Embarkation and Debark Port change for December 1st Silhouette sailing

[G2G]

Just recieved a message from my agent informing me  that "due to a Port scheduling error", we are now sailing and returning from Miami and not Fort Lauderdale for our 1st December Silhouette sailing. The letter from Celebrity says they will provide shuttles to Miami for people who are due to arrive on the 1st and leave on the 13th, however, many of us on the Roll call are arriving on the 30th and have hotels booked, will we be able to use the shuttle service?

 

Our return flight is at 11.50 which due to the close proximity of the airport in fort Lauderdale was not an issue, I do hope Celebrity will be able to transfer us back from Miami in time. Hotel and flights booked and paid for and unfortunately are non-refundable.Hopefully they can sort the logistics of accomodating everyones travel plans. Its really taken the shine off my much looked forward to holiday. 😞

[Orator]

I was on a Constellation cruise that was supposed to embark in Civitavecchia. Weather closed the port and Celebrity met us at FCO and directed us to a bus that would take us to Naples. I learned that they notified passengers that arrived early to be at FCO and were given free transportation to Naples. Companies, like Rome Cabs took care of their customers. This was all last minute and handled well by Celebrity. At least you have time to plan. My guess is that it will all be handled. I would work with your TA to rebook flights. If you booked through Choice Air they should handle it for you.

[phillygirl2400]

We had a similar change on a cruise last year. Celebrity provided buses back from Miami to the Fort Lauderdale airport. 

The problems were:

-the buses were not at the port when we got off the ship;

-the long lines of passengers waiting for the buses were disorganized;

-Celebrity didn’t provide staff to organize the bus departures until the waiting area was overflowing and there were arguments among the cruisers; and,

- people with handicaps had nowhere to sit.

 

Once the buses arrived and cruisers boarded, the bus ride was ok. 

 

[G2G]

5 minutes ago, Orator said:

I was on a Constellation cruise that was supposed to embark in Civitavecchia. Weather closed the port and Celebrity met us at FCO and directed us to a bus that would take us to Naples. I learned that they notified passengers that arrived early to be at FCO and were given free transportation to Naples. Companies, like Rome Cabs took care of their customers. This was all last minute and handled well by Celebrity. At least you have time to plan. My guess is that it will all be handled. I would work with your TA to rebook flights. If you booked through Choice Air they should handle it for you.

 

I posted a copy of Celebrity's letter on the roll call and one person in USA contacted them and was told that there was no change!! How odd that thet would contact UK agents to say there was a change. My agent has been on hold for 40 minutes waiting for Celebrity to respond, I will wait and see what their response is.

 

Unfortunately flights are booked independently and ticketing states no change and non-refundable, c'est la vie 

 

[Alakegirl]

I would expect that if you are comng n a day or two early you would need to make your way to the Fort Lauderdale airport tomeet the free transfer to Miami cruise port

[gold1953]

45 minutes ago, Orator said:

I was on a Constellation cruise that was supposed to embark in Civitavecchia. Weather closed the port and Celebrity met us at FCO and directed us to a bus that would take us to Naples. I learned that they notified passengers that arrived early to be at FCO and were given free transportation to Naples. Companies, like Rome Cabs took care of their customers. This was all last minute and handled well by Celebrity. At least you have time to plan. My guess is that it will all be handled. I would work with your TA to rebook flights. If you booked through Choice Air they should handle it for you.

I was on that one as well. We had a choice of pick up at the port or airport. Since we had been in Rome a week and had a pre arranged shuttle for a large group we still went to the port to get our bus. They fed us chocolate bars and water on the bus trip..

[helen haywood]

Sigh.  I'm on this cruise.  Just yesterday I made hotel reservations for the night before the cruise.   Non-refundable.  I always wait until after final payment to book hotels and my payment was due on the 26th.  I booked a hotel this far in advance as that's Thanksgiving weekend.  So if this is true then I've either got to forgo my paid for hotel and find another one that offers parking (I always park at Park 'N' Go when sailing out of FLL and leave the car in FLL and take an Uber/Lyft to the port if sailing out of MIA) or steel myself to drive to Miami.  (I live in a very small town and the FLL-MIA stretch of I-95 is very intimidating....)

[hcat]

2 hours ago, G2G said:

Just recieved a message from my agent informing me  that "due to a Port scheduling error", we are now sailing and returning from Miami and not Fort Lauderdale for our 1st December Silhouette sailing. The letter from Celebrity says they will provide shuttles to Miami for people who are due to arrive on the 1st and leave on the 13th, however, many of us on the Roll call are arriving on the 30th and have hotels booked, will we be able to use the shuttle service?

 

Our return flight is at 11.50 which due to the close proximity of the airport in fort Lauderdale was not an issue, I do hope Celebrity will be able to transfer us back from Miami in time. Hotel and flights booked and paid for and unfortunately are non-refundable.Hopefully they can sort the logistics of accomodating everyones travel plans. Its really taken the shine off my much looked forward to holiday. 😞

So sorry..what a hassle

You will  have to contact Celebrity to answer your first question about being able to use the  free cruise line shuttle service to the Miami cruise port from FLL airport if you are arriving a few days ahead....

 

If  the answer is Yes,   a cab or shuttle to the airport  from your hotel will be needed to get to the cruiseline shuttle location  If the answer is No, you can pre- hire a limo directly to the port from the hotel, OR  get to the airport on your own,  and then take a shared ride or shuttle from the airport...( ugh!) to port.  There's a place to line up right outside the airport terminal. We were also able to get a pvt car to a Miami hotel on the same  transp line,..worth every dollar!  Miami traffic is the worst and the  roads are tricky!

 

For the return which is more crucial time wise.......

You should have time to make your flt at Ft Lauderdale but we'd eat the extra cost and pre order a limo( CHECK THE RULES ) or grab a cab.   Last time  ( yrs ago) we took the cruise  bus from Miami to FLL airport....it was very stressful.  Some passengers were late getting luggage,  and a few others had lost luggage at pier.  So we had to wait til very last minute to leave the port.  And they made stops at each airline to get  luggage off the bus.  Never again!

[JFontaine]

2 hours ago, helen haywood said:

Sigh.  I'm on this cruise.  Just yesterday I made hotel reservations for the night before the cruise.   Non-refundable.  I always wait until after final payment to book hotels and my payment was due on the 26th.  I booked a hotel this far in advance as that's Thanksgiving weekend.  So if this is true then I've either got to forgo my paid for hotel and find another one that offers parking (I always park at Park 'N' Go when sailing out of FLL and leave the car in FLL and take an Uber/Lyft to the port if sailing out of MIA) or steel myself to drive to Miami.  (I live in a very small town and the FLL-MIA stretch of I-95 is very intimidating....)

Why don't you keep the hotel, and take an Uber to the bus pickup in Fort Lauderdale, and let Celebrity do the rest?  Or keep the hotel and take a Uber or shuttle to Miami port and back.  It might be cheaper than booking another hotel, and you won't have the stress of the drive. 

[helen haywood]

I’ve got to find a hotel with parking now.  I’m going to ask my current non refundable hotel if they have a parking package.  If not then I’ll need to find another that does...  

[RSLeesburg]

5 minutes ago, helen haywood said:

I’ve got to find a hotel with parking now.  I’m going to ask my current non refundable hotel if they have a parking package.  If not then I’ll need to find another that does...  

Check out the Brightline cruise package.  We live in WPB, and hate driving to Miami so we were actually considering using Brightline.  

[hcat]

6 minutes ago, helen haywood said:

I’ve got to find a hotel with parking now.  I’m going to ask my current non refundable hotel if they have a parking package.  If not then I’ll need to find another that does...  

If not, could you follow your orig plan and get a taxi from  Park n Go to the FLL  airport shuttle/ car servicec..then retrace steps post cruise to retrieve your car???

 

I do not rec driving yourself to Miami from FLL

[jelayne]

The US website currently shows the ship departing and returning to Ft Lauderdale.

Has anyone called the Captains Club to check?

[RSLeesburg]

Here is link for Brightline package:

 

https://www.gobrightline.com/traintoport

[39august]

This is definitely true. Celebrity Air confirmed X will provide free shuttles on embarkation and debarkasion days, but will not reschedule flights to Miami instead of FLL.  We will be contacting SAS to arrange a shuttle to our new hotel reservation in Miami on Nov. 30 and to pick us up after the cruises to return to FLL on debarkation day.  The port change is shown in your cruise calendar.

