Are the 3 day cruises on the Dream worth it?

[Frozen2014]

We have done both 3 and 4 days. We PREFER the 4 days - I like to have a day at sea. That said, we are doing a 3 day in Jan - it easier for us to do the 3 days since I can do a long weekend but the 4 days are during the week which makes time off from work harder.

The disadvantage to the Dream is that Nassau does nothing for us anymore. Hopefully with the announcement from the Bahamas that will change in a few years.

Since it coincides with her birthday, I say go for it.

We turned our Nassau day into a sea day.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

We turned our Nassau day into a sea day.

We do that now too, but it's not quite the same. For one thing, the shops are closed. Also it's not as fun to lie out and read a book and watch the non-ocean dirty Nassau port. :-D I also miss the gentle rocking.

 

[MomOTwins]

We do that now too, but it's not quite the same. For one thing, the shops are closed. Also it's not as fun to lie out and read a book and watch the non-ocean dirty Nassau port. :-D I also miss the gentle rocking.

The view from the rainforest room of Nassau is actually very nice. We did a morning of rainforest room and palo brunch, and afternoon at the pool, and pirate night in the evening on Nassau day. Then next day is all castaway cay. I definitely feel it is plenty of relaxation and fun in three days. And the restaurants are all great--they just do the three signature menus, so there are no bleh nights like I hear pirate night menu is on the longer cruises. As someone with seasickness, I actually much prefer being in port both days to avoid the rocking, so to each his own.

To OP: I think whether the price is worth it largely boils down to airfare. We are a two hour flight away on Southwest, which is generally not too bad price wise. We find the actual cruise prices are more or less the same per-night cost as a longer cruise (unless you are going on a holiday weekend when they can be higher), so the only thing that makes the per night cost more pricey is the fact that you are paying the same airfare for a shorter trip. If I was coming from the west coast or internationally, I agree it might not be worth it.

The other thing to consider is that when comparing the 3-day and 4-day-or-longer cruises is that the 3-day is really the only option that allows you to avoid having to take a full week off work. That is huge for us as my company is fairly restrictive when it comes to vacations, but a long weekend is much easier to swing. It also means less school missed for families with kids. So whether it is "worth it" is probably also a factor of the value of your vacation days and how many you can take. If I could take a full week, I'd do a 7-day or a back-to-back 3-day/4-day every time, but I can't.

 

[bunnm09]

The view from the rainforest room of Nassau is actually very nice. We did a morning of rainforest room and palo brunch, and afternoon at the pool, and pirate night in the evening on Nassau day. Then next day is all castaway cay. I definitely feel it is plenty of relaxation and fun in three days. And the restaurants are all great--they just do the three signature menus, so there are no bleh nights like I hear pirate night menu is on the longer cruises. As someone with seasickness, I actually much prefer being in port both days to avoid the rocking, so to each his own.

To OP: I think whether the price is worth it largely boils down to airfare. We are a two hour flight away on Southwest, which is generally not too bad price wise. We find the actual cruise prices are more or less the same per-night cost as a longer cruise (unless you are going on a holiday weekend when they can be higher), so the only thing that makes the per night cost more pricey is the fact that you are paying the same airfare for a shorter trip. If I was coming from the west coast or internationally, I agree it might not be worth it.

The other thing to consider is that when comparing the 3-day and 4-day-or-longer cruises is that the 3-day is really the only option that allows you to avoid having to take a full week off work. That is huge for us as my company is fairly restrictive when it comes to vacations, but a long weekend is much easier to swing. It also means less school missed for families with kids. So whether it is "worth it" is probably also a factor of the value of your vacation days and how many you can take. If I could take a full week, I'd do a 7-day or a back-to-back 3-day/4-day every time, but I can't.

Yeah work time is the key for us here. We’ve got a 7 day cruise planned already for later in the year. So I don’t want to take another week off work. This would just be a quick 30th birthday surprise getaway!

 

[mevelandry]

wife turns 30 next year and I was browsing the DCL site and noticed there is a 3 day cruise on the Dream over her birthday. What makes it real special is castaway day day is on her birthday itself, I can’t imagine a better way to turn 30 than on that island!

But my question is, it’s kind of pricey for just 3 days. For people on here who have done the short cruises, did you find them to be worth the money? I’d love to surprise her with this but am worried we will feel rushed once on board since it seems time is pretty limited

One other thing to factor is we’ve done the Fantasy and the Magic but really want to do the Dream next so this seems like a pretty good excuse to do it

While I find the 7 nights cruise wayyyy too expensive, I find the 3 or 4 nights to be a reasonably good value (especially the 4 nights) for the price. Especially if you decide to stay on board in Nassau! I have done 2 X 3 nights and 1 X 4 nights and I've never felt rushed. On my two 3 nights cruises, I have booked Rainforest day passes for Nassau day and it was amazing.

 

[hnthomps]

We were just considering the same thing (have only done 7+ nights before). We decided it wasn't worth it for us because we'd have our kids with us. And we couldn't add on other days, this is for a time when they have a friday & monday off school, not a normal vacation. It was going to be $5,000 before airfare, and that's too high risk with kids--if one of them was just grumpy from travel on the first day, that's a large chunk of the vacation time wasted dealing with kid nonsense. And on all our previous vacations of any kind, there's been at least one Bad Day per kid (because they didn't sleep enough or whatever). So long weekends have to be low stakes financially, which a disney cruise is not...
But if we were going just grownups, for a special occasion, it would be worth it.

 

[jrabbit]

.... And on all our previous vacations of any kind, there's been at least one Bad Day per kid (because they didn't sleep enough or whatever). .....

I am pretty sure that the kids get together and schedule out their "grumpy days" to make it as hard on the parents as possible. I think its in their contract or something.

Our worst "grumpy kid" vacation - with only one of the kids taking on the grumpy kid roll for the first 4 days of the trip (travel + sea days). He was a real grump!! Wanted to be at home playing basketball with his "club team". But once we hit St. Martin, he was fine. Then on disembarkation day he was grumpy again - didn't want to get off of the ship. We flew home across country that day and made the 2 hour drive home and there was a message on the phone saying that there was a game that night - so he ran upstairs and changed and we made it to the game - only missing a few minutes. He thought that he was in the NBA - fly and play a game the same day.

 

[lorimay]

Go for it!