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Get a hotel, or drive over morning of?

Megtheblackbelt

By Megtheblackbelt,
in Florida Departures

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spookers

spookers

Posted
Posted

We live just south of Disney on I-4 and still stay the night before at the port. This last Saturday I had an appointment on Sand Lake Rd at 8:30 am. It should have been a 30 min drive and it took me 45 minutes.

 

 

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SNJCruisers

SNJCruisers

Posted
Posted
More like your entire week. I'm with you, I'd drive over the night before to be safe. The peace of mind is worth $163 (Radisson at the port) to me.
Another option is to check out http://www.trinityreservations.com

They offer hotel/parking packages Nationwide with no sales tax added. Could be cheaper than the 163 for the Radisson.

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Joebucks

Joebucks

Posted
Posted

For my last vacations, I would drive the day of. It was around 11+ hours. Although there were no tough deadlines like there are cruises. Even then, we got there when we wanted to.

 

Still, for only 2.5 hours away, I'd drive the day of. No question about it. Most cruises leave at 4 PM at the earliest. If it was something you're that worried about, you could leave your house around 9 AM, and have PLENTY of breathing room.

 

Then again, if it were more of a destination location, I think it could be a good reason to stay in Miami or something. A hotel in Canaveral is such a waste of money to me.

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cruise_mojo

cruise_mojo

Posted
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hey spookers we did the oasis last hallows eve!

 

and it seems to me, a lot of you are not meeting up early with other cruise critisizers? the night before the cruise?:(

 

 

although we have not stayed at the Radisson in cape c we hear that tons of peeps stay there I guess for the park and crusie deal?

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Moviela

Moviela

Posted
Posted

I pack and drive over in the morning. 20 minutes and we are there in Long Beach. Our next cruise, however, is sailing from Barcelona. That requires packing after work and catching an 8 p.m. nonstop flight from LAX two full days before they cast off the bow line. Overnight in a hotel near the water and a hotel car to the pier in the morning.

 

Any time I fly (often) I always arrive the day prior to my appointments in case of unexpected delays.

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Havingfun2010

Havingfun2010

Posted
Posted
Hello!

 

My husband and myself live in St. Petersburg, Florida. We always embark out of Port Canaveral, and have always (and by always - I mean the only 2 cruises we've been on together) just driven over from St. Pete to Port Canaveral the morning of.

 

However, I do find that driving over the morning of can be a little stressful. We don't mind waking up super early and getting an early start for safe precautions... but I do imagine that getting a hotel the night before and being 5 minutes from the port would soothe my anxiety a little bit.

 

The question being: For those of you who live close-ish to ports (about 2.5 hours away in our case)... do you drive over the night before and shell out for a hotel, or do you just drive over the morning of?

 

Any thoughts on the matter/advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

P.S.- We have read about the Radisson Resort, and how they offer complimentary parking for the duration of the cruise at their resort. My concern with this being - are the shuttles they have that take you to Port Canaveral reliable? Is using the shuttle an extra stressor? I feel like just being able to get into your car after you disembark and head home has got to be a huge relief. I wonder if the lines for these shuttles are astronomical and/or unreliable.

 

Thank you for your thoughts! I appreciate them. :)

 

Why is a 2.5 hour drive stressful? I do it all the time. PC is about the same as it is for you. We leave about 7:30 to 8:00 and get at the port by 10:30. I'm not even sure why you would consider it waking up early. I consider it sleeping late another 30 minutes from a workday.

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GTO-Girl

GTO-Girl

Posted
Posted
What does it cost to park at the port? 60.00? What does it cost for a hotel with parking option? 120.00? For an extra 60 bucks you have piece of mind and you don't have to get up early.

 

Port parking in Canaveral is $17 per day. You also pay for the day going in and the day you leave...(pay 8 days for a 7 day cruise). BUT I still refer to park at the port for the convenience.

 

To the OP....the four closet hotels to the port which all provide a shuttle and parking are Homewood Suites, Country Inn & Suites, Residence Inn and Radisson At The Port. We have previously used their shuttles and all were reliable and waiting.

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dmdiver

dmdiver

Posted
Posted

We live 5 hours away from port and usually drive in the day of the cruise. Only one time did we spend the night in a hotel. Hubby had a free night, so we drove about 4 hours to a hotel. It was nice not having to be up so early the morning of the cruise. Plus, I had forgotten to bring a sweater, so we had time to stop and buy one. I'll also add that we did encounter a really bad wreck going through Houston one year that caused us to re-route through neighborhoods and caused quite a delay. Fortunately, we always leave the house super early when driving to allow for this sort of thing. It was still stressful, though.

 

We've flown into Miami the day of several cruises with no problems. However, last year, our flight into FLL was cancelled & the next available didn't land until 2pm, so we ended up flying the day before & staying the night. Much more relaxing - we had a nice evening with friends the night before and had plenty of time in the morning to get to port. This was good, as there was a boat show in town & traffic was absolutely horrendous. This year we are doing the same. Our friends fly from Richmond, VA and have had flight changes multiple times, so now they always come in the day before. It's much more fun this way.

