I travel to both Port of Miami and Port Everglades (serving the Fort Lauderdale area) on an almost daily basis shuttling cruise ship passengers between the ports and the airports or area hotels. Both ports are huge, compete with each other for being the largest ports in the country for both passenger and cargo traffic alike, and are extremely invaluable to the economy of South Florida. Without either one, there would be a very huge void. But I if were to recommend one port over the other (and I do quite often), strictly in regards to providing the best and most accommodating access to the cruise industry customer, the choice is clearly the Port of Miami.
Two main reasons:
-the Port of Miami has effectively separated the passenger side from the cargo side
-the infrastructure at Port of Everglades seems to be setup willy nilly with no clear goal of uniformity – or aesthetics for that matter.
When you enter the Port of Miami, which is conveniently connected to downtown Miami, you go over a bridge which has magnificent views of water and skyline on either side. You’re sure to recognize the locale from many a movie and for some, scenes from the cheesy CSI: Miami TV show. You’re almost certain to travel into the port effortlessly without a wait in line of traffic and are welcomed with an up to date overhead electronic sign displaying the location of your ship and palm trees a plenty.To get into Port Everglades on a busy weekend, you’re welcomed by the four smoking stacks of the Florida Power and Light facility and a wait in line to get through the traffic check point run by the Broward Sheriff’s Office. Since the cargo and fuel refinery areas are commingled with the cruise terminals the whole port is a secure area. To me, this leads to a very poorly protected port in regards to the security of the cargo and fuel refining operations and an unnecessary hassle for cruise ship passengers. I’ve seen the sheriff’s office ask many a cabbie to open their trunk only to see some large suit cases and just wave them on through after confirming there’s luggage in the trunk.
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Once inside Port Everglades you have to find your ship by navigating through stacks of cargo containers, a dozen fuel tanks and a rusty freight ship here and there. It is a scene straight out of the Jersey mafia drama, the Sopranos. There seems to always be chaos at the terminals (none of which look alike) and the sheriff’s office hollering and screaming at everyone. I saw a lady in tears after her husband was yelled at for pulling up to the wrong spot to pick up the family and luggage after a cruise – there is no right spot. You can see from the satellite images below that Port Everglades consumes more overall acreage. This is obvious from the refinery function. But you should also be able to see that everything is mixed together without any seperation of function. It seems Port Everglades is set up and is able to accommodate additional ships on the fly. But this very flexibility doesn’t seem to be thought out, or at the very least, implemented well. Every exodus from this port comes with a sigh of relief.
Port of Miami
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Port Everglades
.jpg "Can you find the cruise ships?")
