Ft. Lauderdale to Miami

[MissMelis]

Has anyone ever flown into Ft. Lauderdale and then cruised out of Miami? If, so what is the best means of travel? Taxi or rent a car. I know it's about 30 miles but that could be an expensive cab fair. Any thoughts?

[cruiseguy1016]

We have done this in the past. We always go a day early. We rent from Hertz and drive from FLL to Miami. This way we have a car to drive around Miami to sightsee. Hertz has a drop off location 5 minutes from the pier and a free shuttle to take you there.

[Sue L]

there is a no reservation shuttle right outside of the luggage claim in FLL for 18 $ per person from FLL to Miami. Very easy...just go to the desk and tell them where you want to go. The cab fare would be about 65$ for the cab.

[mdwstcruiser]

We just did this last week - used Steve from SAS Transportation -excellent service. We had 4 in our group and he charged us $15 per person. Hightly recommend him.

We have also used the Go Shuttle - you do have to stop for others but it worked out for us in July when we flew in a day ahead. .

[luvscruising2007]

We used Go shuttle as well. It worked very well. We had to wait a very short time for a car and then they took us right to our hotel in Miami. They do not do the reverse, however. We used the ship transfer when our ship returned to Miami.

[MissMelis]

I like the Go Shuttle idea, but what is the ship transfer?

[msmayor]

We rented a van from Dollar for $60 total to get the four of us to Miami, and this way we'll have a vehicle to drive around to make any last-minute stops at the store and to dinner. We have a hotel near the airport (free...staying on points) less than a half-mile from the drop-off for Dollar. In the morning we'll drive the car there, drop it off and take their free shuttle to the port.

 

When we return, we'll take Dollar's free shuttle back to the rental office and pick up a van again (same price) and drive back to FLL. Our flight doesn't leave until mid-afternoon so again we'll have transportation to use instead of just hanging out at the airport until flight time.

[Clarea]

I like the Go Shuttle idea, but what is the ship transfer?

The ship transfer is a bus provided by Royal Caribbean. Cost is $35 per person. You can sign up before the cruise, or on the cruise. If you booked with a travel agent, call them to arrange the ship transfer.

[nanfromatlanta]

We always take the shuttle which is just outside of baggage claim. Make sure, though, that they are making a direct run to Miami with no stops in between.

[kands6191]

I agree with msmayor. After researching on this board I found that a rental car was the best option for us. We are arriving Friday at FLL and getting a rental car from Dollar. We will return it to the Miami airport Sunday morning and take the free shuttle to the cruise port. The cost for a full-size car is 81.40.

 

When we return the following Sunday we will take the free shuttle from the cruise port to the Miami airport and get our Dollar full-size car. We will drop it off at the FLL airport before our 4:00 PM flight. We will have transportation plus a way to sightsee for a few hours before our late flight for 41.40. These prices include at taxes, etc.

 

We are arriving in Florida the Friday after Thanksgiving. I checked with rentalcarmomma.com but I found a better rate by using the discount code KISS. Both were recommended on cruise critic.

[gram1554]

Mdwstcruiser when you flew into FLL a day early did your transportation take you to your hotel. Did you stay in Miami or FLL. Then how did you get to the Port. We are thinking of doing this next year because it is such a better price to fly Southwest but they only fly into FLL. Thanks for any help you can give me.

[NSgal]

We are flying into Fll the day before the cruise. We are using SAS to take us to our hotel. $15/pp shared ride from FLL to Holiday Inn POM. We will take a cab from the hotel to the ship Sunday morning. Then using SAS again to return from the ship to FLL

[gram1554]

Are you leaving from the port of Miami

[seeshore]

NSgal, Any idea what the cab fare might run from the Holiday Inn POM to the cruise terminal? We're thinking your plan sounds good for us too.

[NSgal]

We have been told $10-12 from the hotel to the port.

 

We were going to rent a car, but I have heard horror stories about the parking at the Holiday Inn, plus insurance, gas etc...plus how much time are we actually going to get to sighsee the sights? If we want to go somewhere, we'll just use a cab as well.

[jkeivel11]

DH and I did this back in August. Flew into FLL to cruise out of Miami. We flew in the day before and stayed an extra day after the cruise in Miami. We used Go Airport Shuttle for a private car, which was $70 total. Then, the driver said to call once we were off the cruise to arrange for a private car to pick us up at the hotel to take to the airport, again $70.

 

We found that this worked better b/c we didn't have to wait on the shuttle for everyone else to get dropped off first, which can take up to a couple of hours. Also, we took a cab to the port in the morning for $10.

 

We didn't want the hassle of dealing with a car and driving in an unfamiliar city. Our hotel was walking distance to the Bayside Marketplace, so we just walked there for dinner. Just remember that some hotels charge for parking if you decide to rent a car.

[gram1554]

What hotel did you stay at.

[weinoh]

Hi:

 

We are cruising out of Port of Miami. Flying into FLL.

We have reserved with Steve of SAS Transportation.

 

We are staying 1 nt precruise in FLL.

Price for (4) $5 each from airport to hotel/ $15 each from hotel

to cruise port and cruise port to airport.

 

We thought this would be the easiest for us.

 

Regards,

[Bert64]

We have our way to the port taken care of...can anyone give me the best option for getting BACK to FLL from the Port of Miami after the cruise?

 

We have a fairly early flight, so we're going to do the self-assist and take our luggage off with us. Is the quickest way back to just catch a cab? Are there shuttles waiting there for a more "cost efficient" way back?

 

It seems it's so much easier and there are far more options to get from FLL to the POM than the reverse...

[bluefintuna]

Bert, you are so right about getting from pom back to fll. If your flight is real early a taxi would be your best bet, but expensive ($75)? Other options would be booking a town car thru Go Shuttle or other van transportation companies. We have booked both the van and town car thru Go shuttle and it worked very well. We used a cell phone to call their driver when we arrived back to pom (we got his number on the way over from fll).

[mdwstcruiser]

We just did this last week - used Steve from SAS Transportation -excellent service. We had 4 in our group and he charged us $15 per person. Hightly recommend him.

We have also used the Go Shuttle - you do have to stop for others but it worked out for us in July when we flew in a day ahead. .

 

We stayed at the Sleep Inn in Dania - they have a free shuttle from the airport to the hotel. We were going to take the shuttle back to the airport in order to get a shuttle but Steve from SAS told us he would just pick us up at the hotel. Price for 6 of us was $15 ea one way. I believe the price is the same if you have 4 also.

 

We had a return flight from FLL at 11:10am which I was a little worried about. We carried our own luggage off the ship (Steve told us to call him as soon as we knew what time we would be leaving the ship) which we did - we had to wait about 20 min but he was there by around 7:45 to pick us up (originally I had said 8:00am) and we got to the airport in plenty of time. The other people in our party didn't leave until about 10:00 from the ship.