Driving to Miami, parking at peir?

[BIGREDIOWAN]

Have you thought about doing 2 one-way car rentals?

 

Alamo has the following rates:

DSM - MIA in a minivan is just under $200 per day / $400 if you need 2 days or 48 hours.

MIA - DSM is allowed as a "drive away from Florida" special that is a $24.99 base rate and works out to about $75 total for a 2 day rental.

 

Smaller vehicles than a van would cost less.

 

You drop off / pick up at Miami airport, and Alamo will shuttle you for free to and from the ship.

 

No parking fees. Also, there is no wear and tear/depreciation on your own vehicle. You are talking approximately 3000 - 3200 miles round trip.

 

I thought about it briefly, but gas round trip will cost me $400 to $450 round trip. Throw in one day hotel stays and that's another $300 for a total of about $750 minus some food along the way. If I add the rental in there based on your numbers above I'd add $475 to that which takes me up to $1,225 total. I could've flown into Orlando for $1,100 for all four of us and rented a vehicle from there and drove to Miami for about the same. Plus I doubt the rental would be as loaded as our Tahoe is. Ours has the DVD heated and cooled leather seats etc and pretty low miles..................which is probably why I don't want to spend the money on air because I spent too much for this darn car now that I'm saying that! :')

[loanshark]

To give an example of the wear and tear on a vehicle versus rental car cost, consider this hypothetical situation for a $25,000 car:

 

New car - $25,000

Value of car after 100,000 miles: approximately $5000 - $7000

If car is worth $7,000, the value depreciated $18,000 after 100,000 miles, or $0.18 per mile.

3000 miles x 0.18 = $576

 

Not to mention that 3000 miles is roughly one oil change or $20, approximately $30 wear and tear on tires, and will end up costing you another approximate $30 other car maintenance expenses.

 

$576 + 20 +30 + 30 + 20 per day parking is a lot more than the $470 total to rent both ways.

 

Also, if you're driving a fairly new loaded tahoe, you probably paid more than $25k. You will need to adjust the above figures accordingly.

[Swagner36]

We have parked at the port and also parked at 8300. When we parked at the port the ship docked at a different terminal than the one we left from, what a pain in the rear. I wouldn't recommend parking at a different terminal as the walk and lugging the luggage with kids won't be fun. In January we parked at 8300 and it went flawlessly. We waited in line around the corner until they were ready for us. We left our keys and off in the shuttle we went. When we got back we got the shuttle and went back to the parking. When we arrived our vehicle was lined up waiting for us. It was great. Not recommending them just telling it like it was. Hope you have a great cruise. As you have already seen it costs twice as much to park at the terminal.

 

 

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[BIGREDIOWAN]

To give an example of the wear and tear on a vehicle versus rental car cost, consider this hypothetical situation for a $25,000 car:

 

New car - $25,000

Value of car after 100,000 miles: approximately $5000 - $7000

If car is worth $7,000, the value depreciated $18,000 after 100,000 miles, or $0.18 per mile.

3000 miles x 0.18 = $576

 

Not to mention that 3000 miles is roughly one oil change or $20, approximately $30 wear and tear on tires, and will end up costing you another approximate $30 other car maintenance expenses.

 

$576 + 20 +30 + 30 + 20 per day parking is a lot more than the $470 total to rent both ways.

 

Also, if you're driving a fairly new loaded tahoe, you probably paid more than $25k. You will need to adjust the above figures accordingly.

 

Thanks for those numbers, I had forgotten about the parking when I started figuring some things. I may look into it then just to see.

[loanshark]

Also - someone already mentioned the Atlanta bridge fire / collapse. If driving from Des Moines, you may want to consider going via Memphis / Birmingham / Dothan, AL / Tallahassee. There is a stretch on this route from Montgomery, Alabama to I-10 about 25 miles south of Dothan, AL that is not interstate, but is still on a 4-lane divided highway that moves fairly quickly (US 231).

[BIGREDIOWAN]

Also - someone already mentioned the Atlanta bridge fire / collapse. If driving from Des Moines, you may want to consider going via Memphis / Birmingham / Dothan, AL / Tallahassee. There is a stretch on this route from Montgomery, Alabama to I-10 about 25 miles south of Dothan, AL that is not interstate, but is still on a 4-lane divided highway that moves fairly quickly (US 231).

