Arriving the day before..

[karlyr]

I have heard that people recommend arriving the day before and staying at a hotel that night.. can you tell me if this is something we should think about doing and if so how do you know where to stay and when to get to the ship? Ok, stupid questions I am sure.

 

[TheWog]

Not a stupid question at all. You should definitely do it, in my opinion. You will hear others say the same. The lack of stress on the travel day of potentially missing the ship is worth it. There are so many factors out of your control, weather (we were delayed 7 hours the day before our cruise), mechanical, delays, missed connections, bumped, etc. It is really smart and the few dollars it costs to get a hotel and relaxing ride to the port is so worth it, once again, my opinion.

There are some favorites on these boards for hotels, such as Ron Jon's and Raddison in Port Canaveral. You could also do the Hyatt right in MCO or you could try Priceline. People have gotten Orlando Airport region Priceline hotels for $35.00. If you want to try Priceline go to these sites first for lots of bidding help.

betterbidding.com and biddingfortravel.com

Good luck.

 

[kcashner]

Flying in a day before is major relaxing...you don't have any worries about flight delays. First, you have to decide whether you want to stay in the MCO (airport) area or whether you want to stay near the port. Priceline rooms are available in both areas for under $35 for the room...then you add tax and the priceline fee and pay a total of about $45. You also need to decide how you are getting to the port. If you are using DCL transfers, you will meet the bus at the airport....

So...let's assume you are using DCL transfers. IN that case, you will want a 3* room in the MCO area. All 3* rooms have free shuttles to and from the airport. So, you get a priceline room. If you have kids, you call the hotel chain ahead and make sure they have you in a room with 2 double beds (priceline rooms are officially for 2 people, but kids stay free at most places....) You get in to MCO, take the free shuttle to the hotel, and enjoy the pool or whatever. In the morning, you shuttle back to the airport and catch the DCL transfer. If you are lucky enough to get the Hyatt, you can catch the DCL transport there. If you are using a private limo service instead ofo DCL, just have them meet you at the hotel.

If you are using a private limo and want to stay at the port....you bid "Cocoa Beach" area on Priceline. You arrange the limo to take you from MCO to the hotel. All of the hotels in Cocoa Beach use a shuttle service that will take you from the hotel to the port for $3 per person (a couple of hotels have free shuttle to the port). Again, call the hotel to schedule a shuttle time in advance.

check out www.biddingfortravel.com for info on priceline bidding.

 

[karlyr]

Great info!!!!! So I guess my next question is if you just take normal transportation to the port do you just find your ship and board by yourself.. is there alot of ships or is Disney in a special area? I am just concerned about doing things out of the norm that aren't totally arranged by DCL...

 

[mmouse37]

It all depends on what you consider normal transportation .... if you mean a rental car (the cost of a taxi would be cost prohibitive as it is about a 45 min. ride to the port from the airport) this is what you would do.

If you came in the day before and rented a car you would pick it up at the airport and drive out and stay at a Cocoa Beach area hotel and you could drop it off the next morning at one of the Cocoa beach rental car locations...Avis and Budget are the most popular in the Cocoa beach area with cruise passengers. The check-in for the ship starts at 10:30 and most people arrive at the cruise terminal (DCL has its own) between 10:30 and 11:00 to get a good place on the boarding line.

The drive to the port from the airport is very easy and well marked. The Radisson is the closet hotel to the ship with Ron Jons a very close second. The Radisson has a shuttle that will take you to the ship...not sure about Ron Jon's.

Check out this site for great info on driving directions, car rental, accomodations, restaurants and all kinds of info on DCL and the Cocoa Beach area.

www.dcltribute.com

If you plan on keeping the rental car the whole time you are on the cruise you can park at the port for $10.00 per day or some hotels in the area will let you keep your car at their parking lot while you are gone. The alternative to that is to do 2 separate rentals. One from airport to Cocoa Beach. Then on the day you disembark get a rental from Cocoa Beach to the airport.


MJ

 

[TheWog]

Originally posted by karlyr
Great info!!!!! So I guess my next question is if you just take normal transportation to the port do you just find your ship and board by yourself.. is there alot of ships or is Disney in a special area? I am just concerned about doing things out of the norm that aren't totally arranged by DCL...

You can't miss the ship. Once you come over the bridge you will see it instantly. You can park at the terminal and just walk across after leaving your luggage or like said above there are rental shuttles that will bring you over. You will have no trouble doing it on your own.

