Back in May, my husband and I went away for 8 nights for our honeymoon. The “main event” was our 7-night sailing on the Disney Fantasy, but we headed down early to ensure we didn’t miss our embarkation time. A very important thing to know about cruises is that they do not wait for anyone! You arrive at the port for 1:20 but your ship took off at 1:19? BYE. Better go catch a flight to your first port if you wanna make the rest of that vacation!
That being said, we flew into MCO the morning of the 17th and took an impromptu trip to Universal Studios to kick off the fun! When we landed at MCO, we picked up our rental car too. After waking up at 2 AM for our flight, by the time it was 5 PM we were both pretty much over Universal so we got in the car and headed to our hotel.
You must be thinking, “Bri, I thought this was about regretting using credit card points?” but don’t worry. We’re about to arrive at that point in the story.
Jump to a specific part of this blog!
The Cause of the Regret
That said, the hotel we were heading to was Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista, near Disney Springs. This hotel is not a Walt Disney World Resort. I booked this hotel because (you guessed it) we had credit card points! Just to be clear, I thought this hotel was great! It got the job done, it had good reviews, it was clean and the location was super convenient. However, we booked this hotel because we thought it would be nice to save money. What we were not expecting was the aggravation and loss of convenience that came from not sticking with Disney.
The night of the 17th, we had a fantastic time. We were able to walk to Disney Springs from our hotel by going across the over-pass bridge that led to the Marketplace area. We had a delicious dinner at Paddlefish (I highly recommend this place, 10/10), walked around, bought body lotion from Basin (this is just my little self-care thing I do), and listened to some live music.
Before checking out in the morning, we walked back over to DS to eat at Summer House on the Lake for breakfast. It’s one of Disney’s Spring’s newest restaurants and it is one of my absolute favorites.
The Rental Car Conundrum
After checking out of the hotel, we got in the car and headed to Port Canaveral. The drive went pretty smoothly. We honestly didn’t know we would have regrets until we got off the highway and were looking for the rental car return. For some reason, I thought that I could drop Dane off at the terminal with our luggage, return the rental car, and then come right back without any issues.
THE DELUSION. As if there wouldn’t be a ton of traffic from thousands of people trying to get on the same ship as us. I am a travel agent and I am so beyond fully aware of all of the things that could go wrong and I still was like, “nah, an hour is a good enough buffer”. So this is when my chest started to get tight.
So change of plans, we both went straight to the rental car return. When we got to Alamo, we were met with a very long line for the free shuttle service that took you to and from Disney’s terminal at the port and the rental car return. We had to be at the terminal for 12:50 PM and we watched the clock tick past that time as we stood in line contemplating our life choices. We finally got to the terminal for 1:30 PM and the Cast Members were honestly amazing (per usual) and took great care of us. We got through check-in and security within minutes.
However, we played with fire and almost got burnt.
Getting Home
Thankfully, I was half in my right mind planning this trip because our transportation from Port Canaveral to MCO was Disney Cruise Line’s transportation bus. I am going to go into detail about what I would do differently in a minute, but for the love of all things holy, book Disney’s transport.
The bus was great! It was a little over an hour’s ride. The seats were comfy, there was a Disney quiz on the TV screens, and then a short movie playing. There was a bathroom and AC. Was it the most glamorous mode of transportation? No. Did it get the job done and cause the least amount of stress? You betcha.
Why I Regret Using Credit Card Points
Here’s the deal. We saved money using credit card points. There’s no doubt about that. We saved on our hotel room, and we saved on costs of transportation by renting the car from MCO and then being able to drop it off at Port Canaveral, too. But we had a very stressful couple of hours on the 18th and as we were standing in line at Alamo figuring out if we were about to miss the boat (literally) for our $5k cruise, I told myself I would never go this route again.
I wish I had saved the credit card points for something else that wouldn’t create stress.
What I Would Have Done Instead
There are two ways to go about this, but there’s only one way I’m doing it next time we sail out of Port Canaveral.
Option #1: Stay at Hyatt Regency Orlando International and take DCL transportation from MCO.
You can fly into MCO and stay right at MCO the night before your cruise. In the morning you can get on Disney Cruise Line’s transport right from the airport. The process runs very smoothly, I’ve heard nothing but good things from friends and clients that have done transportation the morning of from there.
Option #2: Stay at a Walt Disney World Resort and take DCL transportation to Port Canaveral in the morning. This is the ONLY way I’m going to Port Canaveral for a Disney Cruise from this point forward.
You can stay at any of Disney’s resorts, have access to their free transportation in the Disney bubble, can get tickets for the parks, go to Disney Springs, resort hop, etc! In the morning, Disney Cruise Line will pick you up from your resort and bring you right to Port Canaveral. Sounds super stress-free right??
The catch to this is that it’s more money. Disney Cruise Line transportation is currently $45 per person each way. So for a family of four to stay at Disney’s Coronado Springs and get transportation to the port and then back to MCO, that could easily add $700+ onto your trip. However, having a stress-free morning and not missing the cruise you paid thousands of dollars for is worth spending the $700+ for if you can afford it in your budget.
Take Some Stress Out of the Planning
As I mentioned before, I am a travel agent that specializes in Disney vacations. I practically eat, sleep and breathe Disney so I’m your go-to girl!
Transportation to and from the port, knowing the best place to stay the night before and orchestrating all of that with kids (or without kids) can be a lot for anyone to handle! When planning your next Disney vacation, you can book with me and use my free services so that we can take a lot of that stress off your plate. I can help you weigh the pros and cons of every option available.
I’m going to link my form HERE if you’d like to take advantage of my free planning services.
I am very passionate about Disney and nothing brings me more joy than helping someone, like you, plan the Disney vacation of your dreams!
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