm sure someone out there has. Maybe I'll just have to be the first one to report back. Won't be for over a year, though.

 

[KantLose]

I recall reading a discussion recently about whether Disney would extend the number of days you can use your tickets if you have a cruise in between and I think the consensus was that it might be possible. It could be worth a call to Guest Relations to find out.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I'll be the voice of dissent here. Although I haven't done WDW on disembark/embark day of a B2B, I did do a DIY excursion to Kronberg in Denmark (even took the ferry to Sweden that day!) on a Disney Magic B2B that ended and then started again in Copenhagen. It was absolutely fine. We kept our luggage onboard, walked off the ship, drove up to Kronberg, toured the castle, had lunch, ferried to Sweden and back and then were back on the ship about an hour prior to final boarding. The only difference is we hired a private guide for the day who drove us back and forth. We had a fantastic day and when we got back to the terminal, it was completely empty so re-boarding was super quick.

As PP noted, I would definitely price out 2 separate tickets (as opposed to a 2-day multi-day) to avoid any expiration date issues on the tickets. As long as you are happy only doing a few things in WDW that day, I think you will be fine! I would also suggest maybe not doing MK that day due to the extra transportation time you would need to get from TTC to MK.

 

[Quellman]

I think this is a great fun day. Express walk off and hit the road. It might be quicker to get anuber to the rental agency than it is to wait for the rental shuttle to load up some. If you are aloyalty member for any of the rental agencies, you could even save more time at pick up. The ride into Orlando shouldn't be terrible. Just remember it will be a monday morning, so some traffic might exist for rush hour. I think leaving at 1pm to head back to the port is a great idea too. It would give you enough time if you had a flat tire for example. So make sure your rental car has one and that it has plenty of air before you leave the rental agency.

 

[ljcrochet]

I don't think I would do it, but if you are really considering this, I would rent the car for the whole time. This way you can get off the cruise and just go to the park instead of waiting to go to the rental car place.
Just make sure you factor in the drive. I know we took our time getting off the Fantasy Christmas week and we were basically at Disney on 9:30 am