This article contains Amazon Affiliate links, which earn a small commission. All opinions are my own.
A Disney cruise is a fantastic way to explore new places and experience the magic of Disney all in one. See my full guide to Disney cruises HERE. In this article, I’ll focus only on the logistics of travel to and from the cruise.
We opted for a direct flight to FLL (Port Everglades), since our drive is well over 10 hours. To me, a short direct flight is head and shoulders above a double-digit road trip, no contest. We wanted to stay one night in Fort Lauderdale the night before to ensure we had no travel delays or cancellations. I didn’t want to add any chaos where I could help it. I then narrowed our search to hotels with a shuttle both from the airport (free) AND to the port the following morning (ours had a small fee). We settled on staying one night at Hyatt House Fort Lauderdale Airport - South & Cruise Port. There’s an area after baggage claim at arrivals where you wait for the hotel shuttles. They pick you up there (call the number on the website when you land). The shuttle is short and simple… no frills, but did the job. We landed in FLL at dinner time and opted to eat in the airport before getting on the shuttle to avoid hangry toddlers. I find that typically, “airport” hotels have few options for food within walking distance and can feel a little stranded. However, we were surprised to see some dinner options around the hotel. While we didn’t use them, it’s worth checking if your timing is right. We reserved our shuttle ride to the port that night (the night before embarking) with hotel staff for the following morning based on our port arrival time. Your port arrival time varies based on what you selected at cruise check-in. It helps if you download the Disney Cruise app well in advance and check in at your earliest opportunity (you’ll have earlier access if you’ve cruised with Disney before). We ate a free breakfast at the hotel (solid options for us… no complaints) and then headed to Port Everglades in our Minnie ears
Port Everglades feels a little bit like an airport terminal. It was efficiently run and everyone was very friendly. Lots of excitement building! We brought our passports, even for our littlest travelers, so ensure you have all your needed documents (despite the fact that we were on a “closed loop” cruise). I pack our passports in a family passport holder with an AirTag for added peace of mind (I often add these to rolling luggage as well)! Find ours here:. Disney has a health questionnaire you fill out certifying that you’re not boarding the ship sick. This is quick and easy. The website was not functioning the day prior to our cruise so we had to do it when we arrived at the port and it was simple, causing no delay.
We then had a little wait time (there’s a large indoor waiting area that feels like the departure gate at an airport). They have plenty of easy-to-access bathrooms (a big thank you from this mom and dad who had a newly potty-trained two-year-old at the time of this cruise!). They also have multiple vending machines with pretty solid snack options! The snacks were a couple dollars each, so definitely more than you’d pay at the grocery store (better to bring your own, but we opted not to check a bag so we didn’t bring tons of snacks). Beyond this, I don’t pack exhaustively on food after the travel days themselves for a few reasons. I want part of travel to be about experiencing new foods and learning flexibility in what we eat. Bringing old familiar favorite snacks to keep kids full throughout the trip works against this goal. However, sometimes this means that I get stuck buying $3 snacks from the cruise port vending machines. :) Either way, I was grateful they had good options to keep the kids happy during the wait!
Finally, here’s a friendly reminder to pack the luggage tags that Disney mails to your home prior to your cruise! We didn’t have ours but borrowed extras from the other family members we were traveling with (who were in a separate state room) and then got our luggage from them once it arrived. We did have a little wait time… our luggage arrived that evening, several hours after we boarded the ship. We had heard that this can happen, so we planned accordingly and had everything we needed for that first day. We actually ended up wearing our swimsuits when boarding the ship to have that option on the first afternoon before receiving our luggage. We ended up mostly just having lunch and exploring the ship, but it was nice to have options!
In our experience, getting to the Disney cruise ship was a pretty seamless process! It was important to me to go the day before to ensure we didn’t have travel delays or stress on the day-of, but Disney makes it easy once you’re on-site and the process moves pretty quickly. Hope the process is quick and seamless for you as well. Happy sailing!