Airport Recommendations with Shuttle to Cruise Terminal?

[winncruiser]

I have never departed from Ft. Lauderdale and am arriving late Saturday night for the Eastern Caribbean cruise. Are there any hotel recommendations that are reasonable, clean and safe that offer a shuttle to the cruise terminal? Thanks so much!

[Pam in CA]

I have never departed from Ft. Lauderdale and am arriving late Saturday night for the Eastern Caribbean cruise. Are there any hotel recommendations that are reasonable, clean and safe that offer a shuttle to the cruise terminal? Thanks so much!

Three are:

 

Hyatt Place North -- free shuttle to/from the airport, breakfast, near restaurants, supermarket and Total Wine.

 

Embassy Suites -- almost right next to the Hyatt, shuttles, breakfast, near restaurants, supermarket and Total Wine.

 

Renaissance 17th Street -- closest to the port entrance. No shuttle to the pier, breakfast not included.

 

Any of these three are a very short cab ride to the ship should you choose not to take a shuttle. There are usually huge lines for the shuttle regardless of hotel.

 

I've used Priceline in the past and bid on #2 "Downtown Ft. Lauderdale." It's worth a try to bid really low to see if it's accepted. Anywhere in this area is close to the airport and port. I just checked availability for Friday night and all of the hotels near the port are sold out. If you didn't mean this Saturday but a Saturday in the future, it's worth checking Orbitz or Priceline. You can always stay near the airport which is only 10-15 minutes from the port.

[waltd]

We have used Priceline. A 4 star hotel went for around $145.00 This did not include taxes and insurance. Needed to take a taxi to the hotel and then to the ship the next day.

[JohninDC]

Don't just focus on "free" shuttles - taxis are cheap and distances are not great in the FLL area; from airport to port is only $15 for the cab (not per person). ;)

 

www.sunny.org gives you lots of info on most FLL area hotels. Good luck! :)

[aria48]

This site gives you info on all the hotels shuttles with a map of hotel locations: http://www.parkingstay.com/p/ft-lauderdale.html

 

But like JohninDC said, it's such a short distance from airport to port, a cab costs you very little, so the availability of a free shuttle isn't a big issue in FLL.

[Kerry&LuAnn]

For all of our previous cruises, we have arrived at the cruise port on the sailing date. Flying out of Minneapolis in the winter makes this a risky proposition. But even with the occasional delay, we have always arrived at the ship with a little time to spare. Getting older and more risk averse, we decided this time to schedule our air travel a day early. In so doing, we were refreshed for the start of our cruise and were able to board the ship earlier than we ever had before. This will most likely be our practice from now on.

 

We arrived in Florida on Friday afternoon, landing at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL). Apparently this is one of the fastest growing airports in the country, probably because of the increased number of cruises leaving from that port. The airport is less than two miles from the Port Everglades cruise port, and we were told that construction will soon begin for a direct tram between the airport and the cruise port.

 

The hotel we chose for our overnight stay was the Extended Stay America Fort Lauderdale Cruiseport Airport Hotel (Wow - that’s a long title!) located on the 17th Street Causeway. The hotel provides complimentary shuttle service from the airport and to the cruise port. We learned the next day that it is actually only two long blocks around the corner from the cruise port, so I suppose it could be considered within walking distance. We had a spacious, clean and comfortable room, and the staff were very gracious and friendly. We chose this hotel because of the great rate (after checking other hotels in the area) and convenience to the airport and cruise port. The quality of our room, the service, and the staff will definitely bring us back here again.

 

We had a fabulous dinner at a restaurant next door, Carrabba’s Italian Grill. This delicious meal was the perfect beginning to a cruise vacation, and we went to sleep that night with satisfied tummies!

 

In the morning the hotel provided grab-and-go breakfast items including varieties of instant oatmeal packages, assorted granola bars and oatmeal-to-go bars, packaged Otis Spunkmeyer muffins, oranges, apples, bananas, coffee, hot tea, and hot chocolate. For a more substantial breakfast, the Harbor Café next door serves breakfast and lunch starting at 6:30 a.m. and there is an Einstein Bagels in the strip mall across the street. For any convenience items that may be needed, a Walgreen pharmacy is down the block on the corner.

 

After checking out of the hotel, the shuttle driver whisked us over to the cruise port in matter of a few minutes.