Miami cruise flying into West Palm?

I%26#39;m helping friends book airfare for their late Feb. cruise from Miami. Upon checking, the best deal seems to be if they fly into PBI and rent a car for the drive to Miami, then stay overnight near the airport and be picked up for their cruise. They could also fly into Fort Lauderdale, rent a car and drive to Miami. Does this sound like too much work? There are four of them, so the car rental of $70 vs. a $30 per person fee for the cruiseline to pick them up in Fort Lauderdale seems like a great deal. Plus, the flights home are $70 per person cheaper to fly from PBI, that%26#39;s one car rental. The are arriving a day early and I have a couple good hotels picked out near Miami Int.

Miami cruise flying into West Palm?

you posted this in the NYC forum

Miami cruise flying into West Palm?

I think a Florida forum is probably where you intended to post this (you%26#39;re on NYC :) but I know the area pretty well, and I have to say, I still don%26#39;t follow your reasoning/math.

Flying into PBI to get to Miami IS a pain. Traffic on I 95 is pretty awful. Flying into FLL is closer, but still a pain for them to drive to Miami. What%26#39;s wrong with flying into Miami??? If that%26#39;s not an option, have them fly into FLL and drive to Miami.

Only other thought....there is a train every 2 hours or so from West Palm to Miami. I think it%26#39;s about $5.50/person. Website says there are shuttle buses from the airports to the train stations.

tri-rail.com/schedules_fares/鈥ndex.htm

Probably a lot of trouble, but one way to avoid driving.

I%26#39;d go on cruisecritic.com or look on the cruise forum here and see if someone can recommend a car service that might pick them up and drive them for about the same price as renting the car.

Thanks for the helpful reply. Yes, I don%26#39;t know how I ended up on NYC forum unless there was a West Palm discussion going on. That%26#39;s my guess. I will check the train and car services. Flying into Miami is about $200 more per person, insane and I see that they will still have to pay $28 rountrip to get from Port of Miami back to Miami International. I think flights should be booked ealier into Miami. Fort Lauderdale flights are really limited as well. I%26#39;m glad to know that the drive wouldn%26#39;t be good since I%26#39;m recommending this to friends who asked for my help.

The drive is certainly ';doable';---it%26#39;s just not as easy as it looks b/c I 95 gets very crowded. I guess the Fla. tpke is another option that MIGHT be better. That said, at +$200 x 4 people to go to Miami, I can understand wanting to look at options. If they can avoid rush hour and do the drive between say 10 am and 2 pm, it%26#39;s not so bad. I%26#39;d still check on the train option and finding a driver to pick them up.

vc