Will Port Parking for Fantasy still be available for late arrival time slots?

[hmhs]

We have a 2:30 port arrival time in Cape Canaveral for the Fantasy on Saturday. We are driving our car to the port and plan to leave it in the port parking area. Will we have an issue finding a parking space with this late arrival time? Just want to make sure we don't need to get there earlier in case parking fills up?

We were really late with our online check-in so I'm trying to change our port arrival time to earlier. I know that probably won't happen but I'll keeping checking. I see they say they will turn you away if you arrive early, but realistically what time should we plan to be there? We are sleeping in a nearby hotel the night before, so I guess we will have plenty of time to kill.... any advice for us?

Thanks so much!

 

[erionm]

There are plenty of parking spaces at the terminal.

 

[TRTRguy]

There are plenty of spots available, Also open boarding usually begins by 130 or earlier so you can arrive earlier.

 

[hmhs]

There are plenty of spots available, Also open boarding usually begins by 130 or earlier so you can arrive earlier.

I didn’t know they had open boarding…. How can we find this out if it begins at 1:30? That would be awesome! Thank you!

 

[cvjw]

There is plenty of parking at port Canaveral. There is the parking deck and a huge uncovered lot. DCL does not turn you away if you arrive early now. They may make you wait outside the terminal until you’re PAT. Our experience has been that if the inside terminal isn’t too crowded, they might let you in early. No way to know when open boarding is. I would just get there earlier and plan on waiting and be happily surprised if you get on the ship earlier.

 

[OKW Lover]

I didn’t know they had open boarding…. How can we find this out if it begins at 1:30? That would be awesome! Thank you!

There is no way to know ahead of time. Basically what happens is when all of those waiting in the terminal for their number to be called have boarded the ship, they just let anybody remaining board.

 

[hmhs]

Thanks for all the great advice! I guess we will plan to arrive between 1:00-1:30 and hope for the best.... is this what you experienced cruisers would do in our situation??? Is there any hope at all of getting an earlier PAT time if I keep reloading the app to modify the time and see if one pops up or am I just wasting my time?

This is our second Disney Cruise but someone else did all the planning the first time around I didn't know how important it was to check in online early!

 

[kiford]

Thanks for all the great advice! I guess we will plan to arrive between 1:00-1:30 and hope for the best.... is this what you experienced cruisers would do in our situation??? Is there any hope at all of getting an earlier PAT time if I keep reloading the app to modify the time and see if one pops up or am I just wasting my time?

This is our second Disney Cruise but someone else did all the planning the first time around I didn't know how important it was to check in online early!

You can keep checking but it's unlikely. However, IMO 1-1:30 is the sweet spot for arrival. Terminal is pretty empty so there's no waiting in lines, it's open boarding so no waiting in the terminal and your room will be ready by 1:30-2:00 so you might be able to head up right away and drop stuff off. Make sure to eat breakfast because lunch can end by about 2 pm (unless the buffet is open until 3?) although the places on deck should be open and there's a fair number of options there.

 

[soniam]

You can keep checking but it's unlikely. However, IMO 1-1:30 is the sweet spot for arrival. Terminal is pretty empty so there's no waiting in lines, it's open boarding so no waiting in the terminal and your room will be ready by 1:30-2:00 so you might be able to head up right away and drop stuff off. Make sure to eat breakfast because lunch can end by about 2 pm (unless the buffet is open until 3?) although the places on deck should be open and there's a fair number of options there.

People on my upcoming cruise said Cabanas is usually open until 3pm, but like you said, the QS pool deck options are definitely open.