How far from airport to Downtown Disney?

[sasha]

Does anyone know how far it is from Orlando Airport to Downtown Disney? We already purchased Disney transfers, but our plane doesn't leave until almost 4 pm. Since our luggage will be checked at the ship, we don't want to sit around the airport. We were thinking about maybe taking a cab from the airport to Downtown Disney for lunch & shopping. Does anyone know how long this might take or how much this might cost????

Thanks in advance!

 

[atigeg]

We did this a couple of cruises ago, and it seems to me that it took about 30 mins. We went to Downtown Disney for shopping at lunch at Wolfgang Puck's (mmmmmm!) and had Happy Limo pick us up there & take us to the airport. It was a great way to extend the magic as long as possible!
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[Tay N Evie's Mom]

You should look into cancelling the return portion of your DCL transfers and do what atigeg said-take Happy Limo from the port to Downtown Disney and be picked back up and taken to the airport. I believe unless you are less than 60 days from your cruise date you can adjust your plans without any penalty (please don't quote me on that though). I know you can purchase one way transfers from DCL-we are renting a car for 5 days before our cruise and returning it to Avis at the port but purchased return transfers from DCL back to the airport. You could then apply the refunded amount towards the limo. Ok everyone out there-doesn't that sound like a good idea (if not I'm sorry for the confusion I've caused).

Or you could rent a car from Avis at the port and do the exploring yourself and return it to the airport.

 

[imgoingtodisney]

We are planning on renting a car from Avis. Our plane is due to land at 10am in Orlando. The checkin time at the Radisson (where we have ressie for the night before the cruise) isnt until 3pm. We will most likely go to Downtown Disney that day.
On our return our flight isnt until 6pm. Again we will rent a car from Avis. We're planning on checking out the DVC resorts since we just joined after our last trip to the Wilderness Lodge.

 

[TnRobin]

I agree with taking an alternate means of transpo from the cruise. We usually rent a one-way car from Avis. This way we can do whatever we like until our evening flights. One year we drove to Vero Beach, one year we went to Downtown Disney. We are thinking about doing Cape Canaveral this year.

A one day rental from Avis cost aout $50 plus gas (depending on time of year you are traveling)

 

[plutojudy]

We are going to have DCL transportation take us back to the airport, check our bags, get a rental car and go to Downtown Disney for lunch and shopping before our plane. We have spent way to much time in airports the last six months.

 

[lUVTOGO]

Does anyone know if you can check your luggage at 9a.m. ifyour flight doesnt leave till 5 p.m.? I was thinking of doing Downtown Disney with Happy Limo(we don't want to rent a car, there is 7 of us)before our flight, but we do want to check our luggage first?

 

[atigeg]

We have found two different ways to handle the luggage:
When we have been on American Airlines, we have checked it at the airport. They never said we couldn't, even when we were checking it early and our flight was quite late. However, I noticed that this increases the chance of lost luggage! Fortunately, in the two times they lost it, we got it back eventually both times.
The second thing we have done is take the towncar to a Disney hotel and store the luggage there. Then we go to a park, Downtown Disney, or whatever, and have Happy Limo pick us up back at the hotel. We haven't done this since 9/11, so I don't know if they have gotten strict about non-guests doing the storage. When we've done it, they've never even asked if we were staying at the hotel. All it will cost you is the tip and the extra time it takes you to get back to the hotel.
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[Mike Bartenhagen]

We will be going on our second Disney cruise this fall and we have never been to the park. I see many mentions of Downtown Disney here. Is this someplace we can go without buying a ticket to the park? Is it easy to park and get to the shops and places to eat? We will arrive at about 5 pm the Saturday before our cruise leaves and I thought this may be a good idea to visit Disney for a few hours before we went to the Raddison for our stay. We are planning a trip to the park next year so we would like to see some of the places to stay. Could we easily drive by the different properties?

 

[atigeg]

There is no admission charge to enter Downtown Disney, and there is lots of shopping and restaurants. There is a fee to enter Pleasure Island in the evening if you want to go to the clubs, but there is a lot to do at Downtown Disney itself. They have a very large parking lot, so you could probably use that as a "base" and take buses to other destinations (for example, it's fun at eat at Ohana at the Poly at fireworks time or check out the Animal Kingdom Lodge). On the trip where we visited Downtown Disney, we also spent some time at AKL.
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com