Englishmum

Eeeeek!

It's my birthday next week and I had to cancel a trip to Hong Kong with my friend (where she will be on business) as Cathay is fully booked on airmile seats.....and the tickets were nearly $2.5k for economy!

My husband surprised me this morning by calling to let me know that he's booked a cruise to the Caribbean leaving this Saturday afternoon, departing from Miami.

I've just looked up the flight prices from Newark to Miami and they are approx $500 (plus taxes I daresay!). There are three of us.....so it's bloody expensive for such a short flight.

I've looked on Kayak and if I fly with US airways from Philadelphia (approx 70 miles from home) the outgoing flight is into Palm Beach and the return flight is from Fort Lauderdale. This would be approx $268.

We're happy to stay on in Florida for a couple of nights after the cruise and perhaps rent a car (flying back late in the day on the 14th August)......but I'm wondering how feasible/expensive it is to get from either Palm Beach or Fort lauderdale airports to the cruise/port terminal....no idea about public transport etc or taxis. I have no idea of the distances involved.

Any ideas? I need to book today!

TruBrit

sorry can't help with distances but happpy birthday for next week and have a great cruise...maybe you could try using your airmiles from newark to miami?

anotherlimey

I'm not sure about Palm Beach but the Ft. L airport isn't that bad to get to from downtown (where the cruise terminal is), probably an hour off-peak; I believe the taxi rates are fixed to the airports from the cruise terminal, so maybe your cruise operator can let you know before hand.

Englishmum

Thanks for the replies.

Wow....it pays to shop around and look for alternative local airports.

Rather than pay just over $500 + airport taxes per person by flying directly from Newark to Miami on Continental, I went to a couple of travel booking sites to check alternatives;

I went to http://www.bookingbuddy.com and clicked on their icon for -

http://www.ultimatefares.com

We're flying into and out of Fort Lauderdale which is approx 26 miles from Miami and for the three of us it works out approx $500 cheaper! It surely isn't going to cost that amount to get from FLL to Miami (haven't worked out how to do it yet....perhaps a one way rental in a hire car) but it's amazing how prices can vary so much between the same airline utilising airports which aren't that far from each other.....

Angry White Pyjamas

WPB Airport is about an hour and a half (70 miles ish straight down I95) to the cruise port.

Ft Lauderdale is about 40 mins (again straight down I95). I used to live about 20 mins from there.

Public transport: None. Get a 1 day rental from Hertz or whereever pickup FtL drop off Miami.

PS The I95 is a screaming nightmare from Ft Lauderdale to Miami. Very busy and packed with idiot drivers and often tailbacks of hours due to accidents....leave yourselves PLENTY of time to make the run just in case.

EDIT: Just incase you are tempted to take the scenic route of the A1A (Coast road)...DONT! Its 10x worse than the 95 and traffic lights every 200 yards all the way to Miami. There is no scenery from Ft Lauderdale to Miami unless you count beachfront hi-rises as scenery.

cindyabs

The cruise line DOES offer transfers which would be likely more expensive than hiring a car for a one way drop off.

cindyabs

This reminds me-we're going on a "working" cruise in December out of Miami-I take classes the days while we are at sea, and then my DH and I get to enjoy the ports on the other days. Since I would rather stick needles in my eyes than drive down I95 to Miami, we're flying. In spite of the fact that it's NOT a holiday time the airfare from SAV would be over $700.00 a pop to fly to MIA. So we are driving an hour and a half down to JAX and taking a direct flight from there to MIA (therefore avoiding the flying north to go south that is a SAV trademark, ) for $137 a piece. The only drawback is that we will have 3 hours to kill in MIA before we can board the ship, but it's worth it to me.

anotherlimey

I wonder if a better option is the FL. Turnpike, she can take it south and then go East on the 836 which will take her straight into downtown; both these are normally clear off-peak.

Angry White Pyjamas

Turnpike is surely faster but its quite a ballache getting too it from there if you dont know exactly where you're going...and of course its a toll road and im sure they wont have a sunpass. A lot will depend on their time of arrival of course...god help them if its anywhere around 4.30pm-7pm

Englishmum

Thanks for all the replies.

In my paranoia about arriving at the port too late to watch the liner departing as we reach the dockside, we're arriving in Fort Lauderdale much earlier than we need to be...not sure what time we're supposed to board the ship but it sails at 5pm.

Our flight arrives at 10.30am! However, this will give us plenty of time to get to Miami. We will be hiring a car to get from the airport to the seaport (with grateful thanks to a board member whom has very kindly offered us a good deal with the car rental company he works for.. ).

I think the Turnpike is the best way to go.....we have the I-95 up here in New Jersey you know so I know how dire it can be if there is an accident or just sheer weight of traffic.....

After the cruise we will probably spend a couple of days in the Miami area before our return flight.....has anyone stayed in South Beach and can they recommend a nice hotel?

anotherlimey

I would reccomend getting there early; when I last went the tickets said boarding was at 1pm but we got there at 11:30am, and there were already people on board and a long line of people checking in. If we had arrived later we would have been waiting in line for an hour.

I've never stayed on South Beach only North Miami Beach, but there are lots of hotels there - the only advice I can offer is don't get a hotel in mid-Miami beach or more than a few blocks from the actual beach.

cindyabs

Believe it or not the cruise line does offer pre and post stays at ports and you can always see what ones they have on their site and see what tickles your fancy.

Our cruise sails at 4 and they allow per their website, boarding starting at 130, so indeed, you may not have so much time on your hands as you thought. I DO know they don't want you there any less than 30 minutes prior to sailing.