Fort Lauderdale FLight out 11:30 !?

[fancymeetingyouhere]

:eek::eek: I can book an 11:30 or a 1:45 flight out of FT Lauderdale. I'm not one to like hanging around the airport - would I be safe to assume an 11:30 flight would be okay or do I book the 1:45 to be safe (same price)

[98Charlie]

Almost always you should be able to make the earlier flight. It's only a 10-15 minute drive to the airport. FLL is not a great place to wait when they won't let you check in more than 2 hours before your flight.

 

Having said that, I'd take the later just to be sure I'm not going standby. Usually we stay over an fly out the next morning.

 

Charlie

[AllieInMD]

From what I've read, yes you should be able to make it - I don't sail out of Port Everglades until January. My original flight out was about that time, then JetBlue changed our flights.

 

RCCL has a 'calculator' of sorts to see earliest flight you can make - wouldn't take as gospel - stuff happens - but will give you a guide for sailings.

 

Customer Support, Frequently Asked Questions, Air Travel - last question on bottom

 

:eek::eek: I can book an 11:30 or a 1:45 flight out of FT Lauderdale. I'm not one to like hanging around the airport - would I be safe to assume an 11:30 flight would be okay or do I book the 1:45 to be safe (same price)

[cruiselvr04]

You didn't say which port you are coming into. If coming into FLL and flying our of FLL yes. We have done this before. We did get off the ship early though. Maybe the second color or group to be called. I personally would not try for any earlier as it would make me nervous!! Just grab a cab and go. The security lines can be long the morning all the cruisers are coming back.

[dutchess43]

What time is your ship docking? If it is at 7 a.m. & you are one of the first to get off you should have no problem, I had an 11:40 we were the first off & we made it with time to spare.

[Pumbaamd]

We've had several flights outta Ft. Lauderdale on US Air and Spirit around 11:30 - 11:45 and never a problem.

Rick and Deirdra

[Host Kewlguy]

We made a 10:00 am flight out of Fort Lauderdale with no problem. We did carry our luggage off the ship though.

[steve20832]

We made a 10:00 am flight out of Fort Lauderdale with no problem. We did carry our luggage off the ship though.

 

I wouldn't suggest booking a 10am flight. We made it to gate at 10:30am when sailing on Enchantment a couple years ago.

 

11:30am flight should be no problem

[Jimbo]

We have had 11:00am flights in FFL when cruising from the Miami Port. We have never had any problems making it. One time Southwest even put us on an earlier flight back to PHL. That was a 9:30am flight.

 

Just be sure like kewlguy said you are the first ones off carrying your luggage with the Express Departure crowd.

 

Jimbo:)

[surfclam2003]

Just came back from a HAL cruise landing in Ft Lauderdale. Disembarked at 9 am but our flight was changed to 8 pm that night. Ft Lauderdale airport has a place in terminal 3 where you can check your bags at $6 per bag (you have to pick it up by 5:30 pm) and took a cab ($25) from the airport to the Hard Rock Cafe and spent a great day there. They have 17 restaurants and alot of shops and the pool there is beautiful.

 

Brinda

[springbee]

When carrying off yourself, what time should you be lining up if the ship docks at 7am? Does the line get long right away?

 

Jimbo may have a good answer to this, as I am trying to get an 11:30 flight out of FLL from the Miami port. I would like to be off the ship by 8 (Majesty).

[cruisinisforme]

You shouldnt have any problem, I have made the 10:30 flight 4 times now from that port with plenty of time to spare.

[Jimbo]

When carrying off yourself, what time should you be lining up if the ship docks at 7am? Does the line get long right away?

 

Jimbo may have a good answer to this, as I am trying to get an 11:30 flight out of FLL from the Miami port. I would like to be off the ship by 8 (Majesty).

 

You kind of have to case the joint and figure out which doorway they will be opening to let the first passengers off. Most times you can do this by asking the crew members that are walking around. You want to make sure you are on the right deck plus make sure you know whether or not you are getting off on the port side or starboard side of the ship.

