Disney World vs Disney Cruise: Which is a better vacation?

I write about Disney World vacations and Disney Cruise vacations, which makes people ask, “which one is better for a family vacation?”  We love them both for different reasons. We go to Disney World far more than we go on Disney Cruises, but since we live close to Orlando, the effort to get there versus on a cruise is much less for us.

If you’ve done both, please agree or disagree with me in the comments.

I’ll break down all the differences, so you can decide which one you should take your family on for your next vacation. I’ll try to start with the issues that most people will consider the most important.

Our girls love both options.

Cost Comparison

The first question almost anyone has about Disney Cruises and Disney World is which one costs less, or which one is a better deal. Lots of people will give you arbitrary comparisons between a 4-night cruise on a verandah and a 4-Night stay with park hopper tickets in a deluxe resort.

However, the truth is it’s very difficult to compare because the experiences that one can choose at Disney World vary wildly, but I’ll give it my best shot. First, things that are the same. Travel to the parks or the cruise will cost most people the same amount. Alcohol will cost the same amount. Exclusive dining will cost the same (Palo or California Grill).

If you want to be fancy, with top notch food, attentive service, and catered experience, the Disney Cruise will be a much better value. That’s because the baselines for Disney Cruises are deluxe-style trips.

You get rotational fine dining included in your cruise. You get Broadway level shows. You get room service for almost free (except tip). You get your stateroom cleaned multiple times a day with towel animals. All for the base cruise prices. Childcare is also included (or very cheap for children under 3).  

Disney Cruises are about as fancy as we get as a family.

There are certainly things you can pay for extra, but you get a luxury vacation just for paying your balance at the beginning of the trip. For an arbitrary point of reference, an average cost for a family of 4 for a 4-night cruise is roughly $5000-6000. That can vary wildly depending on the room, the ship, and the cruise itinerary. If you opt for an inside stateroom, your bottom line will be much lower.

Disney World trip costs, if you want to live in luxury, will be much, much more. Staying in a deluxe resort ($500+ a night), getting park hopper option tickets ($150-200/person per day), and eating at fine dining establishments ($60+ per person) multiple times a day will end costing much more than Disney Cruise. If my amount for the cruise is $1500/day, what I just quoted above is roughly $1700/day before snacks, parking, and Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lanes(here’s a walkthrough for Genie Plus and Lightning Lanes). Almost everything comes at an additional cost.

We love our Disney World trips.

However, if you want to be frugal, take a closer look. You can get your cost well below the cost of Disney Cruise Line's relatively high base cost. You’ll sacrifice a lot in terms of park days, rides ridden, table service meals, and Disney-themed hotels near the parks, but it’s still great.

We’ve stayed in VRBOs or Airbnbs for $75-100 a night for 3 bedrooms. And sometimes we only go to the parks every other day. And then, we eat breakfast we bought at the grocery store and pack our lunches, only eating quick service for dinner.

At this rate, we can do a Disney World trip far below $1000/day. It’s not the same vacation as when we stay onsite, but it’s doable and still fun. There is no basement bargain option for DCL (well, it’s called Carnival Cruise Line). Also, our baby is free at the parks at Disney World, but he costs a lot on a cruise.

Rooms

The differences in rooms for a Disney Cruise or Disney World depends on what you value. The rooms on a Disney ship are far smaller than even a value resort at a Walt Disney World resort, smaller even than the cheapest hotel on the outskirts of Disney.

The staterooms are tiny, but the ceilings are metal, so you can use magnets to hang decorations. The stateroom hosts did this for my wife (extra cost).

That being said, roughly 80% of these staterooms come with a balcony overlooking the ocean—something only the deluxe resorts can compare to. Also, as I mentioned above, the service provided on a cruise ship is far superior than your hotel.

Here’s our room at Caribbean Beach Resort. You can see how much wider it is. (It’s also longer).

You decide who wins that one.

