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I figured I should start this thread and see who else might be on board. Looking forward to this trip!

Roll Call

Hi all! First time cruiser here so apologies if this is a silly question. Could someone help with suggestions/options on whether it is worth booking an actual transfer from the cruise port (Fort lauderdale) to our hotel (Trump international in sunny Beach, miami) or is it simple/efficient enough to just grab an uber on the day? Any help is appreciated! TIA, Ash x

If I have a RC cruise departing the Port of Miami on the same day as another RC cruise, how do I know which terminal to go to? Are they all departing from the same terminal? If not, when/how will I find out which one to go to? If they ARE from the same terminal, is it fairly easy to navigate where to go to get on the right ship and ensure your belongings given to the porters wind up in the correct place too? Also, how far is the airport from the port? I mean in terms of travel time. Thanks in advance!

I am both excited and terrified to begin my first live Blog here of my first ever Star Class sailing and also….our wedding! I can only hope it is HALF as good as the amazing bloggers I read religiously here! 48 DAYS! Here we go! The Story- My husband and I (I will explain!) booked this cruise for our wedding 2 YEARS ago during a Black Friday sale at an amazing price! We both LOVE cruising…so much so that we have a YouTube channel called BoosCruize so it seemed natural that we would choose to tie the knot in a small ceremony on the high seas! So after much research we decided on the Star Loft Suite 1720 on Oasis Of The Seas! This suite had a HUGE rectangular balcony that could fit guests and also give us the ocean view we wanted….and a Genie to help us pull it all off! What could go wrong?!? Enter…COVID As you can imagine we basically needed a new pair of britches every other day for the last two years as things changed. It’s a good thing I buzz cut my head or I’d probably be bald and NOT by choice LOL A year later we weren’t even sure if this cruise would happen but we also KNEW we wanted to be married. So when a company came to us and asked to throw us a huge West Coast “David Tutera” style wedding in Hollywood that will be published for magazines we obviously said YES! We now have two bi-coastal weddings Lol It was amazingly gorgeous but nothing was our choice. It was all chosen for us….right down to our tuxes. We feel BEYOND blessed but it also wasn’t what we had in our head two years ago. So now here we are….our guest list of 50 has gone down to 12 due to covid complications. Are we upset? HECK NO! We completely understand and are going to have the time of our LIVES on a gorgeous ship surrounded by people who love us! We can’t wait! Who: We are an LA couple. Jarell is an international Flight attendant (yaasss benefits!) and I am an actor who just moved from NYC in time for a pandemic to close Hollywood Where: We are sailing on the Oasis Of The Seas out of Miami in the Star Loft Suite 1720 with stops at Coco Cay, St.Thomas, and St. Maarten When: We sail November 7th-14th, 2021 I think that covers most of the back story and introductions! So happy to meet you all and take you along with us on this very special journey that is over 2 years in the making! Can’t wait to see who our Genie will be! For good measure I have included a photo of the happy grooms from our West Coast Wedding!

I'm hearing a lot of people complain about an absolutely chaotic boarding experience in Miami recently getting on symphony. No specific lines for times, just 1 HUGE line and noone checking arrival times. Anyone sail recently or on now and have experience with this?

So, our party of 7 will be going out of Port Miami and we are trying to figure out the timing of things. From "best estimates" it will take about hour to go from our hotel in Fort Lauderdale to the port. Since we know we have to adhere to the check in time of 1:00 to 1:30 PM, we plan to be picked up between 11:45 AM and noon, to allow for any hiccups along the way and to make sure we are there by 1:30 PM. Should our ride arrive early, where do we get to "stand and wait"? Is there a place? We picked the earliest check in time offered to us, but not sure if any check in times were earlier. Any knowledge is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Where do you recommend a person stay the night before a cruise departing from the Miami port?

Not exactly a shore excursion question but I think some of you knowledgeable folk might be able to advise me. We'll be in Miami this year for NYE following our Christmas cruise on Allure ? I'm just trying to get an idea of what's good to do on NYE. We're staying in south beach and don't want anything mega expensive or mega raucous. TIA