 

Have seen plenty of people waiting near the doors on the wrong side of the ship.:confused:

 

Have never been on Majesty of the Seas before but on most ships a good time to be down in that area is around 6:30am at the latest. Once they start calling Express Departure passengers on the intercom, The Express departure really has already started before the annoucement because they want those people waiting in the way already off so they are all out of the way.

 

Even though the docs say the ship doesn't return to Miami until 7am, it will really get in aleast an hour before that, sometimes even 2 hours before that so they can start taking the bags off and start to get ready for the next cruise.

 

If you leave Majesty by 8am on a Saturday or Sunday you should be at FLL by 8:45am. Have never tried it during a weekday, so not sure about the local traffic at that time, but on the weekend it's breeze.

 

Jimbo:)

[cruiserbryce]

personally we would select the later of the two and not hurry off the ship in the AM. You will likely make the first flight just fine but with so many things that are out of your hands I would be worrying the whole last day of the cruise about making it

[fancymeetingyouhere]

Okay so I took the 1:45. I wouldn't sleep the night before worrying. I figured why rush home to Toronto where it will be cold when I could enjoy a few more hours of warm weather. So next question - what is the lastest you can stay on the ship lol.

[Jimbo]

Okay so I took the 1:45. I wouldn't sleep the night before worrying. I figured why rush home to Toronto where it will be cold when I could enjoy a few more hours of warm weather. So next question - what is the lastest you can stay on the ship lol.

 

In your cabin 8 to 8:30am, they want you out so the room stewards can do their thing. They will want you to wait in public areas around the ship to for your color to be called.

 

Last colors called should be between 9 and 930am depending how things are going.

 

Jimbo:)

[springbee]

thanks for answering my question too! :)

[charliev]

Just to add my two cents- we got off of the Jewel last Friday (11/7) in Miami, with a 12 noon flight out of Fort Lauderdale. I had been nervous about scheduling anything earlier.

 

Well, as express departures, since we carried off our own luggage, we were told we could leave the ship at 6:40 that morning. Ten minutes later we had cleared customs, grabbed a cab, and were at Fort Lauderdale airport at 7:45..... so I realize things can go wrong, and try to plan for them, but next time I think will try an 11 am flight, since that in most cases it is definitely doable. And I know people have posted that you can't check in more than two hours prior to your flight, but for us at least, that wasn't true (we flew Delta)- we were able to check our baggage and get our boarding passes four hours prior to the flight that morning.

 

And I should add that overall I was pretty impressed with the airport- well-laid out and no crazy lines.

 

- Charlie V.

[sandrac213]

Fancy,

 

DH and I flew out of FLL last Dec. on a 1:30 PM flight, we were at the airport by 10:30, checked in and went and had some lunch at Chili's right there near our gate before boarding. turned out perfect for us, will be doing it again in a couple of weeks, grabbed a 1:20 PM flight.

 

Sandy

[Pam713]

Before today, I would say yes, you can make the earlier flight, but now I'd say you were right to go with the 1:45. We just got off Enchantment this morning with a 12:15 flight out of FLL. (I've done this before and had NO problem making the flight, so I didn't even blink this time.)

There was some delay at the port this morning - all we were told was "a problem at the terminal this is not in Royal Caribbean's control".

Nobody got off the ship on time, even those with early departure.. We should have been off at 9 a.m. and did not get off the ship until 10:25. Customs was not long, but it still takes time, then getting a taxi (and the driver wanting to troll around looking for more passengers to take when there were 8 of us already in the van - I thought my husband was going to go ballistic!).

We didn't get to FLL until 11:15; JetBlue's check-in line was 20 deep, security line was 20 or 30 in front of us. We nearly had to OJ it to get to the gate and had 5 minutes to spare. That is WAY too close for me.

Next time I will book flights after 1PM. I will probably end up sitting in the airport forever, but it's better than the hectic race we went on this morning!