where to put a cruise??

[bex7583]

ok so im trying to put together an accurate plan/itinerary/costing for our next trip so i can bombard dh with it all at the weekend when he returns home

i am just wondering where to put a cruise in our plans ? start middle or towards the end of the holiday ?

do you have any preference as to when you cruise and what are the advantages /disadvantages of doing it at different points ?

i dont like feeling like im wasting any money so would need to not have any valid theme park passes during our time cruising.

at the moment for unknown reasons i feel like it should be at the very start of the trip but is it nice to have the excitement and extra countdown while away until your cruise part ? also i know dh likes to have a drink on the flight and really enjoyed not having any hassle as we jumped straight on ME when we arrrived at airport before

we will have a car and we will also be roadtripping so we can be flexible with departure ports etc

i am trying to be a bit more organised this time and will hopefully prebook all hotels and excursions before we fly !!

 

[wilma-bride]

It really all depends on the length of cruise you are considering. For me, anything less than 7 days is not really relaxing as such, therefore it doesn't really matter. If you are planning the cruise as a way to relax, it might be better at the end of the trip. However, if it is merely a means by which to see some other places as part of a bigger trip, then it probably is down to whatever works best with your itinerary.

 

[bex7583]

we had a look at possible cruise options this weekend while he was at home and both liked the look of the 7 night caribbean cruise . we do want to enjoy the facilities onboard rather than simply sleep in our cabin and arrive at our destination .

the only problem is if we go with the 7 day cruise we will have to cut back days elsewhere , our 2 penciled itinerarys so far are

7night cruise Dcl
7 night offsite ( universal +dc and resort dining and downtown disney)
?? nights keys (dh fishing trip** + fort jefferson )
4 nights clearwater or other gulf beach

** the fishing is very important as his boat got cancelled on our 3013 trip due to extreme weather

or
5 nights on site ( im feeling beach club)with disney tix
10 nights off site ( universal)
fort lauderdale miami
short cruise out of miami
keys
gulf coast (

 

[wilma-bride]

I would go with option 1 (personally) but that is because - gasp - I feel like I could happily miss the Disney parks on a trip now, having been so often. Out of the 2 caribbean cruise options, I would plump for the eastern - for us, the Western seemed rushed with not as much time in port.

 

[bex7583]

i am not sure which direction the cruise was i will make a point to look next time . the only reason im even playing with the option of no disney tix is we are huge avatar fans so there will have to be another trip after this one !!

i thought we could get some disney love with character meals in resorts and a nice stroll round dtd . we didnt do DC as only the boys were old enough to do the dolphin swim and after checking heights they were too small for some of things i know they would have really wanted to do at hollywood studios ( harry potter and jurrasic )

i would love to do a trip with all parks and Dc but been a family of 5 this is the best place for me to make a significant saving

 

[wayneg]

Longer the cruise the better (we did 14 nights last year and could easily have stayed on)
I would also say Eastern is better but not a lot in it, this year we are doing Western again for 3rd time but we don't really care where it goes we stay onboard while everyone gets off if there is nowhere we want to visit.
Last trip we missed Disney and not get getting Disney tix this year either. Just now we are enjoying the cruiseline and other things more than the Disney parks.

 

[saintrob]

We've done the cruise at the start, middle and end of the holiday but our favourite is the middle. We're not keen on cruising straight away as we like a few days to 'get into the holiday' mood and find a couple of days at a park (usually Universal) does the trick. We also had an unfortunate experience with none of our luggage arriving until four days later and if we'd have been cruising would have been without all of our 'formal' clothes etc.

We're not keen on cruising at the end of the holiday as we like to keep WDW till the end as we're still big park lovers. This year we've booked 3 nights Royal Pacific, five nights Dream and 10 nights GF.

