Cruising Out of Cape Canaveral — Florida’s Best Port (Plus Top 5 Tips from a First-Time Cruiser!)
When booking a cruise, whether with Disney, Norwegian, or Carnival, it’s always important to look at the ports. Not just the places you’ll be visiting in the Bahamas, but also your main port of call—the place where you’ll embark on your journey and the place where you’ll begin your return home. It sets the tone of your entire adventure!
With five cruising ports of its own, Florida is at the heart of American cruising. But which port is the one port to rule them all? (Yes, that’s a Lord of the Rings reference.) Well, pack your bags and slip on your sunglasses, because today, I’m going to take you cruising out of Cape Canaveral!
Cape Canaveral: Location, Location, Location!
Cape Canaveral is an ideally situated port because of its proximity to some of Florida’s best attractions! Cruising from the Cape makes it super easy to sneak in extra days of your favorite Floridian activities. It’s a good idea to get to your port a day early anyway, so why not take advantage of a pre-cruise excursion?? (post-cruise excursions are also always acceptable!)
- Disney World: the happiest place on earth is only an hour away from Cape Canaveral! You could plan a few fun-filled days at your favorite Disney park before setting sail on a relaxing cruise through the Atlantic. Of course, Universal Studios is also only an hour away, so you could journey to Hogwarts before saying “bon voyage,” too! It’s the best of all worlds!
- Orlando: Even if you don’t fancy visiting the theme parks before (or after) your cruise, there’s so much to do in Orlando, it’s nice to remember the big city is within reach. Whether it’s checking out a really cool restaurant or a fabulous museum, there’s plenty of bucket list items to cross off here along with your cruise!
- Cocoa Beach: Get your beach days going before you ever get to the Bahamas! Cape Canaveral basically is Cocoa Beach (okay, it’s technically 10 minutes away), so there’s no reason not to sink your toes in the sand and catch a few waves. There’s plenty to see and do in Cocoa Beach if you want to make a few days of it, or you can just start the relaxation regime of the cruise by curling up with a good book on the beach.
- Kennedy Space Center: This is the Space Coast we’re talking about here (there was literally an astronaut statue at our hotel), so I have to mention the amazing Kennedy Space Center! It’s definitely worth taking an afternoon to walk through the different sections of this incredible museum. Blending past and present space endeavors—along with plans for the future—this one-of-a-kind NASA attraction is truly breathtaking.
Cruising Out of Cape Canaveral: The Inside Scoop
So, what’s it really like cruising out of Cape Canaveral? Well, here’s how it went down for your favorite MouseEars TV Creative Editor.
Our family was cruising on the Norwegian Escape, and we drove down the day before to stay at a Hilton hotel in Cocoa Beach. It was just steps away from the beach, so we enjoyed spending some time on the sand and dipping our toes in the water (which was surprisingly warm for January!). We were in this to relax, so we didn’t go too far from the waterfront.
Now, the cool thing about the Hilton we stayed at (aside from Grandma’s membership discount, LOL!) was their “Cruise and Park” amenity. We were able to take a Cocoa Beach shuttle to the docking area and leave our personal vehicle parked in a designated spot for the duration of our trip. This helped make our embarkation process hassle-free, so, Tip #1: I’d definitely recommend checking out hotels that offer a “cruise and park” package!
The Cocoa Beach shuttle staff loaded our luggage for us, then unloaded it at the dock. As a first-time cruiser myself, I was a little nervous about the whole luggage situation, thinking it was like getting on an airplane. But, rest easy—it’s not! They don’t weigh your luggage, and the scans are pretty chill. They didn’t even make me remove my wedding ring!
The closest thing there was to a speedbump in the embarkation process was the COVID testing, and that’s only because it takes 15 minutes to get the results. Even this wasn’t as stressful as I had feared. (Was someone going to swab so far up my nose they accidentally poked my brain??) I got to swab my own nose, so there was no danger of brain pokes. Phew!
Once we had our results came back, it was up the gangplank and onto the ship!
For me, that was an exciting moment, because it was the first time the enormity of the ship really came into perspective. I started playing the Titanic soundtrack in my mind (while pushing away thoughts of sinking) and marveled at this moving city on the water.
