Worth it to add one parks day to cruise

mrsgthatsme

Mouseketeer
Joined
Mar 21, 2011
We are doing a 4 day cruise at the end of April. We have two kids, ages 8 and 11 who absolutely love EPCOT. We were initially planning on just doing the cruise, but I have been feeling a bit of temptation lately to add on a park day since we are so close to WDW. Our current plan is to stay a the Hyatt at the Orlando airport and take the Disney Transportation to the cruise port in the morning. If we decide to add an EPCOT day, would we be exhausted from the cruise if we added it after the cruise? Would it be possible to do it the day of disembarkment since we will be off the boat fairly early in the morning? Could we take ME from the port directly to EPCOT? If so, what would happen to our luggage? (We would stay on grounds at WDW if we did this.) Normally, I would think doing the park day before the cruise would be best, but my concern is that the Disney Transport from the WDW hotels arrives at the port so late, and we would like to be on the boat early to make the most of the first day since it is a shorter cruise. In your opinion, is it worth the logistical complications for one park day? If so, would you go before or after the cruise? Thank you!
 
We are doing a 4 day cruise at the end of April. We have two kids, ages 8 and 11 who absolutely love EPCOT. We were initially planning on just doing the cruise, but I have been feeling a bit of temptation lately to add on a park day since we are so close to WDW. Our current plan is to stay a the Hyatt at the Orlando airport and take the Disney Transportation to the cruise port in the morning. If we decide to add an EPCOT day, would we be exhausted from the cruise if we added it after the cruise? Would it be possible to do it the day of disembarkment since we will be off the boat fairly early in the morning? Could we take ME from the port directly to EPCOT? If so, what would happen to our luggage? (We would stay on grounds at WDW if we did this.) Normally, I would think doing the park day before the cruise would be best, but my concern is that the Disney Transport from the WDW hotels arrives at the port so late, and we would like to be on the boat early to make the most of the first day since it is a shorter cruise. In your opinion, is it worth the logistical complications for one park day? If so, would you go before or after the cruise? Thank you!
No, you cannot take Magicial Express from port to EPCOT. ME is a free shuttle service between WDW resorts and MCO.

You also cannot take DCL transfers from port to EPCOT. That only runs port to WDW resorts (must have a reservation) or MCO. The buses to the resorts tend to arrive at any given resort starting around 9:30/10:00 (but can be later). You hand your luggage to the bus driver once through customs at the port, and retrieve it again at the resort and take to check in.

If you're talking about just hitting EPCOT and then flying out later that night, a rental car would be about your only option.

I prefer doing the parks before a cruise, but there are plenty of others who like doing them afterwards. Just do what works best for you.
 
RE: Doing a park on Disembarkation Day ... I think that I would

1) do express walk off
2) Rent a car from Alamo / National / Enterprise - since their location is before you get on the freeway leaving the port
3) Drive to your resort, get checked in
4) Get to the park of your choice - I would try to not pick the park with Magic Mornings / Extra Morning Hours (whatever its called at WDW) since
a) you would not be able to take advantage of it
b) that park should be busier than the other parks in the morning / that day​
5) Have Fun!!
 
For a day to enjoy Epcot 'S Flower and Garden, I think it would be fun!

We used Disney Transportation to our most recent cruise. Yes, we got to the ship around 1-1:30, from BLT but happily we were able to get a Palo reservation, once we got there. That was MY biggest fear, since booking one completely slipped my mind beforehand!!
 


We are doing a 4 day cruise at the end of April. We have two kids, ages 8 and 11 who absolutely love EPCOT. We were initially planning on just doing the cruise, but I have been feeling a bit of temptation lately to add on a park day since we are so close to WDW. Our current plan is to stay a the Hyatt at the Orlando airport and take the Disney Transportation to the cruise port in the morning. If we decide to add an EPCOT day, would we be exhausted from the cruise if we added it after the cruise? Would it be possible to do it the day of disembarkment since we will be off the boat fairly early in the morning? Could we take ME from the port directly to EPCOT? If so, what would happen to our luggage? (We would stay on grounds at WDW if we did this.) Normally, I would think doing the park day before the cruise would be best, but my concern is that the Disney Transport from the WDW hotels arrives at the port so late, and we would like to be on the boat early to make the most of the first day since it is a shorter cruise. In your opinion, is it worth the logistical complications for one park day? If so, would you go before or after the cruise? Thank you!
I think a park day after the cruise would be a nice way to gently transition from the cruise to the real world. That way you'd have something to look forward to on debarkation morning, rather than just the sadness of leaving the ship behind and heading to the airport. It would also provide a one-day buffer of time between debarkation and your flight, so there would be no serious worries if the cruise came in a few hours late for some odd reason. But mostly, it just sounds fun.

