Everglades after Miami disembarkation

[jbrinkm]

Our flight is not until 6pm (at FLL) the day of disembarkation in Miami. I'd love to take the family on a boat tour of the Everglades as we've never been to Miami before. Would you recommend the cruise ship tour? It seems like less hassle in terms of airport transfer and luggage, etc. but if it's not very good, I'd prefer to book on my own. 

For anyone who did a tour on their own, how did you do it? Rideshare or rental car? What company did you use and would you recommend? Was it more or less expensive than the one offered by RCI?

[jbrinkm]

Addendum question: If you've done this tour, do you know what time it leaves from the ship and how long it takes? 

[FionaMG]

Hi @jbrinkm,

We did this tour the opposite way around (disembarked Fort Lauderdale, flight out of Miami) back in December 2019.

I did a recap of that cruise in the Live Blogs board and you can read about how the excursion went here (link should take you straight to the actual post; if it doesn't it's on the last page of the thread): 

It was a good tour. We enjoyed it and in terms of convenience it's absolutely unbeatable. You get off the ship, collect your bags, stick them in the bus, do the tour and you and your bags get dropped off at the airport afterwards. In that respect, I would definitely recommend it. We have done this type of tour several times and it's way better than sitting at the airport for hours.

But, and it's quite a big but, you do pay quite a high price for the convenience. It was ok for us, just as a couple, but you mentioned "family" and that means it's going to cost $$$, probably a good deal more than hiring a car. Another but is that it will still leave you several hours to kill when you get to the airport, because the drop-off time there is usually sometime between 1 pm and 2 pm, since they like to leave themselves plenty of leeway to ensure people don't miss their flights.

If you wanted to do it on your own I don't think you'd be able to use a rideshare because then you would have nowhere to leave your luggage unless you paid them to stay with you the whole time. Maybe you could consider one of limo companies? That might work for you because you can book them by the hour and it might actually work out cheaper than the excursion depending on the size of your family. That way your luggage would stay in the car the whole time. I've used Larry's Limos in the past for port/airport/hotel transfers and they were fine: https://www.larryslimo.com/contact.html

Hope this helps. If you have any specific questions about the excursion that you don't see answered in my blog post feel free to ask. I'll be glad to reply if I know the answer.

 

[jbrinkm]

Thanks, @FionaMG! This is really helpful. What a great write-up of your experience!

[Audrey V.]

I haven't done the excursion,  but I am originally from Miami. You probably do not have time to go to the National Park, but if you rent a car, it is literally a straight drive to "Four Corners", which is where 8th Srreet (aka Calle Ocho-- historic Little Havana) meets up with Krome Avenue. From 8th you go straight west. 

There are a lot of air boat vendors.  I think the closest is Cooperstown, which has been there before I was born. They have airboat rides and alligator shows. Don't forget to look for birds.

You should have plenty of time to drop off your rental car at MIA. If you are driving on 8th Street to the airport instead of the expressways, I recommend getting Cuban Food. There are other Caribbean choices,  but you can go classic like Versailles,  but my favorite is La Carreta (the wagon wheel). 

[Audrey V.]

PS- check Groupon