Ship Disembarkment

[dgroet]

Can anyone shed some light on the disembarkment process. And, on thw WDW bus transportation back to the airport.

We'll be on the 4 day Wonder cruise 8/25, arriving back in port on thursday 8/29. My in-laws said the Disney Buses take you back to the airport based on the time of your airline departure (earliest first, and so on). Approx. how many buses do they operate and what kind of a wait can we expect? My in-laws and sis/bro in-law have a flight out at noon, but we're continuing on for 3 more days in Tampa (we're planning on getting picked up by other family at the Orlando airport). So since we don't have a flight on the day of return, are we put at the back of the line for a ride back to Orlando? We have 3 kids 2, 6 & 7, so I'm just wondering what the process is like.

Again, thanks in advance for any and all information. It's places like this that answer so many questions and provide the most valuable information.

 

[mcnuss]

In your situation, I wonder if you would have an easier time either renting a car at the Port or getting private transportation? You could get a van to pick you up and it would likely cost you much much less than the DCL bus.

We don't have a flight until 7:30 pm after our cruise, so I got an Avis car for about $35. (We are a family of 3 so did not need a big vehicle.) This way I got cost savings & flexibility. But we are taking DCL bus from our hotel (Hyatt at MCO) on the day of cruise bc for our first time, we want the whole Disney experience on the way there!

 

[llachance]

we got back from the magic on the 13th of July and were not leaving until the 14th. I asked the person at the dock which bus to get on to go back to the airport and she pointed to a bus and said this one is leaving - 5 minutes after we got off the boat......we didn't want to check bags and were on a bus where the airlines weren't represented at the port. We left before most of those buses and were back at the Hyatt (where we were spending the night) by 10:00 am - and this was after late seating for breakfast.

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

Once you clear Customs, you're free to get on the next-available bus. No waiting or organizing in order of flight departure times. The only times they do that is when the boat is late arriving into port (it happened two Saturdays in a row about a year ago but hasn't happened since then).