James A.
Yelp
Port Everglades is now the 3rd busiest cruise port in the country with 1.72 million passengers. First is Port Canaveral which is the closest port to Orlando, and had 4.07 million passengers; Second is Port of Miami which is only 28 miles from Port Everglades and had 4.02 million passengers (another tidbit: it has the record for most number of passengers going through it in one day: 67,594). Port Everglades being third, can handle eight cruise boats at the same time.
So I looked up these observations to clarify what I felt were 4 extremely hectic days of embarkation/debarkation when my brother and I took 2 back-to-back cruises from this port.
The first was a 8 night cruise on the Celebrity Reflection, making stops at Virgin Islands (both U.S. and British), Puerto Rico, Sint Maarten, Dominican Republic. It's obviously very important to know which terminal your ship is docked at: when I looked this up in the Celebrity app, it stated 19, but later changed to 29. At the end it didn't matter. What was important was to know the name of your ship, and your rideshare driver knows enough to get you there. First, you have to got through a security checkpoint to enter the port, and the passenger must show ID and boarding pass to the security officer. Then it's a lot of driving around to get to the right one. The ships here are spread apart, so it's clear if you are going to the right one or not...what's bad is that walking between terminals probably isn't feasible (in case you make a mistake). We ended back to terminal 25, 8 days later Getting off the boat through the terminal was very easy: a simple photo taken for passport control (didn't have to show passports) and a walk across customs (being ready to stop if an officer picks you randomly). There were the expected, long and winding ramps to take to get out to the curb, but nothing too hectic. The area for ride shares was very full, with officers being very directive about what to do. The ordere.d Lyft came within 10 minutes, and loaded within 5. The driver gave us a hint that if the terminal across the street seems empty, it's a quicker pickup to avoid the crowds. There are quite a few national brand hotels close to the area, and the rideshare to it ended up costing around $20. I didn't see any area for easy shuttle pickup, and with the number of terminals, it would take forever for a shuttle to have to stop by each one to see if there is pickup. It's worth taking a rideshare.
The second was a 5 night cruise on the Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas, making stops in the Bahamas (once for their private island: Coco Cay, the other for Nassau), leaving from Terminal 18. This time we took a shuttle from our hotel, costing $9 per person. It was definitely more relaxing than the rideshare and once our driver knew our ship, he knew exactly where to go. It dropped us off right at the line of people going into the terminal to check-in. After a trip through security and a passport scan, we were onboard the ship. It probably took under 30 minutes.
Arriving back, we used Terminal 19 and intentionally left later in the morning, after 9 am. It was even more crowded once we got to the terminal, with people waiting for their ride. That being said, getting a rideshare wasn't too difficult (only one cancellation), and the fare to our hotel nearby was under $10. One just has to be ready to flag down your ride as soon as you see it...one wish: what happened to license plates in the front...kinda hard to validate your ride if you have to let it pass by you first.