A few Radisson questions

[KarenB]

We are getting closer to our cruise date and making some final reservations. Many of you tend to stay at the Radisson but I have a few questions.

1. We will NOT have a car. Is the shuttle free to gt us to the ship? As I read on the website, it was a free shuttle to those in a suite. We simply need a standard room for one night.

2. What time should we leave for the ship?

3. Can we walk to the beach from the Radisson?

Thanks!
Karen

 

[kcashner]

Are you really committed to the Radisson? The shuttle is free to all Radisson guests, whether or not you stay in a suite.

Since you will not have a car, have you considered other Cocoa Beach area hotels. The Radisson is closest to the port, but other hotels have a shuttle for $3 per person and are much cheaper than the Radisson. You can get them thru Priceline (the Cocoa Beach area). The Doubletree right on the beach goes for about $39 per night on Priceline

Go to biddingfortravel.com for info on priceline bidding if interested.

As to ship arrival, they will not allow any vehicle into the port area until 10 or shortly after. THe counters open for check in at 10:30. We generally arrive about 10:30 or 10:45. This puts us near the beginning of the boarding line, but not right at the front. On the 2/7/04 cruise, we were at or very near the front of each ressie line--we walked to the appropriate place and got the ressies we wanted with no waiting. This was on the Magic, where ressies were open as soon as boarding started. We needed to hit dining changes, Palo, and spa...and did all 3 in about 10 minutes total. Then off to lunch and kid sign in.

That arrival time put us probably in the first 150 people on board after the concierge/special needs groups. Ship's boarding started about 11:45, and we were on before 11:55.

 

[KarenB]

kcashner-thanks for the info. No, we are not committed to anything yet (except the cruise and WDW ). We will be heading south on July 2 and I don't know how fast nearby hotels will fill up. In my younger years, I loved the Cocoa Beach area.

DH and I were forming our plan for making ressies for Palo and the spa. We thought it would be a mad dash, but sounds like we may be OK going together. Our DSs are 14 and 15 and they will have no problem waiting in line with us.

Thanks again!
Karen

 

[crisi]

We stayed at the Radisson last week in a suite. The room and pool were very nice. We didn't take advantage of the shuttle - the first one to DCL didn't leave until 1:15 and we wanted to be on board by then. So we took a cab - which was a nightmare - not enough cabs in that city.

So next time we will either fly in morning of, or fly in at night and stay near the airport. Or rent a car.

 

[ennazus]

From Radission's website:
" we'll shuttle you to the cruise ship and back, and you can leave your car with us. This saves you the expense and difficulty of parking. And yes, all free with your stay at Radisson Resort at the Port."

So I don't believe you need to have a suite to use the shuttle. You have to sign up with the front desk to indicated what time you want to shuttle over to the port. I think we choose the 10:00 shuttle and we got there very early. We enjoyed hanging around & chatting with other passengers (a couple who just happened to be DIS-ers also!!)

Once you get inside the terminal there is much more for the children (and adults to do. Everyone likes to check out the model of the ship and there should be cast members on hand near the model to answer questions & point things out on (such as which room is yours! )

I don't know about walking to the beach as we didn't attempt that. The Radisson has a very nice pool area, so we were satisfied with that.

 

[clh2]

Originally posted by crisi
We stayed at the Radisson last week in a suite. The room and pool were very nice. We didn't take advantage of the shuttle - the first one to DCL didn't leave until 1:15 and we wanted to be on board by then. So we took a cab - which was a nightmare - not enough cabs in that city.

If you book a room at the Radisson, call the hotel directly, and ask to be put on the shuttle reservation list. They start shuttling people over to the cruise terminals about 10:15 or so. Our shuttle was a little late - as there had been a mix-up with a large wedding group. But in keeping with our goal of having a stress free vacation - we didn't let this bother us. We just let the bride and bride's mom entertain us. (I think the whole bridal party had been partying too late, so the whole group of them was running late. It was quite entertaining!)

My advice - book your room, and then call the hotel directly to reserve your shuttle time.