Looking for advice for DCL planning… booked a sept 2018 cruise out of port canaveral on the fantasy. My question is, would you risk flying in the morning of, or is it pretty necessary to arrive at MCO the night before?
We will be flying out of PVD, Southwest usually has a daily non-stop 6am-9am, which should technically get us to port canaveral using Disney transport in plenty of time. Other option is to fly in the night before (way less availability with pm flights) and stay at the Hyatt at MCO and grab Disney transport first thing in am for earliest boarding.
Thoughts? Thank you in advance!
We stayed the night before in PC just for that reason. Less risk missing the boat setting sail.
Worth the $125 or whatever it was.
You could look into the JetBlue flight from Worcester Regional if you were going to fly in the night before. We have had good luck with pricing when we have booked early and their parking fees are really low.
Always fly in the day before a cruise. With travel delays, you could easily miss the cruise leaving and that would be a disastrous (and very expensive) start to a vacation. The Hyatt at MCO is lovely, and very quiet for being inside an airport.
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Many people have success with a same day flight. But do you want to be the ones who are stuck at the airport with a missing flight crew member or a repair needed on the plane that morning?
Fly in the night before. The price of the hotel is meager compared to the price of the cruise.
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I would fly in the night before. Why risk it - especially in September when the weather can be unpredictable.
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OR we could stay at WL for a night and do hoop de doo or BBQ… wouldn’t it cost the same for transfers because we could do ME to WL? It’s much easier and cheaper for us to fly out of pvd at 6am than an afternoon flight- we only live 10 min from airport so I wouldn’t want to travel to another airport. Just have a resort day instead? Should be same price as Hyatt at MCO?
Yes I would do this over the Hyatt. Have a day in the World first. Not sure about cost as we had a rental car to drive from WDW to the port.
Probably wouldn’t buy a park ticket but a resort day is doable!
Last time we did a cruise - we got in early and drove to the port. Stayed over at a hotel near the port. So here is my pro / con on that.
PRO
You are close to port and can get on ship earlier if you got an early embarkation time.
CON
Hotels near the port are either gross or expensive and sometimes both
The logistics of car / transportation etc are a bit of a pain and even though I confirmed things with the car rental company prior to doing it - it didn’t go nearly as smoothly as I would have thought
No one wants to drive an hour after getting off the plane (especially at night in an unfamiliar area)
So I like the idea of staying at the Hyatt or going to a WDW resort
Dave
Yes, I am opting for the least stressful option lol. I was thinking of booking both the Hyatt at MCO and WL, because I can cancel either one with no fee, until the Flight schedules are released in February 2018. If there’s a decent pm flight, we can stay at MCO and hubby can save a vaca day, but if it’s cheaper to buy the 6am flight, it will make up the price of the WDW hotel…
Smart!!! You belong on this forum!
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Mwah haha ha ha ha… it’s all about the PLANNING 
Step 1: Plan
Step 2:
Step 3: Take over the world!!!
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As a side note DCL transportation from MCO goes right to cruise port and you can get on whenever, I think they start at 9am. DCL transportation from WDW resorts starts around 10ish, I think, and you will stop at other resorts. We were at POR and were picked up at 1030 and the bus had already made other stops and then we stopped at 3-4 other resorts. Very time consuming and still about an hour to cruise port.
That is good food for thought- what I think it will come down to is whether or not there is a decent pm flight the Friday before departure day. Flying with a 4 year old, so I def want a direct flight. There’s usually only one direct in the afternoon, and if it’s $100 more than the 6am flight, I’d rather apply the $300 to a day at a Disney resort, rather than the MCO airport Hyatt. But if I can get a decent pm direct flight for what I paid for a 6am flight, its MCO all the way, because DH won’t have to take an additional vaca day from work. Doing DCL transplant regardless, so that’s a wash. Also, I saw on the DIS unplugged podcast that it sometimes makes sense to arrive at cruise terminal at 12:30ish becAuse the crowd has died down and you can breeze through. But idk- I’m usually a ‘get there as early as possible’ person lol
Gladly take any other info or suggestions!
I totally agree with you, the later flights MCO, earlier flight WDW. Makes no sense on a late arrival to travel to WDW just to get up and get on another bus to cruise port. Also know that the Hyatt will take care of your luggage in the morning so you’re not dragging it thru the airport.
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For us in NJ, it’s never a problem to get a reasonable non-stop flight to MCO, so . . .
We usually fly into late’ish at night and then pick an inexpensive hotel near the airport.
We enjoy savoring everything about the morning before for a cruise, and want to make sure we have lots of time as we get to board early per my Wife’s “Platinum” status.
Minor trade-offs between time/convenience and $$$'s:
a) it’s 3+ of us, we’ll do a limo/town car directly to the Port (with a stop for groceries) or
b) if it’s only me and DW, we’ll shuttle back to MCO and take a Disney (or other company’s bus) to Port Canaveral.
Southpark right?
Step 1: collect underpants
Step 2:
Step 3: profit
everytime I use this reference…nobody gets it
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100% no! Always at least a day ahead.