 

[disneyholic family]

first of all, i would NEVER start a trip with a cruise for one reason - i want to make sure that i actually have reached the port in time for the cruise.
because we travel from so far away, there is always the possibility of weather/strikes getting in the way of reaching the destination in time.
This doesn't matter if we're just visiting disney world, but if you don't get to the port in time, you quite literally miss the boat.
So i always have a minimum of 3 days in florida before any cruise.
And since we love WDW, those 3 days are at WDW.
In other words, we typically do 3 or 4 days before a cruise at WDW.
Then a 7 day cruise.
Then if possible, at least 2 more weeks at WDW (though last time we could only do 3 days at WDW after the cruise because of a wedding we had to be at in michigan).

Regarding the cruise, we enjoy both DCL and RCI and would take either depending on cost/timing etc.

Our last cruise out of florida was on the Allure of the Seas - eastern caribbean. We LOVED the Allure. It wouldn't have mattered to us where we were going, though we enjoyed our excursions at all 3 ports.

But again, i would be happy on both DCL and RCI ships.

bottom line, i would put the cruise in the middle somewhere - with at least 3 days beforehand to make sure you're in the US in time for the cruise.

 

[dixonsontour]

We are cruise first timers.

I opted for end of holiday as something to look forward to at the end of the trip and relaxing.

Cruise in middle made no sense as we were wanting to book the uk free dining offer too.

I did toy with doing the 7 night Caribbean cruise but for a first cruise was wary if i'd like it/be seasick so have gone for the 4 night. If we had booked the 7 then wasn't worth booking the free uk dining offer - wanted to get everything booked rather than seeing whether US deal would cover our dates.

I can see us cruising instead of parks in the future.

 

[disneyholic family]

We are cruise first timers.

I opted for end of holiday as something to look forward to at the end of the trip and relaxing.

Cruise in middle made no sense as we were wanting to book the uk free dining offer too.

I did toy with doing the 7 night Caribbean cruise but for a first cruise was wary if i'd like it/be seasick so have gone for the 4 night. If we had booked the 7 then wasn't worth booking the free uk dining offer - wanted to get everything booked rather than seeing whether US deal would cover our dates.

I can see us cruising instead of parks in the future.

we did the same thing with our first cruise - a shorter one to make sure we actually liked it and didn't die of seasickness...
we LOVED it and the rest is history

by the way, i highly recommend sea bands for seasickness - we swear by them..
they got me through hurricane sandy with flying colors!!!!!!!!!!
(i also use them on land when i have a bout of severe motionsickness/dizziness)

 

[bex7583]

i dont know why but the sickness thing never entered my mind !! which is rather strange as we regularly jump on the minicruise from hull and im always sick !!!

first of all, i would NEVER start a trip with a cruise for one reason - i want to make sure that i actually have reached the port in time for the cruise.
because we travel from so far away, there is always the possibility of weather/strikes getting in the way of reaching the destination in time.
This doesn't matter if we're just visiting disney world, but if you don't get to the port in time, you quite literally miss the boat.
So i always have a minimum of 3 days in florida before any cruise.
And since we love WDW, those 3 days are at WDW.
In other words, we typically do 3 or 4 days before a cruise at WDW.
Then a 7 day cruise.
Then if possible, at least 2 more weeks at WDW (though last time we could only do 3 days at WDW after the cruise because of a wedding we had to be at in michigan).

Regarding the cruise, we enjoy both DCL and RCI and would take either depending on cost/timing etc.

Our last cruise out of florida was on the Allure of the Seas - eastern caribbean. We LOVED the Allure. It wouldn't have mattered to us where we were going, though we enjoyed our excursions at all 3 ports.

