Port Canaveral Hotel w/ Sleep & Cruise or 3rd party parking questions

[ryankski]

We cruise out of Port Canaveral in October and this will be our first time out of this port and our fist time driving to a cruise port. We are spending Sunday night in the Port Canaveral area and our cruise leaves on Monday. Looking to probably do Kennedy Space Center on Sunday if it matters. I have only found 4 hotels that seem to offer sleep & cruise packages which are the Country Inn & Suits near the port, the Radisson near the port, the Best Western in Cocoa Beach and the Holiday Inn Express in Cocoa Beach. Are these the only 4? If I book with Country Inn & Suites and pre-pay the room is $164 for the night.

I did find some sleep & cruise packages through goportcanaveral.com which has you parking in their lot off site of the hotel, but their site says they only have one shuttle that leaves the port upon returning and they "advise self-disembarking" so you don't miss it. So we aren't looking at this option.

I have found some fenced & Secured lots and a couple would allow us to park for $53 compared to the $85 parking directly at the port would cost. Combining one of these lots with some hotels in Titusville, Cocoa or Merritt Island I can do a hotel and 3rd party parking for $135 to $153. But your awfully close to just staying right in Port Canaveral.

I'm leaning towards the cruise and sleep package with Country Inn & Suites as it's close, includes breakfast and I'm only booking one thing. I'm assuming this is not a fenced in secured parking lot, but can anyone confirm? How do most people handle a hotel and parking for a cruise out of PC? Anything I'm missing or should be looking at? Are the hotel Sleep & Cruise packages the preferred way to handle this situation? Thanks in advance for the replies.

 

[MaleficentRN]

None of the hotel lots are "fenced and secured". You basically get a paper to put on your dash when you car is in their regular lot. If you are concerned, look on Tripadvisor.com and see if anyone has had a problem with car theft while parked there.

 

[Weedy]

It’s so worth the few extra dollars to park at the terminal.
You pull up and drop your luggage with the porters. Pull right into the garage. It’s covered only Disney cruises park there walk right across to the cruises terminal. No shuttles to deal with and when your cruise is over your car is right there

 

[g_ppetto]

We stayed at the Radisson the night before our cruise. It was nice having the vehicle,with most of our luggage, right outside out room. Parking at the terminal was worth the cost. The porter that helped move our luggage to the car after the cruise also helped me load the vehicle. It wasn't expected, but very much appreciated, and I tipped appropriately to show my thanks. Parking at the terminal is a lot more secure than the lots behind the hotels.

If you want to feel better about the cost to park at PC, look at the cost to park in NYC. That is going to cost $320 ($40 / day) for our Magic cruise this November.

 

[Msbmommy99]

We have sailed out of Port Canaveral several times. We have stayed at the Country Inn and Suites each time. You have to call the day before check in to get signed up for the shuttle service. I usually call a week ahead so I can be on the first shuttle just because I like being at the terminal early. We have never had an issue with the parking lot. This year we are doing something different because we had points to stay in Cocoa Beach free for the night and we will park at the terminal. We leave in the morning to head to Cocoa Beach. I am so excited I can hardly work today!!!!! We will leave our hotel around 10:00 since our port arrival time is 10:30. I will post after the cruise on how we liked this method.

 

[ryankski]

Thanks for the for the replies. I'll continue to dig into it

None of the hotel lots are "fenced and secured". You basically get a paper to put on your dash when you car is in their regular lot. If you are concerned, look on Tripadvisor.com and see if anyone has had a problem with car theft while parked there.

Yes, this is my next step. Back in 2016 we did a sleep, park and fly package out of Detroit. They have one hotel with a secured on site lot and another hotel with an offsite secured lot. The one with the off site lot required you to leave your keys with the hotel and they would valet it at the lot. Needless to say there were lots of Trip Advisor reviews about them about cars stolen and some stated that they "accidentally" brought the car back to the hotel and left the keys in the car a day early. It sounded more like someone was parking the cars ad then calling a buddy to come pick it up. Needless to say we stayed away from that hotel!

 

[Spiffy MacSpiff]

You're right, the lot at the Country Inn isn't fenced or secured in any way. We like that hotel and stayed there before our last few cruises, but drove over to the terminal and parked in the garage. For us, the convenience of having the Spiffymobile right there when we disembark is worth it... no shuttles, no luggage wrangling, a porter to haul everything to the car and help load it up, and we're off.

 

[lady9]

We have a loooong drive home and like to do it in one day so we park at the cruise terminal. It is worth the $$ for us. You will drop off your bags to the porter first, then be directed to the garage. We try to park on level 3. There is a walkway from level 3 straight across to the terminal where you can go through security. It seems less crowded there. This past Saturday we did express walk off, got through customs, and were in our vehicle on the highway within 15-20 minutes. When you are driving 16 hours, every minute counts.

 

[Capitalangel]

Hampton Inn Cocoa Beach also has a cruise and park deal

 

[Mitura]

I'm leaning towards the cruise and sleep package with Country Inn & Suites as it's close, includes breakfast and I'm only booking one thing. I'm assuming this is not a fenced in secured parking lot, but can anyone confirm? How do most people handle a hotel and parking for a cruise out of PC? Anything I'm missing or should be looking at? Are the hotel Sleep & Cruise packages the preferred way to handle this situation? Thanks in advance for the replies.

We have loved Country Inn and Suites. Though the last time the shuttle was very off (Thanksgiving week), very late. I am hoping its an isolated incident. Waited 2 hours for a shuttle, forced to take an Uber which took 15 minutes. So this year we are doing Country Inn and then driving over to the parking garage to see if that is better.

Country Inn is 1st night park close to the hotel in a paved lot. Then when you are going to cruise park a little walk away in a gravel, non fenced lot, right on highway. Call Country Inn 24 hours before your cruise and say you want an early shuttle time and reserve your spot. You can't reserve your spot until day before. Move your car to the gravel lot. Then go down to the conference room next to the breakfast area with your bags and get on the shuttle. Note that other cruises will be at the hotel and taking separate shuttles to the ship. The good thing about the shuttle is that it cuts traffic like a limo would (separate lane?). I've never worried about my car, except it gets dusty. The hotel doesn't seem

Again this may be a one-off problem. We have stayed at other hotels but Country Inn is closer and the shuttle has been excellent. Its this last time we got a bum deal. I hope to hear better stories from others on DISboards.