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It turns out that traffic in the port is getting worse, not better

Back in February 2025, I had a horrendous embarkation day trying to board my Symphony of the Seas cruise out of Port Miami. Around 11 am that day, my friend and I left our hotel near the airport in an Uber for what should have been an easy 30-minute drive to the port. 90 minutes later, we were making the decision to abandon our Uber, which was stuck in gridlock traffic, and walk nearly three miles to the Terminal.

For my March 2026 cruise on Independence of the Seas, I was prepared for the traffic — or so I thought. I booked parking in a downtown Miami parking garage, just over the bridge from the port, and arrived much earlier. I was in an Uber heading to the port with my friends at 9:30 am, hoping that we had beaten the traffic jam.

We hadn’t.

As had happened the previous year, there were nine cruise ships in port that day, many of which held nearly 5000 passengers. Once we got over the bridge into the port area, traffic came to a standstill. Our Uber driver was unprepared; he tried to take an alternate route, and just wound up getting further back in the line of cars creeping toward the terminal.

Eventually, we made the same decision that I had made a year before: to ditch the Uber and walk the last mile to the cruise terminal. Fortunately, I had planned ahead and had packed fairly light (carry-on and backpack), plus it wasn’t particularly hot in Miami yet.

Miami is one of the most popular cruise ports, so it’s hard to avoid cruises that leave from this port. If you do leave from Miami, it’s best to pack your patience — and pack your bags light in case you have to walk with them.