Earliest Flight After Disembarking in MIA?

Does anyone have any advice? Our cruise is scheduled to dock at 7:00AM and my preferred flight departs MIA at 10:00AM. I have been reading in the ports of call forum that may be tight but most people were talking about the larger ships. Wondering if this holds true for Oceania.

Anyone have any experience with this? Thanks.

Does anyone have any advice? Our cruise is scheduled to dock at 7:00AM and my preferred flight departs MIA at 10:00AM. I have been reading in the ports of call forum that may be tight but most people were talking about the larger ships. Wondering if this holds true for Oceania.

 

Anyone have any experience with this? Thanks.

Oceania suggests the earliest departure time should be 12:00PM or after.

Shari

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CCC Member

We were on the REGATTA Jan 2 cruise. We were scheduled back into Miami at 5AM and booked an 11AM flight out of Miami. Schedule changed to a 10:10 AM departure by airline. Yikes! We were told that normally Immigration and Customs would not let us off the ship until about 8:30AM! We got a "priority" disembarkation from Oceania and were ready to jump off when given the OK - it came at 8:40AM. We were 2nd folks off the ship, picked up our bags, out of Customs and looking for a cab about 5 minutes later. There were ONLY 2 cabs waiting!!! Luckily the dispatcher got us the 2nd one as another couple was fast on our heels yelling that it was their cab - no way. Our cab driver was great, knew how to avoid the heavy traffic and we saw parts of Miami we would never see otherwise. We really didn't think we would make the flight, but am pleased to say that we checked the bags outside the terminal, got through TSA security and at our gate at 9:42AM. Whew! we felt like we were part of the "Amazing Race". Bottom line is....IMHO a 10AM flight is too early to count on as you may not be released early enough or find a cab and get to the airport easily. We were very lucky. Don't believe anyone who tells you that there will be plenty of cabs waiting. Customs and immigration in Miami take their time and don't care about the time of passenger flights.

We have had a couple of debarkations in MIA one the ship was suppose to dock at 7am we did not dock till well after 7:30 then customs/immigration had to clear the ship which took till well after 9am

Another time the ship was not cleared until 9:30 ...some passengers felt they did not need to report to the officials so held up the other passengers ...then there is the frenzy for taxis

I would book noon at the earliest

Thanks all...that is what I thought...I will book later or perhaps next day, no need to be stressed out...

Think well after noon for your flight. On our most recent O cruise, the first group did not get off the ship until after 10:00am. Customs would not clear the ship.

We were late being cleared in Nov as well. Customs were late boarding and it seemed to take forever for them to get set up. And there were NO cabs outside. People were going ape over the ones that did come. We finally walked up the road a bit and snagged one before he got there. At the time I swore I would never take another cruise that ended in Miami, but I am mellowing. I guess it's like childbirth...

It was fine for us as we had an 8 pm flight so we had booked a car at the airport and spent the day on the beach and driving up the coast a bit. Wonderful day and we loved the area. Definitely want to go back.

I had been there on a school break 30 years ago and DH had never been. We had the most amazing lunch in a little Mexican place in a strip mall, one of the best of the year for sure!

Mo

We were late being cleared in Nov as well. Customs were late boarding and it seemed to take forever for them to get set up. And there were NO cabs outside. People were going ape over the ones that did come. We finally walked up the road a bit and snagged one before he got there. At the time I swore I would never take another cruise that ended in Miami, but I am mellowing. I guess it's like childbirth...

LOL, you made me laugh with the childbirth remark, so I'm going to share my Miami Cab secret with you.

As soon as you get to the luggage area, find a porter and give him 2 bucks a bag.......not only will you have a best friend for life, but the porters are authorized to take you to the front of the cab line (I believe that the reasoning is so that they can get back quickly to help another passenger).

We were in the cab 8 minutes after we stepped off of the gangway!

I wonder if you could have made the 10 am flight PVAN.

