What is your favorite and least favorite RC embarkation/disembarkation port and why?

[jean87510]

Best is San Juan.  Worst is New York City (not Bayonne).

[lovesthebeach2]

Easy for me….

 

Favorites are Port Canaveral and Tampa because they’re close to us. After those, any FL port.

 

Least favorite is any port I have to fly to get there.

 

 

[retired dude]

14 hours ago, mcatmcat said:

 

How was boarding I know explorer uses an old terminal at Miami

boarding was a piece of cake.

[Tulsacoker]

from my limited embark ports so far:

 

Best: Port Canaveral 

Worst: Seattle

 

 

 

[davy jones]

4 hours ago, jean87510 said:

Best is San Juan.  Worst is New York City (not Bayonne).

Agree that the terminal is not good.  On the flip side, it is a spectacular sail away down the Hudson.

[Sea Dog]

12 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Damn bird. Guess I just got lucky. @Sea Dog cleaned it up once, but I didn't save it.

 

Hope to learn some Photo Shop before World Cruise

Fixed!

Just get Adobe Lightroom. It’s easier and really enhances photos.

 

[molly361]

Best Port Canaveral for sure. Preferably terminal one 

[Ret MP]

6 minutes ago, molly361 said:

Best Port Canaveral for sure. Preferably terminal one 

On the port's website it says that Terminal 3 (Rustbucket Cruise line, Inc.) is the only garage that accepts "SunPass", at Port Canavelal.  I've had Sunpass since about ~2003 even though I haven't lived in Florida since 2005.  It's just convenient to have with the many trips to FLA and it is good other places around the country, too.  Anyway, those of you who live in or near the Port Canaveral AREA, do you know why Terminal 1 doesn't accept the Sunpass?  Is there a plan to accept it?  What info do you have, if any?  

[cruisers423]

On 10/12/2022 at 8:25 AM, LuCruise said:

I prefer Miami over Fort Lauderdale. Although it's a touch further from the airport (but both convenient), there is more to do if staying downtown/Brickell. They also have the free metro mover which is nice. Having said that, hotels are really pricey for our cruise next year so booked closer to the airport.

 

We have a cruise in 2024 out of Port Canaveral. Seems really inconvenient as it's far from the airport. (Did a Disney cruise once but don't remember the port).

 

New Jersey was fine but not comparing apples to apples since we drove. Would love to extend a cruise pre or post sometime and add a few days in New York. 

 

[Homosassa]

On 10/12/2022 at 8:36 AM, davy jones said:

The Cape Liberty terminal is ok, but you can encounter a mile long (or more) line of vehicles waiting to drop off luggage due to the lone access road.  But I can drive there in 90 minutes and don't have to deal with flying hassles.

 

 

We avoid any cruise out of Bayonne.

 

We waited over two hours to enter the parking lot at Bayonne, and it was only two hours because we did not drop our luggage off but went straight to the parking lot.

 

We then tried to check our bags with a porter only to find another long line.

 

We ended up carrying all our luggage on board ourselves. (FYI, the largest suitcase allowed by airlines fit through the scanner at Port Liberty.)

 

Then there was the wait for the shuttle bus to take us and all our luggage to the ship itself.

 

All in all, close to four hours just to reach the bottom of the gangway to the ship.

 

Never again, Bayonne.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cruisers423]

We did a cruise out of Port Canaveral in Jan. 2020. Stayed at the Hampton Inn in Cocoa Beach. They have a cruise and stay package. They picked us up at the Orlando airport and took us to the hotel. Next morning shuttle to the port. On disembarkation day they picked us up at the ship and took us back to the Orlando airport. Stay included buffet breakfast. One person is free for shuttle, but pay for additional person(s). For 2 of us, total cost for everything was like $240-250 which I found to be very reasonable for what we got. 

[John&LaLa]

38 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

Fixed!

Just get Adobe Lightroom. It’s easier and really enhances photos.

 

 

Thanks again.

Not sure I can justify the monthly fee structure

 

Reading a book on Elements now. Seems I bought it years ago

[Woody14]

On 10/11/2022 at 10:02 PM, Norwich Cruiser said:

 

Best Venice. If only for the sail away 

2nd Southampton. Can drive there

3rd  Barcelona. Great city and only 20 minutes from the airport 

 

Worse Ravenna. There’s much better departure more local ports nearer to Venice such a long boring drive from most connecting airports.Never again.

