Orlando to Port Canaveral, rental car drop off and hotels

[KirstenCapeTown]

Hi all,

At this point, we are travelling to Orlando, spending 2 weeks in Disney and Universal, before travelling to Port Canaveral in September for our Allure cruise (Fingers crossed it happens!)

For those of you who have used Port Canaveral before, could you help with the following:

• Would you suggest travelling to Port Canaveral the day before the cruise, rather than early morning on departure day? If so, why?
• What are the 'must do' things to do in the area if we come through a day before
• Any suggestions on close by but budget-friendly hotels?

Thanks so much!

[RickinSTL]

5 hours ago, KirstenCapeTown said:

Hi all,

At this point, we are travelling to Orlando, spending 2 weeks in Disney and Universal, before travelling to Port Canaveral in September for our Allure cruise (Fingers crossed it happens!)

For those of you who have used Port Canaveral before, could you help with the following:

• Would you suggest travelling to Port Canaveral the day before the cruise, rather than early morning on departure day? If so, why?
• What are the 'must do' things to do in the area if we come through a day before
• Any suggestions on close by but budget-friendly hotels?

Thanks so much!

Either way you want to do it is fine.. I like Cocoa Beach/Port Canaveral so its a personal choice. If you have a rental car in Orlando, you can drop it off at the port.. Enterprise will shuttle you to the ship. 

If you go the day before.. Kennedy Space Center is a must do.. Ron Jon Surf Shop. and just hanging on the beach.. you can watch other ships sail out.. last year i though i seen Disney and Mariner on a Friday afternoon 

Sorry.. I cant help you with budget friendly Hotels.. We spend two nights in a Hilton property when we cruise from there.. 

[WAAAYTOOO]

When we used to fly into Orlando for a cruise out of Port Canaveral, we always :

1.  Rent a car from Hertz (this is the only time we ever use Hertz)

2.  Stay at the Residence Inn Cape Canaveral Cocoa Beach - 8959 Astronaut Blvd, Cape Canaveral, FL  321-323-1100

The reason is, the Hertz office and the Residence Inn share a parking lot.  It is very easy to use the car all day, go and see all of the attractions that you want to see, go and eat dinner at the port (or wherever you want to go), make a trip to the drug store and get anything that you have forgotten, etc....and then turn the car in after hours and walk over to the hotel.  Residence Inn offers a shuttle to the port the next morning.  I do not recall whether there is a charge or if it is complimentary.  Of course, you can always call Uber or get a taxi if you don't want to do a hotel shuttle.  The port is very close.

It was reported last year that there was construction going on at the Residence Inn so you may be well served to find out if that is still the case.  It may influence your decision to stay there.

Then, we just do the Royal shuttle from the port to the Orlando airport at the end of the cruise.   It isn't glamourous, but it gets you there.  You can always do Uber if you don't want to do the cruise shuttle.  I believe the price used to be $75 PP to go from the port to the airport.

[chodnett]

6 hours ago, KirstenCapeTown said:

Hi all,

At this point, we are travelling to Orlando, spending 2 weeks in Disney and Universal, before travelling to Port Canaveral in September for our Allure cruise (Fingers crossed it happens!)

For those of you who have used Port Canaveral before, could you help with the following:

• Would you suggest travelling to Port Canaveral the day before the cruise, rather than early morning on departure day? If so, why?
• What are the 'must do' things to do in the area if we come through a day before
• Any suggestions on close by but budget-friendly hotels?

Thanks so much!

We do this same trip often. Here's exactly what we do:

• We typically stay in the Orlando area, or on resort property (using resort transportation to get from the airport).
• The day of our cruise, we hire a car service (highly recommend FL Tours) to pick us up from the resort and take us to the port. They're great, because they'll also stop at a grocery store so you can pick up some things before the cruise. They'll also pick you up after the cruise and take you back to the airport.
• If you're renting a car instead, I recommend Avis. There's an Avis location minutes from the port, and they offer free shuttle service. 
• As for hotels, we usually stay at the La Quinta on Cocoa Beach. It's oceanfront, and offers free breakfast, at a pretty fair price. 

 

Side question - what sailing on Allure in September? We're on the September 19 sailing!

