Miami Hop on Hop off post cruise with Royal

[mom2two2]

I was looking at the hop on hop off Miami tour post cruise through Royal and had some questions if anyone has done this one.

 

1. We would have to self disembark and go right on the tour as the available time that day is 8:00 am - having never self disembarked is that even doable?

2. Is there anywhere on the bus to store luggage or someplace where the tour departs that will hold it for us?

 

TIA

 

 

[brillohead]

I'm not familiar with that particular "shore excursion" but I do know that if you're doing a tour through Royal, they will typically handle the logistics of getting you off the ship and to the tour bus.  The 8:00 "tour time" is probably their time for you to meet up at a designated location on the ship for them to take your tour group off the ship together.

With that being said, the very nature of a "HOHO" bus means that you're not on any one tour bus at any given time, so your luggage will certainly not be with you throughout the day. 

 

Whether Royal includes some sort of "luggage valet" service (where they check in your bags with the airline and deliver the luggage to the airport) in with the price of the tour would need to be confirmed -- this is where a competent travel agent (not just a random person answering the phone somewhere) comes in handy. 

Are you just looking to kill some time before your flight, or will you be staying in town for a few days after your cruise?   

Edited December 24, 2019 by brillohead
typo

[BuckeyeMan]

Following as we are looking at this excursion also.  Looking at it on Royal's site it looks like they store your luggage.  They have 3 trips to the airport and that is included in the price.  I didn't see the 8:00 time though.  Where were you seeing this time?  I wasn't wanting to get off the ship that early.  Hope others will comment that have done this excursion.

 

And I was also looking to kill some time before flight out of FLL with our ship arriving back in Miami.  I liked the idea of luggage being checked and taken to the airport with us.  Figured it would save on luggage storage and save on uber/taxi to the airport.  Any other ideas besides renting a car?  

Edited December 24, 2019 by BuckeyeMan

[swcruise]

Did this a few weeks back from Oasis. There was a meetup at 8.15, was advised by RCI someone would meet us post customs, that didn’t happen but got directed to where the Brown bus parks on the bus lane... Got tickets from RCI to put on luggage, kept part of it  to identify bags at pickup which is by Bayside. It is a hoho goes past the port and, South beach, Ocean drive, Lincoln drive, Wynwood walls, little Havana. The 1^st tour guide wasn’t great tbh, got off and back on at Wyndham and 2^nd guy much better.. You are advised to be back at Bayside a ½ hr before your scheduled departure. Worked well, and we were on the way to the airport a little ahead of 5pm departure. You can easily spend some time at Bayside and the neighbouring park.

 

There were also folks who were doing this to leave from FLL, but they had different numbers to us, so don't know, but assume it was the same process ( but you should check..) with maybe a little more lead time for the airport..

Hope this helps…

 

Edited December 24, 2019 by swcruise

[klfrodo]

Wife and I did this a couple of years back.

Bus took us to Bayside and they kept our luggage.

Then we walked over to where the hoho bus stop is.

We did the South Beach tour.

It was just okay until it came time to get back to Bayside.

It was HOT, it was MUGGY, and it was CROWD DED!

When we got back to Bayside, there were more people and luggage that needed to get to the airport than space available in their vans. It was very hectic and the young workers didn't know what to do nor were they empowered to make a decision. Wife and I ended up grabbing a cab.

[EmilyJay]

We did this in March of this year. (Miami) As it's a Shore Excursion through Royal you have to disembark when they tell you too. We met in a lounge at x time, everyone got stickers to indicate which excursion they were on, then we got taken off the ship. 

Luggage is put onto a luggage cart and is taken to a storage facility in Bayside Market, you will get on a bus which also takes you to Bayside Market.

From here you can choose which loop on the HOHO bus you want to do, we did both loops and still had time to go around the market. You can collect your luggage at any time from the storage, really easy to find just keep your receipts.

 

 

[swcruise]

31 minutes ago, EmilyJay said:

We did this in March of this year. (Miami) As it's a Shore Excursion through Royal you have to disembark when they tell you too. We met in a lounge at x time, everyone got stickers to indicate which excursion they were on, then we got taken off the ship. 

Luggage is put onto a luggage cart and is taken to a storage facility in Bayside Market, you will get on a bus which also takes you to Bayside Market.

From here you can choose which loop on the HOHO bus you want to do, we did both loops and still had time to go around the market. You can collect your luggage at any time from the storage, really easy to find just keep your receipts.

 

 

Not sure which ship the  cruisers are on. From Oasis, you had to take your bags on bus to Bayside  ( where they took your luggage) and swap buses... ( it may be different with ships and time of the year I guess..) They were only offering one route that day and a nightime option which was of little use...

Edited December 24, 2019 by swcruise

[EmilyJay]

53 minutes ago, swcruise said:

Not sure which ship the  cruisers are on. From Oasis, you had to take your bags on bus to Bayside  ( where they took your luggage) and swap buses... ( it may be different with ships and time of the year I guess..) They were only offering one route that day and a nightime option which was of little use...

The first time we did it, on Harmony (Oct time) it was the same as you. On Navigator in March it was different, felt odd not having the luggage on the same bus with us! Shame you only had 1 daytime route option, that sounds like our Harmony one, Navigator time we had 2 daytime loops and the nighttime option. 

[mom2two2]

On 12/23/2019 at 8:52 PM, BuckeyeMan said:

Following as we are looking at this excursion also.  Looking at it on Royal's site it looks like they store your luggage.  They have 3 trips to the airport and that is included in the price.  I didn't see the 8:00 time though.  Where were you seeing this time?  I wasn't wanting to get off the ship that early.  Hope others will comment that have done this excursion.

 

And I was also looking to kill some time before flight out of FLL with our ship arriving back in Miami.  I liked the idea of luggage being checked and taken to the airport with us.  Figured it would save on luggage storage and save on uber/taxi to the airport.  Any other ideas besides renting a car?  

When I tried to add the tour in my cruise planner that is the time that came up

[mom2two2]

On 12/23/2019 at 8:22 PM, brillohead said:

I'm not familiar with that particular "shore excursion" but I do know that if you're doing a tour through Royal, they will typically handle the logistics of getting you off the ship and to the tour bus.  The 8:00 "tour time" is probably their time for you to meet up at a designated location on the ship for them to take your tour group off the ship together.

With that being said, the very nature of a "HOHO" bus means that you're not on any one tour bus at any given time, so your luggage will certainly not be with you throughout the day. 

 

Whether Royal includes some sort of "luggage valet" service (where they check in your bags with the airline and deliver the luggage to the airport) in with the price of the tour would need to be confirmed -- this is where a competent travel agent (not just a random person answering the phone somewhere) comes in handy. 

Are you just looking to kill some time before your flight, or will you be staying in town for a few days after your cruise?   

We will be staying one night at a hotel and not going right to the airport so we have a whole day

[brillohead]

2 hours ago, mom2two2 said:

We will be staying one night at a hotel and not going right to the airport so we have a whole day

In that case, I'd just get a rental car for the day -- the cost for a car for the whole day is likely to be less than the cost of a single excursion ticket from Royal!

Another option is to get a taxi/Uber / Lyft to your hotel and drop your luggage off, then go out sightseeing from there (or just enjoy the hotel facilities, if they have a pool, etc.).  They may even let you check in early, if the room is ready.

You can also just get your tickets directly from the HOHO bus company, and they have a place that will store your luggage for $7/bag. 

You can get tickets from Groupon for as little as $25/person for the HOHO bus, plus there are a bunch of other tours you can take. 

All of these options will cost you less money, and give you much more flexibility/control, than the cruise line's excursion.