Flying in night before cruise-what to do with luggage?

[Stephanie Mason]

We leave Friday on the Dream- yay! We’re flying in on Thursday night, staying at the Marriott by the airport, and then taking the DCL transfer to the port on Friday. I know not to use the DCL luggage tags we received since were coming in a day early. But what do I do with my luggage on Friday- take it to the port with us, I assume? How will it get to my room?

Other question- since we don’t get to pick a port arrival time, what time should we plan to catch the DCL transfer at the airport? I read that the terminal doesn’t open until 11:00, and I read somewhere that rooms won’t be open until like 1:00. Is that correct?

Thanks for the advice. I’ve only cruised with Royal until now.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

We leave Friday on the Dream- yay! We’re flying in on Thursday night, staying at the Marriott by the airport, and then taking the DCL transfer to the port on Friday. I know not to use the DCL luggage tags we received since were coming in a day early. But what do I do with my luggage on Friday- take it to the port with us, I assume? How will it get to my room?

Other question- since we don’t get to pick a port arrival time, what time should we plan to catch the DCL transfer at the airport? I read that the terminal doesn’t open until 11:00, and I read somewhere that rooms won’t be open until like 1:00. Is that correct?

Thanks for the advice. I’ve only cruised with Royal until now.

Since you are taking the DCL transfers to the port, you will pick up your luggage from baggage claim Thursday night. Put the tags on them before coming back to the airport Friday morning. There will be a DCL employee collecting luggage before you board the bus. They load it onto a truck and transport it to the port. The next time you will see it is outside your stateroom sometime before 5:00pm. Make sure to keep anything you will need that morning or afternoon with you in a carry on. Rolling and larger sized carry ons will go underneath the bus for you to pick up when you get off the bus. Small carry ons like backpacks can be taken on the bus with you.

The DCL transfers open at 9:00am. The first bus leaves as soon as it fills. While the port doesn't officially open until 10:30, there have been a couple times I've been on the first bus out of MCO and arrived at the port before 10:30. They held us on the bus for a few minutes until the port terminal was ready but let us inside the terminal building before 10:30.

If you don't want to be waiting around at the port for a long period of time, I'd recommend waiting until around 10:00 to take the bus. You'll get to the port a little before 11:00. By time you get through security and checked in, it will be about time for them to start calling boarding numbers. You will likely be boarded by noon. Rooms are ready at 1:30pm, but you can get some lunch and explore the ship a little until your stateroom is available.

 

[econwiz]

Last year we had a similar scenario. After your arrival on Thursday, you’ll have to collect your luggage and hop the shuttle to the airport hotel.

On Friday morning, go ahead and attach your luggage tags and you’ll take your luggage with you back to the DCL transfers terminal area. There will be porters outside who will take your bags and load them into a box truck (at least they did for us). Then, you can check-in at the DCL desk for the bus transfer.

Someone else might know the first DCL bus transfer time, but I believe it was 10am when we boarded.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We leave Friday on the Dream- yay! We’re flying in on Thursday night, staying at the Marriott by the airport, and then taking the DCL transfer to the port on Friday. I know not to use the DCL luggage tags we received since were coming in a day early. But what do I do with my luggage on Friday- take it to the port with us, I assume? How will it get to my room?

Other question- since we don’t get to pick a port arrival time, what time should we plan to catch the DCL transfer at the airport? I read that the terminal doesn’t open until 11:00, and I read somewhere that rooms won’t be open until like 1:00. Is that correct?

Thanks for the advice. I’ve only cruised with Royal until now.

On Thursday you claim your bags at the airport and bring them with you to the hotel. The next morning, put the DCL luggage tags on them and bring them back to the airport with you and check them in at the DCL transfer check in. They will load them on the luggage truck to be transported to the ship and delivered to your room onboard.

Usually the DCL transfer counter opens at 9:00. With the first bus departing around 9:15 (or when full). Subsequent buses depart every 20 minutes, or when full. Trip to the port is about an hour. Arriving via DCL transfers you will be allowed to enter the terminal when you get there. Check in at the port usually opens around 10:30. Boarding begins around 11:15-11:30. Rooms are usually not ready until around 1:30, and yes, you'll keep your carry on bags with you until then.

 

[pezgirlroy]

To hijack this thread a bit ( sorry ), if we are staying at the Hyatt MCO the night before and taking dcl transfer, is the process the same?

 

[Maggie'sMom]

To hijack this thread a bit ( sorry ), if we are staying at the Hyatt MCO the night before and taking dcl transfer, is the process the same?

Same with one exception. The Hyatt MCO will pick up your bags from your room and deliver them to DCL. When you check in, let them know you are taking the DCL transfers and want the luggage service. There's a paper to fill out. Your bags will be picked up from your room in the morning, around 8:00 or 8:30 if I'm remembering correctly.

 

[pezgirlroy]

Same with one exception. The Hyatt MCO will pick up your bags from your room and deliver them to DCL. When you check in, let them know you are taking the DCL transfers and want the luggage service. There's a paper to fill out. Your bags will be picked up from your room in the morning, around 8:00 or 8:30 if I'm remembering correctly.

Great. Thanks. For some reason that makes me nervous.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

Great. Thanks. For some reason that makes me nervous.

It made me nervous too. But it worked fine. And I haven't heard of anyone having issues with it.

 

[Mirmad14]

Thanks for the information on how to handle this situation!

 

[Starwind]

Great. Thanks. For some reason that makes me nervous.

We went to Hyatt's Hemisphere for an early breakfast, making sure we got back to the room before the designated pickup time. We made sure someone was in thee room when the luggage was picked up, so we knew they had it. Then we headed down to the DCL transfer desk.

We've done this twice now, no problems.

SW

 

[TrishaK]

Just because you're at the Hyatt doesn't mean you HAVE to let them take your luggage down. You can always take it downstairs yourself (that's what we did - there's no way we'd be up and ready to go that early!).

 

[Chemist]

Just because you're at the Hyatt doesn't mean you HAVE to let them take your luggage down. You can always take it downstairs yourself (that's what we did - there's no way we'd be up and ready to go that early!).

Since we were flying in from the west coast, we weren't sure how early we'd be ready.
We had our main bags packed, next to the door with the luggage tags on.

We had a smaller bag that had JUST our stuff for the first night packed separately. It made arrival easier, everything was in that one bag. Then in the morning, we pulled our day stuff out (swim bag, etc.) and repacked it.

As it turned out, our luggage wasn't picked up nearly as early as Hyatt said it would be.

 

[Debby7]

We stayed at the Hyatt before our cruise 2 weeks ago . They picked up our luggage at 8:30. Easy, Peasy !

 

[pezgirlroy]

Thanks guys.

 

[hnthomps]

When we stayed at the MCO Hyatt a couple years ago they said our bags would be picked up around 8-830. They weren't. We ended up checking out and taking the DCL bus (leaving around 930) with our bags (as far as we knew) still in the hotel room. This made us very nervous, obviously, but both the hotel and DCL promised us sideways to sunday that it was fine and normal. Our bags were all at the room before the muster drill.