jewel825

One option:

Take an Uber or Lyft vehicle.

 

Second:

Tri-Rail from Miami Airport to Ft. Lauderdale Tri-Rail station and take a taxi or Uber from there.

You can download the Tri-Rail app that has the schedules, fares and faq's to make a smooth journey.

 

 

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I looked into the Tri Rail option which would be nice but it still takes us about 5 miles away from our final destination and the cost of an Uber (well two Ubers) would not give us any cost savings from using a private shuttle. I do love using Uber though for the short little distances without all our luggage!

Hi, my family of 6 is flying into Miami in April for a cruise out of Port Everglades. We are staying at the Gallery One in FLL pre-cruise and need transportation from the airport to our hotel. We are taking a red eye flight and will be arriving around 8 AM on a Friday morning.

Then we will also need transportation after the cruise from Port Everglades to the Miami airport.

Any suggestions on private shuttles?

When my daughters were 8 and 10, we were on the Navigator and my younger daughter wanted to move up to the 9-11 group with her older sister. She was off by about 6 months and we asked the woman in charge of the kids club if that was possible. She was super nice and asked that my daughter try one session in her correct age group and then if she still wanted to, she could try the next age group up. She ended up trying both age groups and was happier in the younger group where she should have been. She met a friend on the first day and they were buddies the rest of the trip. It worked out great for her. I was just appreciative at how accommodating they were with her and let her choose where she was most comfortable.

Then when they were 11 and 13, we were on the Freedom and my younger daughter didn't want to do AO but wanted to do the Teen Club. That was no problem and she had a great week on the ship with the older kids. Again, she as off by about 6 months but all the kids she was hanging out with were the same grade in school as her so it was a perfect fit. She has a late August birthday so she's always the youngest in her class.

Harry, I am truly enjoying your review. I feel like we are living parallel lives a little bit! I also travel with my husband, my parents and two teenage kids (mine are girls though). We did the Allure 4 years ago and loved that cruise! Then we did the Freedom 2 years after that. We are now scheduled for the Harmony in April. We also get a connecting room for the kids now that they are older. I can't imagine all 4 of us in one stateroom now! Then my parents have the room on the other side of them.

We also stay at the Gallery One hotel every time we cruise out of Fort Lauderdale. Your experiences were very similar to ours in a lot of ways. It's so fun reading your review and mentally comparing it to our last cruise.

Did your boys ever attend any of the teen club activities? Or did they do adventure ocean when they were younger? My kids both loved AO when they were younger and really had a great time in the teen club on our last Freedom cruise.

Thanks for taking the time writing such a detailed review with all those gorgeous pictures.

I wish there was a puzzle room on other ships.

 

 

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If it takes off on the few ships that it's on and people are willing to pay for it, they will most likely add it if it generates revenue for the cruise line.

DH and I did it on our Harmony cruise a couple of weeks ago. We had a blast! We didn't know anyone else in the group, but still had a great time. We solved it with a little over 3 minutes to spare :-)

 

Would I have preferred it be included in the price of the cruise? Of course. However, I wasn't going to let $18 stop me from having fun on my vacation. It was totally worth it for us.

I guess I was just surprised when there was a price for it when I heard it was free. I'm guessing it was only the first few sailings they offered it free. Not a big deal but just wondering if it was worth the extra money. I also saw they are now charging for the character breakfast. When I was on the Allure a few years ago, it was free. We had a great time but I wouldn't have paid $10 pp for it.

It was free on the TA cruise, but apparently has a charge now. We did it on the TA for free, but it WAS a lot of fun - we would do it for the $9 a person. Our only problem is that they don't do different puzzles, just the same one, so if you solve it, you know the answer, and if you don't solve it, I hear they tell you the rest so you know how to solve it, so it's a "do it once" kind of thing.

I'll probably schedule it up front and just do it. It does sound really cool.

Is there a charge for this activity on board? I thought it was free but when I go into the cruise planner, it's showing $8.99 per person. For those who have done this, is it worth the $9?

