Our flight home is the day after the ship returns. I was thinking about staying in Cocoa, but perhaps it's best to go straight from the boat to the Orlando area. What's the cheapest transport from the ship to Orlando?
The best way to answer your questions is "its depends".
If you are one person the cheapest way is the DCL transfer (but it does provide for the least amount of flexibility).
As the number of people increases so do your options. A one way car rental for the day can be found for about $50. Depending on the number of DCL transfers you would be buying it could be cheaper and more flexible to rent a car and drop it off at the airport. That would give you more flexibility for your free time. You can also look into a town car but the economy of that would again be determined by the number of people and the break even point on DCL transfers.
And, I will add that if you go back to Orlando with a rental car it would be easy for you to go to WDW. Even if you only go to Downtown Disney, it will ease the pain (just a little) of leaving the ship behind.
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