catbarngal

Thank you all for the great advice and tips! Really appreciated!

At Jenner9 -- we'll be just missing each other! We're going 1/10-1/16. So we'll be getting off the ship when you're getting on -- thanks for the invite to roll call though! :)

Okay -- so my siblings and I (there are 5 of us) are surprising our parents with a gift of a cruise on the Carnival Breeze in January 2016 for their 50th wedding anniversary. The biggest part of the surprise is that we (and all of our kids and grandkids) will be on the cruise too (total of 19 :eek:). This is going to be HUGE for our mom and dad as our entire family hasn't been together for many years!

We got what I thought would be the most difficult part out of the way -- picking the cruise line, date, and destination. Our cabins are all booked and we're set for that. Now is the - surprisingly - even trickier part -- getting everyone together to surprise the parents before getting on the ship.

My family and I recently moved to Naples and would like everyone to meet up at our place for the big reveal. No one has visited us here yet except for my parents. Everyone else lives out of state -- North Carolina, Colorado and Texas.

Ship is departing from the Port of Miami (which is only 2 hour drive from Naples). It is looking like flights into Miami or Fort Lauderdale from CO and TX are way cheaper than flights into Fort Myers (which is only 30 minutes from Naples) -- which means the majority will be flying into the East coast. Cost is definitely an issue for us as this trip seems to be getting more expensive by the day! On the other hand - for the people arriving from NC (my parents, my brother and his daughter) - it is most cost effective to fly into Punta Gorda (1 hour from Naples). Found a really cheap flight already for that part and booked it -- Allegiant Air $150 -- so we grabbed that immediately. The thing with Allegiant is they only fly a few times a week, so in order to make it to the ship on Jan. 10th -- they have to fly into Punta Gorda on the 8th.

Now, I'm finally getting around to the conundrum at hand (sorry this is taking so long). I will be picking up the parental units (and brother and niece) on the 8th (my brother is just going to say he is coming down to FL to see them off then tour around Naples. Because remember -- my parents will be thinking they are the only ones going on the cruise at this point. Then the rest of my family (total of 11) will arrive at either FLL or MIA on Jan 9th and I need to figure out a way to get them to Naples. AND THEN, we all (19 of us!) need to get to the Port of Miami on Jan 10th. I have called every single shuttle service, limo company, bus service, car service that I can find. $400 on the low end and well over $600 on the high end. And that is for each way. Even the shared shuttle -- which means we'd have to get everyone to a Walmart or Burger King parking lot early in the morning (that alone will be a challenge) is still about $55/person -- for that price I'd rather not wait in a parking lot with all of our cruise luggage waiting on a bus at 8 in the morning! I found a private bus that I think I can talk my sibs into for the trip back to Miami - just under $500. Just no way that we could even spend close to that trying to get the 11 over to Naples on the 9th. Hoping that there might be some local Floridians out there that have had to get a large group to the port and can give me some pointers. Had originally thought between my and my husband's cars we could fit everyone -- but with our two cars we can only fit 10. That 11th passenger really throws a wrench in there. And there's all the luggage to consider too!

Whew! Sorry again for a such a lengthy post!!

Many thanks in advance for any advice! :)

Thanks for the tips -- will do!

Okay -- so my siblings and I (there are 5 of us) are surprising our parents with a gift of a cruise on the Carnival Breeze in January 2016 for their 50th wedding anniversary. The biggest part of the surprise is that we (and all of our kids and grandkids) will be on the cruise too (total of 19 :eek:). This is going to be HUGE for our mom and dad as our entire family hasn't been together for many years! We got what I thought would be the most difficult part out of the way -- picking the cruise line, date, and destination. Our cabins are all booked and we're set for that. Now is the - surprisingly - even trickier part -- getting everyone together to surprise the parents before getting on the ship. My family and I recently moved to Naples and would like everyone to meet up at our place for the big reveal. No one has visited us here yet except for my parents. Everyone else lives out of state -- North Carolina, Colorado and Texas. Ship is departing from the Port of Miami (which is only 2 hour drive from Naples). It is looking like flights into Miami or Fort Lauderdale from CO and TX are way cheaper than flights into Fort Myers (which is only 30 minutes from Naples) -- which means the majority will be flying into the East coast. Cost is definitely an issue for us as this trip seems to be getting more expensive by the day! On the other hand - for the people arriving from NC (my parents, my brother and his daughter) - it is most cost effective to fly into Punta Gorda (1 hour from Naples). Found a really cheap flight already for that part and booked it -- Allegiant Air $150 -- so we grabbed that immediately. The thing with Allegiant is they only fly a few times a week, so in order to make it to the ship on Jan. 10th -- they have to fly into Punta Gorda on the 8th. Now, I'm finally getting around to the conundrum at hand (sorry this is taking so long). I will be picking up the parental units (and brother and niece) on the 8th (my brother is just going to say he is coming down to FL to see them off then tour around Naples. Because remember -- my parents will be thinking they are the only ones going on the cruise at this point. Then the rest of my family (total of 11) will arrive at either FLL or MIA on Jan 9th and I need to figure out a way to get them to Naples. AND THEN, we all (19 of us!) need to get to the Port of Miami on Jan 10th. I have called every single shuttle service, limo company, bus service, car service that I can find. $400 on the low end and well over $600 on the high end. And that is for each way. Even the shared shuttle -- which means we'd have to get everyone to a Walmart or Burger King parking lot early in the morning (that alone will be a challenge) is still about $55/person -- for that price I'd rather not wait in a parking lot with all of our cruise luggage waiting on a bus at 8 in the morning! I found a private bus that I think I can talk my sibs into for the trip back to Miami - just under $500. Just no way that we could even spend close to that trying to get the 11 over to Naples on the 9th. Hoping that there might be some local Floridians out there that have had to get a large group to the port and can give me some pointers. Had originally thought between my and my husband's cars we could fit everyone -- but with our two cars we can only fit 10. That 11th passenger really throws a wrench in there. And there's all the luggage to consider too! Whew! Sorry again for a such a lengthy post!! Many thanks in advance for any advice! :)