Drive straight into Tampa from Arkansas?!

[crusingirl01]

This may be a very stupid question, I will warn you?! We are going on the Carnival Legend out of Tampa on 7/1/07 coming from Arkansas. We are not familiar with Florida, other than Disney World Area. Mapquest says that it will take us 14 hours to get to Tampa, yes we are driving! My question is...would it be smarter for us to drive straight into Tampa on Saturday and stay the night then catch a cheaper shuttle (hopefully) or stop pretty close to Tampa and stay Saturday night and park at the Cruise terminal. I am actaully looking for the cheapest way. Any suggestions?

[Deb C.]

Why don't you try to find a motel/hotel that allows you to park there free and then just take their shuttle (free or low cost) to the pier the next day?

 

Do a search on this forum for Tampa hotels. There are 100's of pages of help!!

 

At least you have 1/2 year to do your research! Good luck!! Tampa is a nice port to leave from!:cool:

[jessemon]

This may be a very stupid question, I will warn you?! We are going on the Carnival Legend out of Tampa on 7/1/07 coming from Arkansas. We are not familiar with Florida, other than Disney World Area. Mapquest says that it will take us 14 hours to get to Tampa, yes we are driving! My question is...would it be smarter for us to drive straight into Tampa on Saturday and stay the night then catch a cheaper shuttle (hopefully) or stop pretty close to Tampa and stay Saturday night and park at the Cruise terminal. I am actaully looking for the cheapest way. Any suggestions?

Maybe this will help. On this same board there is a very large thread that some of us help with here in the area. It will help give you an idea of where to stay and such (eat...drink..play...shop) or whatever.

You will notice this thread because it has over 1000 post and over 50,000 hits.

You won't need to start at the begining...just go back 10 or 15 pages.

Today it was on page 2. it is easy to see. You won't miss it.

On parking at the port it is $12.00 per day. You will find on tat thread what hotels will let you leave the vehicle there. It seems that alot of the people like Chase suiteson the Courtny Campbell Causeway. Right at the top of Tampa bay on the water. They will transport you to and from the port. I'm sure you can check it online. Check the thread I told you about. It is on there with many nice right ups by folks that have stayed there. They also list some pricing.

7 nights parking at the port would cost you $84.00.

The Chase suites will probably with transport is $120 or so. And you can leave the car there.

Hope this helps....

Jeff

PS: Check that thread on this board....Tampa Hotels...or something like that.

[KreinKrunker]

Here is a link to said thread.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=108072