alijay Posted July 9 #1 Share Posted July 9 I will be going on my first Celebrity cruise in February, ending in FLL. What is the earliest reasonable time for a departing flight. I don't want to be running through the airport and will not be carrying my own luggage off the ship. I will have my own transportation to the airport. Is a 9:45 SW flight comfortably doable? Thank you. Alice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingatesl Posted July 9 #2 Share Posted July 9 11:00 is normally our early limit but have done a bit before 10:30.The real problem is that with “priority disembarkation” and people jumping in line, it is going to be a wait. Solstice class has no way to stop people from just jumping in line. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtnlvr53 Posted July 9 #3 Share Posted July 9 Our last cruise into FLL was a mess. I don't know why (maybe a clearance from customs)but there was a substantial delay getting off the ship. I wasn't sure we were going to make our 1:00 flight. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare 1025cruise Posted July 9 #4 Share Posted July 9 16 minutes ago, alijay said: I will be going on my first Celebrity cruise in February, ending in FLL. What is the earliest reasonable time for a departing flight. I don't want to be running through the airport and will not be carrying my own luggage off the ship. I will have my own transportation to the airport. Is a 9:45 SW flight comfortably doable? Thank you. Alice Only if you want to be worried the entire morning. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogsdogs Posted July 9 #5 Share Posted July 9 It also depends on what day of the week you get off the ship. If it is the weekend, the TSA lines are incredibly backed up and slow at FLL. Noon or after would be better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homedepot124 Posted July 9 #6 Share Posted July 9 It will help a lot if you have TSA pre-check. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
publicpersona Posted July 9 #7 Share Posted July 9 Consider that if and only if 1) You are going to self-disembark 2) You have TSA pre 3) You can cancel the 9:45 AM flight without penalty if you see you aren't going to make it, and you have a Plan B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare cruisestitch Posted July 9 #8 Share Posted July 9 Public persona, The OP does not plan to self disembark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare NutsAboutGolf Posted July 9 #9 Share Posted July 9 (edited) 1 hour ago, alijay said: I will be going on my first Celebrity cruise in February, ending in FLL. What is the earliest reasonable time for a departing flight. I don't want to be running through the airport and will not be carrying my own luggage off the ship. I will have my own transportation to the airport. Is a 9:45 SW flight comfortably doable? Thank you. Alice Typically off by 715am, I've arrived at the airport by 730am yet I have been delayed, it can happen but is not very common. I've made flights as early as 8:47 am in both FLL and Mia yet I do have airline status and Clear In your situation, even if you're not self-carrying, you need to do everything you can to get off the ship as early as possible to give yourself the best odds of not running through the airport. If your ship lets folks off on time, you can get off the ship early and are not wait long for your arranged transfer, there's a good chance you can make it but you still need a backup plan Here is what I normally tell people which is different than your situation: 1) If you or anyone in your party gets easily stressed, reconsider... 2) Have a backup plan and understand on the day of, later flights could be completely full 3) You could book a later backup flight the night before as you can cancel airfare within 24 hours of booking and receive a full refund. Don't worry about "taking someone's else seat", it'll be either not a full flight or if full, when you cancel, your seat will go to someone on Standby. All flights could be full or those flights could be expensive 4) Self-disembark 5) Take a Taxi, Ubers may get spooked by the Port Everglades checkpoint and cancel wasting precious time Other than signing up for Global Entry or Clear, you've done everything you can in your power to make the early flight Edited July 9 by NutsAboutGolf 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alijay Posted July 9 Author #10 Share Posted July 9 1 hour ago, dogsdogs said: It also depends on what day of the week you get off the ship. If it is the weekend, the TSA lines are incredibly backed up and slow at FLL. Noon or after would be better. It will be Friday, and I have pre-check. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare keesar Posted July 9 #11 Share Posted July 9 6 hours ago, alijay said: It will be Friday, and I have pre-check. You used the work "comfortably". The 9:45 am time is NOT a comfortable time, especially if you are not doing a self-carry of luggage off the ship. Then you have a real busy FLL airport even if you have TSA Pre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare chemmo Posted July 9 #12 Share Posted July 9 If you are in a suite the concierge will escort you off as soon as possible. Obviously not useful to you if you are not in a suite… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare hcat Posted July 9 #13 Share Posted July 9 book a later flight... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bikerunner Posted July 9 #14 Share Posted July 9 It can be done, but I would only do it if carrying luggage off and first off. Last cruise I had disembarking at 745 and was at the airport by 815, and that's with not carrying off luggage. I was past TSA at around 830 Next cruise I will be doing at 945 am flight but I will only have carryon. So no stopping at checkin etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Georgia_Peaches Posted July 9 #15 Share Posted July 9 (edited) The only way I would attempt such an adventure would be to self-carry off the ship at the earliest possible time. Edited July 9 by Georgia_Peaches Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare cruisetonowhere10 Posted July 9 #16 Share Posted July 9 1 hour ago, bikerunner said: It can be done, but I would only do it if carrying luggage off and first off. Last cruise I had disembarking at 745 and was at the airport by 815, and that's with not carrying off luggage. I was past TSA at around 830 Next cruise I will be doing at 945 am flight but I will only have carryon. So no stopping at checkin etc. this is our plan potentially (flights not released on SWA for next April yet) but we have TSA precheck and only do carryons so might contemplate a flight around 10. We also book with points so that just return to our points bank and buy a later flight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1Virgo Posted July 9 #17 Share Posted July 9 only takes an accident on the highway to really slow traffic to a stop or crawl. We were lucky that we had an afternoon departure 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PelicanLvr Posted July 9 #18 Share Posted July 9 February = Lots of schools on vacation = crazy airports. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare cruisetonowhere10 Posted July 9 #19 Share Posted July 9 5 minutes ago, 1Virgo said: only takes an accident on the highway to really slow traffic to a stop or crawl. We were lucky that we had an afternoon departure This is a good point. I think the challenge is without having any sort of airline perks (lounges, etc) it can be a lot of time to sit in an airport. I’m going to look at Palm Beach and Miami when flights are released to see if those make more sense but then you add addition drive time…we used to be able to get direct flights to/from most Florida airports but no longer. Frustrating but is what it is. I’m not a risk taker so will need y see flight times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alijay Posted July 9 Author #20 Share Posted July 9 OP here. Thanks for all of your comments. We will book an afternoon flight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ijscheer Posted July 9 #21 Share Posted July 9 If you're flying Southwest, and have a long time to wait, head over to Concourse A (connected to Concourse B.) The waiting area for gates A1/A2 is much more pleasant then the always crowded B gate area. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashes_3 Posted July 10 #22 Share Posted July 10 We had originally planned on doing our flight with SW out of FLL at 945; however, I seen the day we disembarked that there are four ships all together. I didn't know how awful the airport would be as well. We did end up moving ours to that evening. Maybe look and see how many ships are going to disembark and go off of that! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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