Adding cruise to next trip

[Goldcoast]

We are thinking of incorporating a Disney or Royal Caribbean cruise into our next trip. Having never even thought about it before what do you think a rough (very rough) budget would likely be. (Family of 5)

Do you normally start or end your holiday with a cruise?

TIA

[SquishTheWhale]

Budget is almost impossible to say as it depends on date, itinerary, ship and cabin. It could be £2k or it could be £20k. Royal will be cheaper than Disney. I'd just look on the websites for your dates and see what's available.
Also consider Norwegian Cruise Line if you like the look of Royal Caribbean.

I would definitley cruise at the end of the trip as it's relaxing after doing the parks

[Billy Beatnik]

We did a RC cruise at the end of a week in Orlando, it was fantastic and so relaxing. The only problem was that we were so relaxed that we wanted another week back in Orlando.
Must do islands are St Thomas and St Maarten. Macho beach on St Maarten is a must, check out the videos on YouTube.

[Hudson]

We've done all of our cruises at the end of our holiday in Florida, winding down from the parks. However, we have done cruises at the beginning of our holiday too but out of Texas and New York.
The biggest difference for me was that after not spending money while on the cruise when we got off and had another week to go I felt like I was hemorrhaging money by the minute...
As another poster mentioned, Maho beach in St Maarten is certainly an experience. I saw a few people and all their belongings get blown (tumbling) down the beach into the sea. Our 2 boys had a ball getting swept up and down the beach by the waves...They had so much fun there that when we back to St Maarten later that year we went back to Maho beach again for the day.
We usually book our cruises with Cruise 118.

[YorkshireT]

Think our Royal one to Coco Cay (very, very highly recommended it was wonderful there) and Nassau was $2500 for family of 4 on Navigator out of Miami, for a 4 night cruise.
Parking at the terminal was $20 a day.
Very easy, drive in (you don’t pre book parking), down in a lift, hand your case to a guy at a conveyor, walk into the terminal and get on the ship.

[Goldcoast]

Thank you everyone, plenty to think about and even better a load of YouTube videos to watch

[simmofamily]

Originally Posted by Billy Beatnik

We did a RC cruise at the end of a week in Orlando, it was fantastic and so relaxing. The only problem was that we were so relaxed that we wanted another week back in Orlando.
Must do islands are St Thomas and St Maarten. Macho beach on St Maarten is a must, check out the videos on YouTube.

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Exactly what we did for DH's 50th 4 years ago. One of my favorite trips. Freedom of the Seas was the ship and I'm contemplating doing it all again.
Used Bernards tours for St Maarten. Amazing!

[mick]

We've only done six cruises (three out of Florida) so don't have a great breadth of experience but one major bit of advice - make sure that you add the cruise to your travel insurance.

Mick