Couple of Questions

[dioxide45]

We will be on a Dream sailing at the end of May. How late is too late to get to Port Canaveral? We will be dropping the in laws off for their flight out (they don't cruise) at FLL (Fort Lauderdale) the morning of their cruise. Their flight out is at 1:45pm. We are thinking of dropping them off three hours before their flight to give us enough time to get to Port Canaveral. It is a little over a three hour drive. That should get us to the Port Canaveral a little before 2:00pm for a 4:00 pm sailing. Is this enough time? If you are in the check-in area will the boat just sail away if everyone is not checked in yet? I know it will probably be crazy busy checking in at this time.

 

We are cash account people, after you check in you usually have to go stand in another line to put cash on your account. Do you have to do this or can you just wait until you are on the ship and do this at the pursers desk?

[welldone60]

You are cutting it to close for me. I think you have to be on the ship 1 1/2 hours before sailing due to homeland security rules. If you get tied up in traffic, you could be standing at the dock watching the ship sail.

[Socref124]

We will be on a Dream sailing at the end of May. How late is too late to get to Port Canaveral? We will be dropping the in laws off for their flight out (they don't cruise) at FLL (Fort Lauderdale) the morning of their cruise. Their flight out is at 1:45pm. We are thinking of dropping them off three hours before their flight to give us enough time to get to Port Canaveral. It is a little over a three hour drive. That should get us to the Port Canaveral a little before 2:00pm for a 4:00 pm sailing. Is this enough time? If you are in the check-in area will the boat just sail away if everyone is not checked in yet? I know it will probably be crazy busy checking in at this time.

 

We are cash account people, after you check in you usually have to go stand in another line to put cash on your account. Do you have to do this or can you just wait until you are on the ship and do this at the pursers desk?

 

That should be enough time unless there are problems on I-95. We drove home yesterday from Ft Lauderdale and it too us 4 hours. We are about an hour and fifteen minutes north of Port Canaveral. The only stops we made were for gas and the rest room. I think you settle your account at the time you check in. We have always used a credit or debit card though.

[happy cruzin]

Technically - it will probably work. But you have no "extra" time for any issues :o. You could sit in traffic for 2 hours because of an accident would make it impossible to get back to the ship in time.

Personally - I think it is a little too close for comfort - only because there are so many variables.

Do you guys have to be the ones to take them to the airport?? Could you get a car service to take them - so that you could leave earlier?? For us - whatever the car service charges would be more than worth it - to not be stressed out when we get to the ship.;)

[firefly333]

wow, one accident along the way and the ship leaves without you. I sure would allow more than 3 hours to get to the port, park the car and get checked in. You have to be there 90 minutes ahead of time if you have printe out your sign and sail card and done the online check in ... so that only gives you 30 minutes to park and run to the port if nothing else goes wrong.

 

No way Id cut it that close ... and I know the drive. You have to get all the way west to get on and off the turnpike/tollroad to drive faster, I95 can be stop and go thru west palm beach. Then you have to drive back to the ocean to get to the port. No way Jose for me.

[time4fun]

Your docs should show an "everyone on board" time of 2:30pm. I-95 can leave you with all sorts of surprises and delays.....way too close (timewise) for my comfort!

[serene56]

way t close fo me too-- a car service would be better.

 

cash acounts-- when you check in you tell the person you are doing cash. You dont have to visit the purser as soon as you board---but must do it within the 24 hours-- wait til after sail away---and during or after a dinner will find the smallest line

[dioxide45]

Wow, thanks for the fast responses. We will have a rental car that we will be parking at the port during the cruise. The night before our cruise we are actually staying in West Palm Beach, so it will be about an hour drive down to the airport to drop them off and then the three hour drive north. We have a SunPass, so zipping past the tolls on the TurnPike should help speed things up a bit.

 

We could drop them off earlier but they can't check their baggage more than three hours ahead of their flight. They would also then have to kill more time. It looks like a car service is about $60 for both of them from where we are staying the night before. So that is an option to look in to.

[Socref124]

Wow, thanks for the fast responses. We will have a rental car that we will be parking at the port during the cruise. The night before our cruise we are actually staying in West Palm Beach, so it will be about an hour drive down to the airport to drop them off and then the three hour drive north. We have a SunPass, so zipping past the tolls on the TurnPike should help speed things up a bit.

