Help with cruising out of Port Canaveral!

[girliesj]

Hello!

I have sort of a specific question that I would love some help with

We take our 2nd cruise on the Fantasy in January of 2017 out of Port Canaveral. I would LOVE to use the Disney services (help! don't know the names!) that will take our luggage directly to the ship.

But here's the big problem--we want to take our kids to Kennedy Space Center the day before the cruise. Can we do this with the luggage services? What airport do we fly into?

Can someone help me plan this so it all works out? Who do we use/what do I have to do/what airline do I book?

Thanks in advance!!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Hello!

I have sort of a specific question that I would love some help with

We take our 2nd cruise on the Fantasy in January of 2017 out of Port Canaveral. I would LOVE to use the Disney services (help! don't know the names!) that will take our luggage directly to the ship.

But here's the big problem--we want to take our kids to Cape Canaveral the day before the cruise. Can we do this with the luggage services? What airport do we fly into?

Can someone help me plan this so it all works out? Who do we use/what do I have to do/what airline do I book?

Thanks in advance!!

If you are flying in the day before the cruise, DCL will not pick up your bags and take them to the port.

Orlando airport is the one that DCL transfers go from. As long as you arrive the day of embarkation, you can book DCL transfers ($35.00 per person) to the ship. And you will get luggage tags to put on your bags before you check them in for the flight. DCL transport personnel will gather all bags with such tags and transport (via truck) them to the ship.

Again, that's if you arrive on embarkation day. Arriving the day before, you will have to claim your bags and bring them with you wherever you are staying that night.

 

[scootch]

You could fly into MCO and stay at the Hyatt right inside the airport. You leave your bags in the Hyatt and they transport them for you if you are using the Disney bus transfers. My kids love staying there.

 

[diznymom]

Our scenario.....hope it helps.

We are flying into MCO (Orlando Int'l Airpot) 2 days before our cruise.
We are staying at the Hyatt in the airport.
We will rent a car for the day before our cruise.......for sightseeing. Turn car back in that evening.
We will get up the morning of our cruise, put our DCL Cruise luggage tags on our bags. Our bags will be picked up from our room that morning. We will eat b'fast, then go to the DCL Tranfers desk (it is right next to the DME desk....level 1, side B in the terminal)
We will ride the DCL Transfer bus to the cruise ship. ($35 per person per trip.......$70 per person round trip).

When cruise is over, take DCL Transfer bus to airport.

 

[girliesj]

Our scenario.....hope it helps.

We are flying into MCO (Orlando Int'l Airpot) 2 days before our cruise.
We are staying at the Hyatt in the airport.
We will rent a car for the day before our cruise.......for sightseeing. Turn car back in that evening.
We will get up the morning of our cruise, put our DCL Cruise luggage tags on our bags. Our bags will be picked up from our room that morning. We will eat b'fast, then go to the DCL Tranfers desk (it is right next to the DME desk....level 1, side B in the terminal)
We will ride the DCL Transfer bus to the cruise ship. ($35 per person per trip.......$70 per person round trip).

When cruise is over, take DCL Transfer bus to airport.

This sounds like it works!! Thank you for your help!!!

 

[eskimoinparadise]

If you're staying the night at one of the Disney resorts, you can get their bus service to the port. If you're planning on going to the space center the day before (I presume that's what you meant by Cape Canaveral), you'll need a rental car - there are no bus services that I know of that go there from either the airport or any of the resorts. If you're planning on spending the night at one of the hotels at the port, there are services (Happy Limo comes to mind) that will take you from MCO to the port, and most of the port hotels have shuttle services that will take you to the cruise terminal. You can arrange for Disney transportation back to MCO or one of their resorts post cruise.

 

[Weedy]

The cloest airport to Port Canaveral/ Space Center is Orlando International (MCO). Port Canaveral (see Cocoa on the map) is about 45 minutes from the airport. The Space Center is just north of Port Canaveral. Although it is about a 30 minute drive between the two.

