Flying to FLL for Port Canaveral Cruise?

[LuCruise]

Anyone fly into Fort Lauderdale for a Port Canaveral cruise?  At the moment, it's a big difference in cost to fly to FLL comparing to flying into MCO or even Tampa.  If so, what is the easiest way to get to FLL to Port Canaveral (booked hotel in the area)?  I'm guessing uber or taxi's don't go that far.

 

Hoping it's still early as our cruise isn't until end of August , but prices now from Tor to MCO are ridiculous.

Edited November 16, 2019 by LuCruise

[CruiserBruce]

So you are asking about a ground logistics issue, not a flight issue. Looking on the Florida Departures board would be better. The reverse (Orlando to FLL) is discussed frequently. The common answer is renting a car.

 

By the way, it is expensive to fly into MCO because of all the amusement parks are so popular during the summer.

[LuCruise]

10 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

So you are asking about a ground logistics issue, not a flight issue. Looking on the Florida Departures board would be better. The reverse (Orlando to FLL) is discussed frequently. The common answer is renting a car.

 

By the way, it is expensive to fly into MCO because of all the amusement parks are so popular during the summer.

Thanks. Guess it's a double question -ground transportation plus not sure if anyone knows the norm and if flights will come down.

Yeah...we have a cruise out of Port Canaveral and then hoping to add a few days at Disney.

 

[thinfool]

Do not overlook flights into and out of Melbourne, Florida (MLB).  Still the add-on Disney feature of your trip may make this a problem.

[*Miss G*]

How close are you to Buffalo?  Great prices from there to MCO.  They have great parking options or you can get the Buffalo Airport Shuttle.   Check Google Flights for pricing and choices.  Google Flights say prices are low right now.  Also download Hopper and see what they have.

 

Westjet has good pricing from YYZ - MCO right now so I wouldn’t discount them either.  It’s a Looooong drive from FLL to Port Canaveral/MCO.  Plus MCO is a much nicer experience than FLL.  FLL is crowded with nowhere to sit and flights that rarely leave on time.  I’d do MCO anytime over FLL.

[LuCruise]

48 minutes ago, thinfool said:

Do not overlook flights into and out of Melbourne, Florida (MLB).  Still the add-on Disney feature of your trip may make this a problem.

Thanks.  I looked at MLB but they don't have direct flights from Toronto.  We'd rather add in a drive than risk missing a connecting flight.

[LuCruise]

45 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

How close are you to Buffalo?  Great prices from there to MCO.  They have great parking options or you can get the Buffalo Airport Shuttle.   Check Google Flights for pricing and choices.  Google Flights say prices are low right now.  Also download Hopper and see what they have.

 

Westjet has good pricing from YYZ - MCO right now so I wouldn’t discount them either.  It’s a Looooong drive from FLL to Port Canaveral/MCO.  Plus MCO is a much nicer experience than FLL.  FLL is crowded with nowhere to sit and flights that rarely leave on time.  I’d do MCO anytime over FLL.

Thanks.  Yes Buffalo is an option as it's about a 2hr drive?  Southwest hasn't released prices yet into the summer.  JetBlue has one direct flight but we would need a hotel on each side as it leaves early and arrives late.  So net price may balance out to be the same.

[cayman09]

I would never fly to FLL for this port and I live here. Check out the cost of a flight to MCO versus renting a car plus the FLL flight. Then add in your time driving four hours with heavy traffic. No brainer.

[msmayor]

Is the price difference really worth it?  It's almost three hours by car between FLL and Port Canaveral.  While car rental is certainly an option, you're looking at either two one-way rentals (one at each end of the trip) which may involve drop fees, or a single rental and then parking at the port...not to mention the value of time.  

[LuCruise]

39 minutes ago, msmayor said:

Is the price difference really worth it?  It's almost three hours by car between FLL and Port Canaveral.  While car rental is certainly an option, you're looking at either two one-way rentals (one at each end of the trip) which may involve drop fees, or a single rental and then parking at the port...not to mention the value of time.  

At current pricing...Flying into FLL is $1900 for the 4 of us.  Flying into MCO is $2400 (and goes up to 2700).

