Port Everglades - getting there w/rental car drop off

[sanders3]

We (me and two kids not old enough to be dropped off/left by themselves) fly into FLL two days before our cruise and I will rent a car for at least the two days - trying to figure out the easiest way to ditch the car and get to port, focused primarily on ease (combo of certainty of transportation/plan and ease of management of two human beings, a booster, plus luggage), less on cost. Staying at the Hyatt Place Cruise/Convention center - they use a third party (for fee) for airport shuttle and do a scheduled once an hour shuttle for a reasonable fee to port - but we’ve had experiences where such things fill/overfill, etc. I’m no doubt overthinking this, but I have one kid in particular who is super anxious about travel stuff, so things like unexpected shuttle delays, trouble finding pick up points, uncertainty of means of travel, changes of plans have an outsized negative impact on our day, and it’s stressful enough without that, so I try to avoid what we can.

Choices seem to be:
1. Drop rental back at airport night before without bags, uber back to hotel, take hotel shuttle next morning with bags
2. Drop rental back at airport morning of, uber or whatever to port with luggage
3. Drop rental back at airport morning of, use DCL transportation - at MCO this would easiest, particularly as far as bags go/immediate entry to port, but I’m not sure how easy it is at FLL to find/what kind of waits there are and we wouldn’t want a later PAT than we have at 11:30 - we’re definitely early on and eat lunch people.
4. Rent from a place that has a rental office near port/offers shuttles (looks like budget and avis) - reviews of these places are awful, including long waits for shuttles, but I can’t tell if that’s solely people renting AFTER a cruise rather than returning before a cruise or they’re just not reliable all around.
5. Just do a weekly rental and park at the port, which also solves the how to get back to port problem, but is quite a bit more expensive than alternatives - so if one of the alternatives is definitely easy, given all considerations, it’s probably not worth this much extra expense.

 

[princesscinderella]

I would say 1 or 2 would be your best bet. You could just take a taxi from the airport the port and your hotel are so close to the airport the taxi will be cheap and they are lined up waiting for fares. I would choose option 1 if you fly in on an evening flight and it would cost another day to keep it overnight until your cruise day. If it’s the same price because of the timing of your flight I’d just turn it in the morning of the cruise and taxi to the port. Ubers are good if you have a larger party and need an XL but since it’s just the three of you I’d opt for a Taxi.

 

[SnowWhite2]

We just did the car rental/Port Everglades embarkation for the first time 2 months ago. Our rental car agency had a shuttle to the port after we dropped off the car at the airport facility. The airport to port distance is very short. It all went very smoothly. DH dropped me and the luggage off and went to return the car. He was back and checked in within a 1/2 hour. Our rental car was from Avis and we were sailing HAL. HAL doesn't have port arrival times so I was able to check myself in and wait for him to arrive.