Disney off-site hotel to Port Canaveral transport suggestions

[Mommy2Logan]

I booked Merrytime for Thanksgiving from PC somewhat on a whim and now realize I know nothing with essentially no time to devote to research.

4 questions:
1. How do we find out our boarding time?
2. If we fly the night before and get in around 8pm, should we just stay near the airport and then uber back to the airport and take the bus to PC the next morning?
3. If we fly in two nights before and want to do a day at Disney the day before the cruise and we stay off site (most of the onsite hotels are booked and all that is available is $750+), what is the best plan for transport to PC? We would arrive Thursday night, hit Epcot on Friday, then head to PC on Saturday. Should we just uber back to MCO on Saturday and take the bus to PC?
4. I am not seeing any good flight times the day we disembark unless we can get off the ship and get to the airport by 11 a.m. Is that even possible?

 

[hamletfan8]

when you check in (which is 30 days before you sail) you will get your Port Arrival Time, which is the time you are allowed to show up at the cruise terminal if you are driving your own car. You will also get a Boarding Group # and this will be the group you are allowed to board with (similar to boarding groups on airlines except there are many more groups).

We are sailing out of PC in 8 days and we are flying in the night before to MCO. We are using a company called GoPort which is going to provide us transport from the airport to a hotel, 1 night's hotel stay (they have a variety of hotels to choose from), then will provide transport from the hotel to the port on the departure date. When we return, they are providing transport from the port to the airport. We have not used them before (so I can't "recommend" them since I don't have a experience yet to base that on) but others on this board and on our sailing Facebook group said they have had good experiences. So we felt confident enough to go ahead and book through them. I'll be able to provide a better/more helpful recommendation when I return on the 17th.

 

[tinkattitude!]

We are staying in the Comfort Suites Orlando Airport the night before and are taking the DCL busses from the airport/port. They have a free shuttle you can call to pick you up from MCO and then you arrange the shuttle back the next morning when you check in for your room. We usually stay at the Hyatt in the airport but this time around it was a good $200+ more than just booking elsewhere and I wanted that to spend on the ship instead of a to sleep

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I booked Merrytime for Thanksgiving from PC somewhat on a whim and now realize I know nothing with essentially no time to devote to research.

4 questions:
1. How do we find out our boarding time?
2. If we fly the night before and get in around 8pm, should we just stay near the airport and then uber back to the airport and take the bus to PC the next morning?
3. If we fly in two nights before and want to do a day at Disney the day before the cruise and we stay off site (most of the onsite hotels are booked and all that is available is $750+), what is the best plan for transport to PC? We would arrive Thursday night, hit Epcot on Friday, then head to PC on Saturday. Should we just uber back to MCO on Saturday and take the bus to PC?
4. I am not seeing any good flight times the day we disembark unless we can get off the ship and get to the airport by 11 a.m. Is that even possible?

We have done both of these things that you are deciding: flying in late the night before and flying in 2 days pre cruise to spend a day in a Disney park. Both times, we hired private ground transfers to take us directly from our hotel to PC. Why trek back to MCO? unless you really really want to take the DCL bus but to me, that is just more work of dragging luggage around. The older I get, the less I want to deal with my luggage.

Lately, I've been using this company. https://orlandosuntransportation.com/index.html but have also used Happy Limo in the past.

As for where to stay when arriving late the night before the cruise? On our 1st DCL cruise we stayed at an offsite MCO hotel with a shuttle, Fairfield Inn, and had our driver pick us up there. On subsequent cruises, we learned about the Hyatt inside MCO which is so much more convenient with a lot of luggage (family of 4 on a 7 nt cruise with formalwear, pirate gear, etc.) We then have the driver pick us up directly from the Hyatt. It really depends on how many are in your party. For our first 8-10 or so cruises, my parents would often join us so with a party of 6, it is cheaper to take private transfers than use the DCL bus.

Eventually my parents aged out of cruising and our kids aged out of travelling with us. So for just 2 of us, if we stay at the Hyatt the night before, we just take the DCL bus.

JMHO, I don't mind Ubering for short distances such as PoM to MIA, but for longer rides, such as MCO to PC, I prefer a private company.