Pre cruise WDW suggestions

[Muskegon78]

We are hoping to spend 3 nights and 2 park days at WDW before our cruise. We will be flying into MCO on Wednesday and doing the parks Thursday and Friday. I am think Epcot on Thursday and MK on Friday. Does anyone have suggestions on how to handle the parks in such a short time, how to pack/re-pack for the cruise once at WDW, do you need to wash clothes at the resort. I am also interested in transportation to PC preferences and carrying on alcohol to the ship (how to buy it at WDW area without a car). Thanks

 

[Muskegon78]

anything?

 

[mmouse37]

Many of the WDW resort gift shops sell alcohol and wine. I am sure they are higher priced than what you could find off property though. I believe the easiest way to purchase booze/wine off WDW property is to take a taxi. Or, you can rent a car for the few days you are at WDW and then you can go anywhere you like on WDW property or off. You can even set up the rental to return at an office near the port area. We always rent a car when we are at WDW as I find it quicker to drive myself and park at the theme parks then take the resort buses.

As far as your touring plans at WDW that would depend on what exactly your family likes to do. Does your family like to handle the parks commando style or laid back? How old are your kids if you have any? Do you have an annual pass or do you have to purchase park tickets. I would suggest talking with the family and seeing which rides and shows are most important to everyone and plan around those decisions. We are doing 3 nights prior to our cruise at WDW and we are doing a spring training game at Wide World of Sports, Epcot in the evening and then Hollywood Studios the next day and then MK the 3rd day.

As far as laundry goes I will try to do things that are really needed at the resort the night before cruise. I usually have enough where it is not necessary, but if I have some time I will throw a load in.

Happy planning.

MJ

 

[Muskegon78]

So you just normally pack for the cruise plus the days at WDW?

For the parks I think I know what we'll do with our touring plans (2 daughters will be with us who will be 4 and 9), I guess I was more curious to know what most people do as far as schedule. Park or no park the day before the cruise? How long to stay in the parks? Is it worth driving yourself to PC or is the convenience of the bus transfers the way to go?

 

[kiford]

So you just normally pack for the cruise plus the days at WDW?

For the parks I think I know what we'll do with our touring plans (2 daughters will be with us who will be 4 and 9), I guess I was more curious to know what most people do as far as schedule. Park or no park the day before the cruise? How long to stay in the parks? Is it worth driving yourself to PC or is the convenience of the bus transfers the way to go?

We pack pretty much the same clothes for WDW as for the cruise though it might depend on the time of year for you. Other than formal and semi-formal nights if your cruise is long enough to have them and Palo's (and Remy's) if you intend to go, it's cruise casual or less all day. For me that means casual pants/khakis, shorts for the daytime, and a bunch of comfortable tops ranging from the very casual to slightly dressier and one fleece (it can be very cold on deck after dark and I find the theatres very cold).

We definitely do a park the day before the cruise but don't let it be a really late night. If you take the DCL bus (we always do), then they pick up luggage at 8 am (I'm assuming you're staying on the grounds?) so you need to be up before then. Since the busses leave anywhere between 10:30-12:30 we always make sure to have breakfast no later than about 8 am (you don't need to be there for luggage pickup). Thus we don't want to be out too late the night before so that we are able to dress and finish packing well before eight without feeling cranky.

Whether it's worth it to you to take the DCL bus or drive is a personal decision. When I'm on a Disney vacation, I park my brains at the airport when I arrive. My day job is all about logistics and making arrangements, facility management, project management and tons of details. When I'm on vacation, I want someone else to handle it all for me. It may or may not be less expensive to drive yourself but I personally have no interest in picking up car, driving to port in an area unknown to me, dropping off family, dropping off car, taking shuttle. Blah. I prefer to just follow the person wearing the Disney name badge and do what they tell me.

We never bother to bring our own alcohol on board. As far as I am concerned, the cost of a few glasses of wine or other drinks is minimal in comparison to the rest of the trip and is no more expensive than buying it in any restaurant at home. It also gives me a full range of choices of different wines for dinner. Since my brain has been left at the airport, I just order the wine by the glass that's been recommended to be paired with the entree at dinner. I figure someone more knowlegeable than me has chosen it so why make a decision I don't have to. That gives me the ability to have a different wine with every meal. No brains required. As others have pointed out, all of the resort stores carry some range of wine and spirits and there are wines sold at the French, Italian and German pavillions at Epcot and I think at the kitchen store in DTD. More expensive than buying off-site but if you don't have a car, the cost of taking a taxi or renting a car would seem to me to wipe out the cost benefits of buying off-site compared to WDW.

