Recent Horizon cruisers

[cruisewiththekids]

I have a Horizon cruise coming up in February, and I just noticed that the arrival time back into Miami is 8:00 am.    That seems late.    Can any cruisers share when they were able to leave the ship?   Trying to book a return flight and wondering about flight times.    Thanks.

[mondello]

Just back on Sunshine, pinch hitting for Horizon, on 12/31. Just about every cruise I've been on has arrived back to port prior to the posted time. It was posted in the debarkation letter that they wanted us off the ship faster than ever. Breakfast was 6:30-8:30 and shut down promptly. You could be off the ship early with self debarkation. You should be off by 9:00-9:30 simply because it's time to go. I normally don't advise early flights but, with reduced capacity and MIA being so close, you'd be fine with a noon flight and probably be okay a little earlier. You are requested to arrive early for flights and have the usual TSA wait so, just depends how close you are comfortable with.

[firedisney97]

In Sept we were pulling into port around 6:30 am and they started calling self debark probably around 7-7:15.  My Mom and I were off the ship by 8:30 (I think it was actually more like 8:15), if I hadn't have messed up my luggage pickup we could have been at the airport by 9.  Knowing that we had originally booked an 11am flight out of Miami on 2/13 when we get off our next cruise.  American Airlines has since cancelled that flight and now we are stuck in Miami until 3:30

[cruisewiththekids]

My flight nonstop flight options are less than ideal.   10:00 from MIA, 11:15 or 5:15 from FLL.   11:15 would be perfect if sailing from Port Everglades.   There are several other ships in port with Horizon, but all show arriving earlier than Horizon's 8 am.

[mondello]

1 hour ago, cruisewiththekids said:

My flight nonstop flight options are less than ideal.   10:00 from MIA, 11:15 or 5:15 from FLL.   11:15 would be perfect if sailing from Port Everglades.   There are several other ships in port with Horizon, but all show arriving earlier than Horizon's 8 am.

I myself wouldn't try it but, you'd probably be okay with the 10:00/MIA or 11:15/FLL with self debarkation. Uber to either airport and you'd be before the surge pricing.

[firstimecruiseronncl]

On 1/4/2022 at 6:16 PM, cruisewiththekids said:

My flight nonstop flight options are less than ideal.   10:00 from MIA, 11:15 or 5:15 from FLL.   11:15 would be perfect if sailing from Port Everglades.   There are several other ships in port with Horizon, but all show arriving earlier than Horizon's 8 am.

We sailed on the October 30th cruise out of Miami. There is no way I would book an early flight out. We waited forever to get through security when we arrived at the airport. People were asking to cut the line because their flights were leaving. It was a nightmare. I would recommend having some sort of TSA Precheck. 

Edited January 6, 2022 by firstimecruiseronncl

[cruisinqt]

I’ve been on cruises where someone fell or had medical issues during debarkation. This really messes up the whole process because everything is shut down until an ambulance arrives and sees to their care. It’s like being in traffic when there’s a bad accident and the freeway is shut down for a careflight helicopter to land. It’s terrible! I’ve also been on cruises where the authorities come in to arrest a fugitive and they shut everything down till they find their guy (or girl). Now with covid being on the rise there’s the concern of passengers testing positive and having some special process and handling to go through upon debarkation. For those reasons, we got the later afternoon return flight for our Horizon cruise. Chances are none of the above things will happen, but with my luck it would happen to me. So we did a cheap car rental for the day and will eat out and shop or sight see until our flight. There are several car rental places close to the cruise terminal that have shuttles that will pick you up. We did a one way rental from the cruise area and return to Miami airport. It gives me peace of mind because I would worry myself to death about it otherwise. 

[CruiserLucas]

I was on Horizon in August and Sunshine on 12/26 in replacement of Horizon. Both times we got to port before 6 a.m. Looking at the timestamp of my photo pulling in next to Liberty, it is at 5:14 a.m. Then there's the time for docking, clearance, etc. However, we had bottlenecks trying to get off this time it seemed. I personally wouldn't have wanted a flight earlier than we had, which was 12:46 p.m. Noon would have been the earliest I would be comfortable with, and we self-debarked.