Broward County caps a Port Everglades parking day at $25.00 and puts the sales tax inside it
Port Everglades cruise parking costs $25.00 a day at most since October 1, 2026, and Broward County states in Tariff No. 12 that all parking fees include sales taxes. A seven night sailing that leaves and returns on the same weekday fills seven daily maximums, so the barrier collects $175.00 and adds nothing to it.
Three documents set that price, and since October 1, 2026 they no longer carry the same detail. On the parking rates page five figures appear, and the rest are described as fees that vary. The main parking page now prints all eight hourly steps. The schedule filed behind both, item 1135 of Port Everglades Tariff No. 12, issue number 8, adds a flat fee for special events, a separate line for oversized vehicles, a free parking clause, a one week limit after debarkation and the one sentence about sales taxes that changes the arithmetic.
What follows is the whole schedule, the seven night total it produces, and the places where Broward County publishes nothing. Every figure was read from the county on October 7, 2026, twice and minutes apart: the parking page, the parking rates page, the cruise FAQ, the disabled parking page, and items 945, 1030 and 1135 of the tariff as reissued on October 1, 2026. The premises stay fixed throughout: one standard car, one seven night cruise, one space in a port garage or lot.
| What Broward County sets for parking at Port Everglades | Where the figure appears | The figure as published |
|---|---|---|
| Standard vehicle daily maximum | Parking page, parking rates page and item 1135 | $25.00 per day, sales taxes included |
| Full hourly schedule, eight steps | Parking page and item 1135; the rates page prints three of the eight | $5.00 rising to $25.00 |
| Oversized vehicle charge | Parking page, parking rates page and item 1135, which disagree on the 24 hour figure | $18.00 for the first five hours; $30.00 for up to 24 hours per entry in item 1135, $35 on both web pages |
| Special event flat fee | Item 1135 of Tariff No. 12 only | $12.00 for events up to five hours, $20.00 beyond |
| Disabled fee waiver | Disabled parking page and item 1135 | No charge with a qualifying plate, permit or equipment |
| Spaces by facility | Parking page | 1,818, 1,966, 770, 404, 600 and 850 |
| Overhead clearance | Parking page, garages only | 7 feet at Heron and Palm; not published for the four lots |
| Reservations and prepayment | Parking page | Not accepted |
Five of the eight hourly steps at Port Everglades are missing from its rates page
On its parking rates page the port prints $5, $10 and $25 for a car, and $18 and $35 for an oversized vehicle, then covers the gap with a sentence saying fees for additional hours vary up to the daily maximum based on vehicle type. The main parking page, updated on September 30, 2026 according to the port’s own sitemap, and the filed schedule do not leave it vague: both set a charge for every band between one hour and twelve.
| Length of stay as item 1135 words it | Parking charge | Where a driver can read it |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 1 hour or portion thereof | $5.00 | Parking page, rates page and item 1135 |
| More than 1 hour, and up to 5 hours | $10.00 | Parking page, rates page and item 1135 |
| More than 5 hours, and up to 6 hours | $13.00 | Parking page and item 1135 |
| More than 6 hours, and up to 7 hours | $14.00 | Parking page and item 1135 |
| More than 7 hours, and up to 9 hours | $18.00 | Parking page and item 1135 |
| More than 9 hours, and up to 11 hours | $20.00 | Parking page and item 1135 |
| More than 11 hours, and up to 12 hours | $23.00 | Parking page and item 1135 |
| Over 12 hours and maximum daily rate | $25.00 | Parking page, rates page and item 1135 |
Read down the second column and the ladder is not linear. An hour costs $5.00, which works out at $5.00 an hour and is the worst value on the schedule. Five hours costs $10.00, or $2.00 an hour. Twelve hours costs $23.00, or about $1.92 an hour. A full day costs $25.00, or about $1.04 an hour, and once the twelfth hour is passed the remaining twelve cost $2.00 between them.
That shape matters to two kinds of driver. Anyone dropping a passenger and leaving within the hour pays $5.00, and Broward County recommends unloading luggage and passengers at the terminal before parking at all. Anyone meeting a ship on a nine hour turnaround pays $18.00 rather than a whole day, which no flat daily rate would allow.
Where a Port Everglades parking day starts, and how a seven night bill lands on $175.00
Daily rates begin when you pull the parking ticket from the machine at the garage or parking lot. That sentence appears twice on the Port Everglades site, on the parking page and on the parking rates page, and it is the single line that decides how many days a cruise week buys.
