one day transportation port canaveral to Disney

[fluffluf]

We will be on a thanksgiving one day port stop and rather than buying a Disney Magic Kingdom excursion through Carnival we were looking at purchasing the entrance pass directly from Disney and that way we can use the Fast Pass system and reserve 3 rides up to 30 days prior to arrival. My understanding is that if we purchased through Carnival one doesn't get their Disney entrance pass until that port day which makes it harder to use the Fast Pass system. If we don't do this excursions through Carnival are there either car rentals physically at the arrival point or enough shuttle/taxis?

[Jenhem31]

There are no car rentals physically at the port but there are shuttles for them. We waited nearly an hour for Avis in April when we debarked the Sunshine.

 

I understand wanting to Fast Pass, but Disney is close to an hour away. I wouldn't risk missing the ship and would book the excursion thru Carnival because remember you've got to drop off the car after and make your way back to the port. If you book thru Carnival they'll guarantee you'll make the ship. I'm a huge advocate for outside excursions but this one is risky. We just did Disney for a day in April before our cruise.

[JohninDC]

As mentioned above all of the car rental agencies in PC/Cocoa Beach shuttle to/from the port. We've had good luck with Avis there, but no one bats 1000.

 

We've done Universal from a port stop in PC on the Pride, but with the drive it is a short day. What are your port times? We were off the ship, shuttle to Avis, and at Universal by 9:30. Then left Universal about 3:30, dropped the car off about 4:30 and were on the ship before 5. Many of the car rentlal offices close in the late afternoon/early eveningso you would need a taxi/Uber to get back to the port.

 

More expensive, but you might look at private transport to WDW - no waiting for the car rental shuttle, paperwork, etc.

Edited July 31, 2016 by JohninDC

[msmayor]

When we sailed the Pride out of Baltimore back in 2010, there were many who dismissed an attempt at the idea of going to Disneyworld at the Port Canaveral stop. It IS an expensive excursion, whether you are doing it through the ship or on your own. It IS a terrible idea if you've never been to Disney or don't game-plan the day. You must temper expectations about just how much you can get done and understand that the travel time to/from can be a point of stress. After all, there is only ONE road to get you to Disney and back, and all it takes is one bad accident to completely ruin your chance to get back on time if you cut it too close (and have your own transportation).

 

You mention a Thanksgiving time-frame. That multiplies the challenge by three or four, as that is one of the busiest periods.

 

All that being said, here is what I posted back then about our Disney trek. We stopped at Port Canaveral mid-August, not as busy a time, and are a family of Disney veterans. Not overplanners by any stretch, but with enough knowledge not to need a map in the parks and know full well what attractions are going to need more time to see. Additional comments for today are in RED

 

For Disney, we were lucky in that we already had admission tickets to the park (unused days on tickets from a previous trip) so it didn't cost us anything to get in. That's one reason why the splurge on the town car made it more affordable - one day adult tickets to Disney cost around $80 each (I believe today's prices are just over $100 each), so we saved $320 right there. The towncar, including tips, cost $300 for the round trip. Certainly more expensive than a rental car (probably about $60) but for us, the extra money spent bought us valuable time (remember that when it comes to Disney, time is money...when you are spending that much coin on tickets you want the most bang for your buck). We didn't have to spend time shuttling to the rental car places and waiting in line to get a car. We didn't have to worry about knowing how to get there. We didn't have to park out far and ride a tram to the monorail. I figure we bought ourselves a good 2 hours by hiring a car service, especially at the end of the day (During Thanksgiving, expect that driving and parking time will increase if you do it on your own) . It was nice to just relax in the car and let someone else drive, and then not have to worry about the rental return. Just dropped us off at the ship and we were on board.

 

This is what I posted over in the East Coast Departures on a thread asking about going to Disney for the day...hope the information is helpful:

 

The Pride docked on-time and passengers were let off right around 7:30am; we were off by 7:40am (the key here was getting the family up and dressed EARLY...we ordered room service breakfast to be delivered at 6am and were in the line to exit the ship at 7am). Our limo driver was waiting right there at the exit for us. (the Carnival buses to Disney were there too, but not scheduled to leave until 8:30am)

 

We arrived at the Ticket and Transportation Center taxi stand at 8:50am and had a short monorail ride to the gate (our driver was amazing...he had done many trips out to Disney and knew shortcuts through the toll gates to get us where we needed to be very quickly).

