Why take bus over car service to Port?

[vbalacek]

We are taking our first Disney cruise, flying in late the night before. The cost for our family to take the Disney Bus to the Port is even more than taking a private car. It seems from other posts I read that it often gets you there later than the car as well.

So why should I want to take the bus? Is it because they handle your baggage? Is it a pain to bring your bags on the boat yourself?

Thanks!

 

[SharonLowe]

We are taking our first Disney cruise, flying in late the night before. The cost for our family to take the Disney Bus to the Port is even more than taking a private car. It seems from other posts I read that it often gets you there later than the car as well.

So why should I want to take the bus? Is it because they handle your baggage? Is it a pain to bring your bags on the boat yourself?

Thanks!

At port, you turn your bags over to the porters so you don't carry them on; you just take your carry on bags with you on the boat. You are better off taking a private car or doing one-way rentals like many people do.

 

[BethC1952]

Price is a big reason. It's cheaper for two to take the bus rather than a private car, about the same for three (for us, it will be $5 more to take the bus). HOWEVER--the ship won't leave without you if you're on the bus. It may not wait for you in a private car. On our first cruise, we were on the DCL bus from WDW. There was an accident, horrible traffic and it was a holiday weekend. We didn't get to the ship until after 3:30, and there were still some buses behind us. If you're not traveling at peak travel times, you're probably better off hiring a private car.

Beth

 

[KSDisneyDad]

We've never used DCL transportation and have had absolutely no issues at either Port Canaveral or Port of Los Angeles.

The baggage benefit doesn't apply to us anyway as we fly Southwest. Plus, it's a very expensive porter service IMO as we can generally rent a car one-way both to/from the port and the cost is about $200 less roundtrip for our family of 5.

Even when it was just the two of us, we were able to rent two one-way cars for the same price as DCL transfers. We stayed two nights at WDW beforehand and had our car to visit DTD, the outlet mall and a stop for bottled water/alcohol.

If you're flying in the night before, you should have no problem making it to the port in time no matter which transportation option you choose. I think the only time I would ever use DCL transportation is if I had chosen DCL air and was flying in the day the cruise departed. DCL transfers would be your best bet at ensuring that they will wait for you if anything goes wrong with the flight. On one of our cruises, we waited for over an hour past the normal departure time for a bus to arrive before we sailed away.