Royal Caribbean and Tampa Bay

[Nado44]

What is life like for those of you who are avid RCL cruisers here in the Tampa Bay area?

 

We are recent Diamond Plus transplants from the US Northeast. Looking to learn from the experiences of other local residents.

[Nado44]

Some other related tidbits:

 

1. Tampa based ships are RCL Brilliance and Rhapsody. RCL Serenade in 2022/23.

2. Celebrity Constellation is also here.

3. One can take the ferry from St Pete to Tampa and walk 15 minutes to the cruise port.

4. Fog happens. Plan accordingly.

[Nado44]

Larger ships will not sail out of Tampa due to the bridge height of the Sunshine Skyway bridge. We did read that the most likely future solution is to build a new cruise port west of the Skyway so that larger vessels won't have to travel under it.

[kelbell]

We are "snowbirds" from the northeast, and winter months

in Seminole. We cruise out of Tampa at least 3 times when we

are hear. A few times Port Canaveral also. I love Tampa and love

the smaller ships, easy parking home within 30min. Destination

not a thing with us. Port of Tampa a great port, parking at the garage

easy peasy. I just hope "My park connect" starts back up. Paying $28

for 5 days unheard of. I'm not a fan of Florida, but cruising out of 

Tampa is my happy place. Any place beats shoveling, and living near a port

Happy Happy Happy!

[BillB48]

We live on the east coast of FL real close to Port Canaveral and over the years we have left from Tampa more frequently than Port C.  The 4/5 day cruises out of Tampa or soooo much better than the 3/4 day cruises out of Canaveral.  The sail away from Tampa is another plus as well.

 

[Nado44]

30 minutes ago, BillB48 said:

We live on the east coast of FL real close to Port Canaveral and over the years we have left from Tampa more frequently than Port C.  The 4/5 day cruises out of Tampa or soooo much better than the 3/4 day cruises out of Canaveral.  The sail away from Tampa is another plus as well.

 

 

How interesting. We have been looking at cruises from Port Canaveral as well thinking the drive over there isn't far. We are slightly worried about the monotony from sailing the same ships repeatedly.

[cruisegirl1]

We cruise from Tampa often although we don’t live in the area, we live about eight hours away. We do find that there was a lovely group of passengers that sail from Tampa quite often.

 

The ships are smaller, with fewer amenities. We’ve  sailed Vision and Radiance class from Tampa. 

 

I don’t know anything about the drive from Tampa to port Canaveral but I know that we are (hopefully) taking a cruise in the late fall from Tampa, getting off the ship, driving to Port Canaveral spending the night and taking a cruise from port Canaveral the next day.

 

m

[BillB48]

45 minutes ago, Nado44 said:

 

How interesting. We have been looking at cruises from Port Canaveral as well thinking the drive over there isn't far. We are slightly worried about the monotony from sailing the same ships repeatedly.

Even though Canaveral is just minutes away it has been the port we have left from the least number of times.  Departed many more times from Port Everglades, Miami and Tampa.  All in all it is not a bad drive, the traffic around the attractions on I-4  can be S L O W at times.

[BillB48]

44 minutes ago, cruisegirl1 said:

We cruise from Tampa often although we don’t live in the area, we live about eight hours away. We do find that there was a lovely group of passengers that sail from Tampa quite often.

 

The ships are smaller, with fewer amenities. We’ve  sailed Vision and Radiance class from Tampa. 

 

I don’t know anything about the drive from Tampa to port Canaveral but I know that we are (hopefully) taking a cruise in the late fall from Tampa, getting off the ship, driving to Port Canaveral spending the night and taking a cruise from port Canaveral the next day.

 

m

The drive is not really too bad, normally 2 to 2.5 hours.  As I mentioned in the previous post traffic around the attractions can be a little iffy.  Doing the drive and spending the night as you suggested, very easy.

[CruisinNole]

We've cruised frequently out of Tampa. We live 90 miles away on the Gulf coast. Easy to get to and easy parking. We love the valet service. Nice small port. We have a Celebrity cruise booked for November, 2021 and a Royal cruise in December, 2021 (fingers crossed).

[orville99]

We live exactly halfway between Tampa and Port Canaveral, and do most of our cruising out of PC because we like the larger ships, the year round sailing, and the longer itineraries (they just added a Southern Caribbean and a Bermuda cruise out of PC for 2022). We also do at least 1 or 2 short (5-night) cruises out of Tampa every year (the NYE cruise is always fun), but because Tampa historically has been a seasonal (winter) port for RCL and only sails Western itineraries, it limits the choices for us. We are booked on a 10-night Panama canal cruise out of Tampa in 2023,

[ownedbypets]

We live in Tampa, about 20 minutes from the port. There used to be a seven day, in November, that we took very year. It's only about 2.5 hours to Canaveral so that's an easy drive too and we go over the night before to start our vacation early. 

[davekathy]

We "had" a B2B (7 nights for each leg and different itinerary for each leg) cruise booked on the Rhapsody out of Tampa for March 2021.  Well we all know how that turned out. 🤬

[Nado44]

2 hours ago, davekathy said:

We "had" a B2B (7 nights for each leg and different itinerary for each leg) cruise booked on the Rhapsody out of Tampa for March 2021.  

 

Sorry to hear about the cancelled B2B. We "have" a B2B (7 nights each) on Brilliance out of Tampa for August 2021. We are doubtful that they will sail as planned. We've booked the Celebrity Millennium out of SXM as a backup. 

[cruise wizard]

We live on the East Coast of Florida - about a 3 hour drive to Tampa and about an hour and a half to Port Canaveral or Port Everglades...........we frequent all 3 depending on itineraries, ship and costs. The only port we are not fans of is Miami.

