San Juan, Miami,Port Canaveral or Ft Lauderdale?

[CanadaRob]

I’m Canadian and flights to Southern Florida are same or more than flights to SAN Juan, FT Lauderdale is 3rd for me Cape Liberty 2nd again because of $$ SAN Juan wins, but some times of the year we get direct to Orlando which makes it easier to go out of PC. 

[Polly1922]

7 hours ago, scorpluvsdolphins said:

Just read that there will be U.K. flights to Melbourne, FL, which is very close to Port CANAVERAL 

Thanks.

We are flying into Sanford later this year with TUI and got an email from TUI saying they are flying into Melbourne next year.

I didn't realize it was close to Ft Lauderdale so thanks for informing me.

Polly.

[Polly1922]

9 hours ago, chellebell91987 said:

We live in S Florida nothing too exciting for us here except we would save on flights. For us It is actually cheaper to fly to SJU from Ft Lauderdale and cruise from there than it is to go out of the Florida ports even with paying for the flight. We prefer San Juan even before we lived here. Southwest has good deals if booked at right time. The port taxes are usually cheaper on the PR cruises. We also love that you see more islands than on the normal eastern or western. Our cruise in July is all port days I am so excited. I do not care for sea days. This is our 4th Puerto Rico cruise. When we lived in Charlotte plane tickets were so expensive even though it was direct to SJU that we ended up booking MCO (orlando) to SJU using jet blue there and spirit back and were going to drive to orlando, but then got a good delta deal from charlotte to mco and still was cheaper than the original flight out of charlotte. (Crazy I know but thats what I do!) 

Very interesting thank you.

[Polly1922]

9 hours ago, chellebell91987 said:

this is what we are doing. We fly in Fri (for our Sunday cruise) after work at a VRBO rental in Old San Juan right next to Barachinas. Its like 2 vacations in 1. Also the ships leave later in PR than FL. We still get to the port at 11-noon time tho not missing out on my ship time! 

Sounds great.

I hope you have a fantastic vacation.

[time4u2go]

2 hours ago, Polly1922 said:

Thanks.

We are flying into Sanford later this year with TUI and got an email from TUI saying they are flying into Melbourne next year.

I didn't realize it was close to Ft Lauderdale so thanks for informing me.

Polly.

Melbourne is close to Port Canaveral, not Fort Lauderdale.

[BillOh]

On 3/9/2020 at 5:28 PM, Polly1922 said:

Which departure port would you recommend and why?

 

I've done several cruise from each of those.  I use to love cruising from Miami, but I don't think I would again on a weekend with 6 or 7 ships in port including some big ones.  My last Miami cruise a year ago was one of the first Symphony ones out of Miami. The port was a total zoo getting in an out of there. Cell phones frequently didn't work because of the congestion and it took forever to get to the terminal and get dropped off and picked up..

[Ocean Boy]

3 hours ago, Polly1922 said:

Thanks.

We are flying into Sanford later this year with TUI and got an email from TUI saying they are flying into Melbourne next year.

I didn't realize it was close to Ft Lauderdale so thanks for informing me.

Polly.

Melbourne is not close ro Ft. Lauderdale. If you do choose a cruise from Ft. Lauderdale or Miami do not fly into Melbourne. You will have a very long commute.

[Polly1922]

3 hours ago, time4u2go said:

Melbourne is close to Port Canaveral, not Fort Lauderdale.

Thanks.

I thought it strange TUI holidays to WDW were moving Futher away.

[Polly1922]

2 hours ago, BillOh said:

I've done several cruise from each of those.  I use to love cruising from Miami, but I don't think I would again on a weekend with 6 or 7 ships in port including some big ones.  My last Miami cruise a year ago was one of the first Symphony ones out of Miami. The port was a total zoo getting in an out of there. Cell phones frequently didn't work because of the congestion and it took forever to get to the terminal and get dropped off and picked up..

Thanks.

I think we will avoid weekends if we choose Miami.

[Polly1922]

2 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

Melbourne is not close ro Ft. Lauderdale. If you do choose a cruise from Ft. Lauderdale or Miami do not fly into Melbourne. You will have a very long commute.

Great advice,much appreciated.

[scorpluvsdolphins]

6 hours ago, Polly1922 said:

Thanks.

We are flying into Sanford later this year with TUI and got an email from TUI saying they are flying into Melbourne next year.

I didn't realize it was close to Ft Lauderdale so thanks for informing me.

Polly.

No. It is close to Port Canaveral 

[Polly1922]

1 hour ago, scorpluvsdolphins said:

No. It is close to Port Canaveral 

We usually fly with Virgin Atlantic to Orlando International which is unchanged it is TUI that is moving from Sanford to Melbourne airport.

We have never been to Melbourne airport is there a reason why airlines are going there next year instead of Sanford?

