to stay night prior to cruise

bellaphia

Mouseketeer
Joined
Nov 6, 2008
someone please tell me the best place to stay prior to cruise..we are a family of five(3 adults and 2 children) flying into MCO arriving sometime in the evening(most likely between 7-9pm) I do not want to spend a fortune on the one night but I also want the place to be clean, have a shuttle to port and possibly shuttle from mco to the hotel:confused3
suggestions?!?
 
someone please tell me the best place to stay prior to cruise..we are a family of five(3 adults and 2 children) flying into MCO arriving sometime in the evening(most likely between 7-9pm) I do not want to spend a fortune on the one night but I also want the place to be clean, have a shuttle to port and possibly shuttle from mco to the hotel:confused3
suggestions?!?

I don't think you will find one with a shuttle to the port & from MCO - at least not a free shuttle. Both cruises we have done, we got a one way car rental & drove it to the port. We stayed at the Four Points Sheraton the night before the cruise, turned in the car & then was shuttled from the car rental to the port. It was very easy & IMO the most economical way to get there. There are several other hotels that are good besides the Sheraton in Port Canaveral.
 
I'm not aware of any hotel that will shuttle you from MCO and to the port. I second the recommendation to rent a car for a one-way trip to Cape Canaveral, that's cheaper than any shuttle or DCL transfer, especially with the number of people you have. Check out Mousesavers.com for rental car discount codes that can help with the rate; Costco also has discounts that you might be able to use.

What we did was rent a car, drove from MCO to Cape Canaveral, stayed at the Doubletree (reserved using Hilton Family MVP discount). Got free chocolate chip cookies, nice room. DH dropped us at port in the morning, then returned the rental car while we waited in line. He took the free Avis shuttle back to the port. Did the same in reverse on the way out - caught the free rental car shuttle, picked up rental car, drove back to MCO.

(We cruised RCCL, not DCL, but out of PC).
 
I saw this posted on another cruise forum:

We are flying in a day ahead (5 of us) and are staying at the WingateOrlandoAirport. We booked the RT Port Canaveral transfer package that they offer. For $248.00 we got Transfers from airport to Hotel, one nights stay, transfer to Port Canaveral in the morning, and transfer back to either Hotel of airport (whichever you prefer) post cruise. For 5 of us, that was a great deal at right around $50pp. Not sure how many are in your group, but that was the BEST deal we found with transfers, especially if you are coming in a day ahead
 


Hyatt Place NW, book under their cruise package. They have a complimentary shuttle to/from MCO as well as a GOOD complimentary breakfast. The cruise package includes round trip transportation to/from the cruise terminal. For our date, this package was $121+tax which included up to 4 people. Other dates I've checked were as "high" as $150. No discount if you are only doing the transportation one way, but if you are heading to WDW after the cruise, you could take the Hyatt's transportation back to MCO and then ride ME to the world. Night at nice hotel + breakfast + cruise transportation for $121 (total a bit under $140) was a bargain, even for 2 people!
 
How was the shuttle service between Hyatt Place and MCO? I'm thinking of booking this for our pre cruise overnight stay next month and want to make certain that the shuttle service is timely and reliable.
 
Hyatt Place NW, book under their cruise package. They have a complimentary shuttle to/from MCO as well as a GOOD complimentary breakfast. The cruise package includes round trip transportation to/from the cruise terminal. For our date, this package was $121+tax which included up to 4 people. Other dates I've checked were as "high" as $150. No discount if you are only doing the transportation one way, but if you are heading to WDW after the cruise, you could take the Hyatt's transportation back to MCO and then ride ME to the world. Night at nice hotel + breakfast + cruise transportation for $121 (total a bit under $140) was a bargain, even for 2 people!

wow that sounds great!! I wonder how much it would be to add the fifth person??
 


Hyatt Place NW, book under their cruise package. They have a complimentary shuttle to/from MCO as well as a GOOD complimentary breakfast. The cruise package includes round trip transportation to/from the cruise terminal. For our date, this package was $121+tax which included up to 4 people. Other dates I've checked were as "high" as $150. No discount if you are only doing the transportation one way, but if you are heading to WDW after the cruise, you could take the Hyatt's transportation back to MCO and then ride ME to the world. Night at nice hotel + breakfast + cruise transportation for $121 (total a bit under $140) was a bargain, even for 2 people!

I tried pricing this for our trip in August and it was coming up as $234 for 4 transfers. This must have been a special rate you found.
 
I just looked up the cruise rate for this weekend--it was $149 + tax for 2 people and $189 for 4. I have no idea what it would cost to add a 5th; my suggestion would be that you call the hotel and ask directly. They had a couple of different cruise packages under "special offers. As I said, I've checked rates on several different dates...actually the $189 is the highest I've gotten for 4. The one thing I noticed is that it was often lower when looking at rates a few months out than when I've picked a date like "this month" when I'm checking randomly. This is also the first time that I've seen different pricing for transfers for 2 vs. transfers for 4. Looks like it is becoming a popular service....or the hotel realized what it costs to offer it. A room alone was $77 on a non-cancel, paid in advance rate...so I guess you could do that and have $100+ left to pay for a towncar service. However, a round trip towncar will run more like $250 + tip from most of the big names....

The shuttle service was great at the Hyatt Place.

