How far would you drive to get to your port on departure day !!

[spookwife]

20 hours ago, Garf said:

Like to get feed back !! I live in Orlando Fl, so it's an easy 50 mins to Port Canaveral.I usually get to the port very early on my departure day. If I had to travel for more that 3 hours, I would stay at a hotel near by, the cruise port the day before departure..

 concur.   we sail out of Tampa  every so often and thats a 5 hour drive. always come in a day early.  

 

 when we lived in Texas, it was 8 hours from San Antonio to Galveston, but his SiL lives in Houston so we  would spend the night at their place then drive the hour to the island.  

 

 the Baltimore port was 20 minutes away.   we had breakfast at our favorite mom n pop place.

 

Mobile only has carnival  right now but thats an hour away as well.   New Orleans is like 4.  still contemplating that one, but I am leaning towards coming in a day early  there too, just to be able to relax and enjoy a good meal  the night before boarding.  

[Underwatr]

I'll drive 3 hours to New York on embarkation day but there's no way I'd take Amtrak to NYC on embarkation day.

[babs135]

I live in the UK and am a 4 hours drive from Southampton. Did it once on the day of departure, never again, half way there the heavens opened and rain of biblical proportion fell. Traffic slowed to a virtual standstill leaving us sweating as the clock ticked on. We made it but decided that we didn't need the stress and now we go down the night before.

[Underwatr]

As I understand it, the UK doesn't really have alternate motorway capacity in the case that something goes awry on your chosen route. On my 3 hour drive to New York, there are numerous freeway or toll road alternates, particularly if I know of an issue before leaving home (and Waze/Google Maps does a good job of finding the apparently quickest route at any point in time). 

[Lois R]

Interesting how we all do things differently.  I live 2 hours from Pt. Canaveral, 5 hours from Ft. Lauderdale, 5.5 hours

from Miami.   I fly to south Florida but if I ever cruise from PC I would drive.  I have sailed from there only once but

from Miami and Ft. Lauderdale multiple times over the years.  When I first started cruising  I did drive to Ft. Lauderdale a couple of times but now? I choose to fly and I always go a day early! Starts the

vacation a day early. I fly out on Wednesday for a cruise on Thursday....can't wait!

[pathi]

11 hours, Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale. Lately we stop in St Augustine for the night and finish the trip the day of the cruise.

[NC.MOMCRUZ]

We are leaving out of Charleston, SC which is about 4 hours from our home.  We are driving day of the cruise.  When we leave out of Florida, we go a day early.

[lenquixote66]

On 1/11/2020 at 12:21 PM, Garf said:

Like to get feed back !! I live in Orlando Fl, so it's an easy 50 mins to Port Canaveral.I usually get to the port very early on my departure day. If I had to travel for more that 3 hours, I would stay at a hotel near by, the cruise port the day before departure..

We often drove 5 hours to the Baltimore cruise port

[Bizmark'sMom]

I'm an 8 hour drive from Seattle's cruise terminal. If everything goes smoothly.

In practice, I fly in at least a day before a cruise.

[babs135]

4 hours ago, Underwatr said:

As I understand it, the UK doesn't really have alternate motorway capacity in the case that something goes awry on your chosen route. On my 3 hour drive to New York, there are numerous freeway or toll road alternates, particularly if I know of an issue before leaving home (and Waze/Google Maps does a good job of finding the apparently quickest route at any point in time). 

True. Once travelling down to Southampton on a designated coach there was a major hold up on the motorway so the coach had to make a detour onto non-motorway roads which in places took us through very picturesque villages which under normal circumstances would have been pleasant to look at but everyone on the coach was aware of the time. Fortunately as it was the official coach the ship waited but we were definitely the last people to check in.

[iancal]

Last time we were staying in Daytona we snagged a last minute cruise from Miami.  Drove down in the morning two days later, turned in the rental car, and boarded the ship.    No issues whatsoever.

[Lois R]

4 minutes ago, iancal said:

Last time we were staying in Daytona we snagged a last minute cruise from Miami.  Drove down in the morning two days later, turned in the rental car, and boarded the ship.    No issues whatsoever.

Where are you from and how did you get home? Rent a car from Miami? (just guessing)

[RocketMan275]

We are about a 16 hour drive from North Alabama to FLL.  When we drove, we would drive to near Lake City or Ocala and then spend the night.  We would get up, have breakfast, and drive to the port.  We were always there before the cruise terminal opened.  Now, we fly.

[iancal]

We actually had a three week Avis rental that we picked up in downtown Orlando.  Three weeks was up so we just changed the drop to MIA instead of Orlando.  No extra charge.  We were on a multi month land trip.  We spent some more time in Florida after the cruise and did a one way home from FLL.  

 

 

[navybankerteacher]

7 hours ago, babs135 said:

I live in the UK and am a 4 hours drive from Southampton. Did it once on the day of departure, never again, half way there the heavens opened and rain of biblical proportion fell. Traffic slowed to a virtual standstill leaving us sweating as the clock ticked on. We made it but decided that we didn't need the stress and now we go down the night before.

