Miami-12 hours to kill

[upandin]

I need your help or suggestions. We are on the 14 day Eclipse cruise, debarking on 4-12 in Miami. Our flight doesn't leave for the West coast until 9:00pm. We'll about 10 hours to wait. Has anyone taken their luggage to airport and stowed it, then taken a taxi somewhere to avoid sitting at the airport for 10-hours. I was going to try and call some hotels to see if we could rent a room-checking in around 9am and checking out around 6pm? Any help or suggestions from experienced cruisers would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[dkjretired]

I need your help or suggestions. We are on the 14 day Eclipse cruise, debarking on 4-12 in Miami. Our flight doesn't leave for the West coast until 9:00pm. We'll about 10 hours to wait. Has anyone taken their luggage to airport and stowed it, then taken a taxi somewhere to avoid sitting at the airport for 10-hours. I was going to try and call some hotels to see if we could rent a room-checking in around 9am and checking out around 6pm? Any help or suggestions from experienced cruisers would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

Sometimes the airlines have restrictions limiting how many hours before you can drop the luggage off. I would suggest one of three things.

 

1. Rent a car for the day..

 

2. Get a day room in a hotel, relax at the pool and then take a leisurely trip to the airport. One time we did that and the laundry room was next to the pool, wife and I did all our laundry, packed it up and had almost nothing to do when we got home.

 

3. Check on the website, Celebrity will usually run an excursion which will drop you at the aiport afterwards. Luggage is kept on the bus. Very popular ones in S. Florida are Everglades by airboat.

[rxs148]

we did Hop on Hop off Bus tour of Miami... killed better part of the day. $45 a person, a bit steep but we enjoyed it and they offer shuttle to Airport.

Edited January 19, 2015 by rxs148

[cbfb]

I need your help or suggestions. We are on the 14 day Eclipse cruise, debarking on 4-12 in Miami. Our flight doesn't leave for the West coast until 9:00pm. We'll about 10 hours to wait. Has anyone taken their luggage to airport and stowed it, then taken a taxi somewhere to avoid sitting at the airport for 10-hours. I was going to try and call some hotels to see if we could rent a room-checking in around 9am and checking out around 6pm? Any help or suggestions from experienced cruisers would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

The Hilton at Miami Airport has day passes. Check out their website for info.

 

http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/florida/hilton-miami-airport-MIAAHHH/accommodations/index.html

[Mr. Click]

Lots of good ideas already posted. When we had a lot of time to kill in Miami we rented a car, went to South Beach for lunch and a walk then over to Coconut Grove to visit. It was a lot of fun. Most airlines won't let you check your bags more than 4 hours before your flight

[upandin]

Thank you all for your posts. They were very helpful. :)

[swigso]

Celebrity do a valet service with some airlines,

They take your luggage to the airport give you

Your boarding card etc,

Unless they have stopped doing this 👍

[Blondie008]

There is a luggage storage in concourse E.

Dump the luggage and head out for the day

OR

Daypass at a beach hotel - or if you need to check in use the Miami airport hotel which is directly inside concourse E.

rent a day room dot com is handy :-)

[upwarduk]

If you have booked Air with Celebrity UK as a package, you will be assigned a day room as part of the package.

2 years ago, we stayed at the Hilton ( Miami Airport) as mentioned above.

More recently we stayed at the Shereton, but we had to vacate the room by 16.00. Our flight wasn't until 20.45, so was inconvenient, as the transport didn't pick us up until 6pm.

[waterbug123]

Lots of good ideas already posted. When we had a lot of time to kill in Miami we rented a car, went to South Beach for lunch and a walk then over to Coconut Grove to visit. It was a lot of fun. Most airlines won't let you check your bags more than 4 hours before your flight

 

You may find even stricter rules at airports near cruise ports. At FLL for instance, Delta is very strict about not allowing luggage to be check earlier than 3 hours before flight time.