 

[Muskegon78]

We pack pretty much the same clothes for WDW as for the cruise though it might depend on the time of year for you. Other than formal and semi-formal nights if your cruise is long enough to have them and Palo's (and Remy's) if you intend to go, it's cruise casual or less all day. For me that means casual pants/khakis, shorts for the daytime, and a bunch of comfortable tops ranging from the very casual to slightly dressier and one fleece (it can be very cold on deck after dark and I find the theatres very cold).

We definitely do a park the day before the cruise but don't let it be a really late night. If you take the DCL bus (we always do), then they pick up luggage at 8 am (I'm assuming you're staying on the grounds?) so you need to be up before then. Since the busses leave anywhere between 10:30-12:30 we always make sure to have breakfast no later than about 8 am (you don't need to be there for luggage pickup). Thus we don't want to be out too late the night before so that we are able to dress and finish packing well before eight without feeling cranky.

Whether it's worth it to you to take the DCL bus or drive is a personal decision. When I'm on a Disney vacation, I park my brains at the airport when I arrive. My day job is all about logistics and making arrangements, facility management, project management and tons of details. When I'm on vacation, I want someone else to handle it all for me. It may or may not be less expensive to drive yourself but I personally have no interest in picking up car, driving to port in an area unknown to me, dropping off family, dropping off car, taking shuttle. Blah. I prefer to just follow the person wearing the Disney name badge and do what they tell me.

We never bother to bring our own alcohol on board. As far as I am concerned, the cost of a few glasses of wine or other drinks is minimal in comparison to the rest of the trip and is no more expensive than buying it in any restaurant at home. It also gives me a full range of choices of different wines for dinner. Since my brain has been left at the airport, I just order the wine by the glass that's been recommended to be paired with the entree at dinner. I figure someone more knowlegeable than me has chosen it so why make a decision I don't have to. That gives me the ability to have a different wine with every meal. No brains required. As others have pointed out, all of the resort stores carry some range of wine and spirits and there are wines sold at the French, Italian and German pavillions at Epcot and I think at the kitchen store in DTD. More expensive than buying off-site but if you don't have a car, the cost of taking a taxi or renting a car would seem to me to wipe out the cost benefits of buying off-site compared to WDW.

Thanks for the info. We would be staying on property and the convenience of the DCL bus does seem appealing.

Did you still feel like you had a lot of time to explore the ship before setting sail, or did you get there and the room was ready with the ship full?

The alcohol is not a huge deal, but I figured with kids going to be early when at WDW I could sneak out and get what we'll want for our room on the cruise. The only non cab suggestion I had heard was a store close to DTD that you can walk to. I wasn't sure if anyone had done that

 

[cinderkelly]

We just did this back in September. Flew in on a Thursday and did Animal Kingdom ( early entry) For a couple of hours on Friday morning and then spent the rest of the day at MK. Saturday we did early entry at HS and then went to Epcot for a while. It was busy but I wanted to see all 4 parks before we set sail. Stayed at AOA, loved it!

We rented a car so it was super easy getting to Port Caneveral. Hubby dropped the kids and I off at the port and returned the car, it's probably a 5 -10 minute drive or so where rental car returns are depending on who you rent from. They have a shuttle that will then take you back to the cruise terminal. It's easiest if just one person drops off the rental car as opposed to trying to get your whole family on the rental car shuttle. We found renting a car for the 3 days at the resort and turning it in while we were on the 4 night cruise was super convenient. Loved not having to take disney busses to the park, plus you get free parking at the parks if you are an onsite guest. We then just did the rental car system in reverse after the cruise. We did express debarkation ( carried our own luggage off the ship) early and all caught the first shuttle of the day back to the rental car terminal, rented a car and drove ourselves to the airport to fly home. ( we left out of Miami to fly home). The cost of having a rental car was way less than paying for the DCL bus to take the 5 of us. Not sure if you know but the DLC bus is I think about $35 Per person each way..ouch! The magical Express that picks up at MCO to take you to the resort is free though. They do have a rental car facility onsite at DW if you are interested in taking the Magical Express from MCO to your resort and then picking up a rental later but we picked our car up at the airport.

We scheduled embarkation onto the Dream for 11:00 which gave us plenty of time to check out of AOA, grab some breakfast and drive the hour or so to Port Canaveral. We then had a good amount of time to explore the ship, eat lunch, etc. before we set sail. I wouldn't try to do a park before you head to your cruise, in my opinion it's not worth an extra ticket day.

Happy planning!

 

[Muskegon78]

We just did this back in September. Flew in on a Thursday and did Animal Kingdom ( early entry) For a couple of hours on Friday morning and then spent the rest of the day at MK. Saturday we did early entry at HS and then went to Epcot for a while. It was busy but I wanted to see all 4 parks before we set sail. Stayed at AOA, loved it!