A hotel in Cocoa beach is a possibility if we sail from Port Canaveral rather than a hotel in Lake Buenavista Orlando.

[grouchomarx]

Anything is better than Ft Lauderdale if you're flying because it is the most disgusting airport I've ever been too.  Literally, no exaggeration.  Very barbaric facilities there.  

[Biker19]

5 minutes ago, grouchomarx said:

Very barbaric facilities there.

Other customers and certainly the airport would not characterize it that way.

[grouchomarx]

Just now, Biker19 said:

Other customers and certainly the airport would not characterize it that way.

I was just there in December and it was as depressing as I remembered it. I always make a point to never have a later flight out of there because spending any amount of time there is incredibly dismal.  I find it crazy that Broward County seems to invest nothing in that airport when it's such a massive tourist/cruise hub.  I can say nothing nice about that airport and I'm a glass half full person, especially when on vacay.

[grapau27]

9 minutes ago, grouchomarx said:

Anything is better than Ft Lauderdale if you're flying because it is the most disgusting airport I've ever been too.  Literally, no exaggeration.  Very barbaric facilities there.  

San Francisco is the worst foreign airport I have been to.

San Juan was okay.

Never been to Miami or Fort Lauderdale airport.

Edited March 11, 2020 by grapau27

[grouchomarx]

Just now, grapau27 said:

San Francisco is the worst foreign airport I have been to.

Is it really? I haven't been there in so long I can't remember it very well.

[Biker19]

1 minute ago, grouchomarx said:

I always make a point to never have a later flight out of there because spending any amount of time there is incredibly dismal. 

Lack of space and venues might one way to describe some of the terminals (they are not all the same), but not barbaric.

[grouchomarx]

1 minute ago, Biker19 said:

Lack of space and venues might one way to describe some of the terminals (they are not all the same), but not barbaric.

For an airport that handles that much tourist traffic, it is indeed barbaric. Just the baggage claim alone is a total joke and appears to not have been updated since the 80's.  The low ceilings, ancient baggage carousels, the stupid music they play when the bags come out, the decrepit carpeting throughout the airport that makes rolling your luggage a cardio workout.  The lack of restaurants and shops, outdated/overcrowded/dirty restroom facilities.  The hordes of people waiting outside to be let into the terminal.  One time we waited 90 minutes for a disgusting greasy cheeseburger because it was the only food service in the terminal aside from a similarly overcrowded pizza place.  Thousands of cruise passengers were piled up everywhere, many sitting on the floors because of inadequate seating.  

[Polly1922]

5 minutes ago, grouchomarx said:

I was just there in December and it was as depressing as I remembered it. I always make a point to never have a later flight out of there because spending any amount of time there is incredibly dismal.  I find it crazy that Broward County seems to invest nothing in that airport when it's such a massive tourist/cruise hub.  I can say nothing nice about that airport and I'm a glass half full person, especially when on vacay.

Thanks,I will take your views on board.

Never thought about Ft Lauderdale airport before but noticed several cruises departing from Ft Lauderdale port.

[grapau27]

14 minutes ago, grouchomarx said:

Is it really? I haven't been there in so long I can't remember it very well.

We were there in November 2019 for a stay and cruise on Grand Princess.

The airport shopping and eating places was almost non existent.

[Biker19]

2 minutes ago, grouchomarx said:

7 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

 

For an airport that handles that much tourist traffic, it is indeed barbaric

Some of us have a bit of context into which to place FLL - some place like Port-au-Prince might come a little closer to barbaric. I agree terminal 3 (American and Jetblue mostly) could use improvement, but as airports go, it's not that bad. Terminal 1 (United) is pretty nice.

[grouchomarx]

8 minutes ago, Polly1922 said:

Thanks,I will take your views on board.

Never thought about Ft Lauderdale airport before but noticed several cruises departing from Ft Lauderdale port.

I will still sail out of there despite the airport because Princess sails from there.  I just make sure I have a nice early flight to go home and that makes it ok.  Whereas MIA is a very nice airport and you can spend the whole day there very comfortably with plenty of shopping, eating, and seating.

[Polly1922]

13 minutes ago, grouchomarx said:

I will still sail out of there despite the airport because Princess sails from there.  I just make sure I have a nice early flight to go home and that makes it ok.  Whereas MIA is a very nice airport and you can spend the whole day there very comfortably with plenty of shopping, eating, and seating.

Is it very far from Miami airport to Ft Lauderdale cruise port?

Miami airport sounds fantastic.

Edited March 11, 2020 by Polly1922

[Polly1922]

12 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

We were there in November 2019 for a stay and cruise on Grand Princess.

The airport shopping and eating places was almost non existent.

Thanks.

San Francisco was an option because of Alcatraz but it looks like we would not get a RCI cruise from there.