How do I decide where to start planning? Hotel, transportation, etc.

[3cruisemom]

I'm trying to put together a couple of budgets for a Disney vacation in January 2020. I told my husband (he'll be 35) and my daughter (8) that I would price a Disney Cruise option and a Walt Disney World plus Norwegian Cruise option and they could choose. Just doing really rough math, I was able to show that for about the same price, we could either go on just a 5-day Caribbean Disney cruise or we could go on a 5-day NCL cruise PLUS we could stay 3 extra nights in Orlando, spending 1 day each at Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom.

Now comes the hard part: how do I put together a detailed budget for those 3 days? Everything seems to depend on everything else. We need to get from the cruise port at Port Canaveral to our hotel at Disney, from our hotel to the Magic Kingdom, from the Magic Kingdom back to the hotel, from the hotel to Animal Kingdom, from Animal Kingdom back to the hotel, and from the hotel to MCO. Would it be cheaper to Uber/Lyft or rent a car and pay for parking? It obviously depends on the cost of each variable. So which do I pick first: hotel or method of transportation? We could get a good rate with IHG points at the Holiday Inn Vacation Club at Orange Lake, but it is apparently gated, so then we couldn't use Uber/Lyft. So that means paying for a one way car rental from PC to MCO, plus parking at Disney. But then we could save money by going to a grocery store to buy breakfast and snacks. Or we could stay at Art of Animation or All Star Movies and just use the free transportation to the parks, but is it super slow and therefore worth it to just Uber/Lyft? Then again, if we are Ubering/Lyfting anyway, we could stay at CoCo Key for cheaper than the Disney properties and they have a free waterpark.

I just don't know where to start. Help!

 

[Woodview]

First How are you getting to the Ferry port ?

If you are flying into M.C.O. AND Flying home from there 8 or 9 days later

then Renting a car for 9 days is the way to go & solves a lot of your other issues.

Drive to ferry port & park it there at say $ 10 a day . pick it up on arrival back & drive to hotel .

You can then use your rental car for grocery shopping etc.

Hotels ...... thats your choice

You can drive to Disney Springs & Park in the Parking garages ( huge ) for Free .

Take the Free Bus transport to the Parks You can also use the free bus to take you to the
Grand Floridian Hotel & use the free Monorail & ferry boats to get to the parks ...... takes longer .

 

[3cruisemom]

We were just going to Uber/Lyft from MCO to our pre-cruise hotel, which will probably be the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Nearest Universal Studios ($29) and then from the hotel to the cruise port ($67). If we rented the cheapest car for just the 3 days we're in Orlando, it would be $116 (doesn't have to be prepaid for some reason) for a total of $212.
Renting the cheapest car, prepaid for the whole time would be $276, plus $60 for cruise parking using your estimate = $336.

So I'm totally open to renting a car, but I wouldn't get it before the cruise. In general, though, is it easier to rent a car than to Lyft/Uber for the time we're actually in Orlando? I definitely don't want to drive to Disney Springs, park there, then take another form of transport to MK/AK. I would want to either take the free Disney transport from a Disney hotel, or else just pay to Uber/Lyft or park. Looks like standard parking costs $25/day at Disney, whereas Lyft/Uber would be closer to $40 R/T.

 

[halfpintpeggy]

Decisions, decisions! Can you use your IHG points for the Holiday Inn Disney Springs? Excellent hotel with clean, convenient shuttles to the parks.