RV Life Meets Cruise Life?! Parking at Port Canaveral for a Caribbean Escape

This week we share how we incorporate two of our favorite types of travel into one adventure where we escape the cold by heading south and then park the camper van at the cruise port and sail to the Caribbean. The outside temperature was a cool 31 degrees Fahrenheit when we loaded up the van and set off on our 800 mile journey from Indiana to Florida. We couldn't have timed our departure better as we were in need of fuel for the camper and ourselves. Luckily, there was a Buc-ee's on our route with great fuel prices and a nice selection of smoked meats by the pound. While it can be a challenge to exit the store without exploring all the aisles of snacks and trinkets, we were able to stay focused and made a beeline in and out of there. We grabbed some sliced brisket and turkey at Buc-ee's for our dinner on the road tonight. It's a little chilly. These just might be our new go-to food items at Buc-ee's as the smoked turkey and brisket were both very good, especially with a light drizzle of the barbecue sauce. As we got back on the road, Kate started looking at possible boondocking spots along our route so we had some options for places to spend the night when it was time to get off the Since we ended up spending the night in Tennessee, there were plenty of cracker barrels with overnight RV parking. After a quick bite to eat, we got back on the road for the final leg of our drive to the Sunshine State. 25 hours after we departed southern Indiana, we finally arrived at the Florida Campout to kick off the year with some awesome folks and good vibes. The gathering by the lake consisted of 18 camper vans with some of those van friends from several southeastern states. After a fun night around the campfire, we woke up to a slow and sunny morning around camp, but once the cooks started doing their thing and the smell of bacon drifted through camp, more and more folks came out of their campers. Since we had a cruise to get ready for, Kate and I took off after brunch and made our way to the Space Coast. It was a beautiful and scenic drive over to Port Canaveral with clear signs for directions to the cruise port. The terminals were labeled with the names of the ships and cruise companies which made it even easier to find the parking for our ship. After driving around a couple times, a parking agent found us and guided us to our parking spot next to the other vans and campers. So we are parked at Port Canaveral for our cruise. Now it looks like we got one of the last oversized spots. There aren't too many here and one thing I noticed is people are parking large pickups here, so not only vans or RVs, but I did see a 45-foot RV towing a jeep parked kind of out in the entrance of the parking area, so they're taking all size rigs here. Now that we're parked, we're going to get the RV buttoned up and ready for our six-day cruise. So we put all the shades up and the reason for this is first of all to keep the sun out and keep the RV a little cooler, but also to keep people from looking inside to actually see what's in here. So it's a way of us trying to secure the van and keep it safe while we're gone. The next thing we're going to do is we're keeping the vent covered and all the vents and windows closed so that if a storm rolls through that we don't get any weather inside the van. We are going to turn the fridge off and keep the fridge door open with the freezer door open. This is going to help everything dry out, but it's also going to keep mold from growing in there while we're gone since we are turning the power system off when we leave the van. We are currently sailing through the Caribbean on our six-day adventure and the van is safely at port in Canaveral. Now I want to talk about why we brought the van down rather than flying for this. We wanted to turn this into a hybrid RV adventure which means we came down for a campout at the beginning and after the campout we parked at the port, went on our cruise and after the cruise we're actually going to the RV Super Show in Tampa, Florida. So we're going to make this into a big adventure and then after the RV Super Show we may head home or we may do something else. The nice thing about having our van is it gives us the flexibility to be able to do other things we want to do and make this into a longer or shorter trip whatever works for us. We don't have to get on a plane right after the cruise is done and I will say it is a very good thing we drove because the day we left we got a severe snowstorm that has continued through this time on our cruise and I believe we got well over 12 inches in our area of Indiana along with ice and things and when we would have had to have left on a plane to get down to the cruise the roads were actually closed because of the ice and snow. They weren't plowing. I don't know if we would have been able to get to the airport and even if we did we were checking and most of the flights were either delayed or canceled which means we may not have made our cruise to begin with so by us driving we're able to get out before the storm and get down to the cruise on time. This is another reason why we love RV life. It makes things very easy and this isn't the first time we've actually parked at a