What time do you leave your hotel to go to the Fort Lauderdale port?

[browneyedwoman]

We are going on a Princess cruise later this summer and we've never used that port before. We arrived between 10 and 10:30 AM before for Carnival cruises in other ports. The car service that I'm looking into thinks 10 AM is too early but will do whatever we decide. We are staying at one of the hotels at the port area.

 

Will they have a seating area that we can wait in like Baltimore and Miami did? I would like us to get on the ship early. I've read that some people have walked on the ship between 11 to 11:30 AM. What do you all recommend?

[c-cruise]

We usually plan to leave the hotel around 10:30 so we can be at the terminal a little before 11:00. I think arriving at 10:00 is probably a bit too early...

Edited May 18, 2014 by c-cruise

[eandj]

If you are staying in Fort L and leaving from that port, you do not need a car service. Not sure why you are planning that. :confused: A cab ride will be $15 tops and you can be at the port in 10 min. No need to prebook a service.

 

Lots of people want to be on the ship "early". It all depends on your ship procedures as far as who boards first and when. We prefer to watch the over anxious crowds check out of the hotel and rush to the port. ;) And we leave the hotel around 11:30. We beat the airport and hotel transfers and have a very short wait ( if any) to board. We are on the ship for lunch. The "hurry up-just to wait" cruisers aren't on the ship much earlier as we. Sometimes some are still sitting and waiting when we arrive.

 

At 10 the port is very busy with cruisers still leaving the ship and waiting for cabs. Can get pretty hectic with the comings and goings.

Edited May 18, 2014 by eandj

[royalcruz]

We always arrive between 11:30 and noon and the security lines are moving by then.

[Daisyloo]

We have cruised out of Port Everglades 7 times. The first 6 times we tried to get to the pier early, like around 10:30 -11:00 early. We always had to wait for a while til it was time to board. Sometimes the wait was 30 mins, sometimes longer - an hour or so. This March we decided to go later to the pier. We left our hotel at about 11:45. Took the hotel shuttle to the port which is about a 10 or 15 minute drive. Port was busy, but no waiting. We went through security, were checked in and on the ship in no time. In the future I think we will always opt to go a bit later to the pier.

[browneyedwoman]

Thanks for the info. My parents are coming along and they have definite mobility issues. I want to make sure that they have a seat to sit on for the wait in the terminal. I agree that 10 AM is too early. Now I'm wavering between 10:30 AM, 10:45 AM or 11 AM. My ideal would be the situation we had in Baltimore. We were able to walk right up to the check in counter and then sat for about 40 minutes and had an easy entry onto the ship. The lines for our two other cruises were pretty bad.

[janetz]

Taxi to port at 10:15am. :)

[eandj]

In your cse I would leave the hotel at 11:15 at the earliest. No sooner. You want to make sure the initital rush is over. By 11:30-12, there is a steady stream,not normally the long lines waiting to board early. If there happens to be a line, let your folks sit until they need to get up to the counter.

Of course stuff happens. We took our time to check in for a curise out of N. Y., arriving at 2:00. NO ONE had checked in. Computer problems for HAL. The terminal was mobbed with grumpy cruisers. We weren't on the ship until 3:30. But that was a rarity.