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Flying home from your flight? The port matters…a lot

No one likes to think about the end of their cruise, but there’s one time when you have to do it: When you’re buying your plane tickets and choosing your flight home.

Here’s one thing people might not think about if they don’t cruise often: Not all cruise ports are created equal when it comes to your transfer back to the airport at the end of the cruise. With that in mind, here are a few of my suggestions for scheduling flights from some of the more popular cruise ports. (I’ll follow up soon with some thoughts on less-frequented ports.)

Miami. Honestly, I’m mostly telling people to avoid Miami if at all possible, due to my own bad experiences with the port. Miami’s airport isn’t far at all from the cruise port, but the traffic in Miami port is a total wild card. Plan your flight from this airport after 11 am for sure (and after noon if possible), and make sure to get an early start disembarking the ship to avoid getting stuck in (too much) traffic.

Fort Lauderdale/Port Everglades. Along with Tampa, this is my favorite of the cruise ports for flights. You can see the cruise port at Port Everglades when you land at FLL, they’re that close. Traffic exiting the port is rarely bad, although anything is possible. My brother once made a 9:30 am flight out of FLL, but I wouldn’t advise trying that unless you’re a pro. Aim for 11 am or later, and you can stretch it to 10 if you get off the ship early and carry your bags.

Orlando/Port Canaveral. There’s about 35 miles between the airport and the cruise port, but fortunately there’s a good infrastructure to support transfers between cruise line and third-party shuttles like GoPort. Try to book a flight that leaves at noon or even 1 pm or later to give yourself a good cushion to make it to the airport, and if you want to make something earlier, definitely consider taking an Uber even though it’ll be expensive.

Tampa. In almost every case, it’s super easy to get from the Port of Tampa to the airport. They’re only about five miles apart, and while traffic in Tampa can be bad, I’ve never had problems too bad during early-morning hours when disembarking the cruise ship. The problem in Tampa is the occasional fog, which once delayed my disembarkation to almost 6 pm. Under normal circumstances, though, a 10 am flight from Tampa is do-able if you get off the ship early and carry your bags, and 11 am might be a safer bet if you don’t want to be in a rush.