transportation to

[chrisd596]

After reading a few posts, it seems important to get to the Port using a rented car instead of Disney Bus Transportation. There seem to be a lot of advantages. First, you can check in the ship before the buses come in with lots of people, second you can be in the first group to get onboard the ship, thirdly you also will have time to have your first lunch on the ship.

Being a first timer, am I correct on this. I was planning on using disney transportation from wdw to the port, but now will look into renting a car from the dolphin and drop off by the port.

Does Alamo have a drop off location close to the port???

I will use the disney transportation to get back to MCO after the cruise is over, but now I think the car rental WONT cost anymore then the 70 dollars and I'll pick up a lot of advantages.

Experienced cruises, let me know what you think. I'm going on the 1/3/11 cruise.

Thanks a lot.

Chris

 

[MagicMe]

Another option if you wanted would be to get up early and take ME back to MCO and from there take the Disney bus to the port. The first bus from there leaves around 9:30 or so and you normally get there between 10:30-11.

I've done the car rental but have only used Budget.

 

[NancyIL]

Unfortunately - Alamo doesn't have a location near the port. I have rented from Budget (Doubletree) and Avis (Hilton) for one-ways to or from the port, as well as rented a car at MCO for drop-off at Cape Canaveral.

 

[Edd]

Another option which many use is the Car Service. The price run about $180.00 to $230.00 from MCO for up to 7 persons. If you are a family of 3 or more you will save $$$ going Car Service over DCL bus service. The Car Service is much faster getting over to the port you b=can be ther approximately 1 hour after you land.It is not shared ride so you get your family privacy. With car service you can be at the port at 1000h or before, which will get you on the ship pretty fast. The Car Service will get you back to MCO approximately 50 minutes after you depart the ship allowing you to book flights out of MCO as early as 1000 - 1030h.

The cheapest way is of course, one day car rental, but it takes a bit of time to get to the vehicles and get over to the rental office and than to the ship. I would say add an extra hour renting a car over using Car Service to get to the ship. Add about two extra hours of riding and waiting if you use the busses.

 

[clten]

The cheapest way is of course, one day car rental, but it takes a bit of time to get to the vehicles and get over to the rental office and than to the ship. I would say add an extra hour renting a car over using Car Service to get to the ship. Add about two extra hours of riding and waiting if you use the busses.

If you are renting a car, the time to pick-up and drop off can be as little as 1/2 an hour depending on where you are picking up the car (drop off in Port Canaveral usually takes us less than 15 minutes including the shuttle ride to the port). And getting the bus does not add 2 extra hours to the journey!! If you are picked up at the appointed time and happen to be the first pick up, you may have a couple of other pick-ups that will add maybe 1/2 hr to the trip. But the one hour ride to the port is the same if you're using a rental car, car service or bus. That isn't extra time.

Regardless of how you get to the port, you will still be able to have lunch on board -- they serve that well into the afternoon. The busses from WDW do arrive after 1pm so if you want to be on board earlier (the earliest boarding is usually around 11:45), then you will have to make other arrangements.

How many nights are you staying before the cruise? If it is just one night, it might be worth picking up the rental car at the airport when you arrive. But when comparing prices of rental car vs bus remember to add gas and toll charges.

 

[lovethedream]

Another option which many use is the Car Service. The price run about $180.00 to $230.00 from MCO for up to 7 persons. If you are a family of 3 or more you will save $$$ going Car Service over DCL bus service. The Car Service is much faster getting over to the port you b=can be ther approximately 1 hour after you land.It is not shared ride so you get your family privacy. With car service you can be at the port at 1000h or before, which will get you on the ship pretty fast. The Car Service will get you back to MCO approximately 50 minutes after you depart the ship allowing you to book flights out of MCO as early as 1000 - 1030h.

The cheapest way is of course, one day car rental, but it takes a bit of time to get to the vehicles and get over to the rental office and than to the ship. I would say add an extra hour renting a car over using Car Service to get to the ship. Add about two extra hours of riding and waiting if you use the busses.

Have you every actually used the bus? Just curious.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

After reading a few posts, it seems important to get to the Port using a rented car instead of Disney Bus Transportation. There seem to be a lot of advantages. First, you can check in the ship before the buses come in with lots of people, second you can be in the first group to get onboard the ship, thirdly you also will have time to have your first lunch on the ship.

Being a first timer, am I correct on this. I was planning on using disney transportation from wdw to the port, but now will look into renting a car from the dolphin and drop off by the port.

Does Alamo have a drop off location close to the port???

I will use the disney transportation to get back to MCO after the cruise is over, but now I think the car rental WONT cost anymore then the 70 dollars and I'll pick up a lot of advantages.

Experienced cruises, let me know what you think. I'm going on the 1/3/11 cruise.