But yeah true...we need to consider the cost of renting a car both ways, gas and the 3 hrs. Thanks for pointing out.

 

We were also looking at flying out of Buffalo, which is a 2-2.5 hr drive for us, but with current flight options, we would need hotel on either side so not worth it.

 

Or flying out of Detroit which is a 4 hr drive without stops which is $1500.

[thinfool]

If you want to check pricing on a broader range of carriers you might try http://matrix.itasoftware.com.  You cannot buy a ticket at this site, but many here on CC use it to look at fares.  It's a very powerful search engine, now owned by Google.

[Tapi]

On 11/17/2019 at 6:50 PM, cayman09 said:

I would never fly to FLL for this port and I live here.

I used to live in South Florida and, while I agree that the logistics of flying into FLL and cruising out of port canaveral are more challenging, I wouldn’t discard the idea completely if savings are substantial. 
 

Now living in Atlanta, we’ve tried different airports to sail from various ports in Florida. We’ve flown into MCO and MLB to sail from Ft Lauderdale. For our upcoming cruise in February we are flying into PBI. It was $66pp into PBI vs $350pp into FLL. With a family of 4, it was a no brainer. 
 

Once again, savings have to be substantial for us to consider the logistics of flying into an airport that’s farther away, but it’s something that we are willing to do. 

[LuCruise]

2 hours ago, Tapi said:

I used to live in South Florida and, while I agree that the logistics of flying into FLL and cruising out of port canaveral are more challenging, I wouldn’t discard the idea completely if savings are substantial. 
 

Now living in Atlanta, we’ve tried different airports to sail from various ports in Florida. We’ve flown into MCO and MLB to sail from Ft Lauderdale. For our upcoming cruise in February we are flying into PBI. It was $66pp into PBI vs $350pp into FLL. With a family of 4, it was a no brainer. 
 

Once again, savings have to be substantial for us to consider the logistics of flying into an airport that’s farther away, but it’s something that we are willing to do. 

Thanks. Appreciate the other perspective. That is substantial savings in your case.  We haven't jumped on flying into FLL but haven't dismissed it either. Wish we had a crystal ball to see airline prices in the future and see all our options.

[FlyerTalker]

51 minutes ago, LuCruise said:

Thanks. Appreciate the other perspective. That is substantial savings in your case.  We haven't jumped on flying into FLL but haven't dismissed it either. Wish we had a crystal ball to see airline prices in the future and see all our options.

 

You are seeing your options.  You can:

 

1) Buy tickets today using the data and pricing available to this point, for MCO, FLL or any other airport.

or

2) Roll the dice by waiting.

 

And yes, you are already acting on those options.  Every day you don't buy a ticket is a day when you choose, be it consciously or subconsciously, option #2.

 

Questions you should be asking yourself:  Are you willing to risk prices going higher while you wait for a hoped-for price decrease?   Just what are you reasonably hoping for in the way of reduction, and why do you think that is reasonably possible?  Do you know how much upward movement in prices you can tolerate, and are you willing to pull the trigger at that point to guard against even higher pricing?  How much of your actions are based on rational, logical analysis of the situation and how much is on "hope"?

 

I know that's not the answer and opinion you want.  It is, however, the answer and opinion that you realistically are getting.

 

 

[*Miss G*]

You might want to consider driving and stopping halfway.  It’s a nice drive.

[Cruise a holic]

I would suggest you fly to MCO- if the price is different, the cost of taxi, hotel , stress level adds up!  If a family of four- drive and take an extra day or two.  For two adults- just pay and go.

Edited December 7, 2019 by Cruise a holic

[LuCruise]

Thanks for the replies.  We are now booked and have a direct flight to MCO....BUT.....we changed our dates slightly.  When looking at the camp registration, I realized that there is a 9th week of summer this year.  So, this means that we can shift the dates of our trip by a bit.  The cruise dates out of Port Canaveral are fixed, but we were adding a few days in Orlando.  We thought the days would be after the cruise, but with the extra week of summer, we can now do these days first which put the flight to MCO back to a reasonable cost.  So no longer need to worry about flying into FLL or Tampa and then driving to Port Canaveral.

[Cruise a holic]

Great!