 

The park opened that morning at 9am, so we were in the gates less than 20 minutes after rope drop.

 

We had plenty of time to do the following:

 

Space Mountain

Splash Mountain

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin

TTA Peoplemover

Carousel of Progress

Mickey's Philharmagic 3D Show

Winnie the Pooh Ride

Haunted Mansion

Lunch at Cosmic Ray's

Shopping along Main Street

Snacks at the Dole Whip stand

Saw the afternoon parade

 

We left the park at 3:50pm to get back to the taxi stand for our 4pm pickup...so we spent seven hours in the park. I think we did a LOT for just 7 hours. (the Carnival excursion buses were due to leave Disney at 5pm...making sure we left BEFORE their buses was a near-guarantee that regardless of what happened on the drive back, we would make the ship...since the Carnival excursion would be BEHIND us on the road)

 

Limo driver was right on time, and we arrived back at the ship at 5:15pm with plenty of time to spare before our 6:30 all-aboard and 7pm sail away.

 

I know we never would have had that much time if we'd rented a car.

 

Did we do everything? No...not by a longshot. But we felt it was well-worth the effort for what we accomplished.

__________________

 

Would we do it again? I don't know...maybe, but then we try to get to Disney every 3-4 years so spending what might be up to $800 or so for a day between tickets and transportation is a lot of money. Of course, we did one day at Universal (knowing it was just one day, and wanting to pack a lot in) and we spent $1k on tickets and line access passes for four people.

 

I do know this...I wouldn't be doing it at Thanksgiving. The parks are just way too packed to even think about having much of a quality day for the $$.

[Luv Cruising Land or Sea]

We go on cruise to enjoy the ship and when we want a Disney "fix" we stay at a Disney resort. I can't imagine being able to enjoy the "magic of Disney" on such a short timetable and as msmayor pointed out there will be huge crowds there on a holiday week. I would explore Canaveral instead and have time to enjoy the ship while others go off. Just my opinion but that's a lot of money to spend for such a short time in the park. If course if you are from another country and this is your only opportunity to see part of Disney than I would take the ships excursion and not have to worry about missing the ship

 

 

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[Luv Cruising Land or Sea]

We go on cruise to enjoy the ship and when we want a Disney "fix" we stay at a Disney resort. I can't imagine being able to enjoy the "magic of Disney" on such a short timetable and as msmayor pointed out there will be huge crowds there on a holiday week. I would explore Canaveral instead and have time to enjoy the ship while others go off. Just my opinion but that's a lot of money to spend for such a short time in the park. If course if you are from another country and this is your only opportunity to see part of Disney than I would take the ships excursion and not have to worry about missing the ship

 

 

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another thing to note is that 30 days out will limit your options on what's available for fast pass times and unless you know the park well so you can plan a good attack you will waste a lot of time moving from one ride to another if they are in different areas of the park. You end up "chasing" the pass and missing other things

 

 

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[fluffluf]

thanks for all the good advice. looks like if we do Thanksgiving we'll do the Kennedy space Center instead of a Disney Park

[piemaker]

We will be on a thanksgiving one day port stop and rather than buying a Disney Magic Kingdom excursion through Carnival we were looking at purchasing the entrance pass directly from Disney and that way we can use the Fast Pass system and reserve 3 rides up to 30 days prior to arrival. My understanding is that if we purchased through Carnival one doesn't get their Disney entrance pass until that port day which makes it harder to use the Fast Pass system. If we don't do this excursions through Carnival are there either car rentals physically at the arrival point or enough shuttle/taxis?

 

 

 

 

You can get a stretch limo from Executive VIP Limousine for up to 10

passengers for $250 round trip to and from Disney/ Port Canaveral.

 

Do with your own group or meet some friends on ship to join in for the day.

 

We set this up on the blog for folks wanting to join us to go to Disney

ahead of time.

 

There were 8 of us and it was perfect and better than the ships excursion.

[Baron2005]

I've done this a couple of times (talking about getting fastpasses the day of the trip). It worked just fine. Just refresh the page several times a minute. We did this on our way to the park both times.

I wonder what time do you have to back at the port? Sometimes it just not enough time/not worth it. If you are leaving the port around 8-9 pm...do it! Disney is just so much more fun for kids!