Flying into PBI instead of FLL or MIA for a cruise?

[Lovetocruise2002]

Has anyone ever flown into PBI (West Palm Beach) for a cruise that leaves out of Port Everglades or Miami? Recommend? Don't recommend? Pros? Cons? Did you Uber/Lyft or use car service?

Giving this some thought for a cruise out of Port Everglades for New Years. The cost difference between this and flying into FLL at the moment is about $80pp x 4, so about $320 total more to fly into FLL vs PBI. But we've never done this before so just looking for some thoughts. Or for that price, is it not really worth it? Both scenarios would be direct flights from DTW.

[FireFishII]

Don't forget to consider the cost of transportation between the airport and the cruise ship.  Sorry, but I don't have any experience with PBI. 

 

Funny - I first thought you were talking about PIB (Put-In-Bay, Ohio) and could not figure how that relates to FL. 

[KJRanch]

We have not done it yet but we will be for our cruise for Thanksgiving week leaving from Miami.  We are going to take the Tri Rail from West Palm Beach to Miami.  There is a $15 discount from tri rail to take an uber from PBI to the tri rail station.   Our hotel is than just a short 5 minute walk from the tri rail station in miami.  Flying into PBI was significantly cheaper and get us into Miami 8 hours sooner.

[TwoCanSailAway]

Do it! Just make sure to give yourself time for travel, possible delays & TSA. 

Wouldn't recommend booking an 11:00 AM flight from PBI, if cruising out of FLL or MIA. (You never know when there will be customs clearance delays for your ship)

 

You can try the Brightline Train. Trains run about every hour.

Now Running from MCO - MIA (with stops in West Palm, and Fort Lauderdale. Eventually to add a connection to Tampa.)

MCO to MIA is about 3 hours & 30 minutes,  MCO to FLL is about 3 Hours,  MCO to PBI  ~2hr 16 mins,  FLL to PBI 45 mins,  MIA to PBI 1hr 20 mins. 

https://www.gobrightline.com/

 

Notes:

Brightline station is connected to the MCO (Orlando) Airport.  All other stations are not connected to the airport & will require separate transportation (uber/lyft) to get from the station to the airport.

The premium train tickets include a free Uber ride within a 5-mile radius of the train station, but the fare price difference isn't worth it in my opinion. Cheaper to buy a SMART train seat & pay for Uber separately.

 

We are using the train in December from MIA > FLL  & FLL > MCO. Train tickets booked in groups of 4 give a 25% fare discount. 

[WAAAYTOOO]

PBI is now our “home” airport.  I really love flying in/out of PBI.  BUT it is quite a distance from PE or PoM.  I would say that for a cost difference of $320 (total), it would not be worth it…at least, not for me.  You will still need to pay for transport to the port(s) plus the hassle of logistics/time of getting there.  If it were a difference of $320 PP then probably worth it, but not for a total savings of $320.

Also, for us, PBI will almost always mean an airplane change somewhere so it is often smarter for us to drive on down to FLL or MIA in order to get a direct/nonstop flight vs changing planes. We can fly non-stop to DC but that’s an anomaly.  PBI usually means a change of planes.  No thanks.

[TheMaxRebo]

We just booked a flight to PBI for our cruise out of Miami next February.... the cost savings for a flight we found were just too great vs other options to FLL/MIA (like $400/person better, and there are 5 of us, even cheaper than budget airline options with less good times)

 

So we will see how it goes. Still debating how we will transfer down, though my wife found a good rate on one way car rental which will give us a car for the day since flying in a day before cruise 

 

Flights for Presidents Week out of the NYC area have just been crazy so willing to give this a try

[Lovetocruise2002]

3 hours ago, FireFishII said:

Don't forget to consider the cost of transportation between the airport and the cruise ship.

Right now it looks like Uber/Lyft XL would be around $100 each way. So yes, that would cut into the savings a bit, making it not as worth hassle.

3 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

PBI is now our “home” airport.  I really love flying in/out of PBI.  BUT it is quite a distance from PE or PoM.

Hubby wants to know if the flights in/out of PBI are "reliable". I use that term loosely because airlines are totally not reliable nowadays, but does that airport generally have a pretty good rate for being on time etc.? Also, google maps says it's about an hour away (by car) from Fort Lauderdale. Is that pretty accurate?

