GETTING THERE bby and I flew from Detroit to Orlando on Thursday May 1st 2 days before the cruise. I had booked the Radisson at the Port for $79 and had arranged for Cocoa Beach Shuttle to pick us up in Orlando at 11am ($21 each, one way). Bad weather in Detroit delayed our flight by 30 minutes so by the time we got to the luggage carousel it was already 10:45. A quick call to the shuttle company to let them know of the delay and to ask if the driver could please wait and we were all set. After getting our bags we had quite a hike to the Cocoa Beach Shuttle pick-up location and the driver told us if we had called back and told him how far we had to walk he would have driven and picked us up!!! Anyway on to the Radisson.
RADISSON AT THE PORT -- We checked in at 12:15 and after a bit of confusion finding the elevators headed off to our room. We also booked the 10:20 am shuttle to the port at this time. Nice room, not so nice location-second floor right at the top of the stairs. Rooms face out to a common walkway, which meant we couldn't keep our curtains open unless we wanted to provide a free show for the other guests. Called down to the front desk and with no hesitation they said they would move us but it might be an hour or so before another room was ready. This was fine, as we knew we had checked in early. Also they had the 40th Space Congress going on in the convention center adjacent to the hotel and the hotel was full of NASA people. On Friday when the NASA folks left they had a Youth Group having a convention. This hotel is very busy and probably full most of the time. Asked if they had somewhere we could put our luggage while they got our new room ready. Staff told us to leave them in the room and they would move them for us when the new room was ready. So with that resolved we decided to get something to eat.
There is a McDonalds right across the street from the hotel and 2 other restaurants on either side of the hotel. There is also a Subway. Our shuttle driver had told us that Kelsey's had very good Italian food and that Zachary's had good breakfasts. So since we had been up since 3am we decided to have breakfast. Food was good, portions quite big. Other than the restaurants there really isn't anything else within walking distance of the hotel, something to consider if you are not using a vehicle, which we weren't.