Also, there was a super rad sea turtle painted on the side of the Escape. And if you’ve been a MouseEars TV reader for any length of time, then you know how I feel about turtles. Needless to say, cruising out of Cape Canaveral was turning out to be pretty great!
Tip #2: always make sure to have your passport, driver’s license, health insurance card, and vaccine record (and any room card your ship provides). During a cruise, these cards are your life!
Tip #3: Don’t stress about embarkation!! Plan ahead as best you can, then just follow the lines.
The Great Escape
As a first-time cruiser, everything was new to me. I gawked at the water beneath us and the seagulls above us, and I tripped as the floor seemed to roll under our feet. My seasoned compatriots laughed at me, then explained how things on the ship had changed since the pandemic. Overall, they still felt really satisfied with everything the Norwegian Escape had to offer.
The biggest change was capacity. Sailing at less than half-capacity, the ship was pretty quiet. (Frankly, we loved it!) This also meant the Broadway shows weren’t performed as often, but there wasn’t much trouble getting in when they did, so, it all worked out! Other entertainment, like the phenomenal dueling pianos and comedy routines, still took place on multiple nights during the week.
There was even entertainment during the day—I went to an origami class and learned to make a frog!
Our homey cabin was part of the “The Haven,” an area of the ship with a private pool and hot tubs, as well as its own restaurant and bar. My favorite part of staying in The Haven was getting to know the staff, as we saw them every day. Everyone was incredibly kind and made us feel so special. We all laughed together like old friends.
I discovered that a cruise ship is a wonderful, little bubble-of-a-world out at sea, and the comradery you can form within this world is the most tantalizing part of the adventure.
The ports were also an adventure in and of themselves, especially as they were also subject to pandemic changes. Namely, some of them refused us entry! However, our captain and cruise line worked feverishly to find different ports for us. While it wasn’t what we had planned (and we didn’t get all the beach days we hoped for), it was still amazing to set foot in places I had never been before. One port was changed from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to La Romana, Dominican Republic. While I don’t know what I missed in San Juan, I can truthfully say La Romana was the highlight of our trip for me, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.
I got to hold an iguana on the beach. Seriously, does life get any better than that??
That leads me to Tip #4: Be flexible, and just have fun!
One of our ports was canceled, not due to COVID restrictions, but because the weather was too rough to tender over. You never know for sure how ports will turn out when cruising, so just be ready for anything! If you end up with extra sea days as we did, use the opportunity to explore the ship—you never know what new eatery or activity you’ll run across. I had a surprisingly good time playing skeeball in the arcade and trying out the (terrifyingly high and twisty) waterslides!
And speaking of rough weather… Tip #5: bring multiple forms of anti-nausea medication.
I was terribly seasick for a portion of our cruise. (To my wallet’s relief, I was sick during the art auction which had—you guessed it—exorbitantly expensive sea turtle paintings.) I was using patches prescribed by my doctor but ended up switching to some over-the-counter meds Grandma had brought along. Thank goodness for grandmas, right?!
I had been completely ready to trust in my patches and hadn’t brought any other medicine with me, so learn from my almost-disastrous mistake, and bring a few different seasick preventatives, just in case one works better than another!
Getting Back to Cape Canaveral
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the cruising experience, even though it didn’t always go as planned!
When we got back to Cape Canaveral, the Cocoa Beach shuttle picked us up from the dock and drove us back to our hotel where our vehicle was waiting for us, right where we had left it. (Again, so wonderfully worry-free!!)
While we didn’t have the luxury to stick around, looking back, I think I would plan to spend a full day at Cocoa Beach, just to guarantee at least one beach day should other ports be canceled. And—fingers-crossed this would never happen to any of our readers—should an entire cruise be canceled at the last minute…Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach still make for a great vacation!
The name of the cruising game, at least at this juncture, is to go with the flow—and honestly, it’s pretty fun!
Have you been cruising out of Cape Canaveral? What are your personal tips and tricks for making the best of a cruising experience? Let us know in the comments below!
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Photo: Unsplash
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