How far have you driven to a port?

[LorrieB]

We drive from Tulsa to Galveston (10 hours). Not a bad drive especially when I sleep most of the way. Poor husband. But, he does get his chance to sleep as well. Luckily in November we are doing the halfway thing. We are leaving Friday to drive to Dallas (5 hours) and stay the night with friends who are cruising with us on the Conquest and then driving in Saturday to Houston to pick up my mother at the airport and then having a nice relaxing afternoon in Galveston until Sunday morning.... OMG.... HERE WE COME CONQUEST!!!!!!!!!

Other than that.... it's pretty much status quo!!!! :o

[ADL3]

Central Arkansas to Mobile (Holiday) and Tampa (Legend). About 9 hours to Mobile and 16 or 17 to Tampa (but we split it up).

[LorrieB]

Thanks for all the information and experiences. :)

 

I'm really hoping that the Magic will just be ported in Galveston and then we won't have to worry about it. (Are you listening Carnival?) (I'm sure they care what one person in Houston thinks!)

 

I love the Conquest but if I have to watch Formidable one more time... :D

I vote for Galveston too but that's another thread!!!!!!!

[bklynangel]

Next august I'm driving to Port everglades and i know this is going to be hard to do. Ill have at least one other driver, maybe 2, and hopefully i can do it. How many hours do you think it should take from New Jersey? We are leaving at 4 am and not going to stop until 9pm. Hopefully by then, we will be close to florida. We have taken amtrak to florida, but i think it will be better to drive. Amtrak takes longer . We don't fly and i'm sorry we dont. Nothing beats catching your ship in NYC. I leave tomorrow out of NY and cant wait.

[LemurCat]

Next august I'm driving to Port everglades and i know this is going to be hard to do. Ill have at least one other driver, maybe 2, and hopefully i can do it. How many hours do you think it should take from New Jersey? We are leaving at 4 am and not going to stop until 9pm. Hopefully by then, we will be close to florida. We have taken amtrak to florida, but i think it will be better to drive. Amtrak takes longer . We don't fly and i'm sorry we dont.

 

What part of Jersey are you leaving from? Depending on that and traffic through the DC corridor on I-95, you should be close to the Florida line. We've also found Pooler, GA to be a particularly nice place to stop for the night when no pushing all the way through.

[Wolfie48]

My DW won't fly, so I have to drive her to any port we want to cruise from. So far the farthest has been about 500 miles one way, thats N. Cali to San Diego. But I would drive to Galveston if she wanted.

[jturner901]

We have enjoyably driven from home (Mount Hope, Ontario) to Port Everglades which is about 2300 km or 23 hours drive time. In January we are driving from home to pick up the Ryndam in Tampa which is 2100 km or 21 hours. We have flown in the past as well. The bride likes when we drive. It allows her to bring every pair of shoes she owns (it seems like anyway) because we don't have to pack them and pay for the extra baggage weight. We have mathed it out for Tampa and driving will probably cost us a little less than flying and that's considering flights from Buffalo or Rochester. Airfare from Canada is just plain ridiculous.

[thecarnivalkid]

My group drives down from Ontario Canada to Miami a few times a year and it usually takes around 20-24 hours nonstop, I think around 1500 miles each way.

 

With all the overweight charges (heavy dive gear) the airlines tack onto the already high 300 dollar or so from Detroit flight cost the price to get there exceeds the cost of the cruise when flying so we drive.

 

In January, me and 3 rolled down to Miami and back for 80 bucks in fuel, 85 to be exact, and that was to Key Largo for a few days precruise. Driving opens up more doors for fun in the pre and post cruise time and the savings in the flights makes it a wash to grab a hotel for a day or 2 on either side of the cruise IMO.

 

cost of air and getting to the pier for that last cruise=350 each or so, is 1400. cost of driving in the a 40mpg putput= 85 each way, total 170. big savings to me but not for everyone!

[Liberty6277]

Try Detroit, MI to Miami. Approx. 1422 miles each way. Twice!

 

Andy.

 

Try 1hr north of Toronto to Miami at least 6 times in last 12 years, Takes us 4 hrs to get to Detroit but we usually goes through Fort Erie route to Florida, Cost last year was about $250 gas 1 way and food and we stay 1 night using room saver coupon in Charlotte area for about $70 which is about half way.

You do have to like to drive. but the savings is well worth it! Flight would of been $600 each compared to 250 and 100 for night stay, When you are talking 4 people 4x600=2400 compared to 500 gas 200 night stays =700. Ill save the 1500 every time.PS" That 250 gas 1 way included meals also Gas alone was about 125 each way, plus it adds to your vacation time and a great way to see the country!

[ItsAllAboutTheSass]

We drive 40 minutes to our airPORT..... LOL

[dallas52]

i rode my harley from charlotte to cocoa beach for a cruise once, only took 10 hours, met wife there with luggage, i could have hauled mine but not hers.

[ginjer2911]

We will be driving to New Orleans from Austin in September for our cruise. It is just too expensive with the four of us. And this way we can bring more stuff! lol. But we have driven from Texas to Colorado without stopping many times. Our girls are good travellers and we have a dvd player in our mini-van. I totally agree that it makes a big difference if you have a comfortable vehicle and good company.

 

For me, I like driving because it gives me time to knit while dh drives.

[travellover59]

Drove from Cincinnati (actually Northern KY) to Miami for our recent cruise. On the way down stopped at Stone Mtn Georgia and then stopped at Universal for one day and then headed to Miami. Drove straight home after cruise. 17 hours.

