Two South Florida cruise ports, two tariffs, and one rate that already includes the tax
Port Everglades caps cruise parking at $25.00 a day with sales taxes already inside that number, and PortMiami charges $25 to $35 a day before a 6% tax. Two adults on a seven night sailing pay $175.00 to $200.00 in Fort Lauderdale against $212.00 to $296.80 in Miami.
Broward County runs Port Everglades with eight cruise terminals and over 5,500 parking spaces, 1.8 miles from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Ten lettered terminals make up PortMiami, 7.1 miles from Miami International Airport, under Miami-Dade County. Both counties file a port tariff. Only one of them tells you whether the price on the sign is the price on the receipt.
Every figure below was read from the issuing county in September 2026, with the Broward County pages read again on October 7, 2026, and the premises never move: two adults, a seven night cruise, one standard car left in the port’s own garage, and the airport each county names as its main one. Where a county publishes nothing, the sentence says so instead of borrowing a number from the other side of the county line.
| Cruise port and issuer | Daily parking rate as published | Sales tax in the port tariff | Main airport and what the issuer publishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Port Everglades (Broward County) | $25.00 daily maximum; $30.00 for oversized vehicles for up to 24 hours, per entry, in the tariff, and $35 on the parking page | All parking fees include sales taxes (Tariff No. 12, Item 1135) | Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, 1.8 miles, allow 45 minutes to one hour |
| PortMiami (Miami-Dade County) | $25 per day long term at Garages C, D, F, G and Surface Lot E; $35 per day at Garage AA and Garage B | Rates are exclusive of any sales tax, with the general rate at 6% (Terminal Tariff No. 010) | Miami International Airport, 7.1 miles, driving time not published by the issuer |
Where Broward County stops the parking clock and Miami-Dade County starts a new day
At Port Everglades the bill runs from the ticket, not from the calendar. The rule sits on the parking page in one sentence, that all daily rates begin when you pull the parking ticket from the machine at the garage or parking lot, and underneath it runs a full ladder: $5.00 for up to one hour, $10.00 for up to five, $13.00 to six, $14.00 to seven, $18.00 to nine, $20.00 to eleven, $23.00 to twelve, and $25.00 as the maximum daily rate, in force since October 1, 2026.
Miami-Dade County counts the other way. Item 710 of Terminal Tariff No. 010, effective October 1, 2025, states that established parking rates are applied to the day a vehicle enters the parking lot and to each succeeding day it remains on the lot. A seven night sailing therefore crosses eight calendar days and buys eight of them, which is the arithmetic behind the rate each PortMiami terminal arrives with.
The two rules produce different bills from almost identical rates. A car that pulls a ticket at 10:30 on a Sunday and clears the exit at 08:00 the following Sunday has used six days and twenty-one hours, which fills seven daily maximums in Fort Lauderdale and eight billed days in Miami.
Seven garages and lots from two counties in one clearance and rate schedule
Clearance is where the price advantage reverses. A single figure covers each Port Everglades garage and it is the lowest number in the table below, while Miami-Dade County publishes a floor by floor schedule for eight PortMiami garages that reaches 9 feet 6 inches and drops to 6 feet 8 inches. Neither county publishes a width for any garage.
| Parking facility | Published clearance | Spaces the issuer publishes | Rate per day and tax treatment | Terminals it serves |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heron Parking Garage, Port Everglades | 7 foot clearance (Broward County) | 1,818 spaces | $25.00 daily maximum, sales taxes included | Cruise Terminals 2 and 4 |
| Palm Parking Garage, Port Everglades | 7 foot clearance (Broward County) | 1,966 spaces | $25.00 daily maximum, sales taxes included | Cruise Terminals 19, 21, 25, 26 and 29 |
| Parking Lots A, B, C and D, Port Everglades | Clearance not published by Broward County | 770, 404, 600 and 850 spaces | $25.00 daily maximum, sales taxes included | Cruise Terminals 18, 19 and 26 |
| Garage AA, PortMiami | 7 feet on the second and remaining floors (Miami-Dade County) | Not published by Miami-Dade County | $35 per day long term, tax added at 6% | Cruise Terminal AA, MSC Cruises |
| Garage B, PortMiami | 7 feet 6 inches on the first and remaining floors | Not published by Miami-Dade County | $35 per vehicle, per space, per day since January 1, 2025 | Cruise Terminal B, Norwegian Cruise Line |
| Garage G, PortMiami | 9 feet 6 inches first floor, 6 feet 11 inches above | Not published by Miami-Dade County | $25 per day long term, tax added at 6% | Cruise Terminals F, G and V |
| Surface Lot E, PortMiami | Open lot with no overhead clearance | Not published by Miami-Dade County | $25 per space, per day; $50 if two spaces are used | Oversized vans, recreational vehicles and trailers |
Six facilities on the Broward side carry a capacity and none on the Miami-Dade side does. Adding the six gives 6,408 spaces, against the over 5,500 the Port Everglades parking page still prints; the first five, which were the whole list in September 2026, give 5,558, and Parking Lot D, at 850 spaces north of Cruise Terminal 18, is the new line.
