What's The Best Cruise Port Terminal, What's The Worst?

[lahlah57]

We will be doing a miami to miami on Crystal in november and taking taxi to port from airport. How is Miami as far as ports?

[skrufy]

Port Canaveral is by far the best port in Florida, with Tampa #2. Miami would be my least liked but it was not that bad, just a little bit croweded around noon time.

[Bondsmen02]

Port New Orleans and Port Everglades are my favorite.

[rstunger]

Worst - Galveston, for sure.

Easiest - Seattle

[bwaz]

We thought Vancouver was a terrible chaotic mess. But that was 13 years ago. Maybe it's improved.

 

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[pezhead]

Best Embarking: Seward, with half the ship getting off the train, we were still in the cabin within an hour of walking into the terminal.

 

Worst Embarking: Miami. First trip paid for Carnival transfer did check-in at airport easy as can be. Second time waited over an hour to make it to desk. But you can't pass up the sail out. So I guess in future it's back to Carnival airport transfer for the extra few bucks.

 

Best Disembark: Jacksonville! Had later zone, from Lido to car process was 15 minutes.

 

Worst Disembark: Van Couver, just utter disorganization. Had Big Pink booked through Holland so they would get luggage to airport for evening flight. It was a little under 2 hours to we were sightseeing after we walked off ship.

 

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[CruisingSince2012]

I will never understand why so few cruise lines use San Diego has a turnaround port. It has literally everything cruisers could want in one, right there on Harbor Drive: museums, shopping, restaurants, public transportation, HOHO trolleys, a Holiday Inn, the Coronado ferry, and more. If that is not enough, a huge mall is within walking distance of Harbor Drive and taxis regularly line up at the world-famous zoo. Hotel del Coronado is on a great beach and another beach is close. So why do all cruise lines go to spread-out, overcrowded Los Angeles instead of an extremely convenient port that cruisers can stay at without renting a car?

[ontheweb]

We actually had both our best and worst disembarkation experience in fort Lauderdale.

 

I'll start with the worst, since it happened first. It was either 2003 or 2004, and our 5 day Royal Caribbean cruise turned into an 7 day cruise because of a hurricane. Pretty much everyone now needed the first disembarkation time to get to the airport. They called the first one, and the lounge filled up. They called the second and third one, and by now no one could even breathe it was so crowded. (Too many ships were coming in for immigration to handle. Also, it was a holiday weekend, Labor Day to be exact.) At one point there was an announcement. We all hoped it was disembarkation was about to start. Instead it was "This is your last chance to buy cruise pictures.". Several people who were on their first cruise, asked if it was always like this; if so this was also their last cruise.

 

OTOH, in 2013, we had EZ Check on a Carnival cruise. We just walked off the ship, enjoyed the day in the port, and finally saw our luggage on the carousel after our afternoon flight landed.

 

Our worst embarkation was in Barcelona for the NCL Epic in 2012. There were just too many people. You were too far away to hear when announcements were made. And when you asked one of the NCL workers what the announcement said, they either did not know or would not tell you.

[caa]

I will never understand why so few cruise lines use San Diego has a turnaround port. It has literally everything cruisers could want in one, right there on Harbor Drive: museums, shopping, restaurants, public transportation, HOHO trolleys, a Holiday Inn, the Coronado ferry, and more. If that is not enough, a huge mall is within walking distance of Harbor Drive and taxis regularly line up at the world-famous zoo. Hotel del Coronado is on a great beach and another beach is close. So why do all cruise lines go to spread-out, overcrowded Los Angeles instead of an extremely convenient port that cruisers can stay at without renting a car?

 

I've always seen people here on CC complaining that there aren't enough CBP personnel to handle the ships in San Diego. I live here (in Coronado), and the one and only time we sailed from here, it was a piece of cake. I obviously wasn't in any rush to get to the airport though.

[bwaz]

I also live near San Diego. The only time we disembarked here there were two ships at the pier. That was one ship too many. It was a mess. I was embarrassed for my home town. That was several years ago when there were more cruises to Mexico. I doubt there is any congestion these days.

 

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[O2Cool]

With 9 cruises out of Galveston, I have never had a bad experience with the port. Drop off luggage with a helpful, polite porter. Park car. If there is a line, it moves very quickly with polite personnel. Wait in large seating area with AC. I understand the problem if you fly in, but not with driving in.

[BruceMuzz]

I will never understand why so few cruise lines use San Diego has a turnaround port. It has literally everything cruisers could want in one, right there on Harbor Drive: museums, shopping, restaurants, public transportation, HOHO trolleys, a Holiday Inn, the Coronado ferry, and more. If that is not enough, a huge mall is within walking distance of Harbor Drive and taxis regularly line up at the world-famous zoo. Hotel del Coronado is on a great beach and another beach is close. So why do all cruise lines go to spread-out, overcrowded Los Angeles instead of an extremely convenient port that cruisers can stay at without renting a car?

 

It is true that San Diego Port has many truly amazing things going for it.

 

It also has the unfriendliest and most difficult Customs/Immigration Officials on the planet, a dumpy terminal that is constantly being repaired, the street in front of the terminal has been a construction zone for nearly a decade, a leaky tent terminal for any ship unlucky enough to be #2 into the pier, a new terminal that was built next door without measuring the depth of the water in the harbor (it's too shallow there) - and too short to safely allow large ships to tie up there. Finally they have managed to employ the dumbest shore operations people anywhere, who make it nearly impossible for any ship to complete a professional stop there.

And then of course we have those famous tree-hugger California State regulations that make it so expensive for any ship to go to any California port. It requires less of that extremely expensive low sulphur fuel to get into and out of LA than it does to get into and out of San Diego.

 

Other than that it is an ideal port for cruise lines.

[ScotsTravelady]

Best for me is Barcelona or the Ocean Terminal at Southampton, England. Very friendly staff and well organised.

 

Worst - Miami, but I must admit I find most US cruise ports not that great. Everything seems so busy and rushed.

 

...maybe I'm just getting old and like a slower life:D

[Mary Ellen]

I will never understand why so few cruise lines use San Diego has a turnaround port. It has literally everything cruisers could want in one, right there on Harbor Drive: museums, shopping, restaurants, public transportation, HOHO trolleys, a Holiday Inn, the Coronado ferry, and more. If that is not enough, a huge mall is within walking distance of Harbor Drive and taxis regularly line up at the world-famous zoo. Hotel del Coronado is on a great beach and another beach is close. So why do all cruise lines go to spread-out, overcrowded Los Angeles instead of an extremely convenient port that cruisers can stay at without renting a car?

We sailed from San Diego once. Once. While the location and city was indeed very nice, the port experience was beyond awful. San Diego is #1 on our list of ports we NEVER want to see again.

[Elaine2]

Ekkks....no I'm reading about San Juan port being one of the worst, and of course we're booked for a cruise out of San Juan next yr. Are there any recent updates to the port there ?? Any suggestions to help us out ?? Thanks [emoji483][emoji569]️

 

 

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[GottaKnowWhen]

Ekkks....no I'm reading about San Juan port being one of the worst, and of course we're booked for a cruise out of San Juan next yr. Are there any recent updates to the port there ?? Any suggestions to help us out ?? Thanks [emoji483][emoji569]️

 

My suggestion would be not to worry. Our first cruise 2 years ago was a roundtrip from San Juan. Our second was a TA ending in San Juan.

 

Is it a pleasant experience? No, of course not. Much like boarding a plane at a busy airport. Or disembarking from a large plane and going through customs etc with several plane loads of people arriving at once. But so what? Don't try to board at the last minute, be patient, don't burden yourself with too many pieces of "stuff" to carry and set down and pick up and carry and set down... Don't try to rush off the ship to catch a plane, give yourselves time. Watch everyone around you getting stressed out and maybe feel a bit smug because you are being cool. Relax. Enjoy the thoughts of the cruise to come or the cruise that just ended. Everyone survives.

[Elaine2]

Thanks so much for your positive advice. This cruise is to celebrate our 40th Anniversary. I won't let ANYTHING get me down !! Plan to enjoy every second no matter what !! 😀

[Theredofshaw]

Just off Allure out of Barcelona. It was EXTREMELY easy for boarding and disembarking. Taxi to the terminal around 12pm, luggage drop off was simple since we had the tags on already. Walked inside, went to the Gold C&A member line (it's only the 2nd cruise for us) and there was NOBODY in line. Only waited 5 minutes for someone to finish up and we were onboard in less than 20 minutes.

 

Disembark:

 

Chose the latest possible time. We were called off around 8:45, went through the line for the final ding of the seapass card and went downstairs (they use two terminals here due to her size). As soon as I walked off the escalator, there was my bag about to go through the rubber flaps for another go around on the carousel. had to wait on DW's bag a little longer but had all luggage under 10 minutes. out the door and into the taxi queue for maybe another 5-10 minutes and off we went.

[dorisis]

For us the "BEST PORTS" are those closest to home ;Tampa and Port Canaveral. No airfare and less driving. Also no overnight hotels needed.