Pre cruise WDW suggestions

[HeyKoolaid]

So our family of 4 could fit in a town car with luggage no problem?

It really depends on your luggage. We were 2 adults, 2 tweens. Each carried a backpack and 21" hard luggage. Any more luggage and we would have had to carry it in the town car,rather than the trunk. We were comfortable, but if you have more luggage than that, you might want a larger vehicle.

 

[Muskegon78]

I think I'm leaning toward the following....

ME from mco to wherever we stay at WDW, 2 days in the park, try to get a happy limo towncar pickup around 9/930 on Saturday, do our 1 stop for drinks on the way, then get on the ship asap to check things out and do sign ups. Will still use dcl transfers to mco after

 

[Drusilla99]

Last spring break we arrived at wdw on Wednesday. We did MK wednesday night, it was open til 1, so we were there for about 6 hours. Thursday morn we hit Epcot at opening and moved over to DS for the late afternoon & evening. Friday morn we hit AK for a few hours, went back to the resort for lunch & moved on Typhoon lagoon for the afternoon. Spent Friday night packing & early to bed. Saturday we did a 4person bike ride around the resort until it was time to go around 11:30 on the dcl buses to the port. It sounds like a lot, but we did everything we wanted.

 

[teacher31]

1. We have left our car at POR (stayed there before and after and ok'd with hotel prior) but have never asked about the luggage.
2. Lots of people squeeze in a quick park visit before the ride to PC and my biggest worry would be a delay in transportation coming back, but BLT to MK is a very short walk so no problems there. The DCL bus will pick you up at the resort ~12:00 (they'll give you an exact time if you ask the day before at the cruise desk). Definitely time for a couple quick rides, especially with EE on Saturday.

So who did you contact to get your car approved to stay there while on the cruise? We are staying at POR before the trip and Yacht Club afterwards. If I could leave my car there, I would take Disney Transport. Just can't figure out who to contact to arrange this.

 

[BuzzLightyearInTampa]

So who did you contact to get your car approved to stay there while on the cruise? We are staying at POR before the trip and Yacht Club afterwards. If I could leave my car there, I would take Disney Transport. Just can't figure out who to contact to arrange this.

We stopped by the resort prior to the trip (since we live in Tampa and have passes, we are over there quite often during the year) and I asked at guest services. They said it would be possible, so when we checked in for the pre-cruise stay, we mentioned that we would be leaving the car there during the DCL cruise and staying again afterwards. They looked up our second reservation and printed us a parking pass to leave on the dash in the car during the cruise. We had also booked the DCL transportation to and from the hotel and it all worked out great. It went super easy and no problems.

 

[mhingher]

My girls will be 5 and 8 for our cruise in November. I was planning on spending 2-3 days in the parks before the cruise, but the more I looked at it the more I realized we will be so rushed, and it's incredibly expensive to go for just a few days - it would cost our family of 4 just about $1000! They had a blast on the Wonder this past December, so I know they will be happy knowing they are going again. That being said, we are DVC members so we're staying on property a few nights before the cruise, we'll have 2 full days. I plan to spend time in the resort pool, Downtown Disney, and monorail hopping. They also enjoyed renting the 4 person bike at the Boardwalk, so that's another thought.

As for transportation to the port, I've been doing some research on this. Like others have said, it's ridiculously $$$ to use the Disney transportation - $320 for us! We plan to rent a car the day before our cruise and drive down to a hotel near the port that provides shuttle service. There are a lot of options and I've been watching the Trip Advisor reviews. We have a 7:25pm flight home, so we'll rent a car after we disembark. My original thoughts were to spend some time at the Kennedy Space Center or Downtown Disney, but some other posters have mentioned renting a day room at the MCO Hyatt for $100. That might be a great option, since we'll be with my in laws (they are just coming on the cruise, not spending time in Orlando a few nights before with us) and they might be exhausted. In any case, renting a car seems far more reasonable than any type of bus or car service.

