sailing out of Miami--how easy or hard compared to PC?

[Crumpets]

I got curious about this statement because we visited friends in FLL last summer and I actually felt much less safe there than in Miami. We saw lots of obvious drug addicts laying about, etc. in Fort Lauderdale. Since anecdotal experience isn't particularly valuable, I decided to check the crime rate in both places. Based upon crime stats on neighborhoodscout.com, Miami and Fort Lauderdale are actually equally unsafe. Both have a higher crime rate than 94% of US cities. Florida as a state has a higher crime rate than many other states. But if you look at crime by neighborhood, there are many safe neighborhoods in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Florida as a whole.

If I were personally choosing between FLL and Miami for a precruise stay out of Miami, I would choose Miami for convenience alone. It was great to be able to sleep in, have a nice breakfast and still get to the port and board the ship before lunch.

Jess - unfortunately all of South Florida has significant crime rates that rank higher than most cities... Not something to be particularly proud of :-/. In both Miami and Fort Lauderdale the safety is really block to block but that is where it gets iffy in Miami. You dont want to stray a block or two too far west! In general the areas east of the I95 in Broward are safe but the same cannot be said of Miami. This is just my experience having lived and worked in both cities for the last 11 years.