I've flown many times throughout my life but there will always be one particular flight that I will always remember.
An early 2013 December flight going from BWI to FLL for a cruise out of Miami. The first cruise for my son who was just shy of 10 months old at the time.
We got to the airport with plenty of time before our flight. We planned on having him being a lap child therefore we needed to go to the ticket counter for a boarding pass and to check in our bags.
All was good.... Except for the unusually long line. Over an hour! We probably should have spoken up and let those around us know our flight was leaving soon, could we please skip ahead of them?
But we were in our early 20s and a bit shy and didn't want to cause a scene. We finally make it to the ticket counter and hear "oh no! Your flight left already!" We know....
We mention how we have our cruise leaving that afternoon....
We get put on a flight to Jacksonville with a connection to Ft. Lauderdale. We then get escorted to skip the security line and we run thru the terminal with an umbrella stroller as our flight was leaving in 10 minutes!
There's a slight delay with the connecting flight... We finally make it to Ft. Lauderdale. We get our bags. We find the cruise line's shuttle service. All is well, we're almost there, right?
We hit traffic on the way to Miami. It takes over an hour and a half to make it to the terminal!
We finally arrive, sheer minutes before the gangway is moved and the ship sets sail!
We immediately go to our room, run into our room steward and we're told they thought we weren't going to make the cruise.... Right; us too!
Talk about a STRESSFUL experience!
From that day on, I decided that I will never ever fly into Florida the day of my cruise.
Yes, staying in a hotel the night before is an additional cost but avoiding a repeat experience is priceless. Not to mention that by flying in the day before, you get to be one of the first ones on the ship the next day as you're able to get to the terminal much earlier. You also start your cruise vacation rested and stress free. Because let's all be honest, flying is stressful regardless of it being a perfect or delayed flight!
As for transfers from the hotels to the cruise terminals, we either book the cruise ship transfers directly from the cruise line or use QLS Transportation for Miami or Port Everglades (Ft. Lauderdale).
You'll find various blog posts about our stays at different hotels in Orlando and Ft. Lauderdale pre/post cruise.
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