[KirstenCapeTown]

2 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

When we used to fly into Orlando for a cruise out of Port Canaveral, we always :

1.  Rent a car from Hertz (this is the only time we ever use Hertz)

2.  Stay at the Residence Inn Cape Canaveral Cocoa Beach - 8959 Astronaut Blvd, Cape Canaveral, FL  321-323-1100

The reason is, the Hertz office and the Residence Inn share a parking lot.  It is very easy to use the car all day, go and see all of the attractions that you want to see, go and eat dinner at the port (or wherever you want to go), make a trip to the drug store and get anything that you have forgotten, etc....and then turn the car in after hours and walk over to the hotel.  Residence Inn offers a shuttle to the port the next morning.  I do not recall whether there is a charge or if it is complimentary.  Of course, you can always call Uber or get a taxi if you don't want to do a hotel shuttle.  The port is very close.

It was reported last year that there was construction going on at the Residence Inn so you may be well served to find out if that is still the case.  It may influence your decision to stay there.

Then, we just do the Royal shuttle from the port to the Orlando airport at the end of the cruise.   It isn't glamourous, but it gets you there.  You can always do Uber if you don't want to do the cruise shuttle.  I believe the price used to be $75 PP to go from the port to the airport.

I really like this option! Thank you, I will save it. 

I did a quick google search, and it appears that it won't let me book the car rental because the drop off is over the weekend and the site says Hertz is closed, I'll see what I can do, email or something and hope for the best. 

Let's hope that we can do all this  in September this year.

[KirstenCapeTown]

2 hours ago, chodnett said:

We do this same trip often. Here's exactly what we do:

• We typically stay in the Orlando area, or on resort property (using resort transportation to get from the airport).
• The day of our cruise, we hire a car service (highly recommend FL Tours) to pick us up from the resort and take us to the port. They're great, because they'll also stop at a grocery store so you can pick up some things before the cruise. They'll also pick you up after the cruise and take you back to the airport.
• If you're renting a car instead, I recommend Avis. There's an Avis location minutes from the port, and they offer free shuttle service. 
• As for hotels, we usually stay at the La Quinta on Cocoa Beach. It's oceanfront, and offers free breakfast, at a pretty fair price. 

 

Side question - what sailing on Allure in September? We're on the September 19 sailing!

Thanks for the info! We'll be hiring a car in orlando and staying off-site in a resort close by to Disney and Universal, so we will have the car and driving ourselves down to the port (can't wait!)

Turns out, we're on the same sailing! Booked 19 September and at a steal of a rate, let's hope we can sail. We are flying from Cape Town, South Africa, so it's quite an ordeal if we need to move everything out, let's hope and pray it doesn't get to that. Hopefully see you on board! 

[twangster]

Like @WAAAYTOOO I have used Hertz and their drop off location near the port.  Hertz also has a shuttle to the port but the port has asked they do not run the shuttle before a specific time, 10am I think.  The shuttle is free but I like to be at the terminal early which was allowed pre-pandemic. 

The cruise terminal doors may not open until 10am but the lines start early.  I chose an Uber from the Hertz location near the port for under $8 to the terminal so that I could get to the port earlier than when the free shuttle started operating.

In my case I stayed in the Orlando area for the abundance of cheaper hotels.  I like having a car for mobility for things like last minute forgotten items, bottles of wine to board with, sunscreen or anything I didn't want to fly with.  It's also nice to choose a restaurant for dinner close by but not having to accept only restaurants within walking distance from the hotel.

The quickest route from Orlando to the port includes a toll road.  I set my phone's GPS to avoid toll roads and took a few minutes more to reach the port without any tolls.  It was still an easy drive without the more direct toll cost.   

[emmef]

4 minutes ago, twangster said:

Like @WAAAYTOOO I have used Hertz and their drop off location near the port.  Hertz also has a shuttle to the port but the port has asked they do not run the shuttle before a specific time, 10am I think.  The shuttle is free but I like to be at the terminal early which was allowed pre-pandemic. 

The cruise terminal doors may not open until 10am but the lines start early.  I chose an Uber from Hertz to the port for under $8 so that I could get to the port earlier than when the free shuttle started operating.

Do you think getting there early will be beneficial, when they are enforcing strict check in times at the port embarkation?

[twangster]

5 minutes ago, emmef said:

Do you think getting there early will be beneficial, when they are enforcing strict check in times at the port embarkation?

We are all waiting to see what will happen with pandemic protocols.  Many of us suspect check in times will be enforced but it's not clear if suites or C&A status will be allowed before the official check in time.  

We just don't know right now.

