Itinerary help please

[EmBee73]

Hi everyone. So glad to have found this community. It’s been sooo helpful so far. Just signed family up for our first cruise in October. It’s myself, husband and daughters (9 and 11). 

 

My questions for the experienced cruisers:

We fly into MCO the day before the cruise with approximate arrival time of 1:35pm.
 

1) Should we head to the port upon arrival via shuttle, or

2) Rent a car and spend the night in Orlando area with one way drop off near port (I’ve not successfully found this with any rental companies)

 

Our flight home departs the day after the cruise at 11am. Cruise is set to arrive at 8am. 
1) Would there be enough time to visit at Universal Studios? Any hotel recs near Universal?

2) Are there car rental shuttles around when the cruise returns? 

Thanks in advance! 
 

[Sand and Seas]

We've only cruised out of Port Canaveral once, but found it easy to rent a car at MCO and drop it off two days later right at the port.  Lots of hotels in PC area.  We stayed at Cocoa Beach just a few miles from port.

 

Enterprise,  Alamo (and one other?) have a car rental return at Port Canaveral.   It's a shared building  and they have a shared free shuttle to the ships.   Very easy to catch a shuttle to/from the ships.  The waiting area at the rental building is large & comfortable.  You just wait for a driver to announce a shuttle to your ship.  Very quick & easy.

 

Others will have more experience to advise you, but I wouldn't try to do anything after disembarkation except head to MCO with an 11am flight.  We were first on the ship (priority disembarkation) with all of our luggage at 8 and on our small bus shuttle to MCO at 8:15.  (If you are using a large bus shuttle, it could take longer to load.)  Nice 45 or 50 minute drive to MCO, but the airport was a series of long lines to drop off bags and then go through security....and we have TSA Pre-check!  I felt sorry for those in the even longer lines.  This was on a Saturday in late May.  I don't know if it would be any better on any other day.  An 11am flight would have been stressful.  Ours was about 12:30.

[EmBee73]

11 minutes ago, Sand and Seas said:

We've only cruised out of Port Canaveral once, but found it easy to rent a car at MCO and drop it off two days later right at the port.  Lots of hotels in PC area.  We stayed at Cocoa Beach just a few miles from port.

 

Enterprise,  Alamo (and one other?) have a car rental return at Port Canaveral.   It's a shared building  and they have a shared free shuttle to the ships.   Very easy to catch a shuttle to/from the ships.  The waiting area at the rental building is large & comfortable.  You just wait for a driver to announce a shuttle to your ship.  Very quick & easy.

 

Others will have more experience to advise you, but I wouldn't try to do anything after disembarkation except head to MCO with an 11am flight.  We were first on the ship (priority disembarkation) with all of our luggage at 8 and on our small bus shuttle to MCO at 8:15.  (If you are using a large bus shuttle, it could take longer to load.)  Nice 45 or 50 minute drive to MCO, but the airport was a series of long lines to drop off bags and then go through security....and we have TSA Pre-check!  I felt sorry for those in the even longer lines.  This was on a Saturday in late May.  I don't know if it would be any better on any other day.  An 11am flight would have been stressful.  Ours was about 12:30.

Thanks for the tips. We actually fly home the day after disembarking.

[Ashland]

Rent a car at MCO. I'll suggest Home2Suites in Port Canaveral. If you're a Costco member check online for a car rental. We used Budget...easy to drop car off day of cruise and take their shuttle to the port.

[JohninDC]

Post cruise you can rent a car and be at Universal well before noon - should give you enough time to ride lots of rides, stand in lots of lines and spend lots of money.

[mdjohn5]

As a general rule if we have extra time pre cruise we like to rent a car just to have the flexibility of restaurants, stores, etc.  It just depends on how much time you have and if there is anything else you want to do pre cruise that a car makes it easier to get to.

 

One tip that has worked well for us over the years when we rent a car pre cruise:  

 

The morning we board,  I usually take all of the checked luggage over to the ship  first and drop it off with the porters and then do the car drop at the rental facility.  Sometimes I do this alone (if the hotel is close),  sometimes we do it all together.  

 

Not having all the luggage with you when you hop onto the car rental shuttle back to the ship is easier and sometimes they have room for more people but not more luggage so you can sometimes sneak onto a quicker shuttle bus.

 

As for post cruise,  assuming just normal operations you should be able to do most of the day at Universal.  You probably won't make the park open,  but should have plenty of time. 

 

I have never rented a car at Canaveral post cruise so not sure on the shuttle bus situation.  I would assume they do,  but a quick phone call is probably your best option for confirmation.

[EmBee73]

Thanks for all of the advice.  Cruise is months away in October, but since it's the first, I want to be prepared as much as possible.