Dining

Disney Cruise Line dining offers top-tier food (in my opinion) at the rotational restaurants and decent food at the walk-up restaurants on the pool deck and at Cabanas (the buffet on the top level). This is better than most other cruise lines that limit you to one dining room. Also, you can order as much as you want, and they’ll puree baby food for you if you have a little one.

Character meals are included as part of every Disney Cruise. Another advantage over very expensive character meals at Disney World. Also, Della survived on rolls and apple juice. For the best autograph books for Disney characters, check out this post.

Cost-wise, Disney Cruise meals are better than Disney World, even if you opt into a dining plan. But, DCL has nothing on the sheer variety of food that Disney World offers across hundreds of restaurants and booths. Also, as I mentioned above, you can cut costs by bringing your own food to the parks.

This pork belly bowl from Yak and Yeti’s is one of the best meals I’ve had in my life, but I wish it was included in my park ticket. (Animal Kingdom)

Again, it’s a toss up. I’ll give it to Disney Cruise until you’ve been on several because the meals start to feel repetitive.

Ease of Planning Beforehand

One thing that stresses a lot of people out is the logistics of planning a vacation. While there are benefits to booking both DCL and WDW far in advance, Disney Cruise Line usually offers the cheapest rates far in advance. They also have a much earlier window for booking special things like port excursions, exclusive dining, optional add-ons, and cabanas.

Finally, DCL requires so much documentation beforehand—profile pictures, multiple forms of identification, and other things. This makes the lead up to a Disney Cruise far more stressful than picking out a few restaurants and deciding which parks to go to.

I know a lot of people who are stressed by Disney World, but almost everything there can be adjusted at the last minute—not so with a cruise.

I think planning a Disney World trip is much less stressful, but this might just be my lingering trauma from having to test for Covid two days before my cruises during the pandemic. THAT was stressful—knowing that we’d have to turn around and go home if one of my 5 family members tested positive.

Also, as a parent of small kids who are incapable of carrying their own luggage, boarding a Disney Cruise line is 1000x harder than going to a hotel room at Disney World. Since we usually drive, I can wait hours to unpack the car for a Disney World trip. For a Disney Cruise, I have to abandon my wife with all the luggage for 5 people while I park the car.

I’m particularly salty about the dirt lot parking situation a mile from the cruise terminal in New Orleans. As much as a Disney Cruise is for families, they’ve completely dropped the ball on check-in.

Ease of Planning During

Everything switches once the vacation starts. Most of your excursions and dining are locked in for a Disney Cruise. You might have some advanced dining reservations and theme parks lined up for Disney World as well, but every 30 minutes you have to make another decision about what to do next. Meanwhile, on a Disney Cruise, you can just sit on the deck and read a book. Missed trivia? There’ll be another one in an hour.

Point Disney Cruise Line.

Childcare

Childcare is where a Disney Cruise Line vacation blows Disney World out of the water (pun intended). Disney Cruise Line has amazing childcare for ages all the way to 18 (well, really 21). For the 0-3, DCL has the It’s a Small World Nursery that costs at miniscule $9/hour. For ages, 3-10, they have the Oceaneer Club and Lab that keeps my kids entertained while I read a novel.

Here’s a guide to the Small World Nursery.

My younger daughter coming out of the Slinky Dog slide in the Oceaneer’s Club on the Disney Wonder.

They also have special youth clubs for middle schoolers, high schoolers, and even college-aged students to keep them having a magical time while you get a massage.

Of course, if your goal is to spend time with your kids for some reason, both Disney World and DCL offer plenty of opportunities for that.

Vacation Experience

Next is a preference issue. If your goal for a vacation is to get as much dopamine and adrenaline as possible in a short amount of time, then a Walt Disney World vacation is for you. It’s filled with rides, shows, art, beauty, music, and character meetings around every corner. Most families go, go, go until they’re exhausted, and then they sit and relax. And there is quite a lot of variety. You can go to Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, EPCOT, or Hollywood Studios. And there's plenty to do outside the Disney parks, like activities at a Disney resort or at Disney Springs.

A lot more adrenaline for my daughter on Slink Dog Dash versus the Slinky slide on the cruise.

