Earliest "safe" times from Miami port?

Hi,

Looking into prices of flights for my cruise in March. What is a safe early time to book if my flight leaves from Miami? What about fort Lauderdale? 11am? Or later? Haven't gone out of Miami in years.

If you are arriving to the Port Of Miami, then I would say Noon or laster for the Miami Airport and 12:30 PM or later to the Fort Lauderdale Airport.

For the convenience I would go with the Miami Airport. You can take a taxi so no worries about booking something else and timing it and there is a flat fare of $27.00 before tip for the taxi.

When you introduce Fort Lauderdale airport to the equation a taxi can run around $80.00 and then the alternatives in terms of scheduling them gets trickier. Now if you go with say at 1:00 PM flight out of Fort Lauderdale then far less tricky with alternatives.

Keith

If you are arriving to the Port Of Miami, then I would say Noon or laster for the Miami Airport and 12:30 PM or later to the Fort Lauderdale Airport.

 

For the convenience I would go with the Miami Airport. You can take a taxi so no worries about booking something else and timing it and there is a flat fare of $27.00 before tip for the taxi.

 

When you introduce Fort Lauderdale airport to the equation a taxi can run around $80.00 and then the alternatives in terms of scheduling them gets trickier. Now if you go with say at 1:00 PM flight out of Fort Lauderdale then far less tricky with alternatives.

 

 

Keith

Thank you! Just looking into all my options. Right now flying into Fll instead of Miami saves me nearly 800 bucks for two people

Thank you! Just looking into all my options. Right now flying into Fll instead of Miami saves me nearly 800 bucks for two people

You are very welcome.

If you can save 800 dollars between the two of you then I would go with Fort Lauderdale. Even if you took a taxi each way you would net savings of $600.00

Keith

If you are saving $800, fly in and out of Fort Lauderdale.

I would not feel comfortable with a flight out of FLL (I'm assuming you are cruising from Miami?) before 1PM. Maybe 12:30.

Our flight out of FLL was at 11:50 and we made it from POM with no problems, but to be comfortable, I wouldn't suggest anyone book earlier than noon (but I'd be comfortable with us doing 11:30).

If you are doing an earlier flight, here are some tips: Do self-assistant walk-off from your ship and figure out what time you need to line up in order to get off the ship in a timely manner. Since we were in a suite, we bypassed the lines for this.

Have a car service ready to pick you up at the port. It should cost about the same as a taxi (maybe a little more). If your flight is a little later, do a shuttle.

Know where to go to drop off your luggage. FLL is a bit of a cluster. Get as much information as you can and head to the proper place first rather than wandering around dodging people.

If it makes sense for you, invest in becoming a member of TSA Precheck -- this will allow you to avoid some security lines. In February we were the only ones in this line, while the regular security lines were impressive (and not in a good way).

Be ready for something to go wrong. We knew there was a chance that something would go wrong, but we took that risk with an earlier flight (rather than waiting until early evening -- the other logical options for us). We were comfortable with this risk.

For us, I would not hesitate to book a flight any time after 11:30. But, we always sail in suites so we get to bypass a lot of lines.

Good luck and enjoy your cruise!

With saving all that money I would fly in/out of FLL. When we book, we look at both airports and pick whichever is cheaper. The drive to FLL really isn't all that bad.

We used SAS airport shuttle to get us to Miami and it cost us $15/pp. I would be comfortable flying home with a flight anytime after 11:30. We self assisted off the ship last cruise and made it to the FLL airport around 8:45. We had a ton of time to kill. We have also successfully made a 12:15 flight doing the same thing.

wow !!