Sailing out of Ft. Lauderdale on DCL

[mmouse37]

I am also on the Jan 26 Destiny sailing! (Will be doing a B2B with the sailing right before it on Jan 22).

See you all onboard!

Wow. Popular cruise date. We found the 5 night less expensive than the 4 night right before it. Any of you 1/26/26 cruisers on the “other” social media cruise group?

 

[DCLMP]

We are going down in a few weeks but haven't booked a room yet. All the reviews looked awful but I will look at the above ones mentioned. I think I may have been looking at a different area.

We stayed at the Hilton Maren curio collection hotel. Great hotel right on the beach. Lots of good restaurants on the beach. 10 minute uber ride to port.

 

[Amw1064]

I was just coming back to say we also have stayed at the Marriott and we also just stayed at the AC Hotel which is attached to the Marriott in early July. We did not go back to the airport though...we had hired a private van service to take us to the port from the hotel (there were 16 of us).

MJ

These options look great!

 

[Moonspinner]

If you park at the port at Port Everglades, you might have to go to overflow parking which is NOT close to the port, even though you are paying premium for port parking. You will have to take a shuttle. This has happened to us twice there. I recommend getting to that port early if you are driving and parking.

 

[RedHead0186]

Any of you 1/26/26 cruisers on the “other” social media cruise group?

I am!

 

[mmouse37]

I am!

Me too. Emm Jay Kay

MJ

 

[BrokeMack]

Mentioned it another thread but I've stayed at the Embasy Suites at the port. No transpo and experienced and heard others with poor Uber service in the area. Also look into the Mai Kai for dinner the night before (definitely Uber there, strooooong cocktails).

 

[erionm]

For January we have not decided on which hotel yet. Either the Marriott or the Hilton. We are traveling with two other couples....all different Castaway Club status so if we stay at the Hilton and book DCL transfers we have a chance of all getting the same boarding group which will be helpful. I believe the Hilton is the only hotel DCL is currently using for their DCL transfers....along with the airport itself DCL transfers. I believe the Hilton has a park and cruise rate. Last time we stayed there we had a rental car so didn't take DCL transfers. We returned the rental and was going to take the rental shuttle bus to the port but it was mobbed at the rental office. I just called an Uber from the rental office as it was much quicker than waiting for the busloads of car rental people ahead of us.

MJ

For 2025, DCL Transfers are available to/from the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina and the Fort Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach Resort & Spa. May or may not change for 2026.

 

[OKW Lover]

Wow - so many sailing on the Destiny January 26th! We will be on the sailing after you so please leave the ship operational.

We live near WDW and will be driving down the night before our sailing. It's about a 3.5 hour drive and pretty easy until we get off the Turnpike in Ft Lauderdale. At that point we've found we need to be alert to the directions (we use Waze) as to where to turn and at times wind up in the wrong lane. We've done it 4 times that I can remember.

We are staying at the Hilton pre-cruise. We stayed there last year before our cruise to see Lighthouse Point. Hotel was very nice.

 

[Sharon Mayberry]

Which Hilton ?

 

[OKW Lover]

Which Hilton ?

Sorry, I should have been more specific. It's the Hilton Marina, which is essentially right next to the cruise port.

 

[RedHead0186]

Mentioned it another thread but I've stayed at the Embasy Suites at the port. No transpo and experienced and heard others with poor Uber service in the area. Also look into the Mai Kai for dinner the night before (definitely Uber there, strooooong cocktails).

I've stayed at that Embassy Suites. We didn't have issue with Uber when we were there, thankfully. Theo hotel itself was fine (truly fine, nothing extraordinary).

 

[mmouse37]

For 2025, DCL Transfers are available to/from the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina and the Fort Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach Resort & Spa. May or may not change for 2026.

Thanks....I heard they dropped the Marriott and the B Hotel but wasn't sure when that was suppoed to happen.

MJ

 

[teawar]

We did a little bit of a different approach for our cruise on the dream out of Ft. Lauderdale. We are passholders, so after doing a couple of days at WDW, we drove down early in the morning from Orlando to the port and parked in the garage at the port. We looked online to see how many cruises were there in/out that same week to see if the garage was going to be packed over our spring break and we did not have any issues. When we got back to port, we stopped at the outlet malls on the way out and went back to the Magic Kingdom to see the Easter parade.

We had looked into all of the different options on traveling down to FLL including: the bright line, flying to FLL, staying at the Disney preferred hotels in FLL, using the DCL buses, etc. Driving and parking at the port worked best for us and it was the most economical. Good luck on making your choices! You’ll have a great time on the cruise no matter what!

 

[erionm]

We looked online to see how many cruises were there in/out that same week to see if the garage was going to be packed over our spring break and we did not have any issues.

Only CT2 (Carnival) and CT4 (DCL) share the 1,818 space Heron Garage.