Looking for advice on transport to Port Canaveral

Dis Dragon

Rawwwwr
Joined
May 19, 2019
Hello all,

We have our first cruise scheduled this fall and have a little concern about transportation and not knowing what time the bus is coming till the night before. We wanted to accomplish some plans the morning of and also wanted to make sure we were on the ship earlier as opposed to later to have more time to get the lay of the ship. What I really don't want happening is being on one of the last DCL busses that shows up and have very limited time before the sail away party and muster drills.

I was looking for experiences from the community, it would cost about 75 dollars more than the bus to get a round trip car for us. I'm not a big fan of the bus because I'm one of the lucky ones that always gets a child that likes to kick the back of my seat. I know about the luggage positive in that they pick it up and you don't worry about it compared to where we'd have to do it all with a car. Is there any other major differences? What do you prefer?

Also what's the earliest you can board if you do take a car?
 
Hello all,

We have our first cruise scheduled this fall and have a little concern about transportation and not knowing what time the bus is coming till the night before. We wanted to accomplish some plans the morning of and also wanted to make sure we were on the ship earlier as opposed to later to have more time to get the lay of the ship. What I really don't want happening is being on one of the last DCL busses that shows up and have very limited time before the sail away party and muster drills.

I was looking for experiences from the community, it would cost about 75 dollars more than the bus to get a round trip car for us. I'm not a big fan of the bus because I'm one of the lucky ones that always gets a child that likes to kick the back of my seat. I know about the luggage positive in that they pick it up and you don't worry about it compared to where we'd have to do it all with a car. Is there any other major differences? What do you prefer?

Also what's the earliest you can board if you do take a car?
I prefer the DCL transfers. Just so easy.

I'll point out, even if you arrive at 10:00 (when the terminal may or may not be open), the earliest you'll be boarding will be 11:30 or so. Arriving via DCL transfers typically gets you there around 12:30. There are fewer people in the terminal, check in is faster, and you board as soon as you check in.

Also like the fact that once I've packed my checked bags, I don't have to handle them until they arrive at your room onboard the ship.

I don't like using a rental car, as that means I have to deal with driving/traffic in an unfamiliar area, plus having to pick it up, return it and take the rental car shuttle to the port from the car place.
 
Where are you staying the night before, I assume a Disney Resort.

When we've stayed at a Disney Resort the night before, we get a car service to take us to the port to get there as soon as it opens. We generally use DCL transportation from the port to either the airport or resort, depending on our post cruise plans.

A couple of things though, since this is your first cruise, what is your port arrival time. You can't always get access to the terminal before that time if you're coming in on private transportation. So if it's a later arrival time, it may work with DCL transportation.

It can cost more to use the private service and true your bags have to travel with you, but the driver will let you off right at the porters who will take your tagged luggage. Just budget for a tip. We've done this many times and its fine.

We like to arrive as early as possible and have every second we can on the ship, so we're willing to pay the extra to get the private service from a Disney Resort. This is a personal preference.
 
Where are you staying the night before, I assume a Disney Resort.

When we've stayed at a Disney Resort the night before, we get a car service to take us to the port to get there as soon as it opens. We generally use DCL transportation from the port to either the airport or resort, depending on our post cruise plans.

A couple of things though, since this is your first cruise, what is your port arrival time. You can't always get access to the terminal before that time if you're coming in on private transportation. So if it's a later arrival time, it may work with DCL transportation.

It can cost more to use the private service and true your bags have to travel with you, but the driver will let you off right at the porters who will take your tagged luggage. Just budget for a tip. We've done this many times and its fine.

We like to arrive as early as possible and have every second we can on the ship, so we're willing to pay the extra to get the private service from a Disney Resort. This is a personal preference.
We're staying at Wilderness lodge prior to the cruise and then after the cruise we're going to the Poly. I'm not quite sure what time we're set for arrival, would I have that information yet? (cruise is in Nov).

I am talking about a car service and not a rental, I wouldn't want to deal with that.
 


You say it's $75 more for round trip car. Do you need the car before or after the cruise or is it just transportation to/from the port? If it is the latter, why don't you just do a one way car to the port and the bus back. (Your listed concerns were all in maximizing your time on embarkation day, just assuming you don't have similar concerns on debarkation day.)

As far as getting to the port, we use the bus when we are staying in Orlando before a cruise -- just too convenient and we don't like to rush to the port. That hour or so extra on the ship just isn't worth the rushing and crowds for us (even though we would board early because of Castaway Club status).

You get your port arrival time when you do online check in. So no, for a Nov cruise you wouldn't have that yet
 
Not sure when you arrive the night before? If you're flying that is pretty much dictated by your flight. Or did you mean arrival at the port? The port arrival time will be set when you're able to do on line check in, which won't be until after you've paid in full and closer to the cruise. I'm not sure what that window is for first time cruisers. So nope you won't know that for a while.
 
I was speaking of port arrival, we're flying in a couple days before the actual cruise.

So from what I'm hearing there's a large number of people waiting to get on at the point they start boarding and they taper off around 12-12:30 time frame? So getting a car scheduled for 11:15-11:30 from WDW would be well timed?
 


I have now decided to stay at Disney for our night before the cruise instead of at the port. Will take the ME to Disney but now have to figure out if I will just use an Uber to get us to the port and back to the airport when the cruise is over. Uber is much cheaper than the Disney transport. But I am also not too concerned with getting on the ship right before noon either.
 

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