FLL before return flight

[cruisewiththekids]

I will probably not be able to get a flight out of FLL until late afternoon after our cruise. My husband and I will have our two boys, 4 and 6, with us. I'm worried what we'll do for that time.

 

What's the latest you can hang around the ship? Seems it would be hard to go anywhere toting your luggage with you, but don't really want to sit hours at the airport.

 

Any suggestions?

 

By the way, I could get a 10:45 a.m. flight. Seems early, but the ship is returning on a Monday, which maybe isn't a busy day.

[mrg0433]

Royal Caribbean usually gets people off their ships early. We were off by 7:30am last time we cruised out of Florida. If you have a flight, then they will schedule you to be off first. It is very close from FLL port to the airport, so you wouldn't have any problems making that morning flight--especially since FLL is a small airport.

 

In March I had a flight from San Diego to Providence after a Hawaii cruise. People told me to book a later flight, and I was very upset when we got to the airport so early. We spent more hours hanging around than it would have taken to fly coast to coast.

 

Book the early flight, or else take a cab to the beach and enjoy yourselves for a few hours.

[CaptData]

Depending when the flight leaves there could be a shore excursion offered which will drop you off at the airport in plenty of time for your late flight (after 3:00 pm). You can book this on board. One of the offerings is an Airboat ride to the Everglades.

[TrentS]

mrg0433 - FLL isn't such a "small airport" anymore, it's frequently very congested with very long check-in and security lines, and lengthy ATC delays.

 

On a Monday however, 10:45am is possible only IF there are no Customs & Immigration or baggage handling delays, but everything would have to go so perfectly that IMO it's not worth taking the chance! You would also have to be first off, and take a taxi, NOT cruise line transportation.

 

Do yourself a favor and take the later flight. As the above poster stated, you can take an excursion (purchased through the ship) that goes out to the Everglades where you go on an airboat ride and also see a show with alligators, snakes, etc. I'm sure your boys would love it! ;) Your luggage goes with you on the bus and they drop you at the airport early/mid-afternoon.

 

Another option would be to rent a car and do some exploring on your own before time to go to the airport.

[wrp96]

Royal Caribbean usually gets people off their ships early.

 

This is not an entirely true statement. I've never been off a RCI ship earlier than 9 am, and my last cruise I didn't completely make it through immigration and find my luggage until after 11 am and I had an 11:30 flight. I could've gotten off around 8:00 am but then I would've still had to wait in long lines for immigration plus carry off my own luggage.

 

No cruise line can guarantee when they will get you off the ship. They will try and get passengers off as early as possible but there are some things that are beyond their control. My last cruise the gov't only sent 6 immigration agents for a full Voyager class sailing. Other times, people travelling on foreign passports don't report to immigration to be cleared so nobody can get off until they do.

 

Especially with a family of 4, including small children, I would not risk trying for the 10:45 flight. There is too much that could go wrong and if you miss your flight there is no guarantee that there would be seats available for you later in the day. Take the later flight and use that time to explore Ft. Lauderdale. I know RCI will frequently offer tours for people with later flights and I'm sure other cruise lines do as well.

[cruisewiththekids]

Can someone explain how Royal Caribbean handles disembarkation?

 

 

We will be taking a taxi to the airport, but I'm wondering if we carry our own luggage off, can we leave anytime, or do we still have to wait for other people who have priority?

 

Thanks.

[jerseygirl3]

We just got off the Caribbean Princess today, and since our flight wasn't until 7:30 p.m. out of FLL, we got a "day rate" at the Marriott Marina. It was $75 for the day, and since we were off the ship by about 10 a.m., we hung out at the pool all day and then showered and dressed and Marriott was kind enough to shuttle us back to the airport around 5:15 p.m. It was a relaxing end to our vacation, rather than scrambling to try and make the 11 a.m. flight.

[serene56]

COuld you have made that 11:15 flight if you had to? or would it have been a nughtmare?

