Disney Vacations

SPEEDY MCCREADY said:

The Value Resorts are fine, although we prefer to stay at one of the moderate resorts, or the Swan and Dolphin. 
But this time we decided to go cheap. 
$2400 for all the parks for 5 days, hotel, and 2 meals a day, plus a snack each day, and all the coffee and soda we can drink is a pretty good price. 
I've definitely spent more when booking Disney

Yeah, just the 5-day park hopper tix will run you like $1,300.00 in September.
So that means the other $1,100.00 covers 5 nights hotel, 10 meals each, and countless Dole Whips.
The key is to have a couple nice dinners that would have been expensive if paid for on their own. Plenty of places to do that.

Anybody ever do a Disney cruise? Any advice would be appreciated.

Johnny Abruzzo said:

Anybody ever do a Disney cruise? Any advice would be appreciated.

I did. There's a cruise ship that has a water slide aqueduct tube ride in a clear transparent tube going around the boat try to get one of those bigger cruise ships or don't waste your money on Disney. 

Princess Cruise Line in the Mediterranean late summer 2019 was just as nice as ship/entertainment. Disney Cruise Line is however the only one that can do fireworks at sea for a half an hour evening production.

Also part of going to the Bahamas/BVI with Dcruise, was that we wanted to do the SNUBA outing. Even though I had booked in 2018 and got put off until 2022, I didn't have a good priority - excursion was full. I had to find an island operator to take me independently.

Read lots of Trip reviews for different companies.

I would spend my money on perfect summer European sailings or on a different Cruise Line any day of the week rather than pay extra to see the Characters a few times. 

When you see a really neat attraction you need to read the trip reviews to see how easy it is to actually get a spot when you're on the cruise ship.

The best part about Disney is that if you want an early dinner sitting and you don't get it/book early, they will whisk your kids away in the evening for you from the table.

I personally would intead of spending the extra cost just to get the Disney name: fly to Europe see pjam in Barcelona and pick a cruise from there for the same amount of money on another line.

There's also some cruises that time really well after the Melbourne show/port.

PJ_Soul said:

My friends when to Disneyland with their two kids last month, and 5 days cost $12,000. Personally, having no kids, I feel like that would be MUCH better spend going to Europe or something, but hey, their kids loved it, and the parents had a pretty good time too, so who am I to judge? Still.... $12K for a 5 day vacation is a lot.

It sure is...last time we went to Universal Studios in Orlando the tickets cost me $1,100 for the six of us for ONE DAY! I did buy express passes online but it turns out that I didn't really need to. We were all coastered out by 3pm or so and left. 

The best Orlando trip we ever made was when we rented a house in Kissimmee that had a pool. We ended up visiting the parks maybe 3 of the days we were there and chilled at the pool on off days. It was great.

Spunkie said:

^ I hope that helps I added a couple edits that you didn't quote so make sure to read the end of the post if you haven't already have fun. I just feel that the extra Disney brand expense could be spent buffing up a vacation with flights to a better port/destination on a different cruise line

Got it. I'm trying to do this instead of my son's request to go to WDW for the 3rd time in 4 years (definitely getting tired of it) and work it in with something fun, maybe seeing our cousins in Abruzzo. (thus my username)

 ALL the ships are super fun!!!

Spunkie said:

I don't know how old yours is but the best part may be the unlimited free self serve soft ice cream no matter what ship you pick 

That could be nightmarish...

They would be teens by the team we got on a boat.

Poncier said:

Spunkie said:

I don't know how old yours is but the best part may be the unlimited free self serve soft ice cream no matter what ship you pick 

After a week of it you could go from Spunkie to Chunkie. 

This gave me a good laugh. Thank you. (I took the stairs to counterbalance!)

I love sitting for dinner on a cruise ship, it's like an event. I finally understand how bread and butter can be a course in itself. The only sad part is when they come and comb away all the crumbs you make before dessert. That's pretty embarrassing! (I was even minding my damn manners 😒.) Crumbs, oh crumbs!

Disney has a dining room where you color a picture before appetizers at the end of dinner they show it in animation ♥️. They have excellent attention to detail, even their little bread knives are cute. The service on a cruise is so great that when I got on the airplane to go home after, I was rudely reawakened to reality. Perhaps, too, you would enjoy a traveling, floating hotel with the food price built in, which seems heftier in Europe.

And the screaming kids mean they're having fun!!! 

Johnny from Italy (hmmm curious combo...), when you do a cruise in Europe it is such a fabulous way to visit so many countries! Every day when you wake and open the curtains, it's like a new gift!