pre-cruise hotel and transfers-WDW hotel

[trampslady]

I am very new to all this and am trying to digest some of the many details in small bites! I was thinking that we would fly in late on Thursday night for a Saturday Magic sailing. That means we would have all day on Friday to find something to do. Since we have annual passes, I can think of lots of things to do!! I was thinking of staying at an economical All Stars for the two nights (Thursday and Friday) and renting a car at the airport for the two days. We could get up early on Saturday morning and head to the port, drop the car and be on our way! Questions:

1. Traffic issues on Saturday morning?

2. We usually get towncar...will renting a car at MCO and parking it while at WDW be a problem (hassle)?

3. What happens to our luggage if we show up at the port with it?


Also considering other option of staying only one night at WDW and Friday night at Radisson/Canaveral. This would save one days car rental expense by dropping it late Friday night.

On the return, I was thinking of either renting another car and dropping at MCO which would give us flexibility to do something before our Saturday departure or perhaps using Disney Cruise bus to return to airport.

ANY AND ALL COMMENTS, SUGGESTIONS WELCOME!!!!!

 

[din]

I have never done what you are trying to do, but I will try to answer some of the questions:

1. Maybe I have been lucky, but I have never seen traffic and going to the port should be realtively easy.

2. I like you have never rented a car at WDW, but I noticed that most hotels have ample parking for the guest only. So you should not have aproblem with that.

3. Just make sure that the tags that they send to you is on the bags when you show up at the port. The porters will take the bags from you and the bags will show up at your door to your room.

As you maybe a ware the rental car return at the port is not at the actual port itself. Most are miles away from the port. Please take into consideration for car rentals.

You could get a limo to do a three way, MCO to WDW to PORT to MCO at the end of the cruise. That way you do not need to worry about driving and relax to the port, about a 45 mins to an hour drive.

My two cents is that I would not rent a car to WDW as you will be paying rental to park the car and do the limo thing ... depending on the number of persons travelling... we are a family of four so it is cheaper to use limo for us.

Have fun !!!!

 

[trampslady]

Thanks for such a detailed response, Din! We have always relied on a towncar for transportation between WDW and MCO so if we do decide to rent a car it will all be new to us.

I really like the idea of staying at WDW the two nights because we could spend all day Friday at the parks before heading to the cruise on Saturday.

 

[cndncruiz]

Hi,
I was going to do exactly what you are planning on doing. Arrive two days prior to the cruise and spend a full day at WDW.

My plan was to hire a town car to take us from MCO to WDW to the Port. I priced every single option out, including renting a car. The Town car came in cheaper especially with the coupon on mousesavers.com

Because I am a bit of a compulsive planner, I have now decided that there is way too much to do in WDW so we are coming the whole week prior to our cruise.

Hope this helps, have a great time.

 

[SINK]

Our family has rented from Avis at MCO (twice last year) and drove to WDW (we stayed at VWL and OKW both times), then returned the car at Radisson (Avis's P3F). Then returned to MCO with Avis's rental car. No problem (but have to drag the luggage around and wait for the rental car shuttle at port). My Avis wizard number has built it corporate rate, therefore, it's affordable compared with either the towncar service or disney bus. But again, just a bit of a hassle with luggage and the wait time.

 

[Gillian]

Renting a car is easy We split up at the airport - I got the car while DH got the luggage and put it on a cart. Then I drove around and picked him up curbside at arrivals.

Going to the port you can do something similar. Everyone drive to the port, drop off the luggage with the porter & leave all but one person. The one person goes to the renatal place & takes the shuttle back to the port. It's important for that one person to have all of his/her id & docs.

If the All stars comes out to be less expensive than a port hotel minus saved rental fees (if any), I'd stay at WDW. It's a very short drive to the port. We relaxed over breakfast at Boma and still made it to the port early enough to be near the front of the boarding line.

Taking 2 towncars is certainly cake, but renting a car isn't that challenging either!