2 hours ago, TheMaxRebo said:

Flights for Presidents Week out of the NYC area have just been crazy so willing to give this a try

That is the driving factor for us to look elsewhere as well. Flights for both our NYE sailing (out of PE), and our March sailing (out of Miami) is nuts!

 

[WAAAYTOOO]

I don’t know whether PBI is any more reliable than any other airport. Oftentimes airport delays are caused by issues in originating or connection locations so the airport itself is just a casualty of issues beyond its control.  Weather issues are probably less prevalent (hurricanes notwithstanding).  It’s a very nice, convenient and tranquil airport for the number of times we’ve used it.  If you can get there in one shot I’d say it’s worth trying.  If you have to make a connection, not so much.

[MLH]

We rented a car from PBI to Everglades. Florida does not have drop off fees for other locations.  We flew out of FLL coming back.

[SMOKEY0202]

Also remember if there is a flight issue with delays, etc. smaller airports are prone to have cancelled flights compared to FLL or MIA.

Then remember Uber/Lyft can run on limited service and end up being much more money 

With way airlines have been lately, not sure if it's worth the extra anxiety to try a different plan to try to save.

Just had incident coming back from Melbourne last month...3 hr delay then rerouted to Augusta.  Stuck there 6 hrs then flight cancelled.  Next available was 2 days later.  Transportation was very limited and had to book Groome to Atlanta just to get home .....

[Biaggio]

Rent a car . There are drop off locations near the port. We do a 24 hour rental from West Coast (FL) to East Coast for $59 to $99. Works for us when we do a transatlantic 

[Matt]

PBI is a great airport to fly in/out, but it's significantly north of FLL/MIA.

[asquared17]

unrelated to cruising, we have flown into PBI when staying at marco island. it's clean and nice, (from an airport perspective, anyway ) but it is definitely a distance from the ports.

i'm not sure if it would ultimately wind up being worth the haul with transportation costs involved, tbh, but i know you have FLL/MIA trauma from previous experiences so i can understand why you're looking into it, haha

[Lovetocruise2002]

1 minute ago, asquared17 said:

but i know you have FLL/MIA trauma from previous experiences so i can understand why you're looking into it, haha

It's not really trauma that is making me look, it's more costs. For both our December sailing, and March 2024 sailing, flights to FLL/MIA are super high. The March ones are starting to come down a bit. I am slowly pricing it down with Air2Sea, however, the NYE sailing on Odyssey, flights into FLL are still fairly high and I have to make final payment in a week. That is what made me explore other options. But like @WAAAYTOOO mentioned, I don't know if a total savings of $320 is worth it. When I factor in Lyft costs, or car rental costs, it's even less. Might just have to stick with what we have.

[asquared17]

i hear you.

i am shocked still at pricing from EWR to FLL honestly, typically it would have gone down by now and it hasn't budged. it's wild, and the february flights are not looking good either.

[Vancity Cruiser]

12 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I don't know if a total savings of $320 is worth it. When I factor in Lyft costs, or car rental costs, it's even less. Might just have to stick with what we have.

Everyone's situation is different but $320 would not be enough savings to be worth the hassle for me. I just spent an extra $400 for flights to have better flight times and avoid flying Flair (you're Canadian, I'm sure you understand my aversion to Flair lol). 

[asquared17]

i will also add that the next two trips we are taking cruise out of MIA but i REFUSE to go back to that airport for a number of reasons (also we like the overnight options in FLL more), so we are flying in/out of FLL for both trips and eating the uber costs. MIA flights home for us are INSANE in feb so even if it's a wash or winds up costing us a bit more, i'm okay with it.

after our last time in MIA, i vowed to J, "never again!!" 

[Lovetocruise2002]

2 hours ago, Vancity Cruiser said:

and avoid flying Flair

Oh, I get you! lol

2 hours ago, asquared17 said:

i will also add that the next two trips we are taking cruise out of MIA but i REFUSE to go back to that airport for a number of reasons (also we like the overnight options in FLL more), so we are flying in/out of FLL for both trips and eating the uber costs. MIA flights home for us are INSANE in feb so even if it's a wash or winds up costing us a bit more, i'm okay with it.