The Wyngate offers a similar service but it is generally higher priced and there have been reports here of shuttle difficulties. The shuttle used to depart at 10:30--I could handle that. Then they moved it to noon--I don't want to depart Orlando at noon...sorry. IMHO, that ruined the service. It was after that when I saw some bad reviews.
 
We are staying the night by the airport then renting a car and driving to port in the morning. It's less expensive to both stay near MCO and rent a car one way.
 
Absolutely...a one way car rental is easy and relatively inexpensive. We typically pay $35-50 for a full sized car using discount codes from rentalcodes.com or mousesavers.com....add something for gas and tolls and you're good to go.
 
has anyone stayed right in MCO at the Hyatt? I'm guessing you would just use the DCL transfers with that..wouldn't have to deal with our luggage that way right:confused3
I'm looking for convience as well as not wanting to break the bank:goodvibes
 
has anyone stayed right in MCO at the Hyatt? I'm guessing you would just use the DCL transfers with that..wouldn't have to deal with our luggage that way right:confused3
I'm looking for convience as well as not wanting to break the bank:goodvibes

We're staying there for our cruise in 3 weeks. Usually we do a one way rent a car, but this time with a late flight in and just me and my two college aged daughters we're going for convenience. It's more than I like to pay for a hotel, $150 before tax, but we don't fly in until 10 pm and it just seemed like the easiest route. Just grab our bags, check in, and then head downstairs in the morning to take the DCL transfers.

Summer 2011 DH and I got in around 8 pm, rented a car and drove to Cocoa Beach. It's an easy drive and it was nice to wake up to a relaxing morning on the beach before we turned in the car and got on the ship. But this time I just didn't want the hassle of driving in the dark when I'm tired with the girls.
 
has anyone stayed right in MCO at the Hyatt? I'm guessing you would just use the DCL transfers with that..wouldn't have to deal with our luggage that way right:confused3
I'm looking for convience as well as not wanting to break the bank:goodvibes

Done it. You can often book the Hyatt MCO at a lower rate on your own than the DCL rate...and you get the luggage service regardless of how you booked. You are correct that if you stay at the Hyatt MCO and use DCL transfers in the morning, your luggage will be taken from your hotel room to the ship.

You will need to claim your luggage from the airline when you arrive and take it to the hotel unless you pay the additional charge to have the hotel do this for you.
 
Summer 2011 DH and I got in around 8 pm, rented a car and drove to Cocoa Beach. It's an easy drive and it was nice to wake up to a relaxing morning on the beach before we turned in the car and got on the ship. But this time I just didn't want the hassle of driving in the dark when I'm tired with the girls.

where did you "turned in the car"? and how did you get back to airport when going back home? if you don't mind sharing where you stayed at Cocoa Beach?
 
where did you "turned in the car"? and how did you get back to airport when going back home? if you don't mind sharing where you stayed at Cocoa Beach?

We stayed here. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Re...e_Center_Cocoa_Beach-Cocoa_Beach_Florida.html

I got a super deal on last minute travel for $50 a night. It wasn't the greatest hotel in the world, but it is right on the beach and served it's purpose. The rental car places aren't far from the port and they all have shuttles that take you right to the terminal. I woke up and went to the beach for about an hour, DH drove to Walmart for some last minute things. Took a shower and turned in the car around 11. We went to the port, checked in and were on board around 12:30ish.

On the way back we rented another one way car and got off the cruise and they have the spots outside the terminal for each individual rental car place. It was super easy. We had late breakfast and went to Ron Jon's after we got the car and I think we were checking into our WDW resort by 11 am.
 
We took a limo from MCO to the Residence Inn for the night cost us $140, a 2 bedroom suite was $240 and included hot breakfast in the morning.

From there, a motorcoach shuttle picked us up for $3 each and took us to the port :) Super simple!
 
has anyone stayed right in MCO at the Hyatt? I'm guessing you would just use the DCL transfers with that..wouldn't have to deal with our luggage that way right:confused3
I'm looking for convience as well as not wanting to break the bank:goodvibes

If you go this route, you will likely need 2 rooms to accomodate 5 people. Do not book the 2 rooms online. If you book 2 connecting rooms over the phone they will be able to give you a family rate where the 2nd room is 50% off. They can still apply AAA or other discounts to the first room. In order to do this you cannot put anyone over 18 as a registered guest in the 2nd room- but nobody will police who stays in which room.
 
If you go this route, you will likely need 2 rooms to accomodate 5 people. Do not book the 2 rooms online. If you book 2 connecting rooms over the phone they will be able to give you a family rate where the 2nd room is 50% off. They can still apply AAA or other discounts to the first room. In order to do this you cannot put anyone over 18 as a registered guest in the 2nd room- but nobody will police who stays in which room.

Will they allow you to use a roll away bed in a 4 person room? We were assigned a 2 person room with a king bed; they had no 2 bed rooms available. They did bring in a NICE roll away for my daughter as we really prefer to sleep separately. I have no personal experience with 5 in a 4 person room.
 
We stayed at the Hyatt right in the MCO after arriving at 9:30 pm with a 2 year old and 8 year old in tow. We loved the room. We took the DCL transfer from the airport to the port the next day. We left our luggage in the room and didn't see it again until the ship :) If you arrange it all its very convenient and I didn't think it broke the bank and was worth it for the convenience!
 

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