Adding up eight billed days in Miami against seven at Port Everglades
A standard car sailing seven nights wins at Port Everglades by $37.00, and since October 1, 2026 the win comes from the tax line and the day count rather than from the rate. Seven daily maximums at $25.00 come to $175.00 with sales taxes already inside, per Item 1135. Eight billed days at the PortMiami long term rate of $25 come to $200.00, and the 6% general rate the county cites lifts that to $212.00.
Stretch the same trip by one exit hour and the Broward side buys an eighth daily maximum at $200.00, narrowing the gap to $12.00. Park at Garage AA or Garage B instead and the Miami side reaches $280.00 before tax. Those two $35 lines sit on the PortMiami parking page and not in Item 710, whose only long term figure is $25, so the county’s own documents do not settle whether the 6% clause reaches them. Read strictly, the tariff answers for $212.00 and stays silent at $296.80.
Declared winners by scenario. A family driving down with one car and a seven night booking should sail from Port Everglades, on published price. A driver in a raised van or a pickup with a rooftop box should sail from PortMiami, on published clearance, because 9 feet 6 inches on the first floor of Garage G and an uncovered Surface Lot E have no equivalent in Fort Lauderdale. A crew member should read Miami-Dade first: PortMiami prints a crew rate of $50.00 per week and Item 1135 of Port Everglades Tariff No. 12 prints none.
The airport question: 1.8 miles into Port Everglades, 7.1 into PortMiami
One county publishes both a distance and a clock for three airports, and the other publishes a distance for two and a clock for none. On the Broward side the cruise FAQ places Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport at 1.8 miles, Miami International Airport 27 miles south and Palm Beach International Airport, renamed President Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT) in July 2026, 50 miles north, then sets the allowances at 45 minutes to one hour, two to three hours and three to four hours.
On the Miami-Dade side the answer is 7.1 miles to Miami International Airport and 25.7 miles to Fort Lauderdale, with no minutes beside either. The gap matters most for the passenger flying in on sailing morning, because Broward itemises what its 45 minutes covers: baggage claim, boarding transport, the security checkpoint at the port entrance, curbside baggage and terminal paperwork.
The short leg also carries a published price. An average taxi fare of $18 to $21 runs from the airport to Port Everglades, a figure the county flags as subject to change. The same county publishes two different taxi fares for the run to Miami, which is the split covered in the fare comparison out of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Down in Miami the drive is longer and the entry is cheaper for cars: the Port of Miami Tunnel takes no toll, at a maximum height of 15 feet and a maximum width of 8 feet 6 inches.
What each county prints about a cruise terminal before you arrive
Broward County describes its buildings and Miami-Dade County describes its tenants. Every Port Everglades terminal page carries a street address, a total square footage, a baggage laydown area, a passenger waiting area and a check in station count, and only two of those eight pages name a cruise line, though the port’s separate parking map names one for seven of them: Disney Cruise Line opened Cruise Terminal 4 at 1800 SE 20th Street in Fall 2023 with a Finding Nemo theme, and Cruise Terminal 25 is described as primarily used by Celebrity Cruises.
PortMiami names an operator for seven of its ten terminals and a size for five. MSC Cruises holds Terminal AA at 490,000 square feet, Royal Caribbean International holds Terminal A at 170,000, Norwegian Cruise Line holds Terminal B at 190,000, Carnival Cruise Line holds Terminals D, E and F, and Virgin Voyages holds Terminal V at 100,000. Terminal G is dated to 2027 and Terminals C and J carry no line at all. Those ten street numbers are set out in the county list of PortMiami terminal addresses.
A cruise line directory at Port Everglades lists ten companies from Balearia Caribbean to Viking, each with a phone number and none with a terminal. So a passenger who knows the ship but not the building is better served in Miami, and a passenger who wants to know how far the walk runs from the garage is better served in Fort Lauderdale.
Broward disagrees with its own tariff and Miami-Dade with its own FAQ
Each county contradicts itself once, and both contradictions land on a question a driver has to answer before leaving home. The Port Everglades parking page offers limited parking for oversized vehicles up to a maximum of 24 feet; Item 1135 of Port Everglades Tariff No. 12 states that vehicles over 20 feet in length cannot be accommodated within the parking garages or surface parking lots. Four feet separate the web page from the filed document, and a second gap opened on October 1, 2026: the same item prices an oversized entry at $18.00 for the first five hours and $30.00 for up to 24 hours, while the parking page prints $35 as the oversized daily maximum.
