Cruise to Resort question

[MNDisneyFan]

Hi there,
I'm new to Disney Cruises and to Intercot. My family (17 members) will be sailing on the 7-Night Eastern Caribbean Cruise Jan. 19-26, 2008. (Not much more exciting than that, but it gets better). After the cruise, 8 of us will be going to WDW to stay at the All-Star Music Resort. (We made separate cruise and WDW reservations). I will be reserving a Mears shuttle from the cruise to the resort. I'm trying to decide if I should buy theme park tickets for the same day that we disembark. Realistically, what's the earliest time we could be at one of the theme parks?

Thanks for your help. I love this site.

[Piglet822]

The ship is usually done emptying out by 10ish so depending on how long it takes your family to gather luggage and get everyone together, you can be to the parks by 12 or 1.

[Tavel]

We were inside Animal Kingdom after the cruise by 11 a.m. -- and that's with saying good-byes to my parents.

[TammiMcMan]

Let's see, we were off the ship by 7:20am, into our car and on the road within 20 minutes ~ Made it to the GF, checking in and dropping off the luggage by 9am, standing at the entrance of Epcot by 10am.

Realistically though, gathering up and organizing 8 people, plus saying good byes to the other family members, I'd have to say that you probably would be looking at closer to 1pm for a park. Considering that you're up at about 6am for breakfast and disembarking, you may need some nap time in the afternoon (don't know the ages you are travelling with). I'd suggest just relaxing and enjoying the time at the resort for your first day. Keep the plans loose and maybe do something in the evening, like a fireworks cruise or something. With 8 people, that may end up costing you less than purchasing an extra park day ticket for everyone.

[MNDisneyFan]

Thanks much for the replies. Of the 17 of us, 4 are leaving FL to go back to MN. Five of us are going to an area hotel off of the Walt Disney property, but plan on going to some park that day. The 8 of us that are going to All-Star Music include my in-laws, my wife and I, and our 4 boys ages 13, 11, 8, and 5. I think our boys would definitely vote to visit a park instead of relaxing for the day. If we were getting to the park in the early evening, then I think we would skip it, but if we have a chance of getting there by lunch time, I think our family would love to see at least a portion of one of the parks. MK might be a good one to go to since we'll go there again, and it's the family favorite. Epcot might be a good one to go to since it is so large, and stays open later than all of the other parks. Or Disney-MGM...(oops...what's it called now?) might be a good one to go to since that is the least kid-friendly, and we might be able to cover it all in an afternoon and evening (or am I mistaken?)

[ElenitaB]

I think you can easily be in a park by early afternoon. If you check park hours to see which park until what time on your debarkation day, you might be able to make a better decision. I know that we took the last bus that left port back to WDW and even with waiting for family members to arrive from Texas, we were still at the Magic Kingdom by 2:00. We hung around that night until Wishes and made it an early evening as we had all been up since very early for our travel day.