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Helpful Info when Using DCL Transportation to Port

scrappinginontario

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Nov 7, 2010
If you are using Disney Transportation to travel to the port, you do not need to get a PAT. In fact, you will not even be given the option to select a PAT. You will see the following notification advising you will be allowed to enter the terminal as soon as you arrive and, will be able to board as soon as you are fully checked in and boarding has begun.

No need to check-in at midnight of your 30 day mark unless you have other things such as character meets or special breakfasts to book.

Our BG confirmation doc with QR code automatically assigned us a PAT of 11:15 and BG 4.

Hope this helps others and I had trouble finding this information.

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Last edited:
Thanks! We haven’t added the dcl transportation yet. If we add it after checkin will we still get that POT & BG?
 
If you are using Disney Transportation to travel to the port, you do not need to get a PAT. In fact, you will not even be given the option to select a PAT. You will see the following notification advising you will be allowed to enter the terminal as soon as you arrive and, will be able to board as soon as you are fully checked in and boarding has begun.

No need to check-in at midnight of your 30 day mark unless you have other things such as character meets or special breakfasts to book.

Our BG confirmation doc with QR code automatically assigned us a PAT of 11:15 and BG 4.

Hope this helps others and I had trouble finding this information.

View attachment 735070
This varies, probably due to ship and port and whether your transfer is from hotel or airport. I have been on cruises in the past few years where I used DCL transportation and also needed to select a PAT.
 


I think this varies. We are sailing from Port Canaveral in a couple weeks and have DCL transfers. It did have us select a port arrival time. We are not staying at a Disney resort and maybe that is the difference.
It could be. We are booked at ASMo so arriving from a Disney resort.
 
We originally were not going to take DCL transportation, but got a 12:45pm port arrival time. I'm going to add DCL transfers from the airport - will be PAT auto be updated to an earlier time? Or, do we show up with the bus group and automatically go through, even with mixed PAT?
 


Airport transfers at MCO don't qualify for no PAT. Hyatt transfers and WDW transfers only!

I wonder if the difference is that for hotel transfers, guests have no control over the time their bus leaves/arrives and may not even know the time until the day before, so it does not make sense to select a specific port arrival time.

When coming from the airport, guests know what time their flight arrives and can thus select the approximate time they will arrive at the port. If their flight arrives well before their port arrival time, they can hang out at the airport (ideally visiting the Disney store :)) and catch a later bus, because there are multiple trips.
 
I wonder if the difference is that for hotel transfers, guests have no control over the time their bus leaves/arrives and may not even know the time until the day before, so it does not make sense to select a specific port arrival time.

When coming from the airport, guests know what time their flight arrives and can thus select the approximate time they will arrive at the port. If their flight arrives well before their port arrival time, they can hang out at the airport (ideally visiting the Disney store :)) and catch a later bus, because there are multiple trips.
I think so but on the other hand, when I selected airport transfers in October I had an airport hotel (no Hyatt which was ridiculously priced at close to 500 dollars) arriving late from Europe the night before. I had also read on boards PAt wasn't gonna be followed since I had DCL transportation. we were loaded on the very first bus, arrived a little after 10, were allowed into the terminal which made me think the info I had read was true to then be told at check in my boarding group was gonna remain what was available when I did check in. I had to do my check in while cruising on the Magic on their crappy wifi and ended up with a PAT at 12.30... I nicely asked for a supervisor explaining the misinformation and that if they were indeed honoring boarding groups it would be helpful their ground staff would tell people before getting on the bus... I'm rather stuck in an airport with foodcourts than at a DCL terminal which was way too cold and overcrowded. we were then given boarding group 5 with the explicite mention that this was exceptional and def not a rule. In december I slept at Hyatt and was given automatic PAT 11 (but ended up arriving at the terminal at 12.10 because of the bad organisation) For my Pixar in february I got a Pop century transfer. Upon check in I was automatically given 11.15 so we'll see what time pick-up time will be...
 

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