Broward County prices one side of a Fort Lauderdale park and cruise deal and leaves the other side blank
A Fort Lauderdale park and cruise package is competing against one published number. The seven day bill in a Port Everglades garage is $175.00 at the ceiling Broward County publishes, with the sales tax already inside it. No issuer prints the other side of that subtraction, since hotel rates and shuttle times are filed with nobody.
No property is named in this guide, and no room rate, package price or departure time appears either. Hotel pages are sales material that no public agency audits, corrects or archives, so a figure copied from one cannot be rechecked by a reader next month. Every number below comes from an issuer that files it and stands behind it.
Those issuers are the Port Everglades Department, the Broward County Aviation Department and item 1135 of Broward County Tariff No. 12, all read in September 2026 and again on October 7, 2026, after a new issue of item 1135 took effect on October 1. The premises stay fixed throughout: two adults, one standard car, one seven night sailing, one space in a port garage or lot.
| Piece of a Fort Lauderdale park and cruise decision | Issuer that publishes it | The figure as published | Checkable before booking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parking for the length of the sailing | Broward County, item 1135 of Tariff No. 12 | $25.00 daily maximum, sales taxes included | Yes, on a public page and in a filed tariff |
| Parking for one night before the sailing | Broward County, same item | One more ticket day, $25.00 | Yes |
| A metered cab from the airport | Port Everglades | $18 – $21 for the vehicle, metered rate only | Yes |
| A metered cab from the airport, second reading | Broward County Aviation Department | $12 (estimated), for up to five people | Yes, and it does not match the port |
| A shared van from the airport | Port Everglades Van on Demand | $11 per person for parties of 3 or more | Yes, though not available on all sailing days |
| A ride from a hotel to a numbered terminal | No issuer | No fare, no operator, no departure time | No |
| A room, with or without parking attached | No issuer | Not filed with any agency | No |
| The security checkpoint the vehicle clears | Port Everglades | Photo ID for everyone aged 18 and older, cruise documents, vehicles subject to search | Yes |
Five rows carry a price, one carries a rule, and two carry nothing at all. The two blank rows are the ones a package is sold on.
A hotel sells nights and Port Everglades bills ticket days, which are not the same unit
All daily rates begin when you pull the parking ticket from the machine at the garage or parking lot, a sentence Port Everglades prints on its parking page and again on its parking rates page. A hotel night runs from one check in hour to one checkout hour. A port day runs 24 hours from a machine.
The conversion between those two units decides the comparison. Seven nights afloat is seven ticket days whenever the car reaches the exit earlier in the day than it entered, which is the usual shape of a cruise week. Passengers typically debark between 7 and 9AM according to Port Everglades, and embarking guests are told to follow the cruise line’s assigned check in time and not to arrive before it, so any assigned time after 9AM holds the count at seven. Cross the entry hour on the way out and an eighth day lands.
Twenty five dollars separates those two outcomes and no booking controls it. A package described as covering parking for the duration of the cruise has stated a policy; Broward County charges a count. Seven, eight, ten or fifteen is the quantity a comparison needs, and only the exit hour produces it. The whole ladder behind that ceiling, from the $5.00 first hour to the $23.00 twelfth, is broken out in the eight step schedule Broward County files and the seven night bill it produces.
The clock starts at a machine, not at a front desk.
What an included parking package has to beat at Port Everglades, by sailing length and return hour
Sailing length moves the threshold more than anything a property controls. A ticket day is capped at $25.00 with the sales tax already inside it, so the total is the day count multiplied by twenty five, with nothing added at the barrier and nothing taken off for booking early.
| Sailing length | Ticket days when the car exits earlier in the day than it entered | What Broward County collects | Ticket days when it exits later | What Broward County collects |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 nights | 3 ticket days | $75.00, sales taxes included | 4 ticket days | $100.00, sales taxes included |
| 4 nights | 4 ticket days | $100.00, sales taxes included | 5 ticket days | $125.00, sales taxes included |
| 5 nights | 5 ticket days | $125.00, sales taxes included | 6 ticket days | $150.00, sales taxes included |
| 7 nights | 7 ticket days | $175.00, sales taxes included | 8 ticket days | $200.00, sales taxes included |
| 10 nights | 10 ticket days | $250.00, sales taxes included | 11 ticket days | $275.00, sales taxes included |
| 14 nights | 14 ticket days | $350.00, sales taxes included | 15 ticket days | $375.00, sales taxes included |
One line in that table stays the same on every row. A night spent in the area before sailing, with the car already inside a port garage, adds one ticket day, and Broward County charges $25.00 for it whether the cruise runs three nights or fourteen. That $25.00 is the most a package can be worth for absorbing the pre cruise night, and it is worth nothing at all if the driver would have arrived on sailing morning anyway.