I think you best bet would be to rent a car. Drive to the Space Center. Then stay at a hotel in Port Canaveral. This will save a lot of drive time. You can rent a car for one way.Then the morning of the cruise drop the car off at the rental place and catch the shuttle from the car rental place to the Port. Or there are hotels in Port Canaveral that offer shuttles to the port.

Here is a map of the route. For both you will need to drive over to the east coast. If you look at the map you have to back track a bit to get between the Sapce Center and Cocoa (where Port Canaveral is located). It's still closer than driving all the way back to the Orlando airport. Also Disney World is about 30 minutes the other direction from the airport.

From Orlando Airport to Space Center


From Airport to Port Canaveral

 

[ChipNDale86]

The cloest airport to Port Canaveral/ Space Center is Orlando International (MCO). Port Canaveral (see Cocoa on the map) is about 45 minutes from the airport. The Space Center is just north of Port Canaveral. Although it is about a 30 minute drive between the two.

I think you best bet would be to rent a car. Drive to the Space Center. Then stay at a hotel in Port Canaveral. This will save a lot of drive time. You can rent a car for one way.Then the morning of the cruise drop the car off at the rental place and catch the shuttle from the car rental place to the Port. Or there are hotels in Port Canaveral that offer shuttles to the port.

Here is a map of the route. For both you will need to drive over to the east coast. If you look at the map you have to back track a bit to get between the Sapce Center and Cocoa (where Port Canaveral is located). It's still closer than driving all the way back to the Orlando airport. Also Disney World is about 30 minutes the other direction from the airport.

Weedy (or anyone else) do you know which hotels offer shuttles to the port?

Thanks

 

[bonnysammy]

I'd like to follow this, as well, as I'm trying to figure out a few things. I've heard some hotels also do parking while you're away?

 

[MommyTo5]

FYI: There are 2 airports in Orlando - Orlando Interternational (MCO) and Orlando Sanford (SFB). If you are interested in Disney transportation with luggage transfers to Port Canaveral, make sure you fly into Orlando International. At this time, I think Allegiant is the only major airline flying in/out of SFB, but it's something to keep in mind to avoid potential confusion later. I had friends book non-stop flights into SFB not realizing that there was more than one airport in the area. They ended up taking a limo to port instead of the DCL bus, but still came out ahead as flights into SFB are generally significantly less than flying into MCO.

 

[DisneyNDecember]

You could fly into MCO and stay at the Hyatt right inside the airport. You leave your bags in the Hyatt and they transport them for you if you are using the Disney bus transfers. My kids love staying there.

We are staying at the Hyatt MCO the night before our cruise as well. How does this work? Do you tell them when you check in at the Hyatt? Do you then put on the luggage tags & place them outside the door at a certain time? I am a bit leery of trusting someone else to deliver my bags to the DCL bus stop. We are already signed up for the DCL transportation, just a bit leery of depending on the Hyatt to get my bags to the DCL area.

Exactly how does it work?
Anyone ever had any problems with Hyatt MCO making a mistake?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We are staying at the Hyatt MCO the night before our cruise as well. How does this work? Do you tell them when you check in at the Hyatt? Do you then put on the luggage tags & place them outside the door at a certain time? I am a bit leery of trusting someone else to deliver my bags to the DCL bus stop. We are already signed up for the DCL transportation, just a bit leery of depending on the Hyatt to get my bags to the DCL area.

Exactly how does it work?
Anyone ever had any problems with Hyatt MCO making a mistake?

You tell them when you check in that you are taking DCL transfers the next morning. Bags are left inside your room for pickup (usually around 8:00). The bags are picked by Hyatt bell people and handed off to the DCL transfer people for placing on trucks to be taken to the ship.

In my time on the DISboards I've only read of one instance where the bags were not picked up from the room.

 

[DisneyNDecember]

You tell them when you check in that you are taking DCL transfers the next morning. Bags are left inside your room for pickup (usually around 8:00). The bags are picked by Hyatt bell people and handed off to the DCL transfer people for placing on trucks to be taken to the ship.

In my time on the DISboards I've only read of one instance where the bags were not picked up from the room.

Thank you so much !!!! I feel pretty good with that information, thank you for sharing.
We will take advantage of that option, glad to hear we keep them inside the room for pickup.

