Ahoy, Marissa!
Welcome aboard planDisney! Disney’s ground transfers can make the transition from land to sea pretty seamless, so I completely understand wanting to figure out which option will make embarkation morning easiest for you and your crew, especially when there’s a $375 decision involved!
When it comes strictly to wait times, it’s tough to say that one option is better than the other. There’s quite a bit of behind-the-scenes magic happening for Guests departing from either the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport or the
Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina. The friendly Cast Members have a whole process for organizing Guests into groups and assigning buses, so I wouldn’t choose the Hilton expecting that it will necessarily get you to the cruise terminal earlier. There are simply too many moving pieces to guarantee one will have you saying “bon voyage” before the other.
I know that doesn’t exactly help with the $375 question, so let me tell you why I think staying at the Hilton is worth it. For me and my crew, we love how close it is to the port. We’ve even been lucky enough to get a room facing the cruise terminal, and there’s something pretty special about
waking up on embarkation morning, looking out the window, and seeing our Disney cruise ship sitting right there waiting for us. It definitely adds some extra magic to the start of the day and makes it a little easier to follow Moana’s advice and see just how far we’ll go!
The other big perk for me is the luggage. When using
Disney’s ground transfers from the Hilton, they will typically pick up your checked luggage right from your hotel room, and the next time you see it will be outside your stateroom door. That’s a pretty nice disappearing act! Depending on your travel plans, using the airport transfer could mean hauling your luggage to your hotel for the night and then bringing it all back to the airport the next morning to catch your shuttle. Personally, I’d rather hand over the heavy bags and let someone else do the lifting while I start getting into vacation mode.
So, I wouldn’t spend the extra money at the Hilton because I expected a shorter shuttle wait. For my crew, the convenience of being so close to the port, waking up with the ship outside our window, and having our luggage handled makes the entire morning feel a lot less like transportation logistics and a lot more like the beginning of our vacation.
I hope this helps you decide whether the Hilton is worth the extra cost for your crew, Marissa. For us, having the ship practically on our doorstep and letting our luggage take its own magic carpet ride to the stateroom makes for a pretty great start to embarkation day!
Sea ya real soon as summer waves goodbye and autumn magic begins to shine,
Dustin