Port Everglades Parking

[Capt]

Run me through the drill, por favor.

 

Planning on driving to port and since this is our 1st attempt at this, need to know procedure.

 

Would like to drop luggage off 1st, this seems to make the most sense. Or is there a better order of doing things. Would like to know about past experiences and ideas.

[psblin99]

It depends on where you are going to park. The same Park & Fly serves the port and airport. They are a few dollars a day cheaper and will shuttle you and your luggage dood to door.

[Capt]

Sorry. We plan on parking at the port terminal parking.

[logan1_2000]

Sorry. We plan on parking at the port terminal parking.

 

I just did this for a Thanksgiving week cruise on RCI leaving out of Pier 25. Which, by the way, came back into Pier 18, which messed up a bit of our plan for disembarkation, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

 

All roads should lead you into the port. We were coming in on 95 to 595, but the Turnpike will get you there, too. Local roads I cannot direct you, but you can get that elsewhere.

 

595 ends and you continue straight and the road becomes Eller Road into the Port. Have your Cruise document ready for inspection at the security stop, along with photo ID's for all in the car.

 

The signage is excellent for directing you to the various ships, and the security man at the gate asked us which ship and he told us our pier as well.

 

I was on the early side--around 10 a.m., so there was still a ton of disembarking passengers just getting off the ship as I swung around to the pier, dropped DW and DS (10) w/ the cruise doc's and the luggage. Then it was a slow-go in that loop around the road takes at pier 26 before turning back around to get to the garage. The sign to the entry is marked well for the midport garage.

 

You take a ticket and enter. Previously I had self-parked at Canaveral w/ Disney where you pay in advance. Here you pay when you leave (they take the major credit cards). I found a spot on level 2, which fortunately was the same level as the skybridge across traffic to my pier. I caught up w/ DW and DS, who had not yet gotten a porter because we were early and they were working on disembarkation, but I went 10-20 yeards down the sidewalk, asked a porter if he would take some check in, and he could not have been more helpful. We had asked him if a porter could take us out to the garage when we returned, assuring him we understood that would require a healthy tip (I'd just given him a $10 for 3 bags, so I think he believed me) and he said yes, they would do that.

 

So we were all set for luggage, as I had put the tags on that morning. We were also 1st in line, though they did not open the seating area to wait for security and check in for another hour. The bathroom was clean, we were fine, and once they called us it all moved rapidly. This was on Royal Caribbean.

 

What would I have done differently? Really nothing. If we'd been backing just a tad lighter--and we could have but we didnt know the weather so we had both warm weather and not so hot weather clothes--I might have gone straight to the garage, parked, and then just wheeled a couple of bags myself across the skybridge, into the elvator, and then to check in.

 

At Disembarkation, getting out, finding that we were across the port from the garage, we were directed to an area to wait for the next shuttle. 15 minutes later, in a light drizzle, no shuttle, and I was facing a 650 miles drive, so we flagged down a van driver who was dropping off, and for $2 a head he drove us to the garage. Easy, and then fairly easy w/o much wait at all, maybe 2 cars ahead of me as I approached the cashier. They have lists of the ships that arrived that day although I did still have the card I took when I entered the garage, and on their lists is the price ($12 x # of nights). Put it on Visa, and easy exiting from the Port straight onto 595, and from there to all the major highways.

[CaribbeanCrazy]

Thanks Logan for such a detailed description of the parking at Port Everglades. DH and I will be driving to the port for our late March cruise. Now we know what to expect:)

 

CaribbeanCrazy

[Capt]

You are the best!!!

 

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