On a Disney Cruise, the goal is mostly relaxation. Whether you’re reading a book on deck, enjoying a lounge or bar, sitting on a beach, or just watching the waves from your verandah, it’s about finding healing in the gentle rocking. There are a few chances for dopamine and adrenaline from the shows, excursions, and water slides, but the experience is vastly different from Walt Disney World.

My youngest daughter is really enjoying the Disney Cruise Walt Disney Theater, and the show hasn’t even started.

What are you looking for? What are your children looking for? If it's meeting different characters, both offer great opportunities for that. If you want to avoid long lines for those characters, Disney Cruise is the way to go, but Disney World has more characters. Both have character dining, but only the Disney Wish has the Marvel Characters. Either vacation is a great way to have magical experiences.

Water Experience

Both Disney Cruises and Disney World have a lot of water. If you want an amazing pool with great water slides, the water parks and resorts at Disney World might be your best bet. The water slides on the cruise are great, but the pools are weak and tiny on a cruise (except the adult pools, usually).

If you want the beach and Disney World, Stormalong Bay at Beach and Yacht Club has a sand bottom pool with a real sandbar for kids to play with in the middle. We stayed here a few weeks ago.

But Disney Cruises have the ocean, not just around the boat, but at each amazing port of call. You can see a variety of beaches and have all-inclusive experiences on them if you want. This is much better than humid, land-locked Central Florida.

Connection to Outside World (good or bad)

Here’s another preference decision. A Disney Cruise ship is extremely cut off from the world. You have to pay a small fortune to have spotty internet access, and you’ll typically only be able to make a phone call in port.

Tip: Make sure you know what your roaming/international plan is! We’ve racked up $200 in charges just from forgetting to put our phones in airplane mode—passive data charges.

This disconnection also means you can’t run get supplies you forgot or order them from Amazon. If this stresses you out, you might prefer a Disney World vacation.

On the flip side, if disconnecting from the world is relaxing to you, then the separation of Disney Cruise might lower all your stress and anxiety. At Disney World, you might still get emails from your boss and phone calls from your kids’ school (because you took them out again).

Crowds

While Disney Cruise ships can be full and busy, it’s a regular amount of busy. You’ll never have to wait for a table at dinner, but you will have to wait for the water slide and pizza (but never as long as a ride at Disney World). Sometimes the shows, trivia, and other events might fill up.

However, Disney World is another thing entirely. You have to work hard just to eat, wait over an hour for certain rides, and book a lot of things in advance. Or, you might get lucky and have low crowds.

The Whole World vs. Disney World

Finally, you have to take into account memorable experiences. While Disney World is an experience you will remember, how does that compare to some of the Disney Cruise Line destinations. For me, all the Mexican beaches run together, but I won’t forget Dunn River Falls. And they all pale in comparison to experiencing a volcanic island, Alaska or Europe. Of course, you’ll pay a premium for the more exotic locales.

In short, it’s the World Showcase versus the actual world. But of course, there's something magical and nostalgic about seeing fireworks at Magic Kingdom instead of on the cruise ship.

The Verdict

If both venues were outside my door, I’d probably choose Disney Cruise more frequently. However, they aren’t right outside my door. The bar for booking a Disney World trip is much lower. I live in Atlanta, which is a 1 hour flight or 7 hour drive. I can book them spur of the moment (despite what some people say), and I can tailor it to exactly as much as I want to spend. I can pack poorly and make it for it once I get there.

 Booking a cruise requires much more preparation even if I'm sailing out of Port Canaveral, but it is an amazing experience that I will return to again and again. It’s perhaps the most relaxing vacation I’ve ever had in my life. So my advice for your next Disney vacation? Do both, and decide afterwards. You'll have a great time either way.

So which is a better choice? That's up to you and your preferences. Either way your vacation package will have amazing entertainment. You can have fun with Mickey Mouse either way.

If you’ve never been on a Disney Cruise, check out my guide for Disney Cruise first-timers and Disney Cruise packing list here.

Let me know what you thought of the article or if you have any questions in the comments below.