How to be last group off the Sillhouette

[madre2]

We have had a flight schedule change, and now don't leave MIA until 4pm. We will be doing luggage valet, and were going to use ship transfers ( have lots of obc to use up) but don't want to get to the airport too early, as we can't check in until about noon. Is there a way we can request a late bus transfer to the airport, or should we use Uber? I am just unsure what would be the best thing for us. Just trying to avoid having to book a post cruise excursion, or spend the day anywhere but the airport. Appreciate any advice.

[Alakegirl]

You can request the last exit time, but that will still be before 9:30.

 

If you haven’t much stuff to lug around, what about a museum? Or going to a movie?

[keesar]

The final call is usually around 9:30 a.m. You should be out of the cruise terminal shortly after 10 a.m.

[long time lurker]

We just got off the Reflection. We were fortunate enough to have luggage valet available to us. We just found a comfortable place to sit onboard and waited til most people had disembarked. An Uber was easy to get and you do not have to rely on the bus schedule.

[PhD-iva]

My DH and I took a round-trip on reflection out of Miami in December 2013. We also had late flights in the afternoon or early evening, I forget exactly. We took a celebrity excursion that delivered us to the airport after first spending several hours visiting the Everglades. It was quite enjoyable, and I would recommend it. It’s a good way to pass the time in a very enjoyable manner, while ending up at the airport in time for your flight. Enjoy your cruise!

 

 

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[madre2]

Should an uber be set up when you dock, or when you are getting off the ship? Not sure how long it takes them to get there. Thank you!

[Luvcrusn]

The lastest you'll be able to stay on the ship is between 9:30-45. You can take a cab or Uber to the airport, both are easily available. Since you have luggage valet, there's no need to check in since you will already have your boarding pass. You go directly to security screening when you get to the airport with your boarding pass. If you don't want to take an excursion, just find a comfortable spot at the airport and relax until your flight time.

[grandgeezer]

Keep in mind, after breakfast, there is nothing to do on the ship. You can't go back to your room and all the other facilities are closed, no bars, places to eat, pool, etc. And another thing, you have 3,000 of your closest friends booked on the next cruise that can't start boarding until all the guests from your cruise are off. Remember how you felt waiting in the terminal to board?

[long time lurker]

Should an uber be set up when you dock, or when you are getting off the ship? Not sure how long it takes them to get there. Thank you!

 

We called for our Uber after we got through immigration. It took about 10 minutes as they had just instituted new security procedures to get through port security. The driver had to call and find out which ship we were getting off of. Not a bad wait and you do not know how long it will take to clear immigration.

[bphman]

You can pay to stay on later but I wouldn't bother. Also, if you are using their transfers, you will probably have to debark earlier than you want. Never used Uber of Lyft from the ports but will probably use them next time. We are sailing on the Silhouette in January from FLL and the Taxis are plentiful and not expensive.

[Mr. Click]

Someone else suggested doing a ship's excursion that ends at the airport so consider that if you have extra OBC to burn. If you don't and are using luggage valet consider doing an Uber or Lyft to South Beach, enjoy a stroll along the beach, a nice lunch and then Uber/Lyft back to the airport. I can't see paying extra money to sit on a ship with everything shutting down and being cleaned for the next group. Miami is a great place to go out and see some sights for a while. If South Beach does not appeal consider visiting Vizcaya mansion.

[grandgeezer]

You can pay to stay on later but I wouldn't bother. Also, if you are using their transfers, you will probably have to debark earlier than you want. Never used Uber of Lyft from the ports but will probably use them next time. We are sailing on the Silhouette in January from FLL and the Taxis are plentiful and not expensive.

 

I was led to believe that you could pay to stay on later in places like Europe, not the USA.

[misterkevin]

Someone else suggested doing a ship's excursion that ends at the airport so consider that if you have extra OBC to burn. If you don't and are using luggage valet consider doing an Uber or Lyft to South Beach, enjoy a stroll along the beach, a nice lunch and then Uber/Lyft back to the airport. I can't see paying extra money to sit on a ship with everything shutting down and being cleaned for the next group. Miami is a great place to go out and see some sights for a while. If South Beach does not appeal consider visiting Vizcaya mansion.

 

 

 

I highly recommend this option. We did this with a late flight out of San Juan on the Summit in January. We got priority debarkation, a tour, our luggage was taken to the airport, and we were dropped off at the airport as part of the excursion. I had never tried one of these, but for a late flight, they're great.

[gold1953]

I was led to believe that you could pay to stay on later in places like Europe, not the USA.

 

 

You are right . You cannot stay on in the USA

[Luvcrusn]

I highly recommend this option. We did this with a late flight out of San Juan on the Summit in January. We got priority debarkation, a tour, our luggage was taken to the airport, and we were dropped off at the airport as part of the excursion. I had never tried one of these, but for a late flight, they're great.

We had the worst experience ever on a post cruise excursion from the Summit in PR that ended at the airport and will never do one of those again. After that one we'd first choose to sit at the airport for 12 hours!

 

Our luggage was to be taken on a bus with us for a tour which dropped us and our luggage together at the airport at the end. The tour was quite pricey. We had priority disembarkation and claimed our luggage and went to find the bus. Instead, our luggage was taken from us and put onto a flatbed that went directly to the airport. We went on our tour on the bus. Lovely tour, including lunch to the El Yunque rainforest. (Pre hurricane) Six or seven hours later we got to the airport. Bus driver asked what airlines we were flying, then drove past the terminal we needed to another about a half mile away. It had been raining in San Juan most of the day. We asked the driver if he would be circling back to Jet Blue terminal (not just us, but quite a few more of the passengers as well). He refused. We got off the bus in the pouring rain to see all of our luggage sitting outside the airport, unsheltered in the pouring rain and it was unattended! In this day and age luggage should NEVER be left unattended! Forget that it was soaked and ruined, and forget that anyone could have taken it, and forget that anyone could have removed contents, more importantly anyone could have put anything INTO luggage that was then to be loaded onto an airplane! We opened and inspected our ruined bags, then looked for a porter. There were none available to take the bags to the correct terminal. I still don't know if it's true or not, but that's irrelevant now, we were told that the only way to access the Jet Blue terminal from where we were was outside (in the pouring rain). Because my DH had just recently been suffering from a partially torn Achilles, I then dragged our bags the half mile outside in the rain.

 

In a similar situation, I'd never trust that my luggage would be properly looked after on a X post cruise excursion ending at the airport. Although I realize that it was the excursion operator that left us at the wrong terminal, and that neither X nor the tour operator had control of the weather or the porter availability, the fact that the bags were left unattended at an airport was appalling. I could care less over the ruined bags, but the potential for disaster was terrifying.

 

Moral of the story, be absolutely certain what will happen to your bags on these excursions. Even though we inspected our bags, I don't know how many of our fellow passengers did so before checking them into the airline. We only breathed easily once we safely landed at our final destination.

[Threedrones]

Someone else suggested doing a ship's excursion that ends at the airport so consider that if you have extra OBC to burn. If you don't and are using luggage valet consider doing an Uber or Lyft to South Beach, enjoy a stroll along the beach, a nice lunch and then Uber/Lyft back to the airport. I can't see paying extra money to sit on a ship with everything shutting down and being cleaned for the next group. Miami is a great place to go out and see some sights for a while. If South Beach does not appeal consider visiting Vizcaya mansion.

We had a late flight recently out of Lauderdale and used a ship excursion to kill time. We enjoyed a tour of the Everglades on an airboat. The ship offered separate buses for Lauderdale and Miami airports. Luggage was on the bus with us and locked up at all times. Very convenient and was a lot of fun.

[Algebralovr]

We had the worst experience ever on a post cruise excursion from the Summit in PR that ended at the airport and will never do one of those again. After that one we'd first choose to sit at the airport for 12 hours!

 

Our luggage was to be taken on a bus with us for a tour which dropped us and our luggage together at the airport at the end. The tour was quite pricey. We had priority disembarkation and claimed our luggage and went to find the bus. Instead, our luggage was taken from us and put onto a flatbed that went directly to the airport. We went on our tour on the bus. Lovely tour, including lunch to the El Yunque rainforest. (Pre hurricane) Six or seven hours later we got to the airport. Bus driver asked what airlines we were flying, then drove past the terminal we needed to another about a half mile away. It had been raining in San Juan most of the day. We asked the driver if he would be circling back to Jet Blue terminal (not just us, but quite a few more of the passengers as well). He refused. We got off the bus in the pouring rain to see all of our luggage sitting outside the airport, unsheltered in the pouring rain and it was unattended! In this day and age luggage should NEVER be left unattended! Forget that it was soaked and ruined, and forget that anyone could have taken it, and forget that anyone could have removed contents, more importantly anyone could have put anything INTO luggage that was then to be loaded onto an airplane! We opened and inspected our ruined bags, then looked for a porter. There were none available to take the bags to the correct terminal. I still don't know if it's true or not, but that's irrelevant now, we were told that the only way to access the Jet Blue terminal from where we were was outside (in the pouring rain). Because my DH had just recently been suffering from a partially torn Achilles, I then dragged our bags the half mile outside in the rain.

 

In a similar situation, I'd never trust that my luggage would be properly looked after on a X post cruise excursion ending at the airport. Although I realize that it was the excursion operator that left us at the wrong terminal, and that neither X nor the tour operator had control of the weather or the porter availability, the fact that the bags were left unattended at an airport was appalling. I could care less over the ruined bags, but the potential for disaster was terrifying.

 

Moral of the story, be absolutely certain what will happen to your bags on these excursions. Even though we inspected our bags, I don't know how many of our fellow passengers did so before checking them into the airline. We only breathed easily once we safely landed at our final destination.

 

Hopefully you called Celebrity afterwards and reported the situation. They should have taken the report and made a change, and offered you at least a partial refund.

[Luvcrusn]

Hopefully you called Celebrity afterwards and reported the situation. They should have taken the report and made a change, and offered you at least a partial refund.

I did both call and write to X once we were safely home. As I stated, I didn't care about the ruined luggage (we were planning to replace it after that trip before that happened with the 4 wheeled variety anyway and didn't need X to buy it for us). I didn't care about looking for money back for the excursion since we did go and enjoy it. I only wanted a change made to the way the luggage was improperly left unattended at a busy airport outside the doors for anyone to access. I hope, since I wasn't asking for anything but this change they took the request seriously, but as I said in the previous post, based on that experience, we'll never do another similar one, so I'll never know. I have seen similar reviews out of PR since, so buyer beware. Once bitten, twice shy.

[G.M.T.]

I was led to believe that you could pay to stay on later in places like Europe, not the USA.

Absolutely correct. Cost is US $59.99.

[AmazedByCruising]

Absolutely correct. Cost is US $59.99.

 

I believe it was something like $30 when I did that. The ship is desolate and you still have to leave your room early. Would do it again, though :D

 

$60 would be perfect if it would allow me to stay in my cabin till noon, I'm not in bed by 4 am the last night of a cruise :)

[awhfy]

Luggage Valet? Excellent. Just go to airport you can go through security anytime if you aren’t checking bags. I’d recommend getting a day pass at your airline’s club room. They have food & drink & comfy chairs. Normally about $50

 

 

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[masonpips]

We booked a day room right by the airport. Free shuttle to the airport after an Uber ride to hotel. Hung out at pool, had lunch, freshened up in room before heading to airport

 

 

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[varoo]

We booked a day room right by the airport. Free shuttle to the airport after an Uber ride to hotel. Hung out at pool, had lunch, freshened up in room before heading to airport

That is what I was about to suggest as well, especially if you have a long flight ahead of you later that day.

 

Even at the ports where they let you remain on the ship for several more hours, I would not pay anything extra to stay there longer on the hectic turnaround day because you don't even have access to your stateroom, but must remain out in the public areas of the ship.

[swcruise]

I believe it was something like $30 when I did that. The ship is desolate and you still have to leave your room early. Would do it again, though :D

 

$60 would be perfect if it would allow me to stay in my cabin till noon, I'm not in bed by 4 am the last night of a cruise :)

 

Am going to take this as an option as my flight from Southampton UK doesn't leave until 5pm. It will cost approx 30 euros. I was considering finding a luggage storage outlet bit have been advised that there isn't that much in the direct area and will be there already a day before the cruise. Will just chillax and read on my Kindle..