Miami-Dade County produces a different constant one county south. Its tariff bills the entry day and each succeeding day, so the same pre cruise night costs $26.50 or $37.10 once the 6% is applied, and a seven night sailing reaches $212.00 or $296.80 rather than $175.00. The bundle math that follows from a rate card counting forward instead of by the ticket is worked through in the two PortMiami thresholds a package has to clear.
Three things a Fort Lauderdale package has to declare before anyone can score it
A quantity comes first. Not a duration, a count: how many parking days the price covers, and whether the count ends when the car leaves or when the ship docks. Seven nights is seven or eight ticket days at Port Everglades, and the difference is $25.00.
A location comes second, and it carries a constraint most travelers never test. No reservation and no pre-payment are accepted, in one flat sentence on the Port Everglades parking page. A package therefore cannot have prepaid a space in the Heron Parking Garage or the Palm Parking Garage on anyone’s behalf. Either the car sits on the property’s own lot, under terms no agency has read, or the driver pays a machine on the first floor of a port garage in cash, credit or debit, exactly as an unbundled driver would.
A direction comes third. Round trip or one way changes the value by a full leg, and the price per head changes it again. Port Everglades prices its own comparable rides at $18 – $21 for a metered cab from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, at $11 per person for parties of 3 or more on Van on Demand, and at a flat $8 for a cab between two terminals inside the port. The same airport run is read at $12 (estimated), for up to five people, by the Broward County Aviation Department.
For two adults the declared winner on the transfer line is the metered cab, on the criterion of a fare charged to the vehicle rather than to the head. Priced per person, a package transfer overtakes it at roughly $10 a head, since $20.00 already sits inside the $18 – $21 band. Party size widens the gap rather than closing it, because a cab takes up to five people for the fare on the meter, so a per head price cannot win at four. Where a hotel van waits on the return morning, and the two county sentences that confirm and deny a free shuttle under one update stamp, are set out in the eight Port Everglades terminal addresses and the shuttle question Broward County answers twice.
Two Port Everglades passengers for whom included parking is worth nothing at all
The first drives in with a plate that zeroes the bill. Item 1135 waives the parking fee entirely for a vehicle displaying a Disabled Veteran plate issued under Section 320.084 of the Florida Statutes, a Florida Toll Exemption permit, or specialized equipment such as hand controls, lifts or ramps, and the disabled parking page widens that plate to any state government.
Miami-Dade County answers the same driver with two complimentary hours at PortMiami under Ordinance No. 13-104, rather than a full exemption. Included parking is therefore worth $0.00 to that traveler in Fort Lauderdale and close to the whole $212.00 that eight billed days cost at a $25 PortMiami garage, on the identical seven night sailing.
The second passenger never takes a ticket. Dropping all luggage and passengers at the terminal before parking is what Broward County recommends anyway, the schedule prices the first hour at $5.00, and the free cell phone waiting lots at the Port Administration Building at 1850 Eller Drive, just past the security checkpoint, and north of Cruise Terminal 18, are there for whoever collects the party on the return morning. A traveler being dropped off, or flying into Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport 1.8 miles away, is buying a parking space nobody will occupy.
Included parking only counts once the parking does.
The vehicles Broward County will not park, and the clearance no package has to publish
An oversized vehicle changes the threshold and the geography at once. Under item 1135 it pays $18.00 for the first five hours and $30.00 for up to twenty four hours, per entry, which puts a seven day stay at $210.00, or $35.00 above what a standard car pays for the same week. The parking rates page, read the same day, prints a $35 daily maximum for oversized vehicles instead, which would make the week $245.00, so the filed tariff and the public page now disagree by $5 a day.
