Need thoughts MCO->Disney->Port Canaveral

[Shelly888]

Hi all! Trying to work out transport and wondering if anyone has any ideas!

The plan: Fly to MCO on 1/18 and go to DIsney for 3 nights. On 1/21, head to Port Canaveral for a non-Disney cruise out of Port Canaveral. It was suggested to me to rent a car from either Budget or Avis at MCO and driving to the ship, dropping it off at Cocoa Beach. I would then need one for back to MCO.

I know this is more than just Disney, but any help would be awesome. I don't need a car for Disney, so I was thinking, we could use ME to and from resort and airport. Is this right too? Wait, will my luggage not know where to go if we don't get on a plane at MCO.

 

[Brer Chump]

If you rent a car, which is what I always do, you will want to return it in Cape Canaveral. The rental agencies you mentioned, and Hertz, have complimentary transportation to the pier when returning or picking up a car.

You can use ME on 1/18 without any problems but on 1/24 you would have to carry on your own luggage because if you RAC they would wind up going to your home airport and not available for your cruise.

 

[Shelly888]

Ok, that is what I was just thinking, and don not want that So, I think you are suggesting that we take ME from MCO to Disney resort, stay and play at Disney. Then on 1/21 pick up a rental car from property, and drive to port, and drop off. Then, when disembarking, get back to car rental place, rent a car and drive back to MCO. It sounds like there is a shuttle to the port, is there a way to get a shuttle to the rental place and drive back to MCO? Thank you so very much for the info, that cleared it up for me!

 

[It'sWDW4me]

ME from MCO to Disney would be free.

You could rent a car to get from Disney to PC or you can get a transfer through DCL to get from Disney to PC. The transfer is $35/person so it may be cheaper to rent a car, drop it off at the rental co's PC location, and then take the shuttle to get to the ship.

You can reverse the shuttle process and take a shuttle from the ship back to the rental co's PC location and drive back to MCO or you can use DCL transfers (again, $35/person) from PC to MCO.

I'm wrestling with this same sort of scenario but we're going to Universal before our cruise next year.

 

[richmo]

We did something similar, but in my case, I found it less expensive to rent the car MCO to MCO and pay for parking at the Port. At the time I traveled, and because our cruise was only 4 nights, I found the Orlando only rental much less expensive than the two one way rentals.

I also considered staying in the Disney area until the night before the cruise, then stay near the port that night and get a "park and cruise" package at a port hotel, but I had such a good rate at a Disney area property (it was Staybridge Suites in LBV that trip), it more than made up for the parking charge. So we wound up driving to Port Canaveral on cruise morning (its only slightly over an hour).

One other nice thing about leaving a car at the port: you can skip taking your dirty laundry on the ship with you. Just leave it and anything else you don't need in the car.