daze823

You may want to consider splitting the drive into a few hours the night before and then a few hours the morning of. You could drive down from universal and stay overnight in Port St. Lucie (approx 2 1/2 hrs from MIA), Stuart (2 hrs) or West Palm Beach (1 to 1 1/2 hrs). It would be relatively easy to spend the day in the park, start driving half way, stop for dinner somewhere along the way and then be at your hotel at a reasonable hour. a 2 hour drive goes a lot faster than a 4 hour drive.

Also, once you get to Port Saint Lucie, you will be able to detour from turnpike to I-95 (or vice versa) if there are any serious traffic jams in the morning. North of port saint lucie you don't have that option. I've driven from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando 5 or 6 times a year for many years, and I've only hit a serious back up on the turnpike once, but I was stuck at a deadstop for about 4 hours. It doesn't happen often, but when it does it can be bad.

teamrlk,

It's hard for me to answer that, because I don't really have any knowledge on car thefts, I would think that it woudl be safe, but it's really hard for me to answer that... if someone is out to steal a car, I would assume they could do it from anywhere, including parking garages, hotels, malls, movie theaters, maybe even from the port... I really don't know... but I would park my car in that hotel for a week, I don't think I would worry about it, any more than if I was to park it somewhere else.

It is certainly not an upscale area, but it is safe for you and your family... Mostly businesses and boat yards between your hotel and the restaurant. The only thing is, there is not a sidewalk between your hotel and the rustic inn, but there is a wide grassy area on the side of the road (not a very busy road), except for a very small bridge that you will need to cross, but if you walk single file you'll be fine. I would have no problem walking with my DW and 10 yr old DS. I would also recommend visiting the outdoor world if anyone in your group enjoys any outdoor activities, if you've never been to one, they are definitely worth the visit... It is a store, but it has a very neat theme to the store and a HUGE aquarium in the middle of the store..

Rsoon,

I would say your best bet would be the Hampton Inn in plantation, they are a ways away from the port and airport, but I've read on here that they offer shuttle rides to and from each... I also read that they have a shuttle that will take you locally, but I don't know if they would consider Sawgrass local, but it's not too far from this location.. You would be about 1/2 way between the port and sawgrass at this location... you can call them to see if they would shuttle you to sawgrass..

You can also do a search for Hampton Inn Plantation on these boards and will get some info from others.

http://hamptoninn.hilton.com/en/hp/hotels/index.jhtml;jsessionid=IDERDO5Q4HLA2CSGBI1MVCQ?ctyhocn=FLLPTHX

Austincici, One hotel that would fit your criteria is:

the Hyatt Place

1851 S.E. 10th Avenue

Ft. lauderdale, FL 33316

If you search this forum you will find lots of information on the hotel, but it is approximately 1 mile from one of the 3 port entrances, there is a Publix (grocery store) across the street, and a liquor store a few blocks down, on the other side of 17th street. There are other places that will meet your criteria, but this would be the most convenient for what you asked for that I can think of.

Donnie

Scootsmom, what type of info are you looking for? I work and live within 2 miles of that hotel, and can help you out... There is not a whole lot of stuff within walking distance of that hotel, but there is the Outdoor world right across the street (fishing and hunting paradise), http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CFPageC?storeId=10151&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&appID=94&storeID=16

which has a restaurant in it as well, the islamarada fish company.... To get there, just cross griffen road and go towards the tri-rail stop and follow the road around to the store...

Also, another restaurant within walking distance is the rustic inn http://www.rusticinn.com/ which is a nice rustic (no pun intended) landmark in south florida, casual dining right next to the water (or inside if you prefer).

Other than those two places, not much within walking distance, but if you can tell me the type of places or activities your looking for, I can help you out.

Donnie

I would recommend Galleria, much nicer mall and closer to you, Aventura is nice, but nothing like Galleria... However, Galleria is a much more upscale mall (read $$), so if you really plan on buying a lot, you may want to consider adventura (but much further away)...

You may want to play with Google Maps a little, it will show you travel times to and from your hotel, with public transportation routes if you'd like.. To get to galleria, you could take a bus from your hotel right to galleria, and it would take you along A1A (so you could get off at the beach and enjoy some shopping there too, and the bus ride only costs about $1.50 and would only take about 20 minutes..

If you go to google, click on the maps link at the top, you can use these addresses to pull up the specific bus route:

Galleria Fort Lauderdale

2414 East Sunrise Boulevard

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304

Embassy Suites Hotel Ft. Lauderdale

1100 Southeast 17th Street

Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33316

While I don't know how universal this is, on the CB the pattern on the deck carpeting was the same on the port and starboard side of the ship. However, the port side had a distinctive red edging to it. If you think of red as port wine and port as left, it becomes very obvious which side to turn when exiting an elevator.

See it all the time, I am cruising with princess, so I see it on their posts frequently, so it may be one of their ships? However, I just saw it on a general board, so now I'm not so sure...

Anyway, thanks for all the explanations from everyone, now I have a good understanding and will probably be able to figure out most that I see.

Ok, new to the entire cruise thing, and having a difficult time reading some posts as they tend to use a lot of abbreviations that I'm not familiar with... If you know, please help explain what the following abbreviations mean, feel free to add any more that I haven't seen as of yet, but am sure to run accross....

DD

DS

DH

DW

b2b

thanks to those who answer these...