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Fort Lauderdale Disembarkation Transportation


ADK

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Our group is sailing out of Fort Lauderdale on Harmony. When we return part of the group’s flight departs at noon (and will go straight to the airport) but part of the group’s flight doesn’t leave until 3pm. They figure they’ll have to be off the ship around 10-11am??

For the noon flight group do you recommend transfer or taxi? We’ll weigh price, convenience, etc.

For the 3pm group, can you pay for RC to store your luggage and they could explore a bit and then return for luggage and transfer? Or is there some other option that involves perhaps a taxi? They’re a group of 6 with all their luggage so it would have to be a van, I guess.

This is our first cruise and not sure what the disembarkation process entails. We have to go through Customs, etc? How long does that usually take?

Are there any taxi services you recommend? 

Thank you!!

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1 hour ago, ADK said:

For the 3pm group, can you pay for RC to store your luggage and they could explore a bit and then return for luggage and transfer? Or is there some other option that involves perhaps a taxi? They’re a group of 6 with all their luggage so it would have to be a van, I guess.

This is our first cruise and not sure what the disembarkation process entails. We have to go through Customs, etc? How long does that usually take?

Are there any taxi services you recommend? 

I don't believe that RC can store your luggage, because you are in the port terminal and it's the port workers handling everything once the luggage is off the ship. I've read other accounts here of people being on the beach with their luggage on disembarkation day while waiting for their flights, so you wouldn't be out of place to be seen hauling your stuff around. The porters definitely won't keep your stuff in any kind of storage, their job is just to get stuff onto the ship and back off into the passengers' hands. Even if they could, you'd be hard-pressed to get back into the terminal without a valid Set Sail Pass or other document.

General information on disembarkation can be found in this post from Matt.

My family and I just did our own first cruise ever, also out of Port Everglades, and disembarkation was very straightforward for us. We had the next to last time slot at 9:30, and we got outside and ready for pickup around 11. The earlier you disembark, the faster it will go since the customs lines won't have built up yet.

I think your group is too large for any Uber or Lyft service to help you out, so you'll definitely need a van service. It might not be a bad idea to check out something like resortforaday.com or a similar service and just make a reservation at an area hotel, have yourselves and your stuff brought there in a van (maybe the hotel's van), and ask the bellhops to store your things in the locked storage area while you enjoy your time ahead of your flight. Then you can just take the van one more time when you need to get to the airport.

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3 hours ago, ADK said:

For the noon flight group do you recommend transfer or taxi? We’ll weigh price, convenience, etc.

Uber or Lyft

3 hours ago, ADK said:

For the 3pm group, can you pay for RC to store your luggage and they could explore a bit and then return for luggage and transfer? Or is there some other option that involves perhaps a taxi? They’re a group of 6 with all their luggage so it would have to be a van, I guess.

A RC excursion would offer this.  I'm not aware of another option, other than going to some hotel and asking nicely to have the luggage stored (along with a tip).

3 hours ago, ADK said:

This is our first cruise and not sure what the disembarkation process entails. We have to go through Customs, etc? How long does that usually take?

You do need to go through customs, although it is pretty quick...unless you get flagged for a more thorough inspection.  If you want to save time with the Customs line, use a porter to take your bags.  No cost to use the porters, you just need to tip them after.  Porters often have their own line.

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When we departed Harmony in March, there was no longer a porter line. I asked our porter and he said they didn't have a dedicated line anymore. Even so, the porter was worth the tip.  He managed to get way ahead of us in line (no idea how). Customs was easy and the porter completely arranged a taxi van for the 7 of us and all our luggage (it was a squeeze).

Most airlines allow you to drop off bags 4 hours before your flight.  There were a ton of people waiting for the 4 hour point.  We had a 2:15 flight but one of our party had a 2:45 flight. Once all the bags were taken, we took a taxi to the beach for lunch and took an uber back to the airport. 

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16 hours ago, JLMoran said:

 

My family and I just did our own first cruise ever, also out of Port Everglades, and disembarkation was very straightforward for us. We had the next to last time slot at 9:30, and we got outside and ready for pickup around 11. The earlier you disembark, the faster it will go since the customs lines won't have built up yet.

 

Wow......it took that long from 9:30 till 11 am to do all that? I am usually boarding the ship at 11am when I cruise.

I always do the self check out when disembarking and its about a 20 mins process max in my experiences.

 

 

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We went on Harmony in February, had a group of 10.  When you exit through customs to the outside, the first people there are RC employees that arrange group transportation, it's like $20 per person to go to the airport if I remember, which is high.  Instead of that, after you get outside from customs, hang a left and walk to the corner of the building.  There is private group transportation there, I believe the workers were wearing red vests.  It is $9 per person to go to the airport, you tell them how many you have and they flag you an appropriate vehicle.  It was super easy.  RC sets up shop on the prime real estate right outside customs, but a 1 min walk farther away and the same transportation is half price.    

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50 minutes ago, monctonguy said:

Wow......it took that long from 9:30 till 11 am to do all that? I am usually boarding the ship at 11am when I cruise.

I always do the self check out when disembarking and its about a 20 mins process max in my experiences.

It was probably closer to an hour to actually leave the ship and clear customs, with the last 20-30 minutes just waiting outside for our Lyft to show up. Since we were in the next-to-last group to actually leave the ship, there was a huge bottleneck just getting to the point where our Sea Pass cards were scanned. We left from the main theater on deck 4, and even though we had a straight line run to the gangway, there were only two people scanning cards at the exit point. That was at least 30 minutes of waiting, plus another 10 or 15 as we wound our way down through the building to where luggage and the customs lines were.

Throw in an unexpected bathroom pause, and needing a bit of time to find our luggage and for the porter to get it all stacked (I still can't believe he hauled all 8 of our bags on one small dolly!), and then another 10-15 minutes getting through the customs line, we were easily at the 1-hour mark by the time we were actually outside with the crowd waiting to be picked up by their taxi / airport van / Lyft / Uber.

I will say that when we arrived at the port for embarkation day, that was also a little after 11 AM and there were still a good number people standing outside the terminal building exit, waiting for their rides. It actually threw us off, as we thought they were waiting to get into the building until I noticed they had all their luggage with them.

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2 hours ago, JBC said:

We went on Harmony in February, had a group of 10.  When you exit through customs to the outside, the first people there are RC employees that arrange group transportation, it's like $20 per person to go to the airport if I remember, which is high.  Instead of that, after you get outside from customs, hang a left and walk to the corner of the building.  There is private group transportation there, I believe the workers were wearing red vests.  It is $9 per person to go to the airport, you tell them how many you have and they flag you an appropriate vehicle.  It was super easy.  RC sets up shop on the prime real estate right outside customs, but a 1 min walk farther away and the same transportation is half price.    

Since my group's headed straight to the airport, I think this is what we'll do. Thank you!

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From my trip report:

o    Tried to use Lyft for a ride to car rental area at the FLL airport.  My phone data service was terrible and it appeared others were having the same problem.  I set up a ride, hit enter and the signal crashed requiring me to try again.  The cars that were picking people up were not marked and that caused people to step out into the traffic lane and turn around. My brother in law does this on the side and he has stickers on his car so it can be identified easily.  Cost would have been somewhere between $8 -$10.    After some attempts my wife finally said let’s get a cab.   Good call.  The trip was $12 and we just jumped into a readily available cab.   Saving a few bucks wasn’t worth the aggravation we were having for such a short ride.     

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