Help! Cruisin' from Miami: Layover ideas???

[alj1208]

We're cruising from Miami in March. Can anyone help out with ideas for what to do on debarkation day if the plane is leaving late afternoon? I assume will leave the ship by 9am, but the plane departs Miami at 3:30. What the heck do families with young kids do? I dread a long wait at the airport with super-active, DS, 4.5 years old. Any ideas? We paid for transfers. Can you have the cruise line take luggage to the airport and check it in, while you head to Miami beach? Or, is it better to decline the transfer from ship to airport, get a cab, and find a place to kill time. In that case, what do you do with your luggage? Any Miami beach hotels offer day rates for this purpose?

[maabell4]

Right near the port is a place called Jungle Island, basically an outdoor zoo. There is also the children's museum nearby. There is Bayfront shopping plaza, not my favorite place, but a lot of people love it and it seems to be a place tourists like. There is shopping, food, a boat ride. You can go over to South Beach and walk around or go to the beach.

I am sure you can rent a hotel room nearby, but it might be a lot.

 

If it were me, I would ride over to south Beach and walk around Collins (A1A) and the Lincoln Rd. Mall or take the little one to Jungle Island.

[MamaParrotHead]

Opt in for the Luggage Express service. The ship charges $20 per bag (on Carnival) and prints out our boarding info/checks in for you. Then you leave your luggage out the night before (like traditional debarkation, but you have special tags to put on your bags) and don't see them until you reach your destination.

 

Then I'd hop a cab down to South Beach...lots of fun people watching, window shopping and walking on the beach/wading in the water. Check out Pizza Rustica on Lincoln Rd. for great lunch deals and awesome pizza. Ghirardelli store there as well.

[Jajone]

We are in the same situation, with 3 kids and flying out of Ft Lauderdale though. Any suggestions?

[maabell4]

We are in the same situation, with 3 kids and flying out of Ft Lauderdale though. Any suggestions?

Hey, I live in the near area. What are your children's ages and are you sailing from Port Everglades of Port of Miami?

Oh, and how much time do you have?

[Charity0000]

I also recommend Jungle Island or Miami Children's Museum. They are both very close to the port. You can use the ship's luggage express service and they take it to the airport for you.

 

One thing about Jungle Island is that it is completely outdoors and as you know, Miami is HOT. MCM is air-conditioned fun.

[Jajone]

Hey, I live in the near area. What are your children's ages and are you sailing from Port Everglades of Port of Miami?

Oh, and how much time do you have?

The kids are 11,9, and 4. There will also be me, DH and DMIL. We are cruising out of MIA, but flying out of FLL. We fly out at 3:15 pm, so I'm guessing we'll have from 9-1?

[alj1208]

Do all the cruise lines offer Luggage Express? We are on Celebrity. Are you saying the cruise line will take the bags to the airport and get them tagged/checked into our flight? The ship will also print our boarding passes? If we paid for transfers from the ship to the airport, would we still use the transfers, or, would we take a cab to the airport from whatever attraction we're visiting to kill time?

[maabell4]

The kids are 11,9, and 4. There will also be me, DH and DMIL. We are cruising out of MIA, but flying out of FLL. We fly out at 3:15 pm, so I'm guessing we'll have from 9-1?

 

Okay...So you have a lot of time. Between Miami and FLL, there is tons to do.

 

Again, if it were me or I was planning for my family, this is what I would do...

I would get up to Broward (County Ft. Lauderdale is in).

Some ideas, you may want to do some searching online with these starts. The airport is really close to everything listed below. Now, if you are coming in on sunday, things will take a while to open. This would be better for saturday morning.

 

1. Downtown Ft. Lauderdale and Las Olas Blvd. Nice shops, nice restaurants. Las Olas is a great area.

2. Las Olas and the beach

3. Just go to Ft. Lauderdale beach, walk around go to lunch.

4. Galleria Mall. Upscale shopping, really really excellent food court

5. Downtown Hollywood. Young Circle area. There are cute shops, restaurants. There are some small children playgrounds scattered and a large park that has activities on the weekend. A lot of live music, just a different type of scene.

