to fly or not to fly!?

[MarkRG]

Some things to keep in mind when factoring a rental car is this;

You don't need to book a car for the length of the cruise. We usually when we do use a car for it, we have done 1 way drives to the port from the airport and turned it in that night before the cruise, after spending the day around Cocoa Beach and doing a light grocery stop. Then used transfers or towncar limo for the trip back to the airport. Huge savings over a car sitting there while you pay for it for the length of the cruise. The major car rental places have shuttles to/from the port for the local cocoa beach suppliers, so you will be able to acquire a car the day you disembark.

We usually do the 1 way rental in so we can do a grocery stop, but the limo services now include one as well, so you can still pick up beverages and the like. I would also say, don't go heavy on beverages and don't bother bringing water at all; just bring a sport bottle to put ice and water from the ship in it, the water right from the taps is the equal of some of the better bottled waters, if not moreso. It is produced fresh onboard, is heavily filtered, and not loaded with chemical additives, it is not land tapwater. And the last two times we wound up throwing away some of the soda we ourselves brought; you have free food and drink(except soda, but you won't notice that, believe me) in plenty for the entirety of the cruise; you won't want for much of anything.

 

[tbserena]

Thanks Mark for the water and soda advice. I was actually planning to bring both but I see you're point.
I'm still confuse about what you say you do regarding car rental and savings? Lol. Sorry! Do you stay at the parks any after the cruise or head home?

 

[MarkRG]

We've done both. 5 cruises, 6th this December Sometimes to the parks, sometimes straight to the airport.

Let's use a 7 day as you're doing as the example.

In one way you rent the car at Orlando Airport, drive it to the ship where you now park it in the lot for the week, where you are still paying the daily rate for it to just sit there, plus a fee to park it there even.

In the other way, you either rent the car or take a towncar (recommended, no more expensive than 1 way car rental) to Cocoa Beach, you can make a grocery stop either way, then drop everyone off at the port. Return the car(IF you rented one) to the car rental chain in Cocoa Beach, and hop their free shuttle to the port, and go on the cruise. Days pass with NO fees. Return to port, hop free shuttle to car rental place. Rent car, pick everyone up, off to Orlando for more fun. You will save money this way.

If you need to store some luggage for the parks, you're basically paying the car rental and parking lot fee for that storage space.

We have always done some form of the latter when it's a split trip, and ran 1 washload either on the last day of cruise or first day at WDW to carryover clothes for the balance.