Review for FLL pre and post cruise

[samrothstein]

We are a family of 4 who sailed on the Carnival Sunrise out of Port Everglades on November 2nd and returned November 7th. I’ll copy from my trip review the bits relevant to our Fort Lauderdale experience. 
 

We departed Chicago Midway on Friday the 1st, after taking the kids out of school early. Flight on Southwest was good as expected - line at Midway was a little longer than usual but moved quickly. They are doing some major renovations and things are a little wonky at the moment - no big deal. 

 

 

Once in FLL, we took our hotels free shuttle and made it to Homewood Suites in Dania Beach by around 9pm. I’d recommend the hotel for anyone looking for an inexpensive hotel for an overnight stay before cruising. The hotel was very nice - clean, friendly staff, free shuttle to/from airport, quiet rooms, good breakfast, and the shuttle to the port in the morning was efficient. We would have taken uber/lyft to the port, but the two little ones require child seats, so we opted for the easy solution and paid $10pp for the shuttle. No complaints. We didn’t swim in the pool, but the boys couldn’t resist getting their feet wet. We had a late dinner at Wendy’s, which is in the parking lot of the hotel. Despite the proximity to the airport and planes landing right overhead, the rooms remained silent.

 

We had 12-12:30 boarding time, and took the 11:45 shuttle (time options were 10/1145/1 I think). We got there at about 12:15 and found a long line, apparently due to a communication issue with their boarding system. It got resolved and the lines started zooming, we were on board by about 1:05.

 

 

Day 6: Fort Lauderdale

 

We got up at 6am! for our final breakfast in the MDR, which was again, lovely. After breakfast we grudgingly made our way back to the room to await the dreaded announcement. We chose self debarkation, and being that we were on deck two, were off the ship at the Alamo rental desk by 8am. Seriously, self debarkation was a breeze. I don’t know about other higher number decks, but for us it was a breeze. I believe the order was 3,1,2,4, etc so we were the 3rd deck off. Customs and Immigration were minutes long, and then we were off to the shuttle area to get on the free Alamo shuttle. After a short wait with no one else getting on, we were off to the facility. The service here at Alamo was great, we were in, out and on the road in about 5 minutes. We requested a booster and child seat which they seemed to have a stack of. We headed to Fort Lauderdale Beach Park, where we had about an hour to kill before the Museum of Discovery and opened, which is where we planned to spend our day before going to the airport. The beach was lovely here, very quiet this early, and it was hard not to just jump in the sand and relax all day. After our time was up, we took the short drive to MODS, paid $6 flat rate for parking and got there a few minutes early. We chose to visit MODS this day due to its membership in the ASTC program which we were able to use our membership at a local Chicago museum to get free entry into MODS. This museum is pretty fun, was a great way to keep the boys entertained and busy for a few hours, and educational. The free entry made it even better, as it would have been close to $100 for the four of us to enter without it, and that’s a bit steep to kill a few hours. When we were done, we found a Burger King around the corner and walked over - the BK was fine, but there must have been a clinic or shelter nearby, because there were more than a few people who seemed to be down and out, and one incident were a guy came in yelling and cursing. We ate quickly and got out fast! The trip to the airport, rental drop off, bag check and security check all probably took 30 minutes from museum lot to gate. We arrived at FLL right around 2pm for a 4pm flight and finally crossed the threshold of home around 7:30pm. 
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I would definitely stay at the Homewood Suites again for a pre-cruise, overall it was great for our purposes. The airport shuttle is a large passenger van with a trailer for luggage - efficient and friendly driver, call the front desk when you land to let them know you’ve arrived and they’ll tell you where the shuttle is. The cruise port shuttle was large coach busses, and there seemed to be at least two - again efficient and friendly drivers. Sign up at the front desk at check-in, pay (cash only) in the morning. I believe the three scheduled times are 10/1145/2. 
 

The experience with Alamo was also greasy. Shuttle was quick and friendly, front counter staff were the same. The location is the biggest rental car facility I’ve ever been in - loads of cars and staff, and we were the only customers there that early. They said on heavy port traffic days (we were 1 of 2 ships this day), they can get swamped as the morning progresses. If I needed a car pre or post cruise, this would definitely be my go to - there wasn’t even a drop charge to return to the airport. 
 

The beach at Fort Lauderdale Beach Park looked beautiful - sadly we chose not to get in the sand or water. If we were to stay in FLL longer, I’d like to get a hotel nearer to here as the area seemed nice and the beach is very pretty. 
 

The entire family enjoyed MODS. It might not be a good value for just a few hours, but for a full day experience it would be totally worth it. The exhibits are all educational and fun, with an indoor and outdoor play area as well. 

[JohninDC]

Thanks for the detailed feedback! 😎