should we fly in the day before?

[TheWog]

Another vote for day before. It will be so much more relaxing for you to just enjoy the day you embark. Go to betterbidding.com and biddingfortravel.com and learn about Priceline. You can get an Orlando hotel for pretty short money for the night. You could also look into the Orland MCO Hyatt, as it is right in the airport. They will take your bags for you and deliver you and your bags to the Disney Bus in the morning.

As a side note, we flew down the day before our cruise. We ended being stuck in Charlotte for 7 hours because we missed our connection. Granted it was a different day and the weather may have been different on Saturday, but I am glad we weren't worrying about missing the ship and catching it in St. Maarten 3 days later. Good luck on whatever you decide.

 

[figment52]

Without a doubt if at all possible the day before for all the reasons. It is a small price to pay to know that you will be there and not be delayed for any reason. Mechanical delays are infrequent but are more unpredicable that weather issues.


Have a great cruise

 

[kehouse]

the scariest thing on "airline" was when southwest overbooked the flight to florida. alot of people were crying and very angry because they were going to miss their cruise. convinced me to book the day before! plus you can go shopping at downtown disney!

 

[lmschwabby]

help, pls. We're booked on the 12/4 Magic and had been planning to fly into Orlando the day of. After reading this thread and others, I'm working with our TA to change our plans to fly in the night before. According to the TA, Disney has a plan where we could fly in the night before and stay at the Port Orleans - - for a mere $417 more!!! Given, there are 5 of us, but geez. I'm looking for suggestions re: where to stay the night before - something a bit more accommodating with our budget. Is there a decent hotel right there at the Port that we could stay? I realize this is late notice - thought we had things settled until reading this thread :--)

thanks for any help.
lisa

 

[NYGiantsRule!]

The port is about an hour from the airport. How are you planning to get there? If you are doing a one way car rental (best choice for cost) you can stay near the port. Go to Dave's site www.dcltribute.com for hotel info.

 

[DrCavin]

Originally posted by lmschwabby
help, pls. We're booked on the 12/4 Magic and had been planning to fly into Orlando the day of. After reading this thread and others, I'm working with our TA to change our plans to fly in the night before. According to the TA, Disney has a plan where we could fly in the night before and stay at the Port Orleans - - for a mere $417 more!!! Given, there are 5 of us, but geez. I'm looking for suggestions re: where to stay the night before - something a bit more accommodating with our budget. Is there a decent hotel right there at the Port that we could stay? I realize this is late notice - thought we had things settled until reading this thread :--)

thanks for any help.
lisa

Lisa:

Check out Daves website http://www.dcltribute.com/lodging/

LOTS of info on where to stay the night before, ways to get to the port and mcuh more.

 

[rwcmath]

lisa, you have to consider how you would get to the port hotel? Will you rent a car 1 -way? We're flying in on Wednesday, picking up a rental car, staying at a hotel near the airport, Sleep Inn, they have a promotion, stay 2 times get a night free, and we're happy with their breakfasts and accomodations. On Thursday, we go to the port, I'll be dropped off with luggage while DH drops car off, and gets the shuttle from the car rental to the port.

We're doing it this way, Budget rental car, because of suggestions on this board, and the price is less than transfers from the airport. I don't think that it's too late for you to get a hotel, I hope not.

We too, always fly in the night before a cruise.

rwc

 

[Erik]

Plan the extra day,
We have a 12-19 curise and we are flying out on the 17th. In Dec you have snow, fog and other delays. The last thing I want for the family is to miss the boat. When you spend over a year planning and thousands of dollars, what is an extra day. We plan on spending the day at NASA and staying in Cocoa Beach.
this way all our luggage should be with us and we can feel relaxed before our cruise.

 

[GoofyFD]

Fly in the night before. We stay at the Airport it’s a very nice hotel. The pool is one big hot tube lots of fun swimming with air planes right there next to you. And less stress we spent $150.00 well worth it.

 

[CheapMom]

The night before will be so much more relaxing. I will be on that cruise too- we are flying in Sat. early and doing WDW for a day and then heading to the port early on Sunday.
I would be stressed out flying in on Sunday- who knows what the weather will be like in mid December. If your flight gets delayed it could be a major problem.

 

[needAcruise]

Another vote for flying in the night before.

Never know when a nor'easter might blow in.

 

[lmschwabby]

All - thanks to everyone for the helpful information. Hands down, we should've made the original reservations to fly in the day before. I made the changes to our itinerary this a.m. - - we're now flying in on Friday, 12/3 (vs Saturday) and are staying at the Hyatt - we'll have almost a whole extra day!! things worked out for us and, most importantly, I won't have to spend our first day stressing out over whether we'll make the cruise or not

lisa