MCO, Port Canaveral, Kennedy Space Center

[newbie070708]

Myself, husband, daughter (14) and daughter (6) will be flying into MCO Friday early evening in October. Saturday our other daughter and friend (both 22) will be flying into MCO. We would like to visit Kennedy Space Center on Saturday and cruise is on Sunday.  I'm looking for recommendations for lodging and transportation. I've thought about vrbo since we would need 2 bedrooms but didn't see anything that just stood out. I've seen most people say if you're arriving at night, it's best to stay in Orlando but not sure about the best place for staying 2 nights. Would a rental car (SUV that holds 6) be worth it or just uber everywhere? Would a rental car even be able to be returned at the port in October? I looked at 2 can rental places and they both said location closed (I assume that's temporary). Any advice for this stressing mom would be greatly appreciated!

[newbie070708]

Oh and regarding budget - haven't really set a budget per se - but we want something nice and safe.

[steve20832]

7 hotels with a 5 minute drive of the port. Sorry, I can't answer your rental car question

[Ashland]

Our extended family of 6 is doing something very similar ... We've booked Home2Suites for two nights Friday & Saturday and looking into renting 2 cars from MCO using Budget and returning it to the office in Port Canaveral...Saturday we'll also visit KSC...Our trip isn't until April 2022 so I'm feeling confident about our plans...Best of luck for this October. Just wanted to offer a hotel option for you after much research.

[Noxequifans]

 At present, there seems to be limited rental cars available and hopefully this will improve. If your plans include the Space Center perhaps best to stay not that far from it and the port. Good luck.

[bigrednole]

Don't count on rental car availability to change much. Rental companies are not buying vehicles because manufacturers are not discounting fleet vehicles at the moment. The chip shortage is a massive impact. Recalls have to be given priority which limits what they can manufacturer. With lower new cars, the manufacturers are not looking at low cost fleet sales. 

 

But do not fret. Renting would probably be your most cost effective option between all the round trip Uber/Lyft. If the fall back plan is Uber/Lyft, then that is not a worry either. My advice since you arrive early evening and the current prices near MCO are not that low anymore, is to find a room for Fri/Sat and another room at the same place for Saturday. This gives you 2 rooms still. 

[DKimmey]

Rental car may be your biggest struggle

 

 

[Ashland]

3 hours ago, DKimmey said:

Rental car may be your biggest struggle

 

 

And if it ends up that way...they can always book a shuttle to take them from MCO to a hotel in Port Canaveral....or book a close hotel to MCO (even one at the airport) then they can book a private shuttle to take all 6 of them Saturday to the hotel of their choice in Port Canaveral and use Uber to/from KSC then the hotel shuttle to the cruise port. Options can be worked out when flexible.

[newbie070708]

I think we have decided to have 1 or 2 drive and the rest fly so we will have a car. Thank you all for your help!

[lovermonkey]

We are kind of doing the same thing but after the cruse we are planning on checking out Disney for a day.  Wanted to get some ideas of how I could do the transportation thing.

[JohninDC]

12 minutes ago, lovermonkey said:

We are kind of doing the same thing but after the cruse we are planning on checking out Disney for a day.  Wanted to get some ideas of how I could do the transportation thing.

Post cruise you can rent a car one way, or shuttle to MCO and use WDW transportation from there.