Hotel Accommodation Question?

[peteukmcr]

We've booked flights with RCI for our next cruise on Freedom in 2009. We will be flying from Manchester, UK and the excellent custom air specialists here in the UK advised that as we are flying from the UK to Florida to join a Caribbean cruise, RCI will fly us out the day before, most probably on Virgin Atlantic, who fly direct from Manchester to Orlando, and provide transport from Orlando airport, accommodate us in a hotel overnight and then transport us to to the ship in Port Canaveral. All included in the price.

 

Don't know why we haven't done this for previous cruises as we normally arrange flights & hotel seperately. It's an excellent deal as far as I'm concerned.

 

Anyway, to get to my question (sorry for the lengthy introduction, but I thought I needed to provide some background), does anyone have any ideas on where RCI will put us overnight? Will it be near Orlando airport, or Orlando itself or nearer Port Canaveral (Cocoa Beach)?

 

As this isn't until Sept 2009, RCI cannot provide any details yet (which I completely understand) as not only are the flights schedules not open yet as per normal practice (11 months in advance), neither are many of the hotels.

 

Has anyone done this before?

 

Any ideas are welcome, I know it's a long way ahead, but can't wait to get back onboard!

 

Thanks in advance.

[jacketwatch]

Nothing like anticipation of that next cruise! :D I assume they will fly you from Orlando to Miami, correct? The drive is about 4 hrs. I think IIRC. As for accomodation I am wondering if there are a range of hotels, from budget to luxury. Thank you. Larry :D

[cb at sea]

In Orlando, RCCI uses Doubltree, Hilton and Buena Vista--depending on your price range.

[JanineM]

Nothing like anticipation of that next cruise! :D I assume they will fly you from Orlando to Miami, correct? The drive is about 4 hrs. I think IIRC. As for accomodation I am wondering if there are a range of hotels, from budget to luxury. Thank you. Larry :D

 

Freedom is moving to Port Canaveral in 2009. Mariner is moving to the west coast.

 

To the OP - can't help you with the hotels RCCI uses, but there are some good hotels in Cocoa Beach, so if they do accommodate you out here on the coast, you'll probably be in a good location. You may want to check some of the reviews of Mariner to see if anyone mentions which hotels they were booked into.

[peteukmcr]

Freedom is moving to Port Canaveral in 2009. Mariner is moving to the west coast.

 

To the OP - can't help you with the hotels RCCI uses, but there are some good hotels in Cocoa Beach, so if they do accommodate you out here on the coast, you'll probably be in a good location. You may want to check some of the reviews of Mariner to see if anyone mentions which hotels they were booked into.

 

Thanks Water Baby, good suggestion to check out some of the Mariner reviews, I'll have a look.

[negc]

My wife and two of her girlfriends will be sailing on the Sovereign out of Port Canaveral at the end of the month, and RCI has booked them into a Hampton Inn in Orlando for the night before the cruise. Air, hotel and transfers actually will cost them less than if they booked them on their own.:)

[peteukmcr]

My wife and two of her girlfriends will be sailing on the Sovereign out of Port Canaveral at the end of the month, and RCI has booked them into a Hampton Inn in Orlando for the night before the cruise. Air, hotel and transfers actually will cost them less than if they booked them on their own.:)

Thanks negc, I'm not sure whether we will save by booking the air through RCI and we're having a 'deviation', as we are not returning to the UK until 5 days after the cruise. So we have to wait for the flight prices to be announced in Oct. But as it's not the school holiday season in the UK until mid Oct we should be OK (2 weeks in late Oct are always sky high prices). Even so the price quoted now by RCI is very close to those prices available now for charter flights.

 

We'll still save with the hotel and transport.

[negc]

Thanks negc, I'm not sure whether we will save by booking the air through RCI and we're having a 'deviation', as we are not returning to the UK until 5 days after the cruise. So we have to wait for the flight prices to be announced in Oct. But as it's not the school holiday season in the UK until mid Oct we should be OK (2 weeks in late Oct are always sky high prices). Even so the price quoted now by RCI is very close to those prices available now for charter flights.

 

We'll still save with the hotel and transport.

 

Don't know if you're being from the UK changes the custom air rules, but it is worth checking out whether or not the fact that you are not returning to the UK for five days after your cruise ends means that you cannot use their air. On our flights to London prior to our TAs we have flown in as many as six nights in advance and still been able to take advantage of their air program which was a significant savings over what we would have paid for the same flight if we booked directly with the airline. As I said, it can't hurt to check all your options. Good Luck:)

[billyelliot]

Hi, In April, RCI flew us from Manchester with BA. We had to go to Heathrow (Treminal 5!) They put us up in Marriott Miami Airport. All transfers were fine but we did loose a bag going out(another story)

The only problem with the over night stay is that although RCI gives you a booklet with vouchers in to use for Hotel and transfers on both occasions the hotel did not know we were coming.This year there were 5 couples at our hotel that had same problem. The hotels did get us a room, it just to longer to check in. Next time i would phone the hotel pria to our arrivel and make sure our room would be ready.;)

[peteukmcr]

Don't know if you're being from the UK changes the custom air rules, but it is worth checking out whether or not the fact that you are not returning to the UK for five days after your cruise ends means that you cannot use their air. On our flights to London prior to our TAs we have flown in as many as six nights in advance and still been able to take advantage of their air program which was a significant savings over what we would have paid for the same flight if we booked directly with the airline. As I said, it can't hurt to check all your options. Good Luck:)

 

Yes, I've already checked with them and it's fine to return 5 days after our cruise and as we're Diamond C&A they will waive the standard fee.

 

Hi Billyelliot, as we're flying into Orlando, even RCI said their first choice will be Virgin as they fly direct from Manchester, so hopefully we won't have to go via Terminal 5! Even if it's not Virgin they implied it maybe with other carriers from Manchester to US (Delta, bmi, Continental, American, US Airways) and we will fly to Orlando from a US hub. We've done this before and I'll fight tooth and nail not to travel via Heathrow!