Howdy All,

Been busy over on Cruise Critic message boards researching my wife and I's (Is that grammatically correct, I was never good at knowing when to use I versus Me) cruise to the Carribean. We will be on the Carnival Legend out of Tampa on 5/10/09 for seven nights. This will be for our 10th Anniversary and we will be without the kids.

I am starting to research Hotels in Tampa and what to do 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, my disabled mother and mother in law to WDW for the first time for 8 days (Whew, u wanna talk about planning, planning a cruise is easy cheesy compared to WDW) and I used these boards for research. However, 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 Saturday, perhaps just flying direct to Orlando on Friday (there are great deals out of San Francisco), going to EP 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/Bus/Train from WDW to Tampa on Sunday Morning.

2. Fly direct to Tampa, rent a car, drive to WDW Friday (after travelling cross country) drive rental 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.

Ive flown into Tampa for Disney trips before. And given what you are saying, it might be a good idea for you as well. (Your second option that you listed.) However, it all depends on your flight situation.

You could also fly into Orlando, use DME if you stay on site and enjoy your first few days there. Then, rent a car from one of the rental places on site and drop off the car at the Tampa airport and then catch the shuttle to the ships port. When you get back, take a shuttle back to the airport and either go home from Tampa or rent a car to go back to MCO to catch a return flight. What makes it nice is that I dont think there are one way fees if you rent and return within the state of FL, so it could be an affordable option.

To add to what GusMan said - you should also check to see if there is a rental car drop off at the port. That would make life super duper easy!

Or, you could fly into Orlando, use ME to get to WDW, assuming you stay on-site, and, on Sunday morning, have a limo service pick you up at your hotel, and take you directly to the port. We used Happy Limo in June, to take four of us to Port Canaveral, for our Disney cruise, and we were very pleased with the service. It might be worthwhile to have a driver, so you don't have to worry about getting lost, or spending extra time renting a car. For our return to Orlando (we went back to WDW for a long weekend, after a 4-day cruise), the driver was waiting for us when we got off the ship.

mom22gl:

I didn't even think about a limo service, off the top of your head what did it cost you to Port Canaveral?

Thanks all for the suggestions, I'm so used to one way rental fee's here in CA being so outrageously high I didn't even think about one way rental.

Thanks all

mom22gl:

I didn't even think about a limo service, off the top of your head what did it cost you to Port Canaveral?

Thanks all for the suggestions, I'm so used to one way rental fee's here in CA being so outrageously high I didn't even think about one way rental.

Thanks all

I don't recall the exact amount, but I'm thinking it was something like $200 round trip. I compared it to the cost of taking the bus, from WDW, to the Disney Cruise terminal (we were not staying on a land/sea package, so the bus was not included), and, for four people, it was a wash. It may be cheaper to rent a car, but probably not much, and if you are unfamiliar with the roads, worth it for the lack of stress. Our driver was very charming, and I called the limo service and requested him for the ride back. I think it is worthwhile to check into just having a driver pick you up and take you.

My choice on all of this would be to fly into Tampa and rent a car. It's only a couple of hours from Tampa to WDW.

I wouldn't consider a car service or limo to go all the way to Tampa from Orlando, especially if it was $200 to Port Canaveral. There are no penalties in FL to rent in one city and retuen to another. I would fly into Orlando and rent a car to take you to Tampa and then fly out of Tampa if you can get flights at a decent price. The drive is about 1-1/2 hours and I wouldn't want to do that after flying cross country. It is not a bad drive though if the flights don't work out. Check Mousesavers for discount codes and check multiple companies to get an idea. We rent in FL all the time for less than $200 a week, never mind one ride.