Flying out of Fort Lauderdale at 2:30. What to do for a few hours?

[Oskial]

We are flying out of Fort Lauderdale at 2:30 in the afternoon and don't really want to be at the airport at 9:30 and have to wait for our flight home for 5 hours.  Any ideas as to what we can do for a couple of hours before our flight?  Excursions are a little too long to chance missing our flight home.  Is there any safe place we can store our luggage for a couple of hours?  TIA

[lola2013]

We visited Bonnet House before a flight.  It is a guided tour of the mansion with lovely gardens.  I forget the price.  They stored our luggage in their office while we took the tour. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

Hard Rock is worth checking out even if you don't plan on stepping foot in the casino and will hold your luggage

[terrydtx]

Try a short Everglades tour, they are available on Viator.

[calicakes]

You can walk around Las Olas, have a nice lunch.   

[lx200gps]

12 hours ago, Oskial said:

We are flying out of Fort Lauderdale at 2:30 in the afternoon and don't really want to be at the airport at 9:30 and have to wait for our flight home for 5 hours.  Any ideas as to what we can do for a couple of hours before our flight?  Excursions are a little too long to chance missing our flight home.  Is there any safe place we can store our luggage for a couple of hours?  TIA

After having just survived an Air Canada departure from T2 at FLL, I would definitely agree that you don't want to be sitting around the airport. We had a 1:30 flight, but arrived around 9AM, expecting to drop our bags off and check in at 9:30, per AC's published "drop luggage off no earlier than four hours before your flight". Our inbound flight was delayed and the AC staff at FLL insisted on accepting bags THREE hours before the flight, not four, so we sat with all our luggage until 10:40. Delta, who share the terminal with AC and have many more flights, was only accepting bags TWO hours before the flight. The result was huge crowds sitting on their luggage, making the departures concourse an absolute zoo, nowhere for people to sit, few wearing masks and lots of coughing. Stay away from FLL as long as you can.

[Oskial]

5 hours ago, lx200gps said:

After having just survived an Air Canada departure from T2 at FLL, I would definitely agree that you don't want to be sitting around the airport. We had a 1:30 flight, but arrived around 9AM, expecting to drop our bags off and check in at 9:30, per AC's published "drop luggage off no earlier than four hours before your flight". Our inbound flight was delayed and the AC staff at FLL insisted on accepting bags THREE hours before the flight, not four, so we sat with all our luggage until 10:40. Delta, who share the terminal with AC and have many more flights, was only accepting bags TWO hours before the flight. The result was huge crowds sitting on their luggage, making the departures concourse an absolute zoo, nowhere for people to sit, few wearing masks and lots of coughing. Stay away from FLL as long as you can.

That's why I asked for help.  We are flying AC in and Westjet (via Delta) home through Flights by Celebrity.  Should be interesting.  Never used Celerity for flights before.  

[Itchy&Scratchy]

we didn't have a problem with sticking around the airport on Tue, Nov 29. We left the ship around 9:15, go to the airport right away, dropped off our luggage with Spirit for our 1:55 pm departure, and then went through security, and firmly planted ourselves at the gate. I read a book for a bit, the boys were on their phones (DH and DS), then DS and I got him a lunch at Steak and Shake, and then it was time to start boarding at 1:10.

It's much worse when the return flight is at 5, like it used to be when Spirit temporarily didn't have any mid-day flights. Ugh, that was painful. But pre-pandemic we weren't worried too much about sitting around at the airport for hours.

To be honest, during the holidays Spirit's luggage drop off line lasted at least an hour, so we wanted to make sure we had enough time...

Edited December 2, 2022 by Itchy&Scratchy

[Dreamer68]

On 11/21/2022 at 4:58 AM, lx200gps said:

After having just survived an Air Canada departure from T2 at FLL, I would definitely agree that you don't want to be sitting around the airport. We had a 1:30 flight, but arrived around 9AM, expecting to drop our bags off and check in at 9:30, per AC's published "drop luggage off no earlier than four hours before your flight". Our inbound flight was delayed and the AC staff at FLL insisted on accepting bags THREE hours before the flight, not four, so we sat with all our luggage until 10:40. Delta, who share the terminal with AC and have many more flights, was only accepting bags TWO hours before the flight. The result was huge crowds sitting on their luggage, making the departures concourse an absolute zoo, nowhere for people to sit, few wearing masks and lots of coughing. Stay away from FLL as long as you can.

