Shared Ride vs. Private from FLL to Port of Miami

[wantocruisemore]

In planning stage for booking next cruise for next spring. Looks like it will be out of Miami this time. Best flight options for early in day fly into Ft. Lauderdale. Unfortunately due to work obligations and DD's college exam schedule, will have to fly up that morning. We would be a family of 4 needing transport directly to Port from airport.

 

I've already done some research and it seems the shared ride for SAS is popular. That would work out around $13 pp. Miami Cruise Transportation is available at around $85-$95 total and that is a totally private ride.

 

For those of you who have done shared rides, how did it work? Did you have to wait long for van to fill up? It would be worth paying more to be on our way rather than have to call upon landing and waiting and then having to wait for a shuttle to fill up.

 

Also, would be needing the same thing from port to airport. I read some posts last year with a negative on SAS that they were passed off to a different company upon disembarkation. I would not want that.

 

Tips and Suggestions welcome! Also, other company possibilities. Looking at cruising in May if that makes a difference.

 

I already know a cab will be around $90-$100 each way, so shuttle or private seems the way to go.

[JohninDC]

Not sure about your arrival time into FLL, but most of the vans departing for POM do not start picking up at hotels until 11:00 or so - they are making POM to FLL runs earlier in the morning. If you share with others and need to make other pick-up stop depends upon who else has made a reservation. We've sometimes had a van for 10 to just the 4 of us, and other times had a full van.

 

Since you are flying in the day of your cruise I would spend the extra $$ for the private ride -- you'll need to save time in case your flight is delayed.:eek:

 

Good luck! :)

[wantocruisemore]

Thanks, that's sort of the way I was leaning too. I hate flying in the day of but we would take the earliest out and arrive prior to 11:30am. Plus, Southwest is pretty dependable and with it in May should not be weather problems. Or we also have the option to fly American and arrive even earlier on a direct flight.

 

Any other transport companies anyone could suggest would be appreciated. I just like that better than a cab.

[Ruggled]

I took SAS in April. As far as pickup, they were super efficient, and the driver had called me before our luggage was even out telling us he was waiting. We were a party of four and two more parties of two joined us. They were both going straight to the port for their cruise. (We had come in the day before ours).

 

The driver took them to the port first, then took us to our hotel. There was a mix-up on the number of people that we had on the return trip...I had added an extra person from 3 to 4, which they had on the pick up but not on the return from Port. That added about an hour to our trip because we had to wait for a shuttle that wasn't already full.

 

Which brings me to my last point. SAS does a really good job of trying to time arrivals and pickups with their vans so that they can fill them efficiently without too much wait. I thought the pickup from the airport was excellent. I thought the return from port could have been better but they are trying to fit their returns and their luggage into vans based on when they are actually able to get off the ship which I guess adds a level of difficulty.

 

To do it all again, I think I'd still take SAS to the port...I might consider the extra cost of a cab to get back just so I didn't have to wait.