Miami cruises, travel advice from Disney

[geordie boy]

Hi, was wondering if anyone had been on a cruise from Miami either in middle of Disney trip or either side of stay and how they traveled to Miami (don’t want to hire car if I can help it).
Was planning on 4night Disney stay cruise then 4night Universal stay but totally open to ideas any help much appreciated.

[Elodie]

We looked at doing this next Easter, although we’d be travelling from Miami to Orlando and back. We fly into Miami on 5th April and our cruise is 11-16th, so we’ve got 6 nights to fill. I looked at getting to Orlando by private transfer (expensive but presumably more comfortable and convenient), train (still considering this, especially if this new high-speed train to MCO happens. I’d be even keener if they’d already started the link to Disney Springs, but that will be a few years yet, if at all), coach (cheaper but probably not all that comfortable for a long journey, although I’ve happily done similar length coach journeys myself - just not sure how it would be with children), and flying (faster in itself but still quite time-consuming with needing to get to and from each airport in addition to the flight.) I don’t drive and DH isn’t joining us, so self-drive wasn’t an option for us.

I know Disney / Universal will be crazy busy for Easter, so I decided it wasn’t worth the time spent travelling in the end. I’m still kind of considering it, and my Miami hotels are both fully refundable, so I could still change my mind and do Universal for a few days. I’ll let you know which travel option I pick if I do change my mind sometime soon!

p.s. You’ve posted in trip reports, but an admin will probably move this to cruise planning when they spot it. Hopefully you’ll get more replies there 😊

[Bellasmummy]

We’ve only done it with a car at one end of the trip, not in the middle.

Have you looked at cruises from Port Canaveral or Fort Lauderdale? They’re closer so transfers will be cheaper and quicker.

I take it your flights are mco return?

Honestly it’s a lot of travel time if you did it between Orlando stays, I think you’d be much better putting the cruise at the end and then flying home from Miami. That way you’ve only got to deal with the time and cost of one journey down to Miami.