WickedGlitch

We've used park 4 cruise, great price, convenient location for a great price. Save your money for the cruise fun

http://park4cruise.com/

Grills rocks, the kids get served on Frisbee's they always enjoy it. It's our go to restaurant when we are in the area. Shrimp cuban wasn't as good as expected, maybe it was old bread, but the seafood alfredo is freaking phenomenal

I don't understand what you mean about agreeing with boarding later. If you waited two hours you still boarded at the earliest time available - 11:00. Your issue with waiting is that you arrived way too early - not that you boarded too early. Had you arrived around 10:30 you would not have waited at all as the check in process would have taken about until you could board. So it isn't a matter of boarding later to avoid the wait - its a matter of not arriving as early as you did.

IT was our first cruise about 15 years ago or so. We thought that boarding was at 10am. And even though we got there around 9 am, there was still a big crowd waiting with us. Had we arrived at 10:30 I am sure we would have had to wait until 11:30-12 judging by the amount of people who came after. Ideal time for me to get to the ship now is 1pm, when the lines are not as hectic.

Yes, we had major fog early but it is now a beautiful morning!

Aggravating for the cruisers for sure but a pleasant surprise for the breakfast crowd at Grills and Rusty's this morning:

 

Grills this morning when Carnival Magic arrived late

 

Rusty's this morning when Norwegian Epic arrived late

Fantastic pictures, thanks for sharing! Glad the fog has dissipated

We also typically use a one-way rental but prefer to stay in Orlando pre-cruise --- 1000's of hotels in every price range and lots to see/do.

 

Post cruise, unless your flight leave after about 2:00 you do not have time to mess around with a rental -- choose one of the popular shuttles like Cocoa Beach Shuttle, Travelynx or Cortrans. fares start at about $20+ per person one way between PC & MCO

I've never stayed in Orlando pre-cruise, never even thought of it. But with kids or just sight seeing you're right, there is a ton of things to do and see. We booked our first fly snooze cruise package with www.goportcanaveral.com when we were just looking to get transportation. I've heard a ton of bad things about traffic around the port and it was bad on feb 5th when we were going on the Oasis. We ended up getting the package and it paid off, was a wonderful stay in Cocoa Beach and still had to fight traffic but we got there fairly quick.

Edit: And if you are just looking for transportation they also offer it for $15 each way

You can't go wrong with Grills or Fishlips. The atmosphere at both is great and the food is good too!

 

 

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Agreed, Grills shrimp pasta or shark kabobs are outta this world. But I think fishlips may have the better view being at Jetty Park

My vote is for the boozy brunch on Las Olas.

I second that, Las Olas is a wonderful place to be, even just to kill time

We stayed at the Hilton in cocoa beach on feb 4th. Was beautiful and the price was perfect with http://www.goportcanaveral.com if it wasn't Hilton, we would have gone with Homewood Suites

Sounds like perfect timing! While SOMETIMES boarding begins earlier, arriving around 11:30 is a pretty safe bet. There is no real benefit or reason to arriving earlier and standing around the terminal, waiting for boarding to begin!

 

Have a late breakfast before you leave the hotel, and you won't really need to take part in the feeding frenzy that seems to occur upon boarding!

Agree with boarding later, on our first cruise we got there at like 9am and waited for about 2 hours :o although I do disagree with one thing, I starve myself until I get onto the boat and partake on the feeding frenzy

Basics being cash, travel docs, hats, sunblock, beachwear, fatpants :')

found a big list of stuff here https://www.cruisefriendly.com/blog/100-cruise-tips#pack