Disney to Port Canaveral (Cocoa Beach) and back

[reney313]

We will be taking a break during our Disney trip for a 3-day cruise - not on Disney - out of Port Canaveral. We aren't planning on a rental car during our stay.

What options are available that I might be missing to get from Coronado resort to the port in Coco Beach and back 3 days later? All the shuttles I can find (cocoa beach shuttle, cortrans) pick up from the airport or airport only hotels. Are we able to take Magic Express to the airport without doing the luggage thing and boarding passes in order to pick up a shuttle?

Otherwise, it looks like a taxi/lyft is approx $100-$150 each way. That seems a bit steep.

Are there rental cars from Disney hotels with drop off's in Cocoa that would be an option as well? I don't want to spend hours in the morning getting to the airport, then waiting on shuttles and/or rental car pick up if I can avoid it. But I also don't want to spend $200+ for RT transportation. I'm hoping for a happy medium.

 

[EACarlson]

I have friends that got an Uber from Viera to MCO for $62. I'm sure you would be able to rent a car from the CCC or Swolphin and return it in on the space coast but I have no clue what that would cost.

 

[Capt_BJ]

What options are available that I might be missing to get from Coronado resort to the port in Coco Beach and back 3 days later? All the shuttles I can find (cocoa beach shuttle, cortrans) pick up from the airport or airport only hotels.
Did you talk to Cocoa Beach shuttle or just try the web page cuz they DO pick up at Disney locations according to their web site

Cocoa Beach Shuttle is central Florida’s premier professional transportation service connecting Orlando International Airport, the cruise ships of Port Canaveral, the Orlando area theme parks, and Cocoa Beach.

Are we able to take Magic Express to the airport without doing the luggage thing and boarding passes in order to pick up a shuttle?
others have said YES this is doable

Otherwise, it looks like a taxi/lyft is approx $100-$150 each way. That seems a bit steep. The 'steep' is a matter of opinion .... t/u/l will take you door to door .... the ride IS 50 miles.

Are there rental cars from Disney hotels with drop off's in Cocoa that would be an option as well? I don't want to spend hours in the morning getting to the airport, then waiting on shuttles and/or rental car pick up if I can avoid it. But I also don't want to spend $200+ for RT transportation. I'm hoping for a happy medium. Yes .... do a lil more research ..... you can get a rental in WDW and return it near the port with a free shuttle to the ship. You can find one way rentals for under $40 if you shop hard and time it right.

IMO least cost is take DME to the airport and do one of the 'low cost' shuttle options ..... it is more steps ... but you are going BACK to WDW after???? They are holding your bags????? Heck .. take a limo.

 

[MaleficentRN]

Cheapest would be to rent at Dolphin and drop off at Port Canaveral. All the car rental spots there have a shuttle to port. I don't know if all that transferring would be worth it to save $40 when you are trying to have a relaxing vacation. I'd treat myself to a town car and leave the driving to someone else.

 

[nkereina]

Tony Hinds. We hired him to pick us up from our Universal resort and drive us to Port Canaveral for our cruise, and then pick us up to drive us to the airport on the return. He will pick up and drop off anywhere you want within the area. Him and his drivers have private 12 passenger vans with car seats and will allow a 30 minute grocery stop. We've found his pricing to be on par with other car services in the area, and he's often recommended on the boards. It will be more expensive than renting a car of your own because of the time and distance, but he provides good service and will save you hassle at least. Would be worth emailing him for a quote.

 

[Krisshay13]

We will be taking a break during our Disney trip for a 3-day cruise - not on Disney - out of Port Canaveral. We aren't planning on a rental car during our stay.

What options are available that I might be missing to get from Coronado resort to the port in Coco Beach and back 3 days later? All the shuttles I can find (cocoa beach shuttle, cortrans) pick up from the airport or airport only hotels. Are we able to take Magic Express to the airport without doing the luggage thing and boarding passes in order to pick up a shuttle?

Otherwise, it looks like a taxi/lyft is approx $100-$150 each way. That seems a bit steep.

Are there rental cars from Disney hotels with drop off's in Cocoa that would be an option as well? I don't want to spend hours in the morning getting to the airport, then waiting on shuttles and/or rental car pick up if I can avoid it. But I also don't want to spend $200+ for RT transportation. I'm hoping for a happy medium.

reney313...…….do you mind sharing what you end up doing? We are taking a non-disney cruise in March and are needing transportation before & after the cruise from & back to a resort. I am looking at all options and my head is spinning.
at 1 point, I want to save the money & rent a car each way...…..then I think I want to save the hassle & book a private car for the convenience.
while searching, I found your question so I thought I would see what you ended up doing.

 

[reney313]

reney313...…….do you mind sharing what you end up doing? We are taking a non-disney cruise in March and are needing transportation before & after the cruise from & back to a resort. I am looking at all options and my head is spinning.
at 1 point, I want to save the money & rent a car each way...…..then I think I want to save the hassle & book a private car for the convenience.
while searching, I found your question so I thought I would see what you ended up doing.