Take a Sunday sailing. The ticket comes out at 10:30 on departure morning and the car clears the exit at 08:00 on the Sunday eight days later. That stay runs six days and twenty one and a half hours. Six of those days each fill a $25.00 maximum, the remaining twenty one and a half hours run past twelve and fill a seventh, and the total is $175.00 with nothing added for tax.
Return late and the count changes. A car that exits at 11:00 instead of 08:00 has crossed into an eighth ticket day and pays $200.00. The hour on the ticket, not the date on the boarding pass, is what a Port Everglades parking estimate has to be built around.
Miami-Dade County counts the other way for the same seven nights, applying its rate to the day a vehicle enters and to each succeeding day, which is how a PortMiami sailing buys eight billed days instead of seven at $25 per day plus 6%, or $212.00. The declared winner for a standard car on price is still Port Everglades, by $37.00. Since October 1, 2026 the daily rate adds nothing to that gap, because both counties now charge $25 for a day: $25.00 comes from the extra billed day and $12.00 from the 6% that Broward County has already absorbed. The declared winner for a raised van is PortMiami, because 7 feet is the ceiling in Fort Lauderdale and Miami-Dade County publishes 9 feet 6 inches on one garage floor. Both readings sit side by side in the comparison of the two South Florida cruise ports.
Six parking facilities, 6,408 spaces, and only two of them with a published roof
Two garages and several surface lots totaling over 5,500 spaces is how Port Everglades describes its own parking. Adding the six figures the same page publishes on October 7, 2026 gives 6,408, and the distribution is uneven: the two garages hold 3,784 spaces between them and the four surface lots hold 2,624. The fourth lot is new to the page since the September reading: Parking Lot D, 850 spaces adjacent to Cruise Terminal 18 to the north, which makes it the largest surface lot at the port while the headline still says over 5,500.
| Facility as Broward County names it | Spaces | Overhead clearance | Cruise terminals the county lists for it | How the county says you reach the terminal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heron Parking Garage | 1,818 spaces | 7 foot clearance | Cruise Terminals 2 and 4 | Air conditioned elevated passenger bridge with moving sidewalks from the 5th floor to Cruise Terminal 2 |
| Palm Parking Garage | 1,966 spaces | 7 foot clearance | Cruise Terminals 19, 21, 25, 26 and 29 | Shuttle service between the garage and Cruise Terminal 29, which the Cruise Terminal 29 page calls free |
| Parking Lot A | 770 spaces | Not published by Broward County | Near Cruise Terminals 19 and 26 | Entrance at 2000 Eller Drive |
| Parking Lot B | 404 spaces | Not published by Broward County | Between Cruise Terminals 18 and 19 | Entrance off SE 19th Ave |
| Parking Lot C | 600 spaces | Not published by Broward County | Adjacent to Cruise Terminal 18 to the west | No entrance address published |
| Parking Lot D | 850 spaces | Not published by Broward County | Adjacent to Cruise Terminal 18 to the north | No entrance address published |
One terminal is missing from both garage lists. Broward County lists Cruise Terminal 18, the largest building at Port Everglades at 259,370 square feet with 90 check in stations, beside Parking Lot B, Parking Lot C and now Parking Lot D, and beside no garage at all; its own terminal page and the parking map still name only B and C. A driver sailing from Cruise Terminal 18 is therefore parking on asphalt, under a clearance the county does not publish, at the same $25.00 daily maximum as a covered space in Heron. The terminal by terminal layout behind that is set out in the guide to the eight Port Everglades cruise terminals.
Wayfinding is color coded from every entrance. Orange signs carrying a flying heron lead to the Heron Parking Garage and green signs carrying a palm frond lead to the Palm Parking Garage, which is the practical way to tell them apart from the road.
An oversized vehicle at Port Everglades gets two prices and two different length limits
Under item 1135 an oversized vehicle pays eighteen dollars for the first five hours, or portion thereof, and thirty dollars for up to twenty four hours, per entry. Both web pages print $35 for the same 24 hours. The tariff defines it as a vehicle that exceeds the standard sized width or height of a parking space. On the seven day count that comes to $210.00 at the tariff figure or $245.00 at the web figure, which is $35.00 or $70.00 more than a standard car pays for the same week.
The same documents also disagree about length. The parking page offers special limited parking for oversized vehicles to a maximum of 24 feet, naming recreational vehicles and trailers. The filed tariff states that vehicles over twenty feet in length cannot be accommodated within the parking garages or surface parking lots. Four feet separate the web page from the filed schedule, and a 22 foot motorhome sits inside one rule and outside the other.