We rented a car so it was super easy getting to Port Caneveral. Hubby dropped the kids and I off at the port and returned the car, it's probably a 5 -10 minute drive or so where rental car returns are depending on who you rent from. They have a shuttle that will then take you back to the cruise terminal. It's easiest if just one person drops off the rental car as opposed to trying to get your whole family on the rental car shuttle. We found renting a car for the 3 days at the resort and turning it in while we were on the 4 night cruise was super convenient. Loved not having to take disney busses to the park, plus you get free parking at the parks if you are an onsite guest. We then just did the rental car system in reverse after the cruise. We did express debarkation ( carried our own luggage off the ship) early and all caught the first shuttle of the day back to the rental car terminal, rented a car and drove ourselves to the airport to fly home. ( we left out of Miami to fly home). The cost of having a rental car was way less than paying for the DCL bus to take the 5 of us. Not sure if you know but the DLC bus is I think about $35 Per person each way..ouch! The magical Express that picks up at MCO to take you to the resort is free though. They do have a rental car facility onsite at DW if you are interested in taking the Magical Express from MCO to your resort and then picking up a rental later but we picked our car up at the airport.

We scheduled embarkation onto the Dream for 11:00 which gave us plenty of time to check out of AOA, grab some breakfast and drive the hour or so to Port Canaveral. We then had a good amount of time to explore the ship, eat lunch, etc. before we set sail. I wouldn't try to do a park before you head to your cruise, in my opinion it's not worth an extra ticket day.

Happy planning!

I was planning to do the transfers after the cruise for sure. The before transfers I think would be nice, with the only hiccups being the later arrival and the inability to buy drinks. I'm not sure either one is important enough to deal with the rental....for us it is 4 people so $140 to get there, compared to a couple of days to rent a car

 

[E ticket rider]

As far as how to handle WDW, which parks/rides are important to you? Do you feel the need to hit all 4 parks? That's where I'd start. We are doing the same thing for a June cruise. We are going to get there on Saturday and do the parks on Saturday and Sunday, then drive or take a car service (if we fly) to PC on Monday to leave on the Dream.

Now for the transportation options:

You can take DME back to MCO and catch DCL transport to PC. (Note DME is a free service between WDW and MCO, DCL transport is $35/person each way)
You can take DME back to MCO and rent a car and drive. (There are places to return the rental in Cocoa Beach)
You can take DCL transport from WDW to PC (this won't get you to PC until early to mid afternoon and still costs $35/person each way)
You can rent a car at WDW and drive to PC
You can hire a car service from WDW to PC (depending on the size of your party, this may be the same or cheaper than DCL transport. We've used Happy Limo in the past and depending on the vehicle you select 4 passengers is roughly the balance point. There are several car services in the area to choose from and they are all in the same ballpark cost wise)

 

[Saimaeve]

We're doing this as well. We are taking an overnight flight PHX-> LAX -> MCO arriving at 5:35am on Tuesday

Staying at Wilderness Lodge for Tuesday-Friday night

Friday afternoon we'll pack everything but last minute things.

Friday night we are hoping to go to MNSSHP, come back and crash

Grab an early breakfast at the lodge and relax until Disney transport to the port.

For alcohol we're not really doing much to buy any before hand. Maybe a nice bottle of wine at Epcot? (We're going during Food & Wine Festival)

I had the same concerns taking Disney Transportation to the Port and getting there later than most

 

[Muskegon78]

We're doing this as well. We are taking an overnight flight PHX-> LAX -> MCO arriving at 5:35am on Tuesday

Staying at Wilderness Lodge for Tuesday-Friday night

Friday afternoon we'll pack everything but last minute things.

Friday night we are hoping to go to MNSSHP, come back and crash

Grab an early breakfast at the lodge and relax until Disney transport to the port.

For alcohol we're not really doing much to buy any before hand. Maybe a nice bottle of wine at Epcot? (We're going during Food & Wine Festival)

I had the same concerns taking Disney Transportation to the Port and getting there later than most

I think we are leaning toward using DCL transfer and not worrying about the timing because of the extra days at WDW. I'm sure we will be anxious to go and it doesn't sound like its a possibility to do much at the resort that day (swimming would be a problem with bathing suits/changing I imagine).

Does anyone know if there are walkable store to DTD to buy drinks? We would be arriving Wednesday and possibly going there anyway. if not I could run over there myself at night

 

[Muskegon78]

I just found Josh's post about this from a few years ago. Seems really easy

http://www.easywdw.com/uncategorize...ridemakerz-search-for-pascal-october-21-2011/

 

[kiford]

Did you still feel like you had a lot of time to explore the ship before setting sail, or did you get there and the room was ready with the ship full?

