First time cruiser driving up from Vero with questions

[DisneyLifeBalance]

Hi all,

we will finally be on our first DCL cruise from Feb. 5-9 on the Wish from Port Canaveral. Before our cruise, we will stay for two nights at Disney's Vero Beach Resort. On the morning of Feb. 5 we will drive up with our Alamo rental car and return it to the station in Port Canaveral. So much, so clear

Now, let's get "into the unknooown": Our rental is scheduled to be returned at 10:00 AM at the Alamo station. Nevertheless, we have a PAT assigned at 12:45-01:00 PM.
Therefore, we really don't know:
a) how to get from the Alamo Station to the Disney Cruise Portal. Can we walk? Or would Uber be the right choice here concerning that we have loads of luggage with us.
b) What can we do between approx. 10:30 AM and 12:45 PM? Are we allowed to check-in our luggage and then relax in the port terminal? Or will access be denied to us due to our later PAT? And what would be a good alternative?

Many thx for your help in adcance!

 

[cvjw]

DCL allows you to arrive at the port early and drop off your luggage. They don’t allow you to enter the terminal until your port arrival time. I have no idea what I would do outside the port for 2+ hours. There are a few benches, but nothing is walkable to visit to kill time.

 

[erionm]

a) how to get from the Alamo Station to the Disney Cruise Portal. Can we walk? Or would Uber be the right choice here concerning that we have loads of luggage with us.

Too far between the two locations. If Alamo doesn't have a shuttle, Uber/Lyft would be you next best option.

 

[lanejudy]

We were in the situation once years ago on our first cruise. Our rental return time was early (maybe 9/9:30ish) and we ended up hanging out at the rental agency waiting for the shuttle. It wasn't the worst situation but definitely not the best, either.

To return the rental BY 10am and avoid extra fees, I don't think you can drop-off luggage or passengers that early at the Port terminal. So your party will all need to go to Alamo and wait for their shuttle to start running for drop-offs.

An alternative is to pick-up the rental maybe an hour or two later? Which then pushes the return that much later. But that may not be possible depending on your plans on the day your rental begins.

Another option is to accept the late return fee, drop passengers and luggage at the port terminal sometime around 10:15/10:30am (or later), the driver returns the rental and comes back on the shuttle. The party will be waiting outside the terminal for quite a bit, though -- so maybe even push this later.

 

[Flcruising]

1. You cannot walk
2. You can check luggage early
3. As of last fall you can't go in terminal much earlier than scheduled so you will be sitting standing outside waiting

I'd check if car rental has a shuttle to cruise line port. Nothing really to do at terminal. Another recent thread discussed things to do in the area. You could get ideas. But you can't walk to those areas from the port.

 

[ljhayes]

How much would it cost to return the car later? I'd much rather hang out at Vero Beach for a couple more hours than hang around at the rental agency or the outside the port.

 

[DisneyLifeBalance]

thx for all the helpful answers!
We will push back the return time of our rental from 10:00 AM to 11:30/11:45 AM and use the extra time relaxing at Vero Beach

 

[SteveMouse]

There is sometimes a little "float"
on the return window. It used to be an hour but may now be 30 minutes or maybe less. The 24 hour clock starts when they release the car to you at pick-up and should be printed on your paperwork.