Luaggage in Ft Lauderdale

[Tatka]

I am not sailing X this time around but decided to ask my question here cause this board is more popular than others.

 

We weren't able to find good priced flight right after our cruise and decided to stay in Ft Lauderdale for 6-7 or even more hours. We'll have an opportunity to do some sightseeing etc.

 

Two questions:

 

1) Do they have special storrage at the Airport so we can leave our bags?

 

2) How far is the airport from downtown or other touristic attractions?

 

Thank you very much,

 

Natalia

 

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<UL TYPE=SQUARE>

<LI>Zuiderdam 8/21/04 FLL - Key West - Cozumel - Grand Caymans - Half Moon Cay - FLL

<LI>Splendour of the Seas 05/15/04 Barcelona - Marseilles - Villefranche - Livorno - Chivitavecchia - Naples - Barcelona

<LI>Century 07/12/03 Eastern Caribbean FFL-San Juan - St. Thomas - St.Maarten- Nassau -FFL

<LI>Komarno(Volga)07/91 Moscow - Astrahan' - Moscow (honeymoon)

<LI>Komarno(Volga)07/90 Moscow - Astrahan'- Moscow

<LI>Admiral Nachimov(or Nakhimov) (Black Sea)04/1986 Odessa - Batum

 

GO BRUINS!!!!

[Tatka]

bump

 

------------------------------

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>

<LI>Zuiderdam 8/21/04 FLL - Key West - Cozumel - Grand Caymans - Half Moon Cay - FLL

<LI>Splendour of the Seas 05/15/04 Barcelona - Marseilles - Villefranche - Livorno - Chivitavecchia - Naples - Barcelona

<LI>Century 07/12/03 Eastern Caribbean FFL-San Juan - St. Thomas - St.Maarten- Nassau -FFL

<LI>Komarno(Volga)07/91 Moscow - Astrahan' - Moscow (honeymoon)

<LI>Komarno(Volga)07/90 Moscow - Astrahan'- Moscow

<LI>Admiral Nachimov(or Nakhimov) (Black Sea)04/1986 Odessa - Batum

 

GO BRUINS!!!!

[ecowen]

Why don't you just check in in the morning at the airport? Give them your luggage, get your boarding pass, and leave the airport to enjoy your free time before the flight.

 

You can't store luggage at airports anymore, for obvious security reasons.

 

The airport is very close to attractions. I would suggest taking a cab to Las Olas Blvd and going on the water taxi or one of the commercial boat tours through the intercoastal waterway. You can have lunch at one of the many fine restaurants on Las Olas, spend some time window shopping, and then head back to the airport to catch your flight.

 

Ed

[Tatka]

Are you sure that we can check our luggage that much time in advance? I was under imression that 2-3 hours is a max time.

 

And thank you very much for the information.

 

------------------------------

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>

<LI>Zuiderdam 8/21/04 FLL - Key West - Cozumel - Grand Caymans - Half Moon Cay - FLL

<LI>Splendour of the Seas 05/15/04 Barcelona - Marseilles - Villefranche - Livorno - Chivitavecchia - Naples - Barcelona

<LI>Century 07/12/03 Eastern Caribbean FFL-San Juan - St. Thomas - St.Maarten- Nassau -FFL

<LI>Komarno(Volga)07/91 Moscow - Astrahan' - Moscow (honeymoon)

<LI>Komarno(Volga)07/90 Moscow - Astrahan'- Moscow

<LI>Admiral Nachimov(or Nakhimov) (Black Sea)04/1986 Odessa - Batum

 

GO BRUINS!!!!

[ocngypz]

If you have 6-7 hours to kill, you cannot check your luggage in early at FLL.

 

Best thing to do... rent a car. Go for a full size car.. and keep all the luggage out of sight in the trunk. Check the various rental agencies for the best price.... then try priceline.

[raudacruise]

Tatka, you are correct. You cannot check in luggage more than a few hours in advance.

 

Two suggestions:

 

1. Check out the tours that Celebrity has. They go straight from the pier, to the tour area and then to the airport. They are expensive ($49 PP) but may be of interest to you.

 

2. If pre-cruise you are going in the day before and staying at a hotel, the hotel might be willing to hold your luggage post-cruise until your flight. Heck, they might even give you free shuttle to the airport. Embassy Suites did this for us once. Only way to find out is call the hotel.

