We are planning on driving to Fort Lauderdale and staying in a hotel the night before our cruise. Are there any hotels that offer free parking while on our cruise and shuttle you back and forth from the hotel to port Lauderdale.

Try the Comfort Suites on Federal Highway, the Hilton Airport on Griffin Rd, or the Hyatt Place on 10th Ave, all in Ft. Lauderdale. I have no personal knowledge of these hotels, but have a list, which could be outdated, of hotels that do/did that.

Hi rllong, welcome to Cruise-Chat. I can tell you the hotels/motels that don't http://cruise-chat.com/groupee_commo...on_biggrin.gif I can also tell you not to use the off-site parking lots. The parking at the port is $19/day, the airport terminal parking is $15/day or $7.50/day for long term. You might try the Sleep Inn in Dania, too. I think someone posted that they left their vehicle there. The last few cruises we've taken, we've parked at the port. It's so convenient. I take my hubby up to the terminal, drop him and the luggage off, then go park. When we return, I leave him at the curb with the luggage, get the car, we load up the car and we're on the road in no time.

I've gone on 4 cruises out of Ft Lauderdale and parked at an off-site lot. Found it 3 years ago here The price was about $8 or $9 a day, cheaper, decent service and came with the shuttle both ways.

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At the end of a cruise is it difficult getting picked up to go to the United airport parking lot. Do you make prior arrangements?

Cate M.

Yes, you make prior arrangements. I had booked with these people about 3 years ago. I got there and was going to drop off the car until I saw the conditions. There were cars parked within inches of each other, out on the street, people had been waiting in lines for hours to get their cars back. I decided that I wasn't going to risk parking my car there. I just bit the bullet and parked at the port. At least I knew it was going to be in a semi-secure area, as secure as it's going to get anywhere. It wasn't out on a street and it wasn't parked so I had to climb out of the window. In their defense, there had been a bad snow storm up north and there were a lot of cars that had been stranded just like the owners were. Therefore, the lot was way over-booked and over-flowing. Also, they did give me my money back since I had prepaid for my parking. I doubt they were usually that bad, but I won't take a chance again. They did offer shuttle service too/from the port and the airport. That particular weekend, the shuttle service was very slow. It probably wasn't a good week to judge their performance. The snow storm, Christmas, 8 ships in port, so there were definitely things against them. However, I didn't want to end a wonderful week in the Caribbean by having my car stolen or wrecked.

It was really expensive parking at the port. But it was very nice to come back from a fantastic week, walk out to my car, and be on the road in less than 30 minutes.