[jerseygirl3]

I'm not sure if we would have made an 11:15 a.m. flight. Possibly. They started debarking around 8:30 a.m. I'm not sure how congested the line was leaving the ship going through customs or how crowded the lines were at the airport. I had received an email from Spirit Airlines recommending that we should get there 2 hours prior to flight time, as that particular airline experiences long delays going through security. Being a Saturday morning, I would think it would be hectic. To me it's just not worth ruining a relaxing week by worrying about rushing to the airport. We hung around the pool area on a lounge chair until the masses had exited, and got off the ship around 10 a.m. The Marriott Marina is right across the street, so having a day room there was convenient and since the weather was so beautiful, we hung around the pool, showered, and headed over to FLL around 5:30. It felt like we got an extra day's vacation out of it.

 

I will say that the day we embarked the ship, it was very delayed allowing passengers off. We arrived at the ship around 11 a.m., and they had just started debarking the previous week's passengers. Something about a hold-up with immigration. Obviously, if those passengers had flights before noon, they missed them.

[cruisewiththekids]

We have the option of 10:45 or 5:15. Would prefer the earlier so we can get home and the kids can get to bed at a decent time to go back to school the next day. This will be on a Monday.

 

What do you think about booking the 5:15, then if things look good in the morning for disembarking early, try to fly standby on the 10:45.

 

If we can't get on, we'll get a rental car at the airport and do some exploring for the day til our later flight.

[jerseygirl3]

As long as you can do that without a fee, I'd say go for it. You really have nothing to lose, except a wasted trip to the airport if you don't get on. The airline we fly doesn't work that way. They told me if I booked the earlier flight (11:15 a.m.) and we didn't make it, we would have to pay a $40 pp change fee for the later flight, as well as pay the difference in fare (which would be waaaaaaaaay higher because we'd be booking it so last minute). And then again, that was even assuming there were seats open for the later flight. To me it wasn't worth it. For what it will cost you to rent a car and drive around with the kids, you might want to look into booking a day room at the Marriott Marina Hotel across the street from Port Everglades. It is a beautiful hotel with lovely grounds and pool. We got it for $75 for the day, and we spent the entire day around the pool. It was convenient that we had a room to change and shower (and hubby got to go in and watch some college football when he had enough sun). It's only 10 minutes from the airport. And the water taxi stops there, so for $5 pp you can ride it all day. It's just another option.

[serene56]

What do you think about booking the 5:15, then if things look good in the morning for disembarking early, try to fly standby on the 10:45.

 

Going standby with 4 people is harder then going with 2 people. (how old are your kids??)

you just had a great week. booking an early flight may add undo stress.

Book the later flight-- rent a car and do some stuff.

[wrp96]

Going standby with 4 people is harder then going with 2 people. (how old are your kids??)

 

I agree. Taking a risk and flying standby might seem like an option, but especially on busy days when cruise ships are going in, there are few seats available. When I missed my flight after my last cruise, there was only 1 seat available the rest of the day to get me home, and that was on an airline with multiple flights per day. If I had been traveling with someone else, not to mention two kids, I would've been out of luck to get home that day.

 

Most likely if there are standby seats available it will be one seat on one flight, another seat on another flight. With kids, especially young kids like yours you really don't want to risk having to make the decision of having to split your family up in order to get seats.

 

Plus I wouldn't want to be waiting around all day at the airport on the chance I might get on an earlier flight, and I especially wouldn't want to do it with kids. By the time my new flight home finally left 6 hours after my originally scheduled flight, I was ready to climb the walls. I couldn't imagine what a 4 or 6 year old would be doing much less the parents having to deal with those kids.

[Louba]

What I did was pre-reserve a rental car and scheduled an evening flight home. We got off the ship, hopped on the Budget shuttle picked up the car and spent a relaxing day driving out into the Everglades. Had a great time and didn't have to worry about rushing to get off the ship and make it to the airport on time.

 

Lou