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Brightline: Brightline, the intercity train that runs up and down Florida’s east coast, does not yet have a station in the immediate Port Canaveral area. However, it has a station in Orlando, and is working to expand service in the future to Cocoa, just 8 miles from the port. It will allow passengers to take a cheap cab, Uber or Lyft to the station and hop on a cheap train to and from Orlando. (Orlando Station is about a 25-minute drive from both Disney World and Universal.)

Although the exact price is not yet available, a round-trip train ride between Miami and West Palm Beach — two destinations that, like Port Canaveral and Orlando, are about an hour away from each other by car — costs less than $60 per person. The only drawback is that you have to allow time to get from the port to the train station and from the station to the park you’re visiting; You’ll also be looking at train schedules, which can eat into your park time.

Car rental: Car rentals are cumbersome for the ride between Port Canaveral and Orlando. You have to find a ride to the rental location, pick up your car and then drive yourself. Some searches on Expedia indicate that rental prices start at around $67 for a day, not including taxes and fees, if you pick up and drop off at the same location with a full tank of gas. That doesn’t even include parking prices in Orlando, which run $30 per day at Disney and $32 per day for the cheapest rates available at Universal.

Cruise Line Excursions: The most affordable option I found, some time, was booking transportation through an excursion through a cruise line. Most, if not all, lines calling at Port Canaveral provide fee-fee coach bus rides to the park and back. On my trip, a bus transfer that dropped me off and picked me up at the Universal Orlando entrance set me back just $44 for the full round trip.

Park tickets were not included, so I had to purchase them separately myself. (After a quick search, it doesn’t look like any cruise line — not even Disney Cruise Line — offers theme park tickets as shore excursions included, likely because there are so many park options.)

How I did a theme park day on a cruise

So, after learning that my travel companion – a huge Harry Potter fan – had never been to Universal Orlando, we opted to go there instead and spend the day at Islands of Adventure, home to a park replica of Hogsmeade. (That was fine by me because single-day Disney tickets were more expensive than single-day Universal tickets.)

I bought two tickets for Royal Caribbean’s Universal Orlando bus and then set out to find the best price for park tickets.

I started by checking the Universal website. A single adult one-park nonresident ticket for Nov. 19 — the day I wanted to visit — was $142.71. Hoping to find a lower price, I checked Undercover Tourist to see if there were any discounts. There weren’t, and in fact, tickets were about $3.50 more expensive ($146.28) after taxes and site fees were added.

Then I wondered if I could redeem airline miles for tickets. Since my airline of choice is United, and I have a significant collection of miles, I checked to see if I could redeem them for gift cards on the MileagePlus X portal, thus avoiding spending extra money. I figured I could then use the gift card to purchase the tickets. Unfortunately, although the portal offers Disney gift cards, none were available for Universal.

Also, redemption values ​​are usually terrible. (When I checked, $200 in Disney gift cards would be worth 66,666 miles, which equals $900, according to TPG’s valuation.)

Finally, I turned to credit card points to see if I could make a purchase through American Express’ travel portal. While that didn’t seem to be an option, I checked both Universal’s website and Undercover Tourist to see if I could redeem Amex points through PayPal during checkout. PayPal was not available for payment on Universal’s site; 20,897 paid with points via PayPal on Undercover Tourist. According to TPG’s valuation at the time, 20,897 points was worth about $418 — about three times what it would have cost me to buy tickets through Universal.

Ultimately, booking through Universal turned out to be the cheapest option.

After everything was booked and paid for, the rest was easy. We boarded the cruise, and two transfer tickets were sent in an envelope to our cabin, telling us where and what time to meet on the day we docked in Port Canaveral. We left the ship in a group and headed to the bus where we met our guide and gave him our tickets.

When we boarded the bus, we received wristbands and boarding passes that would allow us to get back on the bus at the end of the day, with clear instructions about where the bus would drop us off and pick us up and when we needed to return. . On the hour-long drive, our guide offered fun facts about Port Canaveral and the Orlando area.

The park itself was enjoyable, but the experience was a bit rushed. Our ship arrived at the port before noon that day. By the time we boarded the bus and got to Universal’s Citywalk, it was after 1:30pm and we had to get back on the bus at 6, meaning we only had 4 hours in the park since it took at least 15 minutes to walk. Between where the bus dropped us off and the Islands of Adventure entrance.

We managed to explore Hogsmeade, have some Butterbeer, visit Hogwarts Castle and see a performance by the Frog Choir. We had a quick breakfast and a drink but did not sit down to eat. Because it was a Tuesday when most kids were in school, we experienced relatively short lines and thin crowds and were able to ride four rides (Skull Island: Reign of Kong, Jurassic World VelociCoaster, Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey). Without an express pass.

The money we spent — $186.71 per person for park tickets and cruise line bus transfers — was worth it for the great time we had. However, if we had been there on a weekend or a day when the lines were long, it would not have cost less.