Princess transfer warning

[srussell]

I wish that I had taken the advice given on these boards about purchasing transfers from Princess.

 

Transfer from Fort Lauderdale to the pier....no problem. Transfer from pier to Miami....a nightmare.

 

We were one of the first to get off the ship. We had a 1:30 flight out of Miami so we were not pressed for time...or so we thought. We got off the ship at 9:00 am. We found our luggage and we were out the door by 9:30 am. Transfer bus was waiting just a few steps away. They told us to get on the first bus and then changed their minds because they told us it was full and told us to get on the second bus.

 

There were 8 of us on the bus at this point and knew that we would have a little wait until the bus filled. This turned into a 2 hour wait! One gentleman on our bus had a 11:55 am flight out of Miami and they told him that as long as we left by 11:00 am he would make it. They ended up getting him a taxi.

 

The rest of us waited patiently for the bus to fill. First we were told we were waiting on 16 people....2 got on...then we were told that we were waiting on 8...2 got on....then we were told that we were only waiting on 2 more....3 got on....then we were told that we are again waiting for 8 again. Finally at 11:30 enough of us had complained that we left for the Miami Airport.

 

We arrived at the airport about 12:00 and our bus driver just stopped and said that he had to wait for other busses to move before he could let us off.

 

Finally got off the bus at 12:15 pm and entered the airport. Total chaos everywhere we looked. Got checked in at the self service counter...now it's 12:45 pm. Luckily the security line was not very long. Made it to our gate 2 minutes before they started boarding.

 

4 hours from start to finish.

 

Please take the advice of the people on these boards. They know what they are talking about. I am hoping my story will save someone else from making the mistake that I did.

 

The cruise was wonderful (Caribbean Princess Dec. 3-10) I will be writing a review soon.

[Iamthesea]

Thank you for this post from someone that has had your experience. :(

[SueM.]

srussell,

 

We had the same experience with Princess a few years ago. We waited on the bus forever and when we got to Miami it was a zoo. We finally got to our gate just before boarding started. Never again!!

 

I just checked to see when this happened, it was back in March 2001. Very sad that the same thing is still happening.

 

sue

[Coral]

Thanks for the report.

 

I had a negative experience with Princess's shuttles in NYC. I wish I had booked a limo like everyone told me to (and it would have been a whole lot cheaper) - I just didn't know how that would work in NY...

[seastar2]

Anyone use the transfers in San Francisco??? I will be arriveing 2 days early on my own so will cab or supershuttle to hotel but was thinking of using the transfers back to airport. Have a flight after 1 pm....:rolleyes:

[imsulin2]

All I can tell you is that the pier area on the Bay is nowhere near SFO airport....which is south of the city. The pier area is usually very heavy with traffic due to the "tourist" attractions, and once you get onto Hwy 101 south towards SFO, it's often bumper-to-bumper and clogged. I lived in the area for two years (about 30 miles south), and we always planned to leave the house hours before we needed to be at SFO. It often took those "hours" just to drive those 30 miles. You might want to arrange private transportation.

[Budget Queen]

Anyone use the transfers in San Francisco??? I will be arriveing 2 days early on my own so will cab or supershuttle to hotel but was thinking of using the transfers back to airport. Have a flight after 1 pm....:rolleyes:

 

 

 

Definately a cab or arrange car service. Frankly, I never take ship shuttles and alway just get a cab or use public transportation. Never a problem.

[cruzinchris]

Transfer from Fort Lauderdale to the pier....no problem. Transfer from pier to Miami....a nightmare. quote]

 

DH and I had a similar problem upon arrival when we sailed on the Grand (1/04). We flew into Miami rather than FLL because there were better rates available when we booked our flights from Detroit. We also chose to fly in the day of the cruise instead of the night before.

 

We arrived in Miami shortly after noon and were greeted promptly by a Princess agent. After retrieving our luggage, we were ushered to a waiting area and were assured that we would board the bus to Port Everglades "shortly." We actually waited nearly two hours for other arriving passengers and didn't even board a bus until after 2:00.

 

Even though our bus was full, we did not leave the airport until several other Princess buses were loaded. All the buses left in tandem headed to Port Everglades. Traffic was very heavy, and there was an accident along the way that brought freeway traffic to a crawl. The driver assured us that we would arrive in plenty of time before sailing.

 

What should have been a 35-minute drive took more than an hour, and we arrived at the pier at about 3:30. Passengers had to disembark the bus, bags had to be unloaded and claimed, then we proceeded into the terminal. There was a rush of passengers at this time, and lines were long and slow. We finally embarked the ship at 4:05 just as the muster drill was beginning.

 

After this harrowing experience, we will always fly to the port city the night before sailing, and we won't ever fly to Miami when we're cruising out of Port Everglades. And...no more Princess transfers to or from the ship.

Chris

[emmalbrent]

We have been very lucky. Always take the Princess transfer. Only problem once was arriving in hot and dark. Put on older bus and I almost passed out in the darkness and NO AIR. Finally driver put on the air. There is no A/C in Papette airport.

[kgn]

I was just planning on grabbing a cab at the pier to take us back to fll airport. That was easy in Puerta Rico I just assumed it would be in Florida too. Am I wrong?:eek:

[martini cruiser]

To the ship no problem, but getting a cab can be a problem on the return as there are so many ships there at the same time. I was traveling with friends and needed to get cabs for 10 of us, a real hassle.I now pay the extra and get a private car transfer. Also the last couple of times through FLL security took over an hour at around 1030am-1100am.

 

Martini Cruiser

[kgn]

martini cruiser:

Thank you for the info. What car service do you use? Could you share the number?

Thanks

[martini cruiser]

I've used bookalimo.com and limos.com.

But I'm sure there are others out there that someone else may know.

 

Martini Cruiser

[Stevesan]

To the ship no problem, but getting a cab can be a problem on the return as there are so many ships there at the same time. Martini Cruiser

 

There can be a traffic problem, but that would affect all traffic, not just taxis.

I always use a luggage porter at Port Everglades. They take us directly to an available taxi. I realize that extraordinary circumstances can occur, but we haven't had a problem, yet.

[srussell]

I am the original poster on this thread and I wanted to add an observation that I made in regard to Princess transfers.

 

When anyone on the bus complained about the length of wait the first question the representative asked is "Did you purchase your flights thru Princess?" This made a big difference to them whether they were responsible for your airline tickets or not. The gentleman that they got the taxi for had purchased his airline tickets with Princess. The rest of us had not and Princess did not think that it was their responsibility to get us to the airport on time.

 

I look at this a bit differently. We did purchase our transfers from Princess and they were notified well in advance what time our flights were. Keep in mind our flight was at 1:30 pm well past their recommended earliest flight time. It is their responsibility to get us to the airport on time. One more little glitch and we would have missed our flights.

 

I can guess what Princess's response would have been to that.

 

Lesson learned: Take a taxi or any other mode of transportation except Princess transfers.

[martini cruiser]

Just to clarify what a typed earlier. The problem we had was with the lack of cabs, not any traffic problems. We were disembarking and there were several other ships disembarking at the same time. It wasn't a Princess ship, it was Costa's Atlantica which could have been the problem.

 

I've never had any cab problems in San Juan, Miami , New York, etc...

 

Martini Cruiser

[harry]

for 2 people in a cab it runs $15 or less.......

 

its less than 15 minutes

 

no hassle

 

no waiting for others

[Pam in CA]

for 2 people in a cab it runs $15 or less.......

 

its less than 15 minutes

 

no hassle

 

no waiting for others

Only thing wrong with that is if there are many other ships arriving in port at the same time. When we got off the CB last January, there were 9 ships in port at the same time. The people taking taxis were fighting with each other, screaming and trying to pay off porters who were trying to get non-existing cabs. It was an awful way to end a great cruise. I was thankful I'd purchased the transfers. We got on the bus and 10 minutes later, we were on our way. It was sad seeing all those unhappy people left behind.

[calliecat]

We had a similar experience in Galveston last year. We sat there for 2 hours with half-xxx explanations as to why we couldn't pull out. We too almost missed out 1:30 flight out of Houston.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I sent a letter to Princess asking for my money back for the transfers. I got it (3x$33.00) along with shipboard credit for each of use (x3) to be used by the end of 2006. With booking on board and booking when there was shipboard credit being offered by our TA, we have $525 sitting in our acount for our cruise in January! My husband says that's a lot of beer!