 

We could drop them off earlier but they can't check their baggage more than three hours ahead of their flight. They would also then have to kill more time. It looks like a car service is about $60 for both of them from where we are staying the night before. So that is an option to look in to.

 

DO NOT go on the turnpike. It is unnecessary and will take you out of your way and will actually take longer to get to Port Canaveral. I-95 is the way to go. It is very close to the Fort Lauderdale airport and is also about 20 minutes from Port Canaveral. Like I said, we just made the drive yesterday. 9am we left Ft Lauderdale and 12:15 we were at the Port Canaveral exit on I-95. Add 15-20 miutes to get to the port and another 10 minutes to park and you are at 3 hours and 40 minutes. We had no problems, however, if you have one problem you will miss the ship. I would not want to leave Ft Lauderdale any later than 9:30 myself. Actually, I would leave around 7 am and take my time and not worry. Then I would stop around Vero and have brunch before continuing on to Port Canaveral. Having a carservice drop off the in-laws seems the way to go. Then you can leave WPB around 10 and have a less stressful drive to Port Canaveral.

[KarenMF]

DO NOT go on the turnpike. It is unnecessary and will take you out of your way and will actually take longer to get to Port Canaveral. I-95 is the way to go. It is very close to the Fort Lauderdale airport and is also about 20 minutes from Port Canaveral. Like I said, we just made the drive yesterday. 9am we left Ft Lauderdale and 12:15 we were at the Port Canaveral exit on I-95. Add 15-20 miutes to get to the port and another 10 minutes to park and you are at 3 hours and 40 minutes. We had no problems, however, if you have one problem you will miss the ship. I would not want to leave Ft Lauderdale any later than 9:30 myself. Actually, I would leave around 7 am and take my time and not worry. Then I would stop around Vero and have brunch before continuing on to Port Canaveral. Having a carservice drop off the in-laws seems the way to go. Then you can leave WPB around 10 and have a less stressful drive to Port Canaveral.

 

I disagree to a certain point - I would take the turnpike until you are north of the Palm Beach Area is faster - both the Fort Lauderdale areas and Palm Beach areas on 95 can get backed up.

However - if you do have your in laws take a car service down to Fort Lauderdale (and I think that is the best thing to do), then from WPB north to Port Canaveral DO take 95.

[Socref124]

I disagree to a certain point - I would take the turnpike until you are north of the Palm Beach Area is faster - both the Fort Lauderdale areas and Palm Beach areas on 95 can get backed up.

However - if you do have your in laws take a car service down to Fort Lauderdale (and I think that is the best thing to do), then from WPB north to Port Canaveral DO take 95.

 

I understand that, but what if there is an accident on the turnpike? Isn't it worse if that happens there than on I-95? With I-95, you still have US1 which isn't that far away to the next entrance/exit. Also, maybe we have been lucky. Have gone to Miami 5 times and Fort Lauderdale once and have not encountered any problems coming or going on I-95. It only takes once for the OP and they will miss the boat though.

[dioxide45]

So the concern isn't necessarily getting there at 1:30 or 2:00pm, rather it is issues we could run in to along the drive north from WPB or FLL that could cause us not to make it on time?

 

Is anyone aware of any good radio stations that we could get reliable traffic info on? Being a Saturday your regular music stations don't provide it or don't provide it often enough. Any good news radio stations in the area?

[ricrocs1]

I work for the Publix just down the street from Port Canaveral. Today someone from Carnival she works embarkation said that some people got to the terminal just as the Sensation was leaving the dock and they missed the ship. She said the ship can not back up to the dock. So I and everyone should get to the port early. I'd rather wait a little then miss the ship.

[dioxide45]

Thanks for all of the advice. Things worked out better for us that initially planned. We had looked in to some car services but yesterday AirTran changed my in-laws flight out of FLL to depart a half hour later :eek:. This would have caused more issues. We called AirTran and they allowed us to change their departure to leave MCO (Orlando), departing at 12:01 pm instead. This will alow us to leave the West Palm Beach area a little after 7:00 a.m. and get them to MCO by about 10:00 a.m. This will give us lots of time for the 45 minute drive back to Port Canaveral.:cool: