Arriving 2 days pre-cruise...

[Ntows]

Hi! I am kindly requesting your help.

We are a family of first time cruisers and we will be on the 4th July double dip from PC. (2 adults and 2 pre-schoolers). We live in Europe so will be taking a long flight and arriving 2 nights before the cruise. Our flight arrives very late and I am trying to decide:

1) Stay at MCO Hyatt for one night, rent car next morning and spend 1 night in RI Cape Canaveral
2) Be brave and pick the rental car after arrival at MCO (10pm-ish) and drive to PC and spend two nights pre-cruise at RI Cape Canaveral
3) Stay 2 nights at MCO Hyatt and use DCL transfers morning of cruise
4) Stay 2 nights at MCO Hyatt and rent car to drive down to PC

Would appreciate your thoughts!

PS - We have been to Orlando and WDW several times so not really keen on doing the parks this time round.

 

[geoff112001]

what about

5) using a free transfer to a Disney Resort and staying there 2 nights. Using to the Disney Transfer to go to the port the day of cruise

I'm sure one of the value resorts would be a similar price to the Hyatt. There is a lot to do around the parks without actually having to buy park tickets and you wouldn't need to rent a car.

 

[Ntows]

what about

5) using a free transfer to a Disney Resort and staying there 2 nights. Using to the Disney Transfer to go to the port the day of cruise

I'm sure one of the value resorts would be a similar price to the Hyatt. There is a lot to do around the parks without actually having to buy park tickets and you wouldn't need to rent a car.

Thanks. That’s another option. Will look into that as well

 

[cph706]

5) does sound good

Of all of those options 2) sounds the worst...you have to get your luggage, get the car, then drive to PC, it could easily be 1am before you get there.
What about Universal for a couple nights? Or Legoland? Preschoolers might enjoy that, there are little bungalow houses you stay in, I believe.

 

[Ntows]

5) does sound good

Of all of those options 2) sounds the worst...you have to get your luggage, get the car, then drive to PC, it could easily be 1am before you get there.
What about Universal for a couple nights? Or Legoland? Preschoolers might enjoy that, there are little bungalow houses you stay in, I believe.

Thanks. I think 2 is very challenging. We love legoland... but we would still have to get the car and drive there. It’s almost a 40min drive?

 

[Shanti]

MCO Hyatt is a nice hotel & one I'd be content to stay at for a few days. The value resorts are just motels by comparison. The only reason to stay at a value is to go to the parks from morning until night. If you aren't doing that, I don't recommend a value.

 

[Weedy]

My vote is to stay at the Hyatt the first night. Have a relaxing morning then head to Port Canaveral.

 

[lorenni]

We are flying in two days early. We are staying with family on the east coast and plan to visit marineland or maybe st Augustine. If our son were older we would try Kennedy space center.

In your shoes I would stay at the airport hotel that first night then pick up the rental car and head for the east coast. Since you’ve done Disney you can try a new tourist attraction

 

[YawningDodo]

I'd go with either option 1 or option 5. The MCO Hyatt looks very nice and as far as airports go MCO's not bad for loitering, but I think I'd go stir-crazy hanging around any airport for a full day and spending a second night there. Suppose you could always take the rental car out and about in Orlando that day, but if you're going to drive that day anyway you might as well head down to Port Canaveral and enjoy the area for a bit before the cruise. I'm a big WDW fan so my inclination would be to stay on property those two nights and spend the day enjoying Disney Springs, eat a nice meal at one of the resorts, etc., even if I wasn't planning on park time. Since you've done WDW and it doesn't appeal right now, though, checking out an area that's new to you might be more the ticket. Regardless, I definitely wouldn't do a late night drive on arrival; you're probably going to be pretty wiped from your travel day and you'd risk everyone in your party ending up too tired and cranky the next morning to get any enjoyment out of your pre-cruise free day.

 

[Leeba]

I'll be the lone dissenter here, and say that I would personally go with #2. Especially if you would have slept on flight, since, taking into time zone differences, it will be late night / early morning when you arrive at 10pm eastern, i think?

Anyway, I would want to power through the travel that night, so that I didn't have to unpack some stuff, repack the next day, only to go through that again before your final destination of the ship. Spending two nights at one place sounds more relaxing - and a better way to ease into a vacation - than bouncing around from place to place.

 

[Ntows]

Thank you all! I love this board! Good responses and very helpful. My husband is all for getting the car and just driving down to P.C. And if it were just the two of us I would too... but the kids! They’ll be tired but at the same time there’s always that crazy energy that has them bouncing off the walls on our first day of vacation. So I’m kind of leaning toward option 2.

Actually what I’d really love is a car service from MCO to P.C. that night... but then we wouldn’t have a car at our disposal for the next day.

(We’ve always visited Orlando at less busy times of the year so July is a first and I know it will be busy - so trying to get reservations done early. )

 

[Ntows]

I'll be the lone dissenter here, and say that I would personally go with #2. Especially if you would have slept on flight, since, taking into time zone differences, it will be late night / early morning when you arrive at 10pm eastern, i think?

Anyway, I would want to power through the travel that night, so that I didn't have to unpack some stuff, repack the next day, only to go through that again before your final destination of the ship. Spending two nights at one place sounds more relaxing - and a better way to ease into a vacation - than bouncing around from place to place.

Thanks. The packing unpacking and multiple check ins is very exhausting.

 

[Ntows]

I'd go with either option 1 or option 5. The MCO Hyatt looks very nice and as far as airports go MCO's not bad for loitering, but I think I'd go stir-crazy hanging around any airport for a full day and spending a second night there. Suppose you could always take the rental car out and about in Orlando that day, but if you're going to drive that day anyway you might as well head down to Port Canaveral and enjoy the area for a bit before the cruise. I'm a big WDW fan so my inclination would be to stay on property those two nights and spend the day enjoying Disney Springs, eat a nice meal at one of the resorts, etc., even if I wasn't planning on park time. Since you've done WDW and it doesn't appeal right now, though, checking out an area that's new to you might be more the ticket. Regardless, I definitely wouldn't do a late night drive on arrival; you're probably going to be pretty wiped from your travel day and you'd risk everyone in your party ending up too tired and cranky the next morning to get any enjoyment out of your pre-cruise free day.

Thanks. At the end of our vacation we will be spending some days in Orlando so we are not really looking to do anything major there pre-cruise.

 

[Marc D]

Thanks. At the end of our vacation we will be spending some days in Orlando so we are not really looking to do anything major there pre-cruise.

In that case, I would stay at MCO, not bother with a car, and either go to Disney Springs/Citiwalk or enjoy the MCO pool. Nothing beats leaving your luggage in the room at The Hyatt and getting it back in your stateroom on the ship.

 

[Ntows]

In that case, I would stay at MCO, not bother with a car, and either go to Disney Springs/Citiwalk or enjoy the MCO pool. Nothing beats leaving your luggage in the room at The Hyatt and getting it back in your stateroom on the ship.

So take the DCL transport?

 

[Marc D]

So take the DCL transport?

We’ve done the rental car and the private car before, but nothing beats the DCL bus in our mind. Since we are 3, the cost is about the same. We like arriving early in the terminal so we get on the first bus at 9 AM and we get to skip the line at the terminal since it opens only at 10h30 for guests arriving independently. And you get in the Disney mood as soon as you get in line for the bus.

If you want to go to Disney springs, you can Uber or Lyft there.

 

[Shanti]

We’ve always visited Orlando at less busy times of the year so July is a first and I know it will be busy - so trying to get reservations done early

July actually isn't that busy anymore, so don't worry too much.

 

[surran12]

I’d vote with your husband and go with 2. I’m the power thru type and just knowing your their the next morning and can relax all day is a very nice feeling to me. And I personally really like the Port Canaveral/Cocoa Beach area a lot to spend time in.

If that’s not an option then 1 would be the fall back to me.

 

[Cheerio]

We love going to Cocoa Beach, walking on the sand, watching ships sail out. I vote #2

 

[kiford]

I'd do #5 or #3 (preferably #5 - as you say there's lots to do outside the parks while at a WDW resort). Or #6: arrival night at MCO Hyatt, transfer to WDW next day and take DCL transfers from WDW resort. Although it's a pain to have to repack, just dropping into a hotel nearly as soon as you arrive rather than another long drive to a hotel is nice, especially with kids. Picking up a car and driving just seems like too much work to me. It took us about 15 minutes from picking up our luggage to getting to our room last time we did MCO before a cruise. After arriving at 8:15 pm, it was so nice. We dropped our luggage in the room, headed to the restaurant for a late dinner, then to bed. Given that friends were picking us up at 9:30 am the next morning, it was nice to be able to go to bed early and to know that I'd be able to eat before then. But I probably wouldn't stay two nights - you can only watch people at the security lines for so long (although the pool is nice and it's fun to watch the planes arrive but probably not for two days).