Height decides where it can go. Broward County publishes a 7 foot clearance for the Heron Parking Garage, at 1,818 spaces, and the same 7 feet for the Palm Parking Garage, at 1,966 spaces, and publishes no clearance whatever for Parking Lot A at 770 spaces, Parking Lot B at 404, Parking Lot C at 600 or Parking Lot D, an 850 space lot north of Cruise Terminal 18 that the parking page listed by October 2026. Length is refused twice and by two figures: the filed tariff turns away vehicles over twenty feet, while the parking page allows oversized parking to a maximum of 24 feet.
The declared winner for a raised van or a roof box is the package, on one condition and one criterion: it states a clearance in feet, in writing, above the 7 feet the county publishes. Without that sentence the port wins by default, because its ceiling is at least written down and its parking management team answers the question on 954-468-3680. Which garage or lot serves which of the eight numbered cruise terminals is laid out in the Port Everglades reference on terminals, berths and parking facilities.
What a Fort Lauderdale package can sell that Port Everglades refuses to sell
A locked price is the first thing. Since the port takes no reservations and no pre-payment, the $25.00 maximum is the only rate on offer and none of it can be held in advance, so a package quoted at booking is the sole way to fix a parking figure months out. That advantage is real and it is small, because the figure being fixed is already capped, though the October 1, 2026 move from $20.00 to $25.00 shows its size: $35.00 on a seven night sailing.
An open door is the second, and it matters more. Port Everglades states that its parking facilities are not staffed 24 hours a day or on non cruise days, that all vehicles must leave once debarkation activities conclude on the return morning, and that luggage cannot be left or stored at the port. Item 1135, in the issue effective October 1, 2026, is more generous on paper and lets a cruise passenger’s vehicle stay through one week after the final debarkation date on the ticket, provided the charges are paid, so the tariff and the cruise FAQ disagree on how long a car may remain. A garage that is neither staffed nor open is not an option at 11PM the night before a sailing.
The port points at a third product, and it is not a hotel one. Its own travel tip says transfers between Port Everglades and the airport or hotel are often included in many cruise packages, and sends the reader to the cruise line or travel agent. The Broward County Aviation Department adds the condition that a cruise line’s transportation cannot be used at all without a reservation made before arriving at the airport, and that a representative meets those passengers in the baggage claim area.
Winner by arrival, then. For a driver reaching Fort Lauderdale on sailing morning the port takes it, on the criterion of a capped, taxed and final $175.00. For a late night arrival before an early departure the package takes it, on the criterion of a building that is open, with the nuance that the saving is a bed rather than a rate.
Six subtractions that turn a package price into a verdict at Port Everglades
- Divide the package’s parking line by the ticket days it covers and hold the result against $25.00. Anything above that ceiling means Broward County is cheaper before the room has been priced at all.
- Subtract exactly $25.00 for the pre cruise night, and only if the car would otherwise have entered a port garage the evening before. On a three night sailing and on a fourteen night sailing the figure is identical.
- Subtract the transfer at the port’s own prices rather than at a hotel’s. Two adults from the airport is $18 – $21 by metered cab according to Port Everglades, or $12 (estimated) according to the Broward County Aviation Department, and three or more travel at $11 each on Van on Demand.
- Subtract nothing for tax. The line that all parking fees include sales taxes closes item 1135, so a package measured against $185.50 is competing with a total the barrier never collects.
- Subtract the room only if a night in Fort Lauderdale was already in the budget. A bed bought to avoid a garage is a cost dressed as a saving, and the arithmetic that follows is $175.00 against a room rate plus a transfer.
- Subtract $0.00 if a Disabled Veteran plate or a Florida Toll Exemption permit is on the car, because item 1135 has already reduced the port’s side of the comparison to zero.
Five ways the $175.00 gets misquoted in a park and cruise comparison
Adding the 6% is the first and the most common. Broward County states in item 1135 that all parking fees include sales taxes, so $175.00 is a final total; applying the Florida rate to it produces $185.50, a number that appears on no receipt and that flatters every package measured against it.
