Cruising out of Miami?

daisydog2

Mouseketeer
Joined
Feb 18, 2011
We are cruising out of Miami March of 2017. It looks like we might have to fly into Ft. Lauderdale. Any one have experience with this? Is the Port of Miami far from the airport? Are we better off staying in Miami or Ft. Lauderdale the night before the cruise? Any hotel recommendations? Do hotels shuttle from Ft. Lauderdale to the port?
We've only sailed out of Port Canaveral before, I have no idea bout Miami....

Thanks so much!!!!!
 
They are very close we did this on Princess cruises.

I can't recall our overnight stay but it was near the airport.

To me FL feels safer than some parts of Miami. Places near the MAI main me feel uncomfortable.
 
We flew into FLL, then used SAS Transport to get to the Intercontinental in downtown Miami. The next morning, we took a taxi (around $10) to the port.

When choosing a hotel, we used Hotwire and chose downtown Miami. It said it was a four-star hotel like Hyatt, Intercontinental, Sheridan, etc. We wound up staying there for $90. It was awesome.
 


We also did the Hotwire deal and got two rooms at the Intercontinental for around $90 too. There was a parking fee though. We rented a car from FLL Alamo and paid to part at the port as we needed the car after the cruise as well. This was not much more than transportation options. Had we not needed the car after, you can also return the car to Miami Airport the morning of and ride the Alamo shuttle to the port.
 
There have been a few threads on this over the last couple of years. Since Jetblue and Southwest both go in to FLL and not MIA, there are a lot of us who have used FLL and have posted comments/feedback/suggestions. There are a bunch of shuttle services, but in the past we have done SAS, GO Airport (operate from FLL), and in the case of our Disney Wonder cruise in March 2015 a taxi. SAS and their shared rides were quick and easy.

Downtown Miami for hotels is going to be more expensive than Ft. Lauderdale. Remember there are ports in both Ft. Lauderdale and Miami, and a lot of ships in port (which means a lot of hotel rooms are going to be booked). You are travelling spring break so things are going to be expensive. We have stayed at the Holiday Inn POM (you can see ships from your room in the morning which is awesome) and the Hampton in Brickell. The Hampton was spring break and was $350 USD. You aren't going to find any with free shuttles, however cabs are plentiful and cheap.

Our last three cruises have been out of POM. In terms of embarkation and debarkation probably the easiest port we have sailed out of (and have another booked out of there next summer).
 
We flew into FLL and stayed at the airport Sheraton. They had a shuttle to pick us up and then we took an Uber the next day. My biggest gripe was the lack of restaurants after claiming baggage and then the hotel had limited food options. Overall it was good and would do the same again but I would have made plans to call for restaurant delivery on arrival.
 


We flew into Fort Lauderdale because it was much cheaper. Then we took a shuttle service that dropped us off at the Holiday Inn Express near the port. In the morning, there were tons of taxi's waiting to take people across the bridge to the terminal. You just walk down stairs and pick one.

The same shuttle service was waiting for us after we docked on the last day of the cruise and drove us back to the Fort Lauderdale airport. It was easy. The price for the flight and shuttle were still way cheaper than flying into Miami.
 
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If I had it to do again, we would stay at the Hampton Inn and have a nice breakfast (free) then take their shuttle (also free) to the cruise port.

My mistake! That's what I get for posting second hand information. Ya have to buy the cruise package to get the shuttle to the cruise port. The free shuttle is to the airport.
 
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We flew into Fort Lauderdale because it was much cheaper. Then we took a shuttle service that dropped us off at the Holiday Inn Express near the port. In the morning, there were tons of taxi's waiting to take people across the bridge to the terminal. You just walk down stairs and pick one.

The same shuttle service was waiting for us after we docked on the last day of the cruise and drove us back to the Fort Lauderdale airport. It was easy. The price for the flight and shuttle were still way cheaper than flying into Miami.

What is the earliest you would recommend booking flight from FLL after returning to POM? Southwest sch opens next week for late winter. We arrive back at port on a Fri; we have late seating dinner and would like to enjoy DR breakfast. We will use one of shuttle services that keep getting mentioned.
TIA.
 
We flew into MCO and stayed at WDW a few days and then flew to MIA for only $75/p via Delta. We never had to rent a car and our hotel provided a free shuttle service to the port that was easy. The hotel was Comfort Suites Miami Airport North.
 
We did the PC Disney cruise out of Miami in May. We flew into FLL the day before. We used goairport shuttle to Miami and stayed at the Yve hotel right across from Bayside Market. I think it took about 25 minutes. We flew Southwest. Very easy to get to Miami from FLL and Go airport has curbside check in right outside terminal. It was also right across the street from a 24 hour CVS which came in handy for last minute items needed. They have a special cruise package that includes room, buffet breakfast that was great and transfer to Miami cruise ships. We had great views of the water and could see the Disney Wonder from our room. Loved it.
 