Neither number is what stops most large vehicles. Height is, because the tariff defines an oversized vehicle by width or height while the refusal is written by length, and 7 feet at Heron and Palm is the sole overhead figure Broward County publishes anywhere. A driver with a roof box or a raised van has to settle the question by phone, on 954-468-3680, which is the number the parking page gives for exactly this.
Two ways a parking fee at Port Everglades reaches zero, and one of them is not on the parking page
The first is the disability waiver, and Broward County publishes it in two places that do not match. Free parking goes, under item 1135, to a driver displaying a DV license plate issued under Section 320.084, Florida Statutes, or a Florida Toll Exemption permit, or driving a vehicle equipped with specialized equipment such as foot or hand controls, lifts or ramps.
The disabled parking page repeats all three qualifications and widens the first one: a Disabled Veteran plate issued from any state government, with 320.084 named only as the Florida issuing statute. That gap is worth reading before a drive from out of state. The filed tariff cites a Florida statute; the operating page accepts any state plate and adds that it must be on the car parked at the port at the time of the cruise. Parking agents will not waive fees for any other reason than those three, which rules out a standard disabled parking permit on its own. PortMiami answers the same driver with two complimentary hours rather than a full exemption, a difference set out in the guide to the PortMiami terminals and their garages.
The second route to zero is item 945, which no cruise page mentions. It lets the Port Everglades Chief Executive waive the fees in item 1135 when that is in the best interest of Broward County, and it caps what can be given away without going upstairs. Parking for guests at the christening, naming, commissioning, dedication or maiden voyage of a new ship homeported at Port Everglades may be cut by up to fifty percent per vehicle, the cruise line may pay the remaining half directly or hand out vouchers, and any reduction beyond fifty percent or above $15,000 for one event needs the Board of County Commissioners, a ceiling item 945 raised from $10,000.00 on October 1, 2026. The Port Everglades Chief Executive reports every waiver granted in the quarterly return required by tariff item 180.
The cheapest full day at Port Everglades is priced for a convention, not for a cruise
One schedule in item 1135 covers three populations: passengers embarking and debarking cruise ships, patrons of the convention center, and the general public. Shared use is where the $12.00 and $20.00 flat fees come from, and they are the lowest full day figures in the whole item.
For special events such as heavily attended graduations and large conferences, where most vehicles arrive or depart at roughly the same time, item 1135 replaces the hourly ladder with a flat fee: $12.00 for events expected to take up to 5 hours and $20.00 for events expected to run longer. Which events and which locations get that treatment is decided by the Port Everglades Chief Executive, in consultation with convention center staff.
The $20.00 is not a ceiling. Where the convention center charges a flat fee above these rates, item 1135 lets the Chief Executive raise the port flat fee to match it, with no upper figure printed. So the one line in the schedule that can legitimately exceed $25.00 for a standard car in a single day is the special event line, and a cruise passenger arriving on a convention weekend has no published way to know in advance which rate the machine is running.
Details of the Port Everglades barrier that no rate card carries
- Debit works here. The cruise FAQ lists cash, credit or debit card, through a contactless system with payment machines on the first floor of the parking garages. Miami-Dade County rules debit out at PortMiami, so the same wallet behaves differently 25 miles apart.
- Pay before you walk back. The county recommends taking the parking ticket on the cruise and paying at a machine before returning to the car, which the county says will expedite your exit from the facility.
- An oversized vehicle changes the arithmetic twice over. The $18.00 first five hours and the $30.00 per entry in item 1135 produce a seven day total of $210.00, the $35 on the two web pages produces $245.00, and the height question gets answered on 954-468-3680 rather than on a page.
- The grace period depends on which document is read. The cruise FAQ says all vehicles must leave the parking area once debarkation activities conclude on the return morning, which the port puts between 7 and 9AM, and that the facilities are not staffed 24/7 or on non cruise days, while item 1135 now permits cruise passenger parking through one week after the final debarkation date on the ticket.
- Enforcement does not belong to a parking operator. Tariff item 1030 puts parking at Port Everglades under the approved Port Security Plan and the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002, subject to ticketing and towing by the Broward Sheriff’s Office and the Port Everglades Department.
- The lots and garages are described as well lighted and secure, with disabled parking that has unimpeded access to crosswalks and elevators, which is the accessibility detail Broward County attaches to the facilities themselves.
- Nothing can be held in advance. The parking page states that the port does not accept reservations or pre-payment for parking, so the $25.00 maximum is also the sole price on offer, with no early bird tier and no online rate.
- No lost ticket charge and no crew rate appear anywhere in item 1135. Section Eleven of Tariff No. 12 runs from harbormaster fees through linehandler, labor, potable water, facility surcharges and electric service to grid yard areas, and parking is the one passenger facing line in it.
