How far would you drive

[christyran1228]

The longest we've driven was from San Antonio to New Orleans, which ended up being 9 hours with traffic.  Fortunately it was the day before or we would have wasted the first day of our cruise sleeping.  That's an exhausting drive.  lol

[Organized Chaos]

14 hours ago, christyran1228 said:

The longest we've driven was from San Antonio to New Orleans, which ended up being 9 hours with traffic.  Fortunately it was the day before or we would have wasted the first day of our cruise sleeping.  That's an exhausting drive.  lol

 

I wish we only had a 9 hour drive. LOL It's ~20 hours when we sail out of Ft. Lauderdale or Miami. I like to at least make it to the FL/GA line (about 12 hrs) to stop for the night two days before the cruise. That puts us at our hotel around their check-in time the day before the cruise. I do all the driving myself, so that's why we stay overnight on the road. I've considered sharing wheel-time and driving straight through, but that's still a long haul. Even if we booked flights with irregular departure/arrival times to make it as cheap as possible, it's still a lot cheaper for us to drive. And I've always enjoyed making long drives. It's just not quite as easy on my body as it used to be. LOL If that's the sacrifice we have to make to cruise, so be it. 🙂

Edited April 27, 2019 by Organized Chaos

[soonernstlouis]

30 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

Even if we booked flights with irregular departure/arrival times to make it as cheap as possible, it's still a lot cheaper for us to drive

Nothing wrong with driving to save money or even make it possible to afford cruising.  The closest port for me is a 10 hour drive which is on my outter limits for 1 day driving anymore.  So I’d probably have to do a cheap motel on the way down or get to port city a day early.

[Susan in Maine]

I wouldn't do it - an awful lot of stress. Two weeks ago we had about a 6 hour drive to the port. We left  the day before and stopped halfway for the night.

 

It was a route I've driven lots of times and I'm a pretty fearless driver, but I still didn't want to take the chance of going the same day. 

 

In the end the total travel time was about 7 1/2 hours - that extra 1 1/2 hours would have made a big difference if we had tried to do it the day of.

 

Besides, being tired and stressed about the drive really isn't the best way to start the cruise!

 

 

 

 

[christyran1228]

2 hours ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

I wish we only had a 9 hour drive. LOL It's ~20 hours when we sail out of Ft. Lauderdale or Miami. I like to at least make it to the FL/GA line (about 12 hrs) to stop for the night two days before the cruise. That puts us at our hotel around their check-in time the day before the cruise. I do all the driving myself, so that's why we stay overnight on the road. I've considered sharing wheel-time and driving straight through, but that's still a long haul. Even if we booked flights with irregular departure/arrival times to make it as cheap as possible, it's still a lot cheaper for us to drive. And I've always enjoyed making long drives. It's just not quite as easy on my body as it used to be. LOL If that's the sacrifice we have to make to cruise, so be it. 🙂

That IS a long drive!  Our home port is Galveston (4 hours), but on that particular cruise we decided we wanted to enjoy New Orleans also.  🙂

[PlayTheAces]

Personally I wouldn't drive in the day of a cruise any more than I'd fly in the day of a cruise.  Just too many logistic problems that can crop up.  In the case of driving you have possible construction detours, accidents, bridge jumpers, flat tires, breakdowns, heavy traffic, natural disasters, meteor strikes and who knows what else.  I book a hotel the night before in whatever city I'm traveling to, regardless of my mode of transportation. Makes the beginning of the cruise a lot more enjoyable and a lot more stress free.

[Momto3girlsintheCarolinas]

 

 

 

On 4/24/2019 at 9:25 PM, The4Cruisers said:

 

 

If anything happens, we have a good 4 - 5 hours to McGyver an alternate plan.  

  

 

This made me laugh.  We also drive from NC, but we allow for a hotel stay.  I once nearly missed a ship in Miami because the McGyver plan went sideways.  Never again.  

 

It's a 12-hour drive.  We leave early the day before, get in late that night, crash in a hotel, sleep to a reasonable time and then have breakfast before boarding ship.

 

I don't know about a 5-hour drive.  I agree it would depend on roads and traffic.....but all it takes is one accident between you and that ship....

[Mediterranean_Honeymooner]

I don’t recommend it.  Too many things can go wrong.  Breakdown, car accident (your own or someone else’s shutting down traffic), construction, etc.  We usually travel by car and I’d say at least 25% of our trips, we experience significant delays due to one of the above.  IF I was going to drive the day of the cruise, I would plan at least double the travel time I needed.  So if it is normally a 3 hour drive, I’d leave at least 6 hours before the all aboard time (and so on).

[sprint180]

On 4/24/2019 at 5:58 PM, Surrealistic said:

The day of the cruise?  Would you chance a 4 or 5 hr ride in late summer?  Considering options. TIA

I live 4 hours from my "local" airport.  I would not drive it on the day of.   Don't want to risk my trip on a fluke.

