Differences between Disneyland parks and Disney Cruises

For your next vacation, you might be wondering if you should go to another Disneyland park, or go on a Disney cruise. The two experiences are very different, but also have their similarities. Here’s our take based on our experiences so far.

Walking

At the end of the day at a Disneyland park, the main thing you’ll probably be feeling is sore feet, or a tired back - basically overall tiredness. No kidding, there’s a lot (did I say a lot?) of walking and standing throughout the day, from one attraction to another, and queuing. We all know how crazy the queues can get! And if the weather is hot, it makes it even more tiring. For parks like Japan, even the food stalls - like the popcorn and churros stalls - the queues can take more than 30 minutes! 

The exceptions in this case are if you are staying at a Disney hotel that’s connected to the park - like the Hotel MiraCosta at Tokyo DisneySea - enabling you to return to your room for a nap before continuing with the park activities later in the day feeling recharged. 

On a Disney cruise, everything is in very close proximity. Depending on where your stateroom is, it might be a case of walking 30 seconds from your room to where you want to go - be it the dining hall or theatre. And any time in the day if you feel tired, you can just return to your room for a nap, before going on your next activity. 

Plus, the activities on the ship aren't exactly very physical. Jacuzzis, loungers, bars, theatres, restaurants, trivia games, the spa, bingo - yup you get the idea.

The cruise experience is generally more relaxing. The most physically demanding thing you’ll probably be doing on the ship is climbing the stairs when the lifts are packed. 

Rides

Between the two, the Disney parks definitely have way more rides and attractions compared to the cruise. Many people go to the Disneyland parks to ride on their favourite attractions, there are just too many to list. Popular ones include Space Mountain, the Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, and so on. 

And all these rides provide vastly different experiences: slow and relaxing, thrilling, in the dark, on water, trackless. If you’re in it for the rides, you’d definitely have to go to the Disney parks. 

On the ships, the newer ones - Disney Wish, Disney Treasure, Disney Destiny - have Aquamouse, a so-called water coaster attraction. It’s a really cool concept as you go through a tunnel with screens showing scenes setting up a storyline. But it’s basically a water slide where you’re sitting in a float. 

On the upcoming Disney Adventure sailing from Singapore, there’s going to be an actual roller coaster on the ship! We don’t have much details yet. But even with these, the rides definitely don’t come close to what the parks have to offer. 

Character meets

In the parks, there are specific locations that certain characters are at. Visitors can find this out on the park apps and choose who they want to meet and get photos of. The queues for popular characters tend to be very long. I’ve seen the lines for Mickey and Minnie going at 50 minutes! Sometimes, there are also roaming characters that you might bump into just walking around the park. 

On the ships, there are also assigned locations and timings where characters will be. These tend to be of shorter durations, typically around 30 minutes. Wait times also can range from 15 to 30 minutes, but won’t be longer since the characters will head off. You can find these info on the cruise app. Lines for popular characters do form even before the allocated time, and after a certain duration, the cast members (ship staff) will close the line. So if you don’t want to be disappointed, it’s better to show up earlier to start queuing! Sometimes, certain characters do roam around and interact with guests as well. We saw Goofy doing that quite often! 

Disney Magic

Some people might feel that the parks are more magical than the ships, and others might feel the opposite. I think it comes down to what each of us finds “magical”. It depends on what gives you that magical feel! 

Why choose one when you can choose both!  

But whichever it is, if you can, why not try both? Yes it’s difficult as the Disney cruises sail from locations that are different from the Disney parks. Currently, the only place where you can do both from one place is Orlando, Florida. There’s Walt Disney World and Port Canaveral - where the ships sail from. Yes it’s super far from Asia, so here are some tips on how to get there, and reasons to make the long journey. 

In the future (feels so far away), there’ll be Tokyo as well! It’s been announced that the Disney cruises will sail from the Port of Tokyo, which is just on the other side of Tokyo Bay where Tokyo Disney Resort is! This means you can have access to both the Tokyo Disney parks and the Disney cruise from one convenient location. Can’t wait! 

There are more differences between the two experiences which we’ll look into in a later post. Join our mailing list or follow us on our socials to stay updated on when new posts are out.