We have heard so many horror stories of people that scheduled a flight out the day before and still missed the cruise because of flight cancellations. Going down to the parks before gives us comfort that there is no way we will miss our cruise.
This year we are actually doing both....we fly in 2 days before the cruise and are doing MNSSHP, cruise for 7 days, and then come back and spend one more day just hanging out at Old Key West.
Why do you prefer cruise first?We tried it both ways and concluded that we prefer to cruise first, then do WDW, so that’s what we did for our last three cruises where we did a park stay after the cruise. However, we will not hesitate to reverse the order when circumstances require. We’re booked on the Fantasy in November and will do 4 nights at BWV prior to the cruise so we can fly home on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, rather than doing the park visit during Thanksgiving week after the cruise.
We’re pretty low key during our resort stays, so the cruise is actually busier than the land portion for us. We can unwind on land after the busier cruise. Also, we really enjoy the dining experiences when we travel. When we cruise first, we can indulge more and then cut back on land when we’re paying out of pocket for everything we eat. We’re actually ready for some lighter meals. When we did land first, we hit a number of our favorite restaurants and didn’t feel we benefited as much from the variety of food options on the cruise that followed. In November, when we do the land portion first, it will be the tail end of the Food & Wine Festival at Epcot, so we’ll primarily sample around the world that trip.Why do you prefer cruise first?
We were debating the same thing, but when the itineraries came out, and we choose the 8 night June 2019 eastern itinerary, the decision was made for us; we couldn't take vacation the week prior to the cruise, so we'll be doing WDW after.
This is the kind of outside the box thinking that is the mark of true genius! Now you just needs a second cruise after that and then some more WDW....