West Palm Beach 12:15 flight do-able?

[bedfordmom]

Hi: I have an opportunity to book a great price on a departure at West Palm Beach Airport. We will be coming off of the Navigator in Fort Lauderdale. Is 12:15 departure realistic? Also what is the most economical way of getting there for four people. I imagine a car rental may work best. Are there car rental places in the port?

[Hstergo]

first request early disembark. I have used this shuttle company in the past to get to the airport. I live in ft lauderdale so I used this company several times but never from the cruise termina.I would give them a call and see what they say http://www.floridalimo.com/

[royalcruz]

You need to allow time to get the car, drive to WPB (one hour), return the car, and check in. National and Alamo have free shuttles at the port. There are no car rentals at the port. Most of the companies have off-airport locations nearby. You might be able to get off the Navigator by 8 AM if you self-disembark, but no, I don't think that 12:15 is a reasonable departure time if you are renting a car. Even if you use a taxi or shuttle you should book a flight after 1 PM. A taxi for 2-3 people will cost over $100. Maybe you can arrange a shuttle.

[bedfordmom]

You need to allow time to get the car, drive to WPB (one hour), return the car, and check in. National and Alamo have free shuttles at the port. There are no car rentals at the port. Most of the companies have off-airport locations nearby. You might be able to get off the Navigator by 8 AM if you self-disembark, but no, I don't think that 12:15 is a reasonable departure time if you are renting a car. Even if you use a taxi or shuttle you should book a flight after 1 PM. A taxi for 2-3 people will cost over $100. Maybe you can arrange a shuttle.

 

Thanks to both of you for this valuable advice. I will most likely book out of FLL

[DanJ]

We flew out of PBI last January, after debarking the Navigator, and we were sitting at our gate by 1030. And this was by no means a rush job in both getting there, or getting off the ship. We didn't get off the ship until 9, and out the terminal just after 930. I called our driver from southfloridatransportation.com who showed up a couple minutes later with a 22 passenger Escalade, and 45 minutes later we were at the airport. Curbside checked our luggage, and went to security where there was no line, and the see through body scanners were turned off, so we just had the basic, old fashioned metal detector and wanding, no patdowns LOL.

 

I would definitely recommend a car service rather than a rental for that timeframe. You pay for the convenience, but we wouldn't have probably departed FLL with our rental car by the time the car service got us to PBI, and then you have to return the car, which is off-site there as well. The limo was $150 including tip, but they also have regular town cars if you think they will hold the 4 of you and luggage fine, for about $100.

 

I would rather use FLL, but by the time we had booked our cruise, it was mid November, and fares to FLL were over $100 per person more than to PBI (we had 4 also), and also the schedules for those flights weren't all that favourable either.

[bedfordmom]

Thanks Dan:

 

We are now deciding between the 12:15 departure with a shuttle pickup vs a later 5:30 departure where we could rent a car and spend the day in Fort Lauderdale area. (I used to live there) Need to weigh the pros vs cons of cost; longer day; getting sandy and then flying etc. But everyone has been most helpful

 

Thanks again.

[Twickenham]

Just a note on car rental:

If you are a Hertz Gold Club member (which is free for Aeroplan members), this speeds up the pick-up/drop-off process tremendously. Even with locations that don't have the Gold Club canopy stalls (where you literally just get into your car and drive off), the paperwork is already done when you arrive at the rental office, so it takes less than 5 minutes to pick up your car. It is similar for Thrifty Blue Chip members. So, I would look again at that 12:15 departure with the car rental - it might be possible.

[DanJ]

Just a note on car rental:

If you are a Hertz Gold Club member (which is free for Aeroplan members), this speeds up the pick-up/drop-off process tremendously. Even with locations that don't have the Gold Club canopy stalls (where you literally just get into your car and drive off), the paperwork is already done when you arrive at the rental office, so it takes less than 5 minutes to pick up your car. It is similar for Thrifty Blue Chip members. So, I would look again at that 12:15 departure with the car rental - it might be possible.

 

That sounds like standard procedure for Alamo as well (no membership required). Now, I've only rented from Alamo at FLL and PBI, but in both cases, once I filled the paperwork out online, I just walked over (or got off the bus in the case of PBI), jumped in a vehicle, stopped at the gate to swipe my credit card and off we went.

[cmich068]

It's doable, but tight enough that I wouldn't bother with the rental car and would stick to a non-shared ride shuttle, towncar, taxi, etc.

[Former Goalie]

I've flown out of FLL on cruise disembark days many times, it's not my favorite thing. We will be disembarking Oasis of the Seas next March, and PBI seems like a better (and cheaper) option to me. 1:35 pm departure, which seems very doable, as we will hire a car service.

I'd like folks opinions on how PBI is on a cruise disembark day, I'm guessing it's very busy, but not crazy like FLL.

[bilyclub]

It can be done . Carry your own bags off the ship, hop on the National shuttle. Be at PBI by 9. I did it off the Allure.

[DanJ]

I've flown out of FLL on cruise disembark days many times, it's not my favorite thing. We will be disembarking Oasis of the Seas next March, and PBI seems like a better (and cheaper) option to me. 1:35 pm departure, which seems very doable, as we will hire a car service.

I'd like folks opinions on how PBI is on a cruise disembark day, I'm guessing it's very busy, but not crazy like FLL.

 

Not crazy at all. The day we did this last January (see post 5 above), there were 6 or 7 other ships with us in Port Everglades, and according to cruisett had a higher passenger load than any day in March 2012. From the time we got out of the limo, it was only 15 minutes until we were at the gate. Knowing what FLL can be like, I bet a lot of people that left the ship at the same time as us were still in line at FLL after we were at out gate at PBI.

 

The Oasis usually starts debarkation pretty early, so if you felt like renting a car to PBI, you can probably do this quite easily. I didn't because I just wasn't sure what the timing would be like. Had I known we would have 3 hours at the gate, I would have rented instead of taking a limo.