samrothstein

I too am renting a golf cart on Monday - can’t wait! Plan to drive to the light house, Pillory Beach, Governors Beach and maybe a little Cockburn Town exploring. I’ve never heard of anything to cause concern for safety in GT, but common sense and “city smarts” should be used anywhere. 

I’m staying there Friday night. From what I can see, theres a Wendy’s and Dunkin Donuts next door, and not a lot else. We get in late and will be out before lunch, so won’t be looking for restaurants, but I’ll keep an eye out. 
 

It’s not something I’d ever bank on having a positive experience doing. Your reservation is for pickup at the airport and you want to pick up at the cruise port and drop off in another city -  my expectation would be to show up at Eller Dr and be given the best available rate of the day plus the drop fee, which as you say doubles the price. 

I think the smart and stress free route is to get a taxi or Uber to the airport to pick up your existing reservation. 

I’m renting a car and hitting a museum and beach before 430pm flight. Car rental with 2 child seats is $75 ($55 without seats), picked up at the port and dropped off at the airport. 

1 hour ago, Jamman54 said:

 

Enjoy your cruise! 😎

That’s definitely the plan, and your laid back attitude to your own cruise is inspiring me

2 minutes ago, Jamman54 said:

 

I don't think so. I saw breakfast meats, potatoes,  and maybe toast. 😎

Appreciate the info, and the great review. 6 days left for me 🙂

14 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

 

 We decided to head up to the Lido Market Place for some omelets this morning. We avoided any lines by going to Cucina del Capitano. They seated us and just like they do for lunch, we filled out a card with what we wanted in the omelet, and when it was done they brought it out to us. Outstanding! There were stations where you could get your breakfast meats and potatoes, and also your coffee and juices.

 

Our bellies full, we went back to the cabin, grabbed our stuff, and then left the ship right around 10 am. The gangway was all the way forward on Deck 1. Welcome to Halifax!

 

 

 

 

Do you recall if the omelette stations (Cucina del Capitano, lucky bowl, seafood shack, etc) also had pancakes/waffles and pastries?

If we can skip the buffet madness and keep the kids happy with pancakes, that would be fantastic!

We’ll be cruising on the Sunrise Nov 02, and your review has me feeling all warm and fuzzy so far! Can’t wait for more. 

We’ll be a cruising family of 4, with a 3 and 6 yo, and have rented a golf cart, and I’m curious about restaurants on the island away from the port. Jacks Shack and Island Jerk are known favorites, and we went to Bohio last time and enjoyed the beach bar. Is there anything else we should look at? Thanks!

1 hour ago, JohninDC said:

www.sunny.org has lots of FLL area tourist info.

 

www.resortpass.com has resorts/large hotels that offer day passes to their pool, spa and beach facilities - tip them to watch your bags.  If you do this option you might not need the rental car.

Resortpass and dayuse slate very tempting,  but we’re trying to keep the budget low. Sunny.org has helped me land on FLL beach park or Hollywood Broadwalk 

Family of 4, two small kids 3/6.  I have a car reserved near the port, and am just looking to kill a few leisurely hours before heading to the airport. I’m expecting to be off the boat by 930/10 and at the airport to drop the car off by 2pm, so that gives me about 4 hours. No interest in shopping or going to the Everglades. Fort Lauderdale Beach Park looks good with a playground for the kids, are there any good restaurants around there?  I’ve looked at the Hollywood Broadwalk and it looks good as well. If weather is bad, I see the Regal Cinema Oakwood in Dania - is this a good area? Anything else I could consider to kill some time?

We will be on Nov 2nd, any chances of decorations still being up?

37!

Wet Money and Max karts allows online booking of golf carts, and I’m wondering if it’s worth it to book ahead, or just turn up and hope one is there? We have two ships in GT that day with a 7k passenger load. What are the odds of them running out, if we’re not some of the first off the boat?

