Exiting ship on turnaround day of b2b at odd hour

[nivek82]

I have read many helpful tips on here and thought I would share my experience with the Liberty of the Seas in Port Everglades in regards to getting off the ship in the middle of a back to back and at an odd hour.

Background my wife and I took our DD (11 months) on her first cruise and we did a back to back (consecutive cruise) on the Liberty 12/10 to 12/19. We thought we packed enough food / formula / etc but as you know with kids things change because they can. Near the end of the first leg of the cruise we noticed that we were going to run out of formula before the end of the second cruise and knew that on turnaround day we would need to leave the ship to go shopping.

Normally you can leave on a b2b as soon as the express departure was called but you can't reenter until AFTER the ship is cleared and the passengers for the next voyage are allowed in. We didn't want to do that as we were traveling with grandparents and we wanted to leave DD with them so we could make a quick trip. We also were not sure if the grandparents would be able to go though customs with DD on their own and after the amount of time we had to wait in the lounge and terminal we are glad that we didn't do this as the grandparents would of had to hold DD for over an hour and we would of felt awful. Also they provided a lunch in the MDR for b2b and this was the first of 3 b2b cruises that we have been on that they offered this so we wanted to try that.

Anyway 1pm comes and after we sign up DD in the nursery and drop her off with the grandparents we start our adventure to get to a store. We were told the day prior that it would be no problem and we could exit on deck 1. We head down to deck 1 and approach the gangway to only have security look at us like we were insane and told us "NO DECK 4." We asked two times as deck 4 is where you board and that's what we were told. Up to deck 4 we go and again explain to security what we are needing to do. No problem the same machine they use to "bing" you on we use to exit with a over reminder of "be back by 3:30pm." It was a little like swimming up stream as we were going in the opposite direction as everyone else but we made it out. We had to tell almost every customs agent / security person that we ran into what / where we were going and had our seapasses in our hand at all times. We had no issues (except swimming up stream) and made it out to a cab with no issues. Took a quick cab ride and asked the driver to stay and did a quick shop and back to the port. (anyone interested the Publix and about 5 minutes of waiting was about $22 in cab fare so not so bad.)

We arrive back at the terminal to a HUGE LONG line for security. This reaffirmed our practice of arrive early. It was 2pm now and the line for the Xray was almost the length of the terminal. My wife told me we didn't have to wait in the line but I was telling her that we didn't have to wait in "check in" but this was security. She went and asked a RCI person and they said "oh b2b sure go to the front let them know and they will let you in." I couldn't believe it. So again with seapass cards in hand we walked up and we were let in no problems. We did overhear someone say "hey I'm Diamond Plus why do I have to wait in this line and they don't!" to witch the customs person said "they did a b2b and stood in this line last week, today is your turn to stand in this line." Once we got past security we walked back up and boarded just like we would if we checked in.

Summary it can be done and took about an hour. We are so glad we had someone to watch our DD as that would of been much with a baby. As most know each ship / port is different and I was very surprised that we were able to skip the security line but as long as you leave enough time it can be done.

[LovesCruising]

Very interesting - thanks for posting - love the agents response to waiting in line!;)

[BillOh]

Very interesting - thanks for posting - love the agents response to waiting in line!;)

 

Me too, as close to a slap in the face that he could get away with. I hope I never find myself in the same situation as the OP (I would be on the grandparent end) , but to that OP, well done. Glad it worked out well.

[Darubian]

That really is an awesome story. Im excited it made your vacation experience rather smooth!

 

Happy Sailing!