 

[Muskegon78]

My girls will be 5 and 8 for our cruise in November. I was planning on spending 2-3 days in the parks before the cruise, but the more I looked at it the more I realized we will be so rushed, and it's incredibly expensive to go for just a few days - it would cost our family of 4 just about $1000! They had a blast on the Wonder this past December, so I know they will be happy knowing they are going again. That being said, we are DVC members so we're staying on property a few nights before the cruise, we'll have 2 full days. I plan to spend time in the resort pool, Downtown Disney, and monorail hopping. They also enjoyed renting the 4 person bike at the Boardwalk, so that's another thought.

As for transportation to the port, I've been doing some research on this. Like others have said, it's ridiculously $$$ to use the Disney transportation - $320 for us! We plan to rent a car the day before our cruise and drive down to a hotel near the port that provides shuttle service. There are a lot of options and I've been watching the Trip Advisor reviews. We have a 7:25pm flight home, so we'll rent a car after we disembark. My original thoughts were to spend some time at the Kennedy Space Center or Downtown Disney, but some other posters have mentioned renting a day room at the MCO Hyatt for $100. That might be a great option, since we'll be with my in laws (they are just coming on the cruise, not spending time in Orlando a few nights before with us) and they might be exhausted. In any case, renting a car seems far more reasonable than any type of bus or car service.

I looked into the PC and MCO hotels as well and my main concern was staying at WDW for at least 2 night then do that before a cruise might feel out of place sandwiched between the Disney experiences. We are pretty set on the parks because we don't get to go too often. Not missing HS and AK that much so picking the 2 park days was easy. After a final day at MK I don't think we want to have to drive anywhere to be close to PC.

 

[FamilyMan4]

We decided on pick up times to whatever degree was possible - i.e. the port doesn't open until 10:30 am so as anxious as we were to board, we couldn't really go earlier. We certainly could have chosen to go later.

We are currently booking Happy Limo as well.
What time did you have them pick you up at WDW and what time did you get to PC?

We would like to be there fairly early so we can board early.

 

[Muskegon78]

We are currently booking Happy Limo as well.
What time did you have them pick you up at WDW and what time did you get to PC?

We would like to be there fairly early so we can board early.

Are you staying at WDW the night before and are you using Happy Limo after the cruise as well?

 

[FamilyMan4]

Are you staying at WDW the night before and are you using Happy Limo after the cruise as well?

Yes we are.
We have Happy Limo booked to take us from the Wilderness Lodge to Port Canaveral, then from Port to our stay at the Hard Rock Hotel, and also for our transfer from the Hard Rock to MCO for our flight home.
Good prices, all in told it will be cheaper than the Disney bus Port transfers for our group and we will get to the port much earlier than the Disney busses as well, Win Win for us.

 

[Muskegon78]

Yes we are.
We have Happy Limo booked to take us from the Wilderness Lodge to Port Canaveral, then from Port to our stay at the Hard Rock Hotel, and also for our transfer from the Hard Rock to MCO for our flight home.
Good prices, all in told it will be cheaper than the Disney bus Port transfers for our group and we will get to the port much earlier than the Disney busses as well, Win Win for us.

Yea for sure. How many in your group? We have 4. I am still think DCL transfers to MCO after the cruise but Happy Limo sounds nice for timing and the stop at a store prior to the trip

 

[FamilyMan4]

Yea for sure. How many in your group? We have 4. I am still think DCL transfers to MCO after the cruise but Happy Limo sounds nice for timing and the stop at a store prior to the trip

Yeah, we were thinking Disney transfers after too, but there are 9 in our group, so we continued with Happy Limo for price, but mainly convenience, as we really wanted to get to the port early so we could board with a relatively low crowd on the ship and explore the ship. Our cruise is only 4 nights so we want to take in as much ship time as possible because our port stops will be spent off the ship.

The free grocery stop is a big selling point for Happy Limo too from what I have seen here on the DIS

 

[perditax]

(Not relevant to their service, but wow, Happy Limo needs to hire a professional (or even someone's nephew or something) to fix up that website.)

 

[HeyKoolaid]

We are currently booking Happy Limo as well.
What time did you have them pick you up at WDW and what time did you get to PC?

We would like to be there fairly early so we can board early.

In looking back at my emails from Happy Limo, they picked us up from the Wilderness Lodge at 9:30 a.m. I believe we arrived right around 10:30 when the port opened. I spoke with someone at Happy Limo and explained that I wanted to stay at the hotel as long as possible, and make it to the port as early as it opened, so that is why 9:30 was chosen. If you book with them, you might explain what you want to happen, and they can help fill in the blanks. They know more about how this works than I will ever figure out. Have a magical time!