Thanks a lot.

Chris

Hi neighbor! We're in Cherry Hill!

I have to agree with Edd. We've used Happy Limo to PC 3x and once, last cruise, we rented a car. Never again. Waited over 1 hr for ME to pick us up at WL, then stop at 2 other resorts. We got our car and drove to the port with quick grocery stop for bottled water, then dropped off luggage at port so we wouldn't have to take it all on the shuttle. Then waited 1/2 hr for shuttle. It felt like we would never get there. From an 8:45 am ME pick up time, we finally boarded at 1:30. It's not like we're clueless about MCO, rented cars plenty of times but it was the waiting for ME and the Avis shuttle that took so long. When we use Happy Limo, they get us to the port by 10:30 with very minimal luggage handling on our part.

We like using DCL transportation ($35 pp for one way) to go back to MCO. If you're flying a participating airline and use DCL transfers to MCO, you qualify for Onboard Check In. This is a free service from DCL where they deliver your boarding passes to your stateroom along with luggage tags on the last full day of the cruise. You put your tagged luggage outside your door the last night like everyone else, but in the morning, unlike everyone, you don't have to retrieve your bags in the terminal, take them through customs or wait in line to check bags at MCO. Once you're off the ship, you simply hop on the DCL bus with carryon and boarding passes and once at MCO, head straight to security and your gate. It doesn't get any easier. We make sure to fly participating airlines post cruise just to qualify for this.

Southwest and Spirit do not participate. Here are the ones that do:
Alaska, American Airlines, AirTran Airways, Continental, Delta, JetBlue, Northwest, United and US Airways

I have found that in general, the cheapest way is usually the most inconvenient and the more expensive way is most convenient. Not a princess here but when I'm handling luggage so much that my vacation is more work than work, then it's time to spend more for the convenience. jmho.
How ever you get there, have a great cruise. You will love it!!!

 

[Edd]

If you are doing car rental, I agree with you the you can pick up a car in as little as 30 minutes. That is if you are not driving to the car agency, loading up the car, loading up your family and actually if you are first in line to get the vehicle. In Orlando and on port days as little as 1/2 hour usually is not the case. It may be more like 30 - 60 minutes, sometimes even longer, extra each way to get a car and that does not include transportation to the agency. When you get off the ship you are waiting an extra 15 - 30 minutes while they get the van over to pick you up. If you are lucky it is loading as you walk out, but that doesn't mean you will get on. That adds extra time to the trip.

With car service it is straight to the ship from the luggage carousels to the luggage pick-up by the porters. Walk off the ship and out of the terminal over to the pick-up area and load into the car service vehicle and back to MCO in 50 minutes or WDW in 75 minutes. It does cost money but less than buss service if you are a family of 3 or more. You can't beat the rental for aa day price, unless it is a busy time and they are out of cars or car rental rates are up.

One extra advantage is that when you are cruising the other ships, Carnival, RCCL, you can be out of those ships before 0700 in the morning, back to MCO by 0800 and on a flight home by 1000 in the morning. You can get off the DCL ship by about 0730h. Car service can provide that for you, bus service is no where in sight that early in the morning.

If the above poster had 4 or more persons in his group he would find that transportation back to MCO is cheaper than bus transportation one way, bus transportation runs $35 per person one way.

To the poster who wants to know if I have rode the bus system I haven't. My comments are based on talking to the many drivers of bus transportation in Orlando, who I associate with, and the many riders who have converted from riding the bus to picking up other transportation to the port than bus transportation which is actually very expensive.

 

[BealsRwe]

When over in Port Canaveral last week, I noticed that Hertz was less than a mile from the ship...they had a shuttle to the port as well. Not sure if you had looked at them as an option.

 

[chrisd596]

After many trips to wdw and being a dvc member, taking our first cruise reminds me of years ago researching how to do disney! I certainly appreciate all the great comments and thoughts.

Just me and my wife are cruising. Our cruise is on Jan 3.

Not sure how much Happy Limo service would be for a one way ride???

We're arriving the day before and staying at BWV.

Our flight home, leaves at 3:30 and we're using AirTran so I was thinking of using DCL bus transportation which is $35/ person.

Any other thoughts would be great.

(Also a big Hi to our Cherry Hill neighbor "ruadisneyfan2"

 

[Edd]

With a party of two yoou will not save any money. A car service will charge you about $150. for the ride. The only advantage you have with car service is your time. You are in charge of the time wheras in bus service they tell you what time. It depends on what your time is worth. Car service from your resort to the port is approximately 1 1/2 hours. Bus service will be from 2 - 3 hours to the port depending on how fast the bus loads and how many stops it makes before it heads to the port.

The same holds true for your return to MCO or WDW. It depends on how much you value your time.