Since this topic seems to come up every so often, I thought I would provide a little insight with a recent example. We are currently on a B2B on NAV (3 night + 4 night). On turnaround day we had some business to conduct and since there were going to be a few stops along the way, we decided that rather than Uber or taxi (as we had done in the past), we would use a “free” rental day from National. This gave us the latitude to conduct multiple stops without the time, pain and expense of hiring numerous rides. Let me offer some sage advice for anyone who wants to try this. MAKE ARRANGEMENTS BEFORE YOU LEAVE. This brilliant plan only occurred to me on day 2 of the 3 day cruise and I have to admit that trying to research this onboard was a grand PITA. It would have taken maybe all of 5 minutes to do from home but was a major ordeal using the fabulous NAV Voom. The primary problem for me was that, while I felt very confident that I could get a shuttle to take me back to the ship once I was done running around Miami, I had no confidence whatsoever that I would be able to get one from the port at 9:00 to take me TO the rental agency. Trust me when I say that nothing online was helpful in the least to getting my question answered. In the end, we figured that the worst that could happen would be that we would have to Uber from the port over to the airport so we moved forward with our plan. Online, I was able to log into my National account and reserve a midsize car using one of my (many) free days. I received multiple confirmations on this reservation so I was confident that all was well at least with the reservation. Once turnaround day came, we went by Guest Services to relieve our new Sea Pass cards, disembarked, went through the facial recognition scan and made our way towards the Terminal pick up area. I held my breath as I asked one of the agents standing about, “can you direct me to the rental car shuttle bus area ?” The agent directed me to cross the street and go all the way “left”. To our amazement and relief, there was the National, Enterprise and Alamo bus just waiting for us ! Yippee !!! As we stepped onto the bus the driver asked to see our reservation, which I had readily visible on my phone. I am assuming they are precluding scoundrels who would try and cop a free ride to the airport. After a very short wait we were off to the airport. At this point I felt all would be ok...this was the part of the plan that was tenuous, for me. While I did not stop and take notice, I assume that other rental car agencies had shuttle busses at the terminal as well. We were able to find a vehicle we were happy with (my only requirement was for an integrated GPS which was fairly easy to accommodate), a brand new red Range Rover. First time in one, ever ! We easily found our way to the stops we needed to make (I had research addresses that we needed to find while still onboard) and were back with the rental car in less than 1 hour. Shortest car rental in history ! The total cost for this entire adventure was $28.47 with $10 of that being for bus driver tips ! There were some taxes and whatnot associated with the “free” rental day. We were back on board by 11:45, just in time for our turnaround day lunch at Jamie’s. So...bottom line...yes, there are free rental car shuttles at a Terminal A in Miami that will take you round trip, if necessary. NOTE: I assume, but do not know for sure, that once the ships sail out of port for the day (e.g., around 5:00 ?) that these shuttles stop running. If there are no more customers to pick up/deliver then there would be no point.

Just wondering if embarcation of the ship is like the airport? I.E no water bottle sor liquids above a certain amount? Etc ( although I know you are allowed 2 bottles fo wine)

I'm SOOOO excited! After a rather lengthy hiatus from these boards (which I didn't think anyone would notice but the eagle-eyed @JLMoran did!) I'm back and looking forward to not one but TWO cruises ? Having 2 cruises booked has been a dream since I joined these boards and fell in love with cruising in 2016 and saw just how many cruises some of you take. Also, having 2 cruises in the space of one year was another RC blog-inspired #cruisegoal of mine! (I'm blaming you @Matt and @twangster !). We have a 2 week Med cruise booked for August on P&O's Azura and have just this morning booked Allure for Christmas with a pre- & post-cruise stay in Miami's South Beach where we'll be staying for NYE! I'm a little sad that our summer cruise won't be on RC but I'm looking forward to experiencing a British brand and I'm soooo excited to try an Oasis class ship. When I first cruised on Navigator in 2016, I loved the look of the Oasis class from people's posts on here but didn't think I'd ever get on one. Now I'm going to be! We'll also be introducing 2 of our friends to cruising on Allure. Although I've tried to explain, I don't think they've got any idea how big she is. I can't wait to see their faces when they see her for the first time! On both cruises we've got an ocean view balcony (large balcony on Azura; Deck 10 on Allure) and I'll be Live-ish blogging and periscoping from both. Now, just 108 days to wait until the first cruise...

