Flights to Fort Lauderdale

The 2015/2016 Caribbean itinerary's (Princess) have now been released - Hooray!!

Our next main (cruise type) getaway will be the Caribbean to/from Ft Laud on either the Royal or Regal. :D

Getting there from Australia (Adelaide in our case) we can go West around the globe via Abu Dhabi or Dubai etc, or go East around the globe via LA or Dallas etc. I can easily make an informed decision based on price, number of connections, times etc. But I'm interested on how others have made the journey over (and why). And whether they'd recommend their choice or not.

All opinions welcome...

The 2015/2016 Caribbean itinerary's (Princess) have now been released - Hooray!!

 

Our next main (cruise type) getaway will be the Caribbean to/from Ft Laud on either the Royal or Regal. :D

 

Getting there from Australia (Adelaide in our case) we can go West around the globe via Abu Dhabi or Dubai etc, or go East around the globe via LA or Dallas etc. I can easily make an informed decision based on price, number of connections, times etc. But I'm interested on how others have made the journey over (and why). And whether they'd recommend their choice or not.

 

All opinions welcome...

Hi there, we usually go Perth to Sydney then LA and connect with a direct flight on American Airlines to Miami and then get a transfer to FLL. We sometimes stay overnight at LAX depending on how much time we have. I usually get a limo service to pick us up at Miami for the transfer to FLL, especially when we have flown straight through! Qantas lands about 6am in LA and we get the direct flight to Miami about 10am. The flight time to Miami is 5 hours and with the time change you arrive late afternoon. FLL is about an hour's drive from Miami.

I know a great area to stay in if you are interested. Lots of shops and eating places around and close to the port. You can walk down to see the ship early in the morning.

We did similar last year. Our decision was based firstly on time, then price. We flew from Sydney with Qantas to Dallas, then got a connection with AA to Miami (in your case it would be connection to FLL). We wanted a 4hr layover in Dallas, but our booking was altered to just a 2 and half hr. This turned out to be plenty of time. We decided on the Dallas route, as LAX is notorious for delays, and is quite tricky for first timers to get around....the layover at LAX would have to of been at least 4 hrs minimum. Dallas airport is unlike anything downunder, with all their terminals being way apart, but connected via a free fast train circular system. This was exceptionally easy to navigate. Suggest you fly in a few days early, as lots to see in that part of the world eg the better Disneyland, fabulous beaches, everglades etc.

After our Caribbean cruise we flew back to LAX with AA, flew with Southwest (fabulous) to Las Vegas, then hopped on another cruise from LA up to Vancouver, stayed a bit, then hopped on yet another very cheap cruise from Vancouver to Anchorage.....then flew back to LAX with Alaskan Air, where we experienced 24hr delays in LAX... and home.

The Qantas flight over was just as good as previous Emirates ones (elsewhere), being an A380.

The 'aussie' terminal at LAX has been renovated, and all facilities are now believed to be operating within. A very busy hub. Dallas airport is super modern, super clean and as stated, very easy to navigate.

Qantas and American Airlines are members of Oneworld Alliance, so your mileage points can be amalgamated to the Qantas FF program. We did get our flights written on the one ticket, as this covered us with baggage fees on AA.

We went with Virgin America on the US domedtic part of the trip.

Direct from LA to FL.....Virgin has Wifi available and I like the way you can purchase food & drinks from your tv screen.

Would highly recommend them.

Sent from my GT-I9305 using Tapatalk

The way we get to Fort Lauderdale is to fly with Air New Zealand from Melbourne or Sydney via Auckland to San Francisco or Los Angeles . Spend a few days in San Francisco then onwards with Code share partner from San Francisco to Miami International . Fort Lauderdale is 30 minutes by taxi from Miami International . 5 hour flight SFO - MIA .

If you are in Sydney you could fly QF from Sydney to Dallas Fort Worth, then onward to Miami or Fort Lauderdale .

We travelled from Perth to Florida by Qantas and AA to do a cruise on the Allure of the Seas in Sept last year.

We found leaving mid week (Wednesday) was the cheapest. Left Perth Wednesday morning to Sydney, then to Fort Lauderdale via Dallas. No long stop overs. We got off our flight in Dallas, went through customs, hopped on monorail to terminal for our next flight and had around 30-40 mins wait. Great.

Arrived Wednesday night in Fort Lauderdale, so off to bed and felt great the next morning. No effects of jet lag.

We stayed at the Hyatt Pier 66 for 3 nights. We could see the cruise ships come and go from our balcony. We took a shared cab to the dock on the Sunday morning. Charged per person ($7)

If your cruise leaves from Port Everglades, fly to Fort Lauderdale.

Cheers:)

We did similar last year. Our decision was based firstly on time, then price. We flew from Sydney with Qantas to Dallas, then got a connection with AA to Miami (in your case it would be connection to FLL). We wanted a 4hr layover in Dallas, but our booking was altered to just a 2 and half hr. This turned out to be plenty of time. We decided on the Dallas route, as LAX is notorious for delays, and is quite tricky for first timers to get around....the layover at LAX would have to of been at least 4 hrs minimum. Dallas airport is unlike anything downunder, with all their terminals being way apart, but connected via a free fast train circular system. This was exceptionally easy to navigate. Suggest you fly in a few days early, as lots to see in that part of the world eg the better Disneyland, fabulous beaches, everglades etc.

After our Caribbean cruise we flew back to LAX with AA, flew with Southwest (fabulous) to Las Vegas, then hopped on another cruise from LA up to Vancouver, stayed a bit, then hopped on yet another very cheap cruise from Vancouver to Anchorage.....then flew back to LAX with Alaskan Air, where we experienced 24hr delays in LAX... and home.

The Qantas flight over was just as good as previous Emirates ones (elsewhere), being an A380.

The 'aussie' terminal at LAX has been renovated, and all facilities are now believed to be operating within. A very busy hub. Dallas airport is super modern, super clean and as stated, very easy to navigate.

Qantas and American Airlines are members of Oneworld Alliance, so your mileage points can be amalgamated to the Qantas FF program. We did get our flights written on the one ticket, as this covered us with baggage fees on AA.

Glad you put "Fabulous" after SothWest as I have booked 4 US domestic flights with them this June!

I actually paid the $12 pp extra for SouthWest to allocate boarding position before the 24 hour online check in starts so hopefully we will have easy boarding experiences as there are no seat allocations just first in best dressed:)

JetBlue is another good option, 2 years ago I got $40 flights each way to Vegas and JetBlue includes checked luggage like Southwest.

Glad you put "Fabulous" after SothWest as I have booked 4 US domestic flights with them this June!

 

I actually paid the $12 pp extra for SouthWest to allocate boarding position before the 24 hour online check in starts so hopefully we will have easy boarding experiences as there are no seat allocations just first in best dressed:)

 

JetBlue is another good option, 2 years ago I got $40 flights each way to Vegas and JetBlue includes checked luggage like Southwest.

We were expecting Southwest to be a bit of a "Tiger", but not so. More like our domestic Virgin or Jetstar, only with small free snacks. We didn't pay the extra for boarding. Took our chances, and all went well. We also booked one of their flight/hotel deals. Best price we could find on the net, and that went smooth as well.

We flew Air pacific(Fiji Air) to LA last time ,we then took jet Blue direct to Fort Lauderdale ,but if we do it again would break the trip and stay in LA the night ,we like South West and Jet Blue but it depends on the scedules,this year we are flying to Barcelona and taking the Regal Princess to Fort lauderdale ,we will fly back to LA with Jet Blue flying out from Fort lauderdale is always cheaper than Miami , one way $160.00 each FT to LA and then emirates to Dubai for a few days .Jet Blue has lovely modern Jets very clean and good leg space and 23 kg luggage is included

You can get amazing airfares with Virgin Australia quite often. They had SYD to LAX return for $1175 the other week in their happy hour sale. I'd then catch a Virgin America or Delta connecting flight through to FLL.

We flew United to the west coast of either SFO or LAX. We have flown through Chicago, Denver and sometimes direct to Miami. I would highly recommend a through flight to either Fort Lauderdale or Miami. As mentioned Miami is only about 1 hour drive away from Port Everglades where the ships leave from. Both Fort Lauderdale and Miami are interesting placed to visit and would recommend some time in both places to explore them.

We have flown to FLL quite a few times. We fly with Virgin Australia or Qantas direct to LAX then Southwest or Delta direct to FLL. Any of these combinations are excellent. We choose depending on price and timing.

In 2013, we flew Hawaiian Air from Brisbane to Las Vegas and San Francisco to Brisbane as we we wanted stopovers in Las Vegas and Hawaii. We also used Southwest to get to Fort Lauderdale for our 49 day South American cruise finishing in San Francisco. The fares were cheaper than Qantas and we booked the Southwest flight on the internet. Both airlines are OK.

The advantage of flying via Honolulu is that US immigration is performed there and this can reduce long processing times which can occur at LAX. We did have a 9 hour layover before the domestic flight to Las Vegas but after checking our bags, we caught a local bus at the airport (for $1 seniors return) for the 20 minute ride to Pearl Harbour. As all bags have to be checked in at Pearl Harbour, we were able to deposit our carryon luggage ($3) whilst we looked around the site. I'm not sure of what the layover time on the return flight would be as we spent a few days in Honolulu.

Thanks everyone for your replies. It's really informative and helful for me going through all your examples and airline recomendations. Susie2shoes - what area is it you would recommend for pre-cruise stay??

If anyone's interested, we have narrowed our cruise options to 2.

- 10 night eastern voyager on Royal Princess

- 14 night eastern plus western B2B on Regal Princess

We where thinking of doing a 7 night Royal,or,Regal plus 7 night oasis,or,allure ots b2b to experience both cruise lines flag ships while in that part of the world, but were a bit concerned we would find the RCCL big heavy weights a bit too family friendly for our relaxing tastes.

So there you go - lots of planning still to do.

Any more advice big or small, any little thing, is most welcome. :)

Lanwood

We are from Brisbane, late last year we flew Brisbane to Sydney, Sydney to Dallas, Dallas to Orlando - all with QANTAS and ticketed all the way to Orlando, Florida.

We cruised on oasis ots B2B 7 night cruises. Absolutely loved Oasis of the Seas, everywhere we went throughout the caribbean, people would ask - what ship are you on? when we said oasis ots they would say oh we wish we were on that ship. I remember being in one of the ports next to another cruise line and people would just stare at the ship - it is awesome. You can find a spot anywhere and not be crowded or disturbed by other people. It is amazing how royal caribbean manage crowd control - they really have it down pat on this massive ship. You really should try it, forget about the size other people are very envious.

Although we drove from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale after spending 10 nights visiting Disney World and Universal Studios, crazy shopping etc, we then flew Jet Blue (after the cruises) from FLL to Washington DC. I booked Jetblue myself online and they were amazing - I bought the extra space / more space and paid the extra to choose seats.

If you are travelling after your cruise and decide to go on oasis, Royal have a luggage valet service for $20 per person where they take your luggage from outside the cabin on the last night and the next time you see it is at your next destination, for us that was Washington. So we got to spend some time in Miami, South Beach area. It's a 40 minute drive from FLL airport to Miami and very easy to find. The cruise ship terminal in FLL is a 10 minute drive to FLL airport, again very easy drive and is the best place for car rentals.

To be really honest, all four of us were feeling the air sickness by the time we got to Dallas - 15 hours. It was really too long and we were stuck in the middle seats.... having said that if you can handle a long haul flight like this, Dallas is an amazing airport. 8 miles wide and as other posters have said there is a monorail that takes you from one terminal to another. You will have to collect your luggage and go through customs as its your arrival airport and then take your luggage and place it on the transfer belt. Then you catch the monorail to the domestic terminal. We arrived around 1.30pm and there was no other flight arriving in the terminal that QANTAS uses, so it was very quick getting through customs/border protection. Dallas airport also has a 5 storey high escalator and all the BIG souvenirs. Amazingly, the have little carts that drive around the airport to take passengers to McDonalds , yep McDonalds .... Our connecting flight from Dallas to Orlando was American, not impressed with them at all, we paid QANTAS fare and expected a meal as we were flying at dinner time but NO meal, no drinks, nothing. If you can do the research yourself, I would fly Sydney to Dallas and then by your own domestic flight from Dallas to FLL.

Just getting back to Oasis / Allure of the Seas, the entertainment is AMAZING, from broadway shows to Ice Skating Shows .... the aqua theatre with olympic level divers, and a lot more entertainment is something you should really consider.

Happy planning....

Thanks Miamia65 - you're sure adding more food for thought for me :)

Lanwood

I should add we stayed at the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina Hotel, the room was a tower double with intercoastal views. It was on the cruise ship terminal side so we got up early and watched the ships come into port. The princess ships dock really close to this hotel and the RCI ships are further away. I remember seeing a princess ship that morning but they are dwarfed in size compared to oasis/alllure. The Hilton was central and again only a 10 minute drive to the airport with gas stations on the way. In the US you have to pay before you fill up the car and be careful at the rental desks even if you have prepaid/prebooked they try to sell you the option for them to refuel the vehicle and say you won't find a gas station ... you will they are everywhere.

The Hyatt pier 66 is also on the same road as the hilton and has views of the port. You should check out the webcam for port everglades there are a few cameras and if you time it on weekends you can watch the ships come in and out of port. Here is a link to the webcam, but be careful its addictive -

http://www.portevergladeswebcam.com

Are you going anywhere else in the US while you are there ??

Lanwood

I should add we stayed at the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina Hotel, the room was a tower double with intercoastal views. It was on the cruise ship terminal side so we got up early and watched the ships come into port. The princess ships dock really close to this hotel and the RCI ships are further away. I remember seeing a princess ship that morning but they are dwarfed in size compared to oasis/alllure. The Hilton was central and again only a 10 minute drive to the airport with gas stations on the way. In the US you have to pay before you fill up the car and be careful at the rental desks even if you have prepaid/prebooked they try to sell you the option for them to refuel the vehicle and say you won't find a gas station ... you will they are everywhere.

 

The Hyatt pier 66 is also on the same road as the hilton and has views of the port. You should check out the webcam for port everglades there are a few cameras and if you time it on weekends you can watch the ships come in and out of port. Here is a link to the webcam, but be careful its addictive -

 

http://www.portevergladeswebcam.com

 

Are you going anywhere else in the US while you are there ??

Wow - thanks for that. Yes, we will be going elsewhere, but yet to be determined (cruise first - then rest planned around it :D). It will be our first time in the US, as we have always tended to head off to Europe every 2 years, with local/NZ/Asian getaways inbetween. Time will be limited as we can only justify a limited amount of time off work for each getaway. So planning is paramount. This site helps heaps. Thanks.

We did a 7 day cruise on the Allure in Sept last year. Amazing ship!! I have posted above how we went Perth, Sydney, Dallas and Fort Lauderdale. We stayed at Hyatt Pier 66. I booked all our flights through Qantas web site, ticketed all the way through. No hassles. We hired a car (Dollar) after the cruise, just near the dock. $10 taxi ride ( that was the minimum fare). Booked it on FlightCentre web site - driveaway holidays. $450 for 11 days. We drove to the west coast of Florida, then up to Orlando for 10 nights - Disneyworld and Universal etc. We are in our late 50's - early 60's and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

We flew back to Australia via L.A. With American Airlines, they give you a drink, but no meal. You can buy snacks, but they don't accept cash, only credit cards :-(

Not worth the conversion fees. Virtually got off plane in LA and boarded Qantas flight to Sydney. Which was great. Hate sitting around airports waiting.