My show time for Grease also changed from 8 PM to 10:30. After coordinating for our group, I was a bit annoyed they changed it too. There was no reason explained for it and now we are kind of stuck with it since we have all the other shows on the other nights.

I know at least one person in our group won't stay up that late for the show (my dad) so he will most likely go standby during an earlier show and watch it alone. Not ideal, but it will work.

My cruise is not until April but it sounds like they are making changes on several different sailings.

Happy Birthday to you and enjoy your cruise!

Yes yes, I know they also have their own page here (which hasn't been used in weeks) but on this main page, I see posts on Oasis, Allure, etc but never Brilliance. Maybe we will be the only ones on our cruise LOL

I don't know anything about Brilliance but I see your first cruise was the same as mine! We were also on it in 1996. Loved the Jubilee!

I am curious to know about this? Do they have one on this ship?

Cost for the week ?

Any details would be most appreciated as I did not see a link for the Harmony of the Seas and am looking to book in the very near future.

Thank you everyone!

I was hoping you would get an answer on this because I am wondering the same thing!

I've done the Allure and now we are booked for Harmony in April. Can hardly wait! I know the ships are very similar but I think it's worth the extra money for a new experience. I do have two teenage daughters going that are excited about the slides. Are they worth $600? That i can't answer but the whole experience of a new ship with an atmosphere of it's own is worth the extra cost to us. A new ship has a different feel to it with everything so fresh and clean. It's hard to put a dollar figure on all that. I have no idea what the price difference was between the Allure and Harmony for my sailing because I never did a cost comparison at the time of booking.

Honestly, you can't go wrong either way!

I have seen many people who recommend this company so I booked with them, but need some reassurance.

 

Their website is very, very basic. I can find no reviews on either Yelp or Trip Advisor.

 

I sent an email inquiring about a quote. I received one from Michael, and replied that I wanted to book it. The reply I got back said it was booked and to pay cash to the driver upon arrival at our destination. No CC to hold, or anything. This all has me a bit suspicious. Is this how Michael usually does their bookings?

 

Thanks for any feedback you can give me.

I felt the same way when I booked them for our cruise back in 2014. I had read great reviews here on CC so I booked them. I then got nervous when it seemed a bit archaic and I wasn't get the high tech responses back to my reservation like I did in every other part of my trip planning.

In the end, they were awesome! Michael actually was our driver for our leg of the trip from Orlando to the port and his wife drove us back to the airport after the cruise. They were right on time both times and they were so friendly and accommodating. I'd highly recommend them!

I'd recommend the Gallery One hotel. We've stayed there twice already and have another stay booked for April 2017. It's all suites and will fit your family nicely. We got a 2 bedroom suite for the 6 of us which also includes 2 bathrooms. It's right next to the Galleria Mall and a 10 minute walk to the beach. We love it there. :)

Thanks Brunello your advice has made our minds up. We decided to bite the bullet and continue our journey to Fort Lauderdale. We will be very tired but feel it will be worth the effort knowing we are close to the port, not still at Miami stressing about the traffic.

 

Our thanks to everybody who took the time to offer advice, we truely appreciate it.

We will be doing the same thing in April. Our flight it not nearly as long as yours but it's a 6 hour red eye from Seattle. We originally had planned to spend the one night in Miami since we will have a full day before our cruise. In the end, we opted for staying in Fort Lauderdale instead. Hotels are nicer and less expensive and it's nice being close to the port in the morning.

Taxis are spendy taking you from Miami to Fort Lauderdale. We plan on hiring a car service to take us to our hotel in Fort Lauderdale when we arrive at the airport in Miami. I haven't booked that part of our travels yet though!

Have a wonderful trip!

I've found the two cruise lines to be more similar than different. I really did love every cruise I have been on with both C and R.

Food: I thought the food was slightly better on R than C but my husband disagrees. He thinks C has the advantage over R and thinks the desserts on C are hands on much better! I did like the outside grill area on C than R does not have during the day for lunch but I feel like R overall had more choices.

