hotels for the night before cruise!

[wannabecruiser]

I am now considering getting to Fl the day/night before our cruise, can you all please tell me the best place to stay at a very good rate. We are from PA. If we decide to do this and come in the day before how do we go about getting from airport to hotel to port, does the hotel provide transfers or do you have to get those on your own?

Thanks for the infor before hand

 

[TammiMcMan]

You have a number of options for transportation whether you are arriving the day before or the day of your cruise. The first choice is to purchase DCL transfers. This will get you from the airport to the port and then back to the airport for your travel home. I think the current price is $49 per person/round trip transfer. Sometimes it works out less expensive to do a one way car rental. Budget is pretty good and you can pick up your car at MCO, drive to your hotel then to the port in the morning. Drop off your passengers and luggage, then return the car and take the Budget shuttle back to the port. You can arrange to do the reverse when you get back from your cruise. Another option is a town car service. They'll pick you up at your hotel, drive you to the port and then bring you back to MCO.

As for the area hotels, the Hyatt is pricey but very convenient. They are located right inside the airport and have an affiliation with DCL. If you've purchased the transfers, they'll take your luggage and a Disney rep will be in the lobby area that morning to get you onto the bus. For something less expensive, you could always try Priceline or Hotwire. Just be sure that "shuttle" is one of the amenities. This will get you from the airport to the hotel and the hotel back to the airport, but they will not take you all the way to Port Canaveral. You'll still need to either purchase transfers, do a rental car, or town car.

Tammi

 

[aliwas]

We flew in the day before our cruise and Tiffany Towncar Service picked us up at the airport and took us to the Radisson in Port Canaveral. They returned on disembarkation day and took us back to the airport. It was a round trip fee which for 3 people was cheaper than the transfers.

 

[Lisa D]

We got a great rate on a car through National using the Entertainment Book and codes (we are from PA also).

We were on the 4/24 Wonder - flew down from Philly on 4/23, picked up the rental car, drove to the port and stayed at the Radisson. We had a nice dinner at the pizza place next door (Kelsey's) and the Radisson provided a shuttle to the port in the morning. You should make a reservation for which shuttle you want - they run every 1/2 hour. The 10:30 worked well for us.

When we returned on Thursday, we took the shuttle back to the Radisson (the shuttle is free but the drivers do accept tips). Our rental car was waiting, which we drove to WDW for three days.

The room at the Radisson was $119. with AAA discount and the rental car was $144. for eight days, plus we had use of the car while in WDW. I felt that was more reasonable than paying for transfers for four people.

Lisa

 

[daisy112878]

Here's our plan:

We get in friday morning at MCO. We're renting a car from Budget ($36 I think). If you rent from Budget sign up for Fast Break so you don't have to stand in line for your car. Then we will probably go to MK or Universal for the day. After that we're driving to the port to stay the Courtyard Marriott. We are using our Marriott points for this so it's free. We also plan to drive to a grocery store and a liquor store to get a few things before the cruise that we didn't want to fly with us.

SAturday we will get up and have breakfast. We'll return the car to Budget near the port. (also most FL car rentals don't charge a one way fee). Then we'll take the Budget shuttle to the port.

On our return we will take the budget shuttle to rent another car. Our return flight isn't until 9pm so we're going to downtown disney and then back to MCO.

If you decide to stay near the airport almost all hotels near an airport has free shuttles to and from the airport. You could take their free shuttle to the hotel and back in the morning and then take the DCL buses to the port.