Totally agree that Venice is one of the best - it is too bad we can't sail from it any longer and that the replacement Ravenna is one of the worst!

[Sea Dog]

33 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Thanks again.

Not sure I can justify the monthly fee structure

 

Reading a book on Elements now. Seems I bought it years ago

I totally understand that. I hate that Adobe does that. I’m sure there are other programs out there for your phone that can achieve the same result.

[Ret MP]

Print out the picture, get a razor blade, cut out what you don't want, scan it back into your computer as a JPG and there you go.  Cheap! 

 

I'm kidding, of course!

Edited October 13, 2022 by Ret MP

[Tin can]

On 10/12/2022 at 3:43 PM, John&LaLa said:

 

I've found the process very simple at Terminal 1. We sail from T5 on Sunday. Not sure how that will go.

 

It was a few years ago now, not sure what terminal it was but we were queuing outside which stretched to near a multi storey car park. Inside was just as bad, it was an Easter cruise so maybe just a bad day for Port Canaveral.

[Ret MP]

7 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

Fixed!

Just get Adobe Lightroom. It’s easier and really enhances photos.

 

I hate subscriptions for Apps.  But, I must say Lightroom with Photoshop and 1TB looks awfully inviting.  I've literally got thousands of photos (and videos) spread out over 2 external hard drives, internal hard drive, Google Photos, Amazon Photos and One Drive.  It's a mess, for sure.  I need to do something about it. Lightroom won't cure my mess but I do need an editor for photos.  I have Studio 25 for video editing.   

[Airbear232]

Favourites: Barcelona (close to old city and La Rambla); Cape Liberty (we can drive to easily from Toronto); Dubai (beautiful)

 

Least Favourites: Any port far from the advertised city: Civitavecchia; Southampton

[davy jones]

23 hours ago, Homosassa said:

We avoid any cruise out of Bayonne.

 

We waited over two hours to enter the parking lot at Bayonne, and it was only two hours because we did not drop our luggage off but went straight to the parking lot.

 

We then tried to check our bags with a porter only to find another long line.

 

We ended up carrying all our luggage on board ourselves. (FYI, the largest suitcase allowed by airlines fit through the scanner at Port Liberty.)

 

Then there was the wait for the shuttle bus to take us and all our luggage to the ship itself.

 

All in all, close to four hours just to reach the bottom of the gangway to the ship.

 

Never again, Bayonne.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The new terminal has improved things from the day of the bus.  Now there is a gangway to the ship.  There is also a parking garage.

[pattak619]

10 hours ago, davy jones said:

The new terminal has improved things from the day of the bus.  Now there is a gangway to the ship.  There is also a parking garage.

That’s correct, parking garage used to be great till they raised the price per day (we usually sail the 11 night in January) now we Uber to the port!

[lenquixote66]

Favorite is Baltimore

 

Least favorite does not apply

[Ret MP]

2 hours ago, pattak619 said:

That’s correct, parking garage used to be great till they raised the price per day (we usually sail the 11 night in January) now we Uber to the port!

The problem is, they will keep on raising the price because we, the Sheeple, keep parking in them.  Yes, me included.  We are so hooked on convenience, we are willing to pay and pay a lot for it. 

 

As a retired parking system Corp guy, I can tell you that there is a lot of money in parking, a lot.  But, on the other hand, the government owned parking systems, like FLL, Port Everglades, Port Canaveral, and lots more, if the usage goes down and the revenue slips significantly, the government bean counters that have never run a real business in their life, won't listen to their contracted parking management company that they pay to offer professional advice, advise to lower the price and fill the garage(s) again.  But, the bean counters think the answer to raising revenue is to raise the price, which lowers occupancy/revenue and drive people to the off site parking options.   

 

Sorry for the rant.  But, I'm passionate about calling out bean counters, government bean counters. 

[crazyank]

Favorite - Barcelona

Least favorite- Miami,  never again under ANY circumstances.

[boscobeans]

Cape Liberty the best and San Juan the worst because of the airport jams.

[ssb]

Next month, Royal Caribbean's new cruise terminal will open in Galveston, Texas and when it does, it will set change the norm for all other terminals around the world.

The cruise line says by using solar panels, it will be able to generate 100% of its needed energy. This makes the terminal the first LEED Zero Energy facility in the world, and for exclusive use by Royal Caribbean International cruise ships.

The new cruise terminal will be the home of Allure of the Seas when she begins offering cruises in November 2022.