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Universal Studios???
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We are doing our first cruise in November this year! On one of the days the cruise offers an universal studios express service at £28.12 for each adult (two of us) this doesn't include entry. It states that we will have seven hours before being picked back up. So is seven hours enough time to visit. Can we pay at the gate? Cost for 2 adults? Never been to America! People are telling me that the cruise excusions can generally be done cheaper without going through the cruise liner?
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Some of the posts on this thread would appear to be relevant here:
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Yes excursions CAN often be done cheaper by doing it yourself.
However note that if you do a trip as an official excursion, and the coach is late back, the cruise ship WILL wait for you.
However if you do any sort of DIY trip and you are late back the cruise WONT wait for you so you will be stranded at the port, perhaps without your passport, money etc!.
Daily tickets for US theme parks are NOT cheap (they want you to buy the multi day tickets - 5 days, 7 days etc) so make the single day VERY expensive.
It says here the 1 park 1 day ticket is 115 dollars (£85)
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These parks are huge so you can see plenty in a day. Note however the car parks are huge so it can take a while to get to and from the coach park into the actual theme park so my guess is you may have more like 5 or 6 hours in the park.
Note often cruise ships don't dock till say 8am and leave at say 5pm (unless they are in port for 2 days) so your shore trip has to start and finish within those times.
I have done a couple of cruises (in Europe) and been to the USA a number of times on business and holiday if you need more help.
However note that if you do a trip as an official excursion, and the coach is late back, the cruise ship WILL wait for you.
However if you do any sort of DIY trip and you are late back the cruise WONT wait for you so you will be stranded at the port, perhaps without your passport, money etc!.
Daily tickets for US theme parks are NOT cheap (they want you to buy the multi day tickets - 5 days, 7 days etc) so make the single day VERY expensive.
It says here the 1 park 1 day ticket is 115 dollars (£85)
https:/
These parks are huge so you can see plenty in a day. Note however the car parks are huge so it can take a while to get to and from the coach park into the actual theme park so my guess is you may have more like 5 or 6 hours in the park.
Note often cruise ships don't dock till say 8am and leave at say 5pm (unless they are in port for 2 days) so your shore trip has to start and finish within those times.
I have done a couple of cruises (in Europe) and been to the USA a number of times on business and holiday if you need more help.
Note you don't HAVE to book excursions before your trip.
You can book them once you are on the boat.
While some excursions do get fully booked often they just add on another coach if they see a trip filing up.
If you wait till you are on the boat before booking a trip you can wait to see how you feel, how tired you are, what the weather is like and so on.
My wife and I did a cruise in 2015 (our first) and booked up a trip for each of the days.
By the time we got to the 4th or 5th day we were not in a mood for another shore trip so decided not to do it, but they will NOT give you your money back if you just drop out of a trip, so we lost the money.
So don't go too mad booking up shore trips, maybe wait till you are on the ship.
While on the ship you can also talk to others about their shore trips and get some advice / guidance if they think others are worth doing.
The link above that was posted to the Cruise Critic web site is a great place to look for advice.
There are sections on all the different cruise ships, and the different types of cruises.
There is also section on each port, saying how far the ship is from the local town centre, what there is to do in the area, what the best excursions are and so on.
A few hours on the cruise critic web site can make a big difference to how much you enjoy your cruise.
One example.
When the cruise ship docks at some ports there is almost nothing to do nearby so you have to get a taxi to get to the nearest town. This is perhaps the place where you SHOULD do an excursion.
On the other hand some ports have a large town or city within a short walking distance so maybe that is a time NOT to book an excursion but walk in to the local town or city.
Note also that when a boat is docked many people go on shore, so the boat is usually very quiet so it is a nice time to be on the boat, go swimming, eat in the restaurants, take part in some activities etc.
There are all sorts of thing you learn on your first cruise that you can carry over in to your future cruises.
You can book them once you are on the boat.
While some excursions do get fully booked often they just add on another coach if they see a trip filing up.
If you wait till you are on the boat before booking a trip you can wait to see how you feel, how tired you are, what the weather is like and so on.
My wife and I did a cruise in 2015 (our first) and booked up a trip for each of the days.
By the time we got to the 4th or 5th day we were not in a mood for another shore trip so decided not to do it, but they will NOT give you your money back if you just drop out of a trip, so we lost the money.
So don't go too mad booking up shore trips, maybe wait till you are on the ship.
While on the ship you can also talk to others about their shore trips and get some advice / guidance if they think others are worth doing.
The link above that was posted to the Cruise Critic web site is a great place to look for advice.
There are sections on all the different cruise ships, and the different types of cruises.
There is also section on each port, saying how far the ship is from the local town centre, what there is to do in the area, what the best excursions are and so on.
A few hours on the cruise critic web site can make a big difference to how much you enjoy your cruise.
One example.
When the cruise ship docks at some ports there is almost nothing to do nearby so you have to get a taxi to get to the nearest town. This is perhaps the place where you SHOULD do an excursion.
On the other hand some ports have a large town or city within a short walking distance so maybe that is a time NOT to book an excursion but walk in to the local town or city.
Note also that when a boat is docked many people go on shore, so the boat is usually very quiet so it is a nice time to be on the boat, go swimming, eat in the restaurants, take part in some activities etc.
There are all sorts of thing you learn on your first cruise that you can carry over in to your future cruises.
-- answer removed --
Personally I wouldn't do a theme park. If you want to do that, have a 'land' holiday to make sure you get to see what you want to. November is also the back end of hurricane season (on our last cruise [and we've done 21] there were 3 hurricane alerts in September on the East Coast. Didn't affect us, but they shortened several cruises to make sure people got home safely. Which port are you doing this from? If its Cape Canaveral, I'd do a tour of the space centre...you can easily do that on your own, and as Chris says in his post, join www.cruisecritic.com . You will find tons of info and can join the roll call for your cruise where people will be planning 'private' tours which are miles better and cheaper than the ships ones. As to people being left behind, these are normally the ones who hit the first bar and sleep it off on the beach for too long!! Have a great holiday.
We didn't go in peak season. We used to go in late September/early October, so the queues were only small. If you can get to Magic Kingdom, the fireworks display is much better than Epcot, which is really good anyway. And don't forget Fantasmic, also at Magic Kingdom. But the fireworks at Magic Kingdom only happen on Thursdays at 9 p.m. All very memorable!
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