Miami-Dade County splits on reservations. Its cruise FAQ answers that there is no reserved parking and that ample parking is available; its parking page sends Garage A drivers to an online rates and reservation page and Garage B drivers to a third party booking service run with Norwegian Cruise Line. No such split exists in Fort Lauderdale, because the Port Everglades parking page states in one line that the port does not accept reservations or pre-payment for parking.
Two smaller cracks are worth knowing. Parking Lot B is counted at 404 spaces on the parking page and at 400 on the Cruise Terminal 18 and Cruise Terminal 19 pages, with its entrance off SE 19th Ave while Parking Lot A enters at 2000 Eller Drive. Over in Miami the payment question is answered with cash and all major credit cards in the FAQ, while the parking page adds that debit cards are not accepted.
Gate rules at Port Everglades and PortMiami that no rate card carries
- A debit card works at one port and not the other. Machines at Port Everglades take cash, credit or debit card through a contactless system on the first floor of the garages. In Miami the accepted list runs to cash, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover or a major traveler’s check, and debit cards are ruled out.
- Payment happens at opposite ends of the trip. Passengers at Port Everglades are told to take the parking ticket on the cruise and pay at a machine before returning to the car; in Miami the published rule is that parking lot users pay upon exiting the parking facilities.
- Every Port Everglades entrance is an identity check. Three of them feed the port, at SE 17th St., at State Road 84 and at I-595 East on Eller Dr., and each requires a government photo ID from everyone aged 18 and older plus cruise documents, with vehicles subject to search under Florida State Statute 311.12(3b). No equivalent requirement appears on the PortMiami pages.
- Back to back cruisers get a published price in Fort Lauderdale. A taxi transfer between Port Everglades terminals is set at a flat rate of $8, with a note that there is no negotiated price for ride share. PortMiami runs a free shuttle only when a ship departs from one terminal and returns to a different one.
- The disabled waiver is wider at Port Everglades. Broward County waives the fee outright under Florida Statute 316.1964 for a Florida Toll Exemption Permit, a specially modified vehicle or a Disabled Veteran plate from any state government. Miami-Dade County Ordinance No. 13-104 grants two hours of complimentary parking to a permit or tag and reserves the full exemption for plates issued under s. 320.084, s. 320.0842 or s. 320.0845.
- Neither port lets a car sit. Every vehicle has to leave once debarkation concludes at Port Everglades, where the facilities are not staffed 24 hours a day or on non cruise days. PortMiami garages are staffed from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. on cruise days, with non cruise day questions routed to 305-347-4800.
- One port prices a lost ticket. The PortMiami schedule charges the equivalent of an 11 day cruise, capped at $275, and adds a crew rate of $50.00 a week payable at 1015 North America Way. Item 1135 of Port Everglades Tariff No. 12 carries no lost ticket line at all.
- A short visit is priced by the hour in Fort Lauderdale and by the day in Miami. The Port Everglades ladder runs $5.00 for up to one hour, $13.00 up to six and $23.00 up to twelve before the $25.00 maximum, and Item 1135 adds a special event flat fee of $12.00 up to five hours or $20.00 beyond it. The PortMiami short term line is a flat $10 or $20 per day marked no overnight, with no hourly steps at all.
Berth depth, check in desks and square feet, the numbers only one county publishes
Measurement is the one axis on which the Fort Lauderdale paperwork beats the Miami paperwork outright. Berth depth is 40 feet at Cruise Terminal 26 and Cruise Terminal 29, 38 feet at Cruise Terminals 18, 19 and 21, and 31 feet at Cruise Terminal 2, whose berth runs 1,602 feet, all of it printed on Broward County terminal pages. Cruise Terminal 4 and Cruise Terminal 25 are the exceptions on the Broward side, with no berth length or depth on either page, and no berth figure at all appears for any of the ten PortMiami terminals.
Check in capacity is published the same way. Cruise Terminal 18 at 1901 SE 32nd St. posts 90 check in stations across 259,370 square feet, Cruise Terminal 19 at 2019 Eller Drive posts 50 across 95,000 square feet, Cruise Terminal 25 at 2025 Eller Dr. posts 48 across 157,800 square feet, and Cruise Terminal 26 at 2026 Eller Drive posts 25 across 115,581 square feet. Cruise Terminal 21 at 2021 Eller Dr. covers 138,700 square feet, Cruise Terminal 29 covers 80,200 square feet, Cruise Terminal 2 covers 85,504 square feet with 30 desks, and Cruise Terminal 4 covers 104,162 square feet with 28.
None of the ten PortMiami terminal descriptions carries a desk count or a berth. What Miami-Dade publishes instead is a size for five buildings and an operator for seven, which answers a different question: not how long the check in hall is, but whose ship is standing in it.
