Equinox in August

On board the Equinox in August sailing out of Miami. Having a hard time finding a cheap flight (from Toronto)

to Miami. Has anyone flown into Fort Lauderdale? How far is it? Are there shuttles or can I take a taxi?

Can I fly in the day of or should I fly in day before and stay the night? Thanks for your help!

From Ft. Lauderdale airport the ride is about 45 minutes. You can taxi there (will run about $100) and there are shuttles to the cruise port. https://goairportshuttle.com/city/fla1

I would always recommend flying in the night before. So many things can go wrong when you fly in the same day. If you do Ft. Lauderdale there are loads of hotels between there and Miami to chose from in various price ranges. Many of the hotels near the airport offer courtesy shuttles to and from the airport.

We are flying from Toronto to Ft. Lauderdale the day before our cruise in September and flying back from Miami right after our cruise. Price was $355 CAD but we booked these flights months ago.

We are renting a car and rental prices were part of the decision making process as it was cheaper to rent from FLL than MIA. We will be returning the car close to the port where they have shuttle buses. I believe they offer shuttles to the port from MIA as well.

Have you looked into flying Southwest from Buffalo?

Also check out flights on Spirit Airlines out of Niagara Falls NY.

We are sailing on the Equinox on July 30th. I can't remember or flight prices, and we are flying from much further south however we are flying Southwest from Newark to Ft. Lauderdale very early in the morning the day before and then we are taking SAS shuttle to our hotel (the Hampton Inn Brickell) in Miami for the night. We are planning on being in Miami by 2pm if everything goes according to plan. We are planning on using the Metromover and Uber to get around.

SAS shuttle is between 13 and 15 dollars per person. We used them last summer both from FLL to Miami and from our ship back to FLL and they were great both ways! Especially on the way down when they sent a van back for us when our flight was delayed 3-4 hours!

Hampton Inn Brickell is right near Mary Brickell Village, has a free breakfast, is near the Metromover and there is room for 3 adults in the room which was difficult to find at a reasonable price! We are planing to get in, eat, go to Publix, then take the mover to Bayside for the evening/dinner and then come back for a swim. The next morning we will grab an uber to the port!

 

SAS shuttle is between 13 and 15 dollars per person. We used them last summer both from FLL to Miami and from our ship back to FLL and they were great both ways! Especially on the way down when they sent a van back for us when our flight was delayed 3-4 hours!

 

Thanks for the info on SAS. That looks like the cheapest option to get from FLL to our hotel in Miami, not to mention the cheapest way back to FLL from the Port of Miami.

An uber from FLL to mia port cost us $60.

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Try flying from Buffalo. We fly First class from Detroit for half the price of economy from Canada!

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Also on the July 30th sailing. Fly into Fort Lauderdale the day before. Stay at hotel with an airport shuttle. Then on day of sailing ask to be dropped at the Tri Rail station. Take Uber from MIA.

IMHO never ever ever ever fly in the day of unless you are ok with potentially missing your cruise. These days airlines book planes so full that if your flight is delayed or cancelled you may not be able to get on another that will get there in time. Years ago I might have chanced it (although I much prefer a day or two ahead for the relaxation factor), but in today's flight scenarios no way would I do it.

Hi OP,

I just got off the Equinox last Sunday and flew in and out of Ft. Lauderdale. We stayed at the Ritz Carlton on the beach the night before. There were less expensive options (I think we paid about $400 including all of the room fees), but if you book that hotel through a virtuoso travel agent, you get a $72 breakfast credit as well as a $100 resort credit to use on other food and beverage (also free room upgrade and early check and late check out), which worked out really well in our case. We used Larry's Limos to the port and I think the total cost was about $188 round trip including tip back and forth from the hotel to the port and then from the port to the airport in a Lincoln Sedan. They were on time and professional and handled all of the luggage for us. We also had them meet us at the luggage carousel when we arrived to bring us to the hotel which was less than $60. Hope this helps.

Neda

Thanks for the info on SAS. That looks like the cheapest option to get from FLL to our hotel in Miami, not to mention the cheapest way back to FLL from the Port of Miami.

Just check on their website that they will go to your hotel. They only serve a select group of hotels all in the Bayside/Brickell area. We called and asked about ours last summer (YVE) and they said they would drop us since it was two blocks down from the Holiday Inn which is on the list, we also offered to be dropped at the Holiday Inn and then walk but it wasn't a problem. The YVE is now on their list. It may be worth it to call and ask if you pick something just down the block from where they already drop off.

Conrad

1395 Brickell Ave

Courtyard Marriott

200 SE 2 Ave

DoubleTree

1717 N Bayshore Dr

Epic

270 Biscayne Blvd Way

Four Seasons

1435 Brickell Ave

Hampton Inn

50 SW 12th St

Hilton

1601 Biscayne Blvd

Holiday Inn

340 Biscayne Blvd

Hyatt Regency

400 SE 2 Ave

Intercontinental

100 Chopin Plaza

JW Marriott Marquis

255 Biscayne Blvd Way

JW Marriott

1109 Brickell Ave

Leamington

307 NE 1st St

Marriott

1633 N Bayshore Dr

River Park

100 SE 4th St

Viceroy

485 Brickell Ave

Yve

146 Biscayne Blvd

We are flying into Ft. Lauderdale, taking the free airport shuttle to the hotel and then SAS to the cruiseport. They are picking us up at 9:30 more or less...they were about 20 minutes late last time but we still got to the ship plenty early. For the return, they ask you to call as you are getting off the ship. We pretty much cleared customs and caught the van. It was so nice.

I flew in the same day as my cruise once several years ago. I probably would not do it again. I was worried I would miss the ship. Made for a really long first day of vacation.

We are flying into Ft. Lauderdale, taking the free airport shuttle to the hotel and then SAS to the cruiseport. They are picking us up at 9:30 more or less...they were about 20 minutes late last time but we still got to the ship plenty early. For the return, they ask you to call as you are getting off the ship. We pretty much cleared customs and caught the van. It was so nice.

 

I flew in the same day as my cruise once several years ago. I probably would not do it again. I was worried I would miss the ship. Made for a really long first day of vacation.

We were delayed 3-4 hours last summer, and it would have been super close if we would have made the ship. We took the shuttle right to Miami, checked into our hotel and walked directly across the street to Bayside for some food and the ships leaving that day were departing already! It was an super long day (we took a shuttle bus from our local airport to Newark and then had a 2 hour delay + 3 hour delay) and then the flight, then traveling to Miami. I did it all in a walking cast. I can't wait to explore Miami this summer hopefully feeling much better! We waited quite a bit for SAS to fill a van on the morning we traveled back to FLL, however we had no reason to get off the ship early so we hung out in the Yacht Club until they kicked us out last summer!

We are also sailing out of Miami on the Equinox later in the year. After gathering info on these boards, this is what we decided would be the most economical way for us.

We are flying across country so are definitely staying the night. We decided on a hotel in Dania Beach near the FLL airport, which provides free airport shuttles as well as free breakfast. We got it for a pretty good price but that was months ago. SAS shuttle service will pick us up at the hotel and take us directly to the port of Miami the morning of the cruise for $15 pp. This was a perk as we don't have to transfer back to the FLL airport the morning of the cruise.

Can't help you out with the flights but keep checking for deals....but they seem to be MIA lately ... ouch!!

IDK, im seeing $152 one way to MIA from Toronto almost all month. Have you looked at google flights? That seems pretty reasonable. $167 on the way back and thats on Sunday