 

The airport is very near downtown, so taxi fares and travel time is not a big issue. But that luggage of yours is.

 

George & MaryBeth

[doree]

I agree w/ raudacruise. If we have hours to kill, we do an excursion thru Celeb that last day. They take care of luggage and transportation. That is about the ONLY excursion we do thru the ship...usually do our own thing.

 

 

 

[CGTNORMANDIE]

HI TATKA!!!

 

A lot of people are staying over for 1 night if they can't get a cheap flight back to Boston. You can go on Priceline and get a great downtown hotel for $45-65 for your family. You end up saving more $$ by staying over and booking your flight the next day. Otherwise Ocngypz's idea is good...go on priceline and get a car for $30-$40 and drop it off at the airport.

 

Have a blast!!!

 

ROSS

 

RMS QUEEN ELIZABETH 1965/TS BREMEN 1971/RMS AMERIKANIS 1972/SS FRANCE 1973/SS FRANCE 1973/QE II 1975/QE II 1975/TS LEONARDO DaVINCI 1976/QE II 1978/TS GALLILAO 1984/ MV REGENT SEA 1988/MV ZENITH 1992/SS NORWAY 1993/MV HORIZON 1998/GTS NORWEGIAN SUN 2001/GTS CENTURY 2002/GTS SUMMIT 2003/GTS JEWEL OF THE SEAS 2004

[Guest]

Another choice would be getting a day room at a hotel nearby and relaxing by the pool.

 

We did that one time and the laundry room was next to the pool. Took the suitcases down to the Laundry room and did all the laundry before our flight home. What a great feeling when we got home.

 

Don

[Tatka]

Thank you guys/gals...

 

I think we'll reant a car.

 

Gotta see "American Venice"

[PoohUnderstands]

Tatka,

Couldn't help but notice that you are going on the "Z" in August. We just got off this cruise on "Z" from 5/29-6/5. It was great. What stateroom are you in? Any questions, just let me know!

[Lsimon]

On our March Summit cruise we got off the ship by 9am and had a 3PM flight at FLL. From prior experiance we knoew we could not check our luggage until about 3 (or was it 4?) hourse before flight. So we called a car rental company (I think it was dollar) and rented a full size car for $45 for the day. Car rental van picked us up at the dock. We loaded luggage in car and we drove around FLL, stopped at a restuarant by the ocean Drive and Los Olas Blvd. for lunch, shopped & walked around then went to the airport.

 

It worked out great. Our only mistake was not calling the airline as we found flight was delayed two hours when we got the the gate at airport, of course car rental was long since turned in at that point.

 

Larry Simon

lsimon@mail.com

[Tatka]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by PoohUnderstands:

Tatka,

Couldn't help but notice that you are going on the "Z" in August. We just got off this cruise on "Z" from 5/29-6/5. It was great. What stateroom are you in? Any questions, just let me know!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

At first we wanted to go on Celebrity..but unfortunately X doesn't have many ships in Caribbeans during the summer and I already sailed on Century (Eastern Car) last year.

 

I heard that inspite all bad changes HAL is still great company in terms of food and service. We decided to try Zuiderdam because of Western Caribbean route. I hope we won't be disappointed. It's difficult to try something new after all great things we experienced on X.

 

Your post made me feel very good about this cruise!

 

We will be in inside cabin #6067, which is larger inside stateroom on Upper Verandah deck(I think). It's actually larger than X insides( 185 sq. ft)

 

We'll be cruising with our 12 (almost 13) son and very happy that now more families with kids are sailing on HAL.

 

------------------------------

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>

<LI>Zuiderdam 8/21/04 FLL - Key West - Cozumel - Grand Caymans - Half Moon Cay - FLL

<LI>Splendour of the Seas 05/15/04 Barcelona - Marseilles - Villefranche - Livorno - Chivitavecchia - Naples - Barcelona

<LI>Century 07/12/03 Eastern Caribbean FFL-San Juan - St. Thomas - St.Maarten- Nassau -FFL

<LI>Komarno(Volga)07/91 Moscow - Astrahan' - Moscow (honeymoon)

<LI>Komarno(Volga)07/90 Moscow - Astrahan'- Moscow

<LI>Admiral Nachimov(or Nakhimov) (Black Sea)04/1986 Odessa - Batum

 

GO BRUINS!!!!