T-1 Day Almost a year ago, my family booked this cruise. Now we’re less than a day away from boarding the beautiful Navigator of the Seas to embark on our 9 night journey to the Southern Caribbean. I guess it’s best to start this live trip report by telling everyone a little bit about myself. I’m 17 from Atlanta, Georgia. I know I’m probably quite a bit younger than most of the users on Royal Caribbean Blog, but what can I say - it’s never to early to become obsessed with cruising. Going on this cruise with me are my mom, dad, elderly grandmother, and her elderly friend. We booked two separate balcony rooms, so my grandmother and her friend will stay in one room and I’ll stay in the other room with my mom and dad. My dad and I both booked the classic soda package and the voom surf voyage package so we can communicate with each other while on the ship. After diligently checking the cruise planner every 3 or so days, I was able to get the voom package for $19.18 a day, which was the cheapest I’ve seen it for the past 6 months. We chose this cruise strictly for the itinerary. The ABC islands have been on our list for quite some time, and when they offered them at the next cruise desk on our last cruise, we just couldn’t pass it up. The intertary is as follows: Day 1: At sea Day 2: Labadee, Haiti Day 3: At sea Day:4 At sea Day 5: Oranjestad, Aruba Day 6: Willemstad, Curaçao Day 7: Kralendijk, Bonaire Day 8: At Sea Day 9: At Sea In Labadee we’re planning to just have a beach day, in Aruba we’re doing a Trikes tour, we’re going to just play it by ear in Curaçao, and in Bonaire we rented a few golf carts. We got into Miami yesterday night with my dad driving my grandmother and her friend down and my mom and I flying since she had to stay later to work and I had to stay later for finals. Today in Miami we did a little sight seeing at Little Havana, South Beach, and Bayside. After lunch we ran a few last minute errands to pick up the things we realized we forgot to pack, and all got pedicures (including my dad). He was not a fan of the flip flops lol. At least they had blue. Now all that’s left is our last dinner of 2018 on land and then it’s cruise time tomorrow!!

In the Black Friday/Cyber Monday frenzy we booked the Everglades excursion for our Symphony TA because we wanted to visit the Everglades on Friday anyway. Guess what, now that the frenzy is over we're thinking about the problems this might entail. Has somebody done this excursion? What happens with the luggage, is it left in the terminal or on the bus? As we're German I guess there'll be a check of our ESTA/visas on top of customs - any idea how long this will take? And finally: we chose this excursion because we won't be flying home but renting a car until Sunday . so we thought it might be easier to get a rental car at the airport instead of the port. Does this make sense or is it a stupid idea? Actually we had planned on renting a car near the port and booking an Everglades boat trip on our own. Happy to hear your thoughts, having never been to the US we have no idea what to expect.

Hi all! My husband and I will be cruising out of Miami in March. Parking is $20 a day but I was curious if any veterans knew of other areas close by that are cheaper or free (we’d be willing to Uber to the port to save money). thanks!

We are thinking of staying in Miami Beach in a hotel on either Collins Ave. or Ocean Ave. Wondered if anyone might know how much either a cab or Uber/Lyft would be from MIA to Miami Beach.

Hello all! I know this may have been asked ad nauseum so mea culpa in advance. My wife and I will be taking a cruise on the Enchantment this October out of Miami. It will our first time out of PoM. As such I wanted to find a nice boutique hotel for the evening before embarkation. I have a couple of major hotels in mind but wanted something kind of cool and hip. ALSO I've wondered about renting a car. PoM (if my homework is correct) is not like PC in that we can rent a car at MCO and return it near the port. So my question is this: how does one rent a car and return it on embarkation day? Or is it even worth it if we are only going to be there for a day? I do not know how spread out Miami is or if cab/shuttle fares are reasonable. Thanks in advance.

My boyfriend and I are cruising on the Empress of the Seas from August 15-20. We are scheduled to land in Miami at 12:14pm, will this leave us enough time to get to port? We will be taking an Uber from Miami Intl to port -- transportation is not offered for this cruise. This is our first cruise, so any helpful insiders are greatly appreciated! We have read mixed reviews on the ship and are a little hesitant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ0zW-f91n8 In this video you'll see the entertainment offered on board, a look around the cruise ship, a peak that each island has to offer, and some excursions. Let me know if you have any questions about the Majesty of the Seas! I'm happy to help and would give it a 10/10.

Hello All, I happen to be sailing out of the port of Miami for the first time coming up on April 7th-16th on the Empress. I have sailed out of Port Everglades many times but never from Miami. We are flying into Ft. Lauderdale of course still. Does anyone have any suggestions on the best places to stay the night before? Is it better to try and get some place down in Miami? Or stay in Ft. Lauderdale? Also, anyone have any preferences of transfer services from FLL and MIA. From the hotel down there and then back to the airport following the cruise. Any input would be greatly appreciated as I know many of you are quite the bundles of knowledge when it comes to anything cruise related :) THANKS!! Adam