Counting nights rather than ticket days is the second. Rates begin when the ticket comes out of the machine, so an identical seven night cruise produces $175.00 or $200.00 depending on whether the car clears the exit before or after the hour it entered.
Reading $25.00 as an absolute ceiling is the third. For heavily attended events at the adjacent convention center, item 1135 replaces the hourly ladder with a flat $12.00 up to five hours and $20.00 beyond it, and where the convention center charges more than that, the Port Everglades Chief Executive may raise the port figure to match, with no maximum printed anywhere.
Expecting a package van to skip the gate is the fourth. Port Everglades runs three entrances, at SE 17th St. on Eisenhower Blvd., at State Road 84 east of U.S. 1, and at I-595 East on Eller Dr., and every occupant aged 18 and older shows a government issued photo ID and cruise documents while the vehicle stands subject to search. Broward County opened the Convention Center Connector on October 20, 2025 as an elevated bypass through the port that removes the checkpoint for convention traffic, which is precisely the traffic not headed for a ship.
Assuming a package prepaid the port is the fifth. Reservations and pre-payment are both refused, so a bundle that promises parking at Port Everglades is promising something Broward County does not sell, and the money is buying a space somewhere else.
Which Broward County pages these figures came from, and when
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 that reading changed the core number of this guide: item 1135, Issue No. 8, effective October 1, 2026, raised the daily maximum from $20.00 to $25.00 and the first hour from $4.00 to $5.00, so the seven day bill went from $140.00 to $175.00. Every total above uses the new rates; the cab and van fares did not move. Two county documents meet in any total here that runs on $35 a day. Item 710 of PortMiami Terminal Tariff No. 010 carries $25.00 as its only long term figure and states that the tariff’s rates are exclusive of any sales tax, while the $35 line is published on the county’s PortMiami parking page instead, so a $35 total with 6% added crosses both. Tariff items at Port Everglades 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.
Park and cruise questions Broward County answers, and the ones it hands to the hotel
The six answers below rest on the same October 7, 2026 readings as the tables above, including the $25.00 daily maximum in item 1135 of Broward County Tariff No. 12 and the transfer fares Port Everglades prints for each terminal.
Either the package beats $175.00 or it does not. A Port Everglades parking day is capped at $25.00 by Broward County since October 1, 2026, with sales taxes inside it, so seven ticket days is $175.00 and fourteen nights is $350.00. No agency publishes hotel prices, so the other half of that subtraction has to arrive in writing.
Seven ticket days in the usual case, because daily rates begin when the driver pulls the parking ticket rather than at midnight. A car that clears the exit later in the day than it entered fills an eighth day at $25.00, moving the total from $175.00 to $200.00.
No. The port does not accept reservations or pre-payment for parking, in one sentence on the Port Everglades parking page, so no third party can hold a space in the Heron or Palm garages. Payment happens on site in cash, credit or debit at machines on the first floor.
Exactly one ticket day, or $25.00 with tax already inside it, on any sailing length. Miami-Dade County bills the entry day and each succeeding day at PortMiami, where the same extra night costs $26.50 at a $25 garage and $37.10 at a $35 garage once 6% is applied.
Substantially. Item 1135 prices oversized vehicles at $18.00 for five hours and $30.00 per entry for up to twenty four, so a week runs $210.00, while the parking rates page prints $35 a day. Both port garages publish a 7 foot clearance, the four surface lots publish none, and the tariff refuses vehicles over twenty feet.
No vehicle does. All three entrances screen every occupant aged 18 and older for a government issued photo ID and cruise documents, and vehicles are subject to search under Florida State Statute 311.12(3b). The Convention Center Connector that opened on October 20, 2025 bypasses the checkpoint for convention traffic only.
A price that can be checked beats a price that can only be quoted
Three decisions by Broward County make its half of this comparison finishable. It wrote the sales tax inside the fee, it started the day at the ticket instead of at midnight, and it capped the day at $25.00. That is why a driver can name $175.00 before leaving home and be right.
The other half was never going to be finishable, and that is not a failure of research. A room rate, a shuttle time and a parking charge are private terms, revised whenever the property likes, filed with nobody and audited by nobody. Asking Broward County about them is asking the wrong department.
So the package is not competing on price. It is competing on whether it will put three numbers in writing.