Sure. Our original plan was the following:
Disney Magical Express from Airport to Resort when we arrived.
Disney Magical Express to the airport to pick up our rental car
Drive to Port Canaveral, drop car off at Avis, shuttle to the port
Shuttle back to pick up car after cruise
Drop car off at Airport and take Disney Magical Express back to the resort

I had everything reserved above for the trip. We decided to change it up the morning of the cruise. We had determined that when we returned after the cruise, we wanted to go to HS for a few hours to get some things we did not get while we had been there previously. Then we had plans at AK for the afternoon, early evening. And then wanted to go back HS after dark for some pictures and to ride Smuggler's Run near park closing to avoid longer wait times. Due to this revised plan, we decided it made more sense to go ahead and keep the car rental an extra day and return to the airport when we were scheduled to fly home.

Since we only had one additional day at Disney post-cruise, it didn't cost much more to keep the car. I think we actually had it returned within the original 24 hours so we didn't have any additional charge on that front. We paid one night parking at Animal Kingdom Resort where we stayed the last night. That parking was around $23, I think. And it then included free parking at the parks. We just used our magic band when we entered. It was really easy. And logistically, it allowed us to get back and forth between the parks for that last day without have to wait for busses, or going back to the resort to catch the other busses. There's no way we could have done what we did in that amount of time without the flexibility of the car.

We also decided the morning of the cruise to just uber to the airport. We were running behind and I hadn't figured out when and where to pick up the DME. I'm sure it would have been easy to do the shuttle, but we were a little over busses at that point and paid the uber ride instead (which was more than the car rental!). If I had that to do over, I would have asked about the DME when we checked in so I understood when to pick it up that morning and planned accordingly.

If our plan would have been to stay at only one park on that last day, then I would have stuck with our original plan.

The drive to the port is also very short..about one hour. I found it much nicer to drive than taking a car service or shuttle. We were also able to stop and get a few items we needed at CVS and stop at the post office to ship a few items so that was a plus. Oh, and a cheap Diet Coke on the way there and back from McD's!

*Note: Our car rental was around $34 one way. We did not have to pay a drop off fee for the one-way rental. I do have a corporate code to use with Avis so if it is different without the code, then that may change my mind on the car rental. There is also an option to rent a car on Disney at the Car Center or the Dolphin/Swan hotel. It was only around $10 more which is how I would do it if we did the same trip again. Much easier to get to those locations through the Disney bus system. Or a $6 lyft/uber ride.

 

[Krisshay13]

Thanks....I don't know how you do it...changing things up like that would stress me out ...LOL you're a better person than me

was it easy enough to drive around the cruise port? I really am leaning towards renting a car each way. Just not familiar with Port Canaveral at all...…..we normally cruise out of New Orleans.
Did you drop your bags off & then return the car? Did you take a shuttle from the car rental place to the ship?

We are flying in on a Fri.....spending Sat hanging out at the resort & taking a boat over to DSprings for dinner. Sunday we're planning on MK....Monday is the cruise. We are only staying 1 night at the resort after the cruise & not going to a park. So, we do not need to keep the car...…...just the hour or so each way.
and yes, we will stop by a store to pick up Coke products since Carnival just changed to Pepsi...ugh

Thanks in advance for any info!!!

 

[reney313]

Thanks....I don't know how you do it...changing things up like that would stress me out ...LOL you're a better person than me

was it easy enough to drive around the cruise port? I really am leaning towards renting a car each way. Just not familiar with Port Canaveral at all...…..we normally cruise out of New Orleans.
Did you drop your bags off & then return the car? Did you take a shuttle from the car rental place to the ship?

We are flying in on a Fri.....spending Sat hanging out at the resort & taking a boat over to DSprings for dinner. Sunday we're planning on MK....Monday is the cruise. We are only staying 1 night at the resort after the cruise & not going to a park. So, we do not need to keep the car...…...just the hour or so each way.
and yes, we will stop by a store to pick up Coke products since Carnival just changed to Pepsi...ugh

Thanks in advance for any info!!!

The drive is a straight shot to Cocoa Beach/port Canaveral. We rented with Avis so we dropped the car off there and took their shuttle with our luggage. We have done the same cruise before and I dropped the luggage off first, but that really isn't necessary.

There are a couple tolls on the way, so I would recommend to have change to go through the tollbooths. I think around $2.50 total, but I could be mistaken. I did the toll pass with Avis, which costs an additional $9.99, which is not worth it although extremely convenient.

I think Alamo and Budget have a place next to the terminal and also on Disney property so that might be a better choice. I always use Avis with work, so I went with them but think I would have preferred to skip the ride to the airport. if you're not planning to keep the car the last night, then definitely better to go with the car rental that's close. It truly is easier and costs less than a car service and/or shuttle.

 

[Krisshay13]

The drive is a straight shot to Cocoa Beach/port Canaveral. We rented with Avis so we dropped the car off there and took their shuttle with our luggage. We have done the same cruise before and I dropped the luggage off first, but that really isn't necessary.

There are a couple tolls on the way, so I would recommend to have change to go through the tollbooths. I think around $2.50 total, but I could be mistaken. I did the toll pass with Avis, which costs an additional $9.99, which is not worth it although extremely convenient.

I think Alamo and Budget have a place next to the terminal and also on Disney property so that might be a better choice. I always use Avis with work, so I went with them but think I would have preferred to skip the ride to the airport. if you're not planning to keep the car the last night, then definitely better to go with the car rental that's close. It truly is easier and costs less than a car service and/or shuttle.

awesome!!!! THANKS.....this makes my decision so much easier. Thanks for the info!!! truly appreciate it!!