Best way to go from Universal to Port Canaveral?

[ldymcbth]

We are taking a DCL cruise in April, departing from Port Canaveral. We would like to come down 2 days early and take the kids to Islands of Adventure, as we have been to WDW several times but never Universal. We would likely stay onsite at Universal. Does anyone have suggestions on the best/cheapest/most reliable way to get from a Universal hotel to Port Canaveral? We will be flying down, so will take some form of transport from airport to Universal, but will need to arrange transport from Universal to Canaveral and then Canaveral to airport once we are back.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[Foxes Den]

We are sailing on a Royal C cruise after, so I think we are going to rent a car, and return it to one of the depos close to a hotel that has transfers to the port.

 

[PartofDisney'sWorld]

Honestly the best way to get there from your hotel is to take the Beachline, which is a toll road. It will literally take you straight there. If you don't want to pay tolls you would basically have to take I-4 to SR 50 and fight tons of traffic and go out of your way, especially once you get out of downtown Orlando and into East Orlando, then you run out of a lot of options on getting there. Trust me, your best bet is to pay the tolls (should not be that expensive, maybe $20) and take the Beachline.

If you go to google maps and type into directions "universal studios" and "port canaveral" it will show you all of this. HTH.

 

[truck1]

Easiest way is to rent a car. Its also usually the cheapest. The other option, is to take a cab to the airport, and take the DCL bus from the airport. The bus is 35 per person 1 way. 70 round trip per person. There are some car services but I dont know what the prices would be off hand.

From Universal, take Universal Blvd (Its the road that runs into the parking garages.Facing the entrance to the garages you would turn right)south to the Beachline east.Get off at the South Cruise Terminals and follow the signs to the terminal. Its about 1 hour give or take from Universal. Just make sure that you STAY IN THE RIGHT LANE. About 40 miles out from the airport, the road will split. The left lane goes to the Kennedy Space Center, the right lane the port. If you make a mistake and go towards the KSC, there is no easy way back to the Beachline east. You have to go past the KSC and come out the back thru local roads that are poorly marked thru the space center. We did it 1 day and missed about half the signs, and we went that way deliberately out of curisousity.

 

[truck1]

We are sailing on a Royal C cruise after, so I think we are going to rent a car, and return it to one of the depos close to a hotel that has transfers to the port.

Most rental car agencies have port transfers to the terminals from their locations.Generally they are only a few minutes away at most. Most cruisers will drop their familes and luggage off at the terminal to check in while the remaining family member will drop off the car and take the shuttle back. Just remember that who ever drops off the car needs a photo ID to get past security at the terminal gate.