We did the PC Disney cruise out of Miami in May. We flew into FLL the day before. We used goairport shuttle to Miami and stayed at the Yve hotel right across from Bayside Market. I think it took about 25 minutes. We flew Southwest. Very easy to get to Miami from FLL and Go airport has curbside check in right outside terminal. It was also right across the street from a 24 hour CVS which came in handy for last minute items needed. They have a special cruise package that includes room, buffet breakfast that was great and transfer to Miami cruise ships. We had great views of the water and could see the Disney Wonder from our room. Loved it.

Great information everyone . Thank you !!!
My family of 14 will be leaving out of the Port of Miami for the first time this fall. How does the Port compare to Port Canaveral?? Looking forward to hear more Hotel Recommendations. For those of you who stayed in FLL do you regret not staying in Miami ? How early can you get to the port on the day of sailing ?? Thanks in Advance
 
We headed to the Port of Miami from around 11:30 and there was a line. We had made check in time at 1 but it seems you just get in line when you get there and it moves along. As I remember there were 2 take to port times 10:30 and 11:30 from the Yve hotel. It worked great for us. We also had booked our go airport shuttle online so everything went as planned.
 
Great information everyone . Thank you !!!
My family of 14 will be leaving out of the Port of Miami for the first time this fall. How does the Port compare to Port Canaveral?? Looking forward to hear more Hotel Recommendations. For those of you who stayed in FLL do you regret not staying in Miami ? How early can you get to the port on the day of sailing ?? Thanks in Advance

We had no regrets not staying in Miami. We had a later flight so we didn't arrive to our hotel until 9. I would not have wanted to tack on the drive that evening. We didn't have to be to Port until 11:30 the next day so it worked well for us. If I would have arrived earlier the day before I might have done it differently but this worked well for a late flight.
 
We flew into FLL on a Saturday morning and it was the craziest I have ever seen an airport. You couldn't even see the end of the TSA line, I assume it was in part due to the many passengers who just got off a cruise ship. Our plane was full of people heading to a cruise. We waited in line for our rental car for over an hour. When we flew home we actually flew out of West Palm Beach (PBI) which is just a little further north and Southwest also flies out of. It was a smaller, less expensive and less busy airport so if we cruise out of Miami or Fort Lauderdale again and plan to rent a car I will either not fly into FLL on a Saturday or fly in and out of PBI. We stayed in Islamorada (the keys) for 4 nights prior to our cruise and just drove up to Miami that morning. The drive was ok. Miami is not a fun place to drive but I've driven in worse. The parking was fairly easy and there were plenty of spots available. I checking into staying on Miami Beach the night before but parking costs everywhere in that area on top of the poor reviews for many of the hotels made me reconsider.
 
What is the earliest you would recommend booking flight from FLL after returning to POM? Southwest sch opens next week for late winter. We arrive back at port on a Fri; we have late seating dinner and would like to enjoy DR breakfast. We will use one of shuttle services that keep getting mentioned.
TIA.

We had a reservation with Southwest to fly out at 12:45 on the day we returned to port. We got to the airport around 9:45 and asked Southwest if we could take an earlier flight back to Texas. They put us on an 11am flight and did not charge us a fee.
 
Great information everyone . Thank you !!!
My family of 14 will be leaving out of the Port of Miami for the first time this fall. How does the Port compare to Port Canaveral?? Looking forward to hear more Hotel Recommendations. For those of you who stayed in FLL do you regret not staying in Miami ? How early can you get to the port on the day of sailing ?? Thanks in Advance

The terminal is not a dedicated Disney terminal, so although they put up some decor it is not as beautiful as the terminal at Port Canaveral. The terminal Disney uses is also not as big as the one in Port Canaveral, but up until this point only the Magic and Wonder have sailed out of Miami, so you don't need as big a space as they don't hold as many people as the Dream and Fantasy.

Have sold out of Miami three times, and the doors to the terminal open at 11 each time.

I'm never flown into Fort Lauderdale, the Miami airport is very close to the terminal, and especially since they built the tunnel a very easy cab ride at a set rate of $27. There are a number of decent hotels close to the airport with free shuttles to and from the airport itself. The Hampton Inn at the airport does have a shuttle to the cruise ships, but I'm not sure if it's free. I have stayed at the Marriott Biscayne Bay, beautiful views of the port.
 
We will probably be driving to Miami for our Disney Magic cruise in Feb. 2017. Does anyone know how much parking is at the port?
 
Looked at the Port of Miami homepage, it doesn't list a parking fee. I guess so they can change it easily! Carnival's page however says the parking is still $20 per day.
 

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