[monctonguy]

I can only speak to pre-pandemic norms...but hotels in Coco Beach are not "budget-friendly" in  my opinion...nothing that is close to the port at least. I have cruised out of PC many times, the last time in Nov of 2019 and it was cheaper to stay in Orlando AND pay for a Uber than it was to stay in Coco Beach.

 

That has been my experience so far..only once out did I find a price friendly enough to make it worth it to stay in Coca Beach....but then again, i only book inside Cabins while others here only do Suites so its all relative!

[Kelslovestocruise]

As a family of at least five adults cruising together we very rarely do hotels as they do not make financial sense when you need 3 rooms. Our last cruise in February left from Port Canaveral and we stayed in Orlando before the cruise for 5 nights to be able to see some of disney and enjoy the warm not Canadian winter. We rented a 5 bedroom place and it was cheeper for us than buying 2 hotel rooms per night and allowed us to be able to cook our own meals and save money on food. We had a rental car from Budget that we paid for with points and used it to drive to the port and back to the airport. I will say that picking up the rental car after the cruise was awful as they did not have the minivan we rented and did not have anything bigger and it took us a long time to get out of that mess. Thank goodness we picked a later flight. 

[loki007]

On 1/18/2021 at 4:12 AM, KirstenCapeTown said:

Hi all,

At this point, we are travelling to Orlando, spending 2 weeks in Disney and Universal, before travelling to Port Canaveral in September for our Allure cruise (Fingers crossed it happens!)

For those of you who have used Port Canaveral before, could you help with the following:

• Would you suggest travelling to Port Canaveral the day before the cruise, rather than early morning on departure day? If so, why?
• What are the 'must do' things to do in the area if we come through a day before
• Any suggestions on close by but budget-friendly hotels?

Thanks so much!

Definitely the day before. I like to stay at the Residence Inn right by the cruise terminal. It has a nice pool area and a shuttle to the terminal. I have been on several cruises out of PC and always get there a day or 2 early. Head to the terminal around 1030am. Last time we went out of there on Allure we boarded immediately and were enjoying the boat by 11am. 

[Jax]

We cruised out of Port Canaveral several times with DCL and spent time at Disney World pre and post cruise for all our cruises. We stayed onsite at a Disney resort and drove to the port the day of our cruise. Twice we took our rental car and paid for port parking and once we arranged an Uber. I know paying for a rental car plus port parking may not make sense financially, but we did this on our 4 night cruises, as we wanted the convenience of having our rental available when we disembarked.  Kennedy Space Centre is a great place to visit; we visited on the day of debarkation. We never had issues with traffic driving from Disney World to the Port and arrived in plenty of time. Because it was only 60 minutes I never explored hotels near the port so I have no intel on budget friendly hotels in the area. 

[KirstenCapeTown]

15 hours ago, Kelslovestocruise said:

As a family of at least five adults cruising together we very rarely do hotels as they do not make financial sense when you need 3 rooms. Our last cruise in February left from Port Canaveral and we stayed in Orlando before the cruise for 5 nights to be able to see some of disney and enjoy the warm not Canadian winter. We rented a 5 bedroom place and it was cheeper for us than buying 2 hotel rooms per night and allowed us to be able to cook our own meals and save money on food. We had a rental car from Budget that we paid for with points and used it to drive to the port and back to the airport. I will say that picking up the rental car after the cruise was awful as they did not have the minivan we rented and did not have anything bigger and it took us a long time to get out of that mess. Thank goodness we picked a later flight. 

Thanks for this! I think driving to the port from Orlando is definitely what we will do, it's only the two of us, so I hope that picking up a car will be no bother at all. 

[KirstenCapeTown]

15 hours ago, loki007 said:

Definitely the day before. I like to stay at the Residence Inn right by the cruise terminal. It has a nice pool area and a shuttle to the terminal. I have been on several cruises out of PC and always get there a day or 2 early. Head to the terminal around 1030am. Last time we went out of there on Allure we boarded immediately and were enjoying the boat by 11am. 

I hope we will be as lucky in September!

[Galveston Steve]

On 1/20/2021 at 1:12 AM, KirstenCapeTown said:

Thanks for this! I think driving to the port from Orlando is definitely what we will do, it's only the two of us, so I hope that picking up a car will be no bother at all. 

I think this also makes sense because you don't have to pack up and check into another hotel for just one night.  Much easier to just stay in Orlando and drive to the port on embarkation day.  I have dropped off a car at Alamo at the port. They have a shuttle, but it was very close to the terminal and the weather was nice so I just dropped the family off at the port with the luggage and walked from Alamo back to the port.