WDW to Tampa - Cheap way to get there

[sbnuggie]

Howdy All,

 

Been busy here on CC researching my wife and I's (Is that grammatically correct, I was never good at knowing when to use I versus Me) second cruise. Taking the Legend out of Tampa on 5/10/09.

 

Anyway, my wife says I stray off topic some times during conversation, I am starting to research Hotels in Tampa as our Preliminary plan right now is to fly in on Friday May 8th (most of the flights get us there in the evening) spend all day touring Tampa on Saturday, then cruise Sunday. This will also help us get adjusted to the Time Zone.

 

I had a thought pop in my head. My wife is a huge Disney Freak...err...Fan. In May 2007 we took our 3 kids to WDW for the first time for 8 days (Whew, u wanna talk about planning, planning a cruise is easy cheesy compared to WDW) but despite being there for 8 days we missed the World Showcase area of Epcot. You know the place where adults like to go but the kids are bored. It's a long story about how we missed it that I wont bore you with. I was thinking instead of touring Tampa on Friday just flying direct to Orlando Friday (there are great deals out of San Francisco), going to EPCOT Saturday then going to Tampa on Sunday for the Cruise. Sounds Easy doesn't it? I'm not to familiar with Florida but just eyballing it on the almighty Google Maps it doesn't look more then an hour and half drive or so.

 

So....how easy would it be to implent that plan and not make it too expensive (WDW prices excluded). Some ideas i've had:

 

1. Fly Direct to Orlando, stay at WDW Friday and Saturday nights, find a shuttle from WDW to Tampa on Sunday Morning.

 

2. Fly direct to Tampa, rent a car, drive to WDW Friday (after travelling cross country) drive car back Sunday Morning to airport, catch shuttle from Tampa airport to cruiseport.

 

Any other ideas out there for me to research.

 

Thanks all for your help.

[pba20493]

I think flying into Orlando ( MCO ) would be the better choice. Its a very easy drive to the Tampa port. I-4 West. Should take just over an hour to get there, provided no accidents on the hwy. Sometimes its cheaper to fly into MCO, and the savings can be the cost of a rental car.

 

Just to let you know, WDW has bumped their prices again. I think its $72 to get in now. So if you can get discount tickets, do it.

 

 

Tim

[girlkitty]

Hi there! I live in Orlando and I am very familiar with the central Florida area.

 

I think you should fly into either airport that is the cheapest but take into account the rent a car. If you fly into Tampa, you could rent the car for a couple of days and drive back and forth and just have one rental. If you fly into Orlando, you would have to rent the car to drive Tampa, turn it in and then rent a car again and drive back (two rentals) or catch a shuttle.

 

If you need a one way rental, I use Alamo for my business. If you need it for a one way, they generally have no drop off fee.

 

E-mail me if you have any other questions.

[sbnuggie]

Gonna answer my own question here:

 

We ended up flying into MCO as it was cheaper. Flew in on a Friday, went to WDW friday evening, all day Saturday, during the day Saturday called National car rental scheduled a pick up for Sunday morning at 8am. Sunday Morning woke up, walked out to front of our hotel, waited 5 minutes, National Shuttel pulled up. Got to the Car Care Center, registered online ahead of time, swiped my credit card, got my car, 4 door Dodge Avenger for $38.34 with all the taxes and fee's.

 

Drove to the hotel, had breakfast, dropped wife off at Downtown Disney for shopping, while I went to the cross roads shopping center to buy alcohol for the cruise and dump it into the rum runner flasks, picked up wife, and we were off at 1100 am.

 

Pulled into TPA at 1225 pm, dropped off the rental car, waited about 15 minutes for the FREE shuttle provided by National to the cruise port, 15 minute shuttle drive and we were in line by 1:20 pm.

 

EASY CHEESY, best and cheapest transportation I could find in all my research in the months leading upto our vacation.