sherryillk

So my family and I will be going on our second cruise, first in Miami and first time with Royal Caribbean next week. I don't deal well with unknowns so hopefully some seasoned cruisers will help soothe some of my anxiety relating to this trip. The first cruise we went on was an Alaskan one out of Vancouver and it was very easy since we had a relative drop us off at the port. Miami will be very different since I will be traveling with my elderly parents and my sister, her husband and their two young kids. Trying to work out logistics so it would be easy on my parents and my sister's kids is making me uneasy. I will be with my parents and we will have a rental minivan. Unfortunately it won't fit all of us and our luggage (apparently kids have a ton of stuff) so I figure we will need to split up. Our hotel has a shuttle to the port that should be easy. But my sister and her family have a later embarkation time than we do. Can they join us on our earlier time? Can I take their luggage with me in the rental and drop it off on behalf of them along with ours? Or will we need one of them with me to leave their luggage with the porters? Would I be able drop off our luggage and then leave the port area (I heard traffic might be bad and chaotic) to return my rental and meet up with them on the ship later? Should I send my parents with my sister? Their English is not the best and are a bit technologically challenged so they would need someone with them or should they come with me? We're all in the same room so if I send them off, would I be able to check in later without them or they without me? I would be returning the rental car at the downtown Budget location which should have a shuttle but I heard that can be iffy too? I'm cool with needing to Uber back there but would just need to plan things accordingly. If anyone can help me not try to spiral with all these unknowns, I would greatly appreciate it!

This is the site I was looking at: https://www.yvr.ca/en/passengers/parking-yvr Just input the dates and it'll give you a quote in CAD and you can reserve your spot in the lot of your choice.

I'm slightly concerned about the border crossing too, especially since it'll be on a Saturday and we'll be mixed in with all those people from Seattle popping up for the weekend. The last time we went on a Saturday was pre-pandemic and we spent about an hour at the border. We went last year but on a weekday and they were still requiring ArriveCAN so it was practically no wait at all at the border. I figure we'll just leave super early and if we end up with extra time, we can do breakfast in Richmond.

It seems like we'll get a discount if we reserve early. It ends up being about $100 USD to park there for the length of our cruise which isn't so bad. Plus, the Skytrain is right across the street from the lot and you can just tap your credit card for it so unless you have a ton of luggage, it should pretty easy plus cheaper and faster than a cab/Uber.

We're also Oregonians driving in for a September Alaskan cruise and the working plan is to drive up the day of the cruise, park at the long term airport parking lot and take the Canada line to the waterfront. We have three drivers so we can take 2-3 hour shifts.