 

[MechE31]

32 minutes ago, sprint180 said:

I live 4 hours from my "local" airport.  I would not drive it on the day of.   Don't want to risk my trip on a fluke.

 

 

I think the airport is a little different. With the airport, you have kind of have a 2 hour window to arrive, from 3 hours early to 1 hour early. If you're early, there's nothing to do. With a cruise, you have roughly a 4.5 hour window, from 11am - 3:30pm and if you're early, there's plenty to do. 

 

For us, we live very close to Port Canaveral, but go out of all the Florida ports. Lauderdale is 2.5 hours and Miami is about 3 hours. We realistically have 3 different routes we can take to both (95, US1 or turnpike), including combos of the 3 in case of an accident. We leave day of and shoot for the earliest slot we can, giving us that aforementioned 4.5 hour buffer. 

 

We have "almost" missed a flight before due to an accident. We live about 45 minutes from Orlando airport. A fatal accident happened shortly before we hit that area on 95 and they closed the road. We ended up getting diverted the wrong way down a closed interstate until there was an emergency vehicle turnaround. It cost us about an hour, but we still comfortably made it for our flight. It was quite nerve racking, but it's why you always build in quite a buffer. 

[sprint180]

51 minutes ago, MechE31 said:

 

I think the airport is a little different. With the airport, you have kind of have a 2 hour window to arrive, from 3 hours early to 1 hour early. If you're early, there's nothing to do. With a cruise, you have roughly a 4.5 hour window, from 11am - 3:30pm and if you're early, there's plenty to do. 

 

For us, we live very close to Port Canaveral, but go out of all the Florida ports. Lauderdale is 2.5 hours and Miami is about 3 hours. We realistically have 3 different routes we can take to both (95, US1 or turnpike), including combos of the 3 in case of an accident. We leave day of and shoot for the earliest slot we can, giving us that aforementioned 4.5 hour buffer. 

 

We have "almost" missed a flight before due to an accident. We live about 45 minutes from Orlando airport. A fatal accident happened shortly before we hit that area on 95 and they closed the road. We ended up getting diverted the wrong way down a closed interstate until there was an emergency vehicle turnaround. It cost us about an hour, but we still comfortably made it for our flight. It was quite nerve racking, but it's why you always build in quite a buffer. 

The op can relate my answer however they want. Just giving my opinion. 

[Elvis1001]

I am only comfortable with driving the morning of my cruise to my nearest port which is 3 hours away. I leave at 7 am, at least 4 hours before I should be able to park and board at 11 am. That allows me an additional 4 hours until 3 pm for unexpected emergencies along the way. If I am sailing from any other port I drive the day prior and stay anywhere from 15 minutes to 1 hour away, sleep in and enjoy breakfast.

[Organized Chaos]

13 hours ago, soonernstlouis said:

Nothing wrong with driving to save money or even make it possible to afford cruising.  The closest port for me is a 10 hour drive which is on my outter limits for 1 day driving anymore.  So I’d probably have to do a cheap motel on the way down or get to port city a day early.

 

We need to take a serious look at cruises out of Galveston, New Orleans, or Mobile. That'd pretty much cut our driving time in half. Not matter what, with that long of a drive, we'd never risk arriving the morning of the cruise.

[soonernstlouis]

6 hours ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

We need to take a serious look at cruises out of Galveston, New Orleans, or Mobile. That'd pretty much cut our driving time in half. Not matter what, with that long of a drive, we'd never risk arriving the morning of the cruise.

Most of the cruises out of those ports are categorized as Western Carribean, which makes sense considering the distance to the Eastern/Southern Carribean ports.  

 

Mexico & Central America are just ok places to go to me & I’d probably chose an AI over cruising to those destinations for convenience.

[JaxsMama]

We live in Cincinnati and sometimes drive to Columbus for a cheap flight. One trip our flight was cancelled (day before) so we had to drive back to Cinci and rent a car. Then we drove straight to Miami. It was exhausting. As we pulled into our spot in the parking garage my husband was so tired he side swiped the car next to us. I will never drive that far again!  Luckily insurance covered everything and now I have a story to hold over his head. 

[soonernstlouis]

10 minutes ago, JaxsMama said:

We live in Cincinnati and sometimes drive to Columbus for a cheap flight. One trip our flight was cancelled (day before) so we had to drive back to Cinci and rent a car. Then we drove straight to Miami. It was exhausting. As we pulled into our spot in the parking garage my husband was so tired he side swiped the car next to us. I will never drive that far again!  Luckily insurance covered everything and now I have a story to hold over his head. 

Your husband deserves a service award for “almost” getting you there uneventfully after a 16+ hour drive.  I have to ask-why not not rent a car in Columbus & drive directly to MIA?  Saves at least the initial drive back home.

