Hotel stay the night before cruise?

[kam0202]

1st time cruiser going on Disney Fantasy 7 day Eastern Caribbean.

1) Recommend to Fly or drive? We are only 9 hours drive away, but also a quick and reasonable flight to Orlando.

2) Any recommendations for hotels nearby Port Canaveral?

3) Any recommendations for transportation/shuttle from hotel to PC or do hotels usually include this?

Thank you in advance for bearing with my newbie questions on setting up hotel/transportation before our cruise!

 

[gverva]

We are actually only 9 hrs away as well (raleigh, NC). We are going on a western on the Fantasy in three weeks and we decided to drive as it's an active hurricane season and we were concerned that a flight may be delayed or canceled. We have two little ones, 4 & 6, so a car ride would actually be less stressful for us (in case they are having a bad day ).

As far as hotels, we looked at all the area hotels in Port Canaveral, but actually decided to stay at Disney's new Art of Animation Resort that literally just opened. It's $99 per night in an Ariel room (my daughter's fav character), though it's a bit more pricey for the family suites.

The resort has 4 sections....Lion King, Nemo, Cars and Ariel, so we thought this would be a nice Segway to the cruise and figured we would just drive over to Port Canaveral (another plus of having your own car) the morning of the cruise. Most of the decent hotels in PC run around $120-$140/nt and since we are staying two nights, we justified the expense and added convenience of parking at the port. IMO....if you don't have much of a preference on where you want to stay, I would do Priceline, bump your star req up and you will probably get a fantastic deal. Most of the higher end hotels will have on site parking and shuttle for the duration of your trip.

I hope this helps some.....we struggled with what to do as well. This will be our first Disney cruise, but 4th cruise overall, and we are so excited.

I hope you have a wonderful cruise!

 

[kam0202]

Thank you so much for your great insight and advice. I didn't realize that the new Disney Resort were so reasonably priced. I have 3 boys 5, 6, 7, and they would really enjoy staying in a Cars themed room. I will look into it!

I am tempted to fly, but I am thinking driving is the way to go for flexibility and less stress in making sure we make it in port on time.

Where will you be keeping your vehicle? Do they have daily parking rates at the port?

I am sure you guys will have a great time on your WestCaribbean cruise. You'll have to tell me what you think of the Fantasy. We can't wait for ours this December!!! Thanks again for being so helpful!

We are actually only 9 hrs away as well (raleigh, NC). We are going on a western on the Fantasy in three weeks and we decided to drive as it's an active hurricane season and we were concerned that a flight may be delayed or canceled. We have two little ones, 4 & 6, so a car ride would actually be less stressful for us (in case they are having a bad day ).

As far as hotels, we looked at all the area hotels in Port Canaveral, but actually decided to stay at Disney's new Art of Animation Resort that literally just opened. It's $99 per night in an Ariel room (my daughter's fav character), though it's a bit more pricey for the family suites.

The resort has 4 sections....Lion King, Nemo, Cars and Ariel, so we thought this would be a nice Segway to the cruise and figured we would just drive over to Port Canaveral (another plus of having your own car) the morning of the cruise. Most of the decent hotels in PC run around $120-$140/nt and since we are staying two nights, we justified the expense and added convenience of parking at the port. IMO....if you don't have much of a preference on where you want to stay, I would do Priceline, bump your star req up and you will probably get a fantastic deal. Most of the higher end hotels will have on site parking and shuttle for the duration of your trip.

I hope this helps some.....we struggled with what to do as well. This will be our first Disney cruise, but 4th cruise overall, and we are so excited.

I hope you have a wonderful cruise!