But again, i would be happy on both DCL and RCI ships.

bottom line, i would put the cruise in the middle somewhere - with at least 3 days beforehand to make sure you're in the US in time for the cruise.

is rci royal caribbean ?? i have looked at those but struggle to find prices for 5xberth rooms ( odd one has come up in searches but always crazy $$$$$$, suites with baby grand pianos etc )

 

[disneyholic family]

i dont know why but the sickness thing never entered my mind !! which is rather strange as we regularly jump on the minicruise from hull and im always sick !!!



is rci royal caribbean ?? i have looked at those but struggle to find prices for 5xberth rooms ( odd one has come up in searches but always crazy $$$$$$, suites with baby grand pianos etc )

sorry - yes, RCI is Royal Caribbean - i would be happy on either Royal or Disney - they're both great cruise lines.
I think disney does have 5 people rooms, doesn't it? So if that's what you need, then that's the way to go!!
(we don't need 5 in a room, so it's not an issue for us).

my daughter, my mom and i have terrible seasickness problems. And my daughter and i have motion sickness issues in general, whether on land or sea. The sea bands saved us. Five minutes after putting them on, all 3 of us were completely fine. I don't understand how they work, but they do. And for me, it's preferable to taking drugs for it.

here's the website for seabands:
http://www.sea-band.com/why-seaband/

.

 

[bex7583]

yep disney have some rooms that sleep 5 as standard, at the moment on the disney cruise line booking age i can only get verrandah/concierge room quotes but i have been on the cruise forum on here and been informed its a catergory 8 room with seaview i need ( the room to me is just a sleeping place so cheaper is better) .

i have some of the sickness bands from when i was pregnant ( they didnt work then ) but will dig them out and test them next month when i cruise to amsterdam , am hoping that the caribean will be somewhat smoother sailing than the north sea though

 

[disneyholic family]

yep disney have some rooms that sleep 5 as standard, at the moment on the disney cruise line booking age i can only get verrandah/concierge room quotes but i have been on the cruise forum on here and been informed its a catergory 8 room with seaview i need ( the room to me is just a sleeping place so cheaper is better) .

i have some of the sickness bands from when i was pregnant ( they didnt work then ) but will dig them out and test them next month when i cruise to amsterdam , am hoping that the caribean will be somewhat smoother sailing than the north sea though

i agree - it's a place to sleep, so cheaper is better!!!!!

 

[Minniesgal]

We found we were very limited by the Cruise dates as our trip dates were fxed by school holidays. I wanted to do a 4 night but could only make a 3 night work with the other things i wanted to do. We put out cruise in the middle. We have 3 nights at AKV first and then 4 nights at GFV after. Ideally I would have put the cruise at the very beginning to chill first and recover from work and travel and have more energy for WDW later. I always find when looking at cruises there aren't that many that fit so choice is a bit easier.

 

[clareyfairymouse]

Disney also offer transportation to and from resorts and the airport for Port Canaveral cruises which you may find helpful however it would be worth comparing the price of a car due to your group size to check you get the best value.
I've not done any of the shorter cruises as I've only done one Disney cruise so far which was the 14 night transatlantic last year (booked another 7 night this December!) but having time on the ship to enjoy everything it had to offer was brilliant so I wont go with the longer cruise.
We can't wait for our next cruise already!

 

[RDP]

ok so im trying to put together an accurate plan/itinerary/costing for our next trip so i can bombard dh with it all at the weekend when he returns home

i am just wondering where to put a cruise in our plans ? start middle or towards the end of the holiday ?

do you have any preference as to when you cruise and what are the advantages /disadvantages of doing it at different points ?

i dont like feeling like im wasting any money so would need to not have any valid theme park passes during our time cruising.

at the moment for unknown reasons i feel like it should be at the very start of the trip but is it nice to have the excitement and extra countdown while away until your cruise part ? also i know dh likes to have a drink on the flight and really enjoyed not having any hassle as we jumped straight on ME when we arrrived at airport before

we will have a car and we will also be roadtripping so we can be flexible with departure ports etc

i am trying to be a bit more organised this time and will hopefully prebook all hotels and excursions before we fly !!

We usually have the cruise in the middle of the holiday. Just personal preference. We did try a cruise at the end but didn't like being dumped in the airport by 1030 waiting for an evening flight; if you've got your own transportation that shouldn't be a problem. We have also found that the cruises set the bar high in terms of service, we have learnt not to have the same expectations of the land resorts.