 

That's the route I changed it to right after it was mentioned by the poster that had traveled from Minnesota. There's just too much unknown with Atlanta right now so I think avoiding it all together would end up saving us time in the long run even though it makes it appear you're adding an hour and half to two hours to your trip.

 

 

One thing with the rental, I'd need to pick it up on the 11th in the afternoon/evening as I'm leaving at 5am on the 12th and no rental locations are open early morning on the 12th so that adds a day of cost unfortunately.

[loanshark]

That's the route I changed it to right after it was mentioned by the poster that had traveled from Minnesota. There's just too much unknown with Atlanta right now so I think avoiding it all together would end up saving us time in the long run even though it makes it appear you're adding an hour and half to two hours to your trip.

 

 

One thing with the rental, I'd need to pick it up on the 11th in the afternoon/evening as I'm leaving at 5am on the 12th and no rental locations are open early morning on the 12th so that adds a day of cost unfortunately.

 

Bummer - I would assume the rental companies open around 7:00.

 

Also, someone mentioned 331 from Montgomery in an earlier post.... that is the quickest way to Ft. Walton Beach, but not the quickest to Miami. The quickest is as follows:

 

Birmingham I-65 South to Montgomery. In Montgomery, take the I-85 exit and go 9 miles toward Atlanta to exit 9 (Taylor Rd). Go south the full length of Taylor Rd (5-6 miles) until you hit 231. Left on 231 and stay on it through Troy and Dothan until you hit I-10.

 

Once on I-10, you can exit at I-75 and then the Florida Turnpike, or continue to Jacksonville and take I-95 down. The I-75 / Turnpike option will cost about $20 in tolls. You will save about 20-25 minutes total over the I-95 route, which has 0 tolls.

 

Disclaimer - I live in Panama City Beach, and drive to Tuscaloosa multiple times per year for football games. I also drive multiple times a year to Orlando to my company's sister office.

[BIGREDIOWAN]

Bummer - I would assume the rental companies open around 7:00.

 

Also, someone mentioned 331 from Montgomery in an earlier post.... that is the quickest way to Ft. Walton Beach, but not the quickest to Miami. The quickest is as follows:

 

Birmingham I-65 South to Montgomery. In Montgomery, take the I-85 exit and go 9 miles toward Atlanta to exit 9 (Taylor Rd). Go south the full length of Taylor Rd (5-6 miles) until you hit 231. Left on 231 and stay on it through Troy and Dothan until you hit I-10.

 

Once on I-10, you can exit at I-75 and then the Florida Turnpike, or continue to Jacksonville and take I-95 down. The I-75 / Turnpike option will cost about $20 in tolls. You will save about 20-25 minutes total over the I-95 route, which has 0 tolls.

 

Disclaimer - I live in Panama City Beach, and drive to Tuscaloosa multiple times per year for football games. I also drive multiple times a year to Orlando to my company's sister office.

 

I just double checked my route to what you said, I'm setting it up through roadtrippers.com as you can download the app to your phone, and that's the route I took minus continuing on to Jacksonville. I like the no toll option, we don't really have toll roads here in Iowa so I may move it over to that so we avoid the toll roads. Plus I'm assuming it'll be a prettier drive going down the coast?

[Reesesinmiami]

My wife and I and our kids are driving from Des Moines, IA on May 12th and 13th to Miami for our cruise on the Vista that leaves on the 14th. We've never driven down, but the airfare was a little too high for us to stomach with taking our children. I've read some threads about parking at the pier and most say to park right at the Miami pier parking. I reserved some parking to what I thought was the pier, website was miamiportparking.com, but it appears this isn't at the pier and is a short shuttle ride, approximately 10 minutes away, and is located at 8300 NW 7th Avenue in Miami. Has anyone parked at this location? It looks like it's called JetPort Park and Ride Center and I want to make sure it's okay before I go leaving our vehicle there for a week. It says there is security on site and they will provide us a shuttle ride to the pier. Just wanting to make sure as my wife might hurt me if something happens to her Tahoe! j/k ;) Thanks in advance.....

 

 

I don't know about that location but I live here in Miami and can tell you that's pretty far from the port and not the safest of areas. However, I have no personal knowledge to say it's not a good option. I believe there is a similar lot near the port that also has a shuttle. Parking at the port is expensive so I understand why you would want another option.

