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HRA advice for a cruise

vacation dreaming

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I am looking to spend a day at Atlantis while on a cruise. Should I book one night at HRA for the day I arrive? I would need to find transportation from the cruise ship to HRA, check-in early (don't need to get into the room, but need the waterpark passes) then head over to Atlantis. Please confirm this plan makes sense and any tips from people who have done this. Best transportation method, any problems with early "check-in", etc. Also, when I am done for the day, do I need to go back over to HRA to "check-out"? My day is a Tuesday so the staroptions cost seems to be worth it. TIA
 

blondietink

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I have read about people doing this. Yes, you would make a reservation for the day you arrive and check-in when you get there. Depending on when your ship leaves, your room would be ready probably in time to go and shower off and change your clothes. Some cruise ships are now staying until 10 or 11 pm. before leaving. The other option is to book a room at the Comfort Suites, which gives the wristbands for Atlantis. But if you can get a Harborside reservation with your StarOptions for the day, that would be the more cost effective option.
 

pacman777

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I am looking to spend a day at Atlantis while on a cruise. Should I book one night at HRA for the day I arrive? I would need to find transportation from the cruise ship to HRA, check-in early (don't need to get into the room, but need the waterpark passes) then head over to Atlantis. Please confirm this plan makes sense and any tips from people who have done this. Best transportation method, any problems with early "check-in", etc. Also, when I am done for the day, do I need to go back over to HRA to "check-out"? My day is a Tuesday so the staroptions cost seems to be worth it. TIA

I did exactly this on a Disney cruise awhile back. Just book the day you will be there for check in and get to the front desk early and they will let you get the Atlantis wristbands for the day. We took a taxi from the cruise terminal to HRA. Pretty easy and cost effective given what the cruise ship charges for Atlantis passes.
 

vacation dreaming

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I did exactly this on a Disney cruise awhile back. Just book the day you will be there for check in and get to the front desk early and they will let you get the Atlantis wristbands for the day. We took a taxi from the cruise terminal to HRA. Pretty easy and cost effective given what the cruise ship charges for Atlantis passes.
It is a Disney cruise we are doing. My only other concern is from reading that people who book thru Disney get off the boat first - did you notice any big difference in timing by doing it on your own?
 

pacman777

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It is a Disney cruise we are doing. My only other concern is from reading that people who book thru Disney get off the boat first - did you notice any big difference in timing by doing it on your own?

Hardly any difference with timing. They may have had an extra 30 minutes or so to enjoy the park but the time we were allotted was plenty. One major difference was we had an extra $800 or so based on what we saved on the tour/tickets. Haha!
 

ocdb8r

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I have done this and agree with previous posters that it is pretty easy. A few tips:

1) Don't forget you get access to Atlantis on both your check-in day AND your check out day. This can be important for a) availability of a single night reservation and b) sometimes for point costs (book whichever day is cheaper). If you book to use on your check-out day, just inform the resort ahead of time that you will not actually be checking in (they had no problem accommodating me previously). Obviously this way you'd lose any actual use of the room (say to shower) but we always found this a waste of time anyhow.

2) Road based taxi is the best way. We once did the water taxi and by the time we made our way to Harborside, it didn't save us any time (and costs more).

3) Remember that occupancy limits equals the number of wristbands you can get - once we were only a couple doing this and made friends on the ship and invited them along since we got up to 4 wristbands at Harborside.

I wouldn't worry about those booking through the ship getting off first; often this is not actually the case (if you walk down there is usually an exit they are letting anyone off regardless/ Even if you are forced to wait, you'll likely end up with as much or more time than others as we always found the cruise tours result in lots of waiting around for others to board or leave (and they often leave a bit early). Going on your own you get complete control of your own schedule.
 
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