(A little long, but I hope it gives y'all a smile...)
More often than not, we drive from Central NC two nights before. We like to break it up into two stages, spending a night in Savannah (a halfway point for us) and then continuing to the port to arrive the day before boarding. I particularly like the Radisson Resort at the Port as it gets things started with a nice "resort feel" to it.
When we drive we will park the car at the port and usually start our drive home immediately after the end of the cruise, often breaking it up with another night in Savannah, although we have made the ten-plus hour drive home in one day a time or two.
Last Spring after a four-night cruise we added to our plan to head over to Coronado Springs for two days of theme parks 'cuz we couldn't get enough of The Mouse and then drove home.
For our next cruise (next month, always exciting) we will fly for a change, spend a few more days in the theme parks beforehand (we agreed that two nights was not enough last time) before getting some Official Transportation to the port on arrival day, and then that same transportation back to the airport for the journey home on the flip side.
We usually prefer to drive, but as we are treating ourselves to a second cruise this calendar year (for the wife's birthday this time) we decided that we didn't want to make That Drive for a second time this year.
Stories Of Cruises Past (Alternate Title: The Perils of Cruising At The Height of Hurricane Season)
The only other time we planned on flying in for a cruise was when Hurricane Ian decided to make an untimely visit to Florida in late 2022. Ian, in his infinite rudeness forced the situation such that the airline announced the cancellation of our flight the next day which in turn canceled our reservation at the MCO Hyatt, and subsequently our Official Transportation to the port. We called the cruise line and made sure that the cruise itself wasn't canceled before heading south. It was to be our first seven-night on the Fantasy, leaving Saturday morning and we didn't want to miss it.
Not to be denied, we drove to our airport and rented an SUV, driving overnight on that Thursday night/Friday morning. Since we couldn't use I-95 because of flooding in the after-effects of Ian, we drove through Atlanta arriving there 6am-ish just before MORNING rush hour (yes, driving ALL night).
We stopped at a cheap motel and slept for several hours before making the soul-crushing, interminable ride down I-75*. On the way, we managed to get a hotel near MCO where we turned in the rental car and with some luck managed to get private transportation (at a premium) the next morning to the port. Fortunately our plane ride home didn't get canceled automatically and we were able to fly home on schedule, getting a Disney Bus and spending a night on The Property and then an Uber the next day to MCO.
* There is a sign just south of Atlanta on I-75 that tells you that there is 295 miles to (I think?) Gainesville, FL -- after driving all night you gotta admit that it's kind of "soul crushing" to realize it still is four-plus hours just to get into Florida and that you still have a couple hours after that to get to Orlando.
If you got this far, thanks for reading!