What to do between 7am and boarding time in Miami?

:confused::confused: We are taking the red-eye into Miami in January. It gets in at 7am. Our ship (Voyager) departs at 5pm and our docs state boarding doesn't begin until 11am! What should we plan on doing between 7am and boarding time? I'm sure we'll need to eat something...somewhere. Any ideas on what to do with ourselvles and ALL of our luggage between 7am and 11am?!?!?

Thanks in advance for any advice. This is our first cruise and all of this is totally new to us. (Which is why I LOVE these boards!)

By the time you land and get your luggage it will be after 8- go have breakfast and wait- since you will be luggung your luggage with you the whole time. Head to the port about 10:30. (any earlier you will get snarled in the traffice getting out)

Did you book transfers from the Cruise company? Their first bus won't leave the airport until 10:00 or 10:30 anyway.

If you didn't, take a taxi to Bayside Marketplace and have lunch. It is across the bridge from the cruisedocks and you can watch the ships unload, etc. It's where the HRC is in Miami also.

Another thought - since your ship doesn't leave until 5pm, you don't necessarily have to board by 11am. Since you'll be coming in on a redeye, something that might be nice is get a day room at a nearby hotel. That way you could take a nap, shower, grab a bite, and then be refreshed to board the ship. And no waiting around when your flight arrives, plus no worrying about where to leave luggage. We got a decent day rate at the Wyndham Miami Airport when we did that a few years ago, since our flight didn't leave until 7pm and we spent the afternoon by their pool. They have free airport shuttle and then its a flat rate of about $18-22 for a cab to the port.

Thank you so much for all of your help. I think we are going to try to get a "day room" at a hotel once we reach Miami. Because it is their high season I wont be able to reserve one unless we pay for the night previous. So we'll take our chances. If worse comes to worse we can sit at the airport and read for a few hours and then catch a cab to the port around 10:30.

As mentioned earlier, DON"T go to the ship that early. You will get lost in the shuffle and confustion of them off loading the cruise arriving that day. How about renting a car for the day? You should be able to find something for $20 or so $$$, maybe even better. Go to the beach, or "whatever" return the car say, 2-ish, noramlly will deliver you to the ship on thier shuttle, you'll be on by 3. Sometimes getting to the ship at that time, it is 5 minutes between check-in and being on board. Whereas arriving around 12-ish, with EVERYONE arriving around then, sometimes it can take an hour or so from when you first start to check in until you are actually on the ship. And you are going to be on it for a week or 10 days or whatever, so getting on 3-4 hours later than a lot of folks certainly is not going to make any bit of difference in your cruise experience!

If your at the Port of Miami by 11 am you'll be fine. ;)

There has been talk the last couple of days on a couple of the boards about tightened security in Port Everglades and Miami and that passengers may not be allowed into the cruise ship terminals until after 1:30.

WHere is that information? Is it just port everglade or all ports?

There has been talk the last couple of days on a couple of the boards about tightened security in Port Everglades and Miami and that passengers may not be allowed into the cruise ship terminals until after 1:30.

Interesting, no mention of that in the Ft Lauderdale or Miami newspapers. Checked with friends that work for Carnival out of Port of Miami and nephew who is a pilot boat captain for Port Evergaldes. No one has heard any such thing. Would you mind sharing your source? :rolleyes:

The source is on the Celebrity board and the RCL board. People booked on cruises were notified by the cruise lines. No one knows yet if this is something only pertaining to Celebrity and RCL. The notifications said something to the effect of changes in custom/immigration and it would take longer for pax who were leaving the ship.

This could go either way. It could only be Celebrity/RCL or something is changing with customs/immigration.

We have flown into Miami very early and rented a car more than once. We always had a nice breakfast at South Beach, then went to Bay Side for a little while. The car rental company will take you to the pier.

Here is a quick update that I read about this morning.

The late embarking might be confined to sailing on certain ships on Dec 26 because of the large number of ships in port that day. It appears there is not enough space to handle all of them and an industrial dock may be used.

There was a post stating it was because of custom/immigration security issue in a letter received by a pax. This could still be related to docking at an industrial pier.

Like I post earlier, No one knows for sure what is going on. :)

Having flown red-eyes, you will be a bit tired. My suggestion is to take your time. Be the last one off the plane. Head immediately to the lavatories to freshen up, splash some cold water on your face & just s-t-r-e-t-c-h. You'll need it. Grab a cup of coffee at the gate & mosey down to baggage claim. From there, get your luggage, & hail a cab to a great breakfast spot. I don't know where -- but if you change your online Q to "where's a great restuarant to have breakfast near the pier?", you'll get an answer. Bayside Marketplace -- basically a big outside mall -- may be an option but the chains aren't open for breakfast & they are nothing to write home about. Have a lesiurely meal, then head over to the pier. Personally, I'd shoot to arrive around noon. The departing passangers should be gone by then & the arriving melee may not have started yet.

Enjoy.