 

 

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[jimbo5544]

Thanks for the information, yeah I really don't want to go through Atlanta, but all the routes I'm looking at converge into Atlanta so I need to figure out a way around that city! :')

 

 

 

I just couldn't see spending that much for airfare. It would've limited some of the things we want to do as far as excursions go. It's not going to be a glorious drive by any means, but we'll get through it!

 

 

Two things, there was a fire under and overpass around Atlanta (the loop for 75) which is causing SIGNIFICANT delays (stay away from that). Secondly, we have parked at the cruise terminal and it is easy and fast.

 

 

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[sc4125]

I called this company back to cancel and they said they have parking garages at the port and could move me there, but it was going to be your standard $20 a day. I said to move me there and they reserved me a spot in parking garage J and the Vista is in Terminal C. He said it's a 7 minute walk and I told him I didn't care. I'd much rather have the piece of mind of a parking garage and my own spot than have our vehicle parked in a lot super close to other vehicles and run the risk of something happening. Plus we're right there, we'll take care of our own luggage and it's a simple walk.

 

 

Trust me, you need to call and cancel. I've sailed out of Miami several times & parked at the pier each time - you do not need reservations. There is absolutely no reason to park in garage J & have to walk to Terminal C when you can just park right across from Terminal C. It sounds a little fishy to me - not sure how a private company would have access to "reserve" parking at the port.

 

I have had to park at garage C when the Glory was at Terminal B - the garage right next door and it was horrible trying to drag my luggage to the ship - it was WAY HOT, and took well over 7 minutes as I was having to dodge the heavy traffic around the parking garages and then waiting for the traffic police to get traffic stopped to cross over to the terminal. There is no way you're going to walk from Parking Garage J to Terminal C in 7 minutes.

[fatpaul]

This a great discussion. I love driving US 231. It runs from Chicago to Panama City. After the wife and my dog, I love my truck and wife's Prius. Almost before the kids so Organized Chaos' photo had me scrambling back to google. I final decided on Premier parking because it's a garage, self parking, and has security. Not a recommendation since this will be my first time using them. Plan is to drop wife/bags at terminal and Take shuttle/Uber back. This a trial run, we have a 15 day Panama Canal trip in may 2018 and spending $300 for port parking is a bit rich for me.

 

 

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[pt54]

Port of Miami is the worst for parking, the closest & safest is the parking garage in the port.

That's why we travel out of port Everglades, more parking choices.

 

 

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[FlaMommy75]

We live in Florida and always drive to the port. I have used off site parking for Tampa, Port Canaveral, and Port Everglades with no hesitation....but when we cruise out of Miami, we always spend the extra money to park at the Port of Miami. To me, it's not worth the hassle and stress. Miami is stressful enough.;p

[jcg4550]

What if I'm hitting Atlanta between 7pm and 9pm at night on Friday night? We're thinking of leaving here around 5am so we hit St. Louis around 10:30am to avoid their rush hour as well? Will the bridge work hurt me on the way down?

Going through Atlanta at 7pm to 9pm would be an optimal time. The bridge work is on I-85 North which is heading out of downtown Atlanta. You would be on I-75 South. However, others have given you some great alternate routes to avoid Atl. even though you will increase your mileage and time. Consider them also.

[BIGREDIOWAN]

Trust me, you need to call and cancel. I've sailed out of Miami several times & parked at the pier each time - you do not need reservations. There is absolutely no reason to park in garage J & have to walk to Terminal C when you can just park right across from Terminal C. It sounds a little fishy to me - not sure how a private company would have access to "reserve" parking at the port.

 

I have had to park at garage C when the Glory was at Terminal B - the garage right next door and it was horrible trying to drag my luggage to the ship - it was WAY HOT, and took well over 7 minutes as I was having to dodge the heavy traffic around the parking garages and then waiting for the traffic police to get traffic stopped to cross over to the terminal. There is no way you're going to walk from Parking Garage J to Terminal C in 7 minutes.

 

 

I called them this morning and cancelled it, appreciate the info and the more I thought about it the fishier it sounded so I said forget it. I'll just park at the garage closest to Terminal C. I'm too picky with my vehicles to worry about the cost of parking for the week. I'd rather it be safe, have it's own spot, and be close for when we go to leave.

[BIGREDIOWAN]

Going through Atlanta at 7pm to 9pm would be an optimal time. The bridge work is on I-85 North which is heading out of downtown Atlanta. You would be on I-75 South. However, others have given you some great alternate routes to avoid Atl. even though you will increase your mileage and time. Consider them also.

