Travel time in Miami

[Kingmaker_inc]

I've read a bunch of comments about traffic being unbelievable in Miami... so I want to get some info on this before I buy my plane tickets for our Sky cruise.

 

How much time is reasonable (cautious) to plan getting from the airport to the NCL pier; and from getting off the ship to the airport? I guess the second leg needs to account for getting our luggage and getting through customs (assuming no strip search!! LOL!!)

 

Also, for a 5:00 departure, is it advisable to fly in the night before?

 

Thanks!

Edited April 30, 2015 by Kingmaker_inc

[monkeybone]

I've read a bunch of comments about traffic being unbelievable in Miami... so I want to get some info on this before I buy my plane tickets for our Sky cruise.

 

How much time is reasonable (cautious) to plan getting from the airport to the NCL pier; and from getting off the ship to the airport? I guess the second leg needs to account for getting our luggage and getting through customs (assuming no strip search!! LOL!!)

 

Also, for a 5:00 departure, is it advisable to fly in the night before?

 

Thanks!

 

I would fly in the night before, if you could.

[www3traveler]

I fly to Miami from the Pacific Northwest a couple a year and always come the night before the cruise. You never know if there will be a problem with the weather or your flight(s). Just safer to add a night. A number of hotels near the airport can make shuttle arrangements for you. Coming in for a weekday cruise might take a little more time than on a weekend. Most of the time from where I stay at the airport to the Port of Miami is anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes but that is on a weekend. The Miami Airport can be a hassle. You could book a tour of Miami or the Everglades that will take you to the airport in time for a 5 P.M. flight. Enjoy.

[DebJ14]

We recently cruised out of Miami on MSC. As usual, we flew in the day before. It took about 20 minutes to get from our Airport hotel to the pier via the tunnel.

 

On debarkation we lucked out and it took us maybe 7 minutes from the gangway to the taxi stand. Luggage was together and the immigration officer only glanced at our passports and didn't ask us any questions.

 

We stood in the taxi queue longer than it took us to actually get to the airport, which was about 20 minutes on a Saturday morning. We had a long wait at the Miami airport for our early afternoon flight.

[Cubechick]

As a cautious person I wouldn't book a flight before noon. I want wiggle room if there is a problem.

 

We also always fly in the night before.

[TrumpyNor]

I usually always book my flights for arrival the day before the cruise, and usually with the same airline all the way. A couple of years ago, however, I wanted to save some money. My flight had to be divided in to two different legs, one domestic and one international - and I noticed that if I booked with two different airlines, I would save a significant amount of money for us (2 persons). So I did. And I learned my lesson the hard way - and will never do that again.... :mad:

 

Long story "short": Our domestic flight was delayed because of bad weather, and we arrived at the second airport (for our international flight) 1h45min later than scheduled time (our next flight was 2h10min after the scheduled arrival of the first flight). And because our second flight was with a different airline, we had to pick up our luggage (which was actually 30 min. delayed on top of the original 1h45min delay) and check it in again at the second airline. As you understand by now, it was no way we were going to be able to be at the gate on time. It was now evening, and there were no more flights available that evening for our destination. And because we were dealing with two different airlines, they were only responsible for their own "leg" of the trip - so no help there. We had to purchase new, one-way tickets to our destination for the next morning, we had to pay for a hotel at the airport, and we were still charged with the pre-booked hotel at our final destination, because we cancelled it the same day as we were scheduled to arrive there.

 

Let's just say that experience cost us a lot of extra $$$$, but at the time I didn't worry - I always bring an extra credit card for emergencies, and we had the best travel insurance we could have, so I felt certain that we were covered. And we would have been - IF the official delay of the first flight had been delayed minimum 2h0min instead of 1h45min (then we would have received a 100% refund of all our extra expenses)....... So we received a refund of ZERO (or actually, I believe we received around $50 p.p. as a refund from the second airline, that was refund of taxes). And the hole "extra" experience ended up costing us $3000, that came on top of original expenses...

 

So yes, I learned my lesson, we finally embarked on the ship a few hours before the scheduled sailing time, and we ended up having a great cruise (and at that time I still was certain to get my money refunded from the insurance company, so no worries). I will from now on ONLY book connecting flights with the same airline all the way, and I will also ALWAYS plan to arrive at the embarkation port city at least one day before the cruise itself, no matter what - "just in case"..... And the flight back home again from the disembarkation port I usually book for the afternoon, just in case the ship should be delayed in arrival for some unexpected reason (it does happen some times, all though not often).

 

PS: If we had missed the ship departure, it would have been a long (and expensive) flight to get to the next port, and the itinerary contained of 2 seadays in the beginning of the 9 days cruise....

Edited April 30, 2015 by TrumpyNor

[Kingmaker_inc]

And I learned my lesson the hard way - and will never do that again.... :mad:

 

Oh my! What an ordeal!! Yes, I will definitely get the same airline the whole way and fly in the night before. I want to be relaxed getting onto the boat... nit a huge stressball!!

[brownz]

For an international flight, I'd say definitely come the night before just to be safe. When we cruised out of Barcelona a few years ago, we booked our flights to arrive the night before. Good thing since our flight was cancelled due to bad weather. It was rebooked the next day and we had just enough time to arrive in Barcelona and get on the ship in time!

 

We sometimes do fly in the day of a cruise, but only if it's a direct flight and it's a time of year where weather is unlikely to be a problem. (For our cruise in a couple of weeks we have a direct flight from NC, arriving before noon.)

[zqvol]

I've read a bunch of comments about traffic being unbelievable in Miami... so I want to get some info on this before I buy my plane tickets for our Sky cruise.

 

How much time is reasonable (cautious) to plan getting from the airport to the NCL pier; and from getting off the ship to the airport? I guess the second leg needs to account for getting our luggage and getting through customs (assuming no strip search!! LOL!!)

 

Also, for a 5:00 departure, is it advisable to fly in the night before?

 

Thanks!

 

 

You have read incorrectly.

 

Traffic is not bad in Miami. It is about 20 minutes from the airport to the pier, and about the same amount of time the other direction.

 

Arriving into Miami I would allow 30 minutes to gather your luggage (if you clear customs in Miami on the way in allow another hour for that).

 

Getting luggage is a quick process, 4 or 5 minutes at most. I can't speak as to how long it will take you to clear immigration since you are a Canadian citizen but I would not think that it would be long at all.

 

Where you need to allow time is to clear security in Miami at the airport. To be safe allow an hour to an hour and a half.

 

It is always nicer to fly in the day before but not a necessity.

[RuthlessBoss]

You have read incorrectly.

 

Traffic is not bad in Miami. It is about 20 minutes from the airport to the pier, and about the same amount of time the other direction.

 

Arriving into Miami I would allow 30 minutes to gather your luggage (if you clear customs in Miami on the way in allow another hour for that).

 

Getting luggage is a quick process, 4 or 5 minutes at most. I can't speak as to how long it will take you to clear immigration since you are a Canadian citizen but I would not think that it would be long at all.

 

Where you need to allow time is to clear security in Miami at the airport. To be safe allow an hour to an hour and a half.

 

It is always nicer to fly in the day before but not a necessity.

 

Don't worry about the traffic as long as you are dealing with a taxi. They will give you a hair raising ride on that road;)