We had time and so we took the scenic route. Flight to Rome. Trans Atlantic cruise from Rome to Miami that arrived on the day of our Caribbean cruise . Miami people mover and train to Ft Lauderdale. Panama Canal cruise from Miami to LA and then a flight home from LA to Sydney. $1480 for airfare in Oct last year.

As I said we had the time to do 4 cruises and if you also have time and are prepared to book the cheapest cabins for the connecting legs it can be done for (relatively speaking)not that much more than the airfare costs to fly to Florida and back. The west bound Trans Atlantics are mostly in Oct Nov and some of the best bargains for Caribbean cruises can be found then as well. The weather at that time of year was sensational but it is the tail end of hurricane season.

Edit. Sorry just read your last post about limited time. I will leave this as is though as it may be useful to someone else.

Thanks everyone for your input. Am loving reading this info!:)

Thanks everyone for your replies. It's really informative and helful for me going through all your examples and airline recomendations. Susie2shoes - what area is it you would recommend for pre-cruise stay??

 

If anyone's interested, we have narrowed our cruise options to 2.

- 10 night eastern voyager on Royal Princess

- 14 night eastern plus western B2B on Regal Princess

 

We where thinking of doing a 7 night Royal,or,Regal plus 7 night oasis,or,allure ots b2b to experience both cruise lines flag ships while in that part of the world, but were a bit concerned we would find the RCCL big heavy weights a bit too family friendly for our relaxing tastes.

 

So there you go - lots of planning still to do.

Any more advice big or small, any little thing, is most welcome. :)

Lanwood,

If you are considering eastern or western caribbean cruise, I would chose eastern over western destinations... we went to Nassau (Bahamas), St Thomas and St Maarten ... wandered around Nassau as we only had 6 or 7 hours, hired a private catamaran in St Thomas and swam with turtles, hired a private taxi in St Maarten for 5 hours who took us around the entire island (dutch and french sides). You must stop at Maho (Airport) Beach - look it up on youtube ... the planes take off right by the beach... amazing and people do crazy things there. Mid afternoon is the best time, as flights land in the morning and take off in the afternoon (which is when crazy people hold on to the fence and get blown away especially by the bigger jets).

Come back and tell us what you decide re: your flights.

Come back and tell us what you decide re: your flights.

I certainly will. Thanks again all.

Hi all - it took a while, but I've finally booked our flights to the US, and as promised, I'm posting what we chose.

We came very close to booking Emirates, as we live in Adelaide and are going to NY first, it was an easy trip there, but more cumbersome returning. We also checked out AirNZ, Virgin, Delta, United (we even looked at Cathay, Malaysian, Korean and Japan airways etc). There were some good deals that had come and gone on most of these, but we missed the boat, and don't want to risk holding out for something that may or may not come again.

We ended up booking Qantas as recommended by many here on the thread. We found (at the time of booking) it was well priced, but more importantly easy ride there and back. Going via SYD-LAX-JFK there, and MIA-DFW-SYD back. Both rides around 25-28hours.

Cheers everyone for your feedback. I printed them all off and used them regularly over the previous months checking rates and times.

I know that you have now booked your flights but I'll let you know how we are flying to Miami.

We are in Perth and probably like Adelaide don't have much to choose from on international flights.

We are flying Qatar Airways. Perth - Doha - Miami. So just one stop.

It seems a strange way but we were lucky enough to get a couple of flights with Qantas awards. Our cruise finishes in Rio so it was much easier to buy one way tickets.

We are actually flying onto Orlando when we arrive to visit Family and to go to Disney again.