Disney before Cruise

[LemonNeko]

I'm booked to go on a 7-day cruise on the Freedom out of Port Canaveral. We will likely be arriving on the Saturday and the boat leaves on Sunday. We would be flying into Orlando. I'm not sure we would have time to go to a park but I thought we could maybe go to Downtown Disney or do one of the dinner shows at a resort. Has anyone done something like this or have any recommendations regarding transfers?

TIA

 

[OKW Lover]

I'd say the best option is probably to rent a car.

 

[IndyRnRfan]

My wife just did this but she stayed at Disney for 3 days then went on the FoTS. She booked a transfer with a company that was pretty cheap, however, in your situation I'd rent a car. Are you staying in a Disney resort or not?

 

[jenf22]

We rented a car and just dropped it off at the rental location near the port (did the reverse when we got back). We've never had bad luck with one-way rentals and they've always been cheaper than 3 transfer tickets.

 

[LemonNeko]

Not sure yet if staying on site or off. It will likely be either the Hilton or if I can get 30% off maybe Wilderness Lodge. There is 3 of us so likely renting a car is the cheapest and we don't have to wait for a shuttle. Hopefully my son gains some weight before we go so I only need a booster not a car seat. I'm trying to see if I can convince my mum to leave two days earlier.

 

[sam_gordon]

Last year we arrived in Orlando on Friday evening and boarded Freedom on Sunday. We rented a car one way (<$50) from Budget.

Next year, we plan to actually do two days at Disney before heading to Freedom. We're going to utilize DME, then get private transport to the pier.

The difference is we have an extra body going with us next year (making 6). So it's cheaper (we're assuming at this point) for the private transport than to rent a mini-van (especially one way) in the summer.

Since you only have three, I definitely vote "rental car".

 

[amym2]

We just returned from our FOS cruise (loved it!) and did something similar. We flew into Orlando Saturday but arrived really late so stayed at a hotel near the airport (Holiday Inn Express and Suites) then took a pre-arranged shuttle (Cortrans) from the hotel to the port. Then after the cruise we rented a car and spent the day at Kennedy Space Center. We stayed that night at a Disney resort (we used DVC points), and swam, had a nice dinner, watched the fireworks. We didn't fly home on Mon until 7pm, so we took the monorail to the Poly for breakfast, visited a few resorts, had lunch in Celebration, played mini golf at Fantasia Gardens, got ice cream at the Dolphin, then returned the car to the airport. We rented through Budget and it was $127. We saved multiple hundred dollars flying home Mon instead of Sun, so that's the only way I could convince DH to let us get our Disney "fix." There's plenty to do at Disney if you do arrive on Saturday.

 

[LemonNeko]

Decided we will get a car and stay on site. Where exactly will depend on what kinda of room discounts they end up releasing. It stinks that I will miss the Halloween party by 1 day and we can't go two days early. I'll get to book my ARDs next week.

 

[Frozen2014]

That's the best...cruise + Disney (and even 1 day will be fun). THere are value resorts that are reasonably priced. Have an awesome vacation.

 

[VbChristy]

My last one way rental in January offered a minivan for cheaper than a compact. Not sure why. You just had to scroll through the list. It was like $60- $80 I think for 24 hours.

 

[Trekker]

Doing something similar in June before FoS cruise.

Arrive Saturday Morning sail on Sunday

Saturday night doing dinner at the Contemporary and then a fireworks cruise out of the marina there.

For all our transportation we hired a limo from FL Tours for MCO - Dolphin - Port - Dolphin - MCO. Not looking for the least expensive but instead the most convenient - this is for 6 adults.

 

[miksilver]

When we fly down, have a cruise out of Port Canaveral and are staying at/or close to WDW the night before we use FL Tours. No messing with rental cars, easy to do. They've always been on time and we've had no problems using them for both our RCCL cruises and our DCL ones.