After Liberty, mid-afternoon flight... what to do?

[Daghis]

I was browsing the Cruise Compasses for the Liberty of the Seas' Eastern Caribbean itinerary, and read through the information about departure procedures.

 

Our flight is at 2:55 pm from Miami. Given the long stretch of time between arriving at port and departing by plane, I'm trying to figure out the best use of our time.

 

One option is that I pick up pink luggage tags, and stay on the ship until 10:30 or so. That reduces our airport time to a bit less than four hours, which is better than hanging out at the airport for six to seven hours as we've done in the past. It'd be somewhat nice to be able to hang out on the ship for a little bit longer, although we'd still have to be out of our cabin by 7:30.

 

Another option would be to schedule a Miami excursion. They appear to have a couple available that they list as being four hours long. They require that we have a flight departing from Miami no earlier than 3 pm, but I would imagine that 2:55 pm is close enough that it should work. The downside here is that we'd have to get off the ship much earlier, at 7:00.

 

What have others chosen to do under circumstances like these?

[dunmowin]

We were on FOS in April and had a departure flight from Miami at about 3:00. We took advantage of the airline luggage check in at the port. We got a cab and headed to South Beach. We went to the News Cafe (I believe this is the name) Had a nice long Brunch by the window and watched the people. After brunch (which was really good by the way) We started walking left. Went over to the beach and walked a while and did a little shopping until we reached a hotel where there were cabs everywhere. When arriving at the airport, no need to stand in the long lines to check bags so it was a breeze. I also had the list of excursions but we just wanted to chill a little.

 

We did make a mental note to definately book an earlier flight out of Miami for our cruise next year. 3:00 was just a little late unless there is something you really want to do.

 

Good Luck and have fun!

[nellydean]

our flight back from miami last saturday after liberty was not until 7.25pm, so we took the everglades safari tour. we were told it was 7-11am, but it took us about an hour to get off the ship, collect our luggage and find our coach. The trip was interesting enough, shop, airboat ride, alligator show, and were were back at the airport for just after 11.30am. With some hours still left to kill, we put our cases in left luggage and took a cab over to ocean drive. it was boiling hot, so we just walked to gloria estefan's restaurant lario's (we'd dined at news cafe during our stay in miami the week before and it was good), before getting a taxi to bayside for another couple of hours

[Vicariously Cruising]

RELAX

You're still on a cruise....

 

We always relax and enjoy as much of the ship as we can - even on debark day. It doesn't matter which color of luggage tags you have. Even if you have white, you don't have to get off then.

 

Have a long calm breakfast in the dining room - sit and have another cup of coffee. The pictures/photo shop is open that morning if you want to do any last-minute shopping. Go around and tell the staff an extra thanks for a GREAT week.

 

Then, around 10:00 or 10:30, when they say, "Everyone should be leaving now", we get the message and grudgingly take our carry-ons and leave.

 

IT'S GREAT - because by then, all the crowds have gone. We zoom through customs, go the luggage warehouse where ours is the only ones left (don't have to fight crowds searching), and then get transport to the airport. -

 

Still get there around 11:30 or so, just in time to go through the hour+ of security and then get some lunch before our flight.

 

Hope This Helps.