Cruise from Miami

[mickeybaby]

Anyone with experience cruising from Miami? If so, I have a couple decisions to make and would love your input.
Is it better to fly into Miami or Ft Lauderdale?
Any hotel recommendations for the night before the cruise?
Any transfer recommendations for transfers from the hotel to the port and from the port to the airport?

Thanks!

 

[bobbiwoz]

We fly into Miami and stay in a Residence Inn that has a shuttle from airport. Then we arrange with them for a shuttle to the cruise terminal. I think the price for the port shuttle is $12 per person. We have done this once and are doing it again in March.

 

[lorimay]

Ft Lauderdale is about an hour or so drive to Miami depending on traffic.
Fly into Miami if you can. The traffic is always heavy between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale.
There are several cruise and stay hotels with shuttles.
We love sailing from Miami, one hour south from home.... 27 days and counting.

Have fun!

 

[Colo17]

Really depends on airfare and hotel prices. We usually fly into Miami and stay at the Embassy airport. This has a $10 shuttle to the pier or cab for a little more. But if airfare and hotel prices are better in Fort Lauderdale we stay there. Several companies do shuttles from either the Fort Lauderdale airport or the hotels to the Miami cruise port. While you can rent a car and drive down to Miami the downtown Miami dropoff is hard to get to and will require a cab to get to the pier.

 

[Southern Pirate]

Sorry, we drive and stay at different hotels. I book the cruise and wife and daughter book the hotels. If you do drive, Miami traffic is different than anywhere else. If you are not going at least 15 over the speed limit, you are impeding traffic. I have been given the bird for going 10 over by a lady that was at least 80 years old, as she passed us. And it's not uncommon for someone to make a right turn, across your lane, from a left hand lane at a stop light. I had a great laugh driving but my wife was a nervous wreck while there. You have to find your fun where you can sometimes.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

We fly into MIA. In prior years, we’ve flown American because they have a lot of non-stops from Chicago that provides flexibility for us if weather disrupts our travel plans as we are usually heading to Magic cruises in January. Now, Southwest is also flying into MIA with non-stops from Chicago, so that gives us an additional option. We’ve stayed at a variety of Hyatt-related properties (two different Hyatt Places near airport, Hyatt Regency downtown) because of some affinity-program benefits. We choose the Hyatt property based on availability of our discounted rate for our dates, so we don’t really have experience with any of the other Miami hotel options.

The airport locations provide shuttle services from the airport to the hotels, while we use Uber/Lyft or a taxi for the Regency. We prefer to take Uber/Lyft or a taxi from the hotels to the port. The airport hotels have a paid shuttle, but the per person cost makes it nearly as expensive as a rideshare. Cost from the downtown hotels is very reasonble, since it’s a short trip.

 

[Cheburashka]

Anyone with experience cruising from Miami? If so, I have a couple decisions to make and would love your input.
Is it better to fly into Miami or Ft Lauderdale?
Any hotel recommendations for the night before the cruise?
Any transfer recommendations for transfers from the hotel to the port and from the port to the airport?

Thanks!

Yes, we have cruised from Miami twice and I am cruising from there again later this month. Flew into Miami airport both times, and flew out once from Miami & once from Fort Lauderdale. Based on my experience, I recommend flying into and out of Miami airport because it's closer, and because Disney offers transfers between the cruise port & the Miami airport, but not the Fort Lauderdale airport. Never had any problems with the Miami airport, but did have some issues with the Fort Lauderdale airport after our New Year's cruise. Also had issues with the non-Disney transfer service that we used to get from the cruise port to the Fort Lauderdale airport after the cruise.

Personally, if I were flying in the day before, I would either stay overnight at the Miami airport hotel or one of the hotels you can book via DCL, because I like using Disney transfers. I've never flown in day before when sailing out of Miami, though, because there's a convenient early morning nonstop between my city and Miami that we've always taken the day of the cruise. If you want to rent a car and tour Miami, then that opens your hotel choices up a lot.

 

[lorimay]

Sorry, we drive and stay at different hotels. I book the cruise and wife and daughter book the hotels. If you do drive, Miami traffic is different than anywhere else. If you are not going at least 15 over the speed limit, you are impeding traffic. I have been given the bird for going 10 over by a lady that was at least 80 years old, as she passed us. And it's not uncommon for someone to make a right turn, across your lane, from a left hand lane at a stop light. I had a great laugh driving but my wife was a nervous wreck while there. You have to find your fun where you can sometimes.

This sad but true, I hate when we have to drive into Miami. People are nuts.
I had to drive once to the port to pick up my daughter from a cruise (of course a day when my husband couldn't get off ).
I was a nervous wreck, he stayed on the phone with me the entire drive down.