Miami End-of-Cruise Day With Luggage??

Old Jan 20th, 2016, 11:44 PM
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Miami End-of-Cruise Day With Luggage??

We will sail the Celebrity Reflection in February. We are flying out of Fort Lauderdale at 2:45. This is 15 minutes too early to be able to take the cruise excursion that day. Any thoughts on what to do with the hours before our flight... and I assume we will have our luggage!!??? Thanks!
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Old Jan 21st, 2016, 05:07 PM
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I think about the earliest you can debark is 7:00 IF you carry your off your own luggage. If you can't carry them off, you will have to pick your bags up in the baggage hall, not wise or practical to leave them as I doubt you could get back in to get them later. I think the general debarkation starts around 8:00-8:30, check with Celebrity.

You would have time for a private tour of South Beach, for example, but really not all the much time before you need to head to the airport.

Join the roll call on cruisecritic.com, you may find other people with a similar amount of time who would be willing to share the price.

Worst case in terms of cost but the most convenient, you could hire a taxi or private car to give you a driving tour before taking you to the airport. Usually arranging that through the ship's concierge is the most costly option. Indon't have any specific suggestions just try a search.
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Old Jan 22nd, 2016, 12:00 AM
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thanks. i just joined the roll call... good suggestion. looks like it's just going to be a lonnnnnggg trip home... AND we just got notified that our airline changed our 1-stop flight into a 2-stop flight. grrrrrrr...
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Old Jan 22nd, 2016, 12:02 AM
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oh.. btw... what's the absolute LATEST they will generally let one stay on the ship???
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Old Jan 22nd, 2016, 03:21 AM
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What day of the week?
DS went to the FL and the FL keys a few months ago and was flying out of Ft Lauderdale. The trip back took over 8 hours because of Miami traffic/accidents. They missed their flight because they arrived at the gate 26 minutes early instead of 30.
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Old Jan 22nd, 2016, 03:31 AM
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kawh

Usually 9:30 but check with the ship.
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Old Feb 9th, 2016, 07:54 AM
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You really may not have that much extra time. Ft. Lauderdale airport can be an absolute zoo on cruise ships days (Sat, Sun). Depending on airline you can encounter long slow lines.

Our pattern is to request later departure from the ship. That generally means something about ten, 10.30. Have a leisurely breakfast, vacate the room and go to the pool area and have a second cup of coffee. After our departure time (color) is called we take another 15, 20 minutes to get off. Let the lines thin out. The next hurdle can be immigration/customs. That is an uncontrollable variable. We have waited another 30 minutes or more and sometimes less than 5 minutes. Then another variable, the que for the taxi. Generally hit the airport between noon and one. Again, the baggage drop line and check in can be long. It is peak time for people coming and going. You cannot count on anything happening quickly.
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Old Feb 10th, 2016, 12:12 AM
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Fmpden...this makes sense to me. Will hope for such a late departure time from cruise....and would love to hang a bit at a quieter pool if they'll let us! I can see how the time will pass at the airport, too.... thanks.
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Old Feb 10th, 2016, 01:33 PM
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On all of our cruises, we get to choice or request an early, middle or late departure. We always request late and generally will be in the last group off.
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Old Mar 9th, 2016, 12:24 AM
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back from the cruise and just want to say that the above advice was really right-on.

per cathinjoetown, we joined rollcall and found out about (and used) the luggage program. it allowed us to send our luggage to the airport the night before so we didn't have to bother with it.

per fmpden, we really DIDN'T have much extra time in the end. took advice and stayed on the ship as long as possible (in the library.) stayed and stayed... and then when we finally went to shore, found that there was a HUGE line for customs. it was at least an hour. at that point, we were really glad to have the extra time-- and glad we didn't have to claim our luggage.

so thanks all. big help!
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Old Mar 9th, 2016, 03:28 PM
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And I learned something, too. After several cruises with Celebrity, did not know they would take luggage to the airport. Great to know if it makes sense on a future cruise. Thanks, glad all went well.
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Old Mar 9th, 2016, 07:40 PM
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yes!! for $20 fee, they pick up luggage and tag it for the flight... and check it through at the airport so it magically appears when you arrive at the airport. (and we had 2 connections.) they also printed out our boarding passes with the luggage tags. sooooo worth it! (of course, we also had to pay the airline's own fees... which were paid through Celebrity's program.
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Old Mar 11th, 2016, 07:40 AM
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Holland Am provides for the use of Global Entry. So we sailed by the hour or more long line for immigration. Interesting is that they do not advertise the GE line. You have to ask for it and then they point to a very small side entry that bypasses the main line. And there were a number of people glaring at us when we hit the front of the line.
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