 

For our upcoming 2022 cruises we chose the following:

 

January - Port Everglades - new ship Odyssey and 6 & 8 day itineraries - great ports

March - Port Everglades - Vision 10 & 11 days - Southern Caribbean itinerary

August - Port Canaveral - Mariner which will do Bermuda as a first - 8 days

November/December - Tampa - Serenade - one of our favorite ships - new ports of Bimini & Freeport - excellent pricing

[sunnydaysmile]

23 hours ago, kelbell said:

Port of Tampa a great port, parking at the garage

easy peasy. I just hope "My park connect" starts back up.

I looked at "My park connect" and the website states they will send an email of where to park.  Does the parking lot location change?  Is it a lot or structure? 

[rwilk1129]

23 hours ago, kelbell said:

We are "snowbirds" from the northeast, and winter months

in Seminole. We cruise out of Tampa at least 3 times when we

are hear. A few times Port Canaveral also. I love Tampa and love

the smaller ships, easy parking home within 30min. Destination

not a thing with us. Port of Tampa a great port, parking at the garage

easy peasy. I just hope "My park connect" starts back up. Paying $28

for 5 days unheard of. I'm not a fan of Florida, but cruising out of 

Tampa is my happy place. Any place beats shoveling, and living near a port

Happy Happy Happy!

What is this $28 my park connect you speak of?  We are snowbirds and cruise often out of Tampa. Or rather we used to before COVID

[dunedinmaiden]

We live in Dunedin, a suburb of Tampa.  Most often, we'll drive to Port Canaveral instead of Tampa because we prefer the newer, larger ships.  As previously mentioned, only older, smaller ships sail from Tampa due to clearance under the Skyway bridge.

[retired dude]

we too, live in dunedin and like sailing out of tampa.....We sailed several times on the brilliance and quickly grew tired of the ports that she visited.....We are currently booked on the "connie" for winter of 21" out of tampa and she does a nice 10 day cruise that has a nice itinerary that does not include the mexican ports..We are on that cruise on the lift/switch program and the price was great. Now celebrity has gone to an AI program which will make cruising with them in the future very expensive and prohibit us from  future bookings with them...We dont do carnival cruises-our friends that have tried those out of tampa were not happy campers at all.......We do look forward to the rccl serenade coming to tampa in 22' for trips to the bahamas...Holland was supposed to send a ship to tampa but it does not look like that is going to happen.. They had several small ships sail out of tampa in the past and they were not too popular....We too have to make the trip to miami or ft lauderdale for sailings on the larger ships and we take the cruise bus out of clearwater for those jaunts across i-75. I hope that they start up their bus trips this winter because their price of $220 per couple round trip was a great deal and saved us driving and parking issues..They take you right to the ship and it is well organized and always sold out.....hope everyone is well and gets back to cruising this winter.....stay safe.....

[kelbell]

My park connect is a website that offers parking at the garage

across from the terminals. Or if your at the parking lot where

Serenade or Rhapsody goes out.  I just checked again to see

if it was open but no dates for cruising are listed yet. We use

it always, you print out the confirmation page (print two) sometimes

the attendant at the garage will ask for it then or when you leave,

(we have had them ask twice and one time I didn't have a second

copy, but I always take a pic on my phone.)Never a problem with any

attendant. Does not work for valet. We always park at the garage.

I hope it will be as reasonable when things open up. Never, ever and issue!

[kelbell]

FYI, $28 was for 4 night, so 7 night will be higher. But not nearly

as much as the garage. 

[RocCruisers]

We're a couple hours to Tampa, and three to the east coast ports.  Parking across the street is $15 per day, which we gladly pay for the convivence.  Seeing they are smaller ships, I never felt overwhelmed at the port.  It's a more relaxing, and generally cheaper too!  

[DarthGrady]

On 4/7/2021 at 8:55 AM, Nado44 said:

What is life like for those of you who are avid RCL cruisers here in the Tampa Bay area?

 

We are recent Diamond Plus transplants from the US Northeast. Looking to learn from the experiences of other local residents.

Since the Radiance Class ships are my favorite among the RCI fleet, I frequently cruise from Tampa. Royal usually has one home-ported there since they are just the right size to fit under the Skyway. I live about an hour and a half away, so the drive is very easy. I also have been using Park Connect with great success. The spaces they offer are in the same garage as the "official" cruise parking at less than half the price (as of my last Tampa cruise anyway). Be sure not to miss the ship passing under the Skyway as you leave Tampa Bay, it is a neat thing to see. 

[MacMarauder]

I don't have any local knowledge but my first cruise ever was out of Tampa so it holds a special place for me. The cruise port is in a great location IMO, we were able to walk to the port from a downtown hotel which was really cool. We also flew in during the Gasparilla festival so it was quite interesting seeing so many drunk people wandering around dressed as pirates. 

 

Tampa is on my short list of places I would move to once the kids are out of the house, have fun down there!

[florida eagle]

On 4/7/2021 at 8:55 AM, Nado44 said:

What is life like for those of you who are avid RCL cruisers here in the Tampa Bay area?

 

We are recent Diamond Plus transplants from the US Northeast. Looking to learn from the experiences of other local residents.

Took one cruise from there. Carnival Paradise several years ago. Most of the passengers were within several years one way or the other of my then age. Late 50's. Some lots and at least one parking garage at the time. There was some road construction to ease traffic at the time. Near Ybor City. It is about two hours from the port to the Skyway Bridge when the ship departs. Some people will go to the highest point of the ship to see the bottom of the bridge as it passes underneath. For some reason it attracts some people with interest and it is a bit cool. And I read about it on the cruise critic forums.