Mondas42 Posted February 20, 2019 Report Share Posted February 20, 2019 Hi all We are on a package holiday in July, we have a week in Orlando doing those Park things and then a weeks cruise on Harmony. The package includes car hire which we have to drop of at the Alamo depot on Mullet road on the Port Canveral complex after driving down on cruise day from Orlando. We have the Key booked so are planning on getting to the terminal building early to take advantage of the Key. I know that Alamo do have a shuttle bus but also have heard it’s busy, doesn’t start till gone 11 and is a bit chaotic. What’s the best way to get to the cruise terminal from the car drop off, Uber? Walking? Something else? Thanks. Martin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted February 20, 2019 Report Share Posted February 20, 2019 I've taken an Uber from the Hertz drop off on Astronaut Blvd to the port for this exact reason. It was ~$8. One idea is to drop family and luggage off at the terminal and then return the car. That way only one person with no luggage has to make their way to the terminal after returning the car. RickinSTL 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted February 21, 2019 Report Share Posted February 21, 2019 14 hours ago, twangster said: One idea is to drop family and luggage off at the terminal and then return the car. That way only one person with no luggage has to make their way to the terminal after returning the car. That's the best strategy for minimizing wait times and lugging around. I'd say go with this strategy, but if it's chaotic at the counter, whip out the Lyft app and request a ride. RickinSTL 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hutcherl Posted February 21, 2019 Report Share Posted February 21, 2019 14 hours ago, twangster said: One idea is to drop family and luggage off at the terminal and then return the car. That way only one person with no luggage has to make their way to the terminal after returning the car. This is what I do. I use Alamo because they are within a reasonable walking distance to the terminal. Very convenient. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tfdsdt Posted February 21, 2019 Report Share Posted February 21, 2019 Hi everyone! I am a new poster to this site and new to the cruise world. My wife and I are planning our first cruise on the Harmony out of Port Canaveral in June. We are driving down and wondered the best way to handle arrival/drop off etc... I assume we have the ability to drop off luggage as you all have mentioned above or are there porters available if we just go ahead and park in the garage. Any help on better understanding the arrival experience would be greatly appreciated. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mondas42 Posted February 21, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2019 2 hours ago, Hutcherl said: This is what I do. I use Alamo because they are within a reasonable walking distance to the terminal. Very convenient. So do you drop of the family and luggage and then walk back? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted February 21, 2019 Report Share Posted February 21, 2019 29 minutes ago, tfdsdt said: Hi everyone! I am a new poster to this site and new to the cruise world. My wife and I are planning our first cruise on the Harmony out of Port Canaveral in June. We are driving down and wondered the best way to handle arrival/drop off etc... I assume we have the ability to drop off luggage as you all have mentioned above or are there porters available if we just go ahead and park in the garage. Any help on better understanding the arrival experience would be greatly appreciated. Chris I think you have the right idea. Drop off luggage and family at the terminal, where porters will be waiting. Then you go and park the car and walk back to the terminal to meet family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hutcherl Posted February 21, 2019 Report Share Posted February 21, 2019 1 hour ago, Mondas42 said: So do you drop of the family and luggage and then walk back? Yes. Last time I did it I was lucky enough to have a shuttle bus driver stop and pick me up and drop me off at the terminal. He knew exactly what I was doing. I estimate the walk to be 5-10 mins. so no big deal if he didn’t but it was much appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hutcherl Posted February 21, 2019 Report Share Posted February 21, 2019 I book through Alamo but I think they share an office with enterprise if you have a preference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mondas42 Posted February 22, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2019 Quick question, how long should I allow for the drive from the doubletree seaworld in Orlando to the port terminal on a Sunday morning? Google maps says 54mins but wondered if that was been optimistic? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted February 22, 2019 Report Share Posted February 22, 2019 3 hours ago, Mondas42 said: Quick question, how long should I allow for the drive from the doubletree seaworld in Orlando to the port terminal on a Sunday morning? Google maps says 54mins but wondered if that was been optimistic? There will be little to no traffic on Sunday. I'd say an hour is realistic, provided you take the highway (528) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mondas42 Posted February 22, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2019 39 minutes ago, Matt said: There will be little to no traffic on Sunday. I'd say an hour is realistic, provided you take the highway (528) Thanks, yes I was planning on taking the highway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted February 22, 2019 Report Share Posted February 22, 2019 1 hour ago, Mondas42 said: Thanks, yes I was planning on taking the highway. One more tip, do yourself a favor and get a SunPass. There are a few tolls on the highway and you will save quite a bit of time if you can breeze through them. https://www.sunpass.com/en/signup/transponderclassify.shtml Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted February 22, 2019 Report Share Posted February 22, 2019 1 hour ago, Mondas42 said: Thanks, yes I was planning on taking the highway. Just now, Matt said: One more tip, do yourself a favor and get a SunPass. There are a few tolls on the highway and you will save quite a bit of time if you can breeze through them. https://www.sunpass.com/en/signup/transponderclassify.shtml If you get a Sunpass transponder and plan to use it a rental car, there is a section in your Sunpass account where you can add a car including the start and end date of the rental with the license plate of the rental. In some cases the transponder doesn't always trigger and when that happens they revert to license plate. By adding your rental before you depart from the rental lot you can save yourself major expense because the car rental company adds a significant uplift to license plate tolls if it bills to them. This happened twice on two different rentals in FL recently and I so glad I had taken the time to add my rental car to my Sunpass account. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiralqueen Posted February 22, 2019 Report Share Posted February 22, 2019 22 minutes ago, Matt said: One more tip, do yourself a favor and get a SunPass. There are a few tolls on the highway and you will save quite a bit of time if you can breeze through them. https://www.sunpass.com/en/signup/transponderclassify.shtml @Mondas42 one of the things I discovered in my research before a Nov cruise out of Port Canaveral is that the vast majority of, if not all of, the tolls also accepted EZ Pass (and I think EPass too) if you have that. But agreed with get some sort of pass as there are a higher than average number of tolls on the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mondas42 Posted February 22, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2019 Do most hire cars include the pass and you just pay the tolls? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted February 22, 2019 Report Share Posted February 22, 2019 12 minutes ago, Mondas42 said: Do most hire cars include the pass and you just pay the tolls? Depends. Available cars in the lot may be from any US state. It's not unusual to get a car with license plates from a state other than Florida. Sunpass is limited to Florida so a car with Georgia plates won't have a Sunpass transponder. What most car hire companies do here is to include language in the contract to the effect that after you conclude the rental, at any point in the future they reserve the right to bill your credit card additional funds if toll bills are received. They add a processing fee like $25 for this privilege. A toll of $1.75 turns into $26.75 with their fee added. Most Florida toll roads (but not all) have booths during the day with a cashier to make change. Sometimes I forget my Sunpass transponder and leave it at home. The GPS map app on my phone has an option to avoid toll roads. That added about 10 minutes to my drive from Orlando to the port on a Sunday morning but I paid zero for tolls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted February 23, 2019 Report Share Posted February 23, 2019 16 hours ago, Mondas42 said: Do most hire cars include the pass and you just pay the tolls? In my experience, the answer is almost always yes these days. I rent from the major companies (Enterprise, Avis, Budget, et al) and I cannot recall a rental recently that did not. In fact, when you make a reservation online there's usually an option for the tolls, although the transponder is usually in the car anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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