[momof3cruisers]

On April 25, 2019 at 5:28 PM, fyree39 said:

When we sail from Long Beach, that's about a 3-3.5 hour drive and we drive in the day of.  We've done it enough times that we know where the slow-downs are on the 405 freeway.  We leave early enough to give ourselves about a 3 hour cushion for emergencies. The parking garage stays closed until noon at Long Beach, which really messes people up who drive in locally. All-aboard is at 3:00 and there's a slight possibility that we could be denied boarding if we arrived later than that.  In the past, we could arrive at 10:30, park, and wait to check in at our leisure.  Long Beach has changed that option with the new hours at the garage. I'm going to find someplace we can hang out at if we get there at 11:00 or earlier.

 

We recently cruised from San Diego, which is about 4-5 hours from here.  Because we'd never cruised from there before, we decided to spend the night prior to the cruise.  That's an awful long drive, even though it's only an hour longer than what we're used to, and we weren't sure where the off-site parking was located nor how complicated the embarkation process is at that pier. We felt more comfortable spending the night rather than feel lost and stressed at a new embarkation port.

 

 

When did they change the parking garage time and WHY? We sailed out of LB in Feb and were on the ship long before noon. That's crazy.

[JaxsMama]

1 hour ago, soonernstlouis said:

Your husband deserves a service award for “almost” getting you there uneventfully after a 16+ hour drive.  I have to ask-why not not rent a car in Columbus & drive directly to MIA?  Saves at least the initial drive back home.

You have to drive back thru Cinci to get to Florida (at least the way we go down 75) so we just parked our car at home and rented a car right by our house. Figured the last thing we would want to do after driving back after our cruise was to have to go back to Columbus to pick up our car and pay for all that airport parking. 

[MsMistiS]

We drove all night (14 hours) to Port Canaveral in November. Arrived about 8 am. Took a nap on the beach and then went to the gym we have a membership to and took a shower. Got to the port at 12:30 and walked right on the ship.  You just have to know your route and an alternate route and give plenty of time in case of an accident. 

[MsMistiS]

2 hours ago, JaxsMama said:

We live in Cincinnati and sometimes drive to Columbus for a cheap flight. One trip our flight was cancelled (day before) so we had to drive back to Cinci and rent a car. Then we drove straight to Miami. It was exhausting. As we pulled into our spot in the parking garage my husband was so tired he side swiped the car next to us. I will never drive that far again!  Luckily insurance covered everything and now I have a story to hold over his head. 

How long was the drive from Cincy to Miami?  We are thinking of making it in September. 

[JaxsMama]

7 minutes ago, MsMistiS said:

How long was the drive from Cincy to Miami?  We are thinking of making it in September. 

16  hours ish plus stops. Make sure to take the bypass around Atlanta to avoid extra traffic. 

[Shaded Lady]

When we lived in Tampa we drove to Pt Canaveral on the morning of the cruise several times... however one time DH dropped my friends and me off for a Girl's cruise, but on the way to pick us up 5 days later, he got stuck in an accident on I-4 and was many hours late picking us up... we didn't mind, but he commented that we had been on the road at the same time 5 days earlier, and if the accident had happened at that time, we would have been really close to missing the ship... 

 

Now we live in Austin and cruise out of Galveston- about a 4 hour drive, but because Houston's traffic is only marginally better than I-4, we go the day before and just start our vacation early. Not everyone has that luxury, or sees the need, so all I'd say is if you decide to drive or fly in the day of, just prepare your contingency plans just in case... the last time we drove to Galveston was right after Hurricane Harvey and many of the roads around Houston were still closed so we just mapped out alternatives just in case.

Edited April 28, 2019 by Shaded Lady

[paper1122]

We are lucky to only live an hour from Port Canaveral and two hours from Tampa. We’ve drive past the port of Tampa to drop the kids and then back to the port the day of. Probably a little over 3 hours drive time. I always have a newer truck due to work so breakdown isn’t a huge concern. I probably cut it a little close, I will routinely wait until after 11 to head to the port. 

[Shaded Lady]

Just now, paper1122 said:

We are lucky to only live an hour from Port Canaveral and two hours from Tampa. We’ve drive past the port of Tampa to drop the kids and then back to the port the day of. Probably a little over 3 hours drive time. I always have a newer truck due to work so breakdown isn’t a huge concern. I probably cut it a little close, I will routinely wait until after 11 to head to the port. 

You're braver than me- after the last experience we had driving to PC from Tampa on I-4, I'd be a nervous wreck until I saw the Whale Tail!!!

[paper1122]

Just now, Shaded Lady said:

You're braver than me- after the last experience we had driving to PC from Tampa on I-4, I'd be a nervous wreck until I saw the Whale Tail!!!

 

Brave or stupid.... lol. 

 

I always keep an eye on the traffic maps. I typically avoid I-4, it is often faster to take 50 or the turnpike over to 75 if you are going to Tampa. PC has several routes, I take back roads to get to 528 just to avoid the traffic.