 

My wife isn't a huge fan of taking this long of a road trip so my guess is she's going to want the fastest way down there, but that's kinda hard to say. Going through Atlanta could be slower even though the route is the "fastest" according to all the map apps. While going through Birmingham may be slower and longer it may end up saving us time in the long run. I may just flip a coin at this point! :')

[Tiembiay]

My wife and I and our kids are driving from Des Moines, IA on May 12th and 13th to Miami for our cruise on the Vista that leaves on the 14th. We've never driven down, but the airfare was a little too high for us to stomach with taking our children. I've read some threads about parking at the pier and most say to park right at the Miami pier parking. I reserved some parking to what I thought was the pier, website was miamiportparking.com, but it appears this isn't at the pier and is a short shuttle ride, approximately 10 minutes away, and is located at 8300 NW 7th Avenue in Miami. Has anyone parked at this location? It looks like it's called JetPort Park and Ride Center and I want to make sure it's okay before I go leaving our vehicle there for a week. It says there is security on site and they will provide us a shuttle ride to the pier. Just wanting to make sure as my wife might hurt me if something happens to her Tahoe! j/k ;) Thanks in advance.....

 

 

If you are not spending the night in Miami, park directly at the port, do not use one of the offsite properties, there are varied horror stories about them. there is always ample parking at the port.

If you can stay in Miami the night prior, try the Doubletree Grand. hotel/condominiums. It is just across the causeway bridge from the port. You get the night, and possibly upgraded to a condo if you ask, and you can leave your car through the cruise. Reasonably priced to include the parking. They have a shuttle that takes you over to the port. On return, it's a short taxi ride back to where your car is parked. Much safer than the parking lots.

 

 

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[Organized Chaos]

I just double checked my route to what you said, I'm setting it up through roadtrippers.com as you can download the app to your phone, and that's the route I took minus continuing on to Jacksonville. I like the no toll option, we don't really have toll roads here in Iowa so I may move it over to that so we avoid the toll roads. Plus I'm assuming it'll be a prettier drive going down the coast?

We cut over to I-95 last year when cruising out of Ft. Lauderdale. I wanted to avoid the tolls and thought the same thing...it'd be a nicer drive going down the coastline. Not so much. Either 95 is just too far from the coastline or there's a lot of trees lining the interstate. I don't think we saw the ocean once. Not saying it's a bad drive, just no ocean view. But that's ok, it was still worth it to us avoiding the cost and slowdown of the tolls.

 

This a great discussion. I love driving US 231. It runs from Chicago to Panama City. After the wife and my dog, I love my truck and wife's Prius. Almost before the kids so Organized Chaos' photo had me scrambling back to google. I final decided on Premier parking because it's a garage, self parking, and has security. Not a recommendation since this will be my first time using them. Plan is to drop wife/bags at terminal and Take shuttle/Uber back. This a trial run, we have a 15 day Panama Canal trip in may 2018 and spending $300 for port parking is a bit rich for me.

I was going to suggest the option to the OP as well. That he can always drop his family off at the terminal with the luggage and go park his car. That way he won't have multiple people plus luggage working their way to the terminal from the garage. We'll be going with a group of 8 for our next one and I think that's what we'll do. Haven't decided where we'll park yet, but if we use one of the lots/garages, we'll definitely drop everyone & luggage at the terminal first. Or, since we're staying the night before, we'll park at a hotel, use their shuttle service to get us to the port, then grab a taxi back to the hotel parking lot to get the van when we return while the others wait with the luggage.

[Organized Chaos]

Sorry for the back-to-back post, but I wanted this to be a separate question. Does anyone have any experience using one of the parking lots/garages with a larger vehicle? There will be 8 of us, 3 in my family and 4 in the other. We had planned on renting our own vehicle and they would take their van, but they insist everyone can fit in their van, including luggage. I'm not positive, but I believe it's a Ford E350 Passenger van. I can't tell you its length, but has 3 rows of bench seating (behind the driver/passenger) plus a large cargo space in the back. I've read that some lots/garages charge extra for large vehicles, but they don't define what qualifies as a large vehicle. Are they only referring to things like RV's or would this big full-sized van count as one? If so, is it going to be an issue when trying to park at the port (either inside the port or one just outside)?