We docked at 6:00 am, one hour earlier that scheduled. Customs began clearing non-US citizens at 7:00 am and the first groups began to disembark at 8:00 am. We were the last group called but were still off of the ship by 9:15 am. We caught a taxi relatively easily (and probably by luck as we did not use a porter) and we were at the airport by 9:45 am. Cost of the taxi from port to airport is fixed at $24. By way of comparison, Oceania was offering a coach transfer for a quite steep $65 per person.

The Miami airport was a madhouse on January 4. I do not know if this always the case or if this had to do with a post holiday rush. I think it took us over an hour to check our bags and clear security but we still had plenty of time to catch our 1:40 pm flight.

Ok, it looks like I may need to pre-arrange a shuttle van/car/limo instead of banking on being able to get a cab. How much was the cab fare from the port to MIA airport. I like the $2.00/bag tip to a porter idea.

Thanks,

Conan

....How much was the cab fare from the port to MIA airport. I like the $2.00/bag tip to a porter idea.

Thanks,

Conan

....Cost of the taxi from port to airport is fixed at $24. By way of comparison, Oceania was offering a coach transfer for a quite steep $65 per person....

$24 dollars.

Why bother with MIA! We use Ft. Lauderdale and never have had a problem, especially if O get back to port mid-week. WE also take a limo/town car, which eliminates the frenzy for a taxi.

With the exception of LaGuardia, MIA is the worst domestic airport we've ever used. Next would be DFW (arriving international flights) and LAX in general (tied).

Why bother with MIA! We use Ft. Lauderdale and never have had a problem, especially if O get back to port mid-week. WE also take a limo/town car, which eliminates the frenzy for a taxi.

 

With the exception of LaGuardia, MIA is the worst domestic airport we've ever used. Next would be DFW (arriving international flights) and LAX in general (tied).

Not the OP, but a couple of reasons might be:

1) Greater number of non-stop destinations from MIA than FLL.

2) Far greater number of international destinations (OP and others did not say domestic only)

3) Better flight choices (times/routings)

4) Desire to fly AA for FF benefits/accrual.

5) More convenient to Port of Miami than using FLL

MIA has made some great strides recently with the new terminal rebuilds. So it is not an unreasonable option by any means. But thanks for your opinion.

Why bother with MIA! We use Ft. Lauderdale and never have had a problem, especially if O get back to port mid-week.

I'm pretty sure that my worst experience of mayhem at an airport was at FLL. Maybe it was a fluke, but it was really bad.

Not the OP, but a couple of reasons might be:

 

1) Greater number of non-stop destinations from MIA than FLL.

2) Far greater number of international destinations (OP and others did not say domestic only)

3) Better flight choices (times/routings)

4) Desire to fly AA for FF benefits/accrual.

5) More convenient to Port of Miami than using FLL

 

MIA has made some great strides recently with the new terminal rebuilds. So it is not an unreasonable option by any means. But thanks for your opinion.

For DW & I, FLL makes much more sense than MIA. Since we can't get a non-stop to Reno, Cost is a big factor. Much more expensive out of MIA. We use Delta and have had no problems.

$24 dollars.

Thanks for the info Friscorays. I must have been authoring my post as you were sending yours. I didn't see your post.

I'm having trouble finding a Port of Miami shuttle service. One I was able to contact sent me 2 e-mail responses with 2 very different price quotes, therefore deemed unreliable. Leonid or anybody can you recommend a shuttle service? Leaving out of FLL is not an option for us.

Is finding a cab in Port of Miami REALLY that bad??

Is finding a cab in Port of Miami REALLY that bad??

Depends on your fellow passengers;)

the first time we had to fight to get a cab 2nd time most people lined up & took the next available cab ..no problem.

Lyn

It was wose than "that bad" when we were there. Apparently noone told the taxis that a ship was arriving. Cabs were very few and far between.

Mo

Plenty of cabs on the day we arrived, short wait.

Plenty of cabs and short wait when we came in to Miami; however, we were only ship there that day, which might be unusual! Immigration cleared us pretty quickly, even though there were apparently some folks who didn't report as requested to talk to Immigration - they kept calling the names over and over again! I kept thinking the folks must have overslept! Fortunately, it didn't seem to delay our departure from the ship, as the 'brown" group was called right when they estimated we'd be called!