Recommendations for pre-cruise Port Canaveral - and how would you orchestrate?

[sjuncfan]

We're going on the Wish in August. Cruise is Friday - Monday and we had been considering a day at Galaxy's Edge on Thursday, so we booked a flight to Orlando Wednesday evening. Now we're thinking we'll save Disney World for a separate trip but still considering sticking with the Wednesday flight (especially since flights have been a disaster so even coming in one day early seems risky...). We usually fly in the day before a cruise and stay at the Hyatt at the airport so this is a little new for us. I'm leaning towards Kennedy Space Center but trying to work through logistics... Here's what I'm thinking we'll do:
- rent a car at the airport Wednesday night when we arrive, then drive immediately towards Port Canaveral that evening. I hate flying somewhere and then having a long drive... but if we want to spend the day Thursday at the coast that makes the most sense.
- Stay in or near Port Canaveral - What are the current recommendations for hotels near the port? We'd probably want to go to Fishlips or one of the other fun/recommended places for dinner Thursday eve.
- Drop off the car Friday morning and shuttle to the port. We did that once before years ago and it worked fine, are things different post-COVID? The thought crossed my mind to drop it off Thursday evening and take a hotel shuttle to the port... that would save us $100ish on the car rental and dealing with the car dropoff Friday... but we'd probably have to uber to dinner and back Thursday so maybe between that an a shuttle to the port it's not worth it and easier to keep the car. Any thoughts? Are there hotels that are walking distance to good restaurants and have a shuttle to the port?
- Then we'd have to book transportation back after the cruise... not too worried about that as we've done both DCL transport and private in the past.

Open to suggestions or what's worked for others. We've only spent time in FL pre-cruise once when we stayed at a friend's place. Other than that we've always just flown in for the cruise itself.

 

[OKW Lover]

Your plan sounds like a good one. A few comments:
The drive from the airport to Cocoa Beach is about an hour. Very easy drive.

There are several hotels that get good reviews for pre-cruise stays. Some even offer parking for the duration of the cruise. You might want to look at the price of the car rental for the entire time you are gone and compare to the cost of just the two day rental plus the return transportation.

Dropping the car off on Thursday night might work, but be sure you know the hours the agency is open. It might put a crimp in your plans for that day if you are car-less for the evening meal. However, you could rely on Uber/Lyft for that so you do have options.

 

[sjuncfan]

Your plan sounds like a good one. A few comments:
The drive from the airport to Cocoa Beach is about an hour. Very easy drive.

There are several hotels that get good reviews for pre-cruise stays. Some even offer parking for the duration of the cruise. You might want to look at the price of the car rental for the entire time you are gone and compare to the cost of just the two day rental plus the return transportation.

Dropping the car off on Thursday night might work, but be sure you know the hours the agency is open. It might put a crimp in your plans for that day if you are car-less for the evening meal. However, you could rely on Uber/Lyft for that so you do have options.

Thanks - I did consider the bolded (thought about parking at the port but parking at a hotel would make more sense). However, it's basically $100/day for the car rental so keeping it during the cruise adds far more to the cost than the one-way transportation.

I did notice that the rental places near the port don't have evening hours so we might be rushing back... and a couple ubers would probably eat into that $100 we'd be saving by returning the car so probably not worth it.

Do you have a hotel you like?

 

[OKW Lover]

Thanks - I did consider the bolded (thought about parking at the port but parking at a hotel would make more sense). However, it's basically $100/day for the car rental so keeping it during the cruise adds far more to the cost than the one-way transportation.

I did notice that the rental places near the port don't have evening hours so we might be rushing back... and a couple ubers would probably eat into that $100 we'd be saving by returning the car so probably not worth it.

Do you have a hotel you like?

Bein local now (8 years) we haven't done that in a while. However, in the past we used the Residence Inn. Lots of other folks will recommend the Country Inn & Suites