Parking - save money or save time?

[mom2brooke76]

Six cruises out of PC so far, parked on site in the garage every time. I have a kinda unique reason to do so most of the time: on the 3-night cruises on the Dream arriving back on a Monday morning I have to leave straight from the port as soon as we can walk off the ship and get to work that same morning. So time is literally money for me!

My hubby does the same! LOL I guess one of the perks of us living 45 minutes from the port.

 

[Lita]

We save time and park at the port for convenience. I miss the 40% discount for certain hotels, but we are still parking at the port.

 

[Jenlynn3]

For us we found it to be an $86 savings parking 2 vehicles off site, so for us it is enough to park off site

 

[Donna M]

For me, it's not save money or save time, it's save the hassle. We did the one way car rental the first cruise, then parked off site for the second cruise. For all the subsequent trips we have parked in the shade of the garage. The money saved isn't worth the hassle of waiting for the shuttles in a bunch of people jockeying to be first on the bus. This is my vacation, and parking in the garage is so much easier.

 

[Jenlynn3]

My brother lives in Florida so the driving is most inexpensive and most convenient way to go for them, however I do see what you are saying about the little extra money for the convenience of parking at the port may be worth it

 

[RedSox68]

I like all the comments in this thread about time being money, vacation being your time, etc. We did a ton of research for the NYC port when we first drove -- take the trains, take a cab to the port, park at Newark and take the shuttle. I did a chart and in the end, with all the hassle of changing trains, shuttles, taking taxis -- we would have saved a total of maybe $60-$80. For all that hassle and time wasted, it was well worth just parking on site. We walk off the ship, have the porter take our bags to the car on the upper level and drive out. When we look back, you can see the mob waiting for either taxis or shuttles to get their cars or get to the train -- and we're already on our way. I love the convenience and freedom of it being my time when I get my car and leave -- plus it allows us a few extra minutes onboard to enjoy that second cup of coffee

 

[OKW Lover]

We go with parking right at the port for the convince factor. Being retired and living a hour drive from the port time isn't the issue for us. Its purely convenience.

 

[AU Dre]

We park in the garage every time and typically on the first floor. We come out of the port, jump in the car and go.

After the cruise, the last thing we want is to wait for a shuttle to get to our car to save a few dollars.

This pretty much sums it up for me as well.

We have always parked at the port when we have left out of Canaveral. We have a pretty good drive home from Port Canaveral after the cruise and cutting out the wait time and hassle for the shuttle to our car is worth the money to us.
We had to use a shuttle service when we left out of Galveston this past time we cruised and I really missed the option to get straight in the car to go home. Not to mention missed the nice cruise terminal!

 

[hpsalb]

We've done both at PC and been fine either way. Lately we've parked at the port so we didn't have to get our luggage and three small kiddos on a shuttle bus. But when we parked offsite it was fine, just the additional work to get us and our luggage on the bus. The savings was substantial, so we always weigh our options!

 

[hardis5]

Have always parked on-site unless pairing with a stay-n-park deal locally when having a vehicle. For us (ok me) parking is all about the convenience for the end-of-cruise short walk to the parking garage with our luggage (or a porter) and being in our vehicle less than 5 minutes after Customs. Personally the end of a cruise I always feel a little frustrated about needing to disembark, its process and the reality of the cruise being over. All processes that morning are to try and get you off the ship as soon as possible. Parking on-site is one thing I can control to my benefit (instead of dragging our luggage to the line for an off-site shuttle).

Disney could probably triple their placeholder bookings if they set-up a booth the last morning for those with post-cruise blues going through the disembark process.

 

[tigerchic89]

We pinch pennies wherever we can. But parking at the port is worth it to us, you just don't save that much money for the time and headache wasted on both ends of the trip. If the Port continues to increase or if the off site places decrease prices/increase service, we would consider it. For our last 3 PC cruises, we were in the car on the high way headed home before 8:30am... and that is worth $30-$60 extra bucks to us.

 

[Minniemouse07]

We go down the night before and stay at a hotel that allows us to leave our vehicle in their lot and then they shuttle us back and forth to the port. Well worth it and we save a ton of $$.

Of course, that only works if you aren't a local!