Edited August 29, 2019 by 39august

[helen haywood]

Thanks for the information about Brightline.  Never heard of that option!  It wouldn't be ideal for us as on debarkation day we like to get off ASAP and start the drive back to Georgia....but I will keep it in mind for future reference.  I called the hotel in FLL I had the non-refundable room with and they will let me pay to leave the car there for less than Park 'N' Go would have cost.  Just need to factor in the Uber/Lyft transfers....

[hcat]

Glad everyone is working on plans...

Does anyone know why they changed the cruise port on relatively short notice?

[tompeter]

If the 11:50 flt is on a Sat. or Sun (ie busy cruise days), no way would I wait for free shuttle. I would Uber/Limo to airport rather than stress about waiting for bus transportation and being at mercy of others.....JMO

[helen haywood]

Debarkation is on a Friday.

[Mr&MrsBee]

Our dec 13 cruise is also affected lv from Miami and return to Port Everglades.  Once before a situation happened and no one was around to assist.  We were left in a parking lot by a Celebrity chartered bus that  handicapped people could not get in.  We were left in the hot sun with nowhere to sit  before the next bus came.  We have booked a Hilton Garden in Dania figuring we would be close to the port.  Since we are driving the day before and need handicap help we are at a loss.  We have a good parking package.  Any idea how cost taxi or uber from Dania to port of Miami.?  Last week our 2 cruises and excursions were cancelled by the cruise planner  by mistake.  It took 2hours plus on hold to correct the problem.  Any ideas.  The cruise planner has not returned by telephone call.

Edited August 29, 2019 by Mr&MrsBee
left out wordd

[Redokie]

We are on the cruise departing Nov 22 FLL but changing Dec 1 to debarking at Miami.   AND they waited until pay in full date to let us know. What a mess!!!

[C 2 C]

We're booked on Edge Nov 24, switching to Silhouette on Dec 1st.  We thought that we had a short ride in Port Everglades and now have to get to Miami instead.  The only positive (depends on who is scheduling the ships) is that Silhouette returns to Port Everglades on the 22nd of December.

 

Is it the Port Captain for Celebrity that would have double parked??

[G2G]

14 hours ago, hcat said:

So sorry..what a hassle

You will  have to contact Celebrity to answer your first question about being able to use the  free cruise line shuttle service to the Miami cruise port from FLL airport if you are arriving a few days ahead....

 

If  the answer is Yes,   a cab or shuttle to the airport  from your hotel will be needed to get to the cruiseline shuttle location  If the answer is No, you can pre- hire a limo directly to the port from the hotel, OR  get to the airport on your own,  and then take a shared ride or shuttle from the airport...( ugh!) to port.  There's a place to line up right outside the airport terminal. We were also able to get a pvt car to a Miami hotel on the same  transp line,..worth every dollar!  Miami traffic is the worst and the  roads are tricky!

 

For the return which is more crucial time wise.......

You should have time to make your flt at Ft Lauderdale but we'd eat the extra cost and pre order a limo( CHECK THE RULES ) or grab a cab.   Last time  ( yrs ago) we took the cruise  bus from Miami to FLL airport....it was very stressful.  Some passengers were late getting luggage,  and a few others had lost luggage at pier.  So we had to wait til very last minute to leave the port.  And they made stops at each airline to get  luggage off the bus.  Never again!

Thank you Hcat, we will definitely do that as we have to make that flight to then connect in NYC for onward to UK.

[Alakegirl]

I don’t see how the December 13 cruise can leave from Miami and return to Fort Lauderdale.....isn’t that a violation of PVSA?

[Mr&MrsBee]

With the port changes in December two cruise dates are affected with the plans of some 5000 people for the 2 cruises.  Does LLP care?  Now instead of 5 miles to port make it 20 some.  Late yesterday rec'd call from cruise planner who advised he would try work something out.  He was very understanding and helpful.  Losing faith in the management of Celebrity but not in the employees who are under the gun.