I would probably just take the DCL bus to my Disney resort, drop off my bags, then head over to Epcot. In other words, I would take it easy. I'd book my FastPasses & ADRs for the afternoon/evening, so there would be no stress about getting to them on time.
 
Are you talking about getting off the ship and then going to EPCOT before your flight or getting off the ship, going to a resort and then doing a day at EPCOT the next day or at least having your flight the next day?
 
Are you talking about getting off the ship and then going to EPCOT before your flight or getting off the ship, going to a resort and then doing a day at EPCOT the next day or at least having your flight the next day?

After a bit of discussion and the fact that the crowd calendars show post cruise days that week as much busier, we are learning towards flying into Orlando Saturday, doing EPCOT Sunday, and cruise Monday.
 


We've done a park day both before and after our cruises and much prefer to go the day before.
When we did a park the day we disembarked, we took DCL transport and didn't arrive at our resort until close to noon (ours was the last resort stop of many) and weren't at magic kingdom until mid afternoon. The parks can be chaotic and stressful, you're rushing around to fit it all in since you're only there one day. For us, this kind of ruined the relaxed mood we were in from our cruise.
On our last cruise, we flew in early and spent 2 nights at the resort and spent the day before the cruise at WDW. Still rushed around to do it all, still fought crowds, and was still chaotic but the next day we were able to just relax and enjoy the cruise. We had a great time, but we're exhausted and the cruise was very nice after the park.
We were concerned about arriving to port late using DCL from resort to port so hired private transport. For 4 of us, it was less than $20 difference in price from what I remember. It was very smooth and I would do it again.
 
After a bit of discussion and the fact that the crowd calendars show post cruise days that week as much busier, we are learning towards flying into Orlando Saturday, doing EPCOT Sunday, and cruise Monday.

A great way to do it, you really solidify your day at the parks this way. No worries about missing almost half a day of park time, especially with the cost of a single day park ticket!

There are a couple of options to arrive at the port earlier than taking the Cruiseline Bus
from your WDW resort.

Option 1. Cost is the same as taking the transfer from the airport directly (which is what you were planning on doing).
a. Take the magical express back to the airport.
b. pick up you luggage from the magical express bus you just rode on.
c. walk to the DCL Transfer area and check in.
d. arrive to port earlier.
The con to this option is you need determine what time you want to be to the airport by, and then tell Disney 3 hours later than that so you can get there when you need to. Also it takes longer since you have a transfer point from one bus to another and also any other resort pick ups before you actually leave WDW for the airport.

Option 2. Private car hire saves you time, both waiting to go to the airport and again waiting to go to the terminal.
a. Find a local car hire, livery service, which will take you from your hotel to the port (they usually also will stop at a grocery store if you need to grab a wine bottle).
b. arrange your pick up time and arrive in style
Con. The cost and how close it is you are spending to your initial one way cost for 4 people at $140.

Option 3. Rental Car.
There are tons of topics on this and you have to consider time to acquire and turn in, money on gas/money/tolls, stress levels, etc.



Likely for me if I was looking into it, I would price Option 2 and if pretty close to the cost of the DCL transfer bus one way for 4 people, I would just do that.

 
Your plan sounds perfect. We do Universal but the concept is the same. We always do park days before since they are busy and tiring and the cruise afterwards is relaxing. We usually rent a car at the resort and drive down to the port, since we we like to leave early and stop for wine/beer on the way. The cost has always been under $100, less than private transportation or transfers, and it has always been very quick to drop the car and shuttle to the port.
 

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