Carnival Transportation: MCO to Port Canaveral
I paid about $36 for the Carnival Transfer from MCO to Port Canaveral. I did this for two reasons. First off because I was flying in on the day of the cruise. Secondly because I had a lot of onboard credit to use. This saved me from purchasing my own transportation.
My flight arrived at 9:25am. I am hoping to make the 10am transfer otherwise I have to wait for 11am. On my way to the baggage carousel I saw people holding signs for Disney, NCL, and RCL. I asked the lady holding the NCL sign about Carnival. She told me I’d have to go downstairs.
It was an extremely long wait for luggage. I guess that isn’t surprising considering we have to take a train to get from the plane to the baggage claim at this airport. After collecting my luggage I headed downstairs.
I made the mistake of going outside where the busses were and looking for a Carnival sign. I had no idea how long of a walk it was going to be. I saw someone holding a Disney cruise sign and asked them about Carnival. They pointed me to a counter inside. Their sidewalk isn’t the best for rolling luggage so I would definitely make that walk inside.
This is the Carnival transfer counter.
The left line is Mardi Gras. The right line is Magic. It took about five minutes to get to the front of the line from here.
She doesn’t look too thrilled to see us.
She asked my name, gave me this ticket from Indiana, and told me to go sit in the area where there is no available seating. There are literally hundreds of people here waiting for transfers from the various cruise lines.
That must be my 10am bus pulling out!
They’re calling for Mardi Gras orange tickets.
While I’m waiting let’s look at Uber/Lyft prices to cheer me up.
Now they’re calling Mardi Gras pink.
Next was Magic green. That’s me!
The good thing is by the time we get there I should be able to walk right on the ship.
Luggage is being organized by deck. We can’t go anywhere until they have it all unloaded. This took 5-10 minutes. I see my suitcase by the pole with the number 10 on it which is exactly where it should be.
I wasn’t a big fan of having to wait nearly an hour for a transfer. I probably wouldn’t do it this way again unless I had onboard credit to use on it again.
Next time we’ll cover embarkation.
Scott Weinfeld
I usually go 1 to 2 days early and enjoy pt canaveral. I would consider the bus after the cruise to avoid fighting for uber.