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Computer Nerd

Computer Nerd

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Posted
The only thing that scares me about Port Canaveral is that one highway to get there. If there's an accident and the road closes you're stuck.

 

Is there access from the other direction? Cocoa Beach?

 

If you can figure out a solid back up plan, then I'd drive the morning of. If not, I'd look for a Florida resident rate and stay nearby and consider it the start of your vacation.

 

Regarding hotels, I've stayed at the Radisson and wasn't impressed. A friend of mine stayed at the Country Inn and Suites and liked it. She said they offered a nice free breakfast and had a cruise parking deal too.

 

What "one highway"? From the west, you can take Hwy 528, Hwy 44, I-4, Hwy 60, and numerous other roads to get to the east coast. Once you get on the east side you can use US1, I-95, or A1A to go north/south. Or just leave early and beat the traffic (that's what I do).

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SNJCruisers

SNJCruisers

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It's been reported in this thread that it's 17 per day x 8 or 136 to park at the port and I think it was 163 for the stay/park package at the Radisson. Even if you could possibly find cheaper off site parking or a cheaper hotel package, the 30.00 difference makes it a no brainer, IMHO. But people that are accustomed to getting up at the crack of dawn for work will just do it one more time on embarkation day. You can show somebody a great deal on a brand new ship that is better than what they are accustomed to doing and because many are creatures of habit, they'll just keep doing the same thing. Some people just wanna drive in the morning of no matter what. Once karma bites them and a curve ball upsets the cart, maybe they'll then change their mind.

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SNJCruisers

SNJCruisers

Posted
Posted
. don’t see why driving a couple hours gives you anxiety....
I drive for a living, and also work second shift, so the last thing I am going to do is get up early on my first day of vacation and drive. This really doesn't pertain to me anyway since I don't live in Florida like the majority of posters that like to get up and drive to the port on embarkation day. Maybe if I lived in Florida, was retired or had my significant other drive, I would feel differently.
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Computer Nerd

Computer Nerd

Posted
Posted
It's been reported in this thread that it's 17 per day x 8 or 136 to park at the port and I think it was 163 for the stay/park package at the Radisson. Even if you could possibly find cheaper off site parking or a cheaper hotel package, the 30.00 difference makes it a no brainer, IMHO. But people that are accustomed to getting up at the crack of dawn for work will just do it one more time on embarkation day. You can show somebody a great deal on a brand new ship that is better than what they are accustomed to doing and because many are creatures of habit, they'll just keep doing the same thing. Some people just wanna drive in the morning of no matter what. Once karma bites them and a curve ball upsets the cart, maybe they'll then change their mind.

 

So you're saying if people don't waste an extra vacation day and don't spend $27 MORE, they are stupid?? :rolleyes:

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cruise_mojo

cruise_mojo

Posted
Posted

the first few times out of port can we flew in early for a few days at universal or drizzley world and bussed over or arragned the hotel van over to the cape

 

when we started driving down though, we found staying at the cape worse than driving down from jax ( which is our driving stage of life our favorite, easy to negotiate port! )

 

and that's why we come down early but we have cruised 39 times over the years, so we have our hotels bars and restaruants down-pat

 

out of Charleston I think one time we drove down the distance for a cruise but I gotta bad back and it would just wipe me out for that frist day of a short cruise

 

for us, we do take a lot of 5 day cruises and by going down early we get to stretch the whole trip into 7 days almost like a 7 day cruise

 

more and more though, the 7 day appeals to us so we are mixing in more Charleston and cape C cruises, more bang for the buck and all and you do get some western iteneraries from the cape

 

when we wuz young'uns and we flew all the time ( wifey is airline emp. ) we sailed from Miami and sometimes new York often

 

I suppose living in flata, others get their own routine down-pat too.

 

NOW CHECK THIS OUT we got cruise buddies in Charleston that have gotten fond of this side to side crusing in stead of back to back

 

this is where they cruise from tampa then the cape the SAME DAY! or the cape and JAX and I suppose its just a short time till they do jax and tampa? heck we ain't even did a BTB yet!!!!

 

for us just book a longer cruise!!!! since cruise days are what counts nowadays?

 

ANYONE GET PLATINUM with carnival in LESS than 43 days? ;p we did it old school with almost all short cruises, 3-4-5 day mostly

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bobandsherry

bobandsherry

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Posted
So you're saying if people don't waste an extra vacation day and don't spend $27 MORE, they are stupid?? :rolleyes:
And don't forget, there is also extra cost for meals.

 

And then there is dealing with shuttle back to hotel after the cruise vs just walking over to parking lot, getting in your vehicle and on the road while those needing shuttle are still waiting for transportation.

 

Sent from my LG-H872 using Tapatalk

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