Officially addicted...

[-kat-]

Hey there guys! You all warned me it would happen...we're now official Disney cruise line addicts

We weren't even meant to be having a holiday this year tbh but then we found decent reward flights, and figured life's too short not to grab opportunities so we figured we could have a wee impromptu 'cheapie' trip! It's kinda grew arms and legs though and now we've just added another cheeky wee Disney cruise! Purely for extreme relaxation purposes due to Galaxies Edge opening making the parks even more heaving obviously

We used the Disney cruise line bus getting to/from Port Canaveral the last time as it was our first time, but we realise it's obviously not the cheapest way of doing things.

I think we'll probably book the bus again for getting to Port Canaveral just for easiness/peace of mind, however if we do decide to drive how early is it possible to get on the ship?

Also, we're definitely considering renting a car for the return trip as we'll need it for a few days shopping etc anyway. I was just wondering, do we prearrange a pick up time to take us to our car? I'm guessing driving will get us back to our resort alot quicker than the Disney bus as we sat on the bus for over an hour waiting on people last time...it wasn't fun! Oh...or did we maybe mess up and miss an earlier Disney bus?

As always any advice is really greatly appreciated, thank you

[2point]

I rented with Avis and drove over. I dropped my wife with the luggage at the port and dropped the car myself. The car rental places and a couple of miles away and run back to back shuttles back to the ship.

I dropped the car and the shuttle was going to be 20 minutes or so, there were a number of families jostling for space on the shuttle with loads of luggage. I didn't want to held up any longer so just called an Uber and was back at the ship in 10 minutes.

Avis don't charge for one way drop off.

The cruise was a one way from Florida to San Diego so didn't pick the car up again. If I did I would have booked an Uber.

[-kat-]

Perfect, thanks for that! Can I just ask, what time did you guys get to board the ship at? I’ll check out the Uber option too 🙂

[2point]

We were on board by 12:30

[Bats]

We use Alamo Brits for our US car hire, or Discount Florida Car hire (advertisers on here).

One way x 2. Drop off luggage, drive to rental shop (Alamo, Enterprise and National are closest in Mullet Drive but it doesn't make a huge difference).
Arrive at port for your PAT (port arrival time), no earlier or it can cause problems with congestion inside the terminal.

For leaving the ship, you can be off as early as 7:30-8am if you do express walk off. Get an uber to the rental shop, collect car, and on your way. They do shuttles, but you may be waiting for it to fill before it heads off.

[-kat-]

Thanks so much Bats! Yeah, we normally book through Alamo Brits or Andy too. Andy says that Alamo are now adding a $160 surcharge for one way from Port Canaveral, which obviously makes it a tad more expensive. It seems to still be a decent price if keeping the car overnight which we could do so we might go down that route. My husband is still keen to just take the bus tbh for ease etc but I find the long wait sitting on the bus waiting on others after disembarking isn't ideal, mind you it let us have a wee nap after all that food at breakfast 😂