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New Miami Terminal

ramja96

By ramja96,
in Royal Caribbean International

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Clarea

Clarea

Posted
Posted
14 minutes ago, brillohead said:


Clarification -- I've never seen anything like that in any US terminal....

 

The Pan American terminal in San Juan also has a duty free shop inside security that sells wine, among other things.

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BirdTravels "Live from...." Rare

BirdTravels

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We are just off the Symphony this morning and here’s our experience. 

 

5:30 Breakfast at Windjammers

6:35 express walk off starts (with a line of suites guests escorted to the front of the line)

6:50 Left Stateroom for the last time

7:03 Swipe off the Ship - bye bye Symphony 😞 

7:09 Down the gangway, through the terminal, down the escalators, through the baggage hall and to the entrance to Customs

 

As fast as you can walk through the zig zag line at customs, you walk up to a biometrics face scanner that compare your face to your passport on file. If it is a match, you exit without stopping to talk to a CBP officer. If you are using a birth certificate, gotta stand in line. 

 

7:16 In a taxi to the airport (Uber pick ups delayed by traffic, a regular taxi at $27 flat rate is fine) 

 

7:30 At MIA 

 

Disembarkation was a breeze. (Caveat is that it is Tuesday and the port is empty - the exit from terminal A take you through the Terminal B and C pickup area (which is NCL megaship terminals). 

 

The only long line was for the parking structure elevator for those who drove to the port. 

Edited by BirdTravels
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rt1092

rt1092

Posted
Posted

We will be there Nov 24, 2018. We are using offsite parking, and their shuttle. 

Having used this lot before. I can see them dropping us off before the one lane debacle. How far is it from the traffic bottleneck to the terminal? How far is it from the closest other terminal? I'm figuring on having to roll our suitcase from a dropoff point to and from the terminal.

 

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Silvery Seas Cruiser

Silvery Seas Cruiser

Posted
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Just off Symphony this morning in Miami. Smoothest, fastest debarkation I've experienced in over fifty cruises. I especially appreciated the facial recognition camera now used in place of a passport check. All went really fast and well until we pulled out of our parking spot in the sparkling brand new Terminal "A" garage.

 

The parking lot has such poor signage we did not know where to go to exit. Yes, there are many, many exit signs, but most point to stairs and elevators. There is no really clear and definitive sign that says,"This way to auto exit ramp." All exit signs are equal in font and size, so one doesn't know which to follow. So we went in the wrong direction. Once finally out of the parking lot it was fairly easy to follow the indirect road to  the tunnel and west on 395 to I-95.

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maggieq

maggieq

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We disembarked last friday; which was great.  Yet, the great stopped when we looked at the long line for taxis and saw only one in line.  Thankfully, we had wiggle room to get to the airport. The lady supervising the taxis blamed Rccl for the backup and lack of coordination between taxis and shuttles/Busses.  Will cruise again out of Miami when I hear they have improved upon this. 

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phabric

phabric

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We will be disembarking off the Symphony Saturday January 26. 

 

We are taking a shuttle from the port to FLL beach hotel on Seabreeze Blvd.  Since we are not in a rush as the hotel won’t be ready.

 

What time should we tell the shuttle to pick us up?

 

 

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bajathree

bajathree

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I was just through terminal A for the Nov 9 Symphony sailing. I arrived via my own car at 1PM. Signage as previously mentioned isn't the best and there was only one lane that came up fast on the left to pull into the parking garage...if wasn't paying attention or was in the right lane would have probably easily missed it. As soon as you pulled into the garage you were directed to pull over to check your luggage...this was an area I can see being a bit of an issue backing up as there really wasn't much of a pull over spot to do so....but being lots people carrying on bags it didn't seem an issue. We did have 1 bag to check and took no more than 30 seconds to do so. The garage was pretty full but found lots of parking spots up on deck 6. They did have a sign that tells you how many spots are available on each level as you enter the garage...but that didn't seem to be very accurate as it said there were many spots available of the lower decks but never passed one empty spot till we got up to level 6. Once parked it was an easy elevator ride down to the terminal. Went right through security with no wait with our carry on bags. Had everything done on my phone app and just a simple scan and showing your passports and you were walking to the ship....whole process was very fast and never waited in one line. 

