the #1 priority is absolutely your kids, but theres still stuff for adults just not in the traditional cruise sense. Your 2 kids are going to have the time of their lives. Look up the kids club on the ship. It's incredible. They are never going to want to leave. As for adults, there is no casino and the night life is quite a bit tamer than on a royal carribean type ship. But as long as your family "likes" disney, you will enjoy the shows on the ship which is the main "night life" feature. Like other cruise ships, there is bingo, trivia, karaokee, etc. The things that are missing are the "night club" and the casino. There are also a bunch of themed bars throughout the ship. The star wars bar is awesome. So if you and your wife are the type of people who after dinner and the show, want to post up at a bar and have a few drinks before heading to the room around midnight, you are going to enjoy yourself immensely If you are the type who want to be in a night club grinding on the dance floor or gambling until 3 am, there's going to be a bit of a culture shop. This is where Disney absolutely blows away the competition. The food on a disney ship is exponentially better than what you get on Royal Carribean especially in the quick service and main dining areas. The paid adult dining is excellent as well, but the same can be said about RC. The main difference is that RC has a drink package you can buy and Disney does not. To make up for it, drinks on the wish are pretty reasonably priced. Essentially what you would pay at a restaurant. The alcohol is a higher quality. (you are allowed to bring 2 bottles of wine (or one 6 pack of beer) on board per adult so I highly reccomend taking advantage of that. Service is also much better. It's like the difference between mcdonalds and chik fil a. It looks the same on the surface, but there is the extra attention to detail you get with the service on disney that other cruise lines can't keep up with. As for the excursions, those are pretty much the same regardless of cruise line. Any other specific questions, please let me know.
those ages are going to be hard to pull off Epcot without a meltdown from the kids. They will only be able to ride a handful of rides Living with the land, figment, mexico boat ride, ratatoulli, frozen ever after, nemo
Coronado is $278 a night for a standard room. That's probably a lot more palatable and still a substantial upgrade from the all stars.
I legit love cornado. By far the best of the moderate resorts and if it weren't for the fact it didn't have indoor hallways, it would be just as good as many of the deluxe resorts.
yeah I stayed there for one night on a whim because we stayed an extra day. only rooms they had left were in the casitas that part was kind of annoying but other than that the rooms were nice
bama1 that reminds me, there is a mariott 5 minutes from disney property that has 2 bedroom suites for a reasonable price as well. We just stayed there last month and it was $270 per night. That might suit your purpose as well.
All great info, thanks! And yeah I just looked at the kids club. My hope is we can just drop them off in there and then hit up the bars for a bit each day
Honestly have no idea if their kids will even want to do rides, the kids are a pretty cautious bunch. We plan on having a call to figure out our plans. It's not about my family, as little Butch is too young, so need to cater to them. I just want to see Galaxy's Edge and have heard Drinking Around the World is fun, lol. Our rooms are booked at the Wilderness Lodge. Club level (whatever that is)
We were at Magic a few weeks back and Tron coaster was running with people on it which got me super excited. Then after some digging, it could still be MONTHS before it is open.
The rides they can do are pretty much exclusively slow moving rides on a boat, car, or whatever. Nothing that would be considered "scary" As for your hotel accomodation. NICE. the club lounge is great. Never done that one, but it's nice to be able to have some free breakfast in the morning and drinks in the afternoon/evening.
I appreciate the help. I’m going to inquire about Coronado and look into DVC with Saratoga. now I’ll need help with what all to do etc. I’m going to get 4 days of tickets so we can go to each park once assuming that’s what I should do?
What are the ages of the people going? Any specific likes? Ex- is a member of your group obsessed with star wars or some other Disney IP?
[1]me and my daughter (8), [2] my mom and dad who are old and my [3] older sister, bro-in-law and their two (15 and 17) so we have a wide range of ages going. If my dad decides not to, it’ll be my other sister I pay for but that’s the 3 groups pretty much. Only one obsessed with anything is my daughter and that’s princesses, mainly elsa and frozen. I’m sure me and my brother in law will enjoy Epcot with the beers and all but it’s everyone’s first time to go so it’ll all be exciting. The original plan was a royal Caribbean cruise out of port Canaveral which led me to look into Disney, surprisingly prices aren’t much different.
we are going during spring break, last week in March for my kid. God help me. 5 yo daughter's second time going and my son will be 2 1/2 so he'll come as well this time. Staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Expecting the worst, but I just gotta hit Cinderella's Royal Table, Frozen Sing a Long, and meet Anna/Elsa to win the trip.
