Port Canaveral Arrival/Parking

[ecarswell]

For those of you who cruise out of Port Canaveral, what is your experiences with arrival and parking?  

 

Park at the terminal?

 

Park and Cruise?

 

Hotel stay the night before/shuttle to the terminal?

 

 

We are considering this :

 

We live in North Carolina, so we have considered getting up really early and driving down the day of departure.  It is about an 8 hour drive.  We have done this before when going to Disney- get up very early (3:00 am), drive down, bags in room and then hit the parks.  We have 4 drivers in the family, so no one has to do all of the driving.  We are considering this and just parking either at the terminal or at a Park and Cruise option. 

 

A lot of hotel packages I have seen online offer shuttle for two people.  There are four in my family, so we would probably have to pay extra.

[Matt]

Regarding parking, you can easily park at the port and it's fine.  There is cheaper off site parking also. Last time on Freedom of the Seas I was going to do off site but decided I'd rather avoid the hassle of the off site parking shuttle and just park at the port for a little more.  

 

If you are looking for a hotel before the cruise, I recommend the Radisson.  It's the hotel many prefer for pre-cruise stay.

[Shawn]

Yeah it's so easy and it can be covered parking or you can go through the parking deck and park a little closer in the uncovered parking but it's only about 30 yard difference. Very easy either way.

[Matt]

For off site parking, here's a good place to start: http://www.parkportcanaveral.com or http://www.parkcruise.com

 

Here's the Radisson park and cruise option: http://www.radisson.com/cape-canaveral-hotel-fl-32920/flcocoa/optional

[Don]

When you arrive you drop off luggage and then go to parking. In Dec it only took about 15-30 minutes from arrival to check-in and boarding. Same coming home -- 15-30 minutes for baggage claim, customs, and on the road. Make sure you get a low number for disembarkation so you can get on the road early. We had #4 (baggage claim #) & were called for disembarkation at about 8:30 - 8:45, thus out of the parking garage by 9:00. If you get a big / late #, don't hesitate to ask guest relations for a smaller number, they will most likely accomodate. The other option is to "walk off". You will be able to walk off as soon as cutoms clears the ship, but you must carry all luggage. Not hard to do in Port Canaveral - short distance and not many stairs.

[BrianS_MEI]

I would definitely drive down the day before...trust me...it is not worth the stress of having car trouble, accident on the road, or something else to cause you to miss your cruise. Plus...you will get a better nights sleep in a hotel and be totally rested before your vacation starts. This will give you the option of parking at the Radisson like Matt suggested. I have stayed there as well as Country Inn & Suites...I definitely prefer the Radisson.

 

I also have used Park-n-Cruise. It was a couple of years ago, but was nice and easy. We also got a great rate by booking online before our cruise. It was extremely easy on departure. On return, it took quite awhile to get a shuttle back to the car. It was a group of 6 of us though, so space was a bit of an issue. If you are not in a rush, I think you will be fine.

[Matt]

A little elaboration on parking at Radisson.  In February we had arranged to park the car at the Radisson hotel for the week to save some money, so our plan was to drop off the luggage and then park the car at the Radisson and take the shuttle back. Luggage drop off could not have been easier and we made our way to the Radisson. As we got there we saw no less than 30-40 people waiting for the shuttle too! I made an "executive decision" to just park near the ship and avoid what seemed like a long wait. In this case, I was willing to pay a little more to get my vacation started sooner.