Spa: My husband loved, loved, loved the spa on C and there was some special hot tub (can't remember what it was called) that made his whole cruise. R didn't have that special hot tub on any of the cruises we have been on. I remember he did have to pay extra for it on C but it was worth every penny to him.

Activities: R wins hands down on everything!

Rooms: We used to travel with my family of 4 in one stateroom when my kids were younger and C had larger rooms. Now that we get two separate rooms, I really like the set up, decor and balcony of R better.

Kids Club: My kids were bored in the kids club on C and had an absolute blast every time on R. It could have just been a dud cruise as far as kids on board when we were on C but they really didn't enjoy the kids club much on C.

Pool: R has a more relaxed pool deck and the bar service seemed to be much better on R than C.

My family really enjoys the R cruise line the most right now because we love the big ships that have so much to offer. It's fits our needs perfectly. As the kids age and start to outgrow the kids stuff on board, we may try a different cruise line. For now, we are thrilled to be going on another R cruise in the spring!

Check the shore excursions for your cruise. I have something similar so we booked the Tampa City Cruise for after the cruise. They pick us up in a nice coach with luggage underneath for a 3 1/2 hour tour with a couple of stops that we can get off while they hold our luggage. Then they whisk us to the airport. For $54 per person it was worth it to us.

I think the ones that I saw offered for our cruise are $69 per person and it's not quite long enough. 3 1/2 hours is only about a third of the time we need. We still have many more hours to fill!

We rented a car in Miami and drove to FLL after our cruise. It was great b/c we got to go where we wanted, when we wanted. You can get good deals on rentals online.

I like the idea of going and seeing things on our own except none of our are familiar with the area at all!

I believe American is part of the Luggage Valet program-- you get the form on board and fill it out and for 25 $ a bag they take direct to the plane and you pick up your luggage at bag claim when you arrive

 

Key west is about an hour and 1/2 drive from Miami I believe but there are great places to swim and snorkel well before key west. Day passes are OK at hotels but they can easily cost upwards of 75-95 pp and for 6 seems rather steep.

 

We have a late afternoon return when we cruise in November and will be spending the day at FT lauderdales beach area of which there are several listed on the FLL Beach website (and may places to eat as well) and best of all the beach is free!!

Key West may be a little too far for what we want since will have a limited amount of time to go do something. I may do that luggage valet program though. That sounds perfect for us!

We had the same problem, late flight at 8pm back to the uk, we booked a room at the Hyatt in Orlando airport, they at least have a pool and a gym so we are going to ha g out there and chill until our flight

I saw that hotel in Orlando when we were on the Freedom last spring. I kept wondering who would ever stay at a hotel right inside the airport and now here I am looking for that exact thing!

we have also done the one way car rental thing. we looked online and saw lots of interesting places to stop at.

I can get pretty good car rental deals through my work so I'll have to check that out. It may be a lot less money than staying at a hotel for the day. I like having all these different options. You guys are the best!

We've rented a car and it has worked out very well. It was a rainy day so we went to Sawgrass Mills. It was an expensive day!

It's always expensive when a mall is involved! We stayed next door to the Galleria Mall last time we were there and on one of our rainy days we spent way too much money at the mall!

Some of the "rent a car" companies allow pickup at FLL and drop at MIA.

Rent a car and see the sites with your luggage.

We like to enjoy the beaches and boardwalks. There also a number of Boat tours and the huge Sawgrass Mills outlet mall.

 

Enjoy your trip

I hadn't really thought of the rental car option but that would be fun too. There's so many things to see and do down there that it would be awesome to put together a list and hit a bunch of them.

Also if you are flying an airline that participate in royals luggage valet program you will not have to deal with your luggage all day and can rent a car and/or Uber it to various beaches/locals to enjoy lovely south florida (renting a car you can drive to the keys)

We are flying American. How does that program work? I like the idea of it a lot!

Would love to see the Keys - ever since I started watching Bloodline!