Someone mentioned storage lockers at MIA, which is obviously not the same as actually checking luggage in with the airline. That may be a viable option for the OP.

 

OP- what date are you talking about? You can probably go online and find out if there are any special events taking place in the area that might interest you, as an alternative to getting a day room at a hotel.

[papaflamingo]

Rent a car and go tour the Everglades. An AirBoat ride through the Everglades is really fun!

[Hlitner]

Rent a car and go tour the Everglades. An AirBoat ride through the Everglades is really fun!

 

We repeat this advice for many ports. Get off the ship, pick up a rental car (some downtown Miami agencies are relatively convenient), store your luggage in the trunk (boot for you Brits) and use your "wheels" to enjoy any of the many interesting places/sites in the Miami/Ft Lauderdale area. Then you drop the car at the airport (generally no extra charges for a one-way rental in Miami) and you are ready to go. Most of the cost of the rental car is defrayed by the savings from not having to pay for a transfer to the airport.

 

Hank

P.S. At least a couple of the rental car agencies located at MIA will give free transfers if you rent a car at their MIA location...so this is another option.

Edited January 19, 2015 by Hlitner

[welshfamily]

Although it is almost two years since we cruised from Miami we were transferred to the airport by Celebrity and we checked our luggage in with Delta this was before 10am. Ours was an international flight back to the UK. We just got a taxi to south beach. Returned at about 3pm. We had booked air through Celebrity and our flight was just before 5pm which meant we were not entitled to a room. I do believe we could have checked our luggage even earlier. My husband regularly flies with AA and again has no trouble checking luggage early for a flight but again I am talking about international flights. Have you thought to ask Delta? Here in the Uk you can even check your bags the night before for quite a lot of flights out of the UK. I would however book a day room as well as the day was overcast and we were lucky it didn't rain.

[chamima]

You may find even stricter rules at airports near cruise ports. At FLL for instance, Delta is very strict about not allowing luggage to be check earlier than 3 hours before flight time.

Someone mentioned storage lockers at MIA, which is obviously not the same as actually checking luggage in with the airline. That may be a viable option for the OP.

 

OP- what date are you talking about? You can probably go online and find out if there are any special events taking place in the area that might interest you, as an alternative to getting a day room at a hotel.

 

This is not accurate.

We had a late flight last year and I had read that on these boards so called Delta to inquire. They had NO IDEA what I was talking about! They said as long as the flight was the same day there were NO time restrictions. I called back and spoke to a second rep to verify.

The day of the flight we had no problems checking in in the morning and spending the day in the Delta club (other than boredom).

[cb at sea]

I would go for the day room....it's horrible trying to "kill time" with no place to "call home"...I'd opt for the room, with use of a pool, (and a laundry sounds heavenly!)...10 hours is a LOOOOONG time!

[letsgocruising10]

We recently had the same 9:00pm departure. Leaving the ship at 10:00 we had reserved a rental car at the airport using Airmiles. We were intending to check our luggage but were told we could not until 3 hours before the flight. We went to the airport luggage storage but they indicated they close at 5:00pm. We did not want to return this early so we took our luggage and it fit quite easy in our Chevy Malibu rental ( 4 people with 4 large pieces).

 

We drove from the airport to Everglades Holiday Park on HWY 27. Before we arrived at the park we grabbed a bite to eat at Cafe 27 which is located about 500ft north of the entrance to the park on HWY 27. This is a outdoor cafe is frequented by motorcycle enthusiasts and was a terrific find. Cafe 27 had great food at a good price and also had a live band which we also enjoyed for an extended period of time.

 

From the cafe we ventured to the park where we enjoyed an air boat tour of the everglades and a alligator show by one of the "Gator Boys" ( TV show ) for a little more than $20 / person.

 

After the show we made our way back to the airport returned our rental and were checked in with time to spare.

[Gordoncruickshank]

We are in the same position with late evening flights back to the UK. What we tend to do is stay and extra day or so and stow the luggage at the hotel on the last day.