Flights???

[GOALIEMOM30]

Do most people fly in a day before the cruise. I have not booked a flight yet, but my husband was suggesting that we fly in a day earlier. We are flying into Orlando need to get to Port Canaveral. Are there lots of hotels near the port? Also, if we rent a car, is there parking and how much does it cost for the week? Thanks!

[Jodyflower]

I can only answer one of your questions. Always fly out the day before your cruise that way you have a buffer if there are flight delays. Even if you live in a temperate climate, if there are weather delays elsewhere in the country, your flight could end up in the domino effect and you'd be sweating on whether or not you will make your cruise.

[elleluv]

I would definitely suggest flying in the day before....

 

If you are renting a car, you can rent it in Orlando and drop it off at Port Canaveral the day of your cruise. Then reverse the process after the cruise. Then you won't have to pay for a car for the whole week and parking. Both Avis and Budget have a shuttle to/from the port.

 

Have a great trip! :)

[janetz]

Try this http://www.hotelsbythepier.com Yes, fly down the day before. :)

[knarf]

Hi, We are cruising 5/14/06 out of San Juan to the Southern Caribbean. This will be our 8th cruise and 6 times we have flown out a day early. So many things can go wrong and we didn't want to miss a cruise that we been waiting so anxiously for. Especially if you fly in the winter time. A couple of times we had to fly the same day of our cruise..so what I do in that case is . 1.) try to fly nonstop-less chance of a delay somewhere-less chance of luggage being lost. 2.) Fly out early, in case of a delay, you will still have some extra time to make it to your destination. Now that DW and I are both retired-it will always be flying out a day earlier !!:) Good Luck, Knarf (Frank backwards)

 

P.S. I think you are smart making your own flight reservations -almost always cheaper. A very good booking site for all the booking companies for airfares is www.bookingbuddy.com

[BobBeaSea]

The vast majority fly in the day of the cruise. Most of the responses you get here (or any other cruise forum) will suggest flying in a day early. It is good advice, most of the time, and we fly in a day early as well. Enjoy your cruise:)

[silentbob007]

On my last cruise out of Canaveral, I rented a car at the Orlando airport and returned it at the Budget at Cocoa Beach with no problem at all. This gave me the freedom to do some last minute shopping and sight-seeing and ended up being only a little bit more expensive than cruise line transfers would have cost for two people.

 

Personally, I'd agree with flying in the day before. I've had so many flights seriously delayed for thunderstorms last year that it wasn't even funny.

[nparmelee]

We like flying in at least a day or two before the cruise. For us it means not worrying about getting there on the day of and it means starting to wind down a few days early so we can really enjoy ourselves once on the ship. If we had to fly the day of, we would do as few connections as possible, leave as early as possible and take a list of alternate flights from each connection in case there are any issues, cross our fingers and go for it. We had an hour flight delay to our cruise last year and our luggage took the flight after hours so it arrived an hour later than we did, but we flew in the night before the cruise so we got all that stress out of the way and were able to really enjoy ourselves when we got to the ship.