Ouch! That sounded painful! We wanted to see FLL a bit after the cruise so I picked an 8:45 pm return on AC to Montreal. We only have carry-on luggage for the cruise...and I had assumed we could put them in some luggage locker storage at the airport after disembarking the cruise. It's pretty obvious now that we can't just get the luggage transferred from Port Everglades to AC at the aiport if they aren't taking any luggage until only 3 hours before flight.

The FLL airport website shows that not all public luggage storage is opened due to Covid, at least not the one at T2 where AC departs. I thought the US was fully open without Covid restrictions. I will call next week before our weekend departure to see if the public luggage storage is indeed closed...but in case anyone here knows, please share your "intel" 🙂 

[lx200gps]

7 hours ago, Dreamer68 said:

Ouch! That sounded painful! We wanted to see FLL a bit after the cruise so I picked an 8:45 pm return on AC to Montreal. We only have carry-on luggage for the cruise...and I had assumed we could put them in some luggage locker storage at the airport after disembarking the cruise. It's pretty obvious now that we can't just get the luggage transferred from Port Everglades to AC at the aiport if they aren't taking any luggage until only 3 hours before flight.

The FLL airport website shows that not all public luggage storage is opened due to Covid, at least not the one at T2 where AC departs. I thought the US was fully open without Covid restrictions. I will call next week before our weekend departure to see if the public luggage storage is indeed closed...but in case anyone here knows, please share your "intel" 🙂 

Yes, it was a bit trying, and we will be repeating it again in early Feb. At least now we are aware of the Air Canada 3 hour rule, and won't bother arriving at FLL until that time.

 

Your comment about airline luggage transfer made me look into it a bit further. I  was aware that Princess have a program called EZ-Check, where they take your bags from the ship, bring them to the airport, and they end up on the luggage carousel at your destination, pretty much a perfect solution. Unfortunately, AFAIK, it was only available through a few US airlines, so no help to us Canadians.  I found this site which actually says Air Canada is a participant in the program, though I have to believe it's an error (or a recent change)

 

https://www.cruisewithafriend.com/pages/princess-ez-check-service-for-luggage-6574

 

It may be worth checking with your cruise line to see if they have such a service.

[Elaine5715]

https://bagstogo.net/locations/fort-lauderdale/  

[Dreamer68]

18 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

https://bagstogo.net/locations/fort-lauderdale/  

Thanks a bunch, @Elaine5715!  The Bagstogo website seems like it's more up to date that the FLL airport website! Or at least I sense that Bagstogo site is more current. I've bumped into too many websites that are not updated to reflect the most current situation (even local municipal ones). My flight leaves from T2  at 8:45 pm in FLL so if I take the Bagstogo option, I will need to get myself to T1 FLL before 5:30 pm (their closing time) to pick up my bags...and then spend 3 hours at FLL airport... hope there are nice/ decent seating areas at the airport to wait it out.

Alternatively, I sure hope Celebrity has a similar program to Princess' EZ-Check as mentioned by @lx200gps above. Fingers crossed that Celebrity does and that would allow us another extra hour in town... either way an hour and a bit is no big deal I guess to spend people watching at the airport. I'd rather be early for my flight than get stressed by traffic or whatever squeaking in just in time at FLL.

Anyone has any fave spots at FLL airport to eat or spend some time, do chime in. I've been reading on on the airport and it seems there's quite a bit of art around...and there's a viewing area to watch planes take off and land, located above the Hibiscus Garage (will have to check where that is)...so that might be interesting. 😎
 

[lx200gps]

1 hour ago, Dreamer68 said:

Thanks a bunch, @Elaine5715!  The Bagstogo website seems like it's more up to date that the FLL airport website! Or at least I sense that Bagstogo site is more current. I've bumped into too many websites that are not updated to reflect the most current situation (even local municipal ones). My flight leaves from T2  at 8:45 pm in FLL so if I take the Bagstogo option, I will need to get myself to T1 FLL before 5:30 pm (their closing time) to pick up my bags...and then spend 3 hours at FLL airport... hope there are nice/ decent seating areas at the airport to wait it out.

