Need advice on outbound flight from FLL

Hi... need some advice on flight times out of FLL. First time to be at this port and trying to schedule flights. We are on Oasis of the Seas and our two options for outbound flights are 2:30 and 6:30. For those of you who have done this..... how crazy is the airport early on? Is 2:30 realistic? If taking the 6:30 flight... suggestions on something to do/see to kill time before the flight? Thanks for any advice and/or suggestions!

Oh my goodness....we have flown out as early as 9:45am. FLL is probably the best and easiest airport. Take the earlier flight. You will have no problem at all.

I should add that we did the 6:30am self disembarkation.

Hi... need some advice on flight times out of FLL. First time to be at this port and trying to schedule flights. We are on Oasis of the Seas and our two options for outbound flights are 2:30 and 6:30. For those of you who have done this..... how crazy is the airport early on? Is 2:30 realistic? If taking the 6:30 flight... suggestions on something to do/see to kill time before the flight? Thanks for any advice and/or suggestions!

The airport is only about 12 minutes away by car. You should be off the ship by 10:00 am and through customs by 10:30 or 45 latest. You should easily be able to make a 2:30 pm flight.

Jonathan

Just what I wanted to hear! Thanks for the quick replies

Be aware they will not accept bags prior to 3-4 hours before flight. On sat/sun the pre-tsa areas can get very crowded, so don't rush to the airport and consider luggage valet.

Be aware they will not accept bags prior to 3-4 hours before flight. On sat/sun the pre-tsa areas can get very crowded, so don't rush to the airport and consider luggage valet.[/QUOTe

 

I live in Ft Lauderdale area and FLL is my airport of choice. I never arrive more than an hour and a half before flight time. There have been times when I have arrived as late as an hour before. I have never had a time where I could not check my luggage and I do curbside checkin.

We were on the Seranade in January.when we docked in FLL our time to disembark was 830.We did not get off until 945,the problem was that there was only two agents working in the customs area.It took us almost an hour to get thru there.That was the bad,the good was we were at the airport by 1130 and we had a 0ne oclock flight.There were four ships in that day.

Because sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words...

Oasis is circled in the upper right. You can see the airport taking up most of the bottom left of the screen.

Love a good pic! Thanks!

You will be OFF the ship by 9am, in almost all cases. Even the 2:30 flight will make you "kill time" for hours and hours.....

Booking St. Petersburg tours

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The earlier the better. We have been off the ship by 6:30am there and at the airport by 6:45am. Waiting at that airport is brutal. I'd even recommend finding something around 10am.

Unless you have an excursion you want to do, take the 2:30 or earlier. If you have the Oasis deliver your luggage to FFl and then retrieve it at your home airport, (luggage valet, $20 fee), your flight has to be after 12:00, noon. We left the Oasis lasr Saturday and had to stall in order to remain on the ship until 8:30. Rooms have to be vacated by then. We were through customs and at the airport before 9:30. 5 hours to kill!

Last time we cruised we were in the self serve kiosk at FLL at 8:45 AM (following self disembarkation).

Something would have to go catastrophically wrong to miss a 2:30pm flight. Something like "Air traffic control center outage causes flight delays over East Coast" which unfortunately preceded our 8:45 arrival (our 11am flight didn't take off until at 10pm)

I think it depends on how many ships are in port that day. The one time we flew out of FLL, it was a madhouse. They even shut down security for about 10 minutes and we all had to stand still even while at the xray area. No one was allowed to get their bags or anything. Our flight was around 1 but I felt rushed. You should be okay at 2:30 but check who else is in port with you that day too.

Thanks for all the great responses! Now, tell me more about this luggage valet? $20 per bag?

Thanks for all the great responses! Now, tell me more about this luggage valet? $20 per bag?

No, it's $20 per person, plus whatever bag fees your airline charges.

Some info from Royal: http://www.royalcaribbean.com/contentWithHero.do?pagename=luggage_valet_service

Luggage valet, $20 per person, is great! You also have to pay, in advance, any baggage fees your airline charges. We have used it several times and never had a problem. We had to apply for luggage valet by Wednesday night, for use on Saturday morning. They bring you special luggage tags and your boarding passes for your flights on the morning of the last day. You put the bags you are going to check onto the airplane outside your door before 11 p.m. on last night and pick them up at the luggage carousel at home airport.

That sounds like absolutely the way to go. We typically just drive to the port in Galveston, so this is definitely a learning experience. Thanks again for sharing all the great advice!

That sounds like absolutely the way to go. We typically just drive to the port in Galveston, so this is definitely a learning experience. Thanks again for sharing all the great advice!

You should really find something to do and not rush to the airport. If you use luggage valet that will make easier. If we have a late flight we usually head up to Las Olas Blvd. for either breakfast or lunch. Saturday and Sunday mornings can be tough at FLL because of the cruiser crush.

Booking a flight early is definetly the best option. We have had problems with this airport before. They will not let you check luggage earlier than 3 hours prior to your flight, and there is always a ton of people crowding around whole airport. It is a nightmare!

Got off Oasis with 2nd normal group, supposed to be 8:45 but called at 8:15. At airport before 9 via $12+tip taxi. Southwest normal lines upstairs will not let you check in until 2 hours before flight. Downstairs by baggage they were allowing about 4.5 hours. Terminal Southwest uses has limited food options and one set of bathrooms. Seating areas do get crowded later in the day, but it was worse with Frontier in that terminal.

We couldn't use Luggage Valet because certain Southwest tickets (paper, group) require you to check in at the desk. You can get a boarding number at 24 hours but can't use kiosk, check bags at curb, or get early checkin, so ship can't do it.

Most ships want your luggage in the corridor after dinner last night. Oasis doesn't seem to start picking it up until 11 PM.