lovethedream
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2009
Not to put my entire life story out because no one cares lol.. I had my son at a very young age and his father is returning to college for his senior year, so I cant really ask him to take him for the week and let my husband and I have time. And since I am living with grandma to help support my parents and take care of my grandfather full time and my brother and sister its kinda hard to ask my mother. I also feel so guilty leaving him at home. This will sound crazy but i really don't know what else to do with him. I feel like there is either cruising or going to Disney. My husband and I are going to get into camping and taking him to Ft. Wilderness this year if we can. So I guess I really am not sure what to do. Thanks for your help!? If any of this makes sense.
I think the biggest question you need to ask yourself is. Is the cruise so the three year old can have fun or do you, as adults, want to have some fun? The 3 year old would definitely enjoy the Disney ship because of the characters. Personally I think he is to young to be cruising and would rather have a good time at Disney World or Grandma's. You probably have a year or two left before every minute of your off-time has to be devoted to the youngster for about 10 - 16 years.
I think the biggest question you need to ask yourself is. Is the cruise so the three year old can have fun or do you, as adults, want to have some fun? The 3 year old would definitely enjoy the Disney ship because of the characters. Personally I think he is to young to be cruising and would rather have a good time at Disney World or Grandma's. You probably have a year or two left before every minute of your off-time has to be devoted to the youngster for about 10 - 16 years.
Hmmm well we don't have any children at all of any age and we as adults always have fun on DCL. We just got off the Wonder yesterday and booked two more cruises while onboard.
We thought long and hard about trying DCL kidless but figured our kids would never forgive us if they found out. We just wish we could go more often.
I'm the original poster.......and we LOVED Disney so much, that for our 20th anniversary in 2007....WE LEFT THE KIDS AT HOME and did a 4 day Wonder cruise.
Never felt one bit guilty. In this day and time, we felt like 20 years together was something to celebrate.....(we even splurdged for a balcony room!) I told both my kids: "Go poll all your friends....see how many of their parents have been together 20 years". That was the end of the protest. Sadly, because of the prices......that was our last Disney cruise.
I also saw someone say they thought embarking on RCCL was a nightmare. In Miami on The Liberty of the Seas.....embarking was OK.....disembarking was a NIGHTMARE! In Port Canaveral......embarking and disembaarking was every bit as smooth as Disney.
Disney has a slight edge on the RCCL disembarking because they take all your bags the night before. RCCL you have to contend with some who don't carry all their bags and that makes it a little bit harder. Everything else is just as smooth.
Maybe I don't remember correctly, but for us, we had to put our luggage out the night before on either cruise. DCL or RCCL, I do not remember their being a difference, at least for that!
The RCCL you can carry your bags off and depart the ship from 0600 - 0700 in the morning. That is called express departure. That is no fallacy as I do that departure myself. The bad thing is that you and your family take care of all your bags and for those with a lot of bags it doesn't work to well. I usually have two bags. This is at Port Canaveral. I don't know about other ports.
The Monarch and the Dream work the same way. They all board and depart from the same terminal, which allows the procedure described above. The express departure is always ahead of the regular departures. The terminal from which the Sensation docks allows early departure starting 0715 to 0800.
If you are able to use this departure you would be able to get back to MCO before 0900 and catch the earlier flights back home. I have seen many families do this. It works about the same way with Disney except you turn in all your bags to the ship and they are taken to a certain location in the terminal where you pick them up.
The RCCL you can carry your bags off and depart the ship from 0600 - 0700 in the morning. That is called express departure. That is no fallacy as I do that departure myself. The bad thing is that you and your family take care of all your bags and for those with a lot of bags it doesn't work to well. I usually have two bags. This is at Port Canaveral. I don't know about other ports.
I do remember that "express option" being offered......but since we drove home (both from Miami for the Liberty and Canaveral for the Freedom) we are in NO hurry.....we were one of the last off. Luggage is coded by color. My suggestion is to grab a porter. Miami was a ZOO! BUT.....I don't think it is Royal's fault. Customs there was run by sloths.
RCI does have this. My husband and son did this once because they had an earlier flight home. The nice thing for them, we picked up all their luggage off when we got off the ship later that day....so they did not need to carry anything off. That being said, in ft. Lauderdale, the process was still a nightmare for them. they were in an insanely long line and had a very long walk to get off the ship. It took forever and they barely made their flight. I think it has a lot to do with the port. I hear a lot of nightmare stories about Ft. Lauderdale and much more positive stories about Port Canaveral.
Jess