Ok, sooooooooooooooo....I posted my question about where DH can work when we get into port and the kids will be entertained on a FB Disney board and someone said "McDonalds is near the port and has free Wifi"
I filed that under Worst Case Scenario.
A little later someone said that the hotel at MCO has a "Day Pass" where for $99 you get to use the pool, have access to a room for the day. Which sounded awesome except, the airport was 45min from the port. Hmmm....
I called a bunch of hotels in the Cocoa Beach area they all offered a day rate, but most of them had no availability (even though it was a Monday). I kept at it though. I think the 6 or 7th place finally had something!
So, she set it up so that it showed us checking in Sunday night that way we could have access to the room at 8am on Monday. She said free wifi, pool and room access were all included for $99 (plus tax). Perfect! We had to be out by 3pm which was not a problem.
With that done, I tried to think of new ways to prepare for the cruise without actually packing
I decided to check on parking. I knew it would be $60 at the port, but now we had a hotel...hmmm....
I called the hotel and explained that we were going to be there for the day after we FINISH our cruise and could we please park before we get on so our car is already at the hotel when we get off?
Irma was sweet and totally confused
but we cleared everything up. She told me the fee for parking was $6 a day, which sounded good. I told her I'd talk to DH about it and call back.
DH asked me how their transportation to the port worked and (DUH!) if it was wheelchair accessible
Whoops! But if all of that worked out than Yay, cheaper parking!
I called back and talked to another nice lady, she was also thoroughly
confused. It took a few tries to get on the same page. She explained that all the vehicles are big enough for a wheelchair, but arrangements can be made for one with a lift. All good there.
It turns out even if you're a hotel guest there's a charge for transportation, Boo!
She told me she would try to package the room and transportation to see if it was a better rate. That was a fail because it bumped the room up to $200+ so we were back to a la cart which meant $6 a day for parking plus $40 for transportation which puts us back to $60ish so FAIL on that idea.
Next up on the procrastinating packing list:
*Find a shirt to make DD's matching Disney dress to wear onto the ship.
*Buy those clear pockets to go on the lanyards and hold our key cards (Office Depot?)
*Find the white shirt I got for DD's character's autographs (no worries though I have a spare I just don't like it as much)
*Make a spare key & deliver it to the pet/house sitter
*Start the pre-packing laundry process
*Make some "cruise stuff" piles
I'm sure I'll actually start packing this week. SIGH. 13 Days!! Woohoo!