How to Kill Time at MIA?

[drrich2]

Hi. 

 

At the end of a planned summer cruise, we're supposed to fly out of Miami International Airport at 7:40 p.m. that evening. I read in another thread that people can't check bags until 4-hours before scheduled departure. Drawing on rusty old memories, I think I recall years ago being stuck in the ticketing area quite awhile before being allowed to go through Security so we could go to our gate at one of the Florida airports. 

 

I booked a ship excursion that's supposed to start at 9 a.m., last 4-hours and drop us off at the airport. Did one of these years ago, and from what I recall they store the luggage on the bus. This is a key issue, since some non-cruise line excursions I looked at didn't offer luggage storage.

 

Still, that'd put us at MIA around 1 p.m., and if my understanding is accurate, we couldn't go through Security (whether that's check in, checked luggage drop-off or whatever?) until 3:40 p.m.? Over an hour and a half wait.

 

I learned there's a hotel at MIA, but a minimum stay there looks to cost over $300. Not practical. 

 

So I'm curious what you guys would do in my situation? Wife and I are a bit sedentary; 9-year old kid is not. That's not really enough time to make something like going to a beach and swimming worthwhile (besides which, hopefully we'll have just finished a cruise!).

[Corby114]

Rent a car for the minimum twenty four hour period from the Miami Rental Car Center located across from Miami International Airport. Drive over to Miami Beach and spend a few hours there. Have a nice lunch, walk on the beach and head back around 4:00PM or so. I would even cancel the shore excursion so you could pick up the rental vehicle earlier. I have done this scenario personally and it works for my family and myself.

[JohninDC]

I think there is an option to pay to store your bags at MIA, or you can store them in South Beach at the Luggage Lounge while you explore.

 

Your other option is to cancel your excursion and look at www.resortpass.com for resorts and larger hotels offering day passes to their spa, pool and beach facilities - tip them to store your bags while you swim, relax, dine, etc.

[FreestyleNovice]

1 hour ago, JohninDC said:

I think there is an option to pay to store your bags at MIA, or you can store them in South Beach at the Luggage Lounge while you explore.

 

Your other option is to cancel your excursion and look at www.resortpass.com for resorts and larger hotels offering day passes to their spa, pool and beach facilities - tip them to store your bags while you swim, relax, dine, etc.

 

I think MIA charges 10 USD a bag. Did the Resortpass route last week, combined with a Loungepass for 3 hour airport lounge acces for a 10:30PM flight back to Europe (although the lounge did not impress it was better than sitting at the gate ).

Or maybe a rental car and explore Miami Zoo?

[drrich2]

23 minutes ago, FreestyleNovice said:

I think MIA charges 10 USD a bag. Did the Resortpass route last week, combined with a Loungepass for 3 hour airport lounge acces for a 10:30PM flight back to Europe (although the lounge did not impress it was better than sitting at the gate ).

 

Thanks, guys. I think the issue for us is that we wouldn't be able to go through Security until 3:40 p.m., so we wouldn't have access to even pay for entry to a lounge. Waiting at a gate gets old, but that's a lot better than waiting in the check in/ticketing area out front, before even reaching Security. 

 

Similarly, I don't know whether we would have access to any luggage holding services.

 

What I would ideally prefer is if we could show up at the airport at 1 p.m. from our excursion, check in, turned over our checked luggage, then take a taxi to Jungle Island or some such, then taxi back to the airport. That would make more sense.

 

But if I understood correctly from that other thread, and we can't get them to take our checked luggage until 3:40 p.m., that doesn't work. I may have misunderstood about that, and I'd love to be wrong about it.

[FreestyleNovice]

6 minutes ago, drrich2 said:

 

Thanks, guys. I think the issue for us is that we wouldn't be able to go through Security until 3:40 p.m., so we wouldn't have access to even pay for entry to a lounge. Waiting at a gate gets old, but that's a lot better than waiting in the check in/ticketing area out front, before even reaching Security. 

 

Similarly, I don't know whether we would have access to any luggage holding services.

 

What I would ideally prefer is if we could show up at the airport at 1 p.m. from our excursion, check in, turned over our checked luggage, then take a taxi to Jungle Island or some such, then taxi back to the airport. That would make more sense.

 

But if I understood correctly from that other thread, and we can't get them to take our checked luggage until 3:40 p.m., that doesn't work. I may have misunderstood about that, and I'd love to be wrong about it.

 

We were on British Airways (Terminal E) and checked our bags in at some 4½ hours last week. Luckily a BA counter was open, that day the airport was a zoo for most US carriers given that they have the most flights operating (FLL too, had a backlog from a stormy the day before) so I am not sure if our experience is standard practice. But checking in early should be possible, I have not seen anybody being turned away at the security filter or had to show flight details besides a passport scan when passing security. And from previous flights from MIA I have not been turned away, sometimes an air line app won't let us Europeans check in online so we are often forced to check in at the desk on the day of the flight. But of course it may vary, in a worst case scenario you would need to store your luggage at MIA: https://www.miami-airport.com/baggage_storage.asp