If there is ANY realistic likelihood of “a four hours drive” taking much more than four hours, it does not make sense to think of it as “a four hours drive” —- rather think of it as a drive taking as long as reasonably possible delays might make it.

 

On a good day, with everything going right, with most of the ten or so million people in the general area staying off the roads I want to use, I can get to most places in the area generally referred to as “New York City” in under 90 minutes.  

 

However, because I am aware of circumstances which can convert that 90 minutes to four or five hours, I will always allow said four or five hours if the cost of the drive taking that long might include missing a sailing. 

[grandmarnnurse]

52 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

If there is ANY realistic likelihood of “a four hours drive” taking much more than four hours, it does not make sense to think of it as “a four hours drive” —- rather think of it as a drive taking as long as reasonably possible delays might make it.

 

On a good day, with everything going right, with most of the ten or so million people in the general area staying off the roads I want to use, I can get to most places in the area generally referred to as “New York City” in under 90 minutes.  

 

However, because I am aware of circumstances which can convert that 90 minutes to four or five hours, I will always allow said four or five hours if the cost of the drive taking that long might include missing a sailing. 

Now I’m actually panicking about the 4 hour drive. But after voicing my concerns to my hubby, he actually refuses to budge from his earlier plans. 😬

[Northumberland]

As we live in central Canada, we would be looking at 3-4 hours to fly to Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, San Francisco, LA, etc., and then the driving time the next day. However, now that we're retired, we choose driving trips instead of flying, which will take 4-5 days. So, the expense of flying or road trips means we don't cruise as often as we would like.

[Lois R]

4 hours ago, iancal said:

We actually had a three week Avis rental that we picked up in downtown Orlando.  Three weeks was up so we just changed the drop to MIA instead of Orlando.  No extra charge.  We were on a multi month land trip.  We spent some more time in Florida after the cruise and did a one way home from FLL.  

 

 

Oh...…..ok, makes sense!

[chipmaster]

On 1/11/2020 at 9:21 AM, Garf said:

Like to get feed back !! I live in Orlando Fl, so it's an easy 50 mins to Port Canaveral.I usually get to the port very early on my departure day. If I had to travel for more that 3 hours, I would stay at a hotel near by, the cruise port the day before departure..

Buffer of an hour or maybe 20% of the total travel time, never know about traffic and terrible luck

[navybankerteacher]

2 hours ago, grandmarnnurse said:

Now I’m actually panicking about the 4 hour drive. But after voicing my concerns to my hubby, he actually refuses to budge from his earlier plans. 😬

Since your 4 hour drive is all in Florida, and you are thinking of getting going at 5:00 AM, you are allowing at least an extra 4 hours to handle delays - which would still get you to the port a couple of hours before boarding time .  That 100% margin should be good.

[clo]

8 hours ago, Bizmark'sMom said:

I'm an 8 hour drive from Seattle's cruise terminal. If everything goes smoothly.

In practice, I fly in at least a day before a cruise.

We sometimes fly out of SEA on intl. trips. We may drive or fly in but always ahead of time. We have a trip in March and there's a chance that we may have to fly in the morning of our early afternoon flight. Makes me a little queasy.

[Rawswife]

We live about an hour and a half from Long Beach and about 2 hours from San Diego. I would have no problem driving in the day of to both ports. 

 

We had been considering a drive to sail out of the port of Galveston. But we would only do that days before AND because it would include a stop in San Antonio to visit family. 

 

I don't think imwould consider more than a few hours on the day of sailing. 

[getting older slowly]

Driving to the port... assumes you are parking here as well.......

 

Not likely in Australian / New Zealand ports.....

 

So Public transport or Taxi or Chauffer driven car.... for us about 15kms home to port.

 

Cheers Don 

[babs135]

13 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

If there is ANY realistic likelihood of “a four hours drive” taking much more than four hours, it does not make sense to think of it as “a four hours drive” —- rather think of it as a drive taking as long as reasonably possible delays might make it.

 

On a good day, with everything going right, with most of the ten or so million people in the general area staying off the roads I want to use, I can get to most places in the area generally referred to as “New York City” in under 90 minutes.  

 

However, because I am aware of circumstances which can convert that 90 minutes to four or five hours, I will always allow said four or five hours if the cost of the drive taking that long might include missing a sailing. 

Actually you are right because the 4 hours I quoted does not include toilet breaks or a stop for something to eat.  This would probably add at least another hour to the journey.

[grandmarnnurse]

10 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

Since your 4 hour drive is all in Florida, and you are thinking of getting going at 5:00 AM, you are allowing at least an extra 4 hours to handle delays - which would still get you to the port a couple of hours before boarding time .  That 100% margin should be good.

Thank you. Still nervous, but that helped. It’s our 50th Anniversary B2B, and I certainly don’t want to miss it.