where do you stay?

[kmermaid]

Where do you stay the night before the cruise? Going in April, thought I would get a jump on things. Also would it be better to take a towncar or rent a car and leave it at the port?

 

[HeelMD]

We flew in the same day on our first cruise. We are coming a day early for next year's cruise and will be at the Hyatt Orlando Airport. If you have your air booked throught DCL, they put you there. You can leave your luggage in the room in the morning and they will take care of it for you and the transports leave right from the hotel. If you are doing your own transportation, we have stayed at the Radisson at Cape Canaveral before another cruise and they had a free shuttle in the morning to the cruise ships.

 

[kcashner]

We usually get a room thru Priceline. You can usually get a bid for a 3* room accepted in the $30-35 range. All of the 3* places have complimentary transportation to and from MCO. You might even luck out and get the Hyatt! Some of the lower level (2.5*) have complimentary breakfast, but there is a really nasty 2.5* La Quinta that you could get stuck with....and they don't have free transportation.

As to renting a car vs. limo service--price it both ways. You can turn in the car at the port and not pay a drop off charge (why pay rental while it sits in a parking lot?) The rental places have shuttles to and from the port. The key if you do this is to drop off the family and then have 1 adult take the car back--that way, your luggage is gone and you only need to fit one body into the shuttle. Also, your family can be in the check in line while you are doing the car bit. The cast member will "pre-reg" you and then you will just need to show your photo ID and pick up your KTTW when you get back from dropping the car. It's tons easier this way than taking the whole family to the car drop off and loading the whole family and the luggage into the shuttle!

 

[Jsme]

We drive down to PC and stay at the Radisson. We have done this for 3 years now. In December a new hotel will be opening up that will be closer than the Rad, I am looking forward to checking them out in 2006.

 

[thomprod]

We have stayed at the Clarion Hotel Airport on McCoy Rd. in Orlando twice. They are close to the airport and have a free shuttle and complimentary breakfast. We had a few problems there one time, but only paid $65 for the room.

 

[poconoboatniks]

We rent a car and drive from MCO to the Port and stay at the Radisson.


Poconoboatniks

 

[aprilgail2]

We rent a car at MCO, drive to the Radisson and then drive it and park it at port....we got hte rental car for 103.00 for 8 days and parking at port was 70.00...still worked out cheaper than taking a town car and I like having a car of my own and not having to wait on car services.

 

[Jsme]

I think you can rent a car for around $25 at MCO and then turn it in at PC. Then turn around and get another rental for the trip back. That is only $50. Their nice hotels at the Port.
www.cocoabeach.com is a good site to look at. The Radisson is not the only hotel that has cruise parking. We just always stay there. Sometimes you can look out and see the cruise ships from the resort. But it can be rather pricey. You do not have to reserve a cruise package room in order to use their shuttle.

 

[videogal1]

Where do you stay the night before the cruise? Going in April, thought I would get a jump on things. Also would it be better to take a towncar or rent a car and leave it at the port?

I either spend a week at WDW and take a DCL shuttle from the resort to the ship...OR I stay at the Hyatt MCO and take the DCL shuttle to the ship.

 

[musicgirl]

We like to stay at Cocoa Beach the night before.

We have stayed at the Marriott and the Hampton. These are right next to each other and about 100 yards from the beach.

The prices however have gone sky-high for all of the hotels. For example, We stayed at the Hampton for $90 6-04, the rates this summer are around $120 and next summer, it is $140-150!!!!

We have our ressies at Comfort Inn, this is in the same area as the above 2. It is $99. We wanted less expensive since we are staying 2 nights ahead this year.

Believe it or not, Motel 6 is already completely booked well over a year out!!!! I'm not sure how that happened, but there are no ressies available from April 15, 2006 on. I talked with a rep who assures me that they are open. I called at exactly 1 year out. I didn't think that many people were as planning obsessive as I am!!!!

 

[ciska]

Hi,

We will stay at Marriott World Center in Orlando had a good deal in the Netherlands. The dollar is down so for us it is much cheaper to get an hotel now. We will rent a car for a day and return it to Hertz in Port canaveral.

Love Ciska

 

[salbythec]

Our last cruise in April we stayed at WDW and rented a car and parked at the port. Then went back to WDW.
This cruise we are using magic city transportion and staying at the Inn at Cocoa Beach,before and the night after the cruise.