Who cruises after visiting theme parks?

[jackdis]

We did park first, then cruise. What a relaxing way to end the trip. Would definitely do the same again. But then again, we stayed in a condo on the beach for one week in Deerfield Beach after the cruise, so it wasn't like the vacation was over when we got off the ship. Enjoy!

 

[bytheblood]

Hello BibbidyBobbidyBoo

Love the handle by the way.

Since you asked, I will tell you.

We went at Christmastime, needless to say it was overpriced. There was nothing to warrant the "Christmas pricing" as far as we were concerned. There was a 20 minute visit from Santa and Mrs. Clause.

The lines to "meet the pricesses" were painfully long and they only allowed the meet-n-greets for about 15 minutes. Not nearly enough time for the seemed-like-millions of little princess on the ship dying to meet them.

I thought the character meet-n-greets were poorly planned. They really did not spread them out. They would have Snow White, Alice and Cinderella in the Atrium, Belle on the 4th floor, Mickey outside of the gift shop and Minnie on the other end of the ship all at the same time. Fifteen minutes later and they all had to go away. Same thing when "Santa Goofy" came out. He sat in a window before Promenade Lounge and was gone in 10 minutes. So many disappointed children. I will give Disney the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe the poor planning was because of the Christmas season. We were on the ship Christmas day and this was not the first time this was ever done, however.

The only character meet-n-greets that were well planned were the AM ones on the last day. All of the characters were in the lounge signing autographs. This was scheduled for 45 minutes. Can't remember the name of the location. The place where you make your Palo reservations, with the old LPs all over the place.

I could not go to the ESPN skybox because it reeked of smoke and alcohol. A fumigation was certainly in order. If I still smoked (haven't in 6 years), I still would not have been able to hang out in there for more than 30 seconds.

Our trip already cost over 5K (going in December mind you) and I did not care to pay spa charges for a little personal R and R. I really did not want to pay more than I already did because I guess I was a bit disappointed in the cost for what little entertainment there was.

The food in the evening was wonderful, but certainly did not warrant the cost of the trip. The breakfast and lunches were nothing to get excited about. I cook better than that and could have had a wonderful homemade breakfast. Cookie's BBQ was not all that either. I live in Texas and I know BBQ.

I enjoyed Disney Dreams, the comedy show, Buena Vista theatre is nice (a movie costs $7 per person at the Imax theater here at home) and of course the ship is beautiful. I just did not feel like there was enough to do on the trip. Castaway Cay was beautiful, Nassau was dirty. That is no discredit to Disney, but perhaps they could come up with a nicer tour.

Many other cruise ships, which are only 1/2 the cost or maybe 2/3 of the cost of a Disney Cruise do offer more, the meals are better, the entertainment lasts longer, etc.

I don't want to seem like I am whining because I did have a nice time, but I did not feel like it was worth the price they charged because of all of "the extras at Christmas." The extras were more ship decor and crew members.

Would I ever do it again? Yes! Aboard the Magic on a 7-day Caribbean cruise, when the rates are more competitive.

 

[Gupsmom]

did not feel like it was worth the price they charged because of all of "the extras at Christmas.

Truthfully, I don't think you were paying for Christmas extras. You were paying more because you went during a school holiday. There's more demand so they can and do charge more. We're booked for the Easter Wonder and we're certainly paying more for going during a peak time. I wish we could take advantage of the "off" season pricing but we have kids in school and my DH is a teacher. For you, obviously, you didn't feel it was worth the extra cost to go in peak season. For us, when we measure paying more vs not going at all, we find the level of entertainment for every member of our family (from 3 yrs to 41 yrs old) worth it.


Jess

 

[Mickeyhugger]

I've never done another cruise, and I have many friends who have.

From what I've read on these boards, and from what my experienced cruise buddies have said, DCL food is superior to what is served on other ships.

I love forward to breakfast and lunches almost as much as the dinners.

To each his own, I guess.

 

[Belle's Castle]

We are doing six nights at the AKL and then cruising for 4....I am wondering if we should have done it the other way around...

 

[Scotch]

We are still cruise newbies, having only cruised once before -- last July's Alaska cruise on RCCL's Radiance of the Seas. I think the the preference re cruise-first then WDW parks or cruise-following WDW parks decision depends largely on how busy you plan to be at the parks and whether you are prong to get hit by the "cruise blues." For us, it was easy to decide to do our next WDW trip planned for May 2005: 4 day Wonder (first DCL cruise) followed by 4 nights in WDW. Why? Two reasons.

First, for the next trip we don't plan to do a full-on park hopping -- we'll be visiting WDW for the first time with our baby and we plan to just visit one or two parks max and spend the rest of the time strolling in Downtown Disney and relaxing at the resort. Thus, the "need cruise at the end to relax" after busy days at the park reason won't apply to us.

Second, we were both so bummed after our RCCL cruise ended last year -- that "cruise blues" really hit us hard after having such a wonderful time. We would really prefer a 7 night DCL cruise (because we wished our 7 night RCCL cruise lasted longer) but we can't afford it for 2005. So when I proposed trying the 4 night Wonder in May 2005 as an alternative to waiting for 2006 (and having more time to save the $$), hubby would only agree to it if we plan to spend a few days in WDW afterwards so he would "have something to look forward to when" (not "if") he "starts feeling sad that the cruise was coming to an end."