Hotel and mode of transportation to and from Port of Miami ?'s

[sharod]

My DH and I and another couple will be cruising the Freedom in '07. At this point we are not sure which airport we will be flying into, FLL or MIA. We will probably arrive the day before so we will need a hotel and then transportation to and from the port. Can anyone suggest a reasonable hotel and then a mode of transportation to the port. Do any of the hotels offer free shuttle service to and from the port, and are they reliable??? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!!

[signman]

Sharon, since you are not cruising until 2007, I suggest you spend a little time going back through at least a month of previous postings. All of your questions get asked and answered every few days.

[Nanatravel]

We are just looking into pre-cruise hotel for our FOS cruise. Intercontinental comes up as a 4* on Price Line; $132/$125 were the latest winning bids for 11/06. Holiday Inn prepaid is $110 for the same dates. No shuttles from Downtown hotels although it is less than a $10 taxi ride to the port. We won the Intercontinental which is very well rated on the bay and downtown, which is what I wanted. We still need to book air and like you are not sure if it will be FLL or MIA.

 

Bon Voyage

[TrentS]

You'll want to stay in downtown Miami, there are no hotel shuttles, the Port of Miami is 5 minutes or less from the downtown Miami hotels.

 

If you fly into MIA grab a taxi, if you fly into FLL either rent a car or the next cheapest way is usually Tri-County/Airport Express... http://www.floridalimo.com/

 

Downtown Miami hotels, closest to the Port of Miami and Bayside Marketplace... http://www.baysidemarketplace.com/

 

JW Marriott... http://marriott.com/property/propertypage/miajw

 

Hyatt Regency... http://miamiregency.hyatt.com/property/index.jhtml

 

Intercontinental... http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/ic/1/en/hd/miaha?irs=null

 

Biscayne Bay Marriott... http://marriott.com/property/propertypage/miabb

 

Conrad International... http://conradhotels.hilton.com/en/ch/hotels/index.jhtml?ctyhocn=MIACICI

 

Four Seasons... http://www.fourseasons.com/miami/index.html

 

Mandarin Oriental... http://www.mandarinoriental.com/hotel/526000001.asp

 

Marriott Courtyard (budget priced)... http://www.miamicourtyard.com/

 

Holiday Inn Bayside/Port of Miami (only for the budget minded)... http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/hi/1/en/hd/miabb

[JimHam4]

For our (family of 5) cruise out of Miami we flew into FLL and found it cheaper to rent a car at the airport use it overnight and then return it to the rental agency by MIA and take the FREE shuttle to the docks, then taking a taxi around town and then worrying about booking a hotel with a free shuttle. Did the same thing coming home and it allowed us to spend the day in at the beach before catching a late flight.

[sea_breaze]

Jim that is exactly what we plan on doing @ the end of this month. Which rental car company did you use? Thanks for your help.

[signman]

I'll be using Alamo in 4 weeks, but my suggestion is, if you do rent, drop everyone off at the ship with all the luggage. Then just the driver return the car and ride the shuttle back. Why struggle with all the luggage unnecessarily? Just make sure each person has their own documents in hand, so you can check in separately.

[iluvcruzin]

Seabreaze, check the rates with Thrifty too. They also have a free shuttle from the MIA airport. If you have a sams card, enter "SAMS" into the promo field before searching fares. (The one in Cape Canaveral never asked to see the card for some reason)

[JimHam4]

We used Alamo also, they had the cheapest rates for a one way rental the weekend we were there. Have to disagree with signman about dropping people off if you stay by the airport. If I had taken my family to the port first I would have had a 20 minute drive there, a 20 minute drive back to the agency and a 20 minute drive back on the shuttle. Even though Alamo lists a the MIA airport facility and the MIA port facility as seperate rental places they have the same address. Besides I wasn't familiar with the port so it would have been more stressful to have to drive into unfamiliar territory and drop off the wife with 3 kids age 6-11.