Port Canaveral Debarkation Nightmare

[ShipsAhoy508]

Last week I cruised the Epic out of Port Canaveral. At the end of the cruise the debarkation process took me over two hours to complete. If you paid the porters $20 to take your bag, you went to the front of the line. I felt fortunate that my flight didn't leave till 3:45PM.

 

I have cruised out of several ports and I know it can take some time, but this was ridiculous. I have to give credit to the shuttle company Cortrans as they waited for me.

 

I fly Southwest and when I was checking in one of the Southwest's check in lady was telling another attendant the 39 people missed a 12:45 flight because of delay at Port Canaveral.

 

If you are going to cruise out of port Canaveral, don't pick an early flight.

[Dcoy]

I've cruised out of Port Canaveral on RCL several times and have had no problems. I lived 40 miles away from the port and have been home by 9 am the days we returned.

 

Hope this was a one time problem.

 

Don

[casofilia]

Commiserations; we had a similar time problem waiting to get off in Quebec a couple of years ago.

[Tybug]

Yes, it took a while. We were walk off yesterday on the Epic. Started the process at 9:00 with a 10:30 pick up time. Finally cleared the building at exactly 10:31. It should be noted that we did not use a porter to "skip" the line. That said, it wasn't exactly a nightmare. With the special circumstances arising on our sailing and 4 large ships in port, there were only 4 customs agents clearing the Epic... things can take a while.

[BirdTravels]

We disembarked at pot canaveral recently on NCL with no problems.

[DCP]

Typically when there are issues like this, it is customs not the cruise li. We were on the TA on the Epic (the first time the Epic docked at Cape Canaveral) It was not a good time that day either. (priority luggage was taken off the ship LAST instead of first). We were thankful for those porters that day, otherwise we would have missed our flight. This was our first time letting the luggage go, we typically do the walk off. We have learned, just take an extra dose of patience getting off the ships, and we now fly out a day later so we are so harried that day too.

[BermudaBound2014]

Yes, it took a while. We were walk off yesterday on the Epic. Started the process at 9:00 with a 10:30 pick up time. Finally cleared the building at exactly 10:31. It should be noted that we did not use a porter to "skip" the line. That said, it wasn't exactly a nightmare. With the special circumstances arising on our sailing and 4 large ships in port, there were only 4 customs agents clearing the Epic... things can take a while.

 

 

 

What special circumstances happened on epic last week?

 

 

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[samiam0403]

Last week I cruised the Epic out of Port Canaveral. At the end of the cruise the debarkation process took me over two hours to complete. If you paid the porters $20 to take your bag, you went to the front of the line. I felt fortunate that my flight didn't leave till 3:45PM.

 

I have cruised out of several ports and I know it can take some time, but this was ridiculous. I have to give credit to the shuttle company Cortrans as they waited for me.

 

I fly Southwest and when I was checking in one of the Southwest's check in lady was telling another attendant the 39 people missed a 12:45 flight because of delay at Port Canaveral.

 

If you are going to cruise out of port Canaveral, don't pick an early flight.

 

Wow! I wonder what was going on? :eek: Returned from an Epic sailing 2 weeks ago and debarked at the very end of walk-off and was in my car heading home before 9:00am. Didn't even use a porter! I'm wondering if there was some issue with the port or a shortage of agents? Interesting how different things are week to week. Hopefully, barring the debarkation, you had a wonderful cruise! :)

[meyermtacmj]

I know those of us that reserved with Stylus got absolutely screwed! Avoid them at all costs. I've heard people say it was an NCL problem, that it was a customs problem, and that it was a port problem. It took us roughly 1:15 to disembark and make it through customs. We waited, with a large group of people that continued to grow for three hours (some were there before us, even). At one point, a Stylus bus arrived with a group to drop off, and then the bus took off without picking anyone up. Finally, we got on a bus at 1pm. Got to the airport, through check-in and security and onto the plane with 9 minutes to spare. I know there was a large group going to Atlanta that was supposed to leave 10 minutes before our plane, and I'm sure they missed their flight.

 

Stylus tried to blame it on the traffic at the port, but we all witnessed other companies come and go multiple times while waiting for a shuttle. It was a damn shame and I'm still pissed about it.

[easyboy]

Glad you had a later flight. Thanks for the feedback.

[ready2cruzagain]

Last week I cruised the Epic out of Port Canaveral. At the end of the cruise the debarkation process took me over two hours to complete. If you paid the porters $20 to take your bag, you went to the front of the line. I felt fortunate that my flight didn't leave till 3:45PM.

 

I have cruised out of several ports and I know it can take some time, but this was ridiculous. I have to give credit to the shuttle company Cortrans as they waited for me.

 

I fly Southwest and when I was checking in one of the Southwest's check in lady was telling another attendant the 39 people missed a 12:45 flight because of delay at Port Canaveral.

 

If you are going to cruise out of port Canaveral, don't pick an early flight.

Not sure why you say one had to pay the porter $20 to get their help. We debarked in Port Canaveral off of the Epic in Dec. and used a Porter and we did not HAVE to pay the porter $20

 

There are even signs that say you do not have to tip the porters.

 

We did tip the porter but tipped according to the amount of bags we had.

[newmexicoNita]

We had a problem when we sailed in Nov; partly NCLs way of advising us with long waits inside the ship for those of us walking off; partly due to the port authority. That NCL can not control

[Wildfan43]

We disembarked at pot canaveral recently on NCL with no problems.

 

 

We disembarked on Saturday also. We were in line at 7am and thru customs by 8:30 and on our shuttle by 9:00. I thought it all went pretty smooth.

 

 

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[luvcruzing]

We disembarked on Saturday also. We were in line at 7am and thru customs by 8:30 and on our shuttle by 9:00. I thought it all went pretty smooth.

 

 

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That's two hours. Doesn't sound pretty smooth to me, especially for the very young and those older.

[tgirl25]

That's two hours. Doesn't sound pretty smooth to me, especially for the very young and those older.

They were in que for a while before we were ok'd to disembark, pretty sure we got the ok to disembark at 8a. So waiting in line for an hour then 30 for walk off and 30 to make it out is not bad.

 

Only reason I made it out fairly quick was that I took the Space Center tour, so our guide had us moving around everyone. It was still hectic and you had to look for others in your group to know where you should be walking since people were trying to block us and there was even an older woman who elbowed our guide pretty hard and blew up at her because we were "cutting".

 

It was super disorganized and I just hope not too many missed their flights. I took a late one(7:20p) so that I would not have that worry no matter how it went, hence booking the tour to kill some time.

 

Special Circumstances was a death on board and we got into port in Canaveral a scosh late

[ShipsAhoy508]

For me (the OP) debarkation wasn't very smooth. Maybe me being older didn't help. I was a bit stressed that my shuttle would be gone because I was very late. Again, kudos to Cortrans Shuttle for waiting for us.

 

When I posted originally, I just wanted to suggest to others that booking a later flight might be better.

[chefchick]

For me (the OP) debarkation wasn't very smooth. Maybe me being older didn't help. I was a bit stressed that my shuttle would be gone because I was very late. Again, kudos to Cortrans Shuttle for waiting for us.

 

When I posted originally, I just wanted to suggest to others that booking a later flight might be better.

 

I will be disembarking Epic for the first time out of Port Canaveral next month. I have a flight at 1:50 so not too concerned, but I'm curious...I too have a reservation with Cortrans. How did you know they were going to wait for you? Did they text or call perhaps? I'm not expecting any trouble but don't want to stress unnecessarily if the worst happens.

 

Thanks.

[ShipsAhoy508]

I will be disembarking Epic for the first time out of Port Canaveral next month. I have a flight at 1:50 so not too concerned, but I'm curious...I too have a reservation with Cortrans. How did you know they were going to wait for you? Did they text or call perhaps? I'm not expecting any trouble but don't want to stress unnecessarily if the worst happens.

 

Thanks.

 

I did not know Cortrans was waiting. When I tried to call, one of the security people told me this is a secure area and you can't use your phone here.

[Tybug]

What special circumstances happened on epic last week?

 

 

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Late arrival and a death onboard requiring CSI investigation upon arrival. When we jumped in line at 9:00 am, no tag colors had been called and walk off status folks wrapped the staging area twice.