[tvlworm]

General parking info is available on miamidade.gov it does mention there are special rates for large vans and other oversized vehicles/rv's

 

 

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[tvlworm]

 

 

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[BIGREDIOWAN]

Sorry for the back-to-back post, but I wanted this to be a separate question. Does anyone have any experience using one of the parking lots/garages with a larger vehicle? There will be 8 of us, 3 in my family and 4 in the other. We had planned on renting our own vehicle and they would take their van, but they insist everyone can fit in their van, including luggage. I'm not positive, but I believe it's a Ford E350 Passenger van. I can't tell you its length, but has 3 rows of bench seating (behind the driver/passenger) plus a large cargo space in the back. I've read that some lots/garages charge extra for large vehicles, but they don't define what qualifies as a large vehicle. Are they only referring to things like RV's or would this big full-sized van count as one? If so, is it going to be an issue when trying to park at the port (either inside the port or one just outside)?

 

I read somewhere that port parking costs $20 more per day for vehicles that are over 20 feet..........found it, I copy and pasted below from the port of Miami website.

 

 

 

Rates & Payment

 

• Overnight Parking, per night: $20
  
• Short-term Parking: $7
  
• Vehicles longer than 20 feet: An additional $20 per day
  

Payment

All of our garages and Lot E accept cash, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, or any major U.S. Traveler's Check. No debit cards are accepted.

[BIGREDIOWAN]

We cut over to I-95 last year when cruising out of Ft. Lauderdale. I wanted to avoid the tolls and thought the same thing...it'd be a nicer drive going down the coastline. Not so much. Either 95 is just too far from the coastline or there's a lot of trees lining the interstate. I don't think we saw the ocean once. Not saying it's a bad drive, just no ocean view. But that's ok, it was still worth it to us avoiding the cost and slowdown of the tolls.

 

I was going to suggest the option to the OP as well. That he can always drop his family off at the terminal with the luggage and go park his car. That way he won't have multiple people plus luggage working their way to the terminal from the garage. We'll be going with a group of 8 for our next one and I think that's what we'll do. Haven't decided where we'll park yet, but if we use one of the lots/garages, we'll definitely drop everyone & luggage at the terminal first. Or, since we're staying the night before, we'll park at a hotel, use their shuttle service to get us to the port, then grab a taxi back to the hotel parking lot to get the van when we return while the others wait with the luggage.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. That's probably what I'm going to do so my wife and boys don't have to walk so far. Although it could be a way for the kids to earn their spot on the ship and put some work in for their old pops! :confused: ;p

 

It'll be easier that way anyways so we don't have to drag the luggage over to the terminal and I can figure out where to park while our kids freak out from the size of the ship from looking at it from the port.

 

 

If the drive isn't nicer down I-95 that's okay, I agree it's probably worth it to avoid the tolls.

[Organized Chaos]

General parking info is available on miamidade.gov it does mention there are special rates for large vans and other oversized vehicles/rv's

 

I read somewhere that port parking costs $20 more per day for vehicles that are over 20 feet..........found it, I copy and pasted below from the port of Miami website.

 

Thanks for the info. I'll have to get the exact model of their van, but according to a general search on E350 vans, it might be a hair under 20 ft. I don't think they'd want to spend an additional $20/day if it is too big. I wouldn't if it were up to me. If that's the case, we'd probably just stay at a hotel that offers cruise parking and work out the details to get back to the hotel after.

 

We rented a minivan last year and liked it. Our cars are a little older and don't have all the fancy doodads, so it was nice having satellite radio, USB ports & a 12v outlet in the rental to charge and power our devices. Plus it got better mileage and had all kinds of room for our luggage and the cooler we always take on long road trips for sandwiches & drinks. We were planning on doing the same thing until they chimed in and said we could all fit in theirs. They let it slip that by taking theirs, we could share fuel expenses. I think that's the real reason they want to do it. Yeah, it would save us our own fuel costs & rental fees, but I'm not sure how I feel about ~20 hours in the same vehicle with 4 adults and 4 teenagers. Our son isn't thrilled about the idea because in the rental van, the 2nd row seating was buckets and he could recline his to sleep. That can't happen in their van. Two people per bench seats that don't recline. My best recommendation would be one could sleep on the seat, the other lay down on the floor. I've done that before as a kid, but these teens are kinda soft nowadays, they'd probably roll their eyes at that idea. :p I enjoy long distance driving, but I'm not quite as resilient as I once was, so all of us in once vehicle would definitely be a challenge. My wife told them that we're going to bring all of our luggage over one day and do a dry run to assure her that everything will fit. I don't blame her.