Enough time for return flight

[Rumbalow-1]

Quick question. Cruising out of Fort Lauderdale, disembark starts at 7:00am..if we can disembark between 7:00 am and 7:30am, would we have enough time, to safely catch a 11:05am flight out of Fort Lauderdale back to Ontario?

[Middleager]

If ship doesn't get delayed too much for disembarkation, no problem.

 

FLL airport is 15min from FLL port.

[SilvertoGold]

This might depend on the cruise line, how they do the disembarkation.

We sail HAL  and would be leary of booking a flight until noon, even with self-dismbarkation where you carry your own bags off. It might work well, but all the little 'what ifs" could lead to a real headache.

[Fouremco]

First of all, welcome to Cruise Critic and to the Canadian Cruisers board. Hopefully you'll find the answers to all of your questions.

 

Queries on flight times out of FLL are frequent on most cruise line boards as well as the Florida Departures board. For the latter, head to https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/386-florida-departures/. Based on having read hundreds of such threads, I can say that 11:05am would generally be considered a safe time, and is one we would feel quite confident making.

 

There are a lot of little factors that can save you time, such as self-disembarkation, having NEXUS, TSA PreCheck, etc.. There are many posters who state that they regularly make flights as early as 9:00am. Not something I'd try, but others do.

 

A major question to ask yourself is what happens if you don't make the flight? What are your options for a flight back to Ontario later in the day or possibly the next day? There will probably be flights, but will there be available last minute seats? What's the size of your party? If travelling solo, your chances of snagging a seat might be ok, but not if you are a family of 4. 

 

Finally, what are your current alternatives to the 11:05am flight? We have a direct flight back to Ottawa in February that doesn't depart until 4:30pm, but there's a shore excursion offered by the cruise line that ends at the airport a couple of hours before the flight, giving us plenty of time for a relaxed check-in. 

[lx200gps]

15 hours ago, Rumbalow-1 said:

Quick question. Cruising out of Fort Lauderdale, disembark starts at 7:00am..if we can disembark between 7:00 am and 7:30am, would we have enough time, to safely catch a 11:05am flight out of Fort Lauderdale back to Ontario?

Welcome to Cruise Critic ;o) We sail out of Port Everglades very regularly, (mostly Princess, some Celebrity). We also do self-walkoff and are among the first to leave the terminal. As others have said FLL is very close to Port Everglades (you can actually see the ships from the departure gates at Terminal 2 if you are flying Air Canada). We routinely get to the check-in counter by around 8AM and end up wasting a lot of time sitting at the gate waiting for our flight back to Montreal. So yes, I would expect you would easily make an 11AM flight, particularly if you have airline status (so priority check-in) and TSA Pre-Check.  Obviously, if your ship's arrival is delayed, all bets are off.

[CHOPPERTESTER]

We're on an 11:05 flight back to YOW in December. We've made several 11:00 ish flights from FLL. Always self-disembarked with our luggage in tow and grabbed a taxi. Only missed one flight a few years ago when sequestration (Republican, Democrat, doesn't matter still messes everyone regardless of political affiliation) was happening and they only had two border agents working the exit. Ditto for TSA at the airport, a zoo. Air Canada was understanding and put us on a later flight.

[truckswain]

We disembarked the Celebrity Beyond yesterday in Port Everglades and had a 11:10am flight to Toronto.  Yesterday being the day before the American Thanksgiving and one of the busiest travel days in the US

 

We were docked at Terminal 18,  we did self walk off with our bags and got off the ship at 8:15am, facial recognition used at the pier so no need to speak with US Immigration Officer, walked out of the terminal to a line of taxis, $20 US ($13.75 plus tip) to the Airport.  We were at the airport by 8:30am, checked in with Air Canada with two pieces of luggage, through Security (we do have TSA PreCheck) and at the gate at 9 am.

 

It can be done and rather easily.