I'm the opposite. For our Odyssey cruise in December, it leaves from Port Everglades, so DTW-FLL is the logical option. Does not make sense to go to MIA. However, for the next two sailings, it departs from MIA. I am not opposed to MIA like you are, however, what I am opposed to is getting home later than I need to. Because I book with Air2Sea, they won't let me book a flight earlier than 2pm out of FLL if the ship docks in MIA. So even though FLL is slightly cheaper, I am flying home from MIA because I can book an earlier flight home. I often do DTW-FLL/MIA-DTW for Miami sailings.

[Brenna]

We flew in and out of PBI earlier this summer (at the height of the airline nonsense) from EWR 

We were delayed both ways but I blame that more on EWR than PBI. Although the gate agents did tell us that PBI/FLL/MIA all share the same airspace/ATC so if things are delayed to one of them they would have likely been delayed/stopped at all 3 so from a logistics perspective I would probably consider the 'dependability' of them the same. 

[AshleyDillo]

4 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

When I factor in Lyft costs, or car rental costs, it's even less. Might just have to stick with what we have

TriRail is cheap to get you between the cities..definitely less than $100 each each way for a party of 4..still may have a short Uber/Lyft from the rail stations but not $100 in total. There's a shuttle from PBI to the West Palm TriRail station and I'd be surprised if it was more than $5 each to ride to Ft. Laud.

[Greg R]

Its about an hour from WPI to PE by car, by the time you either get the train or an Uber to get you all the way down to PE it will cost you almost the same as having flown into FL.  Save the hassle and fly into FL.  

[CruisingSteve]

Several ways to get to/from PBI-FLL
1. Rent a car
2. Uber/Lyft
3. Tri-Rail
4. Brightline
5. Taxi (This is probably the most expensive option)

[Biaggio]

Depending on the exact date, a car rental one way from PBI to the cruise port (car drop off then shuttle) will run you about $85 + 

[tonyfsu21]

On 9/20/2023 at 10:44 AM, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Has anyone ever flown into PBI (West Palm Beach) for a cruise that leaves out of Port Everglades or Miami? Recommend? Don't recommend? Pros? Cons? Did you Uber/Lyft or use car service?

Giving this some thought for a cruise out of Port Everglades for New Years. The cost difference between this and flying into FLL at the moment is about $80pp x 4, so about $320 total more to fly into FLL vs PBI. But we've never done this before so just looking for some thoughts. Or for that price, is it not really worth it? Both scenarios would be direct flights from DTW.

Price out the ride share because the $320 might sound more reasonable. It’s not a long drive and PBI is pretty hassle free provided you time it right and don’t get on I-95 during rush hour. 

[CowboyMedic]

We are in this current situation. It was much cheaper to fly into West Palm Beach than MIA or FLL (we are flying out of FLL on the way home). We decided to take the Brightline train from WPB to Miami and got Premium tickets (alcohol and food included) for $47 per person. We are staying overnight in Downtown Miami (about a mile from the station) then Ubering over to the port. We are so looking forward to our post Christmas/New Year's cruise to the Southern Caribbean on Grandeur OTS.

Any reviews from people that have used the Premium option on Brightline?

[tonyfsu21]

22 minutes ago, CowboyMedic said:

We are in this current situation. It was much cheaper to fly into West Palm Beach than MIA or FLL (we are flying out of FLL on the way home). We decided to take the Brightline train from WPB to Miami and got Premium tickets (alcohol and food included) for $47 per person. We are staying overnight in Downtown Miami (about a mile from the station) then Ubering over to the port. We are so looking forward to our post Christmas/New Year's cruise to the Southern Caribbean on Grandeur OTS.

Any reviews from people that have used the Premium option on Brightline?

I use it all the time and premium is the way to go. You will enjoy it. 

[asquared17]

12 hours ago, CowboyMedic said:

Any reviews from people that have used the Premium option on Brightline?

i feel like @Matt just went with the premium option on the brightline fairly recently!

[CruisingSteve]

Several ways to get to PBI

Uber/Lyft

Taxi

Tri-Rail

Brightline

[SpeedNoodles]

5 hours ago, asquared17 said:

i feel like @Matt just went with the premium option on the brightline fairly recently!

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2023/11/22/brightline-train-to-miami-orlando