Where a switch between the two South Florida ports goes wrong
Treating $25.00 and $25 as the same price is the first mistake, and it hides the difference twice over. The Broward figure already contains its sales tax and the Miami-Dade figure does not, so the daily gap after tax is $1.50, and the counting rules add a whole extra billed day on the Miami side of a seven night sailing.
Booking Port Everglades for a large vehicle is the second. Both garages there stop at 7 feet, Tariff No. 12 refuses anything over 20 feet, and the port hands the question to a phone number, 954-468-3680, rather than to a schedule. PortMiami answers the same driver with numbers: 9 feet 6 inches under Garage G, 9 feet under Garage C, 8 feet 2 inches under Garage J and Garage K, and Surface Lot E at 625 Florida Way with nothing above it at $25 per space, or $50 across two.
Budgeting a car service by distance is the third. Item 714 of Terminal Tariff No. 010 charges ground transportation $4.50 with a prepaid account or $6.00 without one every time the vehicle crosses the bridge or tunnel into PortMiami, and a drop off plus a pick up is two crossings. Section Eleven of Port Everglades Tariff No. 12 lists no comparable access charge, so the same shuttle operator absorbs a cost in one county that does not exist in the other.
Landing at the other county’s airport is the fourth, and it is the one the counties disagree about most quietly. A Miami International arrival is told to allow two to three hours for Port Everglades, while the Getting Here page of the same port calls that trip 30 to 45 minutes south via I-95. One figure is a drive and the other is a process, and only the FAQ says which.
When these Port Everglades and PortMiami figures were read
The figures in this guide were verified in September 2026 against the sources named in each section. Everything credited to Broward County or Port Everglades was read again, twice and with identical text, on October 7, 2026, and the reading moved the verdict: Item 1135, Issue No. 8, effective October 1, 2026, raised the Port Everglades daily maximum from $20.00 to $25.00, so the seven night gap fell from $72.00 to $37.00. The Miami-Dade figures are the September 2026 readings. Tariff items at both ports carry October 1 effective dates, shuttle fares and cruise line transfer prices change by season, and ship schedules change weekly; check the issuer’s page before you travel. No provider paid for placement here, and none can pay to appear. Where a booking link earns Lot and Gate a commission it is marked as sponsored and flagged in this line, and as of September 2026 no affiliate link is live anywhere on this site.
Six questions about tax, clearance and terminals at the two South Florida ports
The answers below use the same readings as the tables, September 2026 for Miami-Dade County and October 7, 2026 for Broward County, including the $25.00 daily maximum published for Port Everglades since October 1, 2026 and the $25 long term rate published for PortMiami.
Port Everglades publishes the lower final bill, though no longer a lower daily rate. Parking is capped at $25.00 a day by Broward County since October 1, 2026, and its Tariff No. 12 states that all parking fees include sales taxes. At PortMiami the Miami-Dade County rate runs $25 to $35 a day with 6% added on top.
Yes. Item 1135 of Port Everglades Tariff No. 12, in Issue No. 8 effective October 1, 2026, ends with the sentence that all parking fees include sales taxes. The $25.00 daily maximum is therefore a final number. For PortMiami, Miami-Dade County takes the opposite position in its own tariff.
Eight at PortMiami, seven or eight at Port Everglades. Item 710 of Terminal Tariff No. 010 applies the rate to the day a vehicle enters and to each succeeding day. In Fort Lauderdale the day starts when the ticket leaves the machine, so the count turns on your return hour.
PortMiami wins on clearance. Garage G there carries 9 feet 6 inches on its first floor, and Surface Lot E is an open lot with nothing overhead. The two Port Everglades garages are capped at 7 feet, and Tariff No. 12 refuses vehicles over 20 feet in length.
Neither port sells you a space in advance through the county. The Port Everglades parking page states that the port does not accept reservations or pre-payment for parking. The PortMiami cruise FAQ says there is no reserved parking, although the same site sends Garage A and Garage B drivers to outside booking pages.
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport sits 1.8 miles from Port Everglades in Broward County figures, with Miami International 27 miles south and Palm Beach International 50 miles north. The Miami-Dade County figures are 7.1 miles from PortMiami to Miami International and 25.7 miles to Fort Lauderdale, with no driving time on either.
A lower ceiling is the price of a lower bill
The $37.00 gap between a seven night car at Port Everglades and the same car at PortMiami is not the same product at a lower price. It buys a garage whose roof sits at 7 feet, in a port whose tariff turns away anything over 20 feet and whose three entrances stop the car for a photo ID. The Miami-Dade rate matches it at $25 in four garages and the open lot and runs to $35 in two, adds 6% on top and bills an extra calendar day, and it comes with 9 feet 6 inches under Garage G and a lot at 625 Florida Way with nothing above it at all. A comparison of the two ports Florida cruisers most often weigh against each other turns on the same kind of gap, measured in a different unit.
The trade is not cheap against expensive. It is a county that prices the ordinary car against one with room for the tall one.