Orlando Travel Forum

Has anyone stayed at the Walt Disney Hotel - Dolphin or the Royal Plaza Hotel in downtown Disney area and/or experienced a 4-night cruise from Port Canaveral to the Bahamas (July)? Please share your experience about these hotels and any Royal Carribean cruise to the Bahamas.

Should I be concerned about a cruise from Port Canaveral, Florida to the Bahams in the month of July?

I appreciate your input. Thank you so much.

Hello, Marilou.. I've been to Orlando lots of times and the Walt Disney Hotels are pretty nice. You get the added bonus of being able to have "special" hours to go to DisneyWorld plus character breakfasts which is great if you have young kids. As for the cruise, be warned that July is VERY hot & humid. The cruise lines are used to a lot of people though so you should be ok. Hope this helps.

Hurricane season.

I am a big Disney person but have never stayed at either resort you mentioned. I have been at the Dolphin for dinners but not to stay.

I have taken thhe Royal Caribbean cruise from Port Canaveral to the Bahamas. July is hurricaine season so anything is possible. We went on a cruise late May early June and experienced hot weather high 80's. We visited Nassau and Coco Cay. When we landed in NAssau we took a water taxi and spent the day at

Atlantis on Paradise Island. The aquariums, exhibits and beaches were quite nice but pricey. The staff is not too frienldy if you are not a hotel guest but this was just our experience. The town itself is full of duty free shops and crowded with tourists. I didn't see any huge bargains here compared to other islands but they have a large selction of merchandise from shoes to jewelry.

Coco Cay is the private island of Royal Caribbean. It is heaven in my book. Lots of water sports, relaxing lounge chairs, hammocks, a beach BBQ, heavenly cocktails, beautiful water and beaches.

Royal Caribbean is a good cruise line. What ship are you sailing specifically? Check out my fiancee (CJG1) pages on Nassau, Paradise Island, Coco Cay and Orlando for any info and pics.

I stayed at the Dolphin many years ago for a business convention. The room was adequate and you could take one of the boats to an entrance near the UK exhibit in EPCOT. They also some of the Disney characters walking around on the day we had breakfast at the hotel.

Thank you so much for your response.

Marilou

My sister in law and her husband and kids stay at the dolphin. I asked her about it and she says that she loves the hotel. she also said that RC is a great cruise line, but you are chancing it by taking a cruise in July, its hurricane.

Hiya,

Yes I've stayed at both of those hotels but unfortunatley they aren't Disney. Both of those hotels are outsourced chains simply located on or near Disney property. Since that is the case they charge you for parking at the Dolphin and I would say that it has declined in years. Especially since they continue to charge premium rates, probably in the summertime two hundred sonething dollars. Don't get me wrong it's still a nice hotel but there are nicer ones charging the same rate nearby. I havn't recently stayed at the Royal Plaza but I would probably pick that one. It's cheaper and still close to everything. If you don't have a car then another fact to consider is that the Dolphin and Swan have boat shuttles as well as buses to the park that leave pretty frequently. I'm sure the Plaza has a shuttle too but sometimes the hotel shuttles only offer one or two in the morning and one in the evening. As for the cruise I've been on Royal Carribean and a Disney and some other one to the Bahamas. I havn't been on Royal Carribean's new ship because I was so offput by their other ships. The new one looks nice though. There's nothing really to be worried about, the weather is a little hot but it's July so I'm sure you knew that. Definatly make sure to travel in groups and have the ships number on hand just in case. There will be lots of other tourists so other than it being overcrowded and such I wouldn't really worry about anything. Hope that helps a little.