Port Canaveral one-day car rental for own excursion?

madeline236

Earning My Ears
Joined
Sep 21, 2017
I've looked at the Port Authority's schedule and it's different from what RCCL has. Do you know how accurate this schedule is? I'm on the Grandeur of the Seas Jan 28 at Port Canaveral and RCCL says I'm in port 6am - 6pm but the Port Authority has 10:30am to 9:30pm. I'm hoping the cruise line is correct but if the times are wrong on the schedule, can I assume it's correct that I will be at CT1? I've heard that from CT1, it's a short walk to rent a car from Alamo/National/

I've been thinking of renting a car since we want to visit Galaxy's Edge and having to wait for an RCCL bus to load and get dropped off at the TTC is not appealing so I'm exploring other options. Have any of you rented a car for the day there before? How was the experience picking it up/dropping it off? None of the offices open until 7:30 so I'm thinking if we dock at 6, we won't get off until 6:30 at the earliest and could be first in line when they open to get a car so off and running by 7:45 maybe and at HWS by 9:30. Is that reasonable/doable or will there by a long line of people at 7:30 when they open?
 
Jan 28 is a Tuesday so T-1, RCL's primary terminal, is not in use by the the RCL 'PC regulars' .... and you are the only visiting RCL ship so T-1 is a 99% probability. From T-1 to National/Enterprise/Alamo is ruffly 0.5 miles as the crow flies.

458360

looking at the Port Canaveral schedule for other visits of GR' I see the 1030 time consistently ..... so probably not a booboo

suggestions: use PortCanaveralWebCam.com or MarineTraffic.com to verify arrival time of a visit between now and JAN23

or

try that other (not allowed to say the name) popular cruise discussion board site and check for a roll call for first hand experience ... (msg me if you need the name)

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editorial comments:

- later arrival COULD work to your advantage allowing the folks on the regular cruise 'turnaround' that day to be gone from the rental office ..... <there is one ship doing a turnaround that day according to the schedule>

- getting a car, driving to WDW, parking, in the park ..... if you can do this in under two hours I'd say you done good ..... cruise tour bus might get you to TCC in an hour (YES they SPEED) and then you need to get WDW transport to the correct park .... but there are options for that ... MINNI VAN?

- let's not even discuss the cost of one day at a WDW park . . .

- if renting a car and looking at cost don't forget gas, tolls and parking.

- a warning for one not familiar: there is a certain RISK involved with your driving plan. There is ONE good road between Port Canaveral and Orlando airport/WDW for about a 25 mile stretch .... this is a two lane each direction hunk of highway with NO exits. An accident can shut this down completely (one direction or the other) and happens at least once a month. If you check a traffic app and KNOW there's a problem, the alternates add 40 minutes or more to the drive (when you know where you are going) ..... it is SO sad to see folks on the pier waving goodbye to the ship they were supposed to be on . . . if such an accident/delay happens and you are on a cruise excursion bus, popular opinion says they will wait for you ....
 
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