cruise port. Back when we were full-time in a class B RV we actually took it down to Port Everglades and parked it there for a cruise around the Caribbean. We've also parked at airports when we've been flying out for something so we're driving along and can't find some amazing deal somewhere in the world so we've parked the van at an airport and took off to Europe or some other destination around the world. We've done this multiple times and we've actually found it to be a fairly easy process. We just park at long-term parking or the port parking whatever it happens to be. Just have to make sure that the parking is not in a garage and that you're able to park a tall or oversized vehicle. What we found at Port Canaveral is that they do have some outdoor parking that they reserve for oversized vehicles. The outdoor parking was limited and there weren't very many spots when we arrived so if you're planning on doing this either call ahead or make sure you get there early to get a spot. I will say we've run into a few issues where we made a reservation for an oversized spot we arrived and the people at the parking place said we don't take oversized vehicles so we had to have a very interesting conversation with them because our plane was taking off in a couple hours and we didn't have options to go anywhere else. So have a backup plan even if you have talked to someone you have a reservation and all that is set just check around and see if there is a secondary option for you to park at. What we found in Port Canaveral is that there are several lots outside of the port that allow you to park and they were open air meaning we didn't have to worry about height and since our van fits in a standard parking spot we shouldn't have to worry about parking there but it's always good to have that backup plan. This goes back to the type of RVs you can park at these places. Most of the time we found these to be normal parking lots which means if you have a larger rig that doesn't fit in one you may not be able to park there or you may be taking multiple spots and they could charge you for multiple spots while you're there. So having a smaller RV like a class b camper van allows you to park in that single spot and the only thing you have to worry about is how tall you are. We also like bringing our van down because we can bring all the clothes we want to. Normally we travel very light so when we fly someplace we normally only have carry-on bags and a backpack which means we don't have enough room to bring our dress-up clothes for formal night and we don't have the extras that we normally would just bring with us. So when we bring the van we can bring all the different clothes we need pack them into a large suitcase and bring them on board. We can also pick up different trinkets and things or even artwork on the cruise and when we get to the cruise port we don't have to worry about shipping that stuff home or how are we going to get it onto the plane. We just put it in a van and drive home. It makes life much easier and at least for us being in Indiana it's only about a two-day drive for us to get down to Florida. So for us cost-wise it was actually worth it because we're able to stay in a van we paid a bit less in fuel than we would have paid for flights. I believe flights were around 500 or so and in order for us to have gotten down to the port in time to leave in the morning we would have had to have left the day before, get a hotel room, all of the taxi or uber rides to the port. Those add up along with any luggage fees for luggage that you check on the plane. Now in terms of cost to park at the port they cost us $17 a day and we had to pay for seven days of parking for our six-day cruise because they do count the day you arrive and the day you leave. So for us hybrid RV travel is the way to go. One other way we've utilized this is when we are on the other side of the country if for some reason we have to fly to back to home base for something we can park the RV at the airport or somewhere else grab a flight fly home and then go back out a few weeks later whatever it is to pick up our van and continue the adventure. Now for those of you who might be interested in the cruise where we're going and what we're doing that video will be coming up next but we are currently headed back to port and we will show you what condition our RV is and just make sure that the camper van is good to go before we head to the RV show in Tampa. It's a bit chilly this morning in Port Canaveral but we just docked at the port we're going to disembark and go pick up our RV. Everything looks good all the neighbors are gone just going to turn the power system back on and once this comes back on I'll turn the fridge back on and we'll be good to leave. It's currently 45 degrees out it's a little chilly we're all packed up and ready to head on to our next adventure at the RV super show in Tampa and if you've parked at a port airport and have any tips or things you want to share with us leave a comment down below and let us know otherwise we'll see you next time. My second book Tales from the Open Road the Adventures and Misadventures of RV Living is now available for sale on Amazon. Read all about the ups and downs of our first year and a half living on the road full-time.