Long Drive to the Cruise

[khewston]

It’s not really about money

 

My husband is excited for a road trip now

 

 

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Same here! My husband is excited about the road trip also. Me....not that much :(

[Noreen411]

Are you? :p

 

 

 

Not really

 

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[dwayneb236]

But hey, at least you're heading towards a cruise. I'm stuck here working.

[Noreen411]

But hey, at least you're heading towards a cruise. I'm stuck here working.

 

 

 

Yes that’s the good thing

 

 

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[dwayneb236]

And think of all the I Spy you can play. .

[Twin Dad]

What about cancelling the return flight and just driving your own car both ways? Perhaps some fare credit for future flights with the cancellation and other than the miles on your personal vehicle, even with gas and parking should be cheaper. Might be able to find a park and fly rate.

 

I too would prefer the drive but my wife always vetoes.

[Noreen411]

And think of all the I Spy you can play. .

 

 

 

20 or so hours worth. Fun fun fun

 

 

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[davekathy]

And the License Plate Game

[Noreen411]

I think I will need some road trip games and how to play them

 

 

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[Husky1987]

I love road trips so that would sound like a great plan to me.

[Guest maddycat]

I don't want to be a Debbie Downer, but............Are you sure that you're leaving enough time for the drive. You most likely will encounter holiday traffic, maybe an accident, construction delays, etc. You might even have car trouble. You don't want to take the chance of missing your cruise. I hope that you have travel insurance.

[budcann]

Hi

 

We live in Northern NJ (Bergen County) and our next cruise leaves out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida

 

Originally we were planning to fly down the night before the cruise leaves, stay in a hotel that night in Fort Lauderdale, board the ship the next day and fly home at the end of the cruise.

 

I booked the flight home a while ago since the price was decent but have held off booking the flight down as it’s been more than we normally pay to fly to Florida.

 

My husband suggested driving down. We would need to rent a car since we have a flight back already booked. I reserved a rental car in case we decide to do the drive down. He thinks it will be a fun road trip.

 

We were thinking of leaving two days before the cruise and just drive through to Fort Lauderdale and still stay in our pre-cruise hotel the night before.

 

Any advice? Is this a crazy idea? Would you break it up more?

 

Thank you in advance.

 

We do this several times a year from Monmouth County. We've been stopping in DC to visit our daughter for a night then Savannah, then Lauderdale. Savannah is beautiful if you've never been there.We're planning to do it again for April cruise, Flying would be cheaper, but we really dislike the whole airport/flying process.

Rental rates are usually very good when the agencies want to move cars in or out of Florida, we've gotten rates for springtime "drive-out" as low as $5 per day.

We've also gone via Amtrak several times, some plusses and minuses to that.

It can be very tiring. I think the return after the cruise may be worse, so if you do that maybe stretch it out a bit.

And, it's one way to see Pedro's hat at South of The Border!

[gerif]

Really dumb question here - why wasn’t a round trip ticket purchased in the first place?

[BNBR]

Really dumb question here - why wasn’t a round trip ticket purchased in the first place?

 

Airlines quote the fares each way, so why not pick and choose?

[BNBR]

Not really

 

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I'd prefer to stay home than drive across the country just for a vacation. That seems crazy to me! Who would think such a thing is fun?!

 

I generally avoid going to Europe to see family because of the 8 - 10 hour flight. I couldn't even imagine 20 hours in a car. Actually, I can, I made the drive to NYC from FLL once, NEVER again! Planes were invented long ago.

[luvscruising2007]

We drove down to Ft. Lauderdale for our last cruise. And then decided we wouldn't do that again. But, we cruise next December out of Miami and we will be driving again. It isn't about the cost. DH is very uncomfortable on an airplane and hates when his metal hip sets the alarm off in the airport.

We will break it up into 3 days of driving stopping along the way to stretch our legs. I have already booked hotels with refundable reservations. It does extend our vacation.

[getmeouttaohio]

We live in northern Ohio and always drive mostly because I don't like flying and because we would be hit with massive fees because our luggage always weighs 2 tons d/t overpacking.