Alternatively, I sure hope Celebrity has a similar program to Princess' EZ-Check as mentioned by @lx200gps above. Fingers crossed that Celebrity does and that would allow us another extra hour in town... either way an hour and a bit is no big deal I guess to spend people watching at the airport. I'd rather be early for my flight than get stressed by traffic or whatever squeaking in just in time at FLL.

Anyone has any fave spots at FLL airport to eat or spend some time, do chime in. I've been reading on on the airport and it seems there's quite a bit of art around...and there's a viewing area to watch planes take off and land, located above the Hibiscus Garage (will have to check where that is)...so that might be interesting. 😎
 

We've spent WAY too much sitting around T2 at FLL, and there isn't much to do at all in that terminal. No Air Canada lounge, Delta's is for their pax only and there are no other lounges in any other terminal at FLL that we could use. Food concessions are only OK, bring something to read and sit it out. A few years back, we took off on schedule around 11:30AM on AC back here to Montreal, the aircraft suffered engine compressor stalls on takeoff and had to return to FLL. We didn't fly out until 11:30PM but couldn't leave the terminal in case they found us a seat on an outbound flight. 14 hours in Terminal 2 is not easy ;o(

[Dreamer68]

16 minutes ago, lx200gps said:

We've spent WAY too much sitting around T2 at FLL, and there isn't much to do at all in that terminal. No Air Canada lounge, Delta's is for their pax only and there are no other lounges in any other terminal at FLL that we could use. Food concessions are only OK, bring something to read and sit it out. A few years back, we took off on schedule around 11:30AM on AC back here to Montreal, the aircraft suffered engine compressor stalls on takeoff and had to return to FLL. We didn't fly out until 11:30PM but couldn't leave the terminal in case they found us a seat on an outbound flight. 14 hours in Terminal 2 is not easy ;o(

OMG! "engine compressor stalls" !!! I sure hope my flights there and back are completely uneventful! Glad you got home okay! 3 hours vs 14 hours sound really, really okay now. 

I'm hoping it's easy enough to cab it back to T1 to get our two carry-ons out of Bags to Go storage after my Water Taxi adventure on my own. I should probably choose my final stop wisely to get easy access to cabs. DH wants to do a half-day fishing charter from 1:30 to 5:30 pm so I'm happy to gallivant on my own. So, I'm responsible for getting our stored carry-ons before 5:30 pm in T1.  I'm just a bit nervous about my unfamiliarity with FLL in general. Glad for this forum that has helped fill out all my knowledge gaps. Thanks for your guidance!

[lx200gps]

4 hours ago, Dreamer68 said:

OMG! "engine compressor stalls" !!! I sure hope my flights there and back are completely uneventful! Glad you got home okay! 3 hours vs 14 hours sound really, really okay now. 

I'm hoping it's easy enough to cab it back to T1 to get our two carry-ons out of Bags to Go storage after my Water Taxi adventure on my own. I should probably choose my final stop wisely to get easy access to cabs. DH wants to do a half-day fishing charter from 1:30 to 5:30 pm so I'm happy to gallivant on my own. So, I'm responsible for getting our stored carry-ons before 5:30 pm in T1.  I'm just a bit nervous about my unfamiliarity with FLL in general. Glad for this forum that has helped fill out all my knowledge gaps. Thanks for your guidance!

Actually, FLL is not a very large airport, and walking between terminals is not that bad. Much of the "inter-terminal" walking is under cover and on sidewalks, so it's easy to get around. T1 to T2 is perhaps 200 yards. You can get a good idea of its layout by looking at Google Maps and Street View . Have a great trip.

[hrhdhd]

Celebrity has not reinstated EZ Check (or whatever they called it) since the restart.

[Dreamer68]

19 hours ago, lx200gps said:

Actually, FLL is not a very large airport, and walking between terminals is not that bad. Much of the "inter-terminal" walking is under cover and on sidewalks, so it's easy to get around. T1 to T2 is perhaps 200 yards. You can get a good idea of its layout by looking at Google Maps and Street View . Have a great trip.

Thank you!! Did exactly as you said today and took a look on Google... T1 and T2 looked quite walkable indeed. My experience with airport shuttles between terminals is that the distance is beyond walkable for most people. I'm doing some research now on the Water Taxis and will probably do that to see the city. I'm not as prepared as I'd like to be with 5 days to go but I'll be grateful for a vacation in the middle of winter. 🙂 Thanks again!