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Port Canaveral

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Sat, 03/29/2014 - 01:49
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Spook
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Port Canaveral

My parents are renting a house in Clermont in January and we will be visiting them for about 10 days (yay more Disney! yay ). DH, my Dad and I are not cruisers (none of us like water) but we would like to go check out the Disney ships at Port Canaveral on one of the days we are there. We really want to see them in person and see just how massive they are Shock . So my questions are what is Port Canaveral like? Is there stuff to do there or is it just basically people boarding/unboarding the ships? Can you get very close to the ships if you're not a passenger? Is it like you see on TV where you can wave to everyone as the boat sets sail? I wish they held tours of the ships (kind of like they do for DVC). I'd really like to see what they're like onboard while it stays docked biggrin
Oh and if it says the All Aboard is at 3:45PM, how long until it sets sail?

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Sat, 03/29/2014 - 09:28
BuffaloBill
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Hey, Spook.

NHShorty and I are so addicted to the PortCanaveralWebCam.com we made a point of visiting the port in April of last year. Here's a pointer to that part our trip report

http://www.wdwforgrownups.com/sites/default/files/nhshorty_and_buffalobill_day_1_0.pdf

We've also got some words about the port in our report on our cruise at the end of last year.

http://www.wdwforgrownups.com/forum/nhshorty-and-buffalobills-between-christmas-and-new-years-cruise-and-visit-report-day-5-now-av

Sat, 03/29/2014 - 12:25
ZapperZ
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Spook wrote:
My parents are renting a house in Clermont in January and we will be visiting them for about 10 days (yay more Disney! yay ). DH, my Dad and I are not cruisers (none of us like water) but we would like to go check out the Disney ships at Port Canaveral on one of the days we are there. We really want to see them in person and see just how massive they are Shock . So my questions are what is Port Canaveral like? Is there stuff to do there or is it just basically people boarding/unboarding the ships? Can you get very close to the ships if you're not a passenger? Is it like you see on TV where you can wave to everyone as the boat sets sail? I wish they held tours of the ships (kind of like they do for DVC). I'd really like to see what they're like onboard while it stays docked biggrin
Oh and if it says the All Aboard is at 3:45PM, how long until it sets sail?

I don't think you can see much of the ship from the terminal itself.

The best thing to do is figure out when a ship is leaving (preferably one of the bigger ones), and either get a reservation or go to one of the many restaurants along the waterway. You'll have time to do dinner and then watch the ship departs. Alternatively, there are piers and places that people just walk up to to wave at the ship.

Here's the view from the ship of the various places that we noticed people congregated to during one of our departures.

Zz.

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Sat, 03/29/2014 - 18:39
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Thanks guys awesome
From what I found online it looks like the Dream and Magic will be there on the days we can go. Any recommendations for restaurants? How was Fishlips BuffaloBill?

Sat, 03/29/2014 - 20:50
BuffaloBill
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Fishlips is not gourmet or fancy, but we liked it. There were plenty of locals there when we visited, so that was a good sign. The food was good and plentiful and the beer was cold. There's a level of funkiness to the place, but it met our expectations perfectly.

Keep in mind that Port Canaveral is a workplace for a lot of people, so don't expect swankiness. But it isn't a dump either. Across the water from Fishlips is where they unload cargo ships and it's also a construction zone.

The cruise ships crews usually blow the horns when they go by and people on the ships do wave to you. There were dolphins playing in the channel when we were there too. We'd go back, and for us that says a lot.

Sun, 03/30/2014 - 01:15
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Spook
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BuffaloBill wrote:
Fishlips is not gourmet or fancy, but we liked it. There were plenty of locals there when we visited, so that was a good sign. The food was good and plentiful and the beer was cold. There's a level of funkiness to the place, but it met our expectations perfectly.

Keep in mind that Port Canaveral is a workplace for a lot of people, so don't expect swankiness. But it isn't a dump either. Across the water from Fishlips is where they unload cargo ships and it's also a construction zone.

The cruise ships crews usually blow the horns when they go by and people on the ships do wave to you. There were dolphins playing in the channel when we were there too. We'd go back, and for us that says a lot.

We are not the type of people who are into swankiness. In fact, we've never even been to a Signature Restaurant at WDW. As long as there's good food and the place isn't a dump, we're happy mickey

Sun, 03/30/2014 - 16:49
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phinz
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We actually enjoyed the Port Canaveral Exploration Tower. We were there a few weeks after it opened last year. Stopped there on a whim looking for a souvenir for my sister-in-law (All she wanted was a magnet that said Cape Canaveral on it) and decided to pony up the $ to go up in the tower. It was a nice diversion. To get a real feel for how big the ships are though you'll need to be at Fishlips or some place such as that.

Mon, 03/31/2014 - 14:45
VelcroPooh

Definitely find a restaurant somewhere down the route. I'm not sure about how long to sail. We can board by 12:00ish on Carnival but doesn't actually sail until 4:00. So if they are not boarding til 3:45, I would think they are not sailing for a few hours.

How about going to Disney cruise site and look at the actually sailing like you are going to book it. The itinerary should tell you exactly when it is set to sail. Same thing with the Dream.

Mon, 03/31/2014 - 19:54
ZapperZ
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The depart time for the Disney Dream has often been consistently around 5:00pm.

Zz.

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Tue, 04/01/2014 - 00:00
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Kristen K.
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Yep - DCL's Muster is at 4 - Deck Party is at 4:30 - sail away at 5:00

Tue, 04/01/2014 - 13:27
ZapperZ
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Kristen K. wrote:
Yep - DCL's Muster is at 4 - Deck Party is at 4:30 - sail away at 5:00

And I will be on the topmost deck, on the front of the ship slightly to the right, jumping up and down, because my Disney cruise has just begun. Not difficult to spot.

clapping yay

Zz.

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