[imsulin]

Take a post-cruise excursion through the cruise line. The BEST (IMO - have done this three times) is the Everglades tour which includes an airboat ride. It's a 30-40 minute ride from either Miami or Ft. Lauderdale. Very comfortable bus with a knowledgeable tour guide, luggage will be safely stored on the bus, and you will be taken back to either the Miami or Ft. Lauderdale airport in time for your flight. This tour is informative and amazing! Great for kids and adults, and you'll learn a lot about this very wide and slow-moving "river" which is the Everglades. Everything is taken care of for you. I think your return flight can't be before 2:30 pm. This tour is not very expensive, and is well worth it. There's a small zoo, an alligator exhibit, a gift shop and snack bar, and there used to be a great exhibit on the history of the Seminoles. My then-23 year old son and I did this tour after a wonderful 8-night cruise on the RCI Jewel. He was: "like I'm 23, Dude, and totally so cool! Like, why would I want to see dirty water and reptiles? I am sooo not into this!". Well - he reverted back to his 9-year old self and couldn't get enough of this tour! We literally had to drag him back onto the bus because he wanted to see more and more. True story!

[pjbaum]

I really don't have any ideas of what to do but you will want to do something. We went on a cruise in April and our flight wasn't till 7pm. The airport won't let you even go up to the gates till 2 hrs before your flight. I mean right down to the minute,we tried to get a pass to go up 5 mins before our time and it rejected it. There are shops but really not alot of places to sit. We didn't have children. If we knew this before we would have got a car that day. There was a place in the corner of the airport that charged to hold your luggage but it wasn't to bad of a price. Good luck

[SingleFatherofDD]

Last year I traveled over the holiday season. I didn't have DD yet, she came about two months later. I did the express baggage service. Put the tags that the cruise line gives you the night before and left the bags outside. The next time I saw them were back at JFK. You have to make sure that you have the next day's clothes store somewhere in your cabin or you will be traveling in your PJs for the rest of your travels. My flight didn't leave until 7:00pm at night and with express baggage service you are suppose to get off the ship before the regular passengers do. So you are on the shore anywhere after 8:00. So I had plenty of time. What I decided to do is go to the beach and just watch the people. I didn't have my swim wear on and I don't think I would have gone swimming even if I did. I don't know that much about the town of Fort Lauderdale but usually any big city has plenty of things to do. However, I you have to remember that your children might be tired and just need to relax.

See what happens when you get off.

 

Just remember you can't go through the security check point at Fort Lauderdale until 2 hours before your flight. The check point can get very crowded depending on how many flight are in the next two hours and also how many ships are in port. Leave plenty of time.

[Marie51]

Opt in for the Luggage Express service. The ship charges $20 per bag (on Carnival) and prints out our boarding info/checks in for you. Then you leave your luggage out the night before (like traditional debarkation, but you have special tags to put on your bags) and don't see them until you reach your destination.

 

Then I'd hop a cab down to South Beach...lots of fun people watching, window shopping and walking on the beach/wading in the water. Check out Pizza Rustica on Lincoln Rd. for great lunch deals and awesome pizza. Ghirardelli store there as well.

 

I think the luggage express is $20/pp, not per bag. It is the best way to get your luggage off your hands.

 

I would not use the transfers. They charge per person and if you just get a cab it will be much cheaper to get to the airport. besides if you decide to do something before your flight you will not need to go to the airport right away.

[nybumpkin]

When we flew out of FLL in 2007, we did a post-cruise excursion to Everglades Holiday Park. We had plenty of time to make our 3:30 flight home. In 2008, we were leaving out of Miami and there was a post-cruise excursion to the Miami Seaquarium. Both were good tours with kids in tow.

[maabell4]

Just my opinion, I don't think I would take a little one to the everglades on an airboat. I think they have to be over 5...Check with the cruise ship.

[jaybeedee619]

We were one of the last groups scheduled to debark. We were on the curb with luggage by 10:00am. Our flight didn't leave until 8:30pm.

 

We rented a car and drove ourselves to Shark Valley, a National Park, with a tram tour through the everglades (no airboat/little walking), or you can rent bikes and bike the tram roadway. Lots of close-up wildlife. Nearby were places we could have gone to with airboat and reptiles. Great BBQ place off the main road, but we went to a Cuban restaurant in Kendall.

 

If we would have had the option of having our bags taken to the airport... we would have done this!!! Sound like a great idea. Then we would have taken a taxi or bus to South Beach; maybe on a Ducks tour (land and sea)-kids love it.

 

The hotel we stayed at pre-cruise was in North Miami Beach. It was in the middle of not a lot (small store across the street), but it had a great pool, sandy and grassy area, tiki bar, Italian restaurant -- all along the boardwalk and oceanside. They had a lugguage check area out front. One could spend the day relaxing poolside/oceanside. Public restroom next to pool for changing was clean. There has to be hotels that might charge a nominal fee; or get a room for napping (esp. if kids are small) and see if you can check in early/late -- depending on which night you decide to book.

 

The Miami zoo is supposed to be world-class.

 

I would not go hang out at the airport for HOURS with small children. Sounds like purgatory.