Cruise and park trip - Itinerary advice

[Jodieg]

Hello! We have managed to squeeze a short break to Florida for December. We have only got 9 days and decided to take the plunge and booked our first every cruise - Disney Merrytime on the Dream to the Bahamas for 4 nights - kids 3. 9 and 11.

I’m trying to make the most of our time. We would usually do a few weeks to cover all of the parks and haven’t got that time this time which is why we opted for a cruise as know the kids have been dying to go on one - it’s all a surprise!

Our itinerary-

Land on the 12th and have hotel booked at cocoa beach as easy to get to port Canaveral for the next day departure. Cruise for 4 nights.

17th we are off the ship by 8am…

Have booked a hotel for 17th-20th….

So we have the 17th/18th/19th/20th free to fill before we fly back on the night of the 20th…

Now my big 2 think they’d love universal with all the big rides. They’re pretty daring…but the youngest, might be bored?! But I was wondering if we do magic kingdom and animal kingdom (the two parks we do want to visit) and then 2 days at universal to keep the older 2 happy…

We know it’s going to be manic…and know we won’t cover it all but thinking this is the best option?

Not really fussed about the water parks as we do them on all of our other holidays and we’re doing a dolphin swim in Dubai next week so don’t really need to go to sea life or DC…

Any other suggestions?

[Fraggle35]

Sorry to hijack your post Jodieg but please say hi to my daughter Katie who has been moved from the Wonder to the Dream and joins the ship this Friday as a lifeguard... she'll be so excited if you can.

[gismo1554]

Its about 2 hours back to Orlando from Port Canaveral so you will get about 1/2 day that side and then 1/2 day the other side. Also you only really have a 1/2 day on the last day as well. Personally I would probably think about doing 1 day universal and getting the Express pass and then doing 1 day Magic Kingdom rather than trying to cram in to the 2 half days.