Late departure from Miami - what to do?

[Cruisin Suzi]

Hi, we have a 5:35pm flight out of Miami and since our ship docks at 7am, just wondering what we can do all day. Do you think we could go to the airport and check our luggage, then take a cab somewhere for awhile? It's been quite a few years since I flew into Miami and couldn't remember how far from port the airport is. Thanks for any suggestions!

[megr1125]

you can only check in luggage 4 hours prior to your flight.

 

you could try and get a day room at a hotel....maybe a post cruise excursion thru the cruise line?

 

the port is maybe 20-30 minutes give or take depending on traffic.

[mysparky]

Cruisin' Suzy -

Don't want to hijack your thread, but we are in a similar situation. Our flight doesn't leave Miama until 8:00pm. I've seen suggestions on this board to take a post-cruise tour, but honestly they are expensive and they only last a few hours. Seems like renting a car is the right thing to do, but where to go? If we go to the beach, where do we shower up before getting on the plane. We'll have our two kids (9 & 12) with us.

[kellygirl719]

Which cruise line are you going on? Some of them offer an excursion called Miami Seaquarium with MIA airport transfer... it takes you by bus from the port to the Seaquarium then takes you to the airport.... It's only for people that have flights after 3:30 PM.

 

Hope that helps!

[kendallison]

I'm in the same situation with kids! I really like the idea of getting a day room somewhere and just hanging out on a beach and being able to clean up before flying home. I don't know if such a thing exists though.

[mysparky]

Not sure why I didn't think of this before, but I headed over to the forums on tripadvisor.com and searched on activities to do with kids. I also checked out the familyfun.com website. There are lots of activities/suggesitons listed including which beaches to go to and other non-beach, outdoor activities. One place that sounds particularly interesting is the Venetian pool in Coral Gables.

 

Seems like renting a car is the way to go as it will provide storage for our luggage and allow us to explore places. We'll probably do a combination of swimming (Venetian pool, Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Recreation Area in Key Biscayne), eating (picnic or somewhere in South Beach), and/or we may fit in a Miami Duck tour.

 

Bottom line, there are really lots of kid-friendly ideas out there, check out some of the other websites and you'll find some great ideas and itineraries.

[1kycat]

We've reserved a rental car downtown close to the pier...and we're returning it to the airport. I think $40 for a fullsize is pretty good! For some reason...in FLA...they don't charge you to return the car to another location.

I'm not sure what we're doing yet...but we may end up driving down to Key Largo for a late lunch on the water somewhere. Another possibility is the the Miami Children's Museum (It's very close to the pier)

[Bequia]

The Miami Zoo makes a nice day trip.

http://www.miamimetrozoo.com/

[skachelmeyer]

We had a similar situation where our flight left late and we all day to kill. We rented a car and then did the everglades tour (the same one that the cruise went to) on our own. That was alot of fun and we did it on our own time and much cheaper. Kids will love it since they do see lots of gators. Then we went to a nice outdoor mall for lunch and drove around FLL. Great relaxing day and made it to the airport in plenty of time.

[Cruisin Suzi]

Thanks for all of the ideas! I'm going to check into the Seaquarium tour. I just found out that our ship (Westerdam) offers an express luggage service where the bags are picked up on the ship and checked through for me. That way we can just get off the ship and do whatever. :D

[JoeSmooga]

We had a similar situation where our flight left late and we all day to kill. We rented a car and then did the everglades tour (the same one that the cruise went to) on our own. That was alot of fun and we did it on our own time and much cheaper. Kids will love it since they do see lots of gators. Then we went to a nice outdoor mall for lunch and drove around FLL. Great relaxing day and made it to the airport in plenty of time.

 

We did the exact same thing! Worked out great with the kids, while at the same time provided us with luggage storage and transportation to whatever we wanted to do.

 

Joe

[Mitchie872]

If you book a post cruise excursion with the cruiseline, where is your luggage stored?

[JoeSmooga]

On the charter bus that takes you on the tour itself...

 

Joe

[eliezra]

The everglades tour sounds great! We were going to book it through our cruise. How do you book it on your own?

[JoeSmooga]

The everglades tour sounds great! We were going to book it through our cruise. How do you book it on your own?

 

The first time we went there we booked thru the ship itself. After seeing what it was all about, on the 2nd trip we took out there (yep, we liked it that much), we rented a car and drove there on our own. It really isn't too hard to find. Here's the website... http://www.evsafaripark.com/ (there's a map with directions and the address on the website itself). It's about a 30 minute drive from the airport rental car pick up locations. REALLY EASY to find... just get a car and drive until you see the tour buses parked on the south side of the road next to the airboats and volunteer fire station (there is nothing out there... you can't miss it).

 

If I remember right, the cost of the excursion thru the ship was something like $35/pp. That includes your transportation to the airport (MIA airport only) as well as the storage of your bags on the bus. As there was 7 of us in our group, we rented a van to the tune of $60 and drove out there. Adult prices were $20, kids from 5-11 were $10, and under 5 was free (both our kids were under 5... CCL charged us $35/pp regardless of age the first time we went).

 

For us it was a great way to pass the time. We, too, had a flight after 5PM, so having the rental van gave us a bit more freedom to check things out on our own. With the bus thru CCL they dropped us at the MIA airport at 1PM and we had to kill about 4 hours before our flight. With the van, we dropped it at FLL at 3:30 for a 5:30 flight. That's two less hours that we didn't have to sit around the airport :).

Joe