So with an 8 year old, she's going to be obsessed with Magic Kingdom and the frozen ride at epcot, and maybe the frozen sing along in Hollywood studios. IMO you should get her a bibbity bobbity botique on MK day so she can be dressed like a princess (though it's going to be satan's asshole tier hot in june). Also want to do cinderella's royal table for lunch on MK day (assuming the 15 and 17 year olds are girls, they will enjoy it in the sense of experiencing it through the eyes of your daughter. (if the teens are boys, I reccomend splitting up for that lunch) Star wars land is awesome, but if there are no diehard fans that would want to pay money for a lightsaber or build a droid, then you can get HS done in half a day. Epcot you need to do frozen ever after AK is another half day park due to the lack of rides but the animal walks are really good.
15 year old is my niece and the 17yo is the nephew, I’ll take your advice and myself, brother in law, and nephew will split that day. okay, I’ll look into the bibbity thing, I’ll definitely do that for her. Those are the tips I come here for because I would have never knew about it. Thank you. This trip will be the most expensive one I’ve paid for by far but hoping with some planning, it’s going to be well worth it. I’m leaning toward Coronado and was told to wait until tomorrow, there’s new promotions being released. Rough estimate with the discount was only 700 more than the all star resort altogether.
Animation 1br is sometimes an absolute bargain and the same vibe as all star but not as dirty. I don’t think there are many of them though, so sometimes they’re stupid expensive too. DVC makes sense mostly when you compare it to the high end.
All day of... or shall I say morning of most of the time. Really makes for an awesome vacation- getting up every morning at 6:50 or so to start the countdown to get the rides your kids want. No pressure though, its only the sole method they will use to judge your parenting skills.
Our travel agent put us in one of the deluxe suites at the riviera. No clue if it was a rip off or not but we liked it. Weird story about what can make a memory. The kid still talks all the time about “the super cool secret bed” he got to sleep in. It was a little kid sized murphy bed that folded out from under the TV.
CF3234 have you seen the dining gift card promo? Any reason to not change my reservation to it? My total would go up $200. Room rate stays the same, just park tix would increase, but I'd get a $750 gift card. The exclusions don't look like they'd affect me
I haven't seen it. Link please? but on the surface, $200 for a $750 gift card seems like a great deal assuming you will eat all your meals on property.
https://www.wdwmagic.com/resorts/wa...ey-dining-promo-card-at-walt-disney-world.htm By on property, you mean at any of the Disney Hotels (just not like limited to ours) and any if the restaurants at the parks? Then yes, we'd be eating on property. Anything that requires us to book through Disney is considered on property, correct? Only place I could see us not eating on property would be Disney Springs for a meal but that can be changed
We did the the Magic (was supposed to be the dream but Covid changed) last December and it was awesome. Kids were 9 and 6 and it was perfect. Don’t know anything in particular about Wish but it was honest to goodness the perfect vacation for a family.
just read up on it. yea, this is a no brainer. none of the exclusions apply to where you will be eating. What reservations do you have? just curious
I think this is the right way to put it. A disney cruise is a perfect family vacation. Royal is a perfect cruise for something to do for everyone in the family.
Then you might want to include a dinner at disney springs. Homecomin and Boathouse are two of the better restaurants on property
Thanks for the suggestion. Haven't looked too much into it yet since we're so far out. It's me and my wife, 3 year old son and my mom. Hoping wife and I can get at least one date night to ourselves lol And made the change. Coming out ahead $550 on it is huge
Your #1 priority should be a table for 2 at California grill during the fireworks at magic kingdom. also if you can pass your son off as 2… just saying
Looks like Coronado wasn’t part of the promo after all but port orleans is, which was booked for me. How is port orleans? 6 nights, 4 days at DW parks and 3 rooms for just short of $8,300. Seems good, right?
Port Orleans is one of the older properties but still really nice. Sub-Zero just stayed there. My advice would be to request one of the royal rooms for you and your daughter to stay in. Extra princess and the frog theming. She will go nuts. https://www.portorleans.org/royal-rooms.php
I stayed at port Orleans riverside with just wife. I forget the room type but fairly standard 2 queen beds and a drop down twin. Overall in the short stay I can highly recommend it but I can’t comment on some things you’ll likely use like the pools and transportation to the parks. the water taxi to Disney springs was great though even as just a free boat ride to have access to. Room was quiet even though it’s Disney and theres families everywhere. Main buildings are nice and have some good food and beverage options. Mickey Beignets were great. but overall a really good experience and would recommend checking out.
Just realized the agent did it from 18th-23rd instead of the 17th-23rd so looking like it’ll end up being right at 9k. Still less than my 10k I was budgeting. Thanks for all of the feedback, once this is all finalized and I pay, she’s going to talk about the dining options and genie+. I’m sure I’ll have questions regarding all of that too but I’m excited lodging is taken care of at least.