Disney Vacation Ideas: The Resort or The Cruise? The Choices Could Be A Lot Worse…
Each year over 150 million visitors enter a Disney park, with over 20 million entering the Magic Kingdom in Orlando alone. This is over 50,000 people per day. Disney’s smaller parks typically can see over 25,000 visitors per day.
Disney also has 4 cruise ships, two hold about 2400 passengers and 2 that can host 4000 passengers.
As you can imagine with the differences in these numbers, the experience on a ship and in a park are quite different.
Budget
Each day at a Disney park will likely cost about $100/person for park entrance. For a family of four, lodging, transportation and food will likely cost $400/night to $1000/night during peak times, depending on whether you decide to stay at an on-site resort, or off-site.
At $500 – $1000/night, a 3 day adventure at the parks would run $1500 – $3000 and a 7 day adventure between $3500 – $7000 during peak times.
A cruise would run in similar ranges, with a Disney 3 day cruise ranging from $2000 – $3000 and a 7 day cruise from $4000 – $7000.
Wait, these are nearly identical costs? It’s not really what I expected. So what’s the difference?
Staying on-site at the park
What Makes Cruising Different From the Park
The cruising experience is VERY different from spending a day at a Disney park. Let’s go through a few of the basics:
Food is amazingly good and all you can eat is included
The dining experience on a cruise ship is quite special. The wait staff is attentive to your needs, the food is a very high quality, and there are numerous options to please a variety of palettes.
Entertainment is provided all day, every day, and there tend to be no lines
From comedians to classes, lounging at the pool, or go off-ship to a beach/city that you happen to be stopped at. While you can pay extra to go on special excursions (e.g. SCUBA dive, parasail, swim with dolphins or some other special treat), you can pay nothing and have a great time at each stop.
Each evening there are short Disney style theater entertainment with live actors, singers, comedians, etc. And all of these are again, included in your cruise fees.
Activities are everywhere on the ship
A very different family experience
Disney is known for their kid’s clubs on the ships, which enable parents to drop the kids off and have the kids have a great time while the parents have some alone time to have fun as well. That said, this isn’t what our family did. We found that there were so many activities that we would all enjoy, we spent the days together. Sometimes, all four of us doing activities, and sometimes my son and I doing one activity, while my other child spent time with mom. We left the cruise feeling that we had spent an amazing time together, with each other all day, and all night. Did I mention that there is limited wifi and cellular connection on the ship (unless you want to pay significant fees)? This also helped drive up our family time, which was absolutely wonderful.
A typical Disney cruise ship room (bunk and convertible coach)
So why would anyone pick the park?
The park experience clearly has some uniqueness. If you want to ride a roller-coaster, you won’t find it on the cruise ship. If you are highly susceptible to becoming sea sick, the cruise ship could be an issue. That said, there are a number of ways to counteract these affects.
The Verdict
At similar costs between a cruise and staying at a theme park, it’s really about your tastes and desires. Heck, if you’d like, do both with amazing combination packages, it would be hard to argue doing that. If you do both, I recommend ending with the cruise, as it will leave you very relaxed. That said, if you’re only going to do one, I’d certainly give cruising a try if you haven’t done it yet.
Changing the math on these costs can be done. One option is staying off-site at a Disney Resort. For our verdict on that, take a look at: Staying On-Site at Disney or Off-Site
Staying on-site at the park
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