Port Canaveral questions (Breakaway/Gem)

[MarlboroBell]

Five weeks from now we'll be on the Breakaway!

 

We're trying to figure out what to do at Port Canaveral. We have tickets to SeaWorld left over from last year, and one definite option is to go back, but we have some questions, mostly relating to the strange timings of the ship (we're in port noon to 9pm).

 

(1) What's the all-aboard time at Port Canaveral for the Breakaway?

(2) I've heard rumors of a car rental place that stays open late on days there's a ship in late, but I haven't found one. Does it exist? (I know we can drop keys off, of course.)

(3) Assuming we can just drop keys off, are cabs plentiful to get us back from rental car offices to the ship? How much do they charge?

(4) If we rent a car, how much time would we actually get at SeaWorld? How much more do we get if we take the (insanely expensive) ship's bus?

(5) My wife said 'of course Kennedy Space Center would stay open late with a shipful of people in', I said 'there's no way they would change their hours for us'. Who's right?

[dexddd]

I agree the times are silly. There are several rental places there - I'd call them and see or try the ports of call section. We usually rent from Budget but again, there are others.

 

It is about a one hour drive to Sea World. As far as KSC, I've never heard of that. We have been there several times. To do it justice, you really need a whole day to do it all since it is so spread out. However, it is a place you certainly can adjust to what time you have available even if you just stay in the main area. They have the shuttle experience which is fantastic. They also have IMax movies there. The buses they have to the outer areas stop going out there I think around 3:30.

[johnjovi]

Five weeks from now we'll be on the Breakaway!

 

We're trying to figure out what to do at Port Canaveral. We have tickets to SeaWorld left over from last year, and one definite option is to go back, but we have some questions, mostly relating to the strange timings of the ship (we're in port noon to 9pm).

 

(1) What's the all-aboard time at Port Canaveral for the Breakaway?

 

(5) My wife said 'of course Kennedy Space Center would stay open late with a shipful of people in', I said 'there's no way they would change their hours for us'. Who's right?

 

The all-aboard time in Port Canaveral was 8:30pm. When I was doing my research on KSC, I did not see any changes in their operating hours for our sailing. I did not go there so I do not know for 100% though.

 

Sorry I can't answer your other questions.

[mresend]

I found that the best place to rent a car is Hertz. They have free transfers from ship to rental agency and also back. Since the Hertz closes at about 6:00, you will have to do a after hours drop off. This facility offers 24hr drop off which most of the others don't. Our cost for our Nov 3rd sailing to rent a car was about 53.00 for a small car. Since you will be dropping off after hours they do not offer the shuttle service then, I was told by hertz that there will be taxis there to take you back to the ship for about 10-15$ per person. I would drop off your party at ship first then have one person return car. As for Sea World, make sure you check the closing times for this time of month. It takes about 45 min to 1 hour to drive so you will need to factor in the amount of time you can spend there.

[mresend]

If you wanted to do the Kennedy Space Center tour, I feel the rate the ship charges is a good one once you figure in the transportation to get there. So I recommend going with the ship tour for that in my opinion

[marciefree]

We rented with Dollar. Shuttle picks you up at the pier. Drop off using key drop. They will give you a phone number for taxi. We didn't use as we dropped car off before closing. It is an hour drive to SeaWorld plus you need time to park the car and enter the park. Same goes for leaving the park. If you get off the ship relatively quickly and are lucky enough to grab a shuttle to the car rental without a wait (we waited almost half an hour), you could conceivably be on your way around 1:00. You should comfortably leave yourself at least 2 hours to return to ship and drop off car, leaving you about 4 hours in the park.

[hitch-04]

Payless Car Rental is the company that stays late at the pier. I called and spoke directly to the office there, and he confirmed that they stay open at the office at the pier until the last car is turned in. He said that as far as he knows, all of the other companies allow late turn ins, but not at the pier. Granted, these other companies are their competitor, but I don't think he'd outright lie.

 

Their prices are also very competitive. We have a car reserved from them for the Thanksgiving cruise and it's $30 with tax and everything. With four of us, it's so cheap as to be almost laughable. We figure it gives us flexibility to do dinner after the Kennedy Space Center.

[KevinsCruising]

We just stay in the ship and have a pool day. We went to Universal once but was so stressed out about missing the ship, we couldn't really enjoy it.