Actually over the years I've come to enjoy it. We usually take 2 or 3 days to drive it so the vacation actually gets started a few days early. We get to see and do and eat things we can't. Nothing like spotting the hundreds of Camping World signs and thousands of Ron Jon surf shop signs as you get further south. I've come to like calabash chicken ( hello south carolina ) and pecans ( hello georgia ) . We've toured plantations on the way. As far as I95 goes google Fountains of Wayne I95. Nice little tune that goes on as soon as we hit 95 off of 26 out of Columbia.

Enjoy your cruise and your journey wherever and however

[BillOh]

Hi

 

We live in Northern NJ (Bergen County) and our next cruise leaves out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida

 

Originally we were planning to fly down the night before the cruise leaves, stay in a hotel that night in Fort Lauderdale, board the ship the next day and fly home at the end of the cruise.

 

I booked the flight home a while ago since the price was decent but have held off booking the flight down as it’s been more than we normally pay to fly to Florida.

 

My husband suggested driving down. We would need to rent a car since we have a flight back already booked. I reserved a rental car in case we decide to do the drive down. He thinks it will be a fun road trip.

 

We were thinking of leaving two days before the cruise and just drive through to Fort Lauderdale and still stay in our pre-cruise hotel the night before.

 

Any advice? Is this a crazy idea? Would you break it up more?

 

Thank you in advance.

 

 

This could be fun. My wife and I did it (round trip) once and now made it an annual second cruise. We live exactly 1000 miles from door to port. (Canaveral and Tampa are about the same distance) We break up the trip on the way down, and end up driving straight through on the way home. We enjoy the road trip time together. We end up making a 4 day cruise a full week of work,, but we enjoy it. I would definitely plan on extra time on the way down. I'm sure you are aware of traffic in your area and DC.

[ponza17]

I-95 is the second most traveled interstate. In South Carolina, it's only 2 -lanes the whole time , when you get to Ga. state line it opens up to 4 lanes,so it bottle's up traffic for a few miles and being around Easter it will be even worse.You should see it around Bowel time .It was backed for 37 miles.FLY JET BLUE.Cost wise it will be less$$ and you will enjoy your cruise more. IMO Carlyle

[BillOh]

I have already booked hotels with refundable reservations. It does extend our vacation.

 

 

We use to do that with hotels, but now with smart phones we decide about 3-4 hours before we quote driving figuring out where we will be and booking through a travel app. It works well for us. Once there was a farm convention in the Valdosta, GA area and we had to drive further than planned, but it has worked out well.

[BillOh]

I-95 is the second most traveled interstate. In South Carolina, it's only 2 -lanes the whole time , when you get to Ga. state line it opens up to 4 lanes,so it bottle's up traffic for a few miles and being around Easter it will be even worse.You should see it around Bowel time .It was backed for 37 miles.FLY JET BLUE.Cost wise it will be less$$ and you will enjoy your cruise more. IMO Carlyle

 

 

This is a great specific point for the OP. I come from further west and don't pick up I95 until I think its Columbia, SC and from there down its not bad.

[Noreen411]

What about cancelling the return flight and just driving your own car both ways? Perhaps some fare credit for future flights with the cancellation and other than the miles on your personal vehicle, even with gas and parking should be cheaper. Might be able to find a park and fly rate.

 

I too would prefer the drive but my wife always vetoes.

 

 

 

I am not too sure how I feel about driving one way; I don’t want to do it both ways.

 

I would feel more comfortable in my car since I know most of the features. But that would mean driving there and back.

 

 

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[BillOh]

20 or so hours worth. Fun fun fun

 

 

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14 for me, we love it. But that is to Port Canaveral, wouldn't do it for Port Everglades or Miami. Did it for Tampa once.

[Noreen411]

I don't want to be a Debbie Downer, but............Are you sure that you're leaving enough time for the drive. You most likely will encounter holiday traffic, maybe an accident, construction delays, etc. You might even have car trouble. You don't want to take the chance of missing your cruise. I hope that you have travel insurance.

 

 

 

Hi

 

The cruise leaves on Monday.

 

I want to get to Fort Lauderdale Sunday night to be able to sleep and wake up there on Monday. We have a hotel already booked for Sunday night.

 

Even if we get there late Sunday night because of traffic that’s ok.

 

 

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[Noreen411]

Really dumb question here - why wasn’t a round trip ticket purchased in the first place?

 

 

 

Flights home were a good price so I booked it when I saw it.

 

The flight down was much higher so I played the waiting game hoping for a better price.

 

 

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