 

[Nikodemos]

In November, we did a week at Bonnet Creek ($710 for seven nights, saving a ton of $$$) and went to both Universal Studios and WDW, and then a 7-day Western Caribbean on the Fantasy. We had Happy Limo do MCO->Bonnet Creek, Bonnet Creek->Ship, and Ship->MCO. I would use Happy Limo again since it made transit so stress free, and I didn't have to worry about car rental (sister-in-law had the mini-van to take us to Universal). Happy Limo were on time and even met us in baggage claim to take our luggage to the town car.

Another good experience was staying at the MCO Hyatt Day Use rooms after getting off the ship, since we had a 4:30pm flight. My wife and son enjoyed being able to take naps and relax.

 

[Muskegon78]

I think our family of 4 will take advantage of the ME to WDW and the DCL from PC to MCO but Happy Limo sounds perfect from WDW to PC so we can get there early and stop at the store

 

[LovesTimone]

I think we are leaning toward using DCL transfer and not worrying about the timing because of the extra days at WDW. I'm sure we will be anxious to go and it doesn't sound like its a possibility to do much at the resort that day (swimming would be a problem with bathing suits/changing I imagine).

Does anyone know if there are walkable store to DTD to buy drinks? We would be arriving Wednesday and possibly going there anyway. if not I could run over there myself at night

There is a Hess Station across from DTD, but I am pretty sure that they have only beer and wine very walkable. There is a ABC liquor on Apopka/ Vineland RD, it would be over a 2 mile walk, so you would have to cab it. Some of the hotels on Property and the DTD hotels, do have liquor for sale. Also how are you getting to the resort? Some friends when they come they use a car service with one stop on the way to the resort. They have a stop ( I think its around Sea World somewhere, but on the way to WDW) with a grocery store ( Publix) and a Walgreens with a liquor store in the same parking lot, so she runs into Publix for a few items, and he heads over to the liquor store and picks up what they need. A helpful hint if you know which store your stopping at (Publix) you can go on line and make a list by aisles, to speed up the search. There is also Garden Grocer, which delivers to the resorts, I am pretty sure they will deliver beer and wine, not sure about sprits.

 

[FamilyMan4]

In looking back at my emails from Happy Limo, they picked us up from the Wilderness Lodge at 9:30 a.m. I believe we arrived right around 10:30 when the port opened.

Hilarious! We are staying at WL too, and I booked Happy Limo for a 930am pick up!
We have a stop at POR Riverside to pick up the rest of our travelling party, so I'm expecting to arrive around 11-1130 depending on traffic and especially since you say you arrived around 1030.

Awesome, thanks again for the info!

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

We are doing something similar--3 nights/2.5 days at the parks before a 3 day cruise. The way we are doing it is 1/2 at the water parks on Tuesday (got a free ticket, otherwise would just hang out at resort that day), Magic Kingdom Wednesday, and Epcot/Magic Kingdom on Thursday. We might try to pop over to DHS for the Disney Junior show on Thursday too, but I doubt we will have time. Then, Friday, we leave for our cruise.

I don't plan on unpacking my suitcase in the first place, so the only thing I will need to repack is toiletries.

We think we want to wash clothes while there, but I think we will wait until we are on the cruise because our stateroom is very close to a laundry room; we will probably do wash after LO goes to bed the first night.

We are doing Disney transfers to the port since we just have to pay for two adults (LO will be two and doesn't cost extra.) However, if we had a large party, I would probably just rent a town car because it seems more cost effective.

You could always have alcohol delivered to your hotel room by a grocery delivery service (I think; we have only had food/milk delivered), or if you rent a town car, ask them to stop for alcohol.

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

So you just normally pack for the cruise plus the days at WDW?

For the parks I think I know what we'll do with our touring plans (2 daughters will be with us who will be 4 and 9), I guess I was more curious to know what most people do as far as schedule. Park or no park the day before the cruise? How long to stay in the parks? Is it worth driving yourself to PC or is the convenience of the bus transfers the way to go?

We are doing the park the day before the cruise but not the day of the cruise.