Where a Port Everglades parking budget breaks before the barrier
Adding tax to the $25.00 is the most common error and it produces a number that never appears on any receipt. Port Everglades states in item 1135 that all parking fees include sales taxes, so $175.00 for seven days is final. Applying the 6% Florida rate to it invents $185.50, and then a comparison against the $212.00 that eight billed days cost at PortMiami comes out wrong in the same direction.
Budgeting by calendar date is the second. Because Broward County starts the clock at the ticket rather than at midnight, two identical seven night cruises can produce $175.00 and $200.00 depending on whether a car ticketed at 10:30 reaches the exit at 08:00 or at 11:00. Anyone who wants the lower figure should aim to clear the barrier before the hour printed on the ticket.
Assuming the surface lots take what the garages refuse is the third, and Broward County has never confirmed it. Parking Lots A, B, C and D carry no published clearance at all. An open lot usually has no roof, but the county publishes 7 feet for Heron and Palm and silence for the other four, so a tall vehicle heading for Cruise Terminal 18, at 259,370 square feet the largest building at the port, is traveling on inference.
Treating the 24 feet on the parking page as the rule is the fourth. A driver of a 22 foot vehicle who reads only the web page arrives inside the published maximum and outside the filed one, since item 1135 refuses anything over 20 feet, and the phone number in the same paragraph is the way to find out which document the gate is running on.
Reading the $25.00 as an absolute ceiling is the fifth. The special event flat fee runs $12.00 for an event expected to take up to five hours and $20.00 for a longer one, and where the convention center charges more than that, the Port Everglades Chief Executive may lift the port figure to match, with no maximum printed. The county publishes the mechanism and no calendar of the days it applies to.
How these Port Everglades parking figures were checked
The figures in this guide were verified in September 2026 against the sources named in each section, and every figure credited to Broward County or Port Everglades was read again on October 7, 2026, twice and minutes apart, after Tariff No. 12 was reissued on October 1, 2026. Confirm a rate on the parking page or in item 1135 before driving in. Every October 1, the first day of its fiscal year, the county reissues its port tariff, while 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.
Questions drivers ask about parking at Port Everglades
The answers below use the same October 7, 2026 readings as the tables above, including the $25.00 daily maximum and the eight step schedule in item 1135 of Port Everglades Tariff No. 12.
Broward County caps parking at $25.00 per day at Port Everglades since October 1, 2026, and item 1135 of its tariff prices the shorter stays at $5.00 for up to one hour, $10.00 to five hours, $18.00 to nine and $23.00 to twelve. Sales taxes are already inside every one of those figures.
Yes. The sentence that all parking fees include sales taxes closes item 1135 of Port Everglades Tariff No. 12, issue number 8, effective October 1, 2026. The $25.00 daily maximum is therefore the amount the machine takes. Miami-Dade County writes the opposite into its own tariff for PortMiami, where 6% is added.
No. The Port Everglades parking page states in one line that the port does not accept reservations or pre-payment for parking. Payment happens on site by cash, credit or debit card at contactless machines on the first floor of the Heron and Palm garages, and Broward County suggests paying before you walk back.
$175.00 for a standard car, with nothing added at the barrier. Daily rates begin when you pull the parking ticket, so seven daily maximums of $25.00 cover a sailing that returns before the hour it left. Come back later than that hour and an eighth maximum lands, at $200.00.
Broward County publishes a 7 foot clearance for both the Heron Parking Garage and the Palm Parking Garage, and publishes no clearance at all for Parking Lots A, B, C and D. The tariff refuses any vehicle over twenty feet in length, while the parking page allows oversized vehicles up to 24 feet.
Free parking goes to a driver displaying a DV license plate issued under Section 320.084 of the Florida Statutes, a Florida Toll Exemption permit, or a vehicle fitted with ramps, lifts or hand controls, under item 1135. That plate is widened to any state government on the Port Everglades disabled parking page.
A ceiling that holds because of what Broward County put underneath it
The $25.00 works as a planning number for one reason: the county did three things that Miami-Dade County does not do at PortMiami. It wrote the sales tax inside the fee, it started the day at the ticket instead of at midnight, and it took a debit card at the machine. Remove any one of those and $175.00 stops being a number a driver can commit to before leaving home.
What Broward County still does not do is publish it in one place. The parking page now carries all eight steps, from $5.00 to $25.00, but the special event clause, the one week limit after debarkation and the waiver power in item 945 sit in a filed tariff nobody is sent to, and the rates page still carries five figures and a sentence saying the rest varies.
Port Everglades sells a final number. Finding out what that number covers still means opening a PDF.