[clerky96]

Never driven to any port. We live in central Illinois and with just the 2 of us, we can fly cheaper than we can drive. But I always sit down, run all the figures and come up with how much it will cost us to drive. Then we start looking at the cost of flying. So far it has always been cheaper to fly. Of course if there were more than the 2 of us it might be worth it to drive. Would be great to live nearer to a port, but our family is here.:rolleyes:

[kristyintx]

We drove from Dallas to Port Canaveral in 2007 with our two boys who were 12 & 10 at the time. It took us 16 hours each way.

 

The drive down wasn't bad with all the anticipation. The drive back, however, was pure h***. I swore never again.

 

However, just this month all four of us flew to San Juan to board the AOS. With the added cost of airfare, baggage fees, baggage restrictions, security measures, stress of whether the flight will make it or be on time, and my supposed fear of flying (which just set in - never had that before) I'm thinking we'll drive next time.

 

Flying stinks. I don't like it AT ALL and neither does the rest of my family. As much as the boys complained about the drive a couple of years ago, I asked them when we returned from our trip this year which type of transportation they prefer next time and they both said "drive". I couldn't believe it......

[readytogo2]

We live on Long Island, when we take the kids, we drive to Florida to save a lot of bucks...but when just the 2 of us cruise, we fly:p Id rather cruise from New York(just a 30-40 minute drive) but the cruises are limited and/or overpriced:eek: This year its just a quick drive to the City and we're off to Cruise to Canada:D

[nbsjcruiser]

We live in Houston and have cruised the Conquest and the Ecstasy twice each. Being really close to Galveston is such a bonus, but we are thinking about driving to another port to take advantage of other ships or itineraries. We don't want to fly because that will add over $1200 to our vacation budget.

 

My question - what is farthest you've driven to a port and was it worth it? I can imagine getting to the port was fine since everyone is hyped up with anticipation of the cruise but I'm concerned about the returning home part.

 

New Orleans (Triumph) is 5.5 hours away and the closest port in Florida (I think Orlando and the Dream) is 16 hours. New Orleans is definitely doable but Orlando... I'm not so sure.

 

What have been your experiences?

 

 

Thanks!

 

We drove from Saint John NB, Canada to New York. Left at 4AM on Saturday and saw the skyline of New York City 15 hours later!! Next day we were on the ship to Bermuda!

 

Worth it? Yes. 4 people flying would have been too expensive.

[BonnieVA]

I will not fly so we drive everywhere. Last Aug we drove from Richmond, VA, to Miami (stopped on Jacksonville overnight). This April we drove about 1000 miles to New Orleans (stopped overnight in Charlotte, NC, at in-laws'). It's not fun but it's do-able ... & we do this w/ our 4 sons, aged 5 to 16.

[Houstoncruiser2007]

Gosh, I never realized how far some of you have to drive to cruise. I am so thankful we are so close to Galveston, but its nice to know that its doable if we decide to try one of the other ports or ships. Thanks to all for the input.

 

:)

[deepnite10]

the only time we ve driven to port is if its out of LA or San Diego..LA is a

easy going 5 1/2 hr drive and another 2 hrs for San Diego..

 

we considered driving up to Seattle..we ve never seen the scenery up north and it would be a experience..then considering it would be a 16 hr drive we opted to fly..:o..the first few hrs would be fun..but after that the *can t wait to get there* attitude would set in..

[lovingUT]

We'll be driving 1,090 miles from southern UT to Seattle, but are retired so flexible schedule and have been enjoying road trips across the North American continent together for 37 years. There are several trips a year that still require flying (yuck!) but with a husband who loves to drive, the passenger (me) who was raised by a gypsy Mom who also loved to drive, a good book to read aloud, the Road Atlas (Rand McNally also being a favorite author) a stocked cooler and it's off to explore the yellow brick road. Our ship sails Sept. 4, but we'll leave home early on the 1st for sights unseen! A Honda Civic makes the gas bill palatable & a great way to see America.

[remharri]

We drove the last time even though we swore to never do it again. We are in Indiana and we drove to Miami last year. It was an awesome trip down but it was awful coming back!

[glrounds]

Some of you "Long Haulers" may be interested to know, there are many books on CDs you can check out from your local library. Makes the drive sometimes much more interesting.

My son and I coming back from an SSR Rally in Kerrville, Texas to our home here in So Cal, listened to a book, Asherone, for 2 days (19 CDs :eek:). Not really a book I would normally get interested in, but the more we listened the more we got "hooked". :) The book was about mythological gods and was a little sexually graphic, so borrower beware. :rolleyes:

The lady that introduced us to these CDs, a fellow SSR owner, let us "borrow" this book from her for the way home and also gave us a website that allows anyone to download a book onto their computer and its FREE (the "book" then vanishes from your puter in 14 days :confused:) I'll see if I can find the website. I'm not sure if the downloaded "book" can then be uploaded to a blank CD for your car or truck CD player, but you might think about downloading onto your laptop and then taking the laptop along.:rolleyes:

[IKE]

We have driven from Dutchess County,New York down to Port Canaveral, Ft. Lauderdale and Miami. We take our time and do it in 2 days with a stopover the first day. Then We usually spend 2 days before the cruise in Florida and take in the sights and shopping. Very enjoyable.

[marshhawk]

Atlanta to Port Canaveral, friends wedding on the beach, then rush to ship. I'm such a tourist that any drive is a reason to stop and see something I've wanted to see. Our next cruise out of Tampa, I need to see the Aquarium, and the Salvidor Dali museum.:eek: What a tourist!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL