private transportation-Orlando to Port Canaveral?

[CWNNP]

We are a family of 5- 2 adults, 3 kids ages 2,5,8 yrs sailing out of Port Canaveral on the Elation end of Feb.

 

I am looking into private shuttle services to go to and from the port (round trip) that provide child car seat(s) at no extra cost. I found this one called Tiffany Towncar Service of Orlando- the cost ends up being about the same as the 5 of us taking the Cruise bus.....here is their website: http://www.tiffanytowncars.com/index.html

 

Has anyone heard of or used this company? if so, was it a good experience??

 

OR do you have any other shuttle/transportation companies that you would reccommend?

 

Thanks!

Eden

[letsgocruz1]

Sorry, I don't know anything about that company. But, have you checked into renting a car and carseats? That may be more cost effective (or maybe not). We found renting was the way to go, especially if you are flying in the night before. We rented from Budget and they shuttled us to and from the port.

[Ilovepj]

I priced alot of shuttles from the airport, and then I priced renting a car, as we are coming in the day before, I rented a mini van from budget for only 74 dollars, much cheaper then the shuttle for a group of 6. And they take you to the pier, after you drop the car off.

 

Have a great cruise.

[CWNNP]

forgive me if this is a silly question.....if we rented a minivan and carseats the day before in orlando, do you mean that we would drive it to somewhere near the port and return it there...? then rent a car again after the cruise to drive back to the airport???

[#1parrothead]

We too are going on this same cruise(if it's leaving March 31) with 2 adults and 3 children ages 3,5, and 14. Have also been looking into all of the transportation options and would like suggestions as well. The private shuttles seem to be the most economical but would like recommendations on which ones people have used. Can't wait!!!

[Cardinala]

You guys are definetely going to have your topic moved. Before it goes though, here is a website with a bunch of transportation services.....

 

http://www.portcanaveral.org/portinfo/groundtrans.htm

 

We're taking the cruise as well, and as a large group. Transportation from the airport is the one thing that has yet to be determined.

[Tracey]

I do not know what it would cost from Airport to Port but we use Mears town car service to get from our home (west Orlando) to the airport. http://www.mearstransportation.com

[Buzzfan]

Eden,

 

We have Tiffany Towncar Service booked for our family of 4 for Nov.5. I did some research and found that this company had a lot of great reviews, and their price was reasonable. By the time we pay for our insurance and a car rental it wouldn't be that much cheaper. This way we have no worries - the driver picks us up at baggage claim and the rest is up to him/her.

 

Good luck!

[GottaLuvCruising]

forgive me if this is a silly question.....if we rented a minivan and carseats the day before in orlando, do you mean that we would drive it to somewhere near the port and return it there...? then rent a car again after the cruise to drive back to the airport???

 

Yes, book a one-way rental, pick up a car at the Orlando airport, do whatever you are going to do that day. Next day, drive to Port Canaveral, drop family and luggage off at cruise ship terminal. Then drive to rental car place in Cape Canaveral and drop off car. Take shuttle back to cruise ship terminal.

 

Upon return from cruise, do just the opposite.

 

This process is a pain-in-the-a**, but can save you a significant amount of money. It is quite do-able and many folks handle it this way. But mapquest everything you need to do and allow plenty of time.

 

In my experience, Thrifty offers the best rates for the one way rentals.

Budget, Avis & Hertz also did have locations close to the pier. Be sure to call and double check on your transporation from the rental car location to the pier and back.

[Host Kat]

This thread has been moved from the Carnival Cruise Line Forum.

Kat

[CWNNP]

Ooops, when i originally posted on the Carnival board i hadn't even noticed that this east coast departures board existed!! oops;)

 

Thanks so much for your replies,

i checked into a couple of car rentals and so far the best price i've found is full size car (we need it to be able to fit 3 kids in the back with 2 of them being in car seats) for $43 dollars, but when i add the tax, plus 9$ per day per car seat (x2) plus something around $30 for the insurance plus i'm guessing at maybe $10 in gas...... we're looking at over 100$ to go there and then back after the cruise. Seems not worth all the hassle of taking all the extra shuttles for the car rental places with 3 kids and way too many bags.... waiting in car rental places (with 3 kids and too many bags).... having to intall the car seats ourselves..... finding our way in unfamiliar area.... for us to save 50-60$.

 

So I think i have my answer, we're going to try tiffany towncars.

Thanks again for your replies, very much appreciated!!!!

:)

[spammie]

Have read many good reviews on Arts Shuttle - the website is: http://www.artsshuttle.com We used Tiffany one time to go from the Orlando Airport to WDW and had a terrible experience - late, rude driver. Never again.

[cleo1998]

Be aware I reserved a car from avis on my return from the fantasy on Oct 23.

We left the ship we went to the pick up are no avis van in sight. The thrifty van stopped and asked whom we were waiting for. When we told him avis, he said get in avis ran out of cars and thrifty was going to give us a car for the price we reserved at avis. Which I was very happy about but I still think there should have been some from avis at the pier. I will be writing a very long letter to the company. How can they have no cars if I reserved on 2 months in advance.

[Pusniski]

Tiffany has had some mixed reviews. I've not used them myself so I'm going off of others reviews on another board.

 

My personal insurance will pay in the event of an accident so I don't pay for their insurance. You're really buying into comprehensive/collision coverage on their supposed coverage. What if you are at fault. You'll need liability coverage to kick in. That would be your personal auto policy and not the rental car company coverage. Wouldn't comprehensive/collision coverage work the same? I'd rather have my company handle all of it anyway rather than pulling my hair out with some rental car company outfit. Call your insurance agent and ask if your policy would respond in the event of an accident including collision coverage on the rental. You might be surprised by the answer and save yourself some $$$ on unnecessary insurance.

 

Anyway, renting a car one way is going to be your cheapest option by far. I rented through Hertz and dropping off and being toted to port wasn't a hassle. However, all the rental car companies did have quite a few people waiting for the pick-up when we were disembarking.

 

We didn't do a rental on the way back. I booked a one way transfer with Ed Korgan since he has a Surburban and had the best price when comparing to other limo companies. He was out there by 7:45 a.m. waiting for me to stroll off the ship whenever I wanted. Very clean SUV and he was very friendly. I believe his website is www.taxi-mco.com. Others have used him in the past and give him a thumbs up too when I was snooping around. I'm always hesitant when it comes to transportation companies. Two other companies I've personally used is Lorden Transportation (www.lordentransportation.com) and Quicksilver Tours (www.quicksilver-tours.com) and they always get good reviews. I've never had a problem with either one. Dennis at Lorden always took great care of me. Greg is the owner of Quicksilver and he's a straight arrow. I've used his company twice and had good drivers both times.

 

If you come upon Happy Limo - that's another company that gets mixed reviews BTW. I didn't have such a fabulous experience with them myself - rude driver, late driver, poor condition of limo. But that's another story in itself.

[minnie00]

We have used Tiffany Town car 5-6 times for MCO-Disneyworld trips, we have nothing but positive reviews. We will consider using them for our MCO-Canaveral trip.

Florida tours is another very popular MCO-WDW company I will also consider for my trip to the cruise port. ;)

hope these help