Tampa Debarkation

[sasset]

Last November, Tampa was a nightmare after a transatlantic. Anyone debark there recently? What would be a reasonable time to schedule a car service pickup after a transatlantic?

[Mark_K]

25 minutes ago, sasset said:

Last November, Tampa was a nightmare after a transatlantic. Anyone debark there recently? What would be a reasonable time to schedule a car service pickup after a transatlantic?

I would use your prior experience as a guide. Debark procedures from a closed loop cruise are different than ones from a transatlantic.

[sasset]

Thanks. It seemed that Tampa was overwhelmed. Not just clearing immigration but luggage and vehicle traffic was all jammed. I thought maybe they had some resolution to the traffic issue.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

It was a 💩 in Nov 2017 after the TA because of custom slowdown 

And with the USA shutdown looming for November will it be a 💩 again this year 

Hopefully we will make our 4 pm flight this year 

[LJJQ]

Last year we were on the Edge Transatlantic last year to Ft Lauderdale and the disembarkation was awlful! Global Entry wasn’t even being used! The lines for everything was outrageous! The Federal Government has two different systems for cruise ships arriving !😡

[neverlaysup]

3 hours ago, Mark_K said:

I would use your prior experience as a guide. Debark procedures from a closed loop cruise are different than ones from a transatlantic.

Pro Tip here........get Covid the last 5 days of your cruise and they walk you out the back door, hand you your luggage, you stroll past customs by waving your passport and viola.....get in a cab. It took less than 1 minute.

 

[hrhdhd]

Where are you going? If just to the airport, get outside and find one of the $10 pp vans.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

2 hours ago, neverlaysup said:

Pro Tip here........get Covid the last 5 days of your cruise and they walk you out the back door, hand you your luggage, you stroll past customs by waving your passport and viola.....get in a cab. It took less than 1 minute.

 

Don’t try that in Amsterdam, it was over a 250€ cab ride to track down our passports 🤬

[skatelady]

I swore we will never cruise from Tampa again.  Cruise ending in January cost an extra $1,000 to change our flights home.  Fog in Tampa, we sat in the bay for hours waiting for the Port to reopen.  The only help from flights by Celebrity was giving us the airline phone number to change flights and the ship phone to use for the call.

[SusieAV8R]

On 10/23/2023 at 9:17 PM, skatelady said:

I swore we will never cruise from Tampa again.  Cruise ending in January cost an extra $1,000 to change our flights home.  Fog in Tampa, we sat in the bay for hours waiting for the Port to reopen.  The only help from flights by Celebrity was giving us the airline phone number to change flights and the ship phone to use for the call.

What time was your flight out of Tampa?  How long did it take to reopen the Port due to fog?

[skatelady]

We were supposed to dock at 7:00.  We were still out in the bay at 9:00 and no one knew when the fog would lift so I started working on changing flights.  We moved  from a 2:00 flight to an 8:00 flight.  I think it was about 5:00 when we finally docked.  Luckily the flight was delayed for a couple of hours so we made that one.  We've never had this issue from Ft Lauderdale or Miami.  

 

[Homosassa]

Fog can be a problem at any port depending on the weather and water conditions and temperatures.

 

In Tampa, the worst time for the possibility of fog can start in November and goes through February.

 

It happens when warmer air is over the cooler water and it is wind still.  This allows the moisture in the air to condense and not be moved away by a breeze.

 

The possibility of fog is predictable and is sometimes predicted several days in advance on our local weather reports.  Similarly, it is also known that clear conditions will exist.

 

As we are local to Tampa, we have cruised out of Tampa in January over the years.  We have never had issues with fog delaying embarkation or debarkation.

 

We plan on being on the Constellation again in January.

Edited October 25, 2023 by Homosassa

[Ex-Airbalancer]

Don’t they sometimes bring the ship early and keep in the bay if they think there going to a foggy morning 

[hcat]

i did read they were working around the fog issue.. note that anyone driving over the Skyway bridge may have travel delay or closure issues

[neverlaysup]

On 10/22/2023 at 2:09 PM, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Don’t try that in Amsterdam, it was over a 250€ cab ride to track down our passports 🤬

Why would you have to track down your passports?

[Ex-Airbalancer]

1 hour ago, neverlaysup said:

Why would you have to track down your passports?

It was a shitshow caused by  Celebrity on TA in April 22 

They didn’t know how to handle Covid passengers arriving in Amsterdam 

[C 2 C]

We solved this problem by getting a hotel the day the cruise ends and flying out at leisure the next day.

 

Mother nature is not aware of cruise schedules so plan accordingly.

[neverlaysup]

49 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

It was a shitshow caused by  Celebrity on TA in April 22 

They didn’t know how to handle Covid passengers arriving in Amsterdam 

Ouch!

[JDPCruisers]

6 hours ago, Homosassa said:

Fog can be a problem at any port depending on the weather and water conditions and temperatures.

 

In Tampa, the worst time for the possibility of fog can start in November and goes through February.

 

It happens when warmer air is over the cooler water and it is wind still.  This allows the moisture in the air to condense and not be moved away by a breeze.

 

The possibility of fog is predictable and is sometimes predicted several days in advance on our local weather reports.  Similarly, it is also known that clear conditions will exist.

 

As we are local to Tampa, we have cruised out of Tampa in January over the years.  We have never had issues with fog delaying embarkation or debarkation.

 

We plan on being on the Constellation again in January.

Lived in Tampa for a number of years off and on but never cruised from there (my pre-cruise days) so good to know as we are on a Dec cruise from there. Have cruised out of Galveston many times and only one that I remember where fog caused a problem for some folks.  

[thon]

We are cruising out of Tampa for the first time in January.  Once I learned of previous problems regarding fog in this port, we decided to stay overnight and fly out the next day.  No stress that way!

[RedIguana]

Tampa is probably my favorite Florida port. But it is a 2 1/2 hour drive away, so do not have flight or fog issues other than the actual ship delays if it occurs.

[LB_NJ]

My solution to fog in Tampa is to book the airline for midday the next day and stay in a local hotel the night we arrive.

 

We got caught in fog last time we did Tampa and not going through that again.