We don't need to spend much time to explore the ship anymore as we have sailed the Magic several times. We have our own little routines that we follow. We get to the port normally about 1:00-1:30. No lines in the terminal so we get checked in right away and then onto the ship with no waiting. Right up to the room (which is why I don't mind getting there at that time because I hate hauling my carryon around), unpack the carryon, check my excursion tickets for any issues and go to the port adventure desk if so (this has happened a couple of times), go to Guest Services to get tickets for various tastings, lunch, luggage is usually outside the room by then, unpack, read through the Navigator, mark the movies I want to see during the week, go out to the balcony and take some pictures and just watch the activity for a while, try on the life jackets and watch the video playing about it, then the lifeboat drill, back to the cabin, relax for a bit, then deck party. Then grab some pizza from on deck and then back down to the room and sit on the balcony with pizza and champagne (previously arranged to be in cabin) and watch us pull out of harbour. I believe that on our first trip on the Dream we did the tour about 2-ish (noted in the Navigator - you just show up at the right place). Sometimes we have time to go to the Cove Cafe and have a coffee and read for a bit.

So you should have some time to explore prior to the drill and deck party. If you have early dining, you'll have less time but you should still have time to figure out where the restaurants are, where the kids clubs are, where the theatres are. And you will have time between setting sail and dinner if you have early dining. As I recall, on our very first cruise, we still had time to eat, unpack, run up to Palo's to book dinner, explore the ship and relax before the drill.

 

[Muskegon78]

We don't need to spend much time to explore the ship anymore as we have sailed the Magic several times. We have our own little routines that we follow. We get to the port normally about 1:00-1:30. No lines in the terminal so we get checked in right away and then onto the ship with no waiting. Right up to the room (which is why I don't mind getting there at that time because I hate hauling my carryon around), unpack the carryon, check my excursion tickets for any issues and go to the port adventure desk if so (this has happened a couple of times), go to Guest Services to get tickets for various tastings, lunch, luggage is usually outside the room by then, unpack, read through the Navigator, mark the movies I want to see during the week, go out to the balcony and take some pictures and just watch the activity for a while, try on the life jackets and watch the video playing about it, then the lifeboat drill, back to the cabin, relax for a bit, then deck party. Then grab some pizza from on deck and then back down to the room and sit on the balcony with pizza and champagne (previously arranged to be in cabin) and watch us pull out of harbour. I believe that on our first trip on the Dream we did the tour about 2-ish (noted in the Navigator - you just show up at the right place). Sometimes we have time to go to the Cove Cafe and have a coffee and read for a bit.

So you should have some time to explore prior to the drill and deck party. If you have early dining, you'll have less time but you should still have time to figure out where the restaurants are, where the kids clubs are, where the theatres are. And you will have time between setting sail and dinner if you have early dining. As I recall, on our very first cruise, we still had time to eat, unpack, run up to Palo's to book dinner, explore the ship and relax before the drill.

We are on the Fantasy for the first time. I would assume you do lunch at the resort then and not worry about it on the ship? Have you ever had issues with tastings or character sign ups being unavailable due to your arrival time?

 

[Muskegon78]

Oh, missed the lunch part, sorry

 

[mmouse37]

They have a very nice embarkation lunch onboard. Why pay for lunch at WDW when your meals are included on the ship that first day? You should be able to make it for lunch even if you take the DCL tranfers resort bus from WDW to port. I have heard of a few people who missed lunch because a resort bus got to the port late but I don't think it is a common issue. I believe the majority are able to make it to the embarkation lunch. I would eat as soon as you board and then do other things.

MJ

 

[butsy113]

DH and I don't drink much, but we do like a rum and coke occasionally in the evening, especially on vacation. Since we are flying and using Disney transfers to get to port, we won't have the ability to stop for any alcohol. To save money I am packing several miniature bottles of rum in our checked baggage. We can mix with coke onboard

 

[Muskegon78]

They have a very nice embarkation lunch onboard. Why pay for lunch at WDW when your meals are included on the ship that first day? You should be able to make it for lunch even if you take the DCL tranfers resort bus from WDW to port. I have heard of a few people who missed lunch because a resort bus got to the port late but I don't think it is a common issue. I believe the majority are able to make it to the embarkation lunch. I would eat as soon as you board and then do other things.

MJ

Will doing this make any of the sign-up items unavailable?

 

[RebeccaLovesDisney]

When we've done WDW before a cruise, we packed all our "cruise only" clothes in one suitcase and that suitcase didn't get opened until we were onboard. Those clothes were mainly things we wore to dinner. This was before the more relaxed dress code, so we always changed clothes for dinner. I just found it easier to organize our packing this way.

 

[cnavarrete]

We have bookends scheduled at BLT. We are first time cruisers and we are taking Disney transportation to/from the port.

Two questions:

1. We were hoping to leave some luggage in the care of Bell Services at BLT/Contemporary while on the cruise - has anyone done this?
2. We were planning to run over to MK the morning of the cruise and squeeze in a couple rides. Anyone done that?

Thanks!