6 hours ago, flippergirl said:

My plan is to get these https://www.whizrider.com/ for my older kid (4) and use an immigo for my 2 year old. Your kids are old enough to use these for both.  They aren't scheduled to ship til October since they are in preproduction. 

Very interesting!

1 hour ago, nycfa said:

Is this the Home2Suites you are talking about staying at?   

 

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g34168-d12199245-Reviews-Home2_Suites_by_Hilton_Ft_Lauderdale_Airport_Cruise_Port-Dania_Beach_Broward_County_Fl.html

 

That is where we stayed in July and it was wonderful.   TONS of stuff around there.   Restaurants, Fast Food, Convenience Store, Starbucks.....

 

The hotel was clean, staff friendly and the free breakfast had plenty to eat.

 

We had two queen beds and a sofa bed along with the full frig, microwave and dishwasher.   If you have a car there is a kroger not far away and we went there and got stuff to make for dinner two of the nights we were there and ate in the room.   

 

I would totally stay there again. 

 

 

That’s the one,  but I’m not seeing much around it on street view. The Burger King and Starbucks show a 10-12 minute walk each way, which doesn’t sound appealing at 9pm. The hotel looks great and I want to give it a try, but it just doesn’t seem convenient at this time. Thanks for taking the time to post!

We’ll be traveling with 3 & 6 yo, and would like to spend our day in GT at Bohio. Will there be issues getting a taxi there and back?

I should clarify that this is for FLL. 

I’ve done some searching and found that children under 6(?) require a booster at least, and under 4(?) require a full car seat, when traveling in a taxi/Uber/Lyft.

Does this apply to shuttle services, ie airport and cruise transportation shuttles? 

I'll be traveling with a 3 & 6yo and have no desire to schlep car seats around if I don’t have to.  

I have a two queen setup at home2 (Dania Beach) and a 1 king/sofa bed at Homewood (also dania).

Homewood is looking better and better as I can at least grab Wendy’s for dinner and walk to one of the gas stations for supplies - the Home2 doesn’t seem to have any kind of stores or food options near. 

A king+sofa bed is our preferred room type when traveling with the kids. They won’t notice a bar in the bed for one night. 

1 hour ago, Roz said:

 

Sam,

 

This information may or may not be helpful or relevant to your family's situation.  We stayed at a Home2Suites twice out of dire necessity; never again.  The rooms are basically set up for 1 person or a couple, with only king studio rooms available.  There's a supposed sofa bed where my sister slept, and it was extremely uncomfortable with a metal bar down the middle.  We had to make up the sofa bed ourselves with bedding provided at the front desk. 

 

Roz

I’ve got refundable reservations for both hotels, so covered there. As for the shuttle, we’ve got a preschooler and a 1st grader - are taxis required

to use car seats?

November 2nd cruise departure, will be arriving at FLL with DW+DS+DS at about 8:30pm on the 1st. I have it narrowed down to these two hotels based on price and proximity. Home2 is $10 more for the night, has good reviews and looks pretty nice. Homewood is a brand we've stayed at in other locations, also have good reviews and looks nice. Both hotels offer free airport shuttle, and $10/pp cruise port shuttle. Seems like there's not much around either location food or store wise, but the Homewood at least has a couple of gas stations we can get snacks and maybe a case of soda from.

Is there anything between the two to set one apart? Anything else I should look at in the $160(all in) range?

I've just booked for the same cruise as the OP. Taking the wife and kids, and we are very excited. The first and only cruise for the wife and me was on the Destiny 10 years ago and we loved every minute. 

I got pretty concerned when I started reading about 1100 more passengers though, as it didn't jive with the information I'd seen. Glad I double checked, and have come up with the same info as Jamman - 420 more passengers at max capacity. Whew! 

I'm excited for the new features after the upgrade, and think it'll be a great time.

I’m considering a late arrival when we sail on the Glory out of NOLA next year. We’ll be dropping the kids off at my moms house so may or may not be in a rush to leave them lol!