Disembarkation experience at Ft. Lauderdale

[jackwarr]

Silly me! I tend to be an optimist. Combine that with the fact that this was the first time we've flown directly out after a cruise and I thought I might have set my wife an I up for some trouble.

 

When planning our post cruise flight I thought that a 10:18 flight would be fine since our ship gets in at 7:00 am. Right? That's nearly 3 1/2 hours. Then I started reading all the warnings. Yikes.

 

Anyhow, we got expedited disembarkation and carried our own bags. We were in line by 7:00. The line started moving off the ship by 7:20. We got through customs relatively quickly, caught a taxi, and were at the airport at 8:05.

 

No sweat ;) . Yeah, I know -- later flight next time.

[sail7seas]

Happy to hear it worked out for you but would not advise others to expect the same smooth experience.

 

Hope you had a great cruise. :)

 

[hattack]

All it takes is 1 time....:D

[Krazy Kruizers]

Glad it all worked out for you.

Thankfully you now know that in the future you should plan a later flight.

Too many things can happen to delay people from disembarking a ship.

[Roz]

Last year on Princess we got into Ft. Lauderdale and had a Coast Guard inspection and extra scrutiny by Customs and Immigration. The lines were long and slow and there was nothing the cruise line could do about it. My tablemates bragged to me about their 9:30 am and 10 am flights, and chided me for being such an idiot for booking a 12:45 pm flight. After all, they had better things to do with their time than sit in an airport.

 

I had the last laugh as I watched them leave the immigration area at the same time that their flights were leaving FLL. The airport was worse than the day before Thanksgiving. I had to stand in a line in order to be admitted to the official TSA line.

 

Roz

[DaveOKC]

You never know at FLL.

 

Sometimes the airport lines are VERY long, sometimes fairly short. A couple of years ago I was at the FLL GATE at 8 am!

 

Still, I would not book a flight before Noon.

 

I am lucky to have a lifetime Gold card with American, which lets me standby on earlier flights. So I try to book American for my flight home. Worked well last trip - got home 4 hours earlier than planned.

 

DaveOKC

[Typhoon1]

You were lucky. Everything went according to plan.

 

It doesn't always happen that way. You have to have a Plan B for the unexpected delay.

[tangerinebunny]

We even made the almost empty FLL airport by 7:30 AM once, but still try to fly out around noon or later. I cruise to relax not worry about missing flights.

[Watson's aunt]

Hi

 

When I left ship around 7:30 the line was long they had plently of custom offcials. I was out by 8 and the shuttle service I had (only person in car) was in cab by 8:15 on way to airport.

 

Mary

[Hlitner]

I love anecdotal experience. For example, we got a free upgrade to business class on Qantas...so this is the way it always will be! Or we were off the ship by 7:30.....so this means everyone will always be able to get off the ship by 7:30. But the ugly reality about disembarkation in any US Port is that the starting time is totally under the control of CBP....not the cruise line and not the port. If the CBP folks have an issue, they can (and do) hold up an entire ship. Over the years we have been on 2 ships into Port Everglades that were held by CBP until well after 9am! It is not the norm....but it happens. So based on our many cruises (and we talking about lots and lots of cruises) we think that any flight out of FLL (or MIA if docked in Miami) before 11am involves some risk. Folks need to evaluate that risk before booking a flight (take a look at your airlines policy and fees) since some airlines might charge you as much as $200 per person to reschedule a flight....and others like Southwest may charge you nothing.

 

Hank

[jackwarr]

Hank, I agree wholeheartedly. I was just, oh, naive.

 

Typhoon -- plan B was in hand. I found a $65 flight on Spirit Airlines for 11:00 at night (my wife would have killed me otherwise).