 

[NancyIL]

I have to agree with Edd. We've used Happy Limo to PC 3x and once, last cruise, we rented a car. Never again. Waited over 1 hr for ME to pick us up at WL, then stop at 2 other resorts. We got our car and drove to the port with quick grocery stop for bottled water, then dropped off luggage at port so we wouldn't have to take it all on the shuttle. Then waited 1/2 hr for shuttle. It felt like we would never get there. From an 8:45 am ME pick up time, we finally boarded at 1:30. It's not like we're clueless about MCO, rented cars plenty of times but it was the waiting for ME and the Avis shuttle that took so long. When we use Happy Limo, they get us to the port by 10:30 with very minimal luggage handling on our part.

You're first mistake was to take ME to the airport! Avis would've sent a shuttle from the Hilton at Downtown Disney to your WDW resort, and you could've gotten the car that morning or even the day before.

 

[chrisd596]

Ok, what car rentals besides National/Alamo are located at the airport MCO, not off site and are also located close to Port C.

Even though I'm traveling "off-season" on Jan 2nd, I think I can get a car at Mco for about $70 for the "two days." Pick up at Mco on Jan 2 at 9:30am and drop off at Port C at 10:30 am on Jan 3.


If I leave early at WDW and get it there by 9:30am, is there anything to do at the Disney Port there???

How early can you check in? How early can you board.

Even though we're 2, it cost $70 for the DCL transportation, so maybe renting the car would be better?

Doing a limo, would be too costly for us, being 2. It makes sense with 3 or 4 people.

Chris

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

You're first mistake was to take ME to the airport! Avis would've sent a shuttle from the Hilton at Downtown Disney to your WDW resort, and you could've gotten the car that morning or even the day before.

Ah yes! It was our 1st experience with ME and people make it sound so simple and it's free. Now I know it's neither magical nor express.
It was a quickie 3 nt cruise to escape our awful winter with record-breaking snowfall amounts. (Ds's were missing school and I just couldn't do longer.)

I was trying to keep it low budget between 2 big Oct cruises and had no idea that Avis had shuttle service available. I def would have gotten it the day before.
We'll be sticking with Hyatt MCO and Happy Limo. Both have been great for us.

Ok, what car rentals besides National/Alamo are located at the airport MCO, not off site and are also located close to Port C.
Now even Hertz is onsite at MCO. Your choices are Hertz, Dollar, Budget & Avis. Dollar charges a one way drop off fee so what initially looks like a great price, isn't once you see the grand total. Budget and Avis have free shuttles to PC. Not sure if they all do.

Even though I'm traveling "off-season" on Jan 2nd, I think I can get a car at Mco for about $70 for the "two days." Pick up at Mco on Jan 2 at 9:30am and drop off at Port C at 10:30 am on Jan 3.
If you find a price you can live with, book it. You can always cancel and rebook if you find a better price later.


If I leave early at WDW and get it there by 9:30am, is there anything to do at the Disney Port there???

How early can you check in? How early can you board.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I believe PC opens at 10am. We've never arrived before then so I can't say from experience. Boarding starts around noon. There are characters that come out for photos and a huge model of the Magic. Disney cartoons are on for kids.

Even though we're 2, it cost $70 for the DCL transportation, so maybe renting the car would be better?
What is "better" is very subjective. If you mean better as in arriving early compared to WDW resort pick ups, then yes, but not if you mean convenient. Really it's a matter of personal preference. For us, renting a car is least convenient. We're a fam of 4 and usually do 7 nt cruises over Halloween. Between costumes, pirate gear, Phillies hats/shirts for watching World Series onboard, etc for all of us it's a lot of luggage to haul around on/off shuttles. If it were just 2 us and 2 bags, I'd be more inclined to try other ways.

Doing a limo, would be too costly for us, being 2. It makes sense with 3 or 4 people.
Happy Limo isn't just limos. They have sedans too. http://www.happylimo.com/
Chris

 

[mmouse37]

Ok, what car rentals besides National/Alamo are located at the airport MCO, not off site and are also located close to Port C.

Even though I'm traveling "off-season" on Jan 2nd, I think I can get a car at Mco for about $70 for the "two days." Pick up at Mco on Jan 2 at 9:30am and drop off at Port C at 10:30 am on Jan 3.


If I leave early at WDW and get it there by 9:30am, is there anything to do at the Disney Port there???

How early can you check in? How early can you board.

Even though we're 2, it cost $70 for the DCL transportation, so maybe renting the car would be better?

Doing a limo, would be too costly for us, being 2. It makes sense with 3 or 4 people.

Chris

Rental agencies at the port are: Hertz, Thrifty/Dollar, Budget, Avis, Enterprise

You can find some discount codes for all of them at www.mousesavers.com

MJ