 

[mickeyboat]

Fly down the day before. We learned the hard way.

Denae

 

[cindalu]

We come from PA and drive down the day before. The last couple of years we have stayed at a hotel near the Jacksonville Airport. That was nice and then we just drove to the port and parked for the week. I would agree that coming down the day before is much better. You can relax and not feel like you are rushed

 

[Krystina'sMommy]

We, too, are flying in from Texas the day before. Our flight arrives at MCO @ 2:00 pm. Just yesterday I went into priceline (for the 1st time) & "won" the Marriot Airport for $33.00 for the night before. Total with taxes & priceline fee is $40.& change. We are also staying the night we get back to land and I also got the Marriot Airport (yesterday) for $33.00 that night too. We are on the Sept 19th 4night Wonder. To get to the port we rented a one-way rental from budget & rented another one for the trip back to the airport. This seemed to work best for our small family.

Coming in the day before definitely gets my vote!

 

[EileenAmI]

We flew down the day before. We actually flew into Tampa and stayed there overnight. We rented a car and drove to Port Canaveral the next day. The drive was only about 1 1/2 hours and since we left at about 8 am, there was no traffic! The drop off was easy, and we got a shuttle right to the ship. We did the same thing on the way back, but drove to WDW and stayed there overnight. We were able to make a quick trip to the rides we wanted to do (in 4 different parks!) and ended up staying at AKL since uor orginal hotel was being refurbished. It lessened a good deal of the stress, since it was out first cruise, and we will definitely do it again in the furture. Good Luck!

 

[webray]

We are only three hours away..and we still like to arrive the day before. Just takes a load off, knowing we are minutes from the port. We can relax..get a good nights sleep before we go.

Best part..we get to have a couple meals at Grills before we leave. Yippee..you have to love those sweet potato fries and the caribbean scalloped potatoes..let alone the fresh sea food.

 

[muntzfab4]

Most definitely arrive the day before! Our flight for the 7/24 Magic was delayed 7 hours in NY because of bad weather and all I kept thinking was if this happened on Saturday we would have missed the boat! Staying at the Hyatt was wonderful because since we arrived so late, we didn't have to go any further! Also used Florida Tours and they were great!

 

[DoomBuggieDriver]

Another vote for the day before. We actually got in late on Thursday night for the Saturday sailing. Rented a car at Budget at the airport, and had no problem finding Ron Jon's in Cocco Beach at 11pm. I was very nervous about this part of the trip, as we haven't been in the area before and we were on a late flight. It went great. The rental was super for the next day-drove all areound the area in the morning and had planned to go to the Space Center, but decided to head back and enjoy the pool area at Ron Jons, (which closes at 5pm by the way, so plan accordingly. In my opinion, there's no need to stay at Ron Jons if you can't take advantage of the pool area, although it's the closest to the Disney terminal.) The morning of the cruise we had a nice breakfast, dropped the rental, and the four of us and our luggage had no wait going over to the port for 10:30am. However, we were able to check in the express lines because of our cabin, so if ressies are a top proirity, I would plan on getting there as early as they start allowing you in to get a place in line to board.

On the way home, we decided even though it worked out to be a bit more money, to take the Disney bus from the port to the airport. I arranged this transfer while we were on the cruise by visiting guest services. I picked a slow Wed. morning and had the whole thing done in 5 minutes. The debarkation day we found our luggage, and the Disney staff is outside the terminal helping you find the proper bus depending on your desintation:
WDW resorts; & the airport according to airlines. All very easy to follow. Just make sure you see your bags go on the same bus that you are getting on....
If you decide to do a one way rental from Cocco Beach, you go across the street from the terminal to the white canopy area, and the rental companies have shuttles to their establishments.


Hope this information helps!
Kathy

 

[MamaQuack]

I too vote for the night before. We do it no matter what cruise line we use. For our July 24 Magic we flew in early Friday afternoon and stayed at the MCO Hyatt. We spent some fun pool time and met fellow cruisers. Then we spent some fun mall time seeing shops we did not know were at the airport. We enjoyed a leisurely dinner and watched planes land at night. The next morning we put our bags outside the door, had a wonderful buffet breakfast and the walked downstairs to check in with the Disney reps. We were escorted to our Winnie the Pooh bus and off we went. We arrived at the port 45 minutes later completely rested and ready to go!

MamaQuack