 

[eeyore29]

Sorry to hijack the thread, but would there be any disadvantage to spending the pre-cruise night at an All Stars/POP? The DCL bus would still pick us up there, right? Just trying to figure things out, and a night at a Value resort would less expensive than the Hyatt at MCO.

 

[mdb07]

I was also very wary of the Hyatt luggage transfer service and had planned to bring my own bags down to the bus in the morning. But we just got off the Fantasy 10/31 sailing and we ended up using it and I was pleasantly surprised. You do need to make sure you tell them as you check in as you won't be added to the pick up list otherwise. I double checked the next morning as well at the front desk and they showed me the printed list that their baggage people were using that morning to collect bags. It also made me feel better that there appears to be a close partnership between the Hyatt and DCL as they post a DCL rep in the lobby in the morning if there is anything you need or have any questions. And the fact that there were a ton of groups staying there that were also on our cruise helped as well - a larger volume of people made it seem less likely that the baggage service need would get missed. If you go back to your room after breakfast to freshen up, you may already see your bag gone, as we did.

 

[clten]

OP, I think if you want to go to the Space Center the day before your cruise you would be better off not trying to also use DCL transportation or staying in the Orlando area. Why head all the way out to the Canaveral area to return to the Orlando area only to have to make the trip back to the Canaveral Area the next day?

I think your best bet is to rent a car (we usually use Budget but you can do a one way rental with just about any company that has a location in the Port Canaveral area -- Hertz, Avis, Alamo, National, Enterprise - may be forgetting someone. Also look for discount codes, usually get a good price on a one day (24 hour) rental; depending on the time you are arriving, may need 2 days).

Have a hotel in the Port Canaveral area that provides transportation to the port. You can drive yourself around the area the day before the cruise to see the Space Center, the beach, out to dinner, etc. Then on the morning of the cruise I'd drive over to the port to drop off the luggage before returning the car - that saves schlepping it onto the hotel's shuttle (and not to be cheap but tipping for two people handling the luggage in a 10 minute span).

While the Hyatt is nice and the luggage service great, if it fits your plans; I wouldn't go out of my way to have that service.

 

[scootch]

Sorry to hijack the thread, but would there be any disadvantage to spending the pre-cruise night at an All Stars/POP? The DCL bus would still pick us up there, right? Just trying to figure things out, and a night at a Value resort would less expensive than the Hyatt at MCO.

The biggest disadvantage, if you are taking Disney transfers, they won't pick you up at All Stars until closer to noon. Plus, queen sized luxury accomodations rather than full size beds in
a small room at POP.

 

[girliesj]

OP, I think if you want to go to the Space Center the day before your cruise you would be better off not trying to also use DCL transportation or staying in the Orlando area. Why head all the way out to the Canaveral area to return to the Orlando area only to have to make the trip back to the Canaveral Area the next day?

I think your best bet is to rent a car (we usually use Budget but you can do a one way rental with just about any company that has a location in the Port Canaveral area -- Hertz, Avis, Alamo, National, Enterprise - may be forgetting someone. Also look for discount codes, usually get a good price on a one day (24 hour) rental; depending on the time you are arriving, may need 2 days).

Have a hotel in the Port Canaveral area that provides transportation to the port. You can drive yourself around the area the day before the cruise to see the Space Center, the beach, out to dinner, etc. Then on the morning of the cruise I'd drive over to the port to drop off the luggage before returning the car - that saves schlepping it onto the hotel's shuttle (and not to be cheap but tipping for two people handling the luggage in a 10 minute span).

While the Hyatt is nice and the luggage service great, if it fits your plans; I wouldn't go out of my way to have that service.

Honestly, the luggage service is the MAIN thing we are looking for. 3 young kids, carry ons, strollers etc makes it doable, but difficult to handle luggage. Especially because our youngest is a "runner", we need to keep him strapped into the stroller at all times. It is difficult for my husband to carry/pull all the bags, plus keep eyes on the "older" of our children (one of which may still be in a walker due to an extensive hip injury).