Friday Arrival - transportation

[suejmj]

We have an opportunity to change our Saturday morning flight to a Friday evening flight. My concern is the cost for transportation. We now need transportation from the airport to hotel and hotel to ship.
Can you offer any suggestions on what works best?
Do we stay in Orlando and travel to the ship on Saturday a.m.? Or, do we stay in Port Canaveral? How would transportation work? Keep in mind that there are 10 of us that will be traveling together. Are there any hotels that offer free transportation to the ship?
I am confused and can use some advise from the experts.
Any suggestions on what to do when arriving Friday night would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[clh2]

I would think part of your decision would be what time does your flight(s) arrive. If it were me, if we were arriving early evening, I would head out to the port. If it was a late arrival (after 9pm) I would stay near the airport.

You should be able to get a hotel near the airport that has a courtesy shuttle to/from the airport.

If you had been planning on private (i.e. a limo) transportation, just have them pick you up at the hotel you are staying at. If you would be taking Disney trans. you just need to get back to the hotel at the airport.

If you go out to Port Canaveral on Friday evening, arrange your limo,van or other trans, and have it take you to the hotel. I don't believe any hotels offer a courtesy shuttle from the airport. The Raddison at the Port offers a courtesy shuttle to the DCL Terminal.

Hope that helps!

 

[tvguy]

There are a dozen hotels just off airport property, all offer free shuttle service to and from the airport (and the DCL buses). Nice setup actually, they are all built around a big pond with a fountain in the middle, and all cost about half what the Hyatt in the airport costs. We stayed at the Sheraton ourselves.
So, going Friday won't cost you a penny more for transportation, just about $70 for a room , and gives you some "leeway" in case of flight problems.

 

[talicskai]

I have done this both ways and personally prefer to stay at the Radisson. We were so happy to wake up and not have an hours drive, we relaxed, ate a leisurely breakfast and caught the 11am shuttle. We rented a car and drove over after our flight but Happy Limo www.happylimo.com also can shuttle 10 passengers over for not too bad a price. You may be cheaper to rent two cars and drive it yourself. If you decide to stay near the airport we chose the Country Inn & Suites. They are fairly new, offer an excellent breakfast and free shuttle to/from the airport. The link is http://www.countryinns.com/hoteldir...ference.do?locationUni=506&dno=08110508120510

Good Luck with your decision!
Teresa

 

[kcashner]

Ok, there are a lot of issues here....
First, do you want to stay near the port or near the airport? This might depend on what time you get in.

We usually book a 3* hotel on Priceline (see www.biddingfortravel.com). All of the 3* hotels have free shuttles to and from MCO. We generally pay about $31-35 for an MCO 3* on Priceline.

Another thought...no matter which area you decide to stay in, you can rent a car at MCO for about $40 and drop it off at the port. There is no charge for the drop off because it is considered the same area. Of course, you will pay gas and tolls. With a car, you could stay either place--Cocoa area or MCO. It is far cheaper than DCL transfers. Or you could do a private limo for about $90-100 each way. That's about the same as DCL transfers for 3, and has the advantage that they will pick you up at the MCO hotel and take you to the port...you don't have to go back to the airport.

So, I'm clear as mud. MCO area or Cocoa area--MCO can be cheaper.

How to get to port--Car rental (it's an easy drive), private limo, DCL transfers

Cocoa hotels to port have shuttle service at $3 per person...a couple hotels have free shuttle. The port area car rental places will shuttle you back to port free after you drop off. My suggestion there would be for the driver to drop everyone and the luggage off at the port, then go to return the car and shuttle back just one person.

Basically, you make decisions. Each has advantages and disadvantages. Lowest cost is MCO area hotel with rental car. Easiest is probably MCO with private limo, but that could be debated......

 

[suejmj]

Thank you all so much for your help.
I am now on a Friday p.m. flight and will make the decision whether to stay in Orlando near airport or Port Canaveral.
Kcashner, thanks for the Priceline info. I had thought about Priceline and with this info. certainly will use them.

 

[woj68]

We changed our flight to a Friday night arrival in Orlando also. Arriving at MCO around 10pm and we're staying overnight at La Quinta 2 mi from airport. I booked us a mid-size rental car to take us to the hotel Friday night then to the port the next day for $22 incl all taxes/fees. The rental car company has a drop off at the port. When we return from the cruise, we'll get another car to take us back to MCO. That was $41 incl taxes/fees. Much better than the $49 each of us would have to pay for the DCL transfers.

 

[SCDizneyDawn]

Hi, I was wondering what airline you are flying with and how you were able to change to Friday instead of Saturday?

I wanted to do this and was told I would have to pay $100 per ticket plus the difference in airfare, this is with USAirways and I am not willing to pay so much for the ability to fly in on Friday!
Thanks for any hints!

 

[woj68]

Flying down on Jet Blue. We actually ended up saving money by changing our flight to Friday. Our tix we're booked initially at $119 each way per person. When we wanted to change to Friday they had dropped the fares down to $89/ea. They do charge a $20 fee for each change. Any credit difference stays with Jet Blue that you can use as a credit towards future fares for up to a year.

 

[suejmj]

Scdizneydawn: To answer your question, we were booked on a Saturday 7 a.m. flight with Delta Song. I realized that our flight had cancelled and we were moved to an 8:15 a.m. flight. I called to tell them that this was now later than we would have booked had we been given the choice. She said that when you are moved from a flight and put on another, you are given the opportunity to change without penalties.
Had this not happened, we would have had to pay the $25 penalty. (Or was it $50, I can't remember)