Hi Doug, as you can tell, it's a very personal decision about the length that people would recommend for a first cruise. Here's my two cents. If you KNOW that your whole family loves WDW, but you're not sure if everyone will love the cruise, then I would highly recommend that you go with your first thought: 3 nights at WDW, combined with a 4 night cruise. It's very easy to arrange both with transfers. (You could do it yourself or have your travel agent do it for you.)
If, however, you do a little research and you decide that there's plenty for everyone to do and the whole family will enjoy the experience, then go with the longer sailing. You'll have more time to get used to the ship, see different shows, and you won't have to get off the ship in Nassau
If you told me that I could do only one trip during the year -- either a 7-night DCL sailing OR a land-and-sea combo -- I would be sad to miss out on WDW, but I would choose the longer itinerary. It's that good. But the answer for you really depends on your family.
On my last Disney cruise, we ran into a crew member (Inyo, he's a restaurant server) on Embarkation Day. We hadn't seen him for probably 3 or 4 years, and the first words out of his mouth were, "Where's Grandma?" He realized that my mother-in-law wasn't traveling with us and she had really liked him. We also had a crew member ask us about my dad one year, and we had to tell him that my dad had died; and the guy was genuinely sad. It amazes me how these people remember us time and time again, when they see so many thousands of faces every month.
Hi, thanks so much for your thoughts! Yes i know for sure that my entire family are huge WDW fans! I've been there 7 times, and would go much more often if i could...My wife had only been once before we took our daughter 3 years ago...we had an incredible time and needless to say she's now a huge fan. i mentioned my daughter (5), we took her at 2.5 years old and now will be going back this fall for her second trip, and my sons (2) first trip.
My wife has been saying and wanting for years to do a cruise, so i know she'll love the experience. (We've never been to a tropical island either). So this will be quite the experience to knock out multiple islands as well as the cruise itself, all on one trip. I was always skeptical about cruises, being as big a WDW fan that i am i always thought to myself "how could you possibly keep busy on a boat for a week". After doing some research and finding this forum, it sure seems like that won't be a problem.
Not going to Disney World won't be too upsetting, its always been an every few years type of trip for me anyway so after going this fall it won't be a big deal to not go next year.
Thats amazing, and i have heard that multiple times before. That really is incredible that they remember faces and sometimes names that long afterwards. I hope if and when we take our cruise that we have a great experience like that with the crew members. Thanks again for your help!!!
lol yikes