Debarking....we had to get off the ship early to get to work and walked our luggage off the ship. At 6:30am the walk off line was back up out the door on deck 5 out and down the jogging track....UUUGGHHHHHHhhhhh. Ship still wasn't cleared. Luckily we were escorted off the ship as soon as the ship was cleared which was just around 6:40 so we didn't have to wait in that line. Once walking off we took the elevator down and went through the biometric scanner as mentioned. Mine didn't want to clear me...tried 3 times and they said you will have to see agent....said can I try one more time and it worked 🙂 my girlfriend with me was cleared the first time. Walked right out terminal and onto garage elevator and was out of the garage in 5 minutes time....no lines or backups....but again we were first passengers off the ship so wouldn't have expected a backup at that point.

Edited by bajathree
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CRUISEFAN0001

CRUISEFAN0001

Posted
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19 hours ago, SamTimeDining said:

 

Lyft/Uber is your own vehicle, so not really comparable. I personally don't want to share a cramped van and make a ton of stops.

The new Royal Caribbean Terminal in Miami is a beautiful facility located in a dump-hole location - likely RCI chose that specific position based on either cheap land and/or tax incentives.

 

Those would be the only 2 excuses for justifying putting it in a place that is both logistically challenging and downright unattractive. We'll see how passengers flock to the new place after the "newness" of maybe a year or so wears off.

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davekathy

davekathy

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, CRUISEFAN0001 said:

The new Royal Caribbean Terminal in Miami is a beautiful facility located in a dump-hole location - likely RCI chose that specific position based on either cheap land and/or tax incentives.

 

Those would be the only 2 excuses for justifying putting it in a place that is both logistically challenging and downright unattractive. We'll see how passengers flock to the new place after the "newness" of maybe a year or so wears off.

What other choice(s) would RC cruisers have sailing out of Miami if your ship is berthed at the new terminal?

Edited by davekathy
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CRUISEFAN0001

CRUISEFAN0001

Posted
Posted (edited)
52 minutes ago, davekathy said:

What other choice(s) would RC cruisers have sailing out of Miami if your ship is berthed at the new terminal?

The same thing applies for travel destinations, venues, and facilities - location, location, location.

 

Putting a gem new terminal in the midst of a large industrial site peninsula with cryptic path transportation to get there won't win long-term awards for popularity.

Edited by CRUISEFAN0001
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karena1

karena1

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, davekathy said:

What other choice(s) would RC cruisers have sailing out of Miami if your ship is berthed at the new terminal?

Why, the new terminal is awesome!  Yes, they are still working on the roads to get in there.  But other than that, it was a totally seamless process.  We absolutely LOVE Terminal A.  They did a fantastic job!

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brillohead "Live from...." Rare

brillohead

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I don't choose my cruise based on which terminal it berths at.  

Which port city, yes, but not the terminal itself.  I'm all about which ship and which itinerary and which price (including flight prices).... the terminal building itself is a few minutes out of a weeklong vacation -- not even a blip on my own personal radar.

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karena1

karena1

Posted
Posted
32 minutes ago, brillohead said:

I don't choose my cruise based on which terminal it berths at.  

Which port city, yes, but not the terminal itself.  I'm all about which ship and which itinerary and which price (including flight prices).... the terminal building itself is a few minutes out of a weeklong vacation -- not even a blip on my own personal radar.

Totally agree, if we have our preference it is either Fort Lauderdale or San Juan.  But we do a boatload of short 3 or 4 night cruises so that means we go out of Miami. Will also be out of Miami on Allure in 3 weeks.   So all I am saying is Terminal A is awesome, super easy

 

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SAmome

SAmome

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Posted

I was impressed to have people grabbing luggage from my car as I parked and then after elevator ride down being right there at check in area.  I found the whole boarding process super efficient with 11am arrival time.  

 

A little slower getting off the ship mainly b/c first time I did NOT get off super early carrying luggage.  Still, lines moving at a good pace and I enjoyed just smiling for the camera as a quick way to get thru customs.  Friend was not recognized so took her a couple extra minutes to show her passport card to a human.

 

I'd rather only drive to FLL instead of Miami but the tunnel and the new terminal both seem like good progress.  Over time, I